s.
The moral indictments against crime have to the full as many flaws as
the legal ones; and we see, in every society, men, and women too, as
notoriously criminal as though they wore the red-and-yellow livery
of the galleys. Physicians tell us that every drug whose sanitary
properties are acknowledged in medicine, contains some ingredients of
a noxious or poisonous nature. May not something similar exist in the
moral world? and even in the very healthiest mixture, may not some
"bitter principle" be found to lurk?

CHAPTER XXVII. THE VOYAGE OF THE 'ACADIE'

I was not sorry to leave the Havannah on the following day. I did not
desire another interview with my "friend" the Governor, but rather felt
impatient to escape a repetition of his arithmetic and the story of the
"original debt."

Desirous of supporting my character as a great personage, and at the
same time to secure for myself the pleasure of being unmolested during
the voyage, I obtained the sole right to the entire cabin accommodation
of the "Acadie" for myself and suite; my equipages, baggage, and some
eight or ten Mexican horses occupying the deck.

A salute of honor was fired as I ascended the ladder, and replied to by
the forts,--a recognition of my dignity at which I took occasion to seem
offended; assuring the captain that I was travelling in the strictest
incognito; leaving it to his powers of calculation to compute what
amount of retinue and followers I should have when journeying in the
full blaze of acknowledged identity.

I sat upon the poop-deck as they weighed the anchor, contrasting in my
mind my present condition with that of my first marine experiences on
board the "Firefly." I am richer, thought I. Am I better? Have I become
more generous, more truthful, more considerate, more forgiving?

Has my knowledge of the world developed more of good in me, or of evil;
have my own successes ministered rather to my self-esteem than to my
gratefulness; and have I learned to think meanly of all who have been
beaten in the race of fortune? Alas! there was not a count of this
indictment to which I dared plead "Not guilty." I had seen knavery
thrive too often, not to feel a kind of respect for its ability; I saw
honesty too often worsted, not to feel something like contempt for its
meekness. It was difficult to feel a reverence for poverty, whose traits
were frequently ridiculous; and it was hard to censure wealth, which
dispensed its abundance in spl