In spite, however, of the sickness which prevailed among the Americans, their spirits were good and their hopes high. To the casual observer the political elements appeared at rest, and all seemed more tranquil than at any time since the treaty of the 23d of October. The common people, with their strong religious instinct, thought that Providence had sent the cholera in order to drive the Costa Ricans from the soil. The Americans with that faith in themselves which has carried them in a wonderfully short period from one ocean to another, regarded their establishment in Nicaragua as fixed beyond the control of casualties. But to him who knows that great changes in states and societies are not wrought without long and severe labor, the difficulties of the Americans in Nicaragua might appear to be only beginning. To destroy an old political organization is a comparatively easy task, and little besides force is requisite for its accomplishment; but to build up and re-constitute society—to gather the materials from the four quarters, and construct them into an harmonious whole, fitted for the uses of a new civilization—requires more than force, more even than genius for the work, and agents with which to complete it. Time and patience, as well as skill and labor, are needed for success; and they who undertake it, must be willing to devote a lifetime to the work. At that time there was one man at least in Nicaragua who saw that the path of the Americans was even then beset with thorns. Edmund Randolph, who since the beginning of April, had been in the Occidental Department, came down to Virgin Bay to take passage for New-York. During his stay at Leon and Realejo he had been very ill, almost dead at one time, from an affection of the liver; but in the intervals of his painful sickness, his quick eye had seen an under-current in the affairs of the provisional government. On the 20th of May, just before leaving for San Juan del Norte, he told Walker there was something wrong at Leon; but that confined as he was to his bed he had not the means of ascertaining precisely what was the nature of the evil. Nor was the information given by Randolph unsupported by other facts. A day or two before the Costa Ricans evacuated Rivas, a courier from Leon had been brought to Granada, and on him were found letters directed to His Excellency, D. Juan Rafael Mora. Walker, on opening these letters, was surprised to find them signed by Patricio Rivas; and one was an official communication from the government stating that it desired to send a commissioner to treat for peace. Of course the general-in-chief detained the courier and the letters, he well knowing that Mora was about to abandon the town of Rivas. The Provisional President in his letters to Walker from Leon, said nothing about these communications with the enemy for some days; and the fact that he had sent such letters to Mora without advising with the general-in-chief was suspicious.