experiment, and had proposed to
Major ---- to join him in it, on a scale large enough to test it
satisfactorily; but he said Mr. K---- opposed the scheme so persistently
that of course it was impossible to carry it out, as his agency and
cooperation were indispensable; and that in like manner he had suggested
sowing turnip crops, and planting peach trees for the benefit and use of
the people on the Hampton estate, experiments which he had tried with
excellent success on his own; but all these plans for the amelioration and
progress of the people's physical condition had been obstructed and
finally put entirely aside by old Mr. K---- and his son, who, as Mr. C----
said, appeared to give satisfaction to their employers, so it was not his
business to find fault with them; he said, however, that the whole
condition and treatment of the slaves had changed from the time of
Major ----'s death, and that he thought it providential for the poor
people that Mr. K---- should have left the estate, and the young
gentleman, the present owner, come down to look after the people.

He showed me his garden, from whence come the beautiful vegetables he had
more than once supplied me with; in the midst of it was a very fine and
flourishing date palm tree, which he said bore its fruit as prosperously
here as it would in Asia. After the garden, we visited a charming
nicely-kept poultry yard, and I returned home much delighted with my visit
and the kind good humour of my host.

In the afternoon, I sat as usual at the receipt of custom, hearing of
aches and pains, till I ached myself sympathetically from head to foot.

Yesterday morning, dear E----, I went on horseback to St. Annie's,
exploring on my way some beautiful woods, and in the afternoon I returned
thither in a wood waggon with Jack to drive and a mule to draw me,
Montreal being quite beyond his management; and then and there, the
hatchet and saw being in company, I compelled my slave Jack, all the
rattlesnakes in creation to the contrary notwithstanding, to cut and clear
a way for my chariot through the charming copse.

My letter has been lying unfinished for the last three days. I have been
extraordinarily busy, having emancipated myself from the trammels of Jack
and all his terror, and as I fear no serpents on horseback, have been
daily riding through new patches of woodland without any guide, taking my
chance of what I might come to in the shape of impediments. Last Tuesday,
I