On my return from the river I had a long and painful conversation with Mr. ——­ upon the subject of the flogging which had been inflicted on the wretched Teresa.  These discussions are terrible:  they throw me into perfect agonies of distress for the slaves, whose position is utterly hopeless; for myself, whose intervention in their behalf sometimes seems to me worse than useless; for Mr. ——­, whose share in this horrible system fills me by turns with indignation and pity.  But, after all, what can he do? how can he help it all?  Moreover, born and bred in America, how should he care or wish to help it? and of course he does not; and I am in despair that he does not:  et voila, it is a happy and hopeful plight for us both.  He maintained that there had been neither hardship nor injustice in the case of Teresa’s flogging; and that, moreover, she had not been flogged at all for complaining to me, but simply because her allotted task was not done at the appointed time.  Of course this was the result of her having come to appeal to me, instead of going to her labour; and as she knew perfectly well the penalty she was incurring, he maintained that there was neither hardship nor injustice in the case; the whole thing was a regularly established law, with which all the slaves were perfectly well acquainted; and this case was no exception whatever.  The circumstance of my being on the island could not of course be allowed to overthrow the whole system of discipline established to secure the labour and obedience of the slaves; and if they chose to try experiments as to that fact, they and I must take the consequences.  At the end of the day, the driver of the gang to which Teresa belongs reported her work not done, and Mr. O——­ ordered him to give her the usual number of stripes; which order the driver of course obeyed, without knowing how Teresa had employed her time instead of hoeing.  But Mr. O——­ knew well enough, for the wretched woman told me that she had herself told him she should appeal to me about her weakness and suffering and inability to do the work exacted from her.

He did not, however, think proper to exceed in her punishment the usual number of stripes allotted to the non-performance of the appointed daily task, and Mr. ——­ pronounced the whole transaction perfectly satisfactory and en regle.  The common drivers are limited in their powers of chastisement, not being allowed to administer more than a certain number of lashes to their fellow slaves.  Head man Frank, as he is called, has alone the privilege of exceeding this limit; and the overseer’s latitude of infliction is only curtailed by the necessity of avoiding injury to life or limb.  The master’s irresponsible power has no such bound.  When I was thus silenced on the particular case under discussion, I resorted in my distress and indignation to the abstract question, as I never can refrain from doing; and to Mr. ——­’s assertion of the justice of poor Teresa’s punishment, I retorted the