After Lockridge retired from Castillo the men began to discuss plans for the future, and all appear to have agreed on the propriety of abandoning the river. It was clear that the effort to re-open the Transit had entirely failed, and the leader of the enterprise drawing up the men informed them that he proposed to try to reach Rivas by the Isthmus of Panama, and called on all who wished to follow him to step from the ranks. Near a hundred persons agreed to take this course; and the remainder of the men were deprived of their arms and virtually discharged. Then the disarmed men sought means to reach the mouth of the river. Not waiting for the steamer they took the boats they could put their hands on, and some floated on logs to the harbor of San Juan del Norte. The panic-stricken crowd thought the Costa Ricans were hot in pursuit; and each over-anxious for his own safety added to the fright of his fellows. The men who had agreed to go with Lockridge to Rivas descended the river more leisurely than the fugitives; but ill luck pursued them to the last. On the way to San Juan del Norte, the steamer J. N. Scott was blown up, and several of those proposing to go to Panama were killed and others were painfully and dangerously scalded. This accident entirely discouraged the men who yet adhered to Lockridge, and forthwith the idea of crossing the New-Granadian Isthmus was abandoned by them. It was an absurd plan at any rate; for it was folly to suppose, under the existing circumstances, that known enemies of Costa Rica, either armed or unarmed, would be permitted in numbers to cross the territory of a neutral State, or rather of a Republic, hostile to those called “filibusters.” Of course the English were glad to furnish means to all the men who reached San Juan for leaving Central America. Accordingly a large number of the destitute and disappointed expeditionists were sent to New-Orleans on H. B. M.’s steamer, Tartar; and the passages of others were paid with drafts drawn by Capt. Erskine who held the arms of Lockridge’s command to secure himself against the loss on the drafts. In a few days nearly all the remains of Lockridge’s force had left the shores of Nicaragua; and most were bitter in their expressions concerning the weakness and incapacity of the man who attempted to lead them up the river. It may not be amiss, however, while concluding the narrative of Lockridge’s operations on the San Juan to say that Walker refused to listen to the censure passed on the unfortunate commander until he heard fully the facts of the case; and it was not until he heard from Lockridge himself the story of his undertaking that Walker formed an opinion as to the merits of the leader of the San Juan expedition.