heir number.

The landing-place at Masafuero, with the open ground beyond it,
surrounded on three sides by broken rocks or high mountains, makes a
very beautiful appearance from the offing--anchorage, I believe, there
is none. It is a gentle slope, fronting the northern or sunny side of
the horizon, smooth, and of most delightful verdure. Perhaps it appeared
more lovely to me, who had been groping among the ices of the ant-arctic
circle for five months previous. The men whom we had left to get
seal-skins assured me the soil was very rich and deep, and the herbage
green and luxuriant. Since commencing these chapters, I have been
informed that the island is very frequently visited by our whalemen for
supplies of wood and young goat's flesh, which last is a savory morsel
to men who have been many months tumbling and rolling about on the long
regular swell of the Pacific. The waters that surround the island are
almost literally filled with fine fish, to which sailors have given the
general name of "snappers," and which differ from any fish among us,
more particularly in their propensity to bite as greedily at a bare hook
as a baited one.

It was here that the pirates lay _perdue_, waiting when the devil, who
always befriends such gentry, should send them a defenceless prey. They
were unable to anchor, as I have already noticed that there was no
anchorage, and were accordingly continually on the move, sometimes
extending their researches fifty or sixty miles to the eastward of Juan
Fernandez, which lies about that distance nearer the main than
Masafuero.

As they were lying to one morning, off the north-western side of
Fernandez, they were suddenly startled by the unexpected appearance of a
large brig that came out from behind the western extremity of the
island, and edged away towards the northward and eastward under all
sail. It was the first vessel they had seen since they had set up the
piratical business on their own account and risk, except an English
"jackass frigate," that chased them at the rate of one mile to the
schooner's five. The Vincedor, which was the name of the schooner, also
kept away and made sail, but kept yawing about in a manner that excited
the suspicions of the people on board the brig, and it was evident that
the manoeuvre would soon bring the schooner alongside. The brig now
hoisted the English ensign, but continued on her way without deviating
from her course. The schooner also made an attempt