Chap. IX. DEPAETUEE FEOM LEON. . 155 
Eivas and take that city, as well as Granada, by surprise ; 
or how he could despatch them in canoes over the lake of 
Managua, land them at Tipitapa, and again take Granada 
by surprise ; and other stratagems of equal depth in military 
science. Poor general ! he had neither a vessel for the sea- 
passage of his troops, nor canoes for the lake, nor troops 
to spare, nor money to pay them ; though certain foreigners 
at Leon had loudly proclaimed that they would supply the 
necessary funds. 
Late in the evening before my departure from Leon, 
which took place on the 27th, the General came to see me 
in the hotel, handing me a package of documents and dis- 
patches which I was requested by the provisional govern- 
ment to take with me to the United States. Some of them 
were intended to be delivered to the government of Wash- 
ington ; others to be published in the principal journals of 
the Union. The most important of the papers was a formal 
protest of the provisional government of Leon, against the 
contract which that of Granada had entered into with the 
Accessory Transit Company of New York. In this pro- 
test the Leonese government took the unobjectionable 
ground that, if during a civil war a foreigner enters into 
an agreement with one of the parties, he makes his rights 
and claims dependent upon the fate of the party on which 
he thinks proper to rely ; the Leonese government declar- 
ing in advance, that they would not recognize the contract 
entered into by their political antagonists, if ever the 
undivided and legal authority over the State should fall into 
their hands. 
It was the last time that I saw the General, who had 
become my warm friend. I intended, after a short visit to 
the United States, to return to Nicaragua. But soon after 
I had reached New York, the news arrived that Leon had 
