It was no part of the Nicaraguan general’s plan to waste his strength on an army which was being effectually destroyed by other causes; so he did not move from Granada until he heard the Costa Ricans were preparing to abandon Rivas. Then putting the rifle and light infantry battalions on the lake steamer, he proceeded with them to Virgin Bay. The battalions were landed as quickly as the charred and ruined state of the wharf admitted; and the order was given to advance along the familiar Transit road toward San Juan del Sur. But the force had gone not quite a league when a breathless messenger rode up to inform the general that Cañas was already marching with rapid and disorderly steps toward the La Flor. At the same time the messenger bore a letter addressed to “Wm. Walker, General-in-chief of the Nicaraguan Army,” signed “José Maria Cañas, General-in-chief of the Costa Rican Army,” and couched in the following terms: “Obliged to abandon the Plaza of Rivas, on account of the appearance of the cholera in a most alarming form, I am forced to leave here a certain number of sick it is impossible to carry away without danger to their lives; but I expect your generosity will treat them with all the attention and care their situation requires. I invoke the laws of humanity in favor of these unfortunate victims of an awful calamity, and I have the honor of proposing to you to exchange them when they get well, for more than twenty prisoners who are now in our power, and whose names I will send you in a detailed list for making the exchange. Believing that this, my proposal, will be admitted, according to the laws of war, I have the honor of subscribing myself, with feelings of the highest consideration, your obedient servant.” It is needless to add, that the surgeons immediately received orders to take charge of the sick of the enemy wherever found. Such, then, was the conclusion of the first act in the war of extermination. Had the Nicaraguan chief been a proud man, or one capable of rejoicing in the humiliation of a foe, he might have been excused for some elation of spirit at receiving the letter of Cañas. The enemy which, not two months before, had declared war against the “filibusters,” and ordered all taken with arms in their hands to be shot, now supplicated the commander-in-chief of the Nicaraguan army to spare the lives of the suffering soldiers left behind at Rivas. The victims of the murderous court-martial at Santa Rosa, the bayonet stabs inflicted on the wounded prisoners found near the altar of the church at Rivas, the insults to the bodies of the brave dead who gave up their lives on the 11th of April, for a country theirs only by adoption, were to be avenged by mercy, and care, and attention, bestowed on the sick and wounded of those who had done the wrongs. It was a revenge such as the Americans might well be proud of—not unworthy either of the cause they advocated, or of the race from which they sprang.