On our arrival we went with Dona Mariana and the chaplain into the garden, which unites the flower, kitchen-garden, and orchard in one. Oranges and roses, cabbage and tobacco, melons and leeks, neighboured each other, as if they belonged to the same climate; and all were thriving among numbers of weeds, of which the wholesome calliloo and the splendid balsam attracted my eye most. A side-door in the garden let us into a beautiful field, whither chairs were brought, that we might sit and enjoy the freshness of the evening. Overhanging that field there is a steep hill, on whose side a great deal of wood has been cleared away, and the gardens and coffee plots of the negroes occupy the ground. This day--and blessed be the Sabbath!--is the negroes' own: after morning Mass they are free to do their own will; and then most of them run to the hill to gather their coffee or maize, or prepare the ground for these or other vegetables. They were just beginning to return from the wood, each with his little basket laden with something of his own, something in which the master had no share; and again and again as they passed me, and displayed with glistening eye the little treasure, I blessed the Sabbath, the day of freedom to the slave. Presently the last few stragglers dropped in. The sun by this time was only the tops of the hills. The cattle flocked in from the pasture, and lowed impatiently at the gate of the corral: we opened it, and passed in with them, and crossed the court where the negroes live. All was bustle there: they were bargaining with a huckster, who, knowing the proper hour, had arrived to buy the fresh-picked coffee. Some sold it thus; others chose to keep it and dry it, and then to take the opportunity of one of the lady's messengers to town and send it thither, where it sells at a higher price. I do not know when I have passed so pleasant an evening.