But it is not so with the negroes. In their own country, or abroad, if they have ever discovered a desire to emerge from slavery this flame as resembled a meteor which appears only for a moment. And even, the scenes, which have been witnessed in the French colonies, and, particularly, the island of Saint Domingo,[229] serve to corroborate and support my theory. It is undeniable that the negroes of that colony have never ceased to be slaves. Before their insurrection they were the slaves of the legitimate masters; in the early part of the revolution they were slaves to the French commissioners and mulattoes; and afterwards they became subject to the nod of negroes like themselves. We do not alter the substance of a thing by changing the name. Nature may be modified but cannot be essentially changed. It is not possible to impart to the dog the habits of the wolf, nor to the ape those of the sheep. This position cannot be refuted. Sophistry may for a while delude, but the mind reposes upon the stability of truth. From this digression let us return to the examination of the negro slave of Louisiana. He has the faults of a slave. He is lazy, libertine, and given to lying, but not incorrigibly wicked. His labour is not severe, unless it be at the rolling of sugars, an interval of from two to three months, when the number of labourers is not proportionate to the labour; then he works both by day and night. It must be allowed that forty negroes rolling a hundred and twenty thousand weight of sugar, and as many hogsheads of syrup, in the short space of two cold, foggy, rainy months (November and December) under all the difficulties and embarrassments resulting from the season, the shortness of the days, and the length of the nights, cannot but labour severely; abridged of their sleep, they scarce retire to rest during the whole period. It is true they are then fed more plentifully, but their toils are nevertheless excessive. [230] In the country where there are not those resources that distinguished the Antilles, nor its spontaneous supplies, such as bananas, yams, sweet potatoes, &c. the food of the negroes is less abundant. The fixed ration of each negro a month is a barrel of maize not pounded; indian corn being the only grain of the colony which can assure an unfailing subsistence to the slaves. The rice, beans and potatoes cultivated here, would not supply a quarter of them with food. Some masters, more humane than others, add to the ration a little salt.