Crabb and Walker had known each other from childhood, and their views were similar in regard to the state of Central America, and the means necessary for its regeneration. Therefore, Crabb generously proposed to give Walker the whole benefit of the contract Fisher had made with Jerez; and Crabb, in view of certain political movements then occurring in California, decided to remain in that State. Walker, however, while thanking Crabb for his offer, refused to have anything to do with the Jerez contract, preferring to act under the Castellon grant to Cole, not only because of its entire freedom from legal objections, but also because it was more reasonable, and had been given by an authority competent to make the bargain. Hornsby and De Brissot embarked in the enterprise with Walker; and it will be seen hereafter that they, as well as Fisher, held commissions under the Republic of Nicaragua. In the meanwhile, Walker had taken care that no show of secrecy should bring suspicion on his undertaking, either as to its illegality or its injustice. He took the Cole grant to the District Attorney of the United States for the Northern District of California, Hon. S. W. Inge, and that gentleman after examining it declared no law would be violated by acting under it. At that time, too, General Wool, commanding the Pacific Division, was supposed to have special power from the President for suppressing expeditions contrary to the Act of 1818. His headquarters were at Benicia, and the General was in the habit of reading to many persons the letters addressed by him to the then Secretary of War, Colonel Jefferson Davis, defending the course he took in reference to the Lower California expedition. Among others, he read these letters (which the old gentleman seemed to think models of logic and style) to Walker, the very person about whose acts the discussion had arisen between himself and the Secretary. From these letters Walker was led to infer that the common impression about the powers vested in the General, under the Act of 1818, was correct; and, therefore, when he heard of General Wool being in San Francisco, he sought him out, and found him on the wharf only a few minutes before four o’clock, the hour for the departure of the Sacramento steamer. The General was about to leave in the boat for Benicia; and after hearing Walker’s statement as to the nature of the grant made to Cole, and of his intention to act under it, the old man, shaking him heartily by the hand, said he not only would not interfere with the enterprise, but wished it entire success. Thus having secured the sanction of the proper Federal authorities, Walker proceeded in his efforts to provide means for carrying colonists to Nicaragua under the Cole contract. He soon found that it would be impossible to get more than a pitiful sum of money, and that his arrangements would have to be made on the most economical scale.