A RUN TO NICARAGUA. 357 



now determined to take Grenada, which was captured 

 by 110 Americans, with the loss of only one man, 

 after having stood a siege of nineteen months against 

 the democratic army under the command of sundry 

 Xicaraguan generals. This decided the war in favour 

 of the democrats ; and Castillon being now dead, 

 Walker was proposed by some of the democratic 

 leaders as president. This honour, however, he 

 declined. On the 23d of October a treaty of peace 

 was signed between General Walker and General 

 Ponciano Corral, the commander - in - chief of the 

 aristocratic army, in which it was stipulated that a 

 certain Patricio Bivas should be named provisional 

 president of Nicaragua for fourteen months ; that he 

 should appoint his ministers of state ; that there 

 should be a general oblivion of all that had pre- 

 viously taken place for political faults and opinions ; 

 that the army of General Corral should be reduced to 

 150 men, and the army of Walker to the same num- 

 ber ; that the united armies should be placed under 

 the command of General Walker, who should be 

 recognised as general-in-chief of the army of the 

 republic, and named such by a decree of the govern- 

 ment. The signing of this treaty took place at 

 Grenada with great eclat. The two armies were 

 drawn up in the Plaza; Generals Walker and Corral 

 embraced one another in their presence ; and the 

 heads of the new government were announced, of 

 whom four were Nicaraguans, and two, including 



