first present the ugliness which they assume as they become more marked;
and when the very unusual operation of washing has been performed, the
blood shines through the fine texture of the skin, giving life and
richness to the dingy colour, and displaying a species of beauty which I
think scarcely any body who observed it would fail to acknowledge. I have
seen many babies on this plantation, who were quite as pretty as white
children, and this very day stooped to kiss a little sleeping creature,
that lay on its mother's knees in the infirmary--as beautiful a specimen
of a sleeping infant as I ever saw. The caress excited the irrepressible
delight of all the women present--poor creatures! who seemed to forget
that I was a woman, and had children myself, and bore a woman's and a
mother's heart towards them and theirs; but, indeed, the Honourable Mr.
Slumkey could not have achieved more popularity by his performances in
that line than I, by this exhibition of feeling; and had the question been
my election, I am very sure nobody else would have had a chance of a vote
through the island. But wisely is it said, that use is second nature; and
the contempt and neglect to which these poor people are used, make the
commonest expression of human sympathy appear a boon and gracious
condescension. While I am speaking of the negro countenance, there is
another beauty which is not at all unfrequent among those I see here--a
finely shaped oval face--and those who know (as all painters and
sculptors, all who understand beauty do) how much expression there is in
the outline of the head, and how very rare it is to see a well-formed
face, will be apt to consider this a higher matter than any colouring of
which, indeed, the red and white one so often admired is by no means the
most rich, picturesque, or expressive. At first the dark colour confounded
all features to my eye, and I could hardly tell one face from another.
Becoming, however, accustomed to the complexion, I now perceive all the
variety among these black countenances that there is among our own race,
and as much difference in features and in expression as among the same