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 case in those situations.  Large holes, called “sink-holes,” are numerous along these banks; the shape of them is precisely that of an inverted cone, through the apex of which the water sinks, and works its way into the river.  Cedar trees grow on the rocks, and the scenery is in many places extremely grand.  Wild-geese congregate in multitudes on the islands in the Mississippi, and at night send forth the most wild and piercing cries.

Our hostess was one of those sylvan Amazons who could handle any thing, from the hunting-knife to the ponderous axe; and she dressed in the true sylph-like costume of the backwoods.  Her robe, which appeared to be the only garment with which she encumbered herself, fitted her, as they say at sea, “like a purser’s shirt on a handspike,” and looked for all the world like an inverted sack, with appropriate apertures cut for head and arms; she wore shoes, in compliment to her guests—­her hair hung about her shoulders in true Indian style; and altogether she was a genuine sample of backwoods’ civilization.  We were placed in a good bed—­the state-bed of course—­and as we lay, paid our devotions to Urania, and contemplated the beauties of the starry firmament, through an aperture in the roof which would have admitted a jackass.