A few days after receiving this contract, Walker went to San Francisco with the view of providing means, if possible, for carrying two or three hundred men to Nicaragua. He there met an old schoolmate, Mr. Henry A. Crabb, who had just returned from the Atlantic States; and Crabb having passed through Nicaragua on his way from California to Cincinnati, gave a glowing report of the natural wealth and advantages of the country. While crossing the Transit Road, Crabb heard of the events then transpiring in the Republic—of the revolution at Leon and the siege of Granada; and he also ascertained that Jerez was anxious to obtain the aid of Americans for the campaign against the Legitimists. This suggested the idea of getting an element into the society of Nicaragua for the regeneration of that part of Central America; and while in the Atlantic States Crabb had secured the co-operation of Mr. Thomas F. Fisher, formerly and now of New-Orleans, and of Captain C. C. Hornsby, who had served in one of the regiments known as the Ten Regiments, during the Mexican war. The three, Crabb, Fisher, and Hornsby, left New-Orleans together in the month of January, 1855: and on the way to San Juan del Norte they found aboard the steamer Mr. Julius De Brissot, bound, as he said, for the Gallipagos Islands. De Brissot joined the party; and he, together with Hornsby and Fisher, remained in Nicaragua, while Crabb proceeded to San Francisco. When Walker met Crabb at the latter place, he was awaiting advices from Fisher, who stopped on the Isthmus for the purpose of visiting Jerez and obtaining from him authority to engage Americans for the service of the Democratic army. Not many days elapsed before Fisher himself came to California, bringing with him authority to enlist five hundred men for Jerez, and with a promise of the most extravagant pay, in both money and lands, to the officers and men who might engage in the service. It seems Fisher, Hornsby, and De Brissot, found the newly-arrived United States Minister, John H. Wheeler, on the Isthmus; and as His Excellency was anxious to visit the Democratic camp in the Jalteva, as well as Chamorro, in Granada, before deciding what authority he would recognise, Fisher and his party went as an escort to the Minister, and under the protection of the American flag, into both camps. From Jerez, however, Fisher obtained at this time the contract he bore to San Francisco; while Hornsby and De Brissot, after leaving Granada, went to Rivas, and entered into a Quixotic agreement with D. Maximo Espinosa to take Fort Castillo Viejo and the San Juan river from the Legitimists, who had lately driven the Democrats from the stronghold at the Rapids. These two gentlemen, however, were soon glad to manage their escape from San Juan del Sur aboard of the steamer for San Francisco; and not long after Fisher’s arrival, Hornsby and De Brissot both appeared in California.