to be 'devilish hard work'! It was only just six o'clock, and these women
had all done their tasks. I exhorted them to go home and wash their
children, and clean their houses and themselves, which they professed
themselves ready to do, but said they had no soap. Then began a chorus of
mingled requests for soap, for summer clothing, and a variety of things,
which, if 'Missis only give we, we be so clean for ever!'

This request for summer clothing, by the by, I think a very reasonable
one. The allowance of clothes made yearly to each slave by the present
regulations of the estate, is a certain number of yards of flannel, and as
much more of what they call plains--an extremely stout, thick, heavy
woollen cloth, of a dark grey or blue colour, which resembles the species
of carpet we call drugget. This, and two pair of shoes, is the regular
ration of clothing; but these plains would be intolerable to any but
negroes, even in winter, in this climate, and are intolerable to them in
the summer. A far better arrangement, in my opinion, would be to increase
their allowance of flannel and under clothing, and give them dark chintzes
instead of these thick carpets, which are very often the only covering
they wear at all. I did not impart all this to my petitioners, but
disengaging myself from them, for they held my hands and clothes, I
conjured them to offer us some encouragement to better their condition, by
bettering it as much as they could themselves,--enforced the virtue of
washing themselves and all belonging to them, and at length made good my
retreat. As there is no particular reason why such a letter as this should
ever come to an end, I had better spare you for the present. You shall
have a faithful journal, I promise you, henceforward, as hitherto, from
your's ever.

* * * * *

Dear E----. We had a species of fish this morning for our breakfast, which
deserves more glory than I can bestow upon it. Had I been the ingenious
man who wrote a poem upon fish, the white mullet of the Altamaha should
have been at least my heroine's cousin. 'Tis the heavenliest creature that
goes upon fins. I took a long walk this morning to Settlement No. 3, the
third village on the island. My way lay along the side of the canal,
beyond which, and only divided from it by a raised narrow causeway, rolled
the brimming river with its girdle of glittering evergreens, while on my
other hand a deep trench marked the