At this time in Nicaragua there was the usual revolution. On the
south the sister republic of Costa Rica was taking sides, on the
north Honduras was landing arms and men. There was no law, no
government. A dozen political parties, a dozen commanding
generals, and not one strong man.
In the editorial rooms of the San Francisco _Herald_, Walker,
searching the map for new worlds to conquer, rested his finger
upon Nicaragua.
In its confusion of authority he saw an opportunity to make
himself a power, and in its tropical wealth and beauty, in the
laziness and incompetence of its inhabitants, he beheld a greater,
fairer, more kind Sonora. On the Pacific side from San Francisco
he could re-enforce his army with men and arms; on the Caribbean
side from New Orleans he could, when the moment arrived, people
his empire with slaves.
The two parties at war in Nicaragua were the Legitimists and the
Democrats. Why they were at war it is not necessary to know.
Probably Walker did not know; it is not likely that they themselves
knew. But from the leader of the Democrats Walker obtained a
contract to bring to Nicaragua three hundred Americans, who were
each to receive several hundred acres of land, and who were
described as "colonists liable to military duty." This contract
Walker submitted to the Attorney-General of the State and to
General Wood, who once before had acquitted him of
filibustering; and neither of these Federal officers saw anything
which seemed to give them the right to interfere.
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