142 EVERYDAY LIFE ON A 



of keen competition is a thing upon which the 

 Visiting Agent would not smile. 



No one who has not lived on an Estate out 

 here, could imagine what a Potentate the V.A. 

 is. On him, and on his approval hangs your 

 fate ; from his veto there is no appeal, and on 

 his favour depends much of the comfort of your 

 life. He is to the estates under his charge, 

 what the general is to his army, what the head- 

 master is in a public school, or what a certain 

 European sovereign is, or wishes to be to the 

 nation over which he rules. This awestruck 

 attitude of mind, at first amused me much ; 

 and I am afraid were I a superintendent, I 

 should never attain to the necessary amount of 

 submission. 



I can imagine life on your own Estate where 

 you are accountable to no one, being perfectly 

 ideal, supposing always, it were in a good 

 climate, and happened to pay, but for a man of 

 middle age and upwards to have to submit his 

 mature judgment to another man of his own age, 

 requires an amount of patience and good temper 

 not possessed by every one, and detracts much 

 from the pleasure of a planter's life. Still all 

 this is, I suppose, unavoidable, for the V.A. is 

 a most necessary check on extravagant expend- 

 iture, and a great safeguard to the interests of 

 the shareholders, and absent owners. A 

 tactful man, with a knowledge of the world, as 



