they could never be entirely eradicated or smothered.
The land robbers, on the other hand, were as exclusively native
Chilenos, a mixture generally of Indian and Spaniard--a more detestable
amalgamation the earth does not produce--if the devil was to cross the
breed, it would rather improve it than otherwise. One of the most
formidable, most blood-thirsty, and most successful of these pirates
wound up his affairs not a great while before I arrived in the Pacific,
Jack Ketch being his administrator.

CHAPTER II.

Virtue? a fig! 'tis in ourselves that we are thus and thus.

OTHELLO.

James Longford was the eldest son of a merchant in the neighborhood of
New York, who furnished in his own conduct one of those very rare
instances of a mercantile man contented with what he has amassed, and
willing to retire to private life to enjoy it. 'Tis true that merchants
pretend to say, after having heaped up something like a million, that
they continue in business for the sake of the employment of time and
excitement of mind that it affords, and not for the lucre of gain; "sed
non ego credulus illis," or, in plain English, "they may tell that to
the marines, the sailors won't believe them." The thirst for gain
increases with its gratification, as I could quote more Latin to prove;
and not only does gratification increase the appetite, but it seems to
_pucker up_ the heart, and contract the muscles of the hand, for your
very rich man is almost invariably a very close and avaricious one,
except when making public donations to institutions already bursting
with wealth, when they know that their names and sums given will go the
rounds of the public prints under the head of "munificent donations."
How delicious is flattery, even when thrown down one's throat with a
shovel!

But they are stingy in another way, that brings with it its own
punishment--they starve themselves. I know of several of your half
million folks, not a thousand miles from where I now sit, whose table
does not cost them fifty cents a day, and that too with tolerably
numerous families. I was once ill-advised enough to dine with a
gentleman of this description, in a sister city, in consequence of his
repeated and pressing invitations. We had part of a fore-quarter of very
small mutton boiled, with a small modicum of potatoes; one man could
have eaten the whole. To be sure, I had a glass of "London particular"
Madei