and rosy, and found that one of the slaves, a young lad for whom Mr. ——­ has a particular regard, was dangerously ill.  Dr. H——­ was sent for; and there is every probability that he, Mr. ——­and Mr. O——­ will be up all night with the poor fellow.  I shall write more to-morrow.  To-day being Sunday, dear E——­, a large boat full of Mr. ——­’s people from Hampton came up, to go to church at Darien, and to pay their respects to their master, and see their new ‘Missis.’  The same scene was acted over again that occurred on our first arrival.  A crowd clustered round the house door, to whom I and my babies were produced, and with every individual of whom we had to shake hands some half-a-dozen times.  They brought us up presents of eggs (their only wealth), beseeching us to take them, and one young lad, the son of head-man Frank, had a beautiful pair of chickens, which he offered most earnestly to S——.  We took one of them, not to mortify the poor fellow, and a green ribbon being tied round its leg, it became a sacred fowl, ‘little missis’s chicken.’  By the by, this young man had so light a complexion, and such regular straight features, that, had I seen him anywhere else, I should have taken him for a southern European, or, perhaps, in favour of his tatters, a gipsy; but certainly it never would have occurred to me that he was the son of negro parents.  I observed this to Mr. ——­, who merely replied, ’He is the son of head-man Frank and his wife Betty, and they are both black enough, as you see.’  The expressions of devotion and delight of these poor people are the most fervent you can imagine.  One of them, speaking to me of Mr. ——­, and saying that they had heard that he had not been well, added, ’Oh! we hear so, missis, and we not know what to do.  Oh! missis, massa sick, all him people broken!’

Dr. H——­ came again to-day to see the poor sick boy, who is doing much better, and bidding fair to recover.  He entertained me with an account of the Darien society, its aristocracies and democracies, its little grandeurs and smaller pettinesses, its circles higher and lower, its social jealousies, fine invisible lines of demarcation, imperceptible shades of different respectability, and delicate divisions of genteel, genteeler, genteelest.  ‘For me,’ added the worthy doctor, ’I cannot well enter into the spirit of these nice distinctions; it suits neither my taste nor my interest, and my house is, perhaps, the only one in Darien, where you would find all these opposite and contending elements combined.’  The doctor is connected with the aristocracy of the place, and, like a wise man, remembers, notwithstanding, that those who are not, are quite as liable to be ill, and call in medical assistance, as those who are.  He is a shrewd, intelligent man, with an excellent knowledge of his profession, much kindness of heart, and apparent cheerful good temper.  I have already severely tried the latter, by the unequivocal expression of my opinions on the subject of slavery, and, though I perceived