d, and with every individual of whom we had to
shake hands some half-a-dozen times. They brought us up presents of eggs
(their only wealth), beseeching us to take them, and one young lad, the
son of head-man Frank, had a beautiful pair of chickens, which he
offered most earnestly to S----. We took one of them, not to mortify the
poor fellow, and a green ribbon being tied round its leg, it became a
sacred fowl, 'little missis's chicken.' By the by, this young man had so
light a complexion, and such regular straight features, that, had I seen
him anywhere else, I should have taken him for a southern European, or,
perhaps, in favour of his tatters, a gipsy; but certainly it never would
have occurred to me that he was the son of negro parents. I observed
this to Mr. ----, who merely replied, 'He is the son of head-man Frank
and his wife Betty, and they are both black enough, as you see.' The
expressions of devotion and delight of these poor people are the most
fervent you can imagine. One of them, speaking to me of Mr. ----, and
saying that they had heard that he had not been well, added, 'Oh! we
hear so, missis, and we not know what to do. Oh! missis, massa sick, all
him people _broken_!'

Dr. H---- came again to-day to see the poor sick boy, who is doing much
better, and bidding fair to recover. He entertained me with an account of
the Darien society, its aristocracies and democracies, its little
grandeurs and smaller pettinesses, its circles higher and lower, its
social jealousies, fine invisible lines of demarcation, imperceptible
shades of different respectability, and delicate divisions of genteel,
genteeler, genteelest. 'For me,' added the worthy doctor, 'I cannot well
enter into the spirit of these nice distinctions; it suits neither my
taste nor my interest, and my house is, perhaps, the only one in Darien,
where you would find all these opposite and contending elements
combined.' The doctor is connected with the aristocracy of the place, and,
like a wise man, remembers, notwithstanding, that those who are not, are
quite as liable to be ill, and call in medical assistance, as those who
are. He is a shrewd, intelligent man, with an excellent knowledge of his
profession, much kindness of heart, and apparent cheerful good temper. I
have already severely tried the latter, by the unequivocal expression of
my opinions on the subject of slavery, and, though I perceived that it
required all his self-command to listen with a