Things were quickly put in posture for a fight. The neutral residents,
who had returned from San Juan, again set out over the Transit road.
The squad of infantry which had just come in from Rivas was placed at
the extreme end of the wooden pier that ran some one hundred and fifty
yards into the lake. They were armed with rifled muskets and Minie
ball, and hoped to kill at eight hundred or a thousand yards. The
rangers, with arms of shorter range, waited on the shore. As the
steamer approached, she was seen to be covered with a crowd of
dark-skinned soldiers. She came steadily up within quarter of a mile of
the shore, and then, suddenly turning broadside to, opened with a
single cannon. The ball struck the water some little distance from the
end of the pier,--after an interval implying awkward handling, another
roar,--and then one or two nervous soldiers on the pier, not liking to
await the ball in that place, break for the shore; but they are
promptly knocked down by the others, and make no further progress. The
steamer continues her fire out there leisurely, and the officer on the
pier, being satisfied at last that she will come no closer, gives her a
volley of musketry.
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