240 ROUGH QUARTERS. [CHAP. XXXIII. 



When I took back my horse to its owner in New 

 Madrid, I received a pressing invitation to exchange 

 our present homely quarters for her comfortable 

 house. Some of the other principal merchants made 

 us hospitable offers of the same kind, which were ex 

 ceedingly tempting. We thought it right, however, 

 to decline them all, as we might have hurt the feel 

 ings of our German host and his wife, who, in their 

 anxiety to accommodate us, had purchased several 

 additional household articles. Among these was a 

 table-cloth, and, when I entered the house, I was 

 amused at the occupations of my wife and her com 

 panion. The baker s lady had accepted the offer of 

 her guest to hem the new table-cloth, in which task 

 she was busily engaged ; while the settler in the back 

 woods, having discovered that my wife had brought 

 from New Orleans a worked collar of the latest 

 Parisian fashion, had asked leave to copy it, and was 

 intent on cutting out the shape, thus qualifying her 

 self to outdo all the &quot; fashionists&quot; of the sunk 

 country. 



A great spirit of equality was observable in the 

 manners of the whites towards each other at New 

 Madrid, yet with an absence of all vulgar familiarity. 

 But what I saw and heard, convinced me that the 

 condition of the negroes is least enviable in such 

 out-of-the-way and half civilised districts, where 

 there are many adventurers, and uneducated settlers, 

 who have little control over their passions, and who, 

 when they oppress their slaves, are not checked by 

 public opinion, as in more advanced communities. 

 New comers of a higher tone of sentiment are com- 



