General Walker was expecting by this steamer, so long
due on the Atlantic side, a large body of recruits with cannon, bombs,
and other military stores, whose arrival would put him in condition to
attack the enemy at Granada. He began to grow uneasy; and at length
sent an armed row-boat across the lake to the head of the Rio San Juan
to get intelligence. The little party which held that river were
thought to be in no danger behind the walls of San Carlos and Castillo,
and still further protected by the impenetrable forests which stretched
backward from either bank; but now it began to be whispered that
General Walker had committed a fatal blunder in not using the surest
means to keep his only communication with the Atlantic open.
In the mean while our company of rangers was ordered back to the
Transit road, to remain until the passengers crossed. We rode down by a
trail that lay nearer the Pacific than the one by which we had first
approached Rivas.
We found the same desolate, vine-netted forest; but on this route it
was broken at several points by grassy savannas, dotted thinly with
calabash-trees, and browsed by a few wild mules and cattle.
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