360 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



The news of the non-recognition of Colonel French 

 at once decided the hesitating republics of Central 

 America ; and Guatemala, Honduras, St Salvador, 

 and Costa Bica assumed a hostile attitude. The 

 insults offered by the latter to a peaceful emissary 

 of General Walker resulted in an open rupture. On 

 the 20th March 1856, the Costa Eican army met the 

 force which General Walker had detached under 

 Colonel Schlessinger, amounting to 207 men, com- 

 posed of French, Germans, and Americans, and 

 utterly routed them, Schlessinger himself being the 

 first to set the example of flight : for this he was 

 tried by a court-martial, and sentenced to be shot ; 

 but he avoided his fate by effecting his escape, and 

 he is now supposed to be serving in the Costa Eican 

 army. The Costa Eicans followed up this success 

 by a surprise upon Virgin Bay, where they killed 

 a number of shopkeepers and innocent persons em- 

 ployed by the Transit Company. They then attacked 

 and succeeded in occupying Eivas, with a force of 

 about 2500 men. One of the most determined strug- 

 gles which has taken place during the w,ar now en- 

 sued. General Walker, who happened to be march- 

 ing on Leon, at once turned back, and with a force 

 of only 500 men advanced upon Eivas. The battle 

 commenced early on the morning of the llth of 

 April, and raged throughout the rest of the day with 

 the greatest fury. General Walker lost the whole of 

 his staff, and the Americans performed prodigies of 



