in the direction of San Juan, and conflicting reports were rife: some maintained that the insurgents had won the town, others that they were in full retreat. The next morning, returning from my usual ride along the picket line, I encountered a squad of horsemen riding through a woodland trail toward Rivas. They wore hatbands and ribbons of green, the color of the revolutionists, and upon perceiving me they covered me with revolvers, requesting me to stop. I like to be obliging, particularly when looking down the muzzles of a dozen cocked revolvers; so I stopped, explained who I was and what I was doing, and ended by expressing a wish that, if there was to be a fight, I might be permitted to witness it. This suggestion met with cordial approval, and we rode on amicably for a mile or two, when we met the main force of insurgents, some four or five hundred strong. I was presented to the general in command, who, after questioning me as to the number and disposition of the Government troops in Rivas, and the whereabouts of the "Victoria," and finding that I could or would give him very little information, invited me to ride with himself and staff and see them take the town. I readily assented, and was soon on friendly terms with several young aids educated in the States and speaking excellent English, one of whom laugh

ingly urged me to accept his rifle and emulate my illustrious namesake the filibuster; but I explained that, owing to my official position, I must remain a mere spectator, and that the navy revolver which I carried was sufficient for purposes of self-defence.

We swept on like a triumphal procession, occasionally stopping at some little house for a drink of water or to drag from his hidingplace an unwilling recruit, until about noon, when in a shallow cut in the road near Rivas the enemy's picket fired upon us and a sharp engagement ensued. It was of brief duration, the picket falling back upon the town, closely followed by our men. Part of our force kept to the road, while the rest of us turned through a gap in a barbed-wire fence and charged up a steep hill in the southern part of the cemetery, which the Government had fortified. Finding that the garrison had fled, and that only a weak and ineffective fire was opened upon us from the neighborhood of the great stuccoed gate as we reached the crest, we advanced through an intervening valley, meeting with little resistance from the retiring enemy, and passed through the gate into the town, where the garrison made a stubborn stand, and fierce fighting began. I skulked along from tree to tree, the singing bullets showering twigs around me and knocking chunks of adobe from the house walls; but

after fifteen minutes or so, finding myself exposed to an awkward cross-fire and fearing that my horse would be killed, leaving me to face certain death in the event of the repulse of the insurgents, I made my way back to the gate, where I could tie my steed in a sheltered position, and from near which I could command a pretty good view of the town. The fighting was still fierce, but the Government forces were gradually driven back to the vicinity of the cuartel, or barracks. Numbers of wounded passed me on their way to the rear, some slightly hurt, some badly injured and helped along by friends. One fellow, shot directly through the body, passed me at a gallop. His face was pale and drawn, his eyes half closed, and he reeled in the saddle like a drunken man, but when he passed out of sight over the crest of a neighboring hill he was still spurring his jaded steed with grim determination. I have often wondered what became of him, but I fear that only the buzzards know.

About two o'clock the pangs of hunger assailed me, and I rode back to camp leaving the result of the battle still in doubt.

Reaching Rivas early the next morning I found the Government forces in full possession. The sudden arrival of the "Victoria" with reinforcements had enabled them to beat off the insurgents, who were in full retreat, no one

knew whither. A hospital which had been established was full of wounded; but the town had recovered its equanimity with wonderful prompitude, and no one would have supposed that, a few hours before, bullets had been flying through the quiet streets.

The commissioners had an interesting tale to tell. They were just sitting down to breakfast, when a volley of musketry announced the beginning of the fray, and almost instantly the house was filled to overflowing with women and children seeking the protection of our flag. The great doors were shut and barred, but one was soon opened again, that the impatient gentlemen might view the progress of the fight. A little Indian with the red hatband of the Government, one of a detachment of skirmishers, stood directly outside, loading and firing with great speed and precision. A clatter of hoofs in the next street and a small party of green-ribboned caballeros dashed around the corner. Bang! went the Indian's rifle, and a bit of adobe flew from a house wall four inches from the leader's head. Crack! went his revolver in reply, but he turned and galloped off, nevertheless, followed by his

men.

I went and called on Dr. Cole, who grinned and showed me a dozen holes in his flag, fifteen feet above the street. "That's the way they

shoot," he said.

As I left town they were burying the dead in the cemetery where we had fought the day before. Some of the poor "volunteers" whom I had seen tied together like sheep and dragged to the barracks between files of soldiers, had found bloody graves. This method of obtaining soldiers, by the way, does not seem to strike Nicaraguans as peculiar; and when the story is told of the officer who answered the President's telegram "Send more volunteers," with a message, "Send more rope," they cannot understand why foreigners laugh.

I believe that Nicaraguan troops are generally underrated by travellers who have never seen them in action. Brave, of great endurance, capable of living on next to nothing, they have in them the making of exceptionally fine light infantry. While usually lacking in discipline, they do not hesitate to perform what they understand to be their duty, as I found on more than one occasion, when, relying upon my nationality and my ignorance of Spanish, I undertook to pass outposts without the necessary countersign. A disregarded challenge was always followed by an ominous clicking of locks, and a glance into the muzzles of a number of levelled rifles invariably convinced me of the wisdom of complying with the requirements of military law.