dulgence. It is not surprising that women should
regard the question from this point of view; they are very seldom _just_,
and are generally treated with more indulgence than justice by men. They
were very patient of my strong expressions of reprobation of the whole
system, and Mrs. A----, bidding me good-bye, said that, for aught she
could tell, I might be right, and might have been led down here by
Providence to be the means of some great change in the condition of the
poor coloured people.

I rode home pondering on the strange fate that has brought me to this
place so far from where I was born, this existence so different in all its
elements from that of my early years and former associations. If I
believed Mrs. A----'s parting words, I might perhaps verify them; perhaps
I may yet verify although I do not believe them. On my return home, I
found a most enchanting bundle of flowers, sent to me by Mrs. G----;
pomegranate blossoms, roses, honeysuckle, everything that blooms two
months later with us in Pennsylvania.

I told you I had a great desire to visit Little St. Simon's, and the day
before yesterday I determined to make an exploring expedition thither. I
took M---- and the children, little imagining what manner of day's work
was before me. Six men rowed us in the 'Lily,' and Israel brought the wood
wagon after us in a flat. Our navigation was a very intricate one, all
through sea swamps and marshes, mud-banks and sand-banks, with great white
shells and bleaching bones stuck upon sticks to mark the channel. We
landed on this forest in the sea by Quash's house, the only human
residence on the island. It was larger and better, and more substantial
than the negro huts in general, and he seemed proud and pleased to do the
honours to us. Thence we set off, by my desire, in the wagon through the
woods to the beach; road there was none, save the rough clearing that the
men cut with their axes before us as we went slowly on. Presently, we came
to a deep dry ditch, over which there was no visible means of proceeding.
Israel told me if we would sit still he would undertake to drive the wagon
into and out of it; and so, indeed, he did, but how he did it is more than
I can explain to you now, or could explain to myself then. A less powerful
creature than Montreal could never have dragged us through; and when we
presently came to a second rather worse edition of the same, I insisted
upon getting out and crossing it on foot. I wa