that, during the stormy times
that took place when South America shook off the Spanish yoke and put on
fifty worse ones--when there was a revolution once a week, and murder
and rapine every hour--many of the human vultures that flocked to the
prey, from Europe and this country, made this little island a place of
deposit for their ill-gotten wealth, and a rendezvous and city of refuge
from the vengeance of some of the short-lived authorities. The
celebrated Benavidas, a sort of "free companion," was, as sailors say,
"in vogue," when I first visited the Pacific in 1821; and as he carried
on business both by land and water, there is no doubt that he
occasionally visited both Masafuero and Juan Fernandez.

But there were other "land rats and water rats" than Benavidas, who, it
may be interesting to know, died suddenly one day of strangulation, in
consequence of his cravat being tied too tight. Numbers of English and
American seamen, at the first breaking out of the revolution, who
happened to be on the spot, realised large sums by privateering, and by
striking certain sudden and bold strokes, _a la Buccanier_, upon the
rich Spanish towns and richer churches; and as "their sound went out
into all lands," others flocked to the Pacific for the same purpose. But
by this time the first agony was over: the new government, short-lived
and ephemeral as it was, enacted certain wholesome laws, which, as they
did not materially interfere with the political views of the parties
that successively kicked each other down stairs, were generally
permitted to stand. A navy was organised and plunder was legalised;
privateering was placed under restrictions; and, as none of these
butterfly republics were in existence long enough to take any further
steps towards paying their seamen and soldiers than promising to, said
seamen and soldiers very naturally betook themselves to their respective
elements to look for prey. I have often wondered that the problem of our
revolution was not followed by the same corollary. The two nations might
be differently constituted--they were not differently situated.

Many stories are related of the daring exploits of these freebooters,
both on the water and on the land; but there was generally a shade of
difference in favor of the former, on the score of both courage and
humanity; the "water rats" being almost exclusively English and
Americans, and possessing both qualities by nature so strongly
impressed, that