18th.—I am just returned from a solitary ramble into the plantations, which has done me good, for it has shown me that the slaves under the peach-tree really did impose upon me. During my ramble I saw at one place in the rice-field a number of small copper vessels standing, each covered with a lid, from twenty-five to thirty in number, just as with us, one sees the labourers noggins and baskets standing together in the grass. I went up, lifted the lid of one, and saw that the vessel contained warm, steaming food, which smelt very good. Some of them were filled with brown beans, others with maize-pancakes. I now saw the slaves coming up from a distance, walking along the headland of the field. I waited till they came up, and then asked permission to taste their food, and I must confess that I have seldom tasted better, or more savoury viands. The brown beans were like our “princess beans,” boiled soft with meat and seasoned, somewhat too highly for me. But it ate with a relish, and so did the maize-cakes and the other viands also. The people seated themselves upon the grass-sward and ate, some with spoons, others with splinters of wood, each one out of his own piggin, as these vessels are called, and which contained an abundant portion. They seemed contented, but were very silent. I told them that the poor working people in the country from which I came seldom had such good food as they had here. I was not come there to preach rebellion among the slaves, and the malady which I could not cure, I would alleviate if it was in my power. Besides which, what I said was quite true. But I did not tell them that which was also true, that I would rather live on bread and water than live as a slave.
On my homeward way I saw an old negro, very well dressed, who was standing fishing in a little stream. He belonged to Mr. Poinsett, but had been by him liberated from all kind of work in consequence of his age. From this sensible old man I heard various things which also
