From a large hut close to where we were set ashore poured forth a bevy of beauty of all colours, from the deepest jet up to the quadroon just tinged with amber. They were for the most part dressed in white, many having expensive scarfs of gay colours, and all wearing wreaths and bouquets of the most beautiful flowers, tastefully arranged and put on. I had only time to learn that it was a wedding-party, and to "guess" at the bride. I hit upon a plump, roguish-looking little devil, having a skin like new copper, teeth of pearl, and eyes black as "Kilkenny's own coal." She was, I observed, the centre of the many-tinted circle, and wore, moreover, a wreath composed of the pearl-like wax-berry in her jetty hair. These, as I was informed, were all slaves; certainly a merrier-looking party I never saw of white folk, and, for this occasion, their chain was literally hidden under wreaths of roses; for a day, at least, they were very happy, and who amongst the freest can count on what the morrow may bring forth! This was the first glance I had been allowed of the Virginian agricultural slave, and I was not ill pleased to be presented with the bright side of a condition which, to the mind of the philanthropist of every land, is sufficiently painful without the exaggerations of the political quack, or the fanatic outcry of the sectarian bigot seeking to preach a crusade of extermination against men whose slaves form their only inheritance, himself meantime, for the most selfish ends, daily planning how best to enslave the mental part of those whose credulity and weakness expose them for a prey. There are few proprietors, at this day, more to be pitied than the large planters of Virginia and the Carolinas; as high-spirited, generous a race as may anywhere be encountered, but much weighed down of late by the pressure of circumstances which they cannot control, and which every year threatens to render more heavy, unless, through some miraculous interposition, the growing causes be removed or checked. The very slave property, for the inherited possession of which they are abused, is becoming in many cases a burthen. Their more southern rivals can grow cheaper, and, having a fresher soil, produce larger crops and outsell them in the market; whilst, with a slave population, they have no chance of ever becoming manufacturers. From City-point, a well-horsed coach took us fourteen miles, under two hours, to the busy little city of St. Petersburg; where, over a cup of tea, and a good Virginy coal fire, I reviewed this journey of a couple of days, which had afforded me many subjects for admiration and reflection. I smoked my cigar, and, at an early hour, retired to my bed, of which I had a choice, there being three in the room, although, at this time, exclusively appropriated to me. I soon was fast asleep, dreaming confusedly of Captain Smith, Pocahontas, Lord Cornwallis, Queen Elizabeth, Powhatan, Sir Walter Raleigh, and Sir George Cockburn.