through which wickedness is eventually swamped; compromises
forerun absolute surrender in most matters, and fools and cowards are, in
such cases, the instruments of Providence for their own defeat. Mr. O----
stated unequivocally his opinion that free labour would be more profitable
on the plantations than the work of slaves, which, being compulsory, was
of the worst possible quality and the smallest possible quantity; then the
charge of them before and after they are able to work is onerous, the cost
of feeding and clothing them very considerable, and upon the whole he, a
southern overseer, pronounced himself decidedly in favour of free labour,
upon grounds of expediency. Having at the beginning of our conversation
declined discussing the moral aspect of slavery, evidently not thinking
that position tenable, I thought I had every right to consider Mr. ----'s
slave-driver a decided abolitionist.

I had been anxious to enlist his sympathies on behalf of my extreme
desire, to have some sort of garden, but did not succeed in inspiring him
with my enthusiasm on the subject; he said there was but one garden that
he knew of in the whole neighbourhood of Darien, and that was our
neighbour, old Mr. C----'s, a Scotchman on St. Simon's. I remembered the
splendid gardinias on Tunno's Island, and referred to them as a proof of
the material for ornamental gardening. He laughed, and said rice and
cotton crops were the ornamental gardening principally admired by the
planters, and that, to the best of his belief, there was not another
decent kitchen or flower garden in the State, but the one he had
mentioned.

The next day after this conversation, I walked with my horticultural
zeal much damped, and wandered along the dyke by the broad river,
looking at some pretty peach trees in blossom, and thinking what a curse
of utter stagnation this slavery produces, and how intolerable to me a
life passed within its stifling influence would be. Think of peach trees
in blossom in the middle of February! It does seem cruel, with such a
sun and soil, to be told that a garden is worth nobody's while here;
however, Mr. O---- said that he believed the wife of the former overseer
had made a 'sort of a garden' at St. Simon's. We shall see 'what sort'
it turns out to be. While I was standing on the dyke, ruminating above
the river, I saw a beautiful white bird of the crane species alight not
far from me. I do not think a little knowledge of natural histor