I have since thought that this moderation proceeded from a
species of principle that is common enough--a certain half-way code of
right and wrong--which encouraged him to smuggle, but which caused him
to shrink from taking human life. Your half-way rogues are the bane of
honesty.
After quitting the Spanish coast, altogether, we proceeded north, with
the laudable intention of converting certain quantities of
glass-beads, inferior jack-knives, frying-pans, and other homely
articles of the same nature, into valuable furs. In a word, we shaped
our course for that district which bids fair to set the mother and
daughter by the ears, one of these days, unless it shall happen to be
disposed of _a la Texas_, or, what is almost as bad, _a la
Maine_, ere long. At that time the whole north-west coast was
unoccupied by white men, and I felt no scruples about trading with the
natives who presented themselves with their skins as soon as we had
anchored, believing that they had the best right to the country and
its products. We passed months in this traffic, getting, at every
point where we stopped, something to pay us for our trouble.
We went as far north as 53 degrees, and that is pretty much all I ever knew
of our last position. At the time, I thought we had anchored in a bay
on the main land, but I have since been inclined to think it was in
one of the many islands that line that broken coast.
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