Englishman knew enough of law to see that he had no authority for the
display of bunting, which he accordingly furled, paid the requisition,
and cursed the Yankee lawyer who had taught him a lesson. Walker was
versed in the law of nations, but he unfortunately overlooked the fact
that those wise statutes are framed for the control of strong nations
dealing with their peers. It is not enough to be right, or to know
one's rights, unless the power to maintain them accompany the
knowledge. A touch of the lawyer's weakness for technical rights always
marked this curious outlaw.
In the dazzling success of the Falange, the disasters of Kinney were
forgotten, and many a band of hardy adventurers was tempted to rival
their deeds. For a time it seemed as though the spirit of the Vikings
had been revived in the land discovered by Eric the Red. On the Pacific
coast those incursions sometimes assumed, as we have seen, formidable
proportions. Sonora, Arizona, Lower California, and even the Sandwich
Islands, were the various goals of ambitious adventurers, some of whom
never carried their schemes into effect; others, like Colonel Crabbe,
made a really imposing campaign for a brief space, only to die
fruitless deaths.
The filibusters were by no means impelled to risk life and liberty
through an abstract love of freedom or disinterested affection for
their oppressed allies. They were, on the contrary, rather prone to
turn to their own advantage the fruits of hard-won victory. Their
extenuation lies in the worthless character of their allies, who
invariably deserted them in extremity, and left the foreigner to save
himself. It was so in Cuba, in Sonora, in Nicaragua, though there were
honourable exceptions everywhere. A contempt and mistrust of the native
character, often but ill-concealed, did not serve to make the alliance
any more sincere. In Nicaragua, for the present at least, gratitude
was stronger than prejudice, and the party favouring the Americans
was powerful and enthusiastic. The common people remained faithful
throughout; it was the _calzados_, the middle and upper classes
composing the Conservative party, who hated the foreigner because they
felt his superiority, and his still more galling consciousness thereof.
The _calzados_ were those who wore shoes, as distinguished from the
barefoot rabble. Aristocracy, based on such transcendent merit, is
naturally jealous of its prerogatives.
Almost every steamer from California brought down a squad, greater or
less, of recruits. Amongst the earliest was a brother of the Achilles
Kewen killed at the first battle of Rivas. E. J. C. Kewen was one of
the most valuable of Walker's staff, on which he served throughout the
war. Quite characteristic of the time and place is the matter-of-fact
way in which the San Francisco papers state that Colonel Kewen
participated as second in a duel at that place on the day preceding his
departure for Nicaragua. Business before pleasure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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