make him appear so; but he was a free thinker, and unusually vain. Instead of studying his duties and introducing good laws, he was ambitious of learning all languages, and of being a finished antiquarian and poet. He fell a victim to his intense {457} application. He would never travel, except by night; the sun must not see him. He once travelled through my district by night, and I accompanied him. At sunset he would inquire: 'Is my enemy down?' If answered, 'Yes,' he would then start." "Did you see M. Volney,[154] during his tour in this country?" "I did; he came, introduced to me by General Washington, and spent some days with me; he spoke our language well, and was a very wise man." _11th._--Mr. Law and myself rose about sunrise. I walked, while he was engaged in writing some materials or arguments for my journal. He writes with great velocity. After breakfast we rode to the pleasant farm of Colonel Heb to dine, where, with his lady and family, we met a young Cantab, and his lady, who sweetly sung and played for Mr. Law on the piano, with which he seemed enraptured. We then viewed the Colonel's estate, consisting of 600 acres, of hill and dale, 90 of which are meadow irrigated, and which produces 2,000 dollars in hay annually, while the tobacco[155] crop is {458} commonly worth from 100 to 150 dollars an acre. Here is a marl bank, by which the Colonel has improved the estate, which, including its first cost, employs 20,000 dollars, and nets, from 12 to 15 per cent. It is cultivated by from 12 to 20 negroes, who seem happy and well treated, singing and working merrily. The Colonel thinks slaves are better off than free-men. All slave-holders think so, especially those idle men who keep them merely for hiring out, that they may live entirely by the labour and breeding of blacks. Free blacks, in a slave state, are most of them unhappy. Mr. Law thinks that Colonel Heb saves little or nothing from this estate, after deducting the expenses of hospitality, education, and other out-goings. Part of our dessert, at dinner, was strawberries, which, during the summer, bear fruit continually, each month yielding a fresh supply. We quitted this hospitable abode at seven, p. m., and, on reaching home, resumed our conversation till bedtime.