told Mr. ----, with much indignation, of poor Harriet's flogging, and
represented that if the people were to be chastised for anything they said
to me, I must leave the place, as I could not but hear their complaints,
and endeavour, by all my miserable limited means, to better their
condition while I was here. He said he would ask Mr. O---- about it,
assuring me, at the same time, that it was impossible to believe a single
word any of these people said. At dinner, accordingly, the enquiry was
made as to the cause of her punishment, and Mr. O---- then said it was not
at all for what she had told me, that he had flogged her, but for having
answered him impertinently, that he had ordered her into the field,
whereupon she had said she was ill and could not work, that he retorted he
knew better, and bade her get up and go to work; she replied, 'Very well,
I'll go, but I shall just come back again!' meaning, that when in the
field, she would be unable to work, and obliged, to return to the
hospital. 'For this reply,' Mr. O---- said, 'I gave her a good lashing; it
was her business to have gone into the field without answering me, and
then we should have soon seen whether she could work or not; I gave it to
Chloe too, for some such impudence.' I give you the words of the
conversation, which was prolonged to a great length, the overseer
complaining of sham sicknesses of the slaves, and detailing the most
disgusting struggle which is going on the whole time, on the one hand to
inflict, and on the other, to evade oppression and injustice. With this
sauce I ate my dinner, and truly it tasted bitter.

Towards sunset I went on the river to take my rowing lesson. A darling
little canoe which carries two oars and a steersman, and rejoices in the
appropriate title of the 'Dolphin,' is my especial vessel; and with Jack's
help and instructions, I contrived this evening to row upwards of half a
mile, coasting the reed-crowned edge of the island to another very large
rice mill, the enormous wheel of which is turned by the tide. A small bank