356 TRAVEL, AD VENTURE, AND SPORT. 



wealth. Highly ambitious, it is only due to him to 

 say that his aspirations, however little in accordance 

 they may be with the moral code in vogue at the 

 present day, are beyond riches. Like the Emperor 

 Louis Napoleon, he has a fixed faith in the star of 

 his destiny, and like him he doubtless will be branded 

 by the civilised nations of Europe as an unprincipled 

 adventurer or a heaven-born hero, according as he 

 fails or succeeds in his daring enterprise. 



In the month of June 1855, Walker and his fifty- 

 six were enlisted by Castillon in the democratic army 

 of Nicaragua. His first engagement took place at 

 Eivas, where, with a hundred natives and fifty-six 

 Americans, he engaged the aristocratic or servile 

 troops, as they were called, under General Boscha. 

 The natives running away, the fifty-six Americans 

 were left to fight it out, and were defeated, with a 

 loss of twenty-two killed. Their determined resist- 

 ance, however, produced as salutary an effect upon 

 the enemy as a victory, as General Boscha owned a 

 loss of 180 in killed and wounded. This was fol- 

 lowed by the battle of Virgin Bay, in which the 

 democratic forces under Walker were victorious, and 

 the reputation of Americans for prowess established. 

 At this time the death of Castillon by cholera left 

 the conduct of affairs almost altogether in the hands 

 of Walker, whom the democratic leader had just ap- 

 pointed to the command of his army. A consider- 

 able number of recruits arriving from California, he 



