River and Nicaragua Lake, but they were of use
to him only locally.

His position was that of a man holding the centre span of a bridge of
which every span on either side of him has been destroyed.

Vanderbilt did not rest at withdrawing his steamers, but by supporting
the Costa Ricans with money and men, carried the war into Central
America. From Washington he fought Walker through Secretary of State
Marcy, who proved a willing tool.

Spencer and Webster, and the other soldiers of fortune employed by
Vanderbilt, closed the route on the Caribbean side, and the man-of-war
_St. Marys_, commanded by Captain Davis, was ordered to San Juan on the
Pacific side. The instructions given to Captain Davis were to aid the
allies in forcing Walker out of Nicaragua. Walker claims that these
orders were given to Marcy by Vanderbilt and by Marcy to Commodore
Mervin, who was Marcy's personal friend and who issued them to Davis.
Davis claims that he acted only in the interest of humanity to save
Walker in spite of himself. In any event, the result was the same.
Walker, his force cut down by hostile shot and fever and desertion, took
refuge in Rivas, where he was besieged by the allied armies. There was
no bread in the city. The men were living on horse and mule meat. There
was no salt. The hospital was filled with wounded and those stricken
with fever.

Captain Davis, in the name of humanity, demanded Walker's surrender to
the United States. Walker told him he would not surrender, but that
if the time came when he found he must fly, he would do so in his own
little schooner of war, the _Granada_, which constituted his entire
navy, and in her, as a free man, take his forces where he pleased. Then
Davis informed Walker that the force Walker had sent to recapture the
Greytown route had been defeated by the janizaries of Vanderbilt; that
the steamers from San Francisco, on which Walker now counted to bring
him re-enforcements, had also been taken off the line, and finally
that it was his "unalterable and deliberate intention" to seize the
_Granada_. On this point his orders left him no choice. The _Granada_
was the last means of transportation still left to Walker. He had hoped
to make a sortie and on board her to escape from the country. But with
his ship taken from him and no longer able to sustain the siege of
the allies, he surrendered to the forces of the United States. In the
agreement drawn up by him and Davis, Walker provided for