In June, contrary to all rules of civilized war, Maximilian was
executed and the empire was at an end. MacIver escaped to the
coast, and from Tampico took a sailing vessel to Rio de Janeiro.
Two months later he was wearing the uniform of another emperor,
Dom Pedro, and, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel, was in
command of the Foreign Legion of the armies of Brazil and
Argentina, which at that time as allies were fighting against
Paraguay.

MacIver soon recruited seven hundred men, but only half of these
ever reached the front. In Buenos Ayres cholera broke out and
thirty thousand people died, among the number about half the
Legion. MacIver was among those who suffered, and before he
recovered was six weeks in hospital. During that period, under a
junior officer, the Foreign Legion was sent to the front, where it
was disbanded.

On his return to Glasgow, MacIver foregathered with an old friend,
Bennett Burleigh, whom he had known when Burleigh was a
lieutenant in the navy of the Confederate States. Although today
known as a distinguished war correspondent, in those days
Burleigh was something of a soldier of fortune himself, and was
organizing an expedition to assist the Cretan insurgents against the
Turks. Between the two men it was arranged that MacIver should
precede the expedition to Crete and prepare for its arrival. The
Cretans received him gladly, and from the provisional government
he received a commission in which he was given "full power to
make war on land and sea against the enemies of Crete, and
particularly against the Sultan of Turkey and the Turkish forces,
and to burn, destroy, or capture any vessel bearing the Turkish