Several circumstances, in the meanwhile, occurred to show the disaffection of many of the principal men toward the Americans. D. Mariano Salazar, as Walker ascertained after reaching Leon, had made a sale of some brazil-wood he owned to the government, on terms advantageous to himself, and tending to diminish the receipts of the customs at Realejo. In the actual condition of affairs it was necessary for the State to get every cent of revenue possible; and hence it was reprehensible for a friend of the government, and especially for a military officer, to speculate on the necessities of the Republic. Under the army regulations derived from the old Spanish service, it was not permitted for an officer to contract with the State, unless with the permission of the general-in-chief. Hence Walker, to rebuke the act of Salazar, put him under arrest, and kept him in his house for some hours. Several of the leading persons of the city came to intercede for Salazar during his short arrest, and endeavored to excuse his act as not unusual in the country; and it was easy to see that they were not at all favorable to an authority which aimed to protect the State from contractors and speculators. The Sunday after reaching Leon, Goicouria proposed to call together the chief persons of the city and converse freely with them about the state of affairs. He constantly labored under the delusion that he knew the natives, whereas he always under-estimated the capacity of the leaders and the virtues of the people. But he got a number of the prominent politicians together, and gave them a rambling discourse on his ideas—most crude they were—of re-organizing the country. He touched on the ecclesiastical authority, and suggested an application to the Pope for the appointment of a Bishop who might be free from the metropolitan of Guatemala. The suggestion was innocent enough in itself, but D. José Guerrero, a wily intriguer who once, while Director, had got up a revolution against his own government as an excuse for prolonging his authority, distorted Goicouria’s suggestion into such a shape that it was soon reported through the city the Americans aimed to draw Nicaragua from the jurisdiction of the Roman See. Goicouria expected to influence the ambition of the higher clergy, by placing before them visions of the mitre and the crosier, but a more dexterous politician than himself managed to turn his suggestion to his own disadvantage. The fact is, the natives disliked Goicouria because they took him for a Spaniard, and the Nicaraguans hate the Spaniards more than they do any other foreigners. Of course the general-in-chief knew nothing of Goicouria’s suggestion until after it was made; his policy had always been to leave the church entirely to the management of its own affairs. But it was easy for the disaffected to make Goicouria’s speech appear the inspiration of his commanding officer; and the reports circulated about this silly