this manner is very
questionable. Desertions are frequent, and the punishment hitherto
inflicted for that crime has been flogging; but Jackson declares now that
shooting must be resorted to. The soldiers are obliged to be servilely
respectful to the officers, _pulling off_ the undress cap at their
approach. This species of discipline may be pronounced inconsistent with
the institutions of the country, yet when we come to consider the
materials of which an _American_ regular regiment is composed, we shall
find the difficulty of producing order and regularity in such a body much
greater than at first view might be apprehended. In this country any man
who wishes to work may employ himself profitably, consequently all those
who sell their liberty by enlisting must be the very dregs of society--men
without either character or industry--drunkards, thieves, and culprits who
by flight have escaped the penitentiary, and enlisted under the impression
that the life of a soldier was one of idleness; in which they have been
most grievously mistaken. When we take these facts into consideration, the
difficulty of managing a set of such fellows will appear more than a
little. Yet unquestionably there are individuals among the officers whose
bearing is calculated to inspire any thing but that respect which they so
scrupulously exact, and without which they declare it would be impossible
to command. The drillings take place on Sundays.

Near Carondalet we visited two slave-holders, who employed slaves in
agriculture; which practice experience has shewn in every instance to be
unprofitable. One had thirteen; and yet every thing about his house rather
indicated poverty than affluence. These slaves lived in a hut, among the
outhouses, about twelve feet square--men, women, and children; and in
every respect were fully as miserable and degraded in condition as the
unfortunate wretches who reside in the lanes and alleys of St. Giles' and
Spitalfields, with this exception, that _they_ were well fed. The other
slave-holder, brother of the former, lived much in the same manner;--but
it is necessary to observe that both these persons were hunters, and that
hunters have nothing good in their houses but dogs and venison.

T---- having gone on a hunting excursion with our host, and some of his
friends, B---- and I drove the ladies to the plantation of the latter
gentleman. He had a farm on the bluffs, which was broken and irregular, as
is always the