“ I had an opportunity to visit many of the schools and plantations on Port Royal, St. Helena and Ladies Islands,and to converse with many who were familiar with the condition of the freed population, and will state as briefly as I can the result of my observation.
First, As to the Schools.
In the immediate vicinity of Beaufort the teachers labor at great disadvantage. The town is an aggregate of Government offices, hospitals and camps. An excessive population of freed people has congregated there, and they are exposed to all the bad influences of such a community. ”

“ There is no disorder, and a Quarter-Master, who has occasion to employ a very large number of the men, told me that he never had so little difficulty with laborers. On Thanksgiving day they were all discharged for a holiday, and he said to me that, whereas, with white men, he should be dreading trouble from their absence or disorderly conduct the next morning after the day's carousing, he was sure that these men would all be promptly at their work. ”

“ A paymaster told me that, under the order of General Saxton, permitting them to apply for lands hereafter to be sold, the sum of $4,000 has already been deposited by freedmen. One man is now owner of the plantation of his former master, which he purchased with money loaned him, and which he has now paid for by the earnings of this year's crop. ”