not seem in keeping with the gravity of the occasion. His suspicions
were aroused; and the seconds, on being charged with duplicity,
acknowledged the fact, adding that it would be worse than folly to shoot
each other, and suggesting that they should shake hands, take a good
breakfast together, and, in a Christian spirit, banish all enmity from
their hearts.

This advice, so wise in itself, was not taken in good part by either
of the principals. They were indignant at having been imposed upon, and
made a laughing-stock to the community. Murray could not control his
temper, but threw his pistol at the head of his second, cutting him
badly in the face, and knocking him over; he chased the second of his
antagonist off the field, and then offered his hand to the man whom
he had twice attempted to shoot, which in a kind spirit was heartily
grasped; and the two principals in the duel, who, five minutes before,
eagerly thirsted for each other's blood, rode off together sworn friends
and brothers, and were afterwards as great cronies as the Irish Bard and
the Scotch reviewer.

Mr. Orr, the manager of the Upper Pearl, who left the estate, bowed
down by disease, on the evening of my arrival, had a narrow escape from
death. When he recovered, after a severe illness of several weeks, he
refused to resume his situation, declaring he had got enough of the
Pearls to last him his lifetime.

Mr. Church rode over from his residence every morning, and gave
instructions, which I carried out to the best of my ability. The
reputation of the Pearl estates for fevers was such, it was difficult to
find a respectable person who would take the station of manager, or, if
he accepted the situation, relying on the strength of his constitution,
he was not wont to occupy it long. One of that description was engaged
after Orr's resignation was received, but he was driven off in a few
weeks by an attack of fever and ague, which nearly shook him to atoms.
Another, of more doubtful character, was subsequently engaged, but he
was found by the attorney tipsy before eleven o'clock in the forenoon.
Had it been in the afternoon, it might have been excused; but to get
drunk in the morning was an unpardonable offence. In vain he pleaded
that he had taken only a few drops to neutralize the effects of the
malaria; he was discharged.

After a few months' residence on this plantation, breathing by night and
by day the foul and noxious miasma from the swamps, and