A short time after the brig came to anchor Walker ascertained that Parker H. French had just arrived in the town from Granada, and was there waiting the next steamer for San Francisco. French had started for California in 1849, but, being engaged in some doubtful transactions in Texas, on his way to the Pacific, his name had ever since been suggestive of unfairness and dishonesty. In California he had been a member of the Legislature, and afterward established a short-lived journal at Sacramento. During the time Walker was trying to get men at San Francisco to go to Nicaragua French had met him and professed to have great influence with C. K. Garrison, the agent of the Accessory Transit Company in California. French’s character presented no obstacle to an intimacy of the sort he alleged between himself and Garrison, and French told Walker he had spoken to Garrison in reference to the proposed expedition and its bearing on the Transit Company. Certainly Garrison did nothing to aid the departure of the Vesta from San Francisco, but French intimated that after the sailing of a first party for Nicaragua he would himself follow, and would manage to interest Garrison in the enterprise. Nothing was heard from French until it was reported through the country that the Legitimist government was about to secure the services of a “coto”—one armed man—whose skill as an artillerist was amazing; for French had brought with him from San Francisco a mulatto servant to be used as the vehicle for communicating the most astonishing stories as to his master’s skill, bravery and general attainments. At his own desire French was brought aboard the Vesta under arrest. He strove to impress Walker with the idea that he had gone to Granada to observe the strength and defences of the place, and he then proceeded to state what he had observed. Of course Walker attached no importance to his statements, nor did he ever care to examine minutely the real motives of French in going there. The motives of such men are generally so tangled that he who attempts to unravel them is poorly paid for his trouble.