de of the penitentiary to the
company with which she must have associated had she been confined in a
common gaol. She did not appear at all anxious for the expiration of
her term. Her cell was very neat, and ornamented with her own hands in
a variety of ways. I observed that she had a lock of hair on her
forehead which, from the care taken of it, appeared to be a favourite,
and, as I left the cell, I said--"You appear to have taken great pains
with that lock of hair, considering that you have no one to look at
you?"--"Yes, sir," replied she; "and if you think that vanity will
desert a woman, even in the solitude of a penitentiary, you are
mistaken."

When I visited this girl a second time, her term was nearly expired; she
told me that she had not the least wish to leave her cell, and that, if
they confined her for two years more, she was content to stay. "I am
quite peaceful and happy here," she said, and I believe she really spoke
the truth.

No. 10--a free mulatto girl, about eighteen years of age, one of the
most forbidding of her race, and with a physiognomy perfectly brutal;
but she evidently had no mean opinion of her own charms: her woolly hair
was twisted into at least fifty short plaits, and she grinned from ear
to ear as she advanced to meet me. "Pray, may I inquire what you are
imprisoned for?" said I.--"Why, sir," replied she, smirking, smiling,
and coquetting, as she tossed her head right and left,--"If you please,
sir, I was put in here for poisoning a _whole family_." She really
appeared to think that she had done a very praiseworthy act. I inquired
of her if she was aware of the heinousness of her offence. "Yes, she
knew it was wrong, but if her mistress beat her again as she had done,
she thought she would do it again. She had been in prison three years,
and had four more to remain." I asked her if the fear of punishment--if
another incarceration for seven years would not prevent her from
committing such a crime a second time. "She didn't know; she didn't
like being shut up--found it very tedious, but still she thought--was
not quite sure--but she thought that, if ill-treated, she should
certainly do it again."

I paid a second visit to this amiable young lady, and asked her what her
opinion was then.--"Why, she had been thinking, but had not exactly made
up her mind--but she still thought--indeed, she was convinced--that she
_should do it again_."

I entered many other cells, and had co