delightful animals; but the accounts the negroes give of their abundance is full of agreeable promise for the future.  It seems singular, considering how very common they are, that there are not more frequent instances of the slaves being bitten by them; to be sure, they seem to me to have a holy horror of ever setting their feet near either tree or bush, or anywhere but on the open road, and the fields where they labour; and of course the snakes are not so frequent in open and frequented places, as in their proper coverts.  The Red Indians are said to use successfully some vegetable cure for the bite, I believe the leaves of the slippery ash or elm; the only infallible remedy, however, is suction, but of this the ignorant negroes are so afraid, that they never can be induced to have recourse to it, being of course immovably persuaded that the poison which is so fatal to the blood, must be equally so to the stomach.  They tell me that the cattle wandering into the brakes and bushes are often bitten to death by these deadly creatures; the pigs, whose fat it seems does not accept the venom into its tissues with the same effect, escape unhurt for the most part—­so much for the anti-venomous virtue of adipose matter—­a consolatory consideration for such of us as are inclined to take on flesh more than we think graceful.

Monday morning, 25th.—­This letter has been long on the stocks, dear E——.  I have been busy all day, and tired, and lazy in the evening latterly, and, moreover, feel as if such very dull matter was hardly worth sending all the way off to where you are happy to be.  However, that is nonsense; I know well enough that you are glad to hear from me, be it what it will, and so I resume my chronicle.  Some of my evenings have been spent in reading Mr. Clay’s anti-abolition speech, and making notes on it, which I will show you when we meet.  What a cruel pity and what a cruel shame it is that such a man should either know no better or do no better for his country than he is doing now!

Yesterday I for the first time bethought me of the riding privileges of which Jack used to make such magnificent mention when he was fishing with me at the rice-island; and desiring to visit the remoter parts of the plantation and the other end of the island, I enquired into the resources of the stable.  I was told I could have a mare with foal; but I declined adding my weight to what the poor beast already carried, and my only choice then was between one who had just foaled, or a fine stallion used as a plough horse on the plantation.  I determined for the latter, and shall probably be handsomely shaken whenever I take my rides abroad.