We have no farther particulars to communicate, except that Charles Morton was taken into partnership by his father, and became wealthy, and that his wife wrote a long and kind letter to her uncle, which was forwarded by the captain of an outward-bound whaleman, who delivered it into his own hands. The old Don did not answer it, however; and Isabella, in whose heart other affections had taken root, was not, perhaps, much grieved or indignant at his silence; the affection of her husband, her children, and her friends, soon obliterated all melancholy recollections. * * * * * THE PIRATE OF MASAFUERO. * * * * * THE PIRATE OF MASAFUERO. CHAPTER I. _Gonzalo._ Had I a plantation of this isle, my lord, And were the king of it, what would I do? _Sebastian._ 'Scape getting drunk, for want of wine. TEMPEST. In the Pacific Ocean, and within two days' sail of the coast of Chili, lies the little island of Masafuero, or, as the word is generally divided by the Spaniards who discovered it, Mas-a-fuero--that is, the farthest--to distinguish it from Juan Fernandez, which lies nearer the main land, and in sight of Masafuero. Juan Fernandez is well known to all the reading community as having once been the temporary residence of Alexander Selkirk, the original, or, as grammarians would call it, the _root_, of De Foe's bewitching romance of Robinson Crusoe. Masafuero is, on the contrary, remarkable for nothing more, that I know of, than being very difficult of access, and overrun with wild goats. It is situated in the latitude of thirty-three degrees and forty-five minutes, south, and eighty degrees and thirty-six minutes, west longitude; for I love to be particular in all such cases--not that I suppose my readers care a pin if I had told them it was in the south-west horn of the new moon; but all authors, when they put pen to paper, seem actuated by the kind and neighborly spirit of the sagacious Dogberry--namely, to "bestow all their tediousness" upon their readers; and I do not know that I have any prescriptive right--I am sure I have no intention--to depart from so well-worn a track, or to fly in the face of so many illustrious precedents.