After the surprise of Thompson, Spencer again took to his rafts and floated to the harbor of San Juan del Norte. He reached there during the night of the 23d, and on the morning of the 24th he had possession of all the river steamers at Punta Arenas. The United States commercial agent at San Juan del Norte called on the commander of the English forces off that port to protect American interests from the soldiers of Costa Rica. To this request Capt. Erskine of the Orion replied that “he had taken steps, by landing a party of marines from one of Her Majesty’s ship, to protect the persons and private property of Capt. Joseph Scott, his family and all citizens of the United States of America;” but as regards the capture of the steamers he adds: “To prevent all misapprehension, I think it, however, right to state that the steamers and other property belonging to the Accessory Transit Company being at this moment the subject of a dispute between two different companies, the representatives of which are on the spot, and one of them authorizing the seizure, I do not feel justified in taking any steps which may affect the interests of either party. With respect to the participation of a force of Costa Ricans in the seizure and transfer of the steamers alluded to, I must observe that these steamers having been for some months past employed in embarking in this port and conveying to the parties with whom Costa Rica is now carrying on active hostilities, men and munitions of war, it appears that as a non-belligerent I am prohibited by the law of nations from preventing the execution of such operations by a belligerent party.” Of course it was a mere act of comity for a British officer to protect American property at Punta Arenas; but the subtlety of distinguishing between American property in dispute and that not in dispute, was a convenient invention for the occasion. If Capt. Erskine desired to protect American property his plain course was to maintain those in possession. As to the question of the right of Costa Rica to seize the steamers it will more properly come up when we inquire why the United States had, at this time, no naval force at San Juan del Norte.