But the rest of
San Francisco was less credulous, and the "colonists" who joined
Walker had a very distinct idea that they were not going to
Nicaragua to plant coffee or to pick bananas.
In May, 1855, just a year after Walker and his thirty-three
followers had surrendered to the United States troops at San
Diego, with fifty new recruits and seven veterans of the former
expedition he sailed from San Francisco in the brig _Vesta_, and
in five weeks, after a weary and stormy voyage, landed at Realejo.
There he was met by representatives of the Provisional Director of
the Democrats, who received the Californians warmly.
Walker was commissioned a colonel, Achilles Kewen, who had
been fighting under Lopez in Cuba, a lieutenant-colonel, and
Timothy Crocker, who had served under Walker in the Sonora
expedition, a major. The corps was organized as an independent
command and was named "La Falange Americana." At this time
the enemy held the route to the Caribbean, and Walker's first
orders were to dislodge him.
Accordingly, a week after landing with his fifty-seven Americans
and one hundred and fifty native troops, Walker sailed in the
_Vesta_ for Brito, from which port he marched upon Rivas, a city
of eleven thousand people and garrisoned by some twelve hundred
of the enemy.
The first fight ended in a complete and disastrous fiasco.
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