panish,
and take the field with what courage we may. Kindness and good-will
smooth all difficulties, and we feel astonished how well we get on; in
short, if we stay here too long we shall get vain, and think we really
can speak Spanish,--we must dine, we must stay, we must make the house
our own, and truly I rejoiced that it was so. The house had every
comfort, the society every charm, and the welcome was as warm as it was
unostentatious. We--for you must know our party was four in number--most
decidedly lit upon our legs, and the cuisine and the cellar lent
effectual aid. The proprietor is an elderly man, and the son, who has
travelled a good deal in Europe, manages the properties, which consist
of several plantations, and employ about twelve hundred slaves. The
sound of the lash is rarely heard, and the negroes are all healthy and
happy-looking; several of them have means to purchase their liberty, but
prefer their present lot. A doctor is kept on the estate for them; their
houses are clean and decent; there is an airy hospital for them if sick,
and there is a large nursery, with three old women who are appointed to
take charge during the day of all children too young to work: at night
they go to their respective families. On the whole property there was
only one man under punishment, and he was placed to work in chains for
having fired one of his master's buildings, which he was supposed to
have been led to do, owing to his master refusing to allow him to take
his infant home to his new wife till it was weaned; his former wife had
died in child-bed, and he wished to rear it on arrowroot, &c. This the
master--having found a good wet nurse for it--would not permit. The man
had generally borne a very good character, and the master, whose
_entourage_ bears strong testimony to his kind rule, seized the
opportunity of my visit to let him free at my request, as he had already
been working four months in chains similar to those convicts sometimes
wear; thus were three parties gratified by this act of grace.

It is well known that there are various ways of making sugar; but as the
method adopted on this plantation contains all the newest improvements,
I may as well give a short detail of the process as I witnessed it. The
cane when brought from the field is placed between two heavy rollers,
worked by steam, and the juice falls into a conductor below--the
squashed cane being carried away to dry for fuel--whence it is raised by