s a general
or abstract principle--he hated every individual as heartily as he did
the whole species. He would never accept or even reply to an invitation
from an English or American commander; and in the case of the American
schooner already mentioned, he had treated the crew with such savage
barbarity, that, but for the interference of Don Gaspar, they would have
perished from starvation and ill treatment. He was by no means a
favorite guest at the governor's house; the ladies of the family
detested him, not so much for his cruelty, for they heard but little of
that, but for his morose and churlish disposition, and, perhaps more
than either, on account of the general belief that his wife, a lovely
woman, and much younger than himself, had fallen a victim to his
unkindness and cruelty.

Women, the dear creatures, have an infinitely larger share of _esprit du
corps_, if I may so call it, or rather a community of feeling, than men.
Nothing will ruin a man's character and good name among the females of
his acquaintance so soon or so effectually as the reputation of ill
treatment or unkindness to his wife, while the men would think but
little or nothing of it. Women think, and feel, and act most correctly
and justly, and in a manner that does them infinite honor, upon this
subject; indeed, I am fully convinced, that on most questions of social
morality, the feelings of women are more pure and right than those of
men. But they have a thousand ingenious methods of making known their
contempt and detestation of the cowardly scoundrel that would raise his
hand against one of their sex, and every method cuts like a two-edged
sword. I have known, and do at this moment know, many men who have
endured the contempt and hatred of their fellow-_men_ with the most
stoical indifference--they went on hated and despised to the grave, but
they made money at every step, and they cared for nothing else; but I
never, in all my life, and in all my wanderings--and I have not
travelled about this watery ball, nor so far through life, with my eyes
and ears shut--I never knew a man who did not wince and writhe under the
hatred and contempt of the other sex. I am not a profound believer in
innate ideas, if they are such ridiculous ones as metaphysicians talk
of--namely, that two and two make four, and such sort of nonsense--but I
do believe in certain innate principles and feelings, that govern our
thoughts and actions as powerfully and irresistib