gements with Mr. Pope to still occupy this half of the
house free of rent until August, if I wished, and was calculating on
having a rich time seeing a native plant cotton with these island
negroes, but alas, my hopes are all blighted, for every blessed soul
but one man and his wife has moved away and will not work for him; so
he has decided not to move here until after we are gone. He has sent
one man here who was an old servant and has been with him all the
time, and he is very industrious, works from morn until night; it is
quite refreshing to see him. Pope was the only one of the natives who
bid off places at auction[200] that came to time in paying up; so the
places were put up again and bought by Northern men.

The present planters are in a dubious frame of mind these days over
the prospect for another year, for it is very hard to bring wages
down, and one cannot get his money back at the present price of
cotton, so most of them will work on shares;[201] but that is a sure
way of running a place all out, for the people will not manure it
sufficiently to keep it up. Mr. Eustis is always good-natured, and is
about the only man here who is not utterly demoralized on the negro
question.

F. H. TO C. P. W.

_Coffin's Point, Feb. 16, 1866._ Really the people have met with a
great change of late, since I have sent away Anthony Bail. They love
and respect me _hugely_, which I hope will last another whole week.

Dr. Oliver and Captain Ward, who have bought "Pine Grove," have taken
the usual disgust for the people. They have got it bad; say they would
not have bought here had they imagined half of the reality. They have
some friends who would have bought Coffin's Point if they could have
made a favorable report of the people. But they tell them not to think
of buying to use the labor that is now here. I say the same when I say
anything about it, though I have no friends who think of buying here.

T. E. R. TO C. P. W.

_May 21, 1867._ I don't suppose we shall be able to make any new
additions to your collection of negro songs.[202] They sing but very
little nowadays to what they used to. Do you remember those good old
days when the Methodists used to sing up in that cotton-house at
Fuller's? Wasn't it good? They never sing any of them at the church,
and very few in their praise-meeting.

Crops on the island are looking worse than I ever saw them at this
season before.

_We are all American citizens_ now, and th