IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. 209 



cessary at their age whilst sporting about or near them, might be 

 (•bserved the offspring of their slaves ; the elder ones with hardly 

 any covering, pursuing each other, shouting and grinning from 

 ear to ear; the youngsters, quite naked perhaps, rolling on the 

 kitchen floor or creeping about in the dust, like so many black 

 beetles, almost as broad as long. Despite their degraded con- 

 dition, I have at such times been tempted to exclaim, * Surely 

 this must here be the most enviable lot/ 



" This picture, however, must not be applied to the wealthy 

 portion of the landed proprietors, who either migrate north with 

 each season, or else seek the shelter of the dry, sandy soil of the 

 Pine-barrens, and on their heights breathe health and life 

 whilst below and around, at no great distance, stalk disease 

 and death. 



** Amongst this class, on the contrary, I have often been sur- 

 prised to find children whose elastic forms and ruddy complexions 

 would have been noticeable even in the health-giving air of 

 Britain.*' 



OPINION OF THE DAUGHTERS OF AMERICA. 

 "The young ladies appear possessed of the same naive, 

 simple, yet perfectly easy manners which characterize their coun- 

 try-women of the North, where indeed they are principally 

 educated and instructed in all those graceful accomplishments 

 which embellish and refine our life. It appears upon a first 

 view strange, that, superior as they are, they do not exercise a 

 greater influence over the youth of the other sex; but this may 

 be ascribed to the fact, that they are brought out before either 

 their judgment or knowledge of the world is sufficiently matured 

 to make them aware of the existence of certain abuses, or of their 

 own power of reforming them. Then again, marrying very 

 young, they commonly quit society, in a great measure, at the 

 moment the influence of their example might be of the greatest 

 service to it.*' 



ONE OF THE CURIOSITIES OF NEW ORLEANS. 



" At both extremities of the tiers of shipping, but chiefly at 

 the south, lie numberless steam-boats of ail sizes ; and yet again* 

 flanking these, are fleets of those rude rafts and arks constructed 

 by the dwellers on the hundred waters of the far West; and 

 thence pushed forth, freighted with the produce of their farms, 

 to find, after many days, a safe haven and a sure market here. 

 VOL. VII. — 1836. cc 



