The next morning the force, together with all the stores, were landed, and the Democrats had scarcely taken possession of the town before the steamer from California appeared off the harbor. It was a glad sight for the Falange, inasmuch as it suggested the fact that they were now in communication with the friends of youth and manhood, and that there would now be an opportunity to swell their numbers from the passengers crossing the Isthmus. Some difficulty occurred at first in regard to the conveyance of the passengers across the Isthmus, as the contractor seemed afraid to venture to town with his mules and carriages; but soon they were all sent to Virgin Bay, and the town settled to its usual quiet condition. About midnight the ketch appeared, and the troops aboard of her were immediately landed. The full force of the command then amounted to near fifty Americans, and one hundred and twenty natives. A number of the latter were on the sick list, and the prevailing disease was the colerin, which generally carried the patient off in two or three days. The enemy was reported to have five or six hundred men—some said eight hundred, but this was an exaggeration—at Rivas, and in a day or two it was known Guardiola had arrived to take the command. Flying from Sauce after his defeat there, the Legitimist General had hurried to Granada, entering that city with a single attendant. Brooding over his ill-luck in the north, and anxious for a chance to regain his lost fame, he leaped at the opportunity of going to Rivas in order, as he said, to sweep the “filibusters” into the sea. He marched from Granada with some two hundred select soldiers, expecting to make them the nucleus of a force to be organized after his arrival at Rivas. With him marched several officers, reputed to be of skill and courage, and desirous of more active service than was to be had under Corral. French’s mulatto man, Tom, who was sent over to Virgin Bay on some errand for his master, reported on his return that Guardiola had come down with a thousand men, and would march at once on San Juan del Sur; but this story was like that of his master being able to hit a man every shot with a twenty-four pounder at the distance of a mile.