It will be well, before relating the events of this campaign, to cast an eye upon the present lamentable condition of the four states thus bent upon each other's destruction. Guatemala was ruled by the aristocrats with a rod of iron. Her financial affairs were completely disorganized. In Salvador Malespin had no other rule of conduct than his own will and Bishop Viteri's evil counsels. He believed himself surrounded by enemies, and indeed he was.[X-29] Honduras was in a disturbed state, and the victim of Ferrera's despotism. Nicaragua was in anything but a satisfactory situation. The men who with their superior talents, statesmanship, and influence might have carried the ship of state safely through the coming storm, Francisco Castellon and Máximo Jerez, were in Europe working to undo the evils wrought against Central America by Pavon and Chatfield. The director of the state, Manuel Perez,[X-30] lacked the prestige that the occasion required. Casto Fonseca, the commander of the forces, had been given the rank of 'gran mariscal.'[X-31] The pacto de Chinandega had ceased to exist. Owing to hostile acts of Malespin, Chamorro had to seek safety in flight. Ferrera treated Chamorro with contumely, and shamefully abused him in a report to the chambers of Honduras, in January 1846.[X-32] Malespin and his army against Nicaragua entered Honduras, and at Nacaome made an address to the president and army of Honduras.[X-33] The two allied presidents had a conference at Sauce on the 7th of November, and agreed that Malespin should be recognized as the general-in-chief of their forces. At Choluteca proposals for peace came from Leon; and on the 21st of the same month the treaty of Zatoca[X-34] was concluded, which was disgraceful to the Nicaraguan negotiators.[X-35] A secret clause was also agreed to, binding Nicaragua, among other things, to retire her troops from Chinandega to Chichigalpa. But the authorities and people of Leon preferred death with honor to submission to such degrading demands. The treaty and secret clause were indignantly rejected. Perez, the director, surrendered the executive office to Senator Emiliano Madrid. [Sidenote: ATTACK ON LEON.]