in the
British when they invaded Georgia in the last war, and their children,
whom they left behind, were all her family now.

In the afternoon, I made my first visit to the hospital of the estate, and
found it, as indeed I find everything else here, in a far worse state even
than the wretched establishments on the Rice Island, dignified by that
name; so miserable a place for the purpose to which it was dedicated I
could not have imagined on a property belonging to Christian owners. The
floor (which was not boarded, but merely the damp hard earth itself,) was
strewn with wretched women, who, but for their moans of pain and uneasy
restless motions, might very well have each been taken for a mere heap of
filthy rags; the chimney refusing passage to the smoke from the pine wood
fire, it puffed out in clouds through the room, where it circled and hung,
only gradually oozing away through the windows, which were so far well
adapted to the purpose that there was not a single whole pane of glass in
them. My eyes, unaccustomed to the turbid atmosphere, smarted and watered,
and refused to distinguish at first the different dismal forms, from which
cries and wails assailed me in every corner of the place. By degrees I was
able to endure for a few minutes what they were condemned to live their
hours and days of suffering and sickness through; and, having given what
comfort kind words and promises of help in more substantial forms could
convey, I went on to what seemed a yet more wretched abode of
wretchedness. This was a room where there was no fire because there was no
chimney, and where the holes made for windows had no panes or glasses in
them. The shutters being closed, the place was so dark that, on first
entering it, I was afraid to stir lest I should fall over some of the
deplorable creatures extended upon the floor. As soon as they perceived
me, one cry of 'Oh missis!' rang through the darkness; and it really
seemed to me as if I was never to exhaust the pity and amazement and
disgust which this receptacle of suffering humanity was to excite in me.
The poor dingy supplicating sleepers upraised themselves as I cautiously
advanced among them; those who could not rear their bodies from the earth
held up piteous beseeching hands, and as I passed from one to the other, I
felt more than one imploring clasp laid upon my dress to solicit my
attention to some new form of misery. One poor woman, called Tressa, who
was unable to speak