Page:The Homes of the New World- Vol. I.djvu/387

 imagined. At the close of the service a woman came forth, and, kneeling before the altar, seemed to be under great distress of mind, and the old preacher prayed for her in her sorrows and secret grief, a beautiful and heart-felt prayer. Thus to pray in the chapel for the afflicted seems to be customary among the Baptists in this country.

May 15th.—It is now very warm here, and the heat is enervating. If it were not so I should enjoy myself in Savannah, in the family where I am staying; where the master and mistress as well as the domestics—negroes—seem all to be influenced by the same spirit of good temper and kindness, and where I have made some very agreeable acquaintance. Among those whom I love most are a family named M‘I., one of those who labour for the instruction and colonisation of the slaves; the daughters themselves instruct the little negro children on their father's estate, and praised very much their facility of learning; in particular they seemed to have pleasure in pictures and stories, and easily understood them. This gave me great delight; and what a beautiful sphere of action is opened by this means for the young daughters of the south! But I fear they are yet few who embrace it. I have arranged, next year, to take a pleasure trip with this amiable family to Florida, where they have a son residing. But man proposes, and God disposes!

There are many beautiful places in the neighbourhood of Savannah, on the high banks of the river, and the number of beautiful trees and flowers is untold. It delighted me to hear Swedish family-names in many of the appellations of these, and thus to recognise tokens of Linnæus; as for instance, I here found  K R udbeckia, Lagerströmia, a very pretty shrub with pale red flowers, resembling Tellandsia, and many others. The kind ladies here—and I have become acquainted with some extraordinary women among them drove me about in their carriages