But independently of her long services, this negro woman had formerly suckled and brought up two brothers of her master, who made one of our party. She perceived him, and accosting him, said, "My master, when will you send one of your carpenters to repair the roof of my hut? Whenever it rains, it pours down upon my head." The master lifting his eyes, directed them to the roof of the hut, which was within the reach of his hand. "I will think of it," said he.--"You will think of it," said the poor creature. "You always say so, but never do it."--"Have you not," rejoined the master, "two grandsons who can mend it for you?"--"But are they mine," said the old woman, "do they not work for you, and are you not my son yourself? who suckled and raised your two brothers? who was it but Irrouba? Take pity then on me, in my old age. Mend at least the roof of my hut, and God will reward you for it." I was sensibly affected; it was _le cri de la bonne nature_. And what repairs did the poor creature's roof require? What was wanting to shelter her from the wind and rain of heaven? A few shingles!--"I will think of it," repeated her master, and departed. The ordinary punishment inflicted on the negroes of the colony is a whipping. What in Europe would condemn a man to the galleys or the gallows incurs here only the chastisement of the whip. But then a king having many subjects does not miss them after their exit from this life, but a planter could not lose a negro without feeling the privation. I do not consider slavery either as contrary to the order of a well regulated society, or an infringement of the social laws. Under a different name it exists in every country. Soften then the word which so mightily offends the ear; call it dependence. The most common maladies of the negroes are slight fevers in the spring, more violent ones in the summer, dysenteries in autumn, and fluxions of the breast in winter. Their bill of mortality, however, is not very considerable. The births exceed the deaths. The language of the negro slaves, as well as of a great number of the free mulattoes, is a patois derived from the French, and spoken according to rules of corruption. There are some house-slaves, however, who speak French with not less purity than their masters: their language, it may be presumed, is depraved with many words not to be found in a Voltaire, a Thomas or a Rousseau.--_Travels in Louisiana and The Floridas, in the Year, 1802_, by Berquin Duvallon, pp. 79-94. Trans. by Davis. JOHN DAVIS, 1806 TIMOTHY FLINT'S RECOLLECTIONS OF CONDITIONS IN LOUISIANA IN 1826