thick
and inelegant pronunciation which distinguishes their utterances from the
northern snuffle; and I have no desire that S---- should adorn her mother
tongue with either peculiarity. It is a curious and sad enough thing to
observe, as I have frequent opportunities of doing, the unbounded
insolence and tyranny (of manner, of course it can go no farther), of the
slaves towards each other. 'Hi! you boy!' and 'Hi! you girl!' shouted in
an imperious scream, is the civillest mode of apostrophising those at a
distance from them; more frequently it is 'You niggar, you hear? hi! you
niggar!' And I assure you no contemptuous white intonation ever equalled
the _prepotenza_ of the despotic insolence of this address of these poor
wretches to each other.

I have left my letter lying for a couple of days, dear E----. I have been
busy and tired; my walking and riding is becoming rather more laborious to
me, for, though nobody here appears to do so, I am beginning to feel the
relaxing influence of the spring.

The day before yesterday I took a disagreeable ride, all through swampy
fields and charred blackened thickets, to discover nothing either
picturesque or beautiful; the woods in one part of the plantation have
been on fire for three days, and a whole tract of exquisite evergreens has
been burnt down to the ground. In the afternoon I drove in the wood wagon
to visit the people at St. Annie's. There had been rain these last two
nights, and their wretched hovels do not keep out the weather; they are
really miserable abodes for human beings. I think pigs who were at all
particular might object to some of them. There is a woman at this
settlement called Sophy, the wife of a driver, Morris, who is so pretty
that I often wonder if it is only by contrast that I admire her so much,
or if her gentle, sweet, refined face, in spite of its dusky colour, would
not approve itself anywhere to any one with an eye for beauty. Her manner
and voice too are peculiarly soft and gentle; but, indeed, the voices of
all these poor people, men as well as women, are much pleasanter and more
melodious than the voices of white people in general. Most of the wretched
hovels had been swept and tidied out in expectation of my visit, and many
were the consequent petitions for rations of meat, flannel, osnaburgs,
etc. Promising all which, in due proportion to the cleanliness of each
separate dwelling, I came away. On my way home I called for a moment at
Jones'