■ 
 
 iw 1 " 1 " ■ ■■■" x- ~ga 
 
 M>#wMM> 
 
 f wt ffHi-nVr,1ii-.Vft*^T»!ff fr '"■•■ '-"Vm 
 
THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 PRESENTED BY 
 
 PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND 
 
 MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID 
 
~4- 
 
 WILD LIFE IN FLOKIDA, 
 
 A VISIT TO CUBA. 
 
yr/l 
 
 f 
 
WILD LIFE IN FLORIDA, 
 
 WITH 
 
 A VISIT TO CUBA 
 
 BY 
 
 F. TRENCH TOWNSHEND, B.A. 
 
 CAPTAIN, SECOND LIFE GUARDS. 
 AUTHOR OF ' TEN THOUSAND MILES OF TRAVEL,' ETC. 
 
 SSM; 
 
 A GROVE OF CABBAGE TAT.M. 
 
 LONDON : 
 HUKST AND BLACEETT, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 
 
 1875. 
 
 All Rights reserved. 
 
r 3/<b 
 
 TO 
 
 EDMUND A. MANSFIELD, ESQ. 
 
 MASTER OF THE KILDARE HOUNDS 
 
 MY FELLOW-TRAVELLER IN FLORIDA 
 THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED. 
 
 M358757 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 History — Geography — Climate — Natural Productions — A nti- 
 quities — Condition, Political and Social, of the Peninsula of 
 Florida, and Inducements to Yisit it . . 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 First View of Florida — Florida " Cities " — Fernandina — Cumber- 
 land Island — St. John's River — Crossing the Bar — The Sisters 
 —Pablo Creek — Huguenot Colony — Yellowbluff — Bass Fishing 
 —Oysters — Reach Jacksonville . . . 15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A Sable Jehu— Jacksonville — Tourists — Hotels — Streets — River- 
 side — A Southern Villa — A Shell Road — Climate Fever — Frost 
 — Weekly Dances — Means of Visiting the Neighbourhood — 
 Stores — Necessary for Camp Life — Maps of Florida — Hunting 
 Grounds — A Veteran Sportsman — Determine to make for the 
 Gulf Counties ...... 22 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A Freight Train— Baldwin— White Folk's Breakfast— Log Huts 
 — Gainsville — Spanish Moss — Carding Machine— A Prophet of 
 Evil — A Wrecked Train — Sonthern Procrastination — Construc- 
 tion of a New Line — A Hospitable Northerner — A ruined 
 
viii Contents. 
 
 Planter's Home— Hammock — Tressle Work Bridges— Cedar 
 Keys— A ■ Hard ' Place— A Night Walk— Gulf Steamers— The 
 Hiram B. Cool— The Gulf of Mexico— Clear Water Harbour- 
 Tampa Bay— Cast Adrift at Night— Judge Yates' House. 30 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Manatee Settlement — Buildings — Situation — Invalids — A Ham- 
 mock — Pine Lands — Prairies— Area and Population of the 
 Southern Counties — Manatee — Monroe — Dade — Brevard — 
 Birds— Fish— Wild Beasts— Hunting Dogs— The Baronet's 
 Camp — Sailing — Temperature — Manatee River — Turkeys — 
 Fish— Bait -Fidler Crabs— Espiritu Santo Bay— Settlement of 
 Tampa — Cattle Trade — Indian Mounds — Sulphur Spring — 
 Sugar Plantation — Fossil Remains — Solemn Council. 41 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Start for the Interior Lakes — A Mule Team — In a Hammock — 
 Above and beneath — The Florida Prairies— Difficult Travelling 
 — Ponds— Alligators— The Sand-bill Crane— Grey Wolf and 
 Buzzards — Florida Crackers — A Murderer — A Settler's Home 
 in the wilds — Fleas and Dirt— Dr. Huft's Farm — Humble Fare 
 — Upper Myakka Lake — Multitude of Alligators — Wild Fowl 
 Shooting — Water Meadows — Hogs — Squirrels and Racoons as 
 Food — The Cabbage-palm — A Palmetto Hut — Palm-wood Piers 
 — A Texan Horse-Dealer— Morning and Night in the Southern 
 and Northern Forests ..... 50 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Hog Raising — Travelling by Ox-waggon — The Cuban Blood- 
 Hound — Florida Hunters — Saw-grass Ponds — Turkey- Shoot- 
 ing — Ocelot or Cat — A Rattle-snake in the Palmetto— Camp in 
 the Myakka Swamp — Lake Vanderipe — Lake and River Fish — 
 Boar, Bear, and Turkey Hunting— A fat Gobbler— Camp under 
 Palms— Camp Duties — Mosquito Burning— A Shower of Snakes 
 — Antidotes to Snake Poison— Still Hunting — Moisture and rust 
 — Intense Heat— Cattle Branding— Bear sign — Break up Camp 
 — Our Wandering Course. ... 66 
 
Contents. ix 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Striking South — A Narrow Escape — Desolate Country — Murray's 
 Hut — Round the Camp Fire — Vicissitudes of a Settler's Life — 
 Before and After the War— Poor Immigrants — Quail Shooting 
 in the Savannas — Abundance of Snakes — Start for Myakka 
 River — Our Cypress tree Canoe — Pitch and gum for Caulking 
 — Florida Trout — An Alligator's Charge — A " Square " Shot — A 
 Parting Meal — Shell Mound— Start on our Canoe Voyage— A 
 Hearty "God Speed" 84 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Myakka River — Mineral Oil — Stowage and Draught of Canoe 
 — A Lonely River — Snake-Birds — A Scene in a Tropical Forest 
 — Camp — Murray's Illness — Slough Creek — Nearly Swamped 
 by Alligators — The First White Explorers — Obstacles to Navi- 
 gation — Danger of Wading — Cutting our Way — Camp on the 
 Prairies — Cold in the Tropics — A Bee Tree — The Paw-Paw — 
 The Salt Spring — Beware of Alligators — Fresh and Salt Streams 
 — Savannas — The Wild Beast's Home — Face to Face with a 
 Bear— Deer-Stalking — Mocassin Snake — The Florida Puma or 
 Panther — Wild Cattle — Bathing — Irregular Tides — Indian 
 Hunting — Indian Sign ..... 93 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Serious Illness of our Guide — Descent of Slough Creek — Alli- 
 gator Shooting — Camp in a Pine Forest — An Alligator Pool — 
 Mangrove Islets — The home of the Egret and Ibis — Young Peli- 
 cans — Animal Life in the Water — Addled Eggs — -Dangerous 
 Illness of Murray — Roaring Alligators— The River Banks — 
 Snake Islands — A Lost Dinner a Sore Trial — Burnt Out — Lost 
 in a Mangrove Swamp — Sent Aloft — A Dangerous Crossing — 
 Narrow Escape — Extraordinary Quantity of Fish — Reach Pease 
 Creek. . , . . . . 110 
 
x Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Pease Creek— Settlement of Hickory Bluff— The Piatt Family- 
 Contemplating Matrimony — The Pioneers of Civilization — Un- 
 thriftiness of Florida Settlers — Dysentery and its Cure— Fish- 
 ing — Native Objection to Bathing — An Ex-Negro Leader — 
 Engage Passage for Punta Rassa — On board the " Santa Maria " 
 — Our Cargo — Cockroaches — Night and Morning — Charlotte 
 Harbour— Pine Island— Old Man Brown— Landing Hogs — The 
 " Grains " — Aground on an Oyster Bar— Carraho Key — Captain 
 Jocelyn the Pirate — An Anxious Night — Afloat at Last — Cor- 
 morants and Fish — Spanish Fishermen — The Telegraph Station 
 — Two Shivering Wanderers .... 124 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Telegraph Station at Punta Rassa — A French Cook — A "Boss" 
 Clerk and his Welcome — Staff of Telegraph Company — Visitors 
 — Galley Nippers — Fort Dulaney — The October Hurricane — 
 Fishermen's Key — Cattle Shipping — The Caloosahatchee River 
 — Fort Myers — Captain Henry — The Largest Cattle Owner in 
 Florida — Lake Thompson — Best Route to Okeechobee — Sulphur 
 Spring — Trade with Indians — " His Reverence " from Georgia 
 —Prospecting for Iron — The Corkscrew River — Camped in a 
 Barn — Sanibel Island — Rare Shells — Mosquitoes — Scarcity of 
 Water — A Mangrove Swamp — Ocelot-Hunting — Attacked by 
 Mosquitoes — Swamp Fever — Molucca Crabs — Activity of Fish 
 — Introduction to Captain Jocelyn — Departure for Key 
 West 141 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The " Valley City " — Passengers and Cargo — Religion of Settlers 
 — Down the Gulf— The Home of the Coral Insect — Reach Key 
 West — Origin of Name — Island and Town — The American 
 Fleet — Deserters — Fortifications of the Island — Great Heat — 
 Natural Woods — Evening Rambles — Creole Immigrants — Cigar 
 Manufactory — Occupation of Inhabitants — Wrecking — Charac- 
 ter of the Negro — No Fresh Water — Price of Provisions and 
 Lodging — Passports — Start for Cuba. . . . 158 
 
Contents. xi 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 First Sight of the Cuban Hills — A Romantic Yankee — Havana 
 Harbour — Custom-House — Havana from the Sea — Inside the 
 Town — Streets, Vehicles, and Buildings — Life behind the Bars 
 — The Tacon Theatre — Salvini — Occupation of the "Upper 
 Ten" — Deterioration of the Creole Race — Life in Havana — 
 Society — Paper Money — Public Buildings —Public Gardens and 
 Squares— Country Seat of the Captain-General — The Campo 
 de Marte — Real Fabrica de Tabacos — Effect of Guano on the 
 Tobacco Crop — Prices — The Honradez Cigarette Factory— Hot 
 Weather and Cool Breezes — Scenes in the Bay and on Shore — 
 Noise and Drainage — The Insurgents — Spaniard and Creole — 
 Regiments for the Seat of War . . . 168 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 The last Stronghold of Slavery — A Sugar Plantation — Marianao — 
 The " Ingenio " — Children and Slave-Drivers — Intense Heat 
 from Furnaces — Foreign Matter in Sugar — The Negro Barracks 
 — Bloodhounds — Horrid Dens — The Nurseries and sick wards- 
 Numbers of Children — Punishment Cells — Chinese Quarters — 
 The English Overseer's House — Produce of a Plantation — The 
 Moret Law— Duration of Negro Life — A Day's Labour — Con- 
 dition of the " Contracted " Chinamen — The Law and the Slave- 
 Owner — Arrival of Chinese Commissioner — Coolie Traffic — The 
 Only Remedy — Slavery in Theory and Slavery in Reality — An 
 Unsolved Problem ..... 191 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Start for Matanzas— Scenes along the Railway — Planters' Country 
 Houses — The Leon de Oro — Situation of the Town — The Cuban 
 " Volante "—Country Roads— A " Cafetal" — Caves of Bellamar 
 — Stalactite Caverns — Nature's Altar — Underground River — 
 Fearful Heat— The Yumuri Valley— The Royal Palm— Gor- 
 geous Tints— A Chain -Gang— The Theatre — Theatrical Presi- 
 dent — Scarcity of Britishers — Spanish Toleration — Neighbour- 
 hood of Matanzas— A Hot Journey — Farewell to Havana — A 
 Night on Board a Steamer . . . . 205 
 
xii Contents. 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Return to Key West — Difficulty of Finding Conveyance — Perse- 
 verance Rewarded — Stores — Victualling the Ship — Start for tho 
 Indian River— The "Ida Mackay"— Our Captain, Mate, Cook, 
 and Crew— The Florida Reef— Becalmed— A Coral Reef— Spear- 
 ing Fish— Anchor near Cayo Sands — The Life and Death of 
 " Old Man Joe " — Los Martires — Animal Life— Sponging — 
 Mangrove Islets— Effects of the Moon — Scorpions — Turtle 
 Spearing — A Monster — Tenacity of Life — Turtle Flesh — Indian 
 Key— A Humane Wrecker — Cayo Largo — Settlement at Rodri- 
 guez Bay — Pine Apple Plantations — Condition of Settlers — 
 Productions — Climate — Cordial Farewell — Anchor at Cape 
 Florida 218 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Key Biscayne Light-House — Biscayne Bay — Settlement of Miami 
 — Fort Dallas Estate— The Doctor's Investment — Horse and 
 Hornet Flies — Arrival of Indians in Canoes — Fire- Water — 
 Homes of the Seminoles in the Everglades— The Indian Hunt- 
 ing-Grounds — Tiger Tail— The Squaws— Indian Castanets — 
 Native Work— The River Miami— Falls of the Miami— Ascent 
 to the Everglades— Description of the Everglades — The four 
 Crescents— Indian Arrow-Root Plant — Leave Miami— Crossing 
 the Bar — Beach-Combers — The Bahama Banks — A Wreck in 
 Sight — Indian River Inlet— Dangerous Entrance — Touch and 
 Go — First Heavy Storm — Commencement of Rains . 234 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 A Night among the Mangroves — A Forest of Oyster Trees— Coon 
 Oysters — Oyster Banks — Revenue Officers and the Blockade- 
 Runners — Land at St. Lucie — Professor "Fred. Beverley" — 
 His Expedition to Lake Okeechobee— Practical Routes to that 
 Lake — The Alpattie Flats — Prairies— The Kissimmee River — 
 Birds and Fish — River Shores — Enter Lake Okeechobee— Tour 
 of its Shores — Only one Island — Different Vegetation — Termi- 
 nation of the Lake in the Everglades — North Boundary of 
 Everglades — Mocassin Snakes— No Fish — Ruins of Indian 
 Villages— Hardships and Fevers— Return to Settlement 250 
 
Contents. xiii 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Settlement of St. Lucie— The "Ultima Thule" of Hunters- 
 Turtle Pens — The Manatus Australis — Increase of Travellers — 
 Departure for the North— The Indian River — A Sporting Para- 
 dise or not — The Narrows — Shores of the Lagoon — Oyster-Bank 
 Islands— The Pelicanry— The Bread- Plant— Blind Mosquitoes- 
 Camp on Shore — A Night on the Indian River — Phosphoric 
 Fire — Elbow Creek — Coquina — Merritt's Island — Burnham 
 Grove— Orange Culture in Florida — The Crazy Hunter — Sad 
 Effects of the Hurricane — Reach Sand Point — Heavy Storm — 
 Harvey's Hotel ...... 264 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Settlement of Sand Point, or Titusville — Charge for Sail-Boats — 
 Stores — Colonel H. Titus — A Filibuster turned Hotel-Keeper — 
 The Invalid — The Hunter's Ancient Coin — A Bushel of Fleas — 
 An English Emigrant — Start Westward — Our Teamster — A 
 Sad Story — Disappointed Hopes — Experiences of a Poor Man 
 — Cabbage-Hammock — Cattle- Herders — Song Birds — A Cypress 
 Swamp— Attack by Mosquitoes— Sight Lake Harney — The 
 Deserted House — Saw-Grass Plain — Reach the St. John River 
 — Camp on its Banks . . . . . 278 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 The St. John River — Contemplated Canal — A former Lagoon — 
 The Highway of Travel in Florida— Steam Navigation— Tourists 
 — Hotels— Wild Fowl— Arrival of Steamer— Lake Harney— The 
 " Volusia " — Extinction of Alligators — Yegetation on the River 
 Banks — The " Pistia Spatulata " — A Passing Shot — Lake Jessup 
 —Fearful Storm in a Cypress Swamp— Fire-Flies — A Southern 
 Night — Steaming by Torch-Light— Lake Monroe— The " City 
 of Enterprise " — The Brock-House — Green Spring— Mellonville 
 — Numbers of Small Birds — The Osprey and the Eagle — Blue 
 Spring— Small Settlements — Lake George— Drayton's Island — 
 Welaka— Intense Heat— The Ocklawaha River — The " Fountain 
 
xiv Contents. 
 
 of Youth "— Palatka— The Lower St. John— Change of Vegeta- 
 tion—St. Augnstine— Its Streets and Visitors— A Wooden Rail- 
 road to Tocoi— Green Cove Spring— Mandarin — Our Return to 
 Jacksonville ...... 287 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 End of our Wild Life — Break-up of the Party — Rival Routes to 
 Florida— Land or Sea the best — Start by Rail for Savannah — 
 Another Train off the Track— Last Night in the Forests of 
 Florida — Reach Savannah — Embark for New York — Dead and 
 Living Passengers— Land Route the best — Memories of Wild 
 Life in Florida . . . . . . 305 
 
WILD LIFE IN FLORIDA. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 HISTORY— GEOGRAPHY — CLIMATE — NATURAL PRODUCTIONS — 
 ANTIQUITIES — CONDITION, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL, OF THE 
 PENINSULA OF FLORIDA, AND INDUCEMENTS TO VISIT IT. 
 
 LORIDA, the most southern of the 
 United States of North America, was 
 so named by Juan Ponce de Leon, the 
 Spanish Governor of the island of 
 Porto Rico in the Caribbean sea, to whom a mar- 
 vellous story was related by an Indian Cacique. 
 This Indian told of a land of great riches in gold 
 and precious stones, to the north of the setting sun, 
 not many leagues away from Porto Rico, exceeding 
 all other lands in beauty of scenery, and possessing 
 
 B 
 
2 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 a marvellous fountain of water, which gave health 
 to the sick and youth to the old. No tale was too 
 wonderful to obtain credence in those days, so Ponce 
 de Leon fitted out an expedition of three ships, and 
 landing on the eastern shores of the peninsula on 
 Palm Sunday, a.d. 15 13, gave the land the name 
 it still continues to bear. According to some 
 accounts, in honour of the day— Pascua Florida — 
 according to others, on account of its being — Terra 
 Florida — the Flowery Land. 
 
 Returning to Porto Rico, after a vain search for 
 the fountain of youth, the gold and precious stones, 
 Ponce de Leon made another expedition ten years 
 later to Florida, when he was attacked by the 
 natives and received a wound from the effects of 
 which he died. Many other expeditions were after- 
 wards undertaken with a like object, but instead of 
 wealth and everlasting youth, ruin and death re- 
 sulted to most of the adventurers, while the Indians 
 fought with a courage and desperation which 
 astonished and disheartened the Spaniards. 
 
 It was not until a.d. 1565 that Florida was per- 
 manently settled by the Spaniards, but she did not 
 long retain her nationality. Ceded to Great Britain 
 
Desolating Wars. 3 
 
 in 1763 with a population of only six hundred, she 
 was re-ceded to Spain in 1784, sold to the United 
 States in 1819, received a territorial government in 
 1822, and was admitted to the Union as a State in 
 1845. From 1 815 to 1858, the country was 
 harassed by repeated Indian wars, and in 1861 
 Florida joined the Southern Confederacy ; then her 
 soil was for four years the scene of many bloody 
 fights, until 1865, when the ordinance of secession 
 was repealed, and in 1868 she was re-admitted to the 
 Union. 
 
 Thus for three centuries and a half, constant 
 changes of nationality and desolating wars have so 
 depopulated and retarded the progress of Florida 
 that she has to-day all the characteristics of a newly 
 settled territory, notwithstanding the fact that on 
 her soil was built the first permanent town erected 
 by Europeans on the continent of North America. 
 
 Looking next at the geography of Florida, it will 
 be seen that her shape is that of a boot turned up- 
 side down, the foot part extending some three 
 hundred and fifty miles from east to west, along the 
 parallel of 31 north latitude, and from 8o° to 88° 
 of longitude west of Greenwich ; whilst the leg or 
 
 b 2 
 
4 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 peninsula proper extends southwardly from 31 to 
 1 5 , north latitude, thus reaching over some four 
 hundred miles. The State contains about sixty- 
 thousand square miles, with a population estimated 
 in i860 at one hundred and forty thousand, in 1870 
 at one hundred and eighty-seven thousand. The 
 peninsula has an average width of a hundred miles, 
 with a coast line exceeding eleven hundred miles, 
 exposed to the cool gulf winds on the side of the 
 Gulf of Mexico, and trade winds or variables on 
 the Atlantic side, which constantly blow from sunrise 
 to sunset. Lying within the region denominated as 
 " hot" by physical geographers, Florida has the same 
 latitude as Northern Mexico, the Sahara desert, Arabia, 
 Northern Hindostan, Burmah and South China. 
 
 The seasons are tropical in character, consisting 
 of a wet and dry season, with an annual rainfall of 
 nearly sixty inches. The wet season commences 
 in April or May with almost daily thunder-storms, 
 the regular rains setting in late in June, and lasting 
 until September, at which time the greater part of 
 the peninsula is under water, and the climate is 
 debilitating in the extreme and unhealthy. 
 
 During the Winter, or dry season, from October 
 
Glorious Climate. 5 
 
 to the middle of April, scarcely any rain falls, the 
 climate is glorious, and exceptionally healthy in 
 some favoured spots. Diseases of miasmatic origin 
 are prevalent all the year round, such as dysentery 
 and fever, but are more severe in the middle parts 
 of the State than on the sea-coast, where between 
 October and May they are comparatively rare. 
 
 The large amount of rain during the wet, and 
 heavy dews during the dry season, combine with 
 a burning sun to produce a power of vegetable 
 life so wonderful as to be almost incredible in the 
 swamps, lagoons and low-lying belts of jungle 
 called " hammocks." Frost has been felt in all 
 parts of the State in the two coolest months of 
 December and January, but very rarely below 
 latitude 2 8° north. So charming did we find the 
 climate from January to the middle of March, that 
 when things went a little wrong, and we felt in- 
 clined to grumble at the hardships which are 
 inseparable from life in a wild country, one or other 
 of us was sure to make some remark on the 
 " glorious climate," and the thoughts of the hard- 
 ships would fade away before the sense of what a 
 pleasure life was under such a cloudless sky, and 
 
6 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 amid such beautiful vegetation. After the middle 
 of March, the heat became too great in Southern 
 Florida to hunt or exert ourselves after sunrise, 
 but up to that time the climate was simply 
 perfection, with the exception of two or three 
 days on which a " norther," or gale from the north- 
 west, blew, when the temperature fell some forty 
 degrees, and we felt the cold severely. 
 
 In October, the peninsula and keys are liable 
 to violent hurricanes, which cause great destruction 
 to life human and vegetable, driving numerous 
 ships upon the sandy shores, and uprooting forest 
 trees with their furious blasts. On the 6th October, 
 1873, occurred one of the worst hurricanes ever 
 known in these latitudes, its effects being most 
 violent throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Frequent 
 mention of this hurricane will be found in the pages 
 of this book, as we continually come across signs of 
 its devastating passage. 
 
 The greatest drawback to personal comfort, 
 when camping out in Florida, undoubtedly are the 
 mosquitoes, besides which plagues there are sand- 
 flies, horse-flies, blue-flies, fleas, ticks, tarantulas, 
 scorpions, centipedes, rattle-snakes and mocassin- 
 
National Sanitarium. 7 
 
 snakes in incredible numbers. Although in the 
 excitement of the chase we thought but little of 
 danger, still the whir of the rattle-snake would 
 sometimes send a shudder through us, when heard 
 as we forced our way through a dense covert ; and 
 a rustle among the dry palmetto leaves, outside our 
 tents at nights, would cause a thrill of fear to 
 mingle with the silent curses which were wont 
 to greet the sharp buzz of the first intruding 
 mosquito. 
 
 What Southern France and Italy are to Europe, 
 Florida is now becoming to the more Northern 
 states of America, i.e., a refuge for those whose 
 state of health compels them to seek a more 
 genial climate ; that of Florida being considered 
 preferable to any other portion of Northern 
 America for those suffering from pulmonary 
 diseases. 
 
 To Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Pilatka, and the 
 numerous hotels along the banks of the lower 
 St. John river, tens of thousands of visitors flock 
 from the Northern and Southern States every 
 Winter, arriving in November and departing in* 
 March. Beyond a trip up the St. John river, 
 
8 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 however, these passing visitors see nothing of the 
 country ; the south-west, south, and south-east of 
 the peninsula are still unvisited and unknown, 
 except to the men who herd cattle on the vast 
 palmetto prairies of the interior, and the few Indians 
 who still wander among the swamps of the 
 Everglades. 
 
 Though big game is now scarce in Florida, and 
 is becoming every year scarcer, wild fowl and 
 fish abound in numbers I have never seen 
 equalled in any other part of the world. Three 
 hundred and fifty varieties of birds have been 
 already found in Florida, and their multitude 
 perfectly astonished me ; flowers covered the ground 
 and hung in brilliant festoons from the trees, 
 while flowering shrubs of rare and beautiful 
 species clothed the banks of every little stream 
 and formed a dense undergrowth in the wooded, 
 river bottoms. For the naturalist and geologist 
 Florida may truly be called a Paradise, and 
 for them it still contains a wealth of undiscovered 
 riches. 
 
 Few traces of its original inhabitants remain 
 except the shell and earth heaps, and what 
 
Elevation of Florida. 9 
 
 are called "Indian mounds/' some thirty feet 
 in height, which have been found, when opened, 
 to contain human bones, beads, charcoal, and 
 pottery, and are seen in all parts of the penin- 
 sula, and also on some of the larger islands. 
 The greater part of the State is a dead level, 
 the highest elevation crossed by the railway 
 traversing Northern Florida, between Fernandina 
 on the Atlantic and Cedar Keys on the Gulf of 
 Mexico, being only one hundred and eighty 
 feet above sea level, reached by a gradual slope 
 from the sea-coasts, while in Southern Florida 
 the land rarely rises more than six feet above 
 the level of the tide. So tired does the eye 
 become of this monotonous level that the traveller 
 longs for a range of hills to bound the view, 
 or break the dead sameness of the vast palmetto 
 prairies which stretch out to the horizon, as 
 unbroken a level as the ocean in a calm. In 
 order to attract immigration into the State, a 
 Bureau of Immigration has been established at 
 Tallahassee, the State capital, under a com- 
 missioner of immigration, by whom are issued 
 pamphlets of so called, " Reliable information 
 
10 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 concerning the resources of the State, and the 
 inducements it offers to those seeking new 
 homes. ,, These " resources" and cc inducements" 
 are dilated on with an unsparing liberality which 
 must considerably disappoint the new-comer, who 
 is thereby led to think he has reached a land 
 "flowing with milk and honey," where the soil 
 will spontaneously produce fruit sufficient to main- 
 tain him and his family with little or no 
 labour. 
 
 The truth is that hard work and steady labour 
 are necessary to the success of the settler in Florida, 
 and that in a climate where the white man's energies 
 soon become relaxed and labour of any sort is hard 
 labour indeed. The scrub-palmetto which covers 
 the whole face of the country, excepting the swamp 
 lands and savannas, from the borders of Georgia 
 to the Everglades, requires a heart-breaking amount 
 of labour to eradicate it from the soil, though 
 this must be done before cultivation can be 
 attempted. Fire will only destroy the tops of the 
 palmetto, the roots, which run along and just 
 beneath the surface of the ground, have to be 
 stubbed up, while they grow so thickly that from 
 
Spanish Grants. 11 
 
 half an acre of cleared ground I have seen a 
 collection of palmetto roots forming a pile some 
 forty feet square. 
 
 Some of the best land in the State is at pre- 
 sent uncultivated and unsettled owing to its being 
 held under what is called " Spanish Grants," that 
 is, ancient grants of large tracts of land made 
 by the Spanish Government to individuals at the 
 time when Florida was a Spanish possession. 
 When ceded to the United States, these land-grants 
 were secured to their then proprietors and their 
 heirs, so that they are generally held by aliens who 
 do not reside on their property or take any interest 
 in it, thus forming a serious bar to the prosperity of 
 a large portion of the State. 
 
 All that part of Florida which has been surveyed 
 by the Government is divided into squares six miles 
 in length and breadth, called townships. Each town- 
 ship is divided into thirty-six sections which are each 
 one mile square, and each section is divided into 
 quarter sections containing one hundred and sixty 
 acres each, measuring half a mile on each side. 
 Each of these sections of one hundred and sixty 
 acres of Government land forms what is called 
 
12 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 a homestead, and may be homesteaded or entered 
 free by any head of a family who is a citizen of 
 the United States, or who has declared his intention 
 of becoming such, provided he does not own that 
 amount of land already, or that he has never before 
 entered a homestead. Government land near the 
 railroads is valued at two dollars and a half the acre, 
 and only eighty acres are allowed for a homestead, 
 except to officers and soldiers who have served in 
 the United States army ; they are allowed a hundred 
 and sixty acres of the lands valued at two dollars 
 and a half. The valuation of the rest of the 
 Government land is one dollar and a quarter the 
 acre. 
 
 As was the case when starting for the hunting 
 grounds on the Far Western plains and in the 
 Rocky Mountains, I found it impossible to obtain 
 any reliable information in the Eastern cities as to 
 the prospect of sport in the wilds of Florida. Even 
 in Jacksonville, the west and south of the peninsula 
 were unknown ground, concerning which I could 
 obtain neither books, accurate maps, nor information 
 derived from personal experience. Starting, there- 
 fore, quite in the dark as to what means of loco- 
 
Inducements to visit Florida. 13 
 
 motion we might we able to obtain, or what sport 
 we might expect, we were fortunate enough to 
 succeed in making a complete tour of the peninsula, 
 visiting many remote spots scarce known even to 
 the native hunter, cutting our way with the axe 
 through jungles, paddling in canoes down unex- 
 plored rivers, and sailing with half-savage " wreckers" 
 among the lonely islands off the southern coast of 
 Florida, one of the most dangerous and dreaded 
 coasts in the world. 
 
 Many Englishmen now visit Florida in the 
 Winter, both for health and for the sake of sport 
 and adventure, and to them I trust the following 
 account of our tour may be of some interest ; 
 while to those who have not yet visited Florida, 
 but who may chance to read these pages, I say 
 " Visit Florida between the months of October and 
 February, and you will enjoy one of the most 
 perfect climates, and see one of the most interesting 
 countries in the world." Though not a " paradise " 
 for sportsmen, the sport is still sufficiently good to 
 please those who go in for sport and not for 
 slaughter ; though the fare is hard, and the draw- 
 backs neither few nor insignificant, I know no 
 
14 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 time I ever enjoyed more, taken altogether, than 
 the months of wild life I spent in the forests, 
 prairies, swamps, and mangrove-clad keys of 
 Florida. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 FIRST VIEW OP FLORIDA — FLORIDA " CITIES"— FERNANDINA — 
 CUMBERLAND ISLAND — ST. JOHN'S RIVER — CROSSING THE 
 BAR — THE SISTERS — PABLO CREEK — HUGUENOT COLONY — 
 YELLOWBLUFP— BASS FISHING — OYSTERS — REACH JACKSON- 
 VILLE. 
 
 BACKGROUND of sand-hills topped 
 by palmetto, pine, and live oak, and 
 fringed by a beach of glittering- sand, 
 stretching away to the south ; a fore- 
 ground of sand-banks at the mouth of a river, over 
 which the white-crested waves dashed furiously, 
 formed the first picture of Florida presented to our 
 view on the last Sunday in January, 1874, about a 
 couple of hours before sunset. 
 
 We had left Savannah, Georgia, the previous 
 afternoon, on board the steamer " City Point," 
 
16 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in such a storm of rain and wind that, unable to 
 cross the bar at the mouth of the Savannah river, 
 we had been compelled to drop anchor inside, and 
 wait till the weather moderated. Before daybreak, 
 the following morning, the clouds dispersed and 
 the wind dropped, so we hove up anchor, and 
 by sunrise were steaming away to the south, never 
 losing sight of the low sea Islands of Georgia, 
 famous for their long staple cotton. 
 
 Twisting in and out through the buoys which 
 mark the narrow channel, we crossed the bar formed 
 by the waters of the St. Mary and Amelia rivers, 
 with a depth of only twelve feet of water, as 
 shown by the lead, and rounding the decaying old 
 battery at the north corner of Amelia Island, ran 
 alongside the wharf at Fernandina, the chief city 
 of Nassau county, the most north-easterly portion 
 of Florida. 
 
 In Florida, as in the Western states of America, 
 every collection of half-a-dozen wooden houses is 
 called a city, and though Fernandina has a couple 
 of thousand inhabitants and may be called a small 
 town, it did not take long to become acquainted 
 with the chief features of the place and immediate 
 
Fernandina. 17 
 
 neighbourhood. Strolling about the sandy streets 
 of this old Spanish settlement, we found it consisted 
 of two second-rate hotels and some boarding-houses, 
 various wooden churches and schools, a number of 
 stores, and some steam saw-mills, while the only 
 places of amusement we could discover were a 
 billiard-room and a bar. A railroad connects the 
 island with the main land and the Gulf of 
 Mexico, and a spacious bay is formed in front 
 of the embryo city by the St. Mary's river and 
 the tide water-channel called the Amelia river ; 
 with good depth of water, once the bar is 
 crossed, it forms one of the best harbours on the 
 South Atlantic coast. ■ 
 
 The great attraction of the place is the eastern 
 sea- beach of the island, which furnishes a level 
 drive thirty miles in length, over fine white sand 
 reached by a good shell road two miles long. 
 From the earthworks to the north of the town, re- 
 mains of the late Civil War, the view over the bay to 
 Cumberland Island, with Dungeness, as the former 
 home of the revolutionary General Greene is called, 
 nestling among the woods, is pretty, and in the 
 interior of the island are several interesting Indian 
 
 c 
 
 ••• 
 
 )A0 
 
18 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 burial mounds. A thick growth of myrtle and 
 palmetto, oleander and live oak, have almost ob- 
 literated the traces of former cultivation, but it 
 is still evident that the island has seen better 
 days. A few invalids appeared to be wintering 
 at Fernandina, but chiefly of a class to whom 
 expense was a greater consideration than either 
 luxury or amusement, nor did the place strike us 
 as either fashionable or desirable Winter quarters. 
 Though the climate is said to be cool in Summer 
 and warm in Winter, we found the evening chilly 
 enough to make a fire in the hotel- parlour a 
 luxury not to be despised. 
 
 The following morning after breakfast we were 
 perfectly ready to leave Fernandina, so were on 
 board the "City Point" in time to steam out 
 again through the Cumberland Sound Channel, 
 when we directed our course south for the mouth 
 of the St. John river. In a couple of hours 
 we had accomplished the twenty miles which 
 intervene, and arrived opposite the sand-hills 
 and light-house which mark the entrance to 
 the river. Turning the steamer's bow towards 
 the land, we cautiously approached the bar, but 
 
Mouth of the St. John. 19 
 
 not finding sufficient water, although we only 
 drew seven feet, we again turned eastward and 
 for an hour steamed round in a wide circle, 
 waiting till the tide should rise sufficiently high 
 to enable us to cross the bar. 
 
 At mid-day we made a second attempt, and 
 the lead showing eight feet, we dashed in among 
 the breakers, sending the water flying over our 
 bows ; in a few minutes we were inside with a 
 depth of twenty feet of water, rapidly ascending 
 the St. John river, which at its mouth has a width 
 of about one mile. 
 
 Passing Baton Island, settled by a number of 
 river pilots, an extensive salt-marsh formed the 
 northern bank of the river, and through this a 
 number of sluggish streams wind, forming the 
 " inside passage " to Fernandina. Near the entrance 
 of this passage a number of mounds, from twenty 
 to fifty feet high, appeared, known as " the Sisters," 
 or the " Oyster Banks," as they are composed of 
 broken oyster shells covered with low scrub. As we 
 ascended, the river rapidly widened ; on the 
 southern bank a dark lagoon called Pablo Creek, 
 runs back through a dense, dark forest, its 
 
 c 2 
 
20 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 surface nearly covered with water-lilies. A little 
 higher we passed on the left a bluff some twenty- 
 feet high, covered with palmetto, pine, and cedar, 
 called St. John's Bluff, interesting as the site of 
 the massacre of a Huguenot colony by the Spaniards 
 in 1565, who shot down the colonists of Fort 
 Caroline, as the settlement was called, " not as 
 Frenchmen, but as heretics ;" a deed avenged three 
 years afterwards by a Frenchman named De 
 Gourgues, who attacked and massacred the Spanish 
 garrison of the fort, "not as Spaniards, but as 
 murderers." 
 
 This headland passed, we steamed on a few 
 miles, with a flat, wooded country on either 
 hand, till we reached a ricketty timber landing- 
 stage projecting from the shore, where there is a 
 settlement of two or three wooden houses on 
 the north bank, called Yellow Bluff. A number 
 of fishing-boats were busily engaged near the 
 landing, hauling in nets well filled with bass and 
 various other fish, while other boats were laden 
 to the gunwale with oysters, which are found in 
 large quantities near the mouth of the St. John. 
 
 In an hour more we sighted the saw-mills at 
 
Reach Jacksonville. 21 
 
 the east-end of Jacksonville, and soon after made 
 fast alongside the wharf among quite a crowd of 
 trim- looking schooners and river-steamers of e very- 
 description, from the nondescript little flat-bottomed 
 craft with wheel in the stern, used to ascend 
 the creeks and shallow inland lakes, to the large 
 side-wheel steamers, like the " City Point " and 
 "Dictator," which, starting from Charleston and 
 Savannah, ascend the St. John River as far as 
 Palatka, seventy-five miles above Jacksonville. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 A SABLE JEHU— JACKSONVILLE— TOURISTS— HOTELS — STREETS 
 — RIVERSIDE — A SOUTHERN VILLA — A SHELL ROAD — CLIMATE 
 FEVER — FROST — WEEKLY DANCES — MEANS OF VISITING THE 
 NEIGHBOURHOOD— STORES NECESSARY FOR CAMP LIFE— MAPS 
 OF FLORIDA— HUNTING GROUNDS— A VETERAN SPORTSMAN — 
 DETERMINE TO MAKE FOR THE GULF COUNTIES. 
 
 [AY, Boss. Will yer ride ?" was the 
 polite remark addressed to me by 
 the negro driver of a very smart 
 hack-carriage, as I smoked a cigar 
 at the door of the Grand National Hotel, the 
 morning after our arrival at Jacksonville. De- 
 clining the sable Jehu's offer, we proceeded to 
 inspect the town on foot, neither a long nor 
 fatiguing operation. Containing some ten thou- 
 sand inhabitants, Jacksonville is now the largest 
 
Streets of Jacksonville. 23 
 
 town in Florida, and is rapidly increasing in 
 size; it is the emporium and commercial capital 
 of the State, and is crowded every Winter by 
 immense numbers of tourists and invalids from 
 the North and from Europe. Three large hotels 
 and innumerable lodging-houses offer a variety 
 of accommodation, that at the Grand National 
 and the St. James' being quite equal to any 
 met with in the Southern States. The town 
 consists of one long, sandy street with wooden 
 side-walks, called Bay Street, where are all the 
 principal stores; a number of half-finished streets 
 running at right angles ; and a couple of avenues, 
 nicely shaded with live oak and magnolia, run- 
 ning parallel to Bay Street, on which are most 
 of the lodging-houses, little wooden cottages with 
 projecting shingle roofs and gardens. 
 
 The deep sand of which the streets are composed 
 makes the dust very annoying, but no attempt 
 has yet been made at road-making. Most of 
 the buildings in the town are wood, though there 
 are a few built with bricks made of native clay. On 
 the river-bank, south-west of the town, is the 
 suburb called Riverside, extending about a mile 
 
24 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in a curve, so as nearly to front it, and offering 
 the best view that can be had of both town 
 and river. This suburb contains the residences of 
 the principal citizens of Jacksonville, and consists 
 of a number of villa residences with orange and 
 flower-gardens sloping down to the water's edge. 
 At one of these we passed a pleasant evening, 
 enjoying the hospitality of a southern gentleman 
 to whom we brought letters of introduction, and 
 getting well posted as to the condition of Florida 
 and our chances of sport. As we strolled home by 
 the broad expanse of the St. John river, in which 
 were reflected the twinkling lights of Jacksonville 
 across the bay, and the dark forms of the forest 
 trees on the opposite shore, silvered by the soft light 
 of the southern moon, the very appropriate melody 
 of the "Suwannee river," was borne to us on 
 the soft night breeze from a negro cabin some dis- 
 tance off. The shell road by which Riverside is 
 connected with Jacksonville is made, as its name 
 denotes, of shells, principally of oysters and clams, 
 which form an excellent road, dry and hard, the 
 only species of good road I have met with in 
 any part of the Southern States below Richmond. 
 
Evening Amusements. 25 
 
 Though evidently a very thriving place, with 
 a bright and most enjoyable Winter climate for 
 a person in good health, I cannot fancy the 
 climate of Jacksonville suitable for persons in an 
 advanced stage of consumption, of whom we saw 
 numbers about, with hollow eyes and wasted forms, 
 showing that they had come south too late. 
 With a great deal of low fever in Summer, the 
 climate in Winter is liable to sudden changes 
 when a Norther, as the north-west wind is called, 
 blows ; the temperature then falls suddenly, vary- 
 ing in twenty -four hours, late in April on our 
 return from the south, as much as forty degrees 
 Fahrenheit, owing to a sudden shift of the wind 
 from south to north-west. Sharp frosts are not 
 uncommon, but during our stay the weather was, 
 always bright and charming, averaging seventy 
 degrees in the shade, and reminding me strongly 
 of the climate of Nice or Cannes in the middle of 
 Spring. There are no evening amusements obtain- 
 able at Jacksonville, except a dance held every 
 week in the huge dining saloons of the Grand 
 National and St. James' hotels, where all the rank 
 and fashion, native and foreign, assemble and 
 
26 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 dance till about one a.m. On other nights the halls 
 of the hotels are deserted, and everybody retired 
 to rest long before midnight. 
 
 Numerous steamers ply between Jacksonville and 
 the neighbouring settlements and springs on the 
 river banks ; Mulberry Grove, Mandarin, Hibernia, 
 Magnolia, and Green Cove Springs, at most of 
 which a day can be spent pleasantly enough. By 
 those who prefer it, small sail-boats can be hired, 
 and the fresh breeze which constantly blows from 
 the Gulf or Atlantic makes a day's sail up the 
 broad waters of the St. John, or a fishing excur- 
 sion down towards its mouth, an amusement by no 
 means to be despised. 
 
 At the stores we found every necessary for our 
 contemplated hunting expedition through Western 
 and Southern Florida, excepting Eley's cartridges 
 and tents. We did, however, find a gun-smith 
 in the town, who promised to lay in a stock of 
 cartridges by the following Winter, and where we 
 secured a supply of powder, shot, bullets, wadding, 
 and the metallic cartridges used in the American 
 Ballard Rifle of my companion. The stores we 
 laid in were strictly necessaries and consisted of 
 
Camp Equipment. 27 
 
 the following articles. A demi-john of whiskey, 
 tea, coffee, sugar, flour, baking-powder, bacon, 
 ship's-buiscuits, hominy, lard, preserved milk, a 
 few cans of potted meats and sardines, salt and 
 tobacco; also a saucepan, frying-pan, coffee-pot, 
 tin plates, knives, forks, spoons, tin cups, matches, 
 and last, but not least, an axe, perhaps the most 
 important article for equipping for travel in the 
 back-woods. All these we obtained at Mr. John 
 Clerk's store, a most sporting gentleman himself, 
 and one who gave us all the assistance in his power, 
 so that we might start properly fitted out. We 
 also took fishing-tackle, consisting of hooks and 
 lines of the largest and strongest description we 
 could obtain, though even these afterwards proved 
 too weak to hold the heavy fish we caught in the 
 rivers and bays on the Gulf coast. 
 
 Shot-guns and rifles, double-barrelled breech- 
 loaders of 12-bore, with a thousand rounds of 
 ammunition, revolvers, and hunting-knives we 
 brought out from England, so felt ourselves fully 
 prepared to go wherever we were most likely to 
 get good sport, no matter how wild or unknown 
 the country might be; the only things we were 
 
28 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in want of were tents, and these we were 
 fortunate enough to borrow from a friend who 
 knew the country, and had brought them out 
 himself from home. The next question was, where 
 we should go to, so purchasing the best map of 
 Florida we could obtain, a large one published by- 
 Mr. Drew of Jacksonville, we studied it intently, 
 endeavouring to trace out a route through the least 
 frequented parts, where civilization had not yet 
 penetrated, and the virgin forests were yet undis- 
 turbed by the rifles of sporting tourists, or the 
 approach of the settler, near the sound of whose 
 axe the game is as certain to disappear as the 
 timber is to fall under his brawny arm. 
 
 The St. John and Indian rivers on the east 
 or Atlantic side of the peninsula, we knew 
 were the resort of all the tourists who seek 
 Florida for sport or pleasure during the Winter, 
 and several parties of our acquaintance had already 
 started for various localities on those rivers. For 
 the West, or Gulf coast, no parties had started, 
 except a veteran sportsman, Sir St. George Gore, 
 an old acquaintance, whose name was in the 
 mouth of every native of Florida, while the 
 
Start for the Gulf. 29 
 
 newspapers delighted to enlarge on the number 
 of horses, hounds, tents, equipages and servants of 
 " Lord" Gore. Hearing that Sir St. George was 
 last heard of somewhere in the county of Manatee, 
 in the neighbourhood of the river of that name, 
 we determined to make for the Gulf of Mexico 
 and mouth of the Manatee river, on the 
 chance of finding him, confident that he would 
 be met with wherever game was most abundant. 
 

 
 - 1^— 
 
 .j^T^^r 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 •^ 
 
 — 55^"^ /j/^ ^^v ^3 
 
 ^&*%2JU££JS!z3[ ' 
 
 £sf 
 
 *1f"V 
 
 
 ) ; '3^ 
 
 
 " /p wc^j^ 
 
 
 
 yy^sj^v 
 
 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A FREIGHT TRAIN— BALDWIN— WHITE FOLKS' BREAKFAST— LOG 
 HUTS— GAINSVILLE— SPANISH MOSS— CARDING MACHINE— A 
 PROPHET OF EVIL— A WRECKED TRAIN— SOUTHERN PROCRAS- 
 TINATION — CONSTRUCTION OF A NEW LINE — A HOSPITABLE 
 NORTHERNER — A RUINED PLANTER'S HOME — HAMMOCK — 
 TRESSLE WORK BRIDGES — CEDAR KEYS — A 'HARD' PLACE — 
 A NIGHT WALK— GULF STEAMERS— THE HIRAM B. COOL— THE 
 GULF OF MEXICO— CLEAR WATER HARBOUR— TAMPA BAY — 
 CAST ADRIFT AT NIGHT — JUDGE YATES' HOUSE. 
 
 IX a.m. on a beautiful February morn- 
 ing found us cc on board" the freight 
 train which leaves Jacksonville every 
 day for Baldwin, a station twenty 
 miles distant, where it is connected with the pas- 
 senger train from Fernandina to Cedar Keys on 
 the Gulf of Mexico. Passing over a very rough 
 track, through a country of open pine-woods 
 
Baldwin Breakfasts. 31 
 
 and swamps in about equal proportions, two hours' 
 run brought us to Baldwin, where we gladly 
 got out of the baggage car in which we had 
 travelled, nearly jolted to death by the unevenly 
 laid rails, notwithstanding the slow pace at which 
 we had progressed. 
 
 No sooner had we reached the station platform 
 than we were greeted by a crowd of woolly-headed 
 negroes, each ringing a bell vigorously and pro- 
 claiming the culinary merits of the establishment to 
 which he belonged. 
 
 " You come long to ole Aunt Sally, gib you fine 
 breakfast." 
 
 " Him dam nigger, Widow McCoy gib real 
 white folk's breakfast," said an opposition darkie, 
 but in vain they tried to lure us to their miserable 
 wooden shanties, as we had been warned against 
 the Baldwin breakfasts, so had laid in a good meal 
 before starting. A short delay, and then the pas- 
 senger train arriving, we entered an extremely . dirty 
 car, and were once more jolting along at the furious 
 pace of fifteen miles an hour. Gradually rising and 
 a little less sandy and barren, the country still pre- 
 sented the same dreary succession of pine-forest and 
 
32 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 swamp, a few log huts with small clearings appear- 
 ing at long intervals. 
 
 At Gainsville, the capital of Alachua county, 
 a small town of about eighteen hundred inhabi- 
 tants, we were informed we were in the most 
 fertile part of Florida. Orange trees well laden 
 with fruit surrounded most of the houses, and a 
 considerable number of small farms appeared in 
 the neighbourhood. Near the station we observed 
 a machine for carding the Spanish moss, that 
 funereal looking grey parasite which festoons and 
 ultimately kills the trees in all the southern forests. 
 The moss is packed in bales, after carding, and 
 sent north, where it is used to stuff mattresses, 
 furniture, &c, forming an excellent substitute for 
 horse-hair. 
 
 From Gainsville, a stage carrying mails and pas- 
 sengers runs south to Ocala and Tampa, but pre- 
 ferring the Gulf route to the latter place, we 
 continued in the train, passing over a high rolling 
 country with some open forests of pine, hickory, 
 black-jack, and other trees. We had passed the 
 station called Archer, and were approaching Otter 
 Creek, when a broad-shouldered Yankee, with 
 
A Wrecked Train. 33 
 
 whom I was conversing in the smoking car, re- 
 marked, 
 
 " Guess I never travelled so far on this track 
 before without an accident, they call this the tri- 
 weekly train, because not more than three trains a 
 week get through from Fernandina to Cedar Keys/' 
 Prophetic words ! they were hardly uttered before 
 we heard three hoarse whistles from our engine, 
 the brakes were screwed on and we came to a sudden 
 stop. Going forward to see what was the matter, 
 we found the engine of ihe eastward-bound train 
 lying on its side in the ditch below the line, 
 entangled in the broken telegraph wires ; the tender 
 smashed to pieces, and the front wheels of the bag- 
 gage waggon embedded in sand, while the track was 
 torn up for a considerable distance. As nobody 
 was killed, the accident had not caused the slightest 
 excitement ; the officials in charge of the overturned 
 train were comfortably camped under the pine-trees, 
 nor had any steps been taken to clear the line, 
 though the accident had happened twenty-four hours 
 previously, a lazy dilatoriness fully in keeping with 
 what we afterwards found to be the general character 
 of the Floridans, whose -motto would appear to be 
 
34 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 " Never do to-day that which can possibly be put 
 off till to-morrow." A gang of labourers having 
 come up with our train, a new line of railway was 
 constructed, circling to the left round the debris of 
 the broken engine, tender, and cars, a work which 
 occupied over six hours. A northern gentleman, 
 who lived near by in a house rented from a ruined 
 planter, had taken compassion on a number of the 
 passengers of the wrecked train, and a farmer whose 
 house stood close to the scene of the accident 
 sheltered the remainder ; at the kind request of the 
 Northerner, some of us also proceeded to his 
 hospitable home to wait till the line should be re- 
 paired. 
 
 The estate on which this house was built had, 
 before the war, been a flourishing plantation on 
 which five hundred slaves had been employed 
 cultivating sugar and cotton. It stretched down to 
 the "Gulf Hammock," a belt of heavily-timbered 
 low land, said to be the richest body of land 
 known in Florida; but like many other plantations 
 throughout the country, this estate is now almost 
 uncultivated, and is fast returning to its original 
 wildness. As soon as the new line of railway was 
 
Cedar Keys. 35 
 
 completed, we continued our journey, descending 
 gradually from the high pine-lands to cypress- 
 swamp and hammock, with its dense growth of 
 live oak, magnolia, hickory, gum, bay, pecan, and 
 cedar linked together by wild vines and other 
 creepers, forming an almost impenetrable mass of 
 vegetation on either side of the line. 
 
 Crossing a fragile-looking tressel work, stretching 
 from island to island for several miles from the 
 main land, it was midnight before we reached 
 Cedar Keys, the Gulf terminus of the Florida 
 railroad, about a hundred and twenty miles from 
 Jacksonville, a distance it took us just eighteen 
 hours to accomplish. 
 
 Leaving the cars in pitch darkness, we had to 
 shoulder our baggage ourselves, and find our way 
 to the nearest hotel, Cedar Keys possessing two, 
 the "Gulf" and "Exchange." Though warned 
 that both were pretty " hard " places, so dirty 
 and uninviting was the appearance of the inns 
 that the offer of a fourth share of a bed- room 
 at one, and a third share at the other, failed 
 to entice us ; and hearing that the southward- 
 bound steamer was then in harbour, we determined 
 
 D 2 
 
36 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 to make our way on board, notwithstanding the 
 darkness of the night. 
 
 Under the guidance of a small negro boy, we 
 again emerged into the street, and stumbling across 
 half a mile of shaky wooden stage, often only one 
 plank in width, pitch darkness all round, the 
 sea beneath, at imminent risk of a ducking, if 
 not drowning, we at last reached the wharf at 
 which lay the steamer. We soon scrambled on 
 board her, and rousing the sleepy steward, were 
 shown to a filthy cabin, where stifling heat, bugs, 
 fleas, cockroaches, and mosquitoes combined to 
 make the few remaining hours of the night 
 anything but hours of rest. 
 
 Daylight showed us the " favourite winter resort" 
 of Cedar Keys to be a wood-built village of about 
 four hundred inhabitants, with wretched accommoda- 
 tion for strangers. The harbour is available for 
 vessels of not more than twelve feet draught, 
 and is the port of call for two lines of steamers 
 running north and south. One from New Orleans 
 to Havanna, touching at Cedar Keys and Key 
 West on the way ; the other a coast line touching 
 at Cedar Keys, Manatee, and Tampa, and occasionally 
 
The "Hiram B. Cool" 37 
 
 running to Punta Rossa and Key West. These 
 lines, though advertised to run weekly, are very 
 irregular, and no dependence whatever can be 
 placed on their days of running. Sometimes they 
 start some days before the advertised time of 
 sailing, sometimes a week after, while so old and un- 
 seaworthy are the boats that in any sea less calm 
 than the Gulf of Mexico they would undoubtedly 
 founder. 
 
 On board the "Hiram B. Cool," one cracked 
 basin was the only washing accommodation provided 
 for us passengers ; of her two life-boats, one was 
 utterly useless, being smashed in the middle, the 
 other leaked so much that constant baling alone kept 
 her afloat, while the ship's machinery was tied together 
 with a string in a manner more ingenious than 
 safe. In this rotten old craft we steamed slowly 
 down the bay formed by the outside Keys, a 
 thick fog only occasionally lifting sufficiently to 
 let us see that we were passing close to small 
 islets covered with brushwood and palmetto, from 
 which ran out sand-banks alive with pelicans and 
 sea-birds. Running down the Gulf at a distance 
 of about ten miles from the land, we continued 
 
38 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 enveloped in fog until about four p.m., when it 
 rolled away to the north, and a brilliant sun 
 shone out. 
 
 On our port-side appeared the islands of Clear 
 Water Harbour, a number of low islets, keys as 
 they are called all round the Florida coast, among 
 which are some of the best sponging grounds in 
 the Gulf. Off the southernmost of these keys 
 we turned eastward, and crossing the bar with 
 only five feet of water on it, we entered the 
 wide bay now called Tampa, formerly Espiritu 
 Santo Bay. Just before sunset, our skipper in- 
 formed us that he could not put into the Manatee 
 river, as he was obliged to reach the town of 
 Tampa, at the head of the bay, that night, but 
 that he would give us a boat and two darkies 
 to row us, when we got near the mouth of that 
 
 river. Accordingly, about nine p.m., M and I 
 
 found ourselves and our baggage packed into the 
 leaky life-boat with two negroes to row us, and 
 a star was pointed out to me as the direction 
 in which I was to steer, after which the " Hiram 
 B. Cool " resumed her course, and soon dis- 
 appeared in the darkness of a moonless night. 
 
The Manatee River. 39 
 
 Thus unceremoniously cast adrift, out of sight 
 of land, on a dark night in a leaky boat, we 
 kept our eyes anxiously fixed on the guiding 
 star, and the boat's bows carefully trained in that 
 direction for about an hour, when we came on 
 the buoys which mark the deep river channel 
 for crossing the bar at the mouth of the Manatee 
 river. Hugging the southern shore of the river, 
 we found it fringed with mangrove and cane 
 swamps, with a dark background of cabbage- 
 palm and pine. About midnight such a dense 
 fog came on that we could no longer discern 
 the shore at ten yards' distance, so had to be 
 guided by sound instead of sight, the cry of the 
 'coons, the howl of the wolves, and the croaking 
 of frogs in the marshes, alone denoting the 
 neighbourhood of the invisible shore. 
 
 At last, about two a.m., we found ourselves under 
 a long wooden landing-stage running out into 
 the river, while lights twinkling on shore, the bark- 
 ing of dogs, and crowing of the cocks announced 
 our arrival at the small settlement of Manatee. 
 Here we made our way along the landing, with 
 our baggage on our backs, to a wooden house 
 
40 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 about a hundred yards distant, almost hidden in 
 a grove of orange, lemon trees, and bananas, 
 which a sign-board proclaimed in large letters to 
 be "Judge Gate's House." 
 
 Violent knocking at last roused up a sleepy 
 and surly landlord, who growled out that the 
 house was full ; but after explanations we obtained 
 admission and leave to sleep on the floor, so 
 laying down our air-beds, we pulled off our 
 clothes, wet through with fog and salt water 
 from the leaky boat, and would doubtless have 
 slept soundly had the fleas and other vermin 
 permitted. 
 
 3i%^ 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MANATEE SETTLEMENT — BUILDINGS— SITUATION — INVALIDS — 
 A HAMMOCK — PINE LANDS— PRAIRIES — AREA AND POPULA- 
 TION OF THE SOUTHERN COUNTIES— MANATEE— MONROE- 
 DADE — BREVARD— BIRDS — FISH — WILD BEASTS— HUNTING 
 DOGS— THE BARONET'S CAMP — SAILING— TEMPERATURE— MA- 
 NATEE RIVER— TURKEYS — FISH— BAIT — FIDLER CRABS — ESPI- 
 RITU SANTO BAY— SETTLEMENT OF TAMPA— CATTLE TRADE- 
 INDIAN MOUNDS — SULPHUR SPRING — SUGAR PLANTATION- 
 FOSSIL REMAINS— SOLEMN COUNCIL. 
 
 ANATEE village is on the south 
 bank of the river of the same name, 
 about six miles from its mouth ; 
 and is composed of a dozen stores, some lodging- 
 houses, a post-office, a Methodist church, and 
 settlers' residences, all of wood. It is a pretty- 
 little settlement, each house being surrounded 
 by groves of orange, lemon, citron, and banana 
 trees. Situated on a belt of pine-covered, sandy 
 
42 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 land half a mile wide, it is considered very healthy, 
 and is sometimes sought by consumptive people 
 from more northern states ; we found two residing 
 in the village, but wasted to skeletons, having 
 evidently come too late to recover. 
 
 Behind the belt of pine and palmetto lies the 
 cc hammock," or " hummock," as it is sometimes 
 called, a feature peculiar to Florida. It consists of 
 rich river bottoms not wet enough to be called swamp, 
 covered with a dense undergrowth of hydrangia, 
 azalea, sumach, sensitive-plant, lobelia, cassia, senna, 
 and many others, timbered with live-oak, hickory, 
 water-oak, cabbage-palm, cotton-tree, magnolia, 
 scarlet maple, black and sweet gum, cedar, &c, 
 and festooned with wild vine, Spanish moss, convol- 
 volus, and other parasites. 
 
 These natural depressions have been gradually 
 filled up by vegetable deposits from the higher 
 lands, which, while rendering them extremely rich, 
 make them at the same time unhealthy. The in- 
 habitants of the country, therefore, select their resi- 
 dences on the higher pine-lands, through which the 
 hammocks are scattered at intervals of a few miles, 
 whence they cultivate the rich bottoms, while they 
 
Palmetto Prairies. 43 
 
 avoid the malaria engendered by the decompo- 
 sition of the vegetable deposits in these hammocks. 
 
 Besides the hammocks and pine-land, the in- 
 terior of Manatee, Monroe, and Brevard counties 
 is for the most part covered with prairie, or 
 " perairer," as the natives call it, consisting of low 
 saw-palmetto and grass, on the latter of which great 
 herds of cattle are pastured ; ponds fringed with 
 tall saw-grass are scattered over these prairies, and 
 belts of timber, composed of pine and cabbage-palm, 
 intersect them, and are called by the natives 
 " islands." On these prairies we never found much 
 game; the neighbourhood of rivers, hammocks, 
 lakes, and swamps being their favourite resort. The 
 southern counties of Florida are very thinly in- 
 habited. Manatee, with an area of four thousand 
 and seventy square miles, has a population of less 
 than two thousand, and only three hundred and 
 sixty acres of improved land; Monroe County has 
 an area of about three thousand square miles, no 
 cultivated land, and less than five hundred inhabit- 
 ants, including Indians, but without including the 
 island of Key West ; Dade County has an area of 
 four thousand four hundred square miles, a few 
 
44 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 acres of improved land near Biscayne Bay, and 
 about a hundred and eighty inhabitants, of whom 
 a hundred are Indians ; Brevard County, north of 
 Dade, and west of Manatee and Monroe, has an 
 area of five thousand six hundred square miles, 
 about twelve hundred inhabitants, no village, and 
 no cultivated lands, with the exception of a few 
 acres near the little settlement called St. Lucie on 
 the Indian river. 
 
 In all these counties the hammocks are still 
 almost impenetrable jungles, the haunt of wild 
 beasts, reptiles, insects, and innumerable birds, some 
 of brilliant plumage and beautiful song, while the 
 rivers and estuaries teem with fish which fall a far 
 easier prey to the sportsman than do the large 
 game. Without dogs with good nose and high 
 courage it is useless to attempt to hunt bear, boar, 
 wolf, puma, or other big game, as, when pur- 
 sued, they immediately retreat to these impenetrable 
 jungles, whence it is impossible to dislodge them. 
 
 On the northern bank of the river Manatee, 
 nearly opposite the settlement, we found the stand- 
 ing camp of Sir St. George Gore, from whom we 
 learnt that but little sport was to be expected in 
 
Climate of Manatee. 45 
 
 the immediate neighbourhood, as his hunters had 
 scoured the conntry for miles round during the 
 last fortnight with very poor results. We deter- 
 mined, therefore, to make our way into the interior 
 of the country, stopping only long enough at 
 Manatee settlement to explore the river, and 
 Espiritu Santo Bay to the settlement of Tampa. 
 
 A Pole settled at Manatee kindly lent us a very 
 nice sail-boat, in which we spent nearly every 
 day on the water ; the weather was always 
 delightful, a eool breeze from the Gulf springing 
 up regularly about 10 a.m. The thermometer, 
 during the day, generally stood about 8 2° Fahren- 
 heit in the shade, the hottest hours being from 
 7.30. to 10 a.m., when the heat was very op- 
 pressive, not a breath of air nor a cloud to temper 
 the fierce rays of the sun. At 6 p.m. the breeze 
 invariably died away as the sun sank, and then 
 for some hours it would be very hot, till the 
 heavy dew cooled the heated ground. The nights 
 were always sufficiently cool to obtain sound sleep, 
 nor were the mosquitoes as yet sufficiently numerous 
 to make nets, or "bars," as they are called, a 
 necessity. 
 
46 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 The river we found to be from one to two miles 
 wide, for a distance of about fifteen miles east of 
 the settlement, where it narrows to some fifty yards, 
 and is overhung by cabbage-palm, live-oak, and 
 other timber, while the water becomes brackish, and 
 then fresh, but never really good to drink. Among 
 the boughs of the live-oaks overhanging the river 
 there were a few turkeys, and we observed tracks 
 of deer coming to the water to drink, while oc- 
 casionally an alligator would appear, but they were 
 scarce. Sometimes we devoted our time to fishing 
 for sea-trout, black-bass, and sheep's-head, fish which 
 are tolerably abundant and took our hooks readily. 
 For bait we used the soldier or fidler-crab, which we 
 found in the mud and sand under the mangrove- 
 bushes that fringed the river. I never could help 
 laughing as I watched these brilliant-coloured little 
 crabs marching along with their one long arm 
 extended in the air, often engaging in furious battles 
 with one another, until they suddenly saw me, when 
 every crab would rush for the nearest hole in the 
 sand, thousands disappearing in an incredibly short 
 space of time. ' 
 
 Sometimes we sailed down the river, past the 
 
Tampa. 47 
 
 swamps and cane-brakes near the mouth and the 
 buoys at the bar, to the islands which stud Tampa 
 or Espiritu Santo Bay. Thence bearing north 
 through Hillsborough Bay, it is a sail of twenty-five 
 miles to the settlement of Tampa, on the Hills- 
 borough river, the chief town of that county, and 
 principal settlement on the south-west coast of 
 Florida. 
 
 At Tampa there are two hotels, boarding-houses, 
 churches, stores, barracks, and communication 
 with the outside world by stage-coaches across 
 country, and mail- steamers up and down the Gulf 
 of Mexico. There are about six hundred in- 
 habitants chiefly engaged in the cattle trade, the 
 export to Cuba of both cattle and hogs being a 
 large and profitable business. 
 
 The oysters in the bay are celebrated for their 
 excellence, and are also exported, but little seems to 
 be done in the way of turning the fish which abound 
 in these waters to profitable account. Most of the 
 settlers' houses are surrounded with orange groves, 
 as at Manatee, but the area of cultivated land in 
 the neighbourhood is but small. A large Indian 
 mound which stands close to the town, was opened 
 
48 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in 1869, and found to contain bones, pottery, and 
 ornaments, as has been the case with the other 
 Florida mounds which have been excavated. The 
 only other curiosity in the neighbourhood is a 
 sulphur spring near the Hillsborough river, some six 
 or seven miles above the town. 
 
 Another place we visited in the neighbourhood of 
 Manatee was an old sugar-plantation on the oppo- 
 site bank of the river, a few miles above the settle- 
 ment, once a flourishing concern, yielding in 1854 
 two hundred and fifty . tons of dry sugar. Ruined 
 by the war, this plantation is now a favourite 
 grazing ground for the few deer and wild hogs 
 remaining in this section of the country. The only 
 things in the way of ancient remains we heard of 
 near Manatee, were deposits of bones of elephants 
 and some other extinct animals, which one of the 
 settlers told me were numerous in a certain spot he 
 pointed out near the river bank, and of which he had 
 several specimens. 
 
 Though we got but little shooting at Manatee or 
 in the neighbourhood, we enjoyed our stay there 
 immensely. Sailing daily in our little craft, with 
 breeze enough to make considerable voyages during 
 
Gamp Councils. 49 
 
 the hours of daylight, and never sufficient sea to 
 make navigation dangerous in our open boat. 
 Making many passing visits to Sir St. George Gore's 
 camp, we discussed the prospects of future sport, 
 seated under the southern palms which sheltered 
 his camp. There in full enjoyment of the cool 
 northern drinks provided by our entertainer, and a 
 fragrant cigar, we held solemn council as to what 
 direction we should next proceed in — councils which 
 resulted in our determining to start at once for the 
 lakes in the interior of the country, and then make 
 our way down to the extreme south by whatever 
 means of locomotion we might from time to time be 
 able to procure. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 START FOE THE INTERIOR LAKES— A MULE TEAM — IN A HAM- 
 MOCK—ABOVE AND BENEATH — THE FLORIDA PRAIRIES — 
 DIFFICULT TRAVELLING — PONDS — ALLIGATORS— THE SAND- 
 HILL CRANE— GREY WOLF AND BUZZARDS— FLORIDA CRACKERS 
 — A MURDERER — A SETTLER'S HOME IN THE WILDS — FLEAS 
 AND DIRT— DR. HUFF'S FARM — HUMBLE FARE — UPPER 
 MYAKKA LAKE— MULTITUDE OF ALLIGATORS — WILD FOWL 
 SHOOTING— WATER MEADOWS— HOGS — SQUIRRELS AND RA- 
 COONS AS FOOD— THE CABBAGE -PALM — A PALMETTO HUT — 
 PALM-WOOD PIERS— A TEXAN HORSE-DEALER — MORNING AND 
 NIGHT IN THE SOUTHERN AND NORTHERN FORESTS. 
 
 AVING procured, for a considera- 
 tion of six dollars a day, a waggon 
 and mule team with an intelligent 
 youth to drive and guide us, we started in the middle 
 of February for the Myakka lakes, situated some 
 
In a Hammock. . 51 
 
 fi ve-and-twenty miles inland to the south-east of 
 Tampa Bay, a part of the country where we were 
 assured large game was abundant, and turkeys so 
 numerous that they could be knocked off the trees 
 by hundreds. We were at the same time warned 
 that we should have to rough it in the severest 
 sense of the term, a warning which turned out 
 perfectly true, and free from exaggeration, which is 
 more than I can say for the account of the turkeys. 
 Crossing the strip of pine land on which the settle- 
 ment of Manatee is situated, we soon entered the 
 hammock at the back of it, and found ourselves in 
 a dense jungle of tall cabbage-palm, oak, and willow, 
 where the fresh green leaves of the wild vine and 
 other creepers formed a delicious roof above our 
 heads, sheltering us from the burning sun. A 
 legion of song birds, the red bird and sweet-toned 
 mocking-bird conspicuous among them, sent forth 
 their music from every tree, while flowering shrubs 
 added gorgeous colouring to a scene which delighted 
 both eye and ear as long as the face was turned 
 upward. 
 
 From the ground, however, there arose a pungent 
 odour of decaying vegetable matter, and turning the 
 
 E 2 
 
52 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 face towards the earth, the eye soon perceived how 
 fatal to human existence were those very agencies 
 which produced such a redundancy of animal and 
 vegetable life. Through the black soil fetid water 
 oozed, and a deadly mocassin snake glided from 
 under the mule's feet as we crossed the lowest part 
 of the swamp. The hammock passed, we reached 
 some pine-land on which was a small sugar 
 plantation and crushing-mill, and beyond that we 
 passed on to the dreary and barren prairie land which 
 covers nearly all the interior of Southern Florida, 
 north of the Everglades. 
 
 I know few places more unpleasant to travel over 
 than these Florida prairies, where the head and body 
 are scorched by the sun, and legs torn by the sharp 
 teeth of the saw-palmetto, in a manner which plays 
 the mischief with a man's wardrobe and inflicts a 
 very painful wound on the person. The horizon is 
 bordered by distant " islands" of pine, while the 
 only animal life visible consists of herds of lean, half 
 wild cattle, picking a scanty subsistance on the 
 natural grasses which grow up where the palmetto- 
 scrub has been burnt by the herdsman. 
 
 About two miles an hour was our travelling pace, 
 
Florida Prairies. 53 
 
 as we had no roads, only a sandy track across the 
 plain where the roots of the saw-palmetto made 
 our advance slow and difficult, while in the woods 
 fallen timber, half-burnt stumps, and other obstacles 
 had to be cleared away with the axe before we could 
 pass with the waggon. 
 
 Numerous swampy ponds were scattered over the 
 prairie, fringed with tall saw-grass, from which at 
 our approach rose wild duck, plover, and snipe, and 
 flocks of the beautiful great white egret and snowy 
 heron. The surface of the water, which was gen- 
 erally brackish, was covered with water-lilies of 
 various colour, above which appeared the heads of 
 alligators large and small. 
 
 Through the pine-islands the great sand-hill cranes 
 stalked majestically, their deep whoop resounding 
 for miles through the air, as they flew away disturbed 
 by our rifle-bullets. We came across no four-footed 
 game, except a solitary grey wolf, which in com- 
 pany with some hundreds of the disgusting but 
 useful turkey-buzzards was gorging himself on the 
 rotting carcass of a cow. 
 
 Towards evening, we were overtaken by a 
 party of three "Florida Crackers," armed with 
 
54 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 rifle and revolver, as rough a looking lot as 
 one might well meet, followed by two half-bred 
 hounds, as savage-looking as their masters. A 
 growling match between their dogs and ours, 
 and a surly cc good evening " in answer to our 
 salutation, was all the greeting that took place 
 between us, the rapid pace at which they walked 
 soon taking them out of our sight. These " Florida 
 Crackers," as they are called, are a class of men 
 only met with in the wilds, who, from various 
 causes, avoid civilization and live by the rifle. 
 Some are the " ne'er-do-wells " of the settlements, 
 while others are simply criminals hiding from 
 justice. Of this party of three who met us, 
 two belonged to the former, and the third to 
 the latter class, being a murderer recently escaped 
 from the county gaol at Pine Level, the county 
 town, as we were afterwards informed by some 
 of the settlers. 
 
 What I heard of this man's career was curious, 
 and characteristic of the wild country in which 
 we met him. After escaping from gaol he had 
 wandered about the country, sometimes in company, 
 sometimes alone, frequently meeting settlers and 
 
Dr. Huff's Farm. 55 
 
 hunters who knew him well, but never molested 
 him, as he swore he would not be taken alive. 
 At last one of the county officials followed him 
 up, and meeting him about a month after our 
 rencontre, shot him dead, an action which the 
 settler who informed me of the occurrence pro- 
 nounced a cowardly and detestable outrage, an 
 opinion which was applauded by his wife and 
 the rest of the assembled company. 
 
 It was near midnight before the noisy barking 
 of dogs announced our arrival at the house of 
 a settler named Dr. Huff, stock-owner and farmer, 
 by whom we were hospitably received, while we 
 were welcomed with hungry joy by the fleas. 
 
 In Florida the dwelling-houses are built much 
 alike in farms, plantations, and villages. Elevated 
 some two or three feet above the surface of the 
 ground, the foundation timbers rest on wooden 
 posts, stones, or brick pillars ; on these timbers 
 rests the frame, covered with a weather boarding 
 of common deal boards, the inner partitions being 
 made in the same way. Broad verandahs, called 
 piazzas, running along the front and back of the 
 house, and covered by a projecting shingle roof, afford 
 
56 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 the protection from the sun so indispensable in this 
 climate. A wide passage connecting the front and 
 rear of the house is common, through which a 
 draught of air is created, sufficient to drive away the 
 ever-tormenting sand-flies and mosquitoes. 
 
 All the houses in Southern Florida swarm with 
 fleas to an extent which makes existence almost 
 intolerable, and sleep to the sufferer impossible. 
 After the first trial, whenever the nature of the 
 ground permitted, I invariably pitched my tent at 
 a short distance from the farm-yards, where I was 
 entirely unmolested by fleas. I believe that dirt 
 alone is the cause of the abundance of these 
 insects, the settlers seldom, if ever, washing their 
 floors ; they complain much of the fleas, and say 
 they are bred in the sandy soil, but my own 
 experience showed me that the sandy soil was 
 perfectly free from them, while the houses, which 
 were extremely dirty, were full of them. 
 
 Cockroaches, tarantulas, ants, and other " bugs/' 
 were nearly as numerous in the houses as the 
 fleas, all of which plagues might be got rid of 
 by a daily use of soap and water. 
 
 Dr. HuiFs farm consisted of a few acres planted 
 
Daily Bread. 57 
 
 with Indian corn, tomatoes, melons, and sweet 
 potatoes, all in a flourishing condition, while round 
 the house were a few orange-trees, guavas, and 
 bananas. Though a large owner of stock, fresh 
 butter was unknown in the house, as is the 
 case throughout Florida, and milk was only pro- 
 cured by stratagem. A calf was kept shut up 
 in the farm-yard, and its half-wild mother, coming 
 morning and evening to visit it, was, at consider- 
 able personal risk, induced to part with about 
 three pints of milk, reserved for the use of a 
 consumptive man, who, even in this out-of-the- 
 way place, boarded with the Doctor, coughing 
 his life away, far from friends and such comforts 
 as seem even to many a healthy man necessities 
 of life. 
 
 The only meat ever seen at table, except what 
 our guns provided, was tough bacon, which was 
 served thrice a day, at breakfast, dinner, and 
 supper. This with a large dish of hominy, with 
 grease poured over it, was actually the only food 
 procurable or thought necessary in the compara- 
 tively wealthy and very numerous household of 
 the Doctor, and yet it was only one long day's 
 
58 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 journey to the stores at Manatee, where all the 
 necessaries and some even of the luxuries of life 
 could be procured. 
 
 Throughout the country, however, we found 
 that such formed the daily and only fare of the 
 settlers, while their drink was water or coffee, often 
 without sugar or milk. If the fare was scanty, 
 the grace was long, its length being in inverse pro- 
 portion, and frequently amounting to that of a prayer 
 of considerably longer duration than the dinner. 
 Our daily walk in search of sport was to the 
 Upper Myakka Lake, about a mile distant from 
 the house, through a pine-forest with under- 
 growth of palmetto and pau-pau. The pools left 
 by the overflow of the lake we found swarming 
 with alligators ; in one not fifty yards in diameter 
 I counted thirty-five of these hideous reptiles, 
 ranging from eight to twenty feet in length. It 
 made us at first rather nervous, when wading 
 after duck through water and mud up to our 
 waists, to know that the next step might be on 
 the back of an alligator lying buried in the 
 mud, with the probable result of losing one of 
 both legs, but impunity from such accidents quickly 
 
Upper Myahlca Lake. 59 
 
 made us bolder. On the lake we found some 
 dozen different varieties of duck, though the large 
 flocks were already beginning to migrate to the 
 north ; otters were occasionally met swimming 
 through the water-lilies, and large numbers of 
 them are trapped every season on both the 
 Upper Myakka and the Lower or Vanderipe 
 Lake. 
 
 Back from the lakes stretches a large extent of 
 low country, which, being entirely submerged during 
 the rainy season, gradually appears as the waters 
 shrink, and is quickly covered with grass as the 
 mud dries. This grass extends from the water's 
 edge to the higher prairie and pine-land, and affords 
 excellent pasture to numerous herds of cattle, chiefly 
 owned by Dr. Huff and one or two relations of 
 his, settled at considerable distances. Extremely 
 lean while their grazing ground is confined by the 
 waters to the barren prairie, the cattle become 
 proportionately fat as they feed on the rich grasses 
 of the lowlands. The hogs, too, lose some of that 
 greyhound-like appearance peculiar to the Florida 
 pig, both domestic and wild, and horses, which 
 are driven down from the north in large droves, 
 
60 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 thrive equally well when left for some months 
 to graze at will on these natural pastures. 
 
 In the pine-woods bordering the lowlands, we 
 found some deer, and generally brought back for 
 the larder some grey squirrels and racoons, which 
 abound, and are considered a delicacy by the 
 natives, especially the former; the meat is white 
 and very peculiar in both animals, and not at all 
 to my taste. 
 
 On the shore of Lake Myakka I first tasted the 
 " cabbage " of the cabbage-palm, a species of 
 chamcerops which abounds in Florida. Though 
 growing as far north as the mouth of the St. John 
 river, it is there somewhat stunted, but in the south 
 of the peninsula it is one of the most beautiful 
 of trees. Rising in a straight and graceful trunk to 
 a height varying from sixty to a hundred and 
 twenty feet without a branch, it then bursts into 
 a mass of dark-green fan-shaped leaves ; in the 
 centre of this mass, protected by numerous fibrous 
 folds, is the tender white shoot called the " cabbage," 
 easily cut out with a hunting-knife by one accus- 
 tomed to the work, but difficult enough to the un- 
 initiated. In taste it resembles a Spanish chestnut, 
 
A Palmetto Hut. 61 
 
 and is eaten both raw and boiled. At the time of 
 the Civil War the. Southern soldiers ate large 
 quantities of it, but found that it caused diarrhoea 
 and sickness, though said to be eaten by the Indians 
 with impunity. The cutting out of the " cabbage " 
 involves the destruction of the tree, which is as 
 useful as it is ornamental. The leaves form ex- 
 cellent protection from the weather when camping 
 out, a palmetto hut being constructed in a few 
 minutes in the following manner. 
 
 A cross timber is fixed between two poles, or 
 trees, from which are slanted the enormous palm- 
 leaves, forming a thatched roof sloping down to 
 the ground, impervious to rain or sun, and large 
 enough to shelter three or four sleepers. The trunk 
 of the cabbage-palm is found to be almost inde- 
 structible by water or boring insects, and is there- 
 fore largely employed in the construction of the 
 long piers commonly used as landing-stages in the 
 rivers or on the sea-coast of Florida, where the 
 shallow water prevents ships approaching within 
 two or three hundred yards of the river bank or 
 sea-shore. 
 
 A curious character arrived at Dr. Huff's during 
 
62 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 our stay, in the person of a Texan horse dealer 
 with a "bunch" of thirty-five horses, driven all 
 the way from the plains of Western Texas, some 
 fifteen hundred miles distant, a journey of three 
 months. Starting with a hundred horses, some had 
 died by the way, while others had been sold, and 
 now the remainder were destined to feed on the rich 
 pastures round the Myakka lakes until they should re- 
 cover from the effects of the j ourney. P oor wretches, 
 they sadly needed rest ; worn to skin and bone, they 
 could scarcely drag their wearied limbs after them, 
 and were constantly falling down from sheer weak- 
 ness. By passing long poles under the belly, we 
 assisted many to rise that we found lying helpless 
 in the swampy ground near the water the morning 
 after their arrival, while from the carcasses of two 
 the gorged buzzards, in vain attempting to rise, 
 showed that the poor animals would never again 
 suffer from such cruel driving. About twenty-five 
 pounds each was the price asked for these miserable 
 skeletons, a price they would hardly have fetched 
 when fresh, but one which we should not have 
 objected to give for the horses ridden by the 
 dealer himself and his coloured assistant, which 
 
A " Bunch" of Mustangs. 63 
 
 were good, wiry, useful animals, about fourteen 
 hands high, and well-adapted for hunting in a coun- 
 try like Florida. The dealer, however, would not 
 part with his own horses, and we did not feel 
 inclined to bid for the skeletons ; so after rest- 
 ing only one night in a palmetto-leaf hut they 
 had erected near our camp, the Texan and his 
 assistant mounted their mustangs with lasso on 
 the saddle and revolver in the belt, and again struck 
 northward, leaving the " bunch " of horses on the 
 pastures to fatten or die, with true Yankee un- 
 concern. 
 
 In the early morning we were daily roused up 
 in our camp, about half-an-hour before sunrise, by 
 such a chorus of birds and insects, as was truly 
 marvellous. At that time all created things seemed 
 to awaken to active life as suddenly as, in these 
 latitudes, day succeeds to night and night to day. 
 The deep resounding whoop of the sandhill-crane, 
 the cry of bitterns, herons, and ibis, the confused 
 quacking of large flocks of wild duck, the chatter- 
 ing of parroquets, the melody of a thousand song- 
 birds, the hum of millions of insects, all combined 
 in a sudden burst of sound that would have 
 
64 Wild Life in Florida. « 
 
 roused the seven sleepers. As the sun quickly- 
 mounted above the pine-tops, the -various sounds 
 would gradually become hushed, till during the 
 mid-day heats all became still as death, again to 
 break forth as the evening sun rushed down to 
 the western horizon, but ceasing as it dipped 
 below almost as quickly as the sound had burst forth 
 in the morning. The silence of the mid-hours of 
 the night was broken by the hoot of the owls, the 
 cry of the night birds, and the more savage voices 
 of the wolf, the panther, the ocelot, and the 
 alligator ; so that during the mid day heat alone 
 is there silence in the forests and swamps of 
 Florida, a curious contrast to the oppressive stillness 
 of the vast northern forests during the daylight 
 hours. When shooting in the Northern States, 
 I have felt the universal silence of the forest abso- 
 lutely painful, the occasional crash of a falling 
 tree being almost the only sound heard, as the note 
 of song-birds never enlivens those gloomy soli- 
 tudes. 
 
 In the Northern forests no man on horseback 
 could possibly force a way through without free 
 use of the axe, owing to the accumulation of fallen 
 
Florida Forests. 65 
 
 timber and the fact of the trees growing so close 
 together as to leave no passing-room ; but in 
 Florida, except in the swamps and hammocks, 
 the forests are so open that a horseman could pene- 
 trate from one end of the country to the other, 
 and few of the rivers or swamps north of the 
 Everglades are too deep to ride across in safety. 
 

 
 
 ,rr"fc 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 cfcl^ 
 
 
 
 
 wfiPi 
 
 -fetfc 
 
 if* 
 
 ^L^^> 
 
 yjp* 
 
 Q 8* 
 
 nBo^^ 
 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 HOG RAISING— TRAVELLING BY OX-WAGGON— THE CUBAN BLOOD- 
 HOUND — FLORIDA HUNTERS — SAW-GRASS PONDS— TURKEY 
 SHOOTING — OCELOT OR CAT — A RATTLE-SNAKE IN THE PAL- 
 METTO—CAMP IN THE MYAKKA SWAMP — LAKE VANDERIPE — 
 LAKE AND RIVER FISH — BOAR, BEAR, AND TURKEY HUNTING 
 — A FAT GOBBLER— CAMP UNDER PALMS — CAMP DUTIES — 
 MOSQUITO BURNING— A SHOWER OF SNAKES— ANTIDOTES TO 
 SNAKE POISON — STILL HUNTING— MOISTURE AND RUST — IN- 
 TENSE HEAT— CATTLE BRANDING — BEAR SIGN — BREAK UP 
 CAMP — OUR WANDERING COURSE. 
 
 THROUGHOUT the Peninsula of 
 
 I 
 
 Florida, large herds of hogs are raised 
 
 and roam about the forests half wild, 
 finding an independent support on the 
 mast of the oak, the palmetto and other fruit-bearing 
 trees scattered among the pine and hammock lands. 
 As wild hogs also abound, and are in the habit of 
 
A Hunting Party, 67 
 
 inducing the tame sows to retire with them into the 
 woods, and there bring up their progeny in a wild 
 state, it becomes necessary every year to form hunt- 
 ing parties to kill the wild hogs, and thus prevent 
 the sows being seduced from the allegiance which 
 even in their semi-wild state they acknowledge to man. 
 
 Some days after our arrival at the Doctor's, a 
 party assembled there for this purpose, composed 
 of all the available male population of that section of 
 the country, and forming a total of six as fine 
 hardy and stalwart young men as one could wish 
 to hunt with in a wild country. 
 
 Two ox waggons conveyed the guns, ammunition 
 and general baggage of the party, and* a large 
 quantity of salt to cure the fiesh of the hogs, deer, 
 bear, and other game we might kill. Two saddle 
 horses offered a change of conveyance to such of the 
 hunters as might be tired of riding in the waggons, 
 or of walking, while to drive the game out of the 
 thick coverts, and protect our camp when absent 
 hunting, four more or less well-bred Cuban blood- 
 hounds accompanied us, the descendants of the 
 animals formerly used by our companions for hunting 
 runaway slaves. 
 
 F 2 
 
68 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 A powerful, fierce, and courageous animal, with 
 extraordinary acuteness of nose, and able to endure 
 the intense heat of a tropical sun, the Cuban blood- 
 hound appears well adapted to hunting in Florida. 
 He will follow perseveringly the wily ocelot, sneaking 
 noiselessly through the dense palmetto, and will 
 tackle the panther or the bear in the thickest 
 hammock. Well-bred dogs of this species are how- 
 ever very scarce in Florida and cannot be purchased, 
 and many a fine day's sport we lost through the 
 want of such animals. 
 
 We considered ourselves very fortunate in falling 
 in with this hunting party, and all started in high 
 spirits for the Lower Myakka or Vanderipe Lake, 
 intending to camp on its southern end, some fifteen 
 miles distant from the Doctor's house. Skirting the 
 southern end of the upper lake, our course lay 
 nearly south through a country consisting of alter- 
 nate narrow strips of grass and jungle, with large 
 live-oaks and cabbage-palms scattered about in pic- 
 turesque groups; ponds fringed with saw-grass, 
 growing to a height of six to ten feet, were 
 numerous and swarming with alligators. From one 
 pond rose a large flock of the beautiful roseate spoon- 
 
Turkeys and Ocelot. 69 
 
 bill ibis, commonly called in Florida the red curlew, 
 the white ibis were in numbers in every pool, and 
 yarious coloured ducks and snipe lay in the thick 
 grass, rising almost under our feet. 
 
 In one of the thick palmetto jungles we heard the 
 hounds baying furiously, and as they pursued some 
 animal here and there through the scrub, a flock 
 of ten turkeys flew out over our heads. A brace of 
 these fell to my gun which was loaded with swan- 
 shot, a size which I soon afterwards found useful 
 against a far larger and fiercer animal than a fat 
 gobbler. From the way the hounds were running 
 backwards and forwards, and across from one large 
 clump of scrub-palmetto to another, it soon became 
 evident to our hunters that they were on the track 
 of an ocelot, an animal called in Florida a catamount, 
 or more usually simply a cat. As the heat of the 
 day was intense, some of the hounds had to be 
 called off every now and then and taken down to 
 the nearest pond, where they lay panting while the 
 owner watched with ready rifle to prevent the 
 approach of an alligator. When sufficiently re- 
 freshed, the hound was again put on the trail, 
 so that the ocelot being continually hunted 
 
70 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 by fresh enemies, was bound to be exhausted at 
 last. 
 
 After the hounds had been hunting for over an 
 hour, I was standing in thick palmetto-scrub up to 
 my waist, watching their movements, when I saw 
 the leaves moving about ten yards from me. Firing 
 at the spot, an ocelot sprang towards me over the 
 bushes, but receiving my second barrel in his spring, 
 fell dead almost at my feet. This beautiful animal 
 measured four feet four inches in length, from the 
 nose to the root of the tail ; the fur was reddish, 
 handsomely marked with black spots, oblong on 
 the back, and round on the belly and paws, and 
 streaked ; the strength visible in the fore-arm was 
 amazing. A cowardly and ferocious animal, the 
 ocelot commits great havoc among the pigs and 
 calves, and is therefore a most deadly enemy to the 
 stock-owner, being much more numerous than the 
 wolf, cougar, or puma — commonly called the panther 
 in Florida — all of which animals do their share of 
 mischief. The Floridan settlers attempt the destruc- 
 tion of all these animals in every possible way, so 
 that they are now becoming scarce ; but the ocelot still 
 abounds, though without dogs it can seldom be found. 
 
Gamp in Myahka Swamp. 71 
 
 Soon afterwards, the hounds killed another 
 ocelot, and by mid-day, when we reached our 
 camping-ground, the result of the morning s sport 
 was as follows. Two ocelots, three racoons, an 
 opossum, a pole-cat, a deer, sundry alligators, 
 the rattles of two large rattlesnakes, and a good 
 bag of turkeys, wild duck, snipe, and quail. One 
 of the rattlesnakes I heard rattling when about 
 twenty yards distant from a clump of cabbage- 
 palms, and cautiously advancing towards the sound, 
 I found a large snake coiled up at the foot of 
 one of the palms, ready to spring, and rattling 
 with fear and rage. I shot its head off, and 
 found its body measured seven feet in length ; 
 there were eleven young ones inside it, a fact 
 which was the cause of its rattling while I was 
 at such a distance, and by so doing of its own 
 destruction. 
 
 The spot selected for our camp was a few 
 hundred yards below the southern end of the 
 lake, on the banks of the Myakka river, and 
 was concealed in a dense growth of live oak, 
 water-oak, cabbage-palm, vine and other timber 
 and creepers covering the swamp on either bank 
 
72 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 of the river. This ground was chosen partly 
 for shelter from the sun and nearness to 
 fresh water, and partly for concealment from 
 any wandering bands of Indians or stray Florida 
 Crackers, who might make free with our camp 
 equipments during our absence hunting. 
 
 As all the hitherto published maps of this 
 part of Florida are totally incorrect, I may 
 mention that the Myakka lakes are only 
 two in number; of these, the Lower is also 
 called Lake Vanderipe. The upper lake varies 
 in size according to the season of the year ; at 
 the time of our visit, the dry season, it was about 
 three miles in width, by six in length, but very 
 shallow for a long distance from the shore. The 
 Myakka river, which rises in some swamps about 
 thirty miles to the north-east, flows through it 
 and connects the two lakes by a narrow channel. 
 The Lower or Vanderipe Lake is rather smaller 
 than the Upper, being about three miles in width 
 by four in length. The river which issues from 
 the southern end is for many miles very tor- 
 tuous and narrow, scarcely more than thirty yards 
 in width, and so shallow that we seldom got 
 
Wild Boar's Flesh. 73 
 
 wet above the waist, when fording it, except 
 when it was too dark to avoid the deep holes. 
 
 Flowing through an entirely wild and unsur- 
 veyed country, its banks generally clothed with 
 dense hammock or pine forest, it gradually widens 
 as it approaches the sea, attaining the width of 
 three or four miles at its mouth in Charlotte 
 Harbour, a distance of forty or fifty miles from 
 the lake by river. A few miles below the lake 
 the water is tidal, and swarms with fish to an 
 almost incredible amount. The fish in the lakes, 
 where the water is always fresh, were not good, 
 being soft and muddy, though very numerous, 
 but in the tidal waters of the river there were 
 many excellent varieties. 
 
 Some wild hogs were killed the evening of 
 our arrival and immediately salted, but to my 
 surprise I found that the flesh of the sows alone 
 is eaten, the wild boar being considered unfit for 
 human food in Florida, and our companions even 
 asserting that the flesh was poisonous. Assuring 
 them that I had often eaten the flesh of the 
 wild boar in Europe, Asia, and Africa, I tried 
 to persuade them to bring to camp and cook 
 
74 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 some of the flesh of the boars we had killed, but 
 they always steadily refused even to cook the 
 flesh for me to eat. 
 
 As the sky looked threatening towards sunset, 
 a palmetto-leaf hut was quickly constructed near 
 
 the camp fire, while M and I secured our 
 
 tents with extra pegs in anticipation of a rain- 
 storm, which, however, only lasted about ten 
 minutes. After the rain came the mosquitoes, 
 and a terrible night they gave us, never ceasing 
 in their attacks until about 4 a.m., or a couple 
 of hours before daylight. 
 
 Turning out of our tents at the first streak 
 of dawn, we formed three separate parties ; one 
 mounted on horseback to hunt hogs, ocelot, or 
 panther with dogs, another to shoot turkeys or 
 other birds, and the third to stalk deer or 
 whatever wild animals might be found grazing 
 on the flats near the lake. Devoting my first 
 morning to turkey shooting, I took my shot, 
 gun, and compass, and following the course of 
 the river through the thick tangled mass of 
 timber, and wild vine which covered the swamp, 
 here and there I came on open savannas 
 
Plumage of the Wild Turkey. 76 
 
 covered with fresh green grass and wild flowers, 
 and on these the turkey cc sign " was abundant. 
 
 Very timid and watchful, and a swift runner, 
 the wild turkey is very difficult to approach, but 
 I soon got a right and left at two that rose 
 close to me, while a large " bunch," alarmed at 
 the report of my gun, rose up with a tremendous 
 clatter just out of gun-shot. As the turkeys were . 
 now "gobbling," one of the hunters, who came 
 up on hearing my shots, suggested that we should 
 hide among the cabbage-palms, while he imitated 
 the cry of the hen-turkey ; this he did on a 
 bone so successfully that a fine turkey-cock came 
 strutting up, erecting his tail and displaying his 
 plumage, which glittered like gold in the sunlight, 
 to captivate the supposed female ; a shot from my 
 companion's rifle, however, laid low his pride, and 
 added to our bag a gobbler weighing nearly fifty 
 pounds. The plumage of the wild turkey is far 
 more beautiful than that of our domesticated bird, 
 being of a dark glossy grey and black, the feathers 
 edged with a bright copper colour ; from thirty to 
 fifty pounds was the usual weight of the turkeys 
 we bagged, while the amount of yellow fat that 
 
76 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 covered the body was marvellously pleasing to 
 our hungry eyes. 
 
 Having secured one more gobbler, we had as 
 much as we could carry, so slinging the dead 
 turkeys round our necks we made our way back to 
 camp, where we found breakfast ready, and 
 gradually the various parties dropped in, laden 
 with their several spoils of the chase : deer, wild 
 hogs, ocelot, wild duck, &c* 
 
 Warned by the rain of the previous evening 
 and the feverish symptoms of some of our party, 
 that we must move our camp from the swamp to 
 higher, drier, and more healthy ground, we 
 selected a sandy spot under a grove of cabbage- 
 palms on the edge of the prairie, about a quarter 
 of a mile back from our former camp, and moved 
 thither after breakfast. The weather was now 
 intensely hot, my pocket thermometer marking 
 eighty-eight degrees Fahrenheit in the shade at 
 eleven a.m., on the 23rd February; so, following 
 the example of all living animals in Florida, 
 beasts, birds, reptiles, and insects, we sought the 
 thickest shade we could find and dozed away the 
 hours of the mid-day heat. Rousing up about 
 
" IPs Raining Snakes /" 77 
 
 two p.m., we employed the next few hours in 
 the various duties of a hunting camp, washing, 
 skinning, and drying the game, cleaning our fire- 
 arms, &c, until a couple of hours before sunset, 
 when we again formed parties in pursuit of game, 
 returning to camp and supper shortly after dark. 
 
 The sound of the bells on the necks of our 
 oxen as they grazed at will, seldom straying far 
 from camp, served to guide our steps as we 
 stumbled home in the dark through swamps and 
 forest, in considerable dread of alligators and 
 snakes. The first night in our new camp under 
 the palms, we found the mosquitoes so unbear- 
 able that we were forced to spend the night in 
 the smoke of the camp-fire, where, though nearly 
 stifled, we were free from their attacks. The 
 following night we determined to try to burn 
 them out, by forming a circle of fire all round 
 our palm -grove. The dry palmetto leaves soon 
 burned up fiercely, and we were congratulating 
 ourselves on having got rid of our tormentors, 
 when one of our party, who was quietly seated 
 under a palm plucking a turkey, jumped up with 
 a yell of " H — 11, it's raining snakes !" as a 
 
78 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 rattlesnake tumbled down right on his head from 
 the top of the palm, fortunately stupefied by the 
 smoke, which curled in thick clouds over us. 
 We were not long in destroying this unexpected 
 visitor and some others which fell from other 
 trees a few seconds later, after which we were 
 disturbed by no more of these dreaded reptiles. 
 In Florida, where the two deadly species of 
 snake, the rattlesnake and the mocassin, are very 
 numerous, the same opinion holds as among the 
 Western hunters, namely, that whiskey is the 
 best known antidote to the snake poison. One 
 of our party said he had cured a boy, a young 
 brother of his own, by making a paste of 
 whiskey and soda in his hand and immediately 
 applying it to the wound, renewing it every 
 two or three minutes, and making the lad at 
 the same time drink as much whiskey as he 
 could, and keep moving about until the poison 
 had worked out, which it quickly did. We carried 
 a supply of soda with us for the purpose of 
 making such a poultice, and pepper, which Dr. 
 Huff recommended to be mixed with it, while 
 our demi-john of whiskey was strictly reserved 
 
Still Hunting. 79 
 
 for medicinal uses, coffee being usually our strongest 
 drink. 
 
 The root of the polk plant, which grows wild 
 in most parts of the country, I was also told is 
 a cure, when boiled to a pulp with whiskey 
 and applied to the wound ; but the greatest 
 promptness is necessary in applying any remedy, 
 or death results in two or three hours after 
 receiving a bite. 
 
 I had always heard that pigs were not affected 
 by snake-poison, but that they would attack and 
 eat a rattlesnake whenever they could meet one. 
 A Florida stockowner, however, assured me that 
 he had lost several pigs from the bite of rattlesnakes, 
 and reckoned the hogs were as tarnation afraid 
 of them as he was himself. Some of the country 
 dogs get quite a name for killing these snakes, 
 but as a rule they are much alarmed by the 
 rattlesnake, and seem to have an instinctive fear 
 of the sound of the rattle. 
 
 When stalking or cc still hunting " game in thick 
 grass or palmetto, the snakes are a dreadful curse. 
 It is absolutely necessary to keep, with one eye at 
 least, a sharp look out on the ground, which 
 
80 Wild Life in Florida 
 
 interferes sadly with the watchful observance of 
 the game, so necessary to success. The . sound of 
 the rattle, too, of the deadly and unseen enemy 
 always sent a cold shiver through me, when the 
 covert was too thick to see whence the warning 
 sound proceeded. Though long boots or thick 
 leather gaiters are a great protection against 
 the smaller snakes, those of large size, with 
 teeth half an inch in length, can strike through 
 almost any leather, or, as snakes can spring 
 their own length, can reach above the protected 
 part. 
 
 Another drawback to the sportsman in Florida, 
 armed with valuable English weapons, consists in 
 the impossibility of keeping them free from rust. 
 Though the air is perfectly clear, and no sensation 
 of dampness felt, the atmosphere is in reality 
 saturated with warm moisture. 
 
 I have made my guns as bright as rubbing 
 could make them, and oiled them carefully with 
 the best animal oil, and in a few hours found 
 the barrels coated with rust from breech to muzzle. 
 Some sort of paint would, I think, be the best 
 protection, as with constant care I was unable 
 
Atmospheric Influences. 81 
 
 to prevent the rust doing considerable damage to 
 all my guns. 
 
 A peculiarity of the climate, which I also 
 attributed to its warm moisture, and which some- 
 times made our meals but scanty ones, was the 
 impossibility of preserving fish, flesh, or fowl 
 more than an hour or two after death, unless 
 salted. Fish, though cleaned and scaled im- 
 mediately when caught in the morning, became 
 putrid by mid- day, and venison was uneatable by 
 the time it reached camp, if killed at any long 
 distance. Even rubbing in salt carefully into the 
 flesh will not preserve the meat more than a 
 couple of days, if killed in hot weather, a cold 
 spell being required for salting down hogs, deer, 
 or other flesh for storing. 
 
 As the weather continued intensely hot, our 
 party of hunters announced that they would kill 
 no more hogs, but would, unless cool weather 
 came, return to their several homes in a few 
 days, as the season for branding cattle having 
 now begun a busy time was before them. 
 
 The remaining time we spent at Myakka was 
 passed very pleasantly, hunting, as I have described, 
 
82 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in the morning and evening, and always finding 
 a fair amount of game, though not any extra- 
 ordinary abundance, as the season was too far 
 advanced. On many of the palms we saw bear 
 Cf sign " in the shape of the impression of their 
 claws, where they had climbed the trees to obtain 
 the mast or fruit. In October and November when 
 the scrub-palmetto and cabbage-palm produce large 
 bunches of berries, of which the bears are very 
 fond, these animals are found in numbers near 
 the inland lakes and rivers, where these trees 
 flourish. In the Spring they retire to the mangrove 
 swamps on the sea-coast, and are rarely met in the 
 interior of the country. One evening, however, one 
 of our hunters, who had ridden off to a swamp 
 some fifteen miles distant, was fortunate enough to 
 kill a full-grown black bear measuring nine feet from 
 nose to tail, and with fairly long and thick hair, 
 though none of the Florida species have the thick 
 coats of the more Northern bears. 
 
 Altogether, notwithstanding mosquitoes, snakes, 
 and heat, we were much pleased with the sport 
 we obtained during a week's camp at the Myakka 
 Lakes, where, during the Autumn and Winter, I 
 
Break ujp Camp. 83 
 
 have no doubt great quantities of game might 
 be killed. Much of the country was admirably- 
 adapted for stalking, offered splendid grazing, and 
 was timbered with a noble growth of tropical and 
 semi-tropical trees. 
 
 On the 25th of February the oxen were collected, 
 not without some difficulty and a good deal of 
 strong language, and again yoked. Deer, bear, 
 ocelot, racoon and other skins, with such pork as 
 they had been able to preserve, were packed in 
 the waggons ; guns, ammunition, tents, and camp 
 equipage were separated and stowed, some in the 
 waggons and some on the saddles of the horses, and 
 before the sun had made his appearance above the 
 horizon, hearty farewells and hand-shakings had 
 been exchanged all round, and the party broke up, 
 all making tracks across the plain for their several 
 homes. Our wandering course led us to accompany 
 a young hunter named Murray, whose home, a log 
 hut, situated some ten miles distant by a small 
 hammock on the great interior prairie, formed the 
 most advanced post to which any settler had as yet 
 penetrated in that section of the country. 
 
 G 2 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 STRIKING SOUTH— A NARROW ESCAPE— DESOLATE COUNTRY — 
 MURRAY'S HUT— ROUND THE CAMP FIRE— VICISSITUDES OF 
 A SETTLER'S LIFE— BEFORE AND AFTER THE WAR— POOR 
 IMMIGRANTS— QUAIL SHOOTING IN THE SAVANNAS — ABUN- 
 DANCE OF SNAKES — START FOR MYAKKA RIVER — OUR CYPRESS 
 TREE CANOE— PITCH AND GUM FOR CAULKING— FLORIDA 
 TROUT— AN ALLIGATOR'S CHARGE— A "SQUARE" SHOT— A 
 PARTING MEAL — SHELL MOUND — START ON OUR CANOE 
 VOYAGE— A HEARTY " GOD SPEED." 
 
 TRIKING south, we forded the 
 Myakka river, and proceeded along 
 the savannas, which extended back 
 to the edge of the palmetto prairie. 
 A long line of buzzards settling down among the 
 distant trees, marked the site of our deserted camp, 
 numbers of them having hovered round the place 
 
The Hunter's Log Hut 85 
 
 for the last two days, hardly waiting for our 
 departure to commence gorging on the fragments 
 and offal left round our hunting larder. 
 
 Making our way across the hot and dreary 
 prairie, the oxen could with difficulty drag the light 
 waggon through the dense palmetto-scrub, through 
 which no road or track of any sort. led. Towards 
 evening we reached a pine island, where I only 
 missed treading on a ground rattle-snake by about 
 half an inch, but fortunately he did not strike, 
 though ready coiled. 
 
 The soil of the country we were now in appeared 
 to be sand, very scantily mixed with loam on the 
 surface, and producing nothing but scrub-palmetto 
 and pitch-pine. Further on we reached a rich 
 hammock with a small clearing close by, in which 
 stood a roughly constructed log-hut, about twelve 
 feet square, the home of our companion Murray, 
 his brother and family, once flourishing farmers and 
 slave- owners in the state of Louisiana, but ruined 
 by the war between the Northern aud Southern 
 States. 
 
 Heartily welcomed to the best these poor settlers 
 had to offer, we pitched our tent near the well 
 
86 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 which supplied the hut, and, round a blazing fire 
 of split logs of pitch-pine, talked of our various 
 experiences of hunting and of life in far distant 
 lands. A soft breeze drove away the tormenting 
 mosquitoes and cooled the night air, so that 
 we piled on logs, lighting up the dark pine 
 forest, as we sat talking till the night was far 
 advanced. 
 
 We heard much of the vicissitudes of fortune 
 that had fallen to the lot of our friends, the brothers 
 Murray, since the Civil war had ruined them in 
 company with so many of their compatriots. They, 
 as well as almost every settler we met in Southern 
 Florida, had served as soldiers against the North, 
 and, having fought for some time in the State of 
 Florida, came to settle in it soon after the conclusion 
 of the war. After trying various localities, they 
 had at length penetrated to the wild spot where 
 we now found them, determined to try their 
 fortunes at hog-raising. Apparently this did not 
 answer well, as they were preparing to move in the 
 Autumn and try their chance in the Far Western 
 States, a course I strongly recommended, as I had 
 already formed the opinion, afterwards strengthened, 
 
Poor Immigrants. 87 
 
 that Florida is a bad place for a poor man to 
 settle in. 
 
 Totally unaccustomed to manual labour, the 
 brothers had been compelled to fell and cut up 
 trees wherewith to construct a log-hut, which the 
 hurricane of the previous October had destroyed. 
 They had commenced to clear the rich hammock 
 land close by, a terribly heavy task, and had cleared, 
 fenced, and planted about an acre when fever 
 attacked them, while insects devoured the little patch 
 of corn and sweet potatoes as soon as they appeared 
 above ground. Their horses died from the attacks 
 of poisonous flies, so that they could no longer 
 attend to the hogs, which soon joined their wild 
 brethren in the forest ; and now their whole worldly 
 wealth consisted in a yoke of oxen and waggon, 
 a cypress-tree canoe, half-a-dozen pigs which 
 remained in the neighbourhood of their clearing, 
 and a half-starved bloodhound bitch with two puppies. 
 
 It was a sad tale of misfortune and failure, but 
 my experience has shown me that such is by no 
 means a very exceptional case, and often similar 
 misfortunes befall the poor immigrant in more fertile 
 and wealthy States than Florida. Though land can 
 
88 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 be obtained for nothing, or next to nothing, in the 
 wilds, in Florida the small legal fare of fourteen dollars 
 for entering a homestead of a hundred and sixty 
 acres is usually disregarded. Money is required to 
 buy stock, and pay for such assistance as is needed 
 to build even a log-house, while provisions must be 
 bought and sickness calculated upon, as every settler 
 suffers more or less from chills and fever, and 
 dysentery is very prevalent, though seldom of a 
 severe type. 
 
 The weather becoming rather cooler after our arrival 
 at Murray's — 70 Fahr. at six a.m., 8o° at two p.m. 
 in the shade — we were able to move about more 
 comfortably, nor were the mosquitoes or flies trouble- 
 some, which was a blessing we fully appreciated 
 after our experiences of them in the Myakka swamp. 
 Except the rich hammock near the hut, where 
 mulberry, gum, live-oak, mahogany, and a hundred 
 other valuable trees and shrubs were crowded to- 
 gether, the country round Murrays' was dreary 
 pine-land on three sides, on the fourth were some 
 green savannas leading in a southerly direction to a 
 part of the Myakka river some twenty miles distant 
 from our last camp, but only three miles from 
 
Game in the Savannas. 89 
 
 Murrays' as the river makes a considerable bend soon 
 after leaving the Lower or Vanderipe lake. 
 
 In these savannas we got some pretty shooting 
 at the Florida quail, a bird much larger than our 
 quail and appearing to have some affinity to the 
 partridge. All other animals we found scarce, 
 except snakes both black and rattlesnake ; the former, 
 as harmless, we always let alone, the latter we in- 
 variably killed ; small birds too abounded, the gor- 
 geously coloured blue birds and red birds, and the 
 sweet-toned mocking birds, being conspicuous 
 among them by plumage and song. 
 
 After a couple of days' stay at Murrays', we 
 arranged with the younger brother that he should 
 accompany us as guide, in an attempt to descend the 
 Myakka river in their cypress-tree canoe to a creek 
 flowing into the main river, by ascending which we 
 could reach a famous salt-spring where he assured us 
 game abounded. Thence we proposed to make 
 our way down through the great mangrove swamps 
 near the mouth of the Myakka river, to Charlotte 
 Harbour on the Gulf of Mexico, and thence ascend 
 Pease Creek to a settlement called Hickory BlufT. 
 
 The oxen and waggon were called into use to 
 
90 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 convey our arms and baggage down to the river 
 bank where the canoe was fastened, about four miles 
 distant from the hut. It was with great difficulty 
 we got the waggon down to the river, the oxen 
 being scarcely able to force their way through the 
 palmetto, which grew higher than their heads, be- 
 yond which we had to clear a road with our axes 
 through a forest of cabbage-palms that grew to an 
 enormous height, numbers twisted in every fantastic 
 form having been shattered and overturned in a con- 
 fused jumble by the late October hurricane. The 
 river bank reached, we proceeded to examine the 
 canoe, which we found was made from a cypress 
 trunk thirty feet in length, by two feet six inches 
 in breadth, and sharp at both ends, in which were 
 fixed small seats whence to paddle, the paddler in 
 the stern having also the duty of steering. 
 
 As we discovered one or two small leaks, we 
 tapped one of the pitch-pines which grew near, and 
 collecting the juice in a small tripod that we 
 carried, boiled it down with some of the gum from 
 the gum-trees and caulked the canoe, soon making 
 her perfectly water-tight. 
 
 Meanwhile I rigged up a fishing rod, and using 
 
An Alligator's Charge. 91 
 
 the small green tree-frogs as bait, quickly provided 
 an abundance of excellent fish for dinner. The 
 moment the line was thrown into the water I 
 hooked and landed a black bass, called in Florida 
 trout, of seven pounds weight, then one of three 
 pounds, and a flattish fish called a perch, weighing 
 nearly four pounds. As I was scaling and cleaning 
 these by the water's edge, I observed the huge 
 head and wicked eyes of an alligator silently and 
 rapidly swimming towards me, attracted by the fish 
 scales on the water. Quickly grasping my gun, 
 which lay beside me on the bank, I imitated the 
 grunting of a pig, till the alligator had fearlessly 
 approached to within six yards of me, then jumping 
 up I gave him both barrels " squarely" in the face, 
 when blinded with pain and rage he lashed the 
 water furiously with his tail, and charged straight 
 at the spot where I stood. I lost no time in making 
 tracks., and scrambled up the river-bank in a hurry, 
 but the alligator striking his head violently against 
 the rock on which I had stood, dived and reappeared 
 on the opposite side of the river, where he crawled 
 out on a mud-bank, and turning on his side in a few 
 minutes lay dead; the large shot with which my 
 
92 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 gun was loaded, in anticipation of meeting turkeys, 
 having penetrated both eyes into the brain, had killed 
 this twenty foot alligator as effectually as a rifle 
 bullet. 
 
 After thus defeating this attempt on our dinner, 
 the fish were fried and coffee prepared, and, 
 when the caulking of the boat was completed, we 
 had a parting meal together, and a parting bumper 
 to our safe voyage. A large stone jar was then 
 filled with fresh water from a small creek which 
 flowed into the Myakka at the base of a high mound 
 of sand and shells, which marked the spot where the 
 canoe was moored, and, the baggage and gun-cases 
 being stowed in the centre of our frail craft, all was 
 ready for a start. As we paddled out into the stream 
 the elder Murray and his son bade us a hearty God 
 speed, and charged the brother to look well after us, 
 a charge which illness soon prevented his fulfilling, 
 and, inverting our positions, gave us the duty of 
 looking after and caring for him. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE MTAKKA RIVER— MINERAL OIL— STOWAGE AND DRAUGHT 
 OF CANOE — A LONELY RIVER — SNAKE-BIRDS — A SCENE IN A 
 TROPICAL FOREST — CAMP — MURRAY'S ILLNESS — SLOUGH 
 CREEK— NEARLY SWAMPED BY ALLIGATORS— THE FIRST WHITE 
 EXPLORERS — OBSTACLES TO NAVIGATION — DANGERS OF 
 WADING— CUTTING OUR WAY— CAMP ON THE PRAIRIE — 
 WEARY HUNTERS— MORNING ON THE PRAIRIES— COLD IN 
 THE TROPICS — A BEE TREE— THE PAW-PAW — THE SALT 
 SPRING— BEWARE OF ALLIGATORS— FRESH AND SALT STREAMS 
 — SAVANNAS— THE WILD BEASTS' HOME— FACE TO FACE WITH 
 A BEAR— DEER-STALKING — MOCASSIN SNAKE — THE FLORIDA 
 PUMA OR PANTHER— WILD CATTLE— BATHING— IRREGULAR 
 TIDES— INDIANS HUNTING— INDIAN SIGN. 
 
 HE Myakka river, where we em- 
 barked in our canoe, was tidal, 
 rising and falling some three feet 
 the tide. The banks were about twelve 
 feet in height, and the tide being at its lowest 
 
94 Wild -Life in Florida. 
 
 ebb, the geological formation of the bed and banks 
 was very apparent. 
 
 The bed of the river consisted of hard, bluish 
 limestone-rocks scooped out by the action of the 
 water into little hollow basins and holes, with 
 edges and projecting points as sharp as spear-heads, 
 and hard as steel. Above the rock, which rose 
 just to the level of high-water, came rich, 
 dark clay about five feet in depth, then 
 sand two feet in thickness, and then a layer 
 of vegetable mould, varying from a few inches 
 to three feet in depth. On the surface of 
 the river-water when boiled, there always appeared 
 an oily scum, showing the presence of mineral oil, 
 an appearance we afterwards noticed on several 
 large rivers, Pease Creek, the Caloosahatchie, the 
 St. John river, and others. 
 
 When fully laden our canoe drew just Hve inches, 
 our gunwale being four inches above water. Our 
 guide, Murray, paddled and steered in the stern, 
 
 I paddled in the bows, and M sat in the centre 
 
 on a heap of luggage. 
 
 Rapidly and smoothly we glided over the dark 
 surface of the lonely river, which gradually widened 
 
Sunset in a Tropical Forest. 95 
 
 as we descended. Hundreds of alligators watched 
 us with startled eyes, slowly and silently sinking 
 out of sight a few feet from our bows ; water- 
 turkeys or snake-birds uttered a shrill cry 
 as they flew away from every overhanging tree, 
 and kingfishers darted hither and thither, apparently 
 bewildered by the strange sight of a canoe full of 
 men. 
 
 Beautiful ferns and tall lilies, with large white, 
 crimson, or purple blossoms, fringed the water's 
 edge, while the banks were overhung with a 
 tangled mass of the densest tropical vegetation. As 
 the evening sun touched with gold the rich green 
 tops of the palms, and brightened the sombre hues 
 of the live-oaks festooned with grey masses of 
 Spanish moss, and relieved by the bright green leaves 
 of the wild vine and the crimson and white blossoms 
 of the parasitic air-plant, while it reflected its 
 own glowing image in the dark water, till we 
 seemed to be floating in a river of fire, I thought 
 my mortal eyes would never look on" any more 
 gorgeous display of tropical colouring. 
 
 At sunset we camped on a dry sandy point 
 of pine-land on the left bank of the river, there 
 
96 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 about half a mile in width, having come as near 
 as we could calculate about fourteen miles, the 
 latter part with a strong tide running against us. 
 As we sat round the camp-fire that evening 
 smoking, our guide was taken ill with a sharp 
 attack of chills and fever; so, dosing him with 
 quinine and whiskey, I made him roll himself up 
 in a large heap of blankets inside my tent, and 
 the following morning he appeared much better. 
 
 Before sunrise we were again afloat, and about 
 half a mile from our last camping ground, came 
 to the mouth of a creek on the left or east side 
 of the river, which our guide called Slough Creek, 
 i.e., the blind creek — and said we could ascend to 
 within a couple of miles of the salt-spring. Accord- 
 ingly, turning to the left, we entered the creek 
 and paddled up its tortuous channel. On either 
 hand swamp and rushes reached back to the pine 
 woods some two miles distant, and banks of black 
 mud and sand extended from the rushes into the 
 creek, swarming with alligators in incredible 
 numbers. 
 
 When obliged by the shallowness of the water 
 to pass close to some of these banks, we were 
 
Slough Creek. 97 
 
 several times in great danger of being upset by 
 these monsters. They would disdain to notice us 
 until we were a few feet from them, when half-a- 
 dozen would plunge into the water right under 
 our canoe, striking the bottom violently with 
 their scaly backs and sending a shower of mud 
 and water over us. Being from fifteen to twenty 
 feet in length, they could have crushed our canoe 
 with one scrunch of their powerful jaws, and were 
 these animals not as cowardly as they are formid- 
 able in appearance, we, the first white men ever 
 known to have ascended Slough Creek in a boat, 
 should not have lived to tell the tale of our 
 adventures. 
 
 About two miles above the mouth of the creek 
 we reached the high prairie-land, the river flowing 
 between banks of red clay and sand about six feet 
 high. Alligators were much less numerous, but 
 great numbers of the shy-pook or bittern displayed 
 their ungainly forms as they flew from tree to tree. 
 A few miles higher the stream became narrower 
 and more shallaw, flowing through a dense ham- 
 mock of cabbage-palm and other trees, and 
 presenting so many obstacles to navigation 
 
 H 
 
98 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 that our advance became extremely slow and 
 laborious. 
 
 Here and there sand-banks extended right 
 across the creek, so that we had to wait until 
 the tide, which was flowing at the rate of about 
 one foot in the hour, rose sufficiently to float us 
 over them. Sometimes we had to unload the 
 canoe and drag her across the bars, wading in the 
 water ourselves, and keeping a sharp look-out for 
 alligators and large crabs which abounded in the 
 sandy bottom, , and might have given our bare 
 feet an ugly nip. Shoals of mullet, long-nosed 
 tobacco-pipe fish with scaleless bodies, bass, and 
 bream darted about, and from half submerged 
 trunks of trees terrapins splashed hastily into the 
 water at our approach. 
 
 Soon the obstacles became more formidable, tall 
 cabbage-palms and water-oaks, having fallen across 
 the creek, required to be cut through with an axe 
 before we could advance, no light work with the 
 thermometer at eighty-five Fahr. in the shade, and 
 mosquitoes nearly devouring our half- naked bodies. 
 Slowly advancing thus about ten miles, we found 
 the accumulation of fallen trees in the water so great 
 
Camp on the Prairie. 99 
 
 that further ascent of the creek became impossible ; 
 landing therefore on the right bank, with knife and 
 axe we cut a passage through the tangled mass of 
 jungle and forest trees, to the high prairie-land about 
 a hundred paces distant. There we selected a sandy- 
 spot, under a group of six pitch pine-trees, where 
 on ground tolerably free from palmetto and thorny 
 acacia we pitched our camp. As the water in the 
 creek was too salt to drink, we had then to hunt 
 for fresh, which, guided by a thin line of bright 
 green foliage about a quarter of a mile distant, we 
 had no difficulty in finding. Filling our water-jar 
 with the fresh but extremely black water of the 
 little stream, we returned to camp, and after supping 
 frugally on coffee, biscuit and salt pork, we crawled 
 into our tents thoroughly worn out with our long 
 day's labour. Soon the sound sleep of the wearied 
 fell upon me, notwithstanding the mosquitoes and 
 the groans of my tent companion, our guide, who 
 was suffering much from fever and ague and from 
 dysentery. 
 
 Roused up about four a.m. by the bitter cold, I 
 turned out of my tent and endeavoured to light a 
 fire, in which task I succeeded only after many vain 
 
 H 2 
 
100 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 attempts. A thick mist covered the face of the 
 prairie, through which the stars faintly twinkled, 
 while everything was saturated with wet, great 
 drops falling from the trees as though it were raining 
 heavily. 
 
 Strange as it may seem in so hot a climate, 
 
 throughout our camp life in Florida we frequently 
 
 suffered much from cold in the early morning 
 
 between the hours of three and six, though provided 
 
 with thick coats and blankets, and never undressing 
 
 at night. The heavy night dews and mists had by 
 
 that time thoroughly cooled the heated ground, 
 
 while the new day was not yet born with its blazing 
 
 sun, which for twelve hours would pour down from 
 
 a cloudless sky rays of fire, given back with interest 
 
 by the sandy soil ; so debilitated did our frames 
 
 then become by the heat above and beneath, that, 
 
 although the thermometer rarely fell below fifty 
 
 degrees Fahrenheit at night, it appeared to us a 
 
 temperature painfully cold though doubtless healthy, 
 
 as giving renewed vigour to stand the heat of the 
 
 coming day. 
 
 A strong dose of opium and breakfast so far 
 restored our guide that he was able to accompany 
 
A "Bee-tree." 101 
 
 us in search of the salt spring which we were anxious 
 to visit. Though Murray had never before ascended 
 Slough Creek in a boat, he had once or twice been 
 camped on its banks when hunting, and said he 
 should be able to ascertain our exact position if we 
 could find a certain " bee-tree" which grew on the 
 edge of the prairie near the head of the creek. 
 
 Skirting the edge of the pine-forest which bordered 
 the prairie, we tramped along through the palmetto 
 and paw-paw, or custard apple, a species of Anona, 
 which covered the ground. Observing that the 
 bees, which fed on the parti-coloured blossoms of 
 the paw-paw and other flowers, all directed their 
 flight towards a giant pine-tree which stood alone 
 beyond the line of timber, we made our way there, 
 and found bees swarming about the lower branches, 
 a height of at least sixty feet from the ground, 
 while the girth of this patriarch of the forest was 
 something quite enormous. This unmistakable land- 
 mark our guide at once pronounced to be the " bee 
 tree" of which we were in search, and pointed out 
 a clump of timber about three miles distant across 
 the plain in a northerly direction, as the spot where 
 we should find the salt spring. 
 
102 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 Making our way across the prairie in that direc- 
 tion, as we approached the spring a strong smell of 
 sulphur impregnated the air, and a light mist over- 
 hung the water. We had some difficulty in forcing 
 our way through the dense growth of scrub-palmetto 
 higher than our heads, acacia, oak and other trees 
 which bordered the spring, but at last we stood on 
 its brink. We found the spring consisted of a circular 
 basin about sixty yards in diameter : the water was 
 clear as crystal except at the south-west edge, where 
 it had a milky appearance, which our guide said 
 sometimes extended over the whole basin. The 
 bottom was covered with shells, and a brown slime 
 which occasionally bubbled up to the surface and 
 smelt like sulphur : the depth was from four to 
 eight feet. Sinking my thermometer in the water 
 I ascertained that the temperature at a depth of five 
 feet was ninety degrees Fahrenheit, while that of 
 the air was eighty-two degrees. To the taste, the 
 water was salt and sulphurous, peculiarly nasty and 
 offering a strong contrast to its marvellously clear 
 and tempting appearance. I was about to test the 
 buoyancy of the water by bathing, when the scaly 
 body of an alligator emerged from the opposite bank, 
 
Salt Spring. 103 
 
 and swimming rapidly towards us, made me alter 
 my intention, and determine to remain on the safer 
 element. 
 
 Proceeding carefully to examine the basin, we 
 found that two streams of most excellent fresh water 
 flowed into it, one on the north, the other on the 
 south-west, while a considerable body of salt water 
 flows out of the basin, within a few feet of the spot 
 where the fresh-water stream flows in on the south- 
 west. I saw no fish in the basin, but large shoals 
 of mullet in the salt stream flowing out, the bed 
 and banks of which were very remarkable, being 
 entirely composed of trap rock without a particle of 
 sand or mud covering it. Oleander, thorny acacia, 
 laurel, bay, paw-paw, cabbage-palm, and many flower- 
 ing shrubs unknown to me, formed a dense growth 
 which marked the winding course of the two fresh 
 streams across the prairie, while the salt out-flow, 
 which formed quite a small river, was fringed with 
 forest trees, and a growth of palmetto almost im- 
 penetrable. 
 
 The prairie and pine forest in the vicinity of the 
 salt spring abounds in savannas of the sweetest grass, 
 with circular clumps of the saw-palmetto scattered 
 
104 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 through them, and numerous round ponds where 
 the grass, rushes and water-lilies grow to a height of 
 six or seven feet, having a depth of about two feet of 
 water beneath. Nature having thus provided the 
 sweetest food, the thickest covert, and coolest shade, 
 wild animals, birds, and reptiles of every description 
 seek these tempting haunts, and afford capital sport 
 to the hunters, both red and white, who may chance 
 to visit the neighbourhood. 
 
 After examining the basin of the salt spring, we 
 scattered about in search of game which "soon 
 presented itself before me in a manner not altogether 
 agreeable. Following the course of the salt out- 
 flow, I had struggled through the jungle which 
 clothed the* bank, forded the river, and clambering 
 up the opposite bank had just reached the top, 
 when I suddenly found myself within three paces of 
 a black bear, sitting up so as to peer over the tops 
 of the palmetto and see what was coming up the 
 river bank. I confess that I was horribly frightened 
 at the sight of the bear, but so, fortunately, was the 
 bear at the sight of me. Before I could raise my 
 rifle to my shoulder he had crashed into the thick 
 palmetto and disappeared, leaving me uncertain 
 
An Aivkward Position. 105 
 
 whether I was most disappointed at not having got 
 a shot at him, or relieved at not having been 
 attacked in such a very awkward position. 
 
 In the little savannas we got some pretty deer- 
 stalking, meeting several small herds of six or seven, 
 with some fine heads among the stags, and all tame 
 enough to get within easy shot. In one of the 
 rushy ponds I observed a black-plumaged bird, 
 rather larger than a starling, with two tufts of 
 crimson feathers on its head, one on each side, a bird 
 which our guide pronounced to be extremely rare in 
 Florida, and one which is, I believe, unknown to 
 naturalists. On the muddy edges of these ponds, 
 hundreds of snake tracks were visible, and with 
 the butt end of my rifle I despatched a large 
 mocassin snake which lay coiled right in the 
 track. 
 
 Dysentery and fever again attacking our guide at 
 night, he was unable to hunt the following day, so 
 
 M and I started across the prairie at sunrise 
 
 with many misgivings as to finding our way back to 
 camp again. When near one of the saw-grass 
 ponds, we observed a large animal leisurely trotting 
 towards us, which at first we supposed to be an 
 
106 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 ocelot ; but as it approached, we perceived, from its 
 tawny grey colour, without spots or stripes, that it 
 was a puma or Florida panther, also called the South 
 American lion. Standing concealed behind a clump 
 of palmetto, it came boldly towards us without 
 getting our wind, till a rifle-bullet interrupted its 
 course, when bounding into the long saw-grass of 
 the pond before we could cut off its retreat, the 
 puma disappeared with a savage growl to- die a 
 lingering death, and be found the following day 
 stiff and stark among the tall reeds and water-lilies. 
 We devoted our attention for the rest of that 
 morning to deer-stalking and returned to camp 
 before mid-day, without losing ourselves, as we 
 had anticipated at starting, but without being 
 able to secure any turkeys or any palatable 
 meat, as the deer were now almost unfit for 
 food. 
 
 Hundreds of wild cattle exist in Southern Florida, 
 in every respect wild animals, distinguishable not 
 only by the fact of not being branded, as all the 
 cattle owned by settlers are, but also by the very 
 perceptible difference in the natures of the owned 
 and ownerless animals. The former, being collected 
 
Wild Cattle. 107 
 
 every year for numbering and branding, showed no 
 sign of fear at the approach of man, but continued 
 to graze quietly, or moving only a short distance, 
 would stand and watch us as we moved about. The 
 latter, on the contrary, would observe the greatest 
 caution before venturing from the shelter of the 
 forest into the open savannas, reconnoitering the 
 ground carefully, pawing and sniffing the air before 
 daring to feed, and on the slightest alarm dashing 
 away like a herd of buffalo, and disappearing in 
 the nearest timber. Having observed a small herd 
 of these wild cattle grazing on a distant savanna 
 on the left bank of the creek, we were glad to 
 obtain fresh meat for the camp by the slaughter 
 pf a fat young cow, selected by our guide as the 
 most experienced judge of what would make the 
 best beef; but except when very short of food, 
 as on the present occasion, we never shot any of 
 the wild cattle. Our camp at Slough Creek being 
 very near the water enabled us to enjoy the luxury 
 of bathing every day after our morning hunt, and 
 again in the evening, the thick foliage affording 
 shade impenetrable to the sun, while no alligators 
 ventured so far up the shallow sandy creek. The 
 
108 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 mosquitoes, however, and sand -flies — a venomous 
 little insect resembling our midge — attacked us so 
 fiercely, on emerging from the water, that clothes 
 had to be hurried on without the previous drying 
 generally considered necessary after bathing. On 
 these occasions we made careful observations on 
 the state of the tide, knowing that we could only 
 descend the creek again by taking the tide at the 
 flood. We were surprised to find that there was 
 seldom any regular ebb and flow, but that the 
 water would sometimes run up or down for twenty- 
 four hours or even longer periods. Mentioning 
 this circumstance afterwards to the captain of a 
 coasting schooner, he said it was usual on the rivers 
 emptying into the Gulf of Mexico, as the tides 
 were entirely influenced by the prevailing winds 
 when blowing strong. 
 
 The canoe remained, during our stay, moored 
 to a tree which overhung the creek. The heavy 
 part of our baggage, such as ammunition, gun- 
 cases, stores, &c, being left on the bank close by, 
 covered with a waterproof sheet to protect them 
 from the heavy dews. We felt no anxiety as to 
 the safety of canoe, baggage or camp, as we knew 
 
Indian " Sign. 9 ' 109 
 
 there were no white men in that part of the 
 country ; and that a hunting-parting of red men, 
 Seminole Indians from the Everglades, who had 
 been seen to ascend the Myakka river in three boats 
 about a month previously, had again returned sea- 
 ward, we had learnt by the following cc sign." On 
 a bank of the river before ascending Slough Creek, 
 our guide had pointed out to us some sticks, cut 
 and sharpened at the end, stuck into the ground 
 in a slanting direction, corresponding with the ebb 
 or downward current of the river. This, he ex- 
 plained, was the Indian " sign," to any red man 
 who might come along, that the hunting-party had 
 again descended the Myakka, and were making 
 their way back towards the Everglades. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SERIOUS ILLNESS OP OUR GUIDE— DESCENT OP SLOUGH CREEK 
 — ALLIGATOR SHOOTING— CAMP IN A PINE FOREST— AN ALLI- 
 GATOR POOL— MANGROVE ISLETS— THE HOME OF THE EGRET 
 AND IBIS— YOUNG PELICANS— ANIMAL LIFE IN THE WATER 
 — ADDLED EGGS— DANGEROUS ILLNESS OF MURRAY— ROARING 
 ALLIGATORS — THE RIVER BANKS— SNAKE ISLAND — A LOST 
 DINNER A SORE TRIAL — BURNT OUT — LOST IN A MANGROVE 
 SWAMP — SENT ALOFT— A DANGEROUS CROSSING— NARROW 
 ESCAPE — EXTRAORDINARY QUANTITY OF FISH— REACH PEASE 
 CREEK. 
 
 N the morning of the 3rd of March, 
 the increasing illness of our guide, 
 Murray, determined us to break up 
 camp; so, in order to catch the flood tide, we turned 
 out an hour before daybreak, and by sunrise were 
 once more afloat in our canoe making the best of 
 
Alligator Shooting. Ill 
 
 our way down stream. Our sick guide we placed 
 in the middle of the canoe, as he was too ill to 
 stand any exertion, while I took his place at 
 
 paddling and steering in the stern, and M 
 
 mine, in the bows. With a fair ebb-tide we de- 
 scended rapidly, the work of clearing a passage 
 having been so well done on the way up, that 
 the axe was only required once to cut through a 
 fallen tree, which the lower tide had allowed us to 
 pass under when ascending. 
 
 The mud banks at the mouth of the creek we 
 found, as before, swarming with alligators, of which 
 we shot two, which disdained to move off the 
 banks as we passed at a distance of only a few 
 feet. I have no doubt we could easily have killed 
 five hundred in a day, had we so chosen, but as 
 we could not eat them, and had no time to bury 
 the carcass, in order to extract the teeth when rotten, 
 we did not care to shoot them. An additional 
 reason for sparing them was the thought that 
 their dead bodies would pollute the river water, 
 which we might be compelled to drink should 
 we not discover fresh water creeks lower down. 
 From the mouth of Slough Creek we paddled 
 
112 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 down the Myakka river for about four miles, 
 when, the tide having turned and flowing against 
 ns, we camped on the right bank, on a high 
 piece of pine-land, where the vegetation marked 
 the presence of a fresh water stream. 
 
 Sheltered by overhanging banks, we found a 
 deep pool of fresh water in the bed of a little 
 stream which was dry, except where the water had 
 collected in holes. That in the pool was nearly 
 black, had a musky smell, and contained a number 
 of small alligators from six to twelve inches in 
 length. For want of better, however, we were 
 forced to use it for coffee, and even in Florida, 
 where sweet or wholesome water is very rare, I 
 seldom tasted any such revolting stuff. 
 
 At our camping ground, the Myakka was about 
 a mile in width, but so shallow and full of sand- 
 banks that we could hardly drag our canoe along 
 the water, wading ourselves in long, thick boots, 
 to protect us from the electric fish, sting-rays and 
 crabs which abounded in the river. Opposite and 
 below our camping ground were several small 
 islands, covered with low mangrove trees, the 
 resort of thousands of birds which had built their 
 
A Mangrove Islet. 113 
 
 nests in them, and whose droppings gave both 
 trees and shrubs beneath the appearance of having 
 been whitewashed. 
 
 Stowing guns and fishing-tackle on board our 
 canoe, when the camp was pitched and dinner 
 
 over, M and I paddled quietly down with 
 
 the tide to one of those mangrove islets, about 
 a mile below our camp, whence there issued a 
 very Babel of birds' cries audible for miles. As 
 we approached the islet, hundreds of wild-duck 
 flapped slowly away across the water, too fat to 
 rise ; and as we ran our bow up on the sandy 
 beach, there rose above our heads flocks of pelicans, 
 flamingoes, great white egrets, roseate spoonbill-ibis, 
 blue and snowy herons, a dense mass of screaming, 
 circling, beautiful birds, that filled us with no less 
 wonder than pleasure. 
 
 On the islet fresh objects of interest met us at 
 every step; the large mangrove trees were filled 
 with the coarsely constructed nests of the pelicans, 
 herons and ibis, all with eggs or young birds 
 in them. The young unfledged pelicans with 
 their enormous beaks gaping wide, were about 
 the ugliest little monsters I ever beheld, nor were 
 
 I 
 
114 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 the young herons much more to be admired. 
 Taking several of the eggs of the various birds, 
 we left the young pelicans alone, as we could not 
 bring ourselves to eat such hideous animals, though 
 they are considered a great delicacy in Florida. 
 While we explored the nests, the parent birds kept 
 flying about in a dreadful state of anxiety, coming 
 often within a few feet of us ; so we had no diffi- 
 culty in securing specimens of these birds, which 
 we wished to preserve on account of their beautiful 
 plumage. 
 
 In the water, we found animal life as abundant 
 as on the islets, the moment a baited hook was 
 thrown in, it was immediately seized by some 
 voracious fish. Sometimes the strong hand line 
 broke at the first tug, sometimes we hauled along- 
 side the boat some monster that we dared not handle? 
 so had to cut the line ourselves, and let the fish go, 
 hook and all. Cat-fish, sting-rays, bass, and electric 
 fish abounded, but we caught few eatable kinds, 
 two large black bass being the only ones reserved for 
 our supper. 
 
 On returning to camp we roasted some of the 
 eggs of the pelicans and herons, but found them 
 
Roaring Alligators. 115 
 
 either addled or too strong flavoured even for our 
 stomachs, though we had long ceased to be par- 
 ticular as to what we ate or drank. Tired enough 
 with the great heat of the day, and extremely 
 anxious about the life of our guide, who was now 
 very ill indeed, we turned into our tents that night 
 resolved to make a determined effort to reach some 
 human habitation next day, where our sick guide 
 might remain until he should have recovered suffi- 
 ciently to make his way back to his brother's 
 home. 
 
 About midnight we were roused up by the most 
 fearful bellowing from the river's bank, a few 
 yards from our tents, and I had just seized my 
 revolver, expecting an attack from some unknown 
 wild beast, when 1 was re-assured by the voice of 
 my sick companion, saying he <c Reckoned it was 
 only the 'gators." I had never before heard the 
 voice of the alligator, and was much surprised to 
 find the animal could give out such loud and for- 
 midable sounds. As we had pitched our tents 
 between the river and the pool full of small 
 alligators, we concluded that the parents were 
 anxious to visit their offspring in the pool, but 
 
 I 2 
 
116 Wild Life. in Florida. 
 
 were too much afraid of our tents to cross the 
 intervening land, so they lay on the river-bank 
 bellowing. Whatever the cause of the noise may 
 have been, the effect was an almost sleepless night 
 to us, as the brutes never ceased till just before 
 dawn, when we had to turn out and light the fire 
 for breakfast. 
 
 A cold fog hung over the water as we again 
 embarked in the canoe, but disappeared as the sun 
 mounted above the horizon, and soon shone down 
 on us with a heat which the light westerly breeze 
 alone made endurable. Increasing in width as we 
 paddled down, the river became more thickly 
 studded with islands covered with mangrove or 
 cedar-swamp and grass. On our right, pine-trees 
 stretched back as far as we could see ; on the 
 left, red-cedar, cabbage-palm, and Spanish bayonet 
 (yucca), clothed the bank, which occasionally dis- 
 appeared in a vast rushy swamp stretching back to 
 the distant prairie. At mid-day we stopped to 
 rest and dine on a mangrove islet, where the 
 number of snakes in the long grass made us keep 
 carefully near the sandy beach. Lighting a fire 
 on the edge of the grass and the sand, we pro- 
 
Burnt Out 117 
 
 ceeded to cook our dinner, keeping well to wind- 
 ward, and allowing the flames to spread to leeward, 
 in the hope of roasting some of the snakes. The 
 coffee was just boiled, the hominy cooked, and 
 the bacon and fish nicely fried, when the wind 
 chopped round, and in a moment down came the 
 roaring flames right on top of us. We had just 
 time to snatch up our fire-arms, throw a few 
 articles lying about into the canoe, and shove 
 off into the river, leaving our dinner to its fate, 
 and glad to escape the roasting we had thought 
 to inflict on the snakes. When the fire had passed, 
 we returned to seek our pots and pans, and then 
 selected a safer spot where we cooked a hurried 
 meal ; after which we again embarked, as we had 
 far to travel before sunset. 
 
 I think our tempers were more tried by this 
 sudden loss of our dinner and quiet pipe after- 
 wards, than by any of the greater and far more 
 serious hardships we went through during any 
 part of our travels in Florida. We always looked 
 forward to our mid-day meal and hour of rest 
 in the shade, with a good supply of real " Lone 
 Jack" tobacco, as one of the few bits of luxury 
 
118 Wild Ufa in Florida. 
 
 obtainable in our wandering life. Our breakfasts 
 being taken long before sunrise, were cold and 
 hurried ; and after supper we were generally too tired 
 with the day's work to enjoy anything but such rest 
 as the mosquitoes and sand-flies permitted. At 
 mid-day we could avoid these pests by keeping 
 in the open, as they cannot stand the full blaze 
 of the sun, or remain in such shady spots as are 
 open to the fresh day breezes. 
 
 The cloud of smoke that rose behind us, as 
 we paddled on, somewhat comforted us with the 
 thought that our enemies the snakes and mosquitoes 
 were suffering, and the difficulty of navigation we soon 
 experienced drove out the last thoughts of the lost 
 dinner. Keeping near the left bank, by direction 
 of our guide, the river became so wide that we 
 altogether lost sight of the right bank. Oh our 
 left, a mangrove swamp extended back for miles 
 to a distant ridge of pine, and our guide informed 
 us we must seek for a water passage through the 
 swamp, which he had been told by the Indians 
 existed, but with the exact locality of which he 
 was unacquainted. It would, he said, be impossible 
 
Lost in a Mangrove Swamp. 119 
 
 to follow the natural course of the river and round 
 the mangrove point at the mouth, into Charlotte 
 Harbour, as the sea there would certainly sink our 
 heavily laden canoe. 
 
 Following this advice, we entered the first opening 
 we could perceive in the mangroves, but it turned 
 out to be only a long blind bayou, so we were obliged 
 to retrace our course into the main river. The 
 second opening we attempted, branched out into 
 narrow arms of deep black water, extending in every 
 direction through the swamp, and forming in- 
 numerable islets, and many blind bayous without any 
 outlet like the first we had tried. 
 
 Twisting and turning in every direction, we 
 followed what appeared to be the deepest channel, 
 till we had penetrated to the centre of the swamp, 
 where the mangroves were scattered about through 
 the water in such a manner that we could no longer 
 discover any practicable passage. Seeing, on one of 
 the islets which rose a few inches above the water, 
 the white trunk and branches of a dead tree tower- 
 ing high above the mangroves, we made our way 
 as near as we could get to it, and one of us climbing 
 up so as to overlook the islands, discovered a thin 
 
120 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 line of water extending some distance further through 
 the swamp. Repeating the operation several times 
 when completely at fault, we were at length hailed 
 
 by M , who this time had been sent aloft, with 
 
 the cheering intelligence that a few hundred yards 
 further we should find ourselves in open water. 
 This proved to be the case, and emerging from the 
 horrid gloom of the swamp, we found ourselves in 
 a bay apparently about six miles in width, on the 
 opposite shore of which we could just distinguish 
 two frame houses standing out from a back- 
 ground of pines, forming part of the settlement of 
 Hickory Bluff, on the north or right bank of Pease 
 Creek. 
 
 The sun was now getting low, and a broad bay 
 lay before us, by crossing which we could reach the 
 settlement by sun-down, but ran the risk of being 
 swamped as a fresh breeze was blowing and creating 
 a considerable sea. On the other hand, by coasting 
 round the bay, we could remain in comparatively 
 smooth and shallow water, but would be forced to 
 camp out at night on the edge of the great mangrove 
 swamp, which would have been certain death to 
 our sick guide. Though the poor fellow besought 
 
Beach Charlotte Harbour. 121 
 
 us not to risk crossing, we determined to try it ; so 
 
 charging M , who paddled in the bows, instantly 
 
 to obey orders., I turned the boat's head seaward 
 and we soon put a couple of miles of water between 
 us and the shore. As we got further out we found a 
 strong tide running, which, with the wind against 
 it, raised a sea that every moment threatened to 
 swamp us. It was only by watching every wave, 
 and altering the trimming of the canoe accordingly, 
 
 that we managed to keep afloat, M and I 
 
 working our paddles with an energy that made the 
 sweat pour off us, but kept us well before the 
 waves. 
 
 Looking down through the clear water, we could 
 see such shoals of monster fish as made us tremble 
 to think what our fate would be should the waves, 
 which occasionally broke over our gunwale, swamp 
 us. Sharks, saw-fish, jew-fish, sting-rays, whip-rays, 
 devil-fish and other unknown monsters of enormous 
 size, swam below and around us in such numbers 
 that they bumped against our bottom threatening to 
 upset us, and impeded the play of our paddles in 
 the water. I have no doubt such a statement may 
 appear incredible, but it is no less a fact, and fish 
 
122 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 exist in Charlotte Harbour of such size, and in such 
 numbers, as I could not have believed existed in 
 any part of the world, had I not myself seen 
 them. 
 
 As quickly as we could paddle we crossed the 
 rough open bay, and reaching the opposite shore, 
 lost no time in hauling up the canoe on the beach 
 to empty her before proceeding, as though we had 
 only a couple of miles more to reach the Bluff, she 
 had too much water in her to float a quarter of that 
 distance. 
 
 Having emptied the canoe and re-stowed the 
 cargo and passengers, we coasted along the shore, 
 which was high and covered with palmetto and 
 cabbage-palm. Soon we reached the remains of 
 a long wooden pier destroyed by the October 
 hurricane, at the land end of which stood the frame 
 house of a settler named Piatt ; a little further 
 on, by the mouth of a small creek, we found a 
 spot where the palmetto grew far enough back 
 from the sandy beach to allow room for our camp. 
 There we ran the canoe up on the beach and 
 unloaded her for the last time ; having pitched 
 our camp, we brought our sick guide up to Mr. 
 
Gamp on Pease Creek. 123 
 
 Piatt's house, where he was kindly received and 
 promised to be taken care of, until able to return 
 home or obtain some employment he was in search 
 of. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 PEASE CREEK — SETTLEMENT OF HICKORY BLUFF — THE PLATT 
 FAMILY — CONTEMPLATING MATRIMONY — THE PIONEERS OF 
 CIVILIZATION — UNTHRIFTINESS OF FLORIDA SETTLERS — 
 DYSENTERY AND ITS CURE — FISHING — NATIVE OBJECTION TO 
 BATHING — AN EX-NEGRO LEADER— ENGAGE PASSAGE FOR 
 PTJNTA RASSA — ON BOARD THE 'SANTA MARIA'— OUR CARGO 
 — COCKROACHES— NIGHT AND MORNING — CHARLOTTE HAR- 
 BOUR — PINE ISLAND— OLD MAN BROWN— LANDING HOGS — 
 THE " GRAINS "—AGROUND ON AN OYSTER BAR— CARRAHO 
 KEY — CAPTAIN JOCELYN THE PIRATE — AN ANXIOUS NIGHT — 
 AFLOAT AT LAST— CORMORANTS AND FISH — SPANISH FISHER- 
 MEN — THE TELEGRAPH STATION — TWO SHIVERING WAN- 
 DERERS. 
 
 EASE CREEK, formerly known 
 by its Indian name of Talahk- 
 chopko, is the principal river of 
 Manatee County, through which 
 it flows from north to south, rising among the 
 
Settlement of Hickory Bluff. 125 
 
 swamps and draining the lakes in Polk County, north 
 of Manatee. Its length is about a hundred miles from 
 the lakes to Charlotte Harbour, but it is so shallow 
 that it is navigable for schooners of light draught 
 only about sixteen miles above the harbour. 
 
 Mangrove swamps fringe the shores above 
 Hickory Bluff, behind them is a belt of pine and 
 cabbage-palm and behind that the usual palmetto 
 prairie. A few settlers, residing in frame or log- 
 houses, are scattered at long intervals along the 
 banks, owning small herds of cattle and hogs, but 
 appearing generally very poor. 
 
 There are no stores at the little settlement of 
 Hickory BlufF; the nearest store is twelve miles 
 distant up the Creek, the owner of which, fearing 
 no opposition, charges his own prices, and to judge 
 by comparison must be doing a profitable business. 
 Opposite the BlufF, where the Creek is about two 
 miles in width, some Northern gentlemen have 
 erected houses for themselves, where they can hunt 
 during the season. Bears and panthers are still 
 numerous in the swamps, every species of wild fowl 
 abounds, and fish, as I have already mentioned, 
 swim in the bay in incredible numbers, so that a 
 
126 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 sportsman might choose worse quarters to winter 
 in. 
 
 The settlement at present consists of the Piatt 
 family living in two frame-houses, about a quarter 
 of a mile apart, while a third house situated between 
 these two was in process of construction by another 
 member of the same family. Seeing this young 
 Piatt working away at his half-finished house, I 
 asked him had he no assistance in his work. No, 
 he answered, he reckoned not, there was nobody to 
 help him, the planks had been cut at a saw-mill 
 about three miles distant and brought there by water, 
 all the rest of the work he had done himself. He 
 had cut down the trees, cleared away the palmetto 
 roots, nailed every plank, and done every bit of 
 carpentering, joining, sawing, &c, with his own 
 hands. I remarked it must be slow and very hard 
 work, 
 
 " Well," he said, " I reckon that is so, 'specially 
 as I never learned the business; you bet it's 
 taken me some time, nigh a year, but I'll finish it 
 next Fall. H — 11 take these cussed bugs !" It was 
 a warm evening, with a southerly wind which 
 carried clouds of mosquitoes and sandflies from the 
 
Pioneers of Civilization. 127 
 
 swamps near, under the vicious attacks of which 
 " bugs " we were both bleeding freely. 
 
 The young fellow was, I was informed, con- 
 templating matrimony, and was now erecting a house 
 to which he might bring his bride. The land was 
 there, he had but to take it, and the house, though 
 rudely constructed, would suffice for such a warm 
 climate as that of Southern Florida. Life may be 
 hard to these pioneers of civilization, but they 
 certainly have the advantage over the dwellers in 
 settled countries in one respect, namely, that 
 children, instead of an expense, are an advantage to 
 them, or, if they are not, the cause does not 
 lie in the want of profitable employment for any 
 number they may be blessed with. In South Florida, 
 however, little advantage is taken of the natural 
 resources of the country, most of the settlers 
 appearing contented to live in a state of extreme 
 poverty. 
 
 Though the estuaries and rivers contain fish 
 enough to feed the whole Union of North America, 
 I never heard of any attempts being made to catch 
 and preserve them for export. I saw a small boy 
 close to our camp at Hickory Bluff harpooning fish 
 
128 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in such numbers that the boat was half full in a few 
 minutes, and he informed me the fish were to feed 
 the pigs and dogs. I never saw fish on any of the 
 settlers' tables, only abominably bad bacpn and 
 hominy. Oysters of the finest quality, and clams 
 are as abundant as the fish, yet they will not take 
 the trouble to gather them ; vegetables of every sort 
 grow well, yet I never saw any at table, except 
 cabbage and potatoes, sweet and Irish, and those 
 rarely. 
 
 Most of the settlers are Southerners from the 
 swamps of Louisiana, from Georgia and the 
 Carolinas, and there is certainly a want of energy 
 and enterprise among them that strikes a stranger. 
 Of course, there are exceptions, but I speak of the 
 general rule, and my experience extended over 
 nearly every settlement in Southern Florida. For 
 this lack of energy, however, the climate must be 
 held partly responsible, as it is debilitating to 
 a degree that renders the slightest exertion dis- 
 tasteful. 
 
 A little patch of land sown with Indian corn, and 
 a small garden with a few stunted orange and guava 
 trees, was all the cultivation seen near the houses of 
 
Camp on Pease Greek. 129 
 
 the settlers on Hickory Bluff. Dysentery and fever, 
 they told us, had been very prevalent latterly, and 
 they had all suffered from it. Rum and sugar 
 boiled together was considered the best remedy for 
 dysentery, and our sick guide declared himself 
 much revived by several strong doses of it, though 
 the benefit unhappily proved to be only tem- 
 porary. 
 
 We were able to keep our camp on the beach well 
 supplied with fish of the most excellent quality, 
 without the slightest trouble. Baiting with the 
 land-crabs, that abounded in a mangrove swamp close 
 by, in ten minutes we could catch enough red fish, 
 dark-fleshed jack, and black and white banded 
 sheep's heads to feed the settlement — a fortunate 
 circumstance, as we could procure no supplies what- 
 ever nearer than the store, twelve miles up the 
 Creek. We were able to bathe in tolerable security 
 every morning, as the alligators do not venture so 
 near a settlement or into such salt water. We 
 had, however, to keep a good look-out for sharks, 
 and dared not swim out into deep water. The 
 natives throughout Florida could never understand 
 our taste for daily bathing, assuring us we ran the 
 
 K 
 
130 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 risk of severe colds and rheumatism, a risk they 
 apparently carefully avoided themselves. 
 
 As the character of the country in the neighbour- 
 hood of the Bluff did not permit of deer-stalking, 
 and we could obtain no dogs for bear or panther 
 hunting — a Mr. De Costa, revenue officer and ex- 
 captain of a negro company, who lived near the 
 Bluff, and owned some good bear dogs, refusing to 
 lend them or hunt himself — we determined to take 
 passage on board the first schooner we could find, 
 trading with hogs or cattle from Pease Creek, to any 
 point South of Charlotte Harbour to which they 
 would convey us. 
 
 Hearing that a small schooner which lay at anchor 
 by the wooden pier near our camp was loading 
 with hogs for the Island of Key West, we inter- 
 viewed the skipper, and agreed with him to be 
 conveyed to Punta Rassa, on the Caloosahatchee 
 river, some distance south of Charlotte Harbour, 
 where we heard game was plentiful, both feathered 
 and four-footed. Bidding farewell to our sick 
 guide at midnight, on March 7th, we proceeded 
 on board the schooner " Santa Maria," and soon 
 after, when a brilliant moon rose up and dispelled 
 
• The " Santa Maria: 9 131 
 
 the darkness, anchor was weighed, and we dropped 
 quietly down with the ebb-tide. A light westerly- 
 breeze bore us quickly down the creek into the 
 magnificent bay called Charlotte Harbour, and soon 
 the low shores of Manatee County were, but streaks 
 in the silvery moonlight, the south star alone serving 
 to guide our skipper's course in the absence of any 
 mariner's compass. 
 
 The " Santa Maria " schooner was about twenty- 
 five tons burden, nearly as broad as she was long, 
 very flat-bottomed, very rotten, and very dirty. 
 The crew consisted of an old man and a boy, com- 
 manded by a skipper who turned out a very good 
 fellow. Hogs and button-wood formed our cargo, 
 the latter being a species of mangrove, valuable for 
 fire-wood, as it throws out an intense heat, and for 
 cabinet-work, gun-barrels, &c, as it is hard, close- 
 grained, and of a fine purple colour. Some land- 
 turtles, called in Florida " gophers," which are com- 
 mon in the pine-woods round Pease Creek, formed 
 part of our cargo, intended for sale at Key 
 West. 
 
 The hogs, lean and half wild, were stowed in 
 pens on deck destined, some to be landed on one 
 
 K 2 
 
132 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 of the uninhabited islands or keys off the coast, the 
 rest for the market at Key West. From the pens 
 an abominable stench arose, and the cries of the 
 fighting, struggling brutes never ceased throughout 
 the night. 
 
 Towards morning I went into the little cabin, 
 hoping to get a few hours' sleep, but in five minutes 
 I was again on deck. Cockroaches three inches in 
 length, with a strong partiality for human flesh, 
 and myriads of hungry fleas, being more than I 
 could stand; so lying down on my air-mattress in 
 the stern, I tried to count the countless stars that 
 shone down on us with a brilliancy never seen in 
 our northern latitudes, and then slept till, stiff 
 and cold, I was roused by our skipper to drink a 
 cup of hot coffee, most acceptable in the chilly 
 morning air. 
 
 Sunrise found us well down Charlotte Harbour, 
 and about mid-day we anchored off the north- 
 east end of Pine island, the largest of the numerous 
 keys which stud the bay. Pine Island is twenty 
 miles long, and from two to four broad; as its 
 name implies it is thickly timbered with pine, and 
 has also a good deal of oak, palm, and other mast- 
 
Pine Island. 133 
 
 bearing trees. Savannas intersect the woods, and 
 are grazed by deer in considerable numbers, and 
 turkeys are also numerous in the island. It has but 
 one inhabitant, an old man of sixty, universally 
 known in south-west Florida as " old man Brown." 
 He leads a solitary life, cultivating oranges, lemons, 
 bananas, guavas, cocoa-nuts, and other tropical 
 fruits, of which he had the most flourishing planta- 
 tion on the coast, until the October hurricane des- 
 troyed it. That fearful storm tore up half his 
 fruit-trees, and nearly buried him in the ruins of 
 his house ; yet still the old man lives on alone, 
 cultivating the surviving trees. 
 
 We added to the population of the island a dozen 
 pigs, which squealed and bit savagely as we hoisted 
 them overboard, soon disappearing in the forest 
 after reaching the land. They were to remain and 
 multiply at leisure, till the owner who lived at 
 Pease Creek should choose to come and collect his 
 property. After landing the hogs, our skipper 
 suggested that we should secure fish enough for 
 dinner before returning on board the schooner; 
 so paddling quietly along under the shadow 
 of the mangrove trees which fringe the island, 
 
134 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in a short space of time two red fish, of 
 about twelve pounds weight each, lay struggling 
 in the bottom of the boat, transfixed by a formid- 
 able species of harpoon called " grains," most skil- 
 fully wielded by the skipper standing in the bows 
 of the boat. 
 
 These " grains " consist of a two-pronged iron 
 head, barbed, about ten inches in length, and staff 
 twelve feet long. The head is loosely slipped into 
 a socket on the staff, and the two are connected by 
 a cord. For killing turtle, a single-pronged, barbed 
 iron head is used as it pierces the shell better, while 
 for fish the double prong is more deadly. The 
 harpooner lowers his weapon to the water when 
 about to strike, and taking aim at fish or turtle float- 
 ing either a few feet below or on the surface of 
 the water, drives the steel deep into the body. 
 The construction of the harpoon prevents its being 
 shaken off by the struggles of the victim, as the 
 shaft, slipping at once off the head, affords no 
 leverage, and the steel head remains fixed, towing 
 after it the long wooden shaft. A strong line then 
 enables the harpooner to haul in the fish or turtle, 
 
Carraho Key. 135 
 
 whatever its size, when exhausted by fruitless 
 struggles. 
 
 After securing the fish for dinner we returned 
 on board, and weighing anchor rounded the north- 
 west point of Pine Island. Tacking about among 
 the numerous little mangrove-covered islets, over 
 some of which the water flowed at high tide, we 
 rarely got a depth of more than five feet, and 
 had to keep a sharp look out for banks and 
 shoals. 
 
 Shortly before sunset, however, we suddenly ran 
 hard and fast aground upon an oyster bar, numbers 
 of which rise up to within a few feet of the sur- 
 face of the water near this part of the coast. 
 As the tide was falling fast, we could do nothing 
 but wait till it should rise again sufficiently high 
 to float us off. Meanwhile, we laid out cables and 
 anchors to haul off by, and then devoted ourselves 
 to fishing, collecting oysters, or shooting round the 
 little islets. 
 
 About a mile from the oyster-bank on which 
 we were stuck was a curious-shaped island, called 
 Carraho Key, whose single inhabitant enjoys a 
 
136 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 fame in Florida rivalling that of the most blood- 
 thirsty pirate of the China seas. Professing to be 
 an Englishman from Plymouth, he calls himself 
 Captain Jocelyn, and some years ago settled down 
 on this desolate island, nothing being known of 
 his previous life. He built himself a house and 
 a boat, and soon became the terror of the whole 
 coast as a pirate and murderer. His plan was to 
 invite any stranger he might hear of on the main- 
 land to visit him in his island-home, and convey 
 him thither in his own boat, when the unfortunate 
 passenger would never again be heard of — Captain 
 Jocelyn invariably saying that the boom of his 
 main-sail had knocked the man overboard and 
 drowned him. Spanish fishermen, too, who resort 
 to these islands in the fishing- season, had been 
 lured to the murderer's den, and never seen 
 more. 
 
 At least four strangers, and more than one 
 unfortunate Spanish fisherman were well-known 
 to have disappeared thus. He was also said 
 to board craft run aground like ourselves, and, 
 cutting the throats of the sleeping crew, to seize 
 all valuables and scuttle the craft. I asked our 
 
Tie Pirate of the Gulf. 137 
 
 skipper why they did not shoot such a villain, and 
 thus stop his piracy and murder, but could get no 
 satisfactory reason for not doing so, except that 
 the man inspired so much terror that nobody dared 
 to kill him. 
 
 I had the honour of meeting this pirate of the 
 Gulf a few days afterwards at the Telegraph station 
 at Punta Rassa, where he landed in his little cutter, 
 and a more cut-throat-looking desperado I never 
 beheld. Apparently between forty-five and fifty-five 
 years of age, of medium height, very strongly built, 
 with long black hair and beard, and flashing black 
 eyes shaded by heavy eyebrows, he was quite the 
 beau-ideal of a pirate, and his dress and arms 
 fully kept up the character. He wore a blue flannel 
 shirt and a ragged pair of pants tucked into long 
 sea-boots, a red leather belt round his waist contain- 
 ing a revolver and long knife, and carried a 
 rusty old rifle which he never let out of his 
 hands. 
 
 Knowing that such a pleasant character was in 
 our neighbourhood, we kept a careful watch all 
 night ; nor was there much temptation to sleep, 
 the flood-tide bringing up a swell from the Gulf 
 
138 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 which nearly knocked the old "Santa Maria" to 
 pieces, as we bumped heavily on the sharp oyster 
 shells, yet had not water enough to float off the 
 , bar. By daylight we were again firmly aground, 
 and under such circumstances daylight was not un- 
 welcome, as we had had anything but a pleasant 
 night of it. It was not until the afternoon that 
 the tide rose sufficiently to enable us to haul off 
 the schooner by means of the anchors we had 
 laid out, when after twenty hours on the oyster 
 bank, we again made sail and bore away for Boca 
 Ciaga, the most southern of the passages into the 
 Gulf. 
 
 The water was covered with thousands of the 
 Florida cormorant, a small species which breed in 
 enormous numbers in the mangrove islets, while 
 ospreys and pelicans kept up an incessant splash as 
 with closed wings they darted down among the mass 
 of these birds. All these were feeding on great 
 shoals of mullet which rushed along the surface of 
 the water, endeavouring to escape the attacks of por- 
 poises, sharks and other voracious pursuers beneath 
 the surface of the water. 
 
 Keeping to the east, or inside the large keys 
 
Beach Funta Bassa. 139 
 
 called Gasparilla, Lacosta, Captiva, and Sanibel, 
 between which are the Bocas or passages into the 
 Gulf, we passed hundreds of little nameless and un- 
 inhabited keys. On some of the larger islands we 
 saw the palmetto-leaf huts of the Spanish fishermen 
 who come over from Cuba at certain times when the 
 fish are in season, and taking up their residence on 
 these uninhabited keys, catch and cure an immense 
 quantity of fish, with which they return to their 
 own country. As the native Americans do not fish 
 on these coasts, except for sponges, the Spaniards have 
 it all their own way, but are obliged to pursue 
 their occupation in American bottoms, as foreign 
 vessels are not permitted to fish within a certain 
 distance of the shore. 
 
 About two hours before sunrise, on the third day 
 after our departure from Pease Creek, we dropped 
 anchor off the Telegraph station at P unta Rassa — the 
 flat point — and having been landed with our baggage 
 on the white sandy beach, the " Santa Maria" again 
 set sail, bound for Key West. 
 
 Thus we were left, M and I, two shivering 
 
 strangers wandering about the beach in the cold 
 dark hours preceding the dawn of day, quite 
 
140 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 uncertain what reception we might meet with from 
 the inhabitants of the Telegraph station, to whom 
 our appearance must be as sudden and unex- 
 pected as though we had dropped from the 
 clouds. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 TELEGRAPH STATION AT PUNTA RASSA — A PRENCH COOK— A 
 "BOSS" CLERK AND HIS WELCOME— STAPP OP TELEGRAPH 
 COMPANY — VISITORS — GALLEY NIPPERS — FORT DULANEY — 
 THE OCTOBER HURRICANE — FISHERMEN'S KEY — CATTLE 
 SHIPPING— THE CALOOSAHATCHEE RIVER— FORT MYERS — 
 — CAPTAIN HENRY— THE LARGEST CATTLE OWNER IN FLORIDA 
 — LAKE THOMPSON — BEST ROUTE TO OKECHOBEE — SULPHUR 
 SPRING — TRADE WITH INDIANS — " HIS REVERENCE " PROM 
 GEORGIA— PROSPECTING FOR IRON— THE CORKSCREW RIVER 
 — CAMPED IN A BARN— SANIBEL ISLAND— RARE SHELLS — 
 MOSQUITOES — SCARCITY OP WATER — A MANGROVE SWAMP — 
 OCELOT-HUNTING — ATTACKED BY MOSQUITOES — SWAMP FEVER 
 — MOLUCCA CRABS— ACTIVITY OF FISH— INTRODUCTION TO 
 CAPTAIN JOCELYN— DEPARTURE FOR KEY WEST. 
 
 N enormous wooden barn, seventy-five 
 feet by fifty, resting on wooden piles 
 twenty feet above a small plateau, which 
 
 rose a few feet above the level of the sea ; in front 
 
142 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 of it a white sandy beach, extending round the 
 point formed by the plateau ; behind, at a few yards' 
 distance, a dismal mangrove swamp reaching back 
 as far as we could see. Such was the character and 
 situation of the building forming the land-terminus 
 of the Cuban Telegraph cable, at the foot of the 
 wooden steps leading up to which M and I sat 
 
 4 
 
 patiently waiting till the door should be opened and 
 some signs of life appear. 
 
 At last, as the sky began to redden in the east, 
 the huge door of the barn was thrown wide open, 
 and a little man in flannel shirt and trousers, 
 with an axe in his hand, began to descend the 
 steps. Seeing two Britishers quietly seated smoking 
 their pipes on a heap of baggage and guns at 
 the foot of the steps, the little man stopped and 
 ejaculating "Sapristi," stared at us in blank amaze- 
 ment. Bidding him good morning, we accounted 
 for our sudden appearance, and in return learned 
 that he was a French American from New Orleans, 
 and cook to the station, where the Company per- 
 mitted any passing strangers to take up temporary 
 quarters. 
 
 Quickly making friends with such an important 
 
A Telegraph Station in a Swamp. 143 
 
 person as the cook, we received the welcome intelli- 
 gence that breakfast would be prepared for us as 
 soon as he had chopped wood, lit the fire and could 
 get the dishes ready. One by one the clerks ap- 
 peared from their rooms, and then the " Boss," or 
 head-clerk, whose welcome to us was certainly more 
 remarkable for its Yankee brevity than for its cor- 
 diality. Could we put up there for a day or two ? 
 we asked. He guessed we could. Might we have our 
 meals there ? He guessed we might. Should we in- 
 convenience him by pitching our tents in the barn ? 
 He guessed not ; and then expectorating freely he 
 turned on his heel and retired into a little canvas 
 office, where the telegraph-needle could be heard 
 clicking violently. 
 
 Two telegraph clerks, and two men employed by 
 the meteorological department of the War Office, 
 with the head-clerk and his wife, and the cook, 
 formed the total of residents in the station at 
 Punta Rassa. All strangers are at liberty to lay 
 down their blankets in the barn at night, or pitch 
 their tents between the rafters, as we did. A fixed 
 sum is charged for the food provided, consisting of 
 vension, pork, salt beef, fish, &c. ; a dollar and a 
 
144 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 half a day each being what we paid for three excellent 
 meals. 
 
 Stock-owners shipping cattle for Key West or 
 Cuba, carpenters employed on some building con- 
 nected with a cattle-wharf close by, and settlers 
 from the settlement at Fort Myers, used to drop in 
 every evening for a meal, and then spread their 
 blankets on the floor under the shelter of mosquito 
 bars or curtains, whence there soon proceeded such 
 a vigorous snoring as showed the occupants were no 
 strangers to a hard bed. 
 
 Mosquitoes make it impossible to camp in the 
 swamp of Punta Rassa ; even cattle and horses are 
 unable to exist in its vicinity, being worried 
 to death by the ferocity of these insects ; and 
 throughout Florida the place has a bad name, from 
 the swarms of these accursed " galley-nippers." 
 
 Except the Telegraph station and a few huts con- 
 structed of palmetto-leaves and inhabited during the 
 fishing season by Spanish fishermen, there is no 
 settlement at Punta Rassa. The station occupies 
 the site of the old Fort Dulaney, the double ditches 
 which defended the fort during the Indian wars 
 being still visible between the plateau and the 
 
Fisherman's Key. 145 
 
 swamp. During the last great October hurricane 
 the sea swept over the whole Point, the swamp and 
 the adjacent islands, driving every living soul to seek 
 refuge in the station where they passed a fearful 
 night, the water rising within a few inches of the 
 floor of the barn and threatening to sweep all before 
 it, but fortunately subsiding as soon as the hurricane 
 abated. 
 
 On a small island called Fisherman's Key, exactly 
 opposite the Telegraph station, a Swede, named Smith, 
 has built a little wooden shanty, where he lives with 
 his wife and family, supporting himself by boarding 
 chance visitors, shipping oysters to Key West and 
 Cuba, and shooting the deer that are found on the 
 keys. A handsome, honest and pleasant a fellow 
 as any in Florida, Smith took me over in his boat 
 to visit his island-home and taste his oysters, gathered 
 from an oyster-bed in the bay. Better oysters I 
 never tasted in any part of America, but my enjoy- 
 ment of the repast was sadly interfered with by 
 the persecution of the sand-flies that filled Smith's 
 house. 
 
 A short distance above the Point is a long wooden 
 pier used for shipping cattle, and strong pens at the 
 
146 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 shore end — while a house nearly as large as the 
 Telegraph station, and similarly raised on piles, is 
 being constructed to house the stock-owners and 
 drivers when at the Point. Large numbers of cattle 
 are shipped from Punta Rassa, chiefly to Cuba, a 
 good-sized steamer and several schooners being em- 
 ployed in the trade. The cattle are fed on the great 
 interior prairies and savannas, and are owned mostly 
 by settlers at Fort Myers, twenty-two miles higher 
 up the Caloosahatchee river, the only settlement on 
 the mainland of Monroe County. 
 
 Wishing to visit this settlement, we engaged a 
 sailing boat from a Spanish fisherman named 
 Antonio, who agreed for the sum of seven dollars 
 to convey us up the river to Fort Myers. Above 
 the Point the river has an average width of a mile 
 and a half, and is studded with low mangrove-clad 
 islets, with which trees the shores also are fringed. 
 On approaching Fort Myers the banks grow some- 
 what higher, the houses of the settlement being 
 situated on a pine bluff, some feet above the river. 
 Three stores and some settlers' frame-houses constitute 
 the settlement, the principal inhabitant of which is 
 Captain Henry, the largest stock-owner in Southern 
 
Lake Thompson. 147 
 
 Florida. This gentleman owns some forty thousand 
 head of cattle, and has the character of being a keen 
 sportsman as well as a wealthy man. Unfortunately, 
 just at this time he was absent collecting cattle in the 
 interior, so we did not make his acquaintance ; but 
 we were happy in meeting his brother-in-law, Mr. 
 Thompson, who gave us a cordial invitation to his 
 house, and promised if we could come out earlier 
 next season to accompany us with boat, waggon, and 
 dogs to Fort Thompson and Lakes Hickpochee and 
 Okechobee. 
 
 It had been our intention, on this occasion, to visit 
 the Fort and Lakes above-named, but Mr. Thompson 
 assured us that the season was now (March 12th) too 
 far advanced to make this expedition, as in the present 
 hot weather the mosquitoes were unbearable and deer 
 out of season. Besides which, all hands were now busy 
 collecting, numbering, and branding the cattle, on 
 which a tax is levied, on the prairies in the interior 
 of Manatee and Monroe Counties. Boats, he said, 
 could ascend the Caloosahatchee river as far as Fort 
 Thompson on the lake of the same name, to which 
 place there is also a practicable waggon-track. 
 Round this lake he had enjoyed excellent hunting, 
 
 L 2 
 
148 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 the country being admirably adapted for that purpose, 
 as it is timbered with cabbage-palm, oak and other 
 trees, and provided with savannas, good water and 
 dry camping-ground ; but eastward there is neither 
 good hunting nor dry ground. 
 
 From Fort Thompson there is a waggon-track 
 to Fort Centre, an abandoned military post during 
 the Indian wars, situated about twenty-five miles 
 N.N.E. of the former fort, across the open prairie. 
 From Fort Centre, a creek navigable for boats of light 
 draught flows into Lake Okechobee, and forms the 
 only practicable approach to that swamp-surrounded 
 lake, except by the Kissimmee river which flows in 
 on the North. 
 
 Near Fort Myers is a nitre and sulphur-spring, 
 the medicinal properties of which are however of no 
 avail to keep off fever and dysentery, which was 
 very prevalent in the settlement. At the stores a 
 considerable trade is done with the Indians, who 
 resort thither from the southern part of the county 
 and Everglades to barter skins for whiskey, tobacco, 
 and beads. There is but little cultivated land in the 
 neighbourhood, cattle forming the staple wealth of 
 the community. 
 
The Corkscrew River. 149 
 
 At this time we were joined by a reverend gentle- 
 man named Doctor Hicks, of Augusta, Georgia, 
 who had travelled with us down the coast from 
 Cedar Keys to Tampa, and accompanied us during 
 the rest of our travels in Florida. While we 
 were hunting in Manatee, he had been engaged 
 prospecting the country south of Fort Myers, in 
 Monroe County, down to the Corkscrew river and 
 Caximbas Bay, in search of minerals, of which he 
 had collected several specimens, principally iron. 
 On the Corkscrew river he had found large quantities 
 of iron, chiefly in sandstone, from the specimens of 
 which, when smelted on our return to Jacksonville, 
 sixty per cent of pure iron was obtained, the iron 
 proving magnetic after smelting. His account of 
 the character of the country he had travelled through 
 proved almost identical with that we had ourselves 
 traversed, mosquitoes, snakes, and fevers being 
 equally abundant. Deer and turkeys were the only 
 game his party had come across, nor were they at all 
 numerous. 
 
 At Punta Rassa we determined to remain camped 
 in the Telegraph barn, until a cattle-steamer which 
 was daily expected should arrive and convey us all 
 
150 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 to the isiand of Key West. Meanwhile we made 
 various excursions about the river, bay, and islands, 
 including one to Sanibel Island, the shores of which 
 were covered with shells of many rare varieties. 
 The island is long, low, and narrow, about three 
 miles distant from the Point seaward, and is entirely 
 uninhabited. Landing on the Eastern shore, we 
 found the entire beach was composed of various sorts 
 of shells, some ground to pieces, others perfect, but 
 few of any rare species. On the Western or Gulf 
 shore, the beach was composed of sand, but thickly 
 covered with shells, cones, panamas, scallops, conches, 
 harp, fig, and frog-shells, olive-banded Venus- shells, 
 and many other sorts of the most brilliant colouring 
 and graceful shapes, which we found lying about in 
 such extraordinary numbers that we soon collected as 
 many as we could carry. 
 
 In the middle of the island sea-shells were nearly 
 as plentiful as on the shore, the sea having made a 
 clean sweep over it during the October hurricane. 
 Though it was a distance of only about five hundred 
 yards from shore to shore, where we crossed from 
 the eastern to the western side of the island, and all 
 trees had been cut down and scrub cleared away for 
 
Sanibel Island. 151 
 
 the Cuban telegraph cable, which was carried across 
 the island at that spot, by the time we reached the 
 Gulf shore we were covered from head to foot with 
 mosquitoes, which bit savagely through all our 
 clothing, and stuck to us till blown away by the 
 fresh Gulf breezes which swept the beach. Until 
 the land is ploughed up and cultivated, so as to 
 destroy the eggs of these insects, Sanibel, as well as 
 most of the other keys, must remain uninhabited by 
 man during all but the coldest months, December and 
 January. 
 
 The evening of our return to Punta Rassa from 
 Sanibel, we had the second rain-storm which we had 
 seen since our arrival in Florida, the first being the 
 short fall when camped in the Myakka swamp. 
 The sky had frequently been covered with heavy, 
 black masses of cloud, leading us to expect rain ; but, 
 as if by magic, the clouds would vanish without a 
 drop of rain falling, and the sun again shine out in a 
 cloudless sky. I never visited a country where one 
 could so little judge what weather was likely to ensue 
 from the appearance of the sky. 
 
 Unfortunately, this last rain-fall was of very short 
 duration, and added but little to the supply of fresh 
 
152 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 water which was running very short. Depending 
 entirely on rain-water collected in a large tank, the 
 long draught was causing great anxiety at Punta 
 Rassa, where the wells are brackish and the water 
 unfit for drinking or cooking purposes, and there 
 are no fresh-water creeks within a distance of many 
 miles. 
 
 Deer, pumas, ocelots, racoons and turkeys all 
 abound in the mangrove swamp which extends 
 back from the station to the prairie. So one 
 morning I turned out of bed long before daylight, 
 in order to avoid the mosquitoes, and made my 
 way along a sandy ridge on which cabbage -palm, 
 palmetto, live-oak, and sea-grape grew, with grass 
 beneath, affording feeding- ground for the game, 
 and extending from the Point into the middle of 
 the swamp. Dark lagoons full of noxious reptiles 
 bordered the ridge, beyond which I trudged 
 through the black ooze under the mangrove trees, 
 Following the game " sign," the footprints of the 
 various wild beasts, visible in sand and mud in 
 unusual abundance, led me right into the thickest m 
 part of the swamp. 
 
 I think the whole face of the earth can produce 
 
The Abode of Death. 153 
 
 nothing more horribly repulsive in appearance than 
 a dense mangrove swamp ; it is impossible to look 
 around without shuddering. The deadly malaria 
 lurks in many a fair spot in tropical countries, but 
 it is borne on a breeze whose breath is sweet with 
 the scent of flowers, and musical w^th the song of 
 birds. In the gloomy recesses of the mangrove 
 swamp, malaria finds a home which forms the very 
 ideal of the abode of death, whose grim presence 
 seems almost as visible to the eye as the odour of 
 decay is sickening to the senses. Among the 
 tangled mass of roots and boughs, scarcely dis- 
 tinguishable in the strange growth of the mangrove 
 tree, snakes abound and venomous insects swarm. 
 Instead of song-birds, the buzzard and the eagle 
 build in its solitudes, while the lynx, the puma, 
 the ocelot, and the bear find in the mangrove 
 swamp a safe retreat from the pursuit of 
 man. 
 
 Shaking off the feeling of loathing which crept 
 over me as I contemplated the surrounding swamp, 
 I fixed my whole attention on the search after 
 game, and before sunrise had succeeded in shooting 
 an ocelot. I -^as then following up some fresh 
 
154 Wild Life in Florida 
 
 bear-tracks, when the sun appeared, and almost 
 directly such a swarm of mosquitoes attacked me 
 that I had to run as fast as the nature of the 
 ground would permit to the nearest part of the 
 sea-shore, where I arrived with hands and face 
 streaming with blood, though protected by gloves 
 and a veil. There the sea-breeze soon freed me 
 from my tormentors, and I was able to stroll 
 quietly home by following the windings of the 
 beach. 
 
 That evening I was attacked with chills and 
 fever, on which quinine had but little effect for 
 some days, until I got away to sea and rapidly 
 threw off the fever. With the exception of this 
 slight attack, neither M nor I had a day's sick- 
 ness while in Florida. The beach at Punta Rassa 
 consisted of the most beautiful white silver sand, 
 extending for many miles down the coast, on 
 which rare seaweeds had been cast up by gales to 
 the depth of several inches. Among them the little 
 fiddler and purple land-crabs abounded, and also 
 great numbers of the curious horse-shoe shells of 
 the long-tailed molucca crab, the sharp, spiked tail, 
 and formidable row of teeth in front, giving it 
 
Molucca Crabs. 155 
 
 the appearance of a dangerous enemy, altogether 
 at variance with its really harmless character. 
 When pulled out of the water on to the shore, it 
 was surprising to see with what rapidity these crabs 
 burrowed in the sand, till the shell was nearly 
 covered, as they cannot stand the heat of the sun, 
 nor when turned on their backs can they right 
 themselves, though making use of their spiked 
 tail as a lever. Among the sea-weed there were, 
 however, some dangerous animals, as one day, when 
 unmooring our boat from a stake on the beach to 
 which it was fastened, the sea- weed moved under 
 my hand, and a ground rattlesnake glided out, 
 which we soon captured, and consigned to a bottle 
 filled with whiskey. 
 
 One of the most remarked characteristics of the 
 estuaries of the Florida rivers is the activity of the 
 fish with which they swarm. Sting-rays and whip- 
 rays of huge size may constantly be seen leaping 
 out of the water and alighting again with a splash 
 audible a mile off, while the mullet spring as though 
 gifted with wings, clearing an amazing distance at 
 each leap. These latter fish were unfit for food 
 during our stay in Florida, though at certain seasons 
 
156 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 of the year they are said to be excellent, and are 
 caught and sun-dried in large numbers by the 
 Spanish fishermen. 
 
 Between fishing, shooting, and sailing, we had 
 plenty of pleasant occupation at Punta Rassa, in- 
 cluding an introduction to the famous free-booter, 
 Captain Jocelyn, who arrived one evening in his 
 cutter, as 1 have already mentioned. The ostensible 
 purpose of his visit was to convey some flamin- 
 goes' wings and Irish potatoes as a present to the 
 u Boss wife " at the station, but it was shrewdly 
 suspected that his real purpose was to look after 
 us, as our arrival was now well known throughout 
 that section of the country. 
 
 As I could not shake off the swamp-fever, and 
 the mosquitoes were dreadfully annoying, we were 
 extremely anxious to get away from the Point, 
 and many times a day turned our eyes seaward in 
 the hope of discerning a long-expected cattle-steamer, 
 which was nearly a fortnight overdue, though 
 under contract to run the mails between Tampa 
 and the settlements on the Caloosahatchee 
 river. 
 
 At last, on the morning of the 15th March, a 
 
Leave Monroe County. 157 
 
 black line of smoke appeared behind Sanibel Island, 
 and soon a steamer rounded the Point and 
 dropped anchor in the bay, outside the bar of 
 the river. A boat then put off, and pulled up 
 to the Telegraph station with mail-bags &c, for 
 the employes. When they were landed, we, put 
 out to the steamer, and scrambling up her tall 
 sides, were taken on board. Soon after the anchor 
 was hove, and we steamed away with a fair 
 tide, bound for Key West, an island situated about 
 a hundred and thirty miles due south of Punta 
 Rassa. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 THE "VALLEY CITY " — PASSENGERS AND CARGO— RELIGION OP 
 SETTLERS— DOWN THE GULP — THE HOME OP THE CORAL 
 INSECT— REACH KEY WEST — ORIGIN OP NAME — ISLAND AND 
 TOWN— THE AMERICAN FLEET— DESERTERS— FORTIFICATIONS 
 OF THE ISLAND— GREAT HEAT — NATURAL WOODS— EVENING 
 RAMBLES — CREOLE IMMIGRANTS— CIGAR MANUFACTORY — 
 OCCUPATION OP INHABITANTS— WRECKING — CHARACTER OF 
 THE NEGRO — NO FRESH WATER— PRICE OF PROVISIONS AND 
 LODGING— PASSPORTS— START FOR CUBA. 
 
 HE steam ship "Valley City/' on 
 board of which we found ourselves, was 
 a screw of about six hundred tons 
 burden, plying up and down the coast 
 between Tampa and Key West, at irregular intervals 
 touching at Manatee and Punta Rassa " en route," 
 and occasionally extending her voyage south to 
 
Voyage to Key West. 159 
 
 Havana and north to Cedar Keys. Her freight 
 consisted of a hundred head of cattle from Tampa 
 bound to Cuba — Spain, the mate called it — and some 
 hogs ; she had cabin accommodation for about four- 
 teen first class passengers, and was clean and comfort- 
 able enough. 
 
 Among her passengers was a Roman Catholic 
 priest, who informed me that he was stationed at 
 Tampa, and was now proceeding to visit the settle- 
 ments on the various keys round the coast, and at 
 Miami on Biscayne Bay. He said there were very 
 few settlers of his religion in South Florida, far 
 fewer than he had been led to expect, a state- 
 ment quite in accordance with my own experi- 
 ence, as nearly all the settlers I met were 
 what we call in England fC Dissenters," chiefly 
 Methodists. 
 
 With just breeze enough to make the temperature 
 — about 8 5 Fahrenheit in the shade — enjoyable, we 
 coasted the flat mangrove-covered islands and shores 
 of Monroe County as far as Cape Romano, which we 
 reached just as the sun sank below the opaque blue 
 waves of the Gulf of Mexico. This very remarkable 
 light milky blue colour of the Gulf water is said to 
 
160 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 be caused by the action of the waves on the coral 
 reefs, which during storms grind into powder the 
 homes of the coral insect, and scatter the debris far 
 and wide till the whole waters of the Gulf are 
 whitened. 
 
 At daylight in the morning after leaving the Ca- 
 loosahatchee river, we found ourselves among the 
 low group of mangrove islands of which Key West 
 is the most westerly of any size. In a couple of 
 hours more we were moored alongside the wharf, 
 where we engaged the services of a negro and cart 
 to convey our baggage to the St. James's Hotel, a 
 large wooden building in the principal street, where 
 the accommodation appeared to us palatial after 
 our experiences of camp-life in South Western 
 Florida. 
 
 The name Key West is a corruption of that by 
 which the Spaniards still designate the island Cayo 
 Hueso, or Bone Key. It is about six miles long, by 
 one mile wide, the town being situated on the northern 
 or Gulf side of the western end. Its population has 
 been so much increased by the immigration of refugee 
 Creoles and negroes from Cuba, that it now numbers 
 over nine thousand souls. Nearly all the houses 
 
The American Fleet. 161 
 
 are frame, the streets are sand, and the side walks 
 wood. Fine trees are planted in the principal 
 streets and avenues, and many of the detached 
 villa residences are nearly hidden in thick groves 
 of cocoa-nut palms, laurels, magnolias and orange 
 trees. 
 
 We found an unusual amount of stir and life in 
 the place, owing to the presence of the American 
 fleet which had been anchored in the harbour and 
 roads for some time, in consequence of the 
 " Virginius" difficulty with Spain. Though every 
 available war-ship on the Atlantic and Gulf coasts 
 of the United States was collected at Key West, the 
 sight failed to impress us with much respect for 
 the naval strength of the great Republic. There 
 were about thirty men-of-war, wooden vessels, some 
 of them mounting very heavy guns, but the greater 
 part we were informed were rotten, unseaworthy 
 and very slow. There were also five monitors, 
 wicked-looking craft with armoured turrets, very 
 formidable for coast defence, but with too low free- 
 board to venture far from land. Since first assembled 
 at Key West, the crews had deserted in such numbers 
 that there were hardly sufficient hands left to work 
 
 M 
 
162 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 the ships. We heard of numbers of these deserters 
 during our voyage to the Indian river, both on the 
 mainland and on the islands ; while one of our party, 
 who went over in a boat to explore one of the little 
 keys a few miles from Key West, was very near 
 being murdered by a gang of five of these runaways, 
 who thought he had come for the purpose of capturing 
 them. 
 
 Although the island of Key West is a naval station, 
 and in a military point of view is considered of great 
 importance as the key of the Gulf passage, its 
 fortifications are by no means of a formidable des- 
 cription. The fort at the entrance to the harbour 
 is an old-fashioned brick building, mounting several 
 tiers of guns ; but its foundations have given way? 
 large cracks appear in the face and modern heavy 
 artillery would soon destroy it. Two other batteries, 
 chiefly earthworks, are partially completed on the 
 extreme northern and south-western extremities of 
 the island, and are connected by a line of rails run 
 through the scrub, but few guns are mounted as yet. 
 I visited the various works,' so speak from personal 
 observation. 
 
 During our stay of a few days on the island we 
 
Town of Key Wed. 163 
 
 found the heat very oppressive, the sun shining 
 down on the sandy streets with such blazing heat 
 that we could not venture to walk out until shortly 
 before sunset. At that time we used to stroll along 
 the rocky paths that are cut through the thick 
 jungle growth covering all that part of the island 
 over which the streets of the town and villas 
 have not yet spread, though a great portion of this 
 jungle is already marked out in lots, in anticipation 
 of the growth of the town. 
 
 There is so little soil over the coralline limestone 
 of which the island is composed, that the natural 
 growth which consists of various sorts of cacti, 
 tamarinds, gums and other tropical plants, rarely 
 attains a height of more than twenty feet. The 
 beauty of the foliage, however, compensates for the 
 want of size, and the many lovely flowers seen 
 growing beneath the shrubs, with cool breeze suffi- 
 cient to keep off the mosquitoes, made our evening 
 stroll or drive through these miniature forests very 
 enjoyable. One of the nicest walks in the island, the 
 seaward strand, is unfortunately spoilt, by being used 
 as a shamble for slaughtering cattle, whose heads 
 
 M 2 
 
164 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 and offal are left to rot on thu beach and poison the 
 air far and wide. 
 
 In the town we heard almost as much Spanish 
 talked as English, but the physique of the speakers 
 plainly showed that they were Creole or colonial- 
 born Spaniards, degenerate descendants of one of 
 the finest of European races. The Cubans settled 
 in Key West are largely employed in the manu- 
 facture of cigars, of which there are about fifteen 
 factories in the island. The leaf, which is grown in 
 Cuba, or supposed to be so, is rolled at these factories 
 into cigars, which are very good, though inferior to 
 the genuine Havana production in everything except 
 the price. The other industries of the island consist 
 in a factory for canning pine-apples which are grown 
 on some of the keys, and extensive salt-works where 
 thirty thousand bushels of salt are annually made by 
 solar evaporation. 
 
 The principal occupation of the inhabitants is 
 sponging, turtling, and wrecking, all of which we 
 had experience of afterwards during our cruise to 
 the Indian river. A large number of sloops, as 
 they call cutters, and schooners are thus engaged 
 during a portion of the year, employing a number 
 
" Wreckers: 9 165 
 
 of hands who have the character of being skilful 
 and hardy sailors, notwithstanding the demoralizing 
 tendency of the trade of " wrecking," i.e., rescuing, 
 and if possible conveying into port, for a certain 
 amount of salvage, any of the numerous vessels 
 which are annually cast away on the Florida reef, 
 or driven ashore on the mainland or any of the 
 scattered keys. A regular license is issued to the 
 captains of sloops and schooners for this purpose, 
 and a very profitable business done, owing to the 
 dangerous character of the navigation of these seas, 
 and the terrific hurricanes to which they are liable 
 in Autumn. 
 
 That the character of " wrecker " should earn for 
 some of those, who pursue the calling, a dubious 
 reputation is but natural, as humanity and profit 
 cannot always be cast in the same scale ; and when 
 found balanced against one another, it is no marvel 
 that the latter should sometimes be allowed to draw 
 the scale. 
 
 On the highest part of the island, which is only 
 fifteen feet above the sea-level, is a light-house, 
 near which, on the outskirts of the town, are a 
 number of negro shanties, nearly a quarter of the 
 
166 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 population being black or coloured. A lazy, idling, 
 loafing, light-hearted set these Key West negroes 
 seemed to be — the sound of their curious laughter, 
 of songs, break-downs, and music continually re- 
 sounding of an evening throughout the negro 
 quarter. After sunset the piazza of the St. James' 
 Hotel was thronged with naval officers from the 
 fleet, who complained much of the dulness of the 
 place, not without reason, as there are absolutely 
 no amusements or occupation of any sort for a 
 stranger in Key West, and the climate is hot and 
 relaxing, though recommended for consumptive 
 cases. 
 
 Fresh-water was becoming very scarce from the 
 long drought, as all they have in the island is rain- 
 water preserved in tanks, the wells sunk only 
 affording brackish water unfit to drink. The price 
 of provisions we found rather high, when laying 
 in a stock for our voyage round to the east coast 
 of Florida ; but as all the necessaries of life are 
 imported from New Orleans or New York, prices 
 naturally are higher than one expects in such an 
 out-of-the-way spot. At the St. James' Hotel the 
 charge for board and lodging was three and a-half 
 
Leave Key West. 167 
 
 dollars a day, which is rather in excess of the usual 
 charge of hotels on the mainland, except in Jackson- 
 ville, where four to five dollars a day is the price 
 at the leading hotels. 
 
 As Havana is only eighty-four miles distant 
 from Key West, we determined to visit the "Pearl 
 of the Antilles" before proceeding to the east 
 coast of Florida ; so, when the steam-ship 
 " Margaret," from New Orleans for Cuba, arrived 
 in Key West, we engaged a passage in her for 
 Havana. Our guns, ammunition, and tents we 
 stowed at the British Vice-Consulate, where we also 
 obtained the necessary visas for our passports, 
 without which document no strangers may enter 
 Cuba. 
 
 We were fortunate enough to find that the 
 British Vice-Consul himself, Mr. J. Philbrick, an 
 American citizen and merchant, was to be our 
 fellow- passenger, his intimate acquaintance with 
 Cuba and agreeable company adding much to 
 the pleasure of the " nice time " we had at 
 Havana and Matanzas. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 FIRST SIGHT OF THE CUBAN HILLS— A ROMANTIC YANKEE — 
 HAVANA HARBOUR— CUSTOM-HOUSE — HAVANA FROM THE SEA 
 — INSIDE THE TOWN — STREETS, VEHICLES, AND BUILDINGS — 
 LIFE BEHIND THE BARS — THE TACON THEATRE — SALVINI — 
 OCCUPATIONS OF THE "UPPER TEN" — DETERIORATION OF 
 THE CREOLE RACE — LIFE IN HAVANA — SOCIETY — PAPER- 
 MONEY— PUBLIC BUILDINGS— PUBLIC GARDENS AND SQUARES 
 — COUNTRY SEAT OF THE CAPTAIN-GENERAL — CUBAN VILLAS — 
 NEW STREETS — THE MARKET — THE CAMPO DE MARTE — REAL 
 FABRICA DE TABACOS — EFFECT OF GUANO ON THE TOBACCO 
 CROP— PRICES — THE HONRADEZ CIGARETTE FACTORY — HOT 
 WEATHER AND COOL BREEZES — SCENES IN THE BAY AND ON 
 SHORE— NOISE AND DRAINAGE — THE INSURGENTS— SPANIARD 
 AND CREOLE— REGIMENTS FOR THE SEAT OF WAR. 
 
 EAVING Key West in the afternoon 
 of the 15th March, we met a strong 
 south-easterly trade-wind outside the 
 Keys, and at three a.m. the following 
 morning hove-to off the harbour of Havana, to 
 
First Vieio of Cuba. 169 
 
 wait until gun-fire, before which no foreign vessels 
 are permitted to enter the bay. 
 
 It would be a cold nature, indeed, which could 
 look for the first time on the Cuban hills entirely 
 unmoved. As we rose and fell on the long 
 swell of the Gulf, I watched the daylight break- 
 ing over the purple slopes, barren enough, save 
 where some planter's house nestled in dark green 
 groves of the royal palm. From the distant 
 mountain ranges to the surf-beaten rocks, the 
 colours changed from grey to blue, purple, and 
 gold, as the dawn changed rapidly to daylight. 
 Even the hard, practical nature of a New-England 
 Yankee, who was standing at my elbow, was in- 
 fluenced by the scene, for as the sun rose and 
 the morning-gun booming from the shore an- 
 nounced that we might enter the harbour, he 
 ceased chewing for a moment while he thus spoke : 
 
 " Well, Sir, considering all the wickedness 
 them Spaniards has committed since they come 
 to the Indies, it's a wonder Almighty God hasn't 
 drove them out of that beautiful island long ago. 
 Guess it's about time Uncle Sam took that business 
 in hand." 
 
170 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 That Uncle Sam might find that business not 
 quite as easy as my friend imagined, came into my 
 mind, as I thought of the exhibition of America's 
 naval power which I had just seen at Key West, 
 and then looked up at the famous Morro Castle, 
 bristling with artillery on the hill above us, and 
 the numerous other forts and batteries on either 
 hand which completely commanded the entrance 
 to the harbour half a mile in length, and so 
 narrow that only one ship can pass at a 
 time. 
 
 The narrows passed, we were boarded by the 
 heal th-o nicer s and several police; then steaming 
 slowly through a fleet of Spanish war-ships, we cast 
 anchor near the head of the harbour. Selecting 
 one of the small sail-boats with white awning, we 
 stowed ourselves and baggage on board, and were 
 conveyed to the custom-house, where we had 
 to undergo the annoying formalities of baggage 
 examination and a most rigid scrutiny of our 
 passports. Being at last satisfied that we were not 
 revolutionary adventurers, we were allowed to pro- 
 ceed to our hotel, and were soon comfortably housed 
 at the San Carlos Hotel, admirably situated close to 
 
Streets of Havana. 171 
 
 the harbour and starting-place of the ferry boats, 
 which run across to the principal railway station, on 
 the other side of the bay. 
 
 Havana, as we first beheld it from the ship's 
 deck, looked bright and sunny ; its many-coloured 
 houses, antique churches, and quaint old buildings — 
 strongly reminding me of the mother-country — 
 offered that picturesque variety to the eye which is 
 so conspicuously wanting in the formal cities of the 
 United States. By many Americans we had been 
 told that, when once inside the town, we should find 
 it mean and very expensive, while the stench, heat, 
 and noise would be insupportable. Such was not, 
 however, our experience of the place, as we spent ten 
 most enjoyable days in Havana, though I think that 
 time quite sufficient to see everything that is to be 
 seen, nor do I suppose we should have cared to 
 prolong our stay. 
 
 The streets are built to suit the heat of the 
 climate, very narrow, paved with large stones, and 
 bordered by grim-looking stone houses, seldom 
 exceeding one story in height. The foot-ways are 
 very narrow, usually about two feet in width, so that 
 two pedestrians can scarcely pass one another, the inside 
 
172 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 one being compelled to flatten himself against the 
 wall, while the outside one is exposed to great 
 danger from the wheels of passing vehicles. There 
 are said to be six thousand cabs in Havana, small 
 one horse Victorias, which dash about regardless of 
 corners or foot passengers, and so frequently come 
 into collision that a break-down excites no attention 
 whatever. Omnibuses and tram-cars run through 
 several streets, and the cheapness of locomotion 
 is as remarkable as it is welcome in such a hot climate. 
 Many of the streets are shaded by awnings stretched 
 across from house to house, so as effectually to 
 exclude the sun's rays and shade the shops which are 
 all open in front. 
 
 Nearly every other shop is a " Fabrica de Tabacos" 
 or "de Cigarros, ,, and every soul seen in Havana, 
 in the houses or in the streets, male or female, rich 
 or poor, appears eternally smoking cigars or 
 cigarettes ; the annual amount of money spent on 
 tobacco by a population numbering slightly over 
 two hundred and twenty thousand has been 
 calculated at nearly a million pounds sterling. 
 Except in the hotels and a few of the most modern 
 buildings, glass is unknown throughout Cuba. Iron 
 
The Tacon Theatre. 173 
 
 bars protect the windows which reach down to the 
 ground, and during the greater portion of the day 
 and night have neither blinds nor shutters. The 
 domestic life of the occupants of the houses is there- 
 fore fully revealed to every passer by in the street, 
 the effect being as novel to the stranger as it is 
 sometimes startling. Havana is a most immoral 
 city ; there are streets of houses round the barred 
 windows of which I have seen groups of men collected 
 of an evening, their faces close pressed against the 
 open iron bars, criticizing the fair occupants of the 
 rooms, whose every action was perfectly visible to 
 all loungers in the street as well as to those passing 
 in carriages to or from the opera, theatre, or 
 band. 
 
 We paid several visits to the Tacon theatre, 
 where the Italian actor Salvini — one of the finest 
 tragic actors ever seen on any stage — was playing in 
 the " Morte Civile" and " Otello," supported by a 
 very good Italian company. The theatre is one of 
 the finest in the world, nearly as large as La Scala 
 at Milan. The contrivances for cool air and 
 ventilation are as good as they are necessary ; the 
 backs of all the boxes being lattice work, allow a 
 
174 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 free current of air to pass in from the wide marble 
 paved passages. These communicate with noble 
 saloons where cigarettes are smoked between the 
 acts, and iced drinks of every variety furnished 
 for a small sum. Drinks, cabs and cigars were 
 about the only cheap things we obtained in 
 Havana. 
 
 When Salvini acted, the house was crowded from 
 floor to roof, exhibiting whatever of rank, fashion 
 and beauty Havana can boast. On other nights 
 when not attracted by Salvini, the "upper ten" 
 flocked to the Prado or public square, where sitting 
 in carriages, often drawn up in rows four or five 
 deep, they listened to the strains of a military band 
 which played most evenings from eight to ten p.m. 
 While the music lasted, the gardens and cafes 
 round were thronged with men smoking and 
 drinking; but the music and theatre over the 
 crowds dispersed and apparently the natives retire 
 to bed early, as we found the streets empty by 
 midnight. 
 
 Remembering the handsome faces and graceful 
 forms which used to fill the theatres, bull-rings 
 and all places of public resort in Seville, Madrid and 
 
Life in Havana. 175 
 
 other cities of the mother-country, I was much 
 disappointed at the specimens of the Creole popula- 
 tion of Havana which I saw. The men were 
 puny, short and weak-limbed, the women sallow 
 and unattractive ; nor is this deterioration in 
 race of the descendants of Spanish immigrants 
 confined to the towns, but it is also conspicuous 
 among the country-born Creoles, though in a less 
 degree. 
 
 Life in Havana is almost entirely a male one, 
 women are never seen by daylight except behind 
 the iron bars of the windows, and during most 
 hours of the twenty-four they must have a dreary 
 time of it indeed. No lady who wishes to be 
 considered respectable ever walks in the streets, so 
 the occupation of the female portion of the house- 
 hold is limited to sitting in a circle opposite the 
 bars of the windows talking, and, when the sun 
 permits, looking out into the streets. Those who 
 can afford it, drive or go to the play in the evening ; 
 those who cannot, sit still, gossiping round the 
 window, or if they want exercise, promenade on the 
 flat roof of their houses. The proportion of males 
 to females is about three to one, but the numerical 
 
176 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 superiority of the former appears to be ten times 
 that amount, owing to this custom of the men alone 
 appearing abroad, while the women remain shut up 
 at home. 
 
 In Havana "society" there is not much of the 
 blue blood of Spain, but a great deal of " shoddy" 
 is very apparent, large fortunes being rapidly 
 amassed by the grasping and unscrupulous Spanish 
 settlers and merchants. 
 
 The difficulty of understanding a new currency 
 is always considerable, but we found it utterly 
 impossible to fix the relative value of the paper- 
 money with which the market was flooded. On 
 our arrival in Cuba the paper-dollar was at a 
 discount of fifty per cent, a fortnight later the 
 premium on gold rose to a hundred and fifty per 
 cent. The merchants and hotel-keepers took care 
 to alter their prices, so that each fall in the paper 
 value became a gain to them, and if we offered 
 English or American money, ten to twenty per 
 cent below the value obtainable at the exchange 
 offices was usually offered; nor did our experiences 
 lead us to form a very favourable opinion of Cuban 
 mercantile honour. 
 
Mausoleum of Columbus. 177 
 
 The public buildings of Havana are not at- 
 tractive, the Cathedral is ugly outside, poor and 
 tawdry within, but still looking old and venerable, 
 and a striking picture when crowded with black- 
 veiled worshippers, as I saw it one Sunday morn- 
 ing. Each lady was attended by a female slave, 
 who carefully spread a carpet for her mistress to 
 kneel on, giving the church the appearance of the 
 interior of an Eastern mosque. The mausoleum 
 of Columbus, with its half-effaced inscription is, 
 of course, interesting as the last resting-place of the 
 remains of the great discoverer of the New World, 
 to whose memory Havana might surely raise 
 some more fitting monument, wealthy as the city 
 is. 
 
 Since the suppression of monastic institutions, 
 some of the convents have been turned into 
 hospitals ; a conspicuous old church near the 
 harbour is now used by the Custom authorities for 
 storing goods in bond, and the monastery attached 
 as writing-rooms for the clerks employed. In 
 Havana, as in the old country, priestly dominion 
 appears to have passsd away, though religious 
 tolerance has made little or no progress, and 
 
 N 
 
178 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 a Protestant is still heartily hated throughout 
 Cuba. 
 
 The public gardens and squares of Havana are 
 now as carefully tended as our own London parks, 
 well stocked with flowers, dense shady trees, and 
 royal palms, and embellished with fountains, the 
 very sight and sound of which are delightfully 
 refreshing in such a climate. At the bottom of 
 the garden, in front of the Captain-General's 
 palace, a tree is pointed out as the identical one 
 under which Columbus received the Indian chiefs 
 when he landed, an interesting, if true, memorial. 
 
 In the cool of the evening we sometimes drove 
 out to the country-seat of the Captain-General, 
 near the outskirts of the town, where the beautiful 
 but badly cared for gardens are well worth a visit. 
 The avenues of the stately royal palm, cocoas, 
 mangoes, and other tropical fruits, are remarkably 
 fine, and a labyrinth, with hedges of the red and 
 crimson ibiscus, presents a mass of colour of wonder- 
 fully gorgeous effect. Our returning route led us 
 through the long street which forms the suburb 
 called the Cerro, lined with the marble-porticoed 
 villas of the Cuban aristocracy. In style these 
 
Cuban Villas. 179 
 
 villas are all much alike, built close to the dusty 
 road, with marble pillars supporting the roof, 
 which projects over the wide verandah. A large 
 entrance hall, strange to say, includes also the 
 coach-house, reception-rooms, billiard-rooms, all 
 on the same floor, the latter rooms facing the 
 garden which stretches back from each villa. The 
 floors are of marble or coloured tiles, as are also the 
 walls, while the furniture consists of a few arm- 
 chairs, rocking-chairs, and a table, all open 
 to view through the unglazed windows, a 
 cool and easy, if not a very luxurious, 
 home. 
 
 Since the demolition of the fortifications which 
 formerly surrounded Havana, many fine new streets 
 have been built, while others are still in course of 
 construction ; these streets are wider, and the 
 houses are built higher, than in the old portion of 
 the town, nearer the harbour. The large open 
 space which has been cleared in front of the 
 Tacon Theatre, forms a very handsome place, with 
 trees, fountains, statues, and flowers, and several 
 remarkably fine cafes, hotels, clubs, and private 
 
 houses, a few unfinished ; but building has been 
 
 - •■■ 
 
 N 2 
 
180 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 active of late, and the outside of most of the houses 
 is now completed. 
 
 The market-place in the Campo de Marte is 
 one of the sights of the town, and even though 
 we had to be there at six a.m., the curious scene 
 well repaid us for the effort. Fresh vegetables and 
 fruit of every species produced in the tropics, 
 bananas, sappadillos, alligator pears, fresh cocoas, 
 pine-apples, and many unknown fruits, brilliantly- 
 coloured fish, lobsters, and cray-flsh of a beautiful 
 variety, poultry, game, and butcher's meat, each 
 in its special street of wooden stalls, were no 
 less attractive or curious than were the crowds of 
 Creoles, Chinese, and Negroes who were occupied 
 filling their baskets, and bargaining for the various 
 stores required for the day's consumption. The 
 permanent market-place had lately been burnt, so 
 a temporary one had been been erected in its 
 place on this " Mars' Field," where we afterwards 
 watched some volunteers learning their drill, an 
 accomplishment they apparently stood much in need 
 of. 
 
 Close to the Campo de Marte is the cc Real 
 Fabrica de Tabacos Hija de Cabanas y Carvajal," 
 
Fabrica de Tabacos. 181 
 
 which we were kindly shown over by the pro- 
 prietor, Signor Ansel mo del Valle, to whom we 
 had been presented by the British Consul-General. 
 Several hundred Chinese as well as Negro slaves 
 were employed in rolling the cigars, aud also a large 
 number of Cuban free workmen. All hands, free 
 and slave alike, overseers and workmen looked pale, 
 emaciated, and unhealthy, showing that the strong 
 odour and impalpable dust of the tobacco leaf, 
 with which the air was impregnated, is destructive 
 of human health. Ordering one of the workmen to 
 roll me a cigar, Signor del Valle insisted on my 
 smoking it at once, explaining that if kept only a 
 few hours it would deteriorate, and require keep- 
 ing some length of time before regaining its fra- 
 grance. This fresh cigar much resembled a well- 
 kept one, fragrant without rankness, cool and 
 mild. 
 
 We were told in Havana that of late years 
 cigars have considerably fallen off in quality from 
 what they used to be, owing to the large use of 
 guano and other artificial manures in the tobacco- 
 plantations. For many years no manure whatever 
 was put upon the land, which gradually became 
 
182 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 exhausted, upon which the planters took to using 
 whatever manure produced the largest crops, re- 
 gardless of the rankness caused thereby in the 
 tobacco-plant. How that may be, I know not, 
 but that the produce of the Vuelta Abajo is still 
 of a rare excellence, I know, having purchased a 
 case of the Cabanas brand from Signor del Valle of 
 a quality rarely obtainable in the London market, 
 and which, all expenses paid, cost me little more 
 than half the price charged by our cigar-merchants. 
 Large cigars of the best quality and Regalia size, 
 average in Havana a hundred dollars gold (£25) 
 a thousand ; small ones about half that price, when 
 of the best known brands, such as Cabanas, 
 Partagas, &c. Others of no particular brand are 
 manufactured in hundreds of small establishments, 
 and can be bought about twenty-five per-cent 
 cheaper. 
 
 Another large tobacco-manufactory which we 
 visited was the Honradez, where three million 
 cigarettes are daily turned out. Machinery is 
 extensively used in every department, viz., for 
 cutting and pressing the cc picadura " or tobacco 
 used in the cigarettes, for branding, for making 
 
La Honradez. 183 
 
 casks, for printing, and even for filling, and turning 
 the paper cigar, the latter machine being a 
 French invention and very complicated. About 
 a hundred Chinamen and the same number of 
 free-hands are employed inside the place, and a 
 thousand persons outside — the latter convicts — who 
 gladly roll cigarettes for a small sum. 
 
 It was a marvel to watch the speed with which 
 the Chinamen counted and packed the paper cases 
 which enveloped each packet of cigarettes, seeming 
 to know by the feel, without counting, the exact 
 number ; and so quick in the movement of their 
 hands that the eye could scarcely follow them. It 
 is for such work, however, that the Chinaman 
 appears to be peculiarly adapted, his feeble frame 
 making him unsuited for field or other hard 
 labour. 
 
 During our stay in Havana, the weather was 
 hot for the time of year, the range of the ther- 
 mometer being from a minimum of 8 1° Fahrenheit 
 at night, to a maximum of 90 in the shade during 
 the daytime. We never, however, suffered from 
 heat at the San Carlos, owing to the admirable 
 contrivances for admitting the cool breezes and 
 
184 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 excluding the sun. A wide, marble-paved passage, 
 running along each side of an inner triangular 
 court formed the salle-a-manger \ off which opened 
 the bed-rooms and reception-rooms, also marble- 
 paved, with tiled and painted walls. The black 
 and white marble which is so largely used in Cuba, 
 both in the interior and exterior of most of the 
 houses, is brought all the way from Genoa in Italy, 
 six thousand miles distant. 
 
 Though plenty of marble exists in the island, it 
 is not considered profitable to work the quarries, 
 the cultivation of sugar, coffee, and tobacco fully 
 employing all the slave-labour now procurable. In 
 our bed-rooms, sacking stretched on an iron frame 
 without mattress of any sort afforded a cool and 
 sufficiently soft bed, where no vermin in any shape 
 could hide. Outside our windows ran a broad 
 balcony overlooking the harbour, where we daily 
 enjoyed the fresh easterly trade-wind, which from 
 sunrise to sunset blew across the bay, and cooled 
 the heated atmosphere. 
 
 In the bay, the scene was ever interesting and 
 ever-varying. Six Spanish men-of-war, two Ameri- 
 can war. ships, and an English iron-clad — the Belle- 
 
Scene in the Bay. 185 
 
 rophon — were continually thundering out salutes, 
 as the admirals commanding the fleets of the res- 
 pective nations exchanged visits, or some new man- 
 of-war arrived in the harbour, when the shore 
 batteries added their share to the noise. Mail- 
 steamers, merchantmen, and schooners from Europe, 
 the United States, and the islands of the Caribbean 
 Sea and Mexico, were constantly arriving; and 
 a fleet of little sailing-boats, with white awnings 
 spread, dotted the bay as they plied from 
 ship to ship for hire, conveying goods and pas- 
 sengers to and fro, from ship to shore. Two ferry- 
 boats, running across the bay to the suburb of 
 Regla on the opposite side, conveyed every half- 
 hour crowds of country or business people to their 
 various occupations, affording an amusing study 
 of country dress and physique. 
 
 During the twelve hours of daylight, the noise, 
 bustle, and excitement were constant ; but after 
 gun-fire, as the sun dipped, darkness and silence 
 overspread the bay, broken only by the whistle and 
 bell of the steam-ferry, which continued to run up 
 to midnight. 
 
 Not a breath of air rippled the water after sun- 
 
186 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 set, but the stars shone reflected in its placid 
 surface as brilliantly as in the firmament above. 
 Then through the hot night-air would come the 
 twang of the guitar, or sound of a fiddle from 
 some of the cafes near, and voices of people 
 talking below in the place, or the " ya-ya " laugh 
 of a female slave flirting with her sable admirer 
 on a neighbouring house-top in company with the 
 cats. By midnight nearly unbroken silence reigned 
 by sea and land, and those who call Havana 
 unbearably noisy should compare it with a 
 London west-end thoroughfare during the season. 
 
 As for the smells of the town, the drainage is 
 undeniably bad, and in the hot months, when 
 the south wind blows, the stench from the harbour 
 is said to be horrible. But then I know no Spanish 
 town which does not abound in abominable smells. 
 An evil of Havana, at least as great as the bad 
 drainage, is the filthy-tasting and unwholesome 
 water with which the inhabitants are supplied. 
 Even in coffee, iced drinks, cocktails or any other 
 disguise, its nauseous taste is still perceptible, nor 
 does boiling get rid of its horrible flavour. It has 
 long been in contemplation to construct an aqueduct 
 
The Insurgents. 187 
 
 to convey pure water from some distant springs 
 to the town, and probably some day or other 
 this will be accomplished, but meanwhile the in- 
 habitants are being poisoned with stuff foul as 
 sewage can make it, nor need one seek further 
 for a cause why yellow fever finds a home in 
 Havana. 
 
 Soon after our arrival we were made honorary 
 members of a strangers' club on the Prado, a real 
 treat to us who had not heard any news of the 
 civilized world for months, except such scraps as 
 passed through the Telegraph station at Punta Rassa. 
 Knowing that a guerilla warfare had been carried on 
 for five years in the island of Cuba, within two 
 hundred miles of Havana, we were much surprised 
 that nothing we saw in the capital was suggestive 
 of any other state than one of profound peace 
 throughout the land. 
 
 In the Cuban daily papers, a short account of an 
 alleged defeat of the Insurgents sometimes appeared, 
 or in the " New York Herald" an equally credible 
 account of the progress of the Patriot army. 
 Though nearly every Spaniard we saw wore a red 
 and green cockade in his Panama hat, signifying 
 
188 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 that he was a volunteer, complete uniform appeared 
 to be worn only on duty, and we scarcely ever saw 
 a regular soldier. We were told that deep hatred 
 of the Spaniard animated every Creole breast, and 
 that the massacres at the theatre, and at the 
 Louvre Cafe, with the long oppression of the 
 native by the ruling race, would some day be 
 bloodily avenged ; but of all this we saw no outward 
 sign. Creole and Spaniard apparently lived together 
 in perfect amity, though the manner of the 
 Spaniard might be contemptuous, while that of the 
 Creole was cringing. 
 
 Towards the end of March, however, news 
 arrived from Puerto Principe, that the insurgents 
 had routed a considerable body of Spanish cavalry, 
 killing four hundred men and capturing five 
 hundred horses. Then at all the cafes great ex- 
 citement became apparent, the value of paper 
 money fell fifty per cent, and for the first time 
 we heard of troops moving to the front. The 
 sound of bugles, early on the morning of the 24th 
 March, called us on to the balcony, whence we 
 watched two regiments of cavalry march into the 
 place, form up and dismount. Alongside the wharf 
 
Embarkation of Cavalry. 189 
 
 lay two steam-transports with stores, forage, 
 vegetables and munitions of war piled on deck, 
 ready to convey these fresh troops to the scene 
 of conflict as soon as they could be em- 
 barked. 
 
 On near inspection, the troop-horses appeared 
 far too small for their riders, mostly big men, 
 armed with breech-loading carbine, sword, and 
 revolver. The troopers were well dressed in a striped 
 blue and white linen suit, Panama hat, jacked gaiters 
 reaching above the knee and strapped beneath the 
 short boot, heavy Mexican spurs and brown leather 
 belts. The embarkation was conducted without 
 much confusion or noise, the men leading their horses 
 in single file on board, where they secured them on 
 the lower deck. 
 
 The ship was built on the American principle, 
 with several tiers of decks, the horses being on the 
 lower, which was flush with the wharf, while on 
 the deck above, valises, saddles and arms were 
 stowed. All being on board, in a very short time 
 the transports steamed down the bay, accompanied 
 by a small steam-tender with band on board playing 
 patriotic airs ; but little notice was taken of them 
 
190 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 from the shore, only the feeblest of cheers being 
 raised as they left the wharf. After the departure 
 of these two regiments, we neither saw nor heard 
 of any further military movements, and though 
 the value of paper- money continued to fall, no 
 disturbance of the public peace took place in 
 Havana. 
 
 There is but little doubt that this guerilla war, 
 which has for so many years distracted the isknd, 
 might long since have been put an end to, had 
 Spanish officials and Spanish generals but done their 
 duty to their country. I was assured by those likely 
 to know, that, by the prolongation of the war, civil 
 and military officers both gained such pecuniary 
 advantages, that their last wish was to crush the 
 insurrection. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE LAST STRONGHOLD OF SLAVERY — A SUGAR PLANTATION — 
 MARIAN AO— THE " INGENIO"— CHILDREN AND SLAVE-DRIVERS 
 — INTENSE HEAT FROM FURNACES — FOREIGN MATTER IN 
 SUGAR — THE NEGRO BARRACKS — BLOODHOUNDS — HORRID 
 DENS — THE NURSERIES AND SICK WARDS — NUMBERS OF 
 CHILDREN— PUNISHMENT CELLS— CHINESE QUARTERS— THE 
 ENGLISH OVERSEER'S HOUSE— PRODUCE OF A PLANTATION — 
 THE MORET LAW — DURATION OF NEGRO LIFE — A DAY'S 
 LABOUR — CONDITION OF THE " CONTRACTED " CHINAMEN — 
 THE LAW AND THE SLAVE-OWNER— ARRIVAL OF CHINESE 
 COMMISSIONER — COOLIE TRAFFIC — THE ONLY REMEDY — 
 SLAVERY IN THEORY AND SLAVERY IN REALITY— AN UN- 
 SOLVED PROBLEM. 
 
 O see slavery in almost its last strong- 
 hold, and judge myself of the condi- 
 tion and treatment of the slaves on 
 the Cuban plantations, had long been an object 
 of my desires. In furtherance of this object, we 
 
192 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 obtained in Havana the necessary permission to 
 visit the sugar plantation of Tolosa, near the town 
 of Marianao, distant about ten miles from the 
 .capital. 
 
 Half an hour in the cars, which throughout 
 Cuba are constructed the same as in the United 
 States, five stoppages at so many suburban hamlets, 
 and we reached Marianao, a fashionable resort of 
 the wealthy inhabitants of Havana, more especially 
 on Sundays, when the hotels, cafes and villas are 
 crowded with pleasure parties. 
 
 At Marianao we engaged carriages to convey us 
 to the plantation, about two miles distant, over 
 the usual abominable stony track which is made 
 to do duty for a carriage road throughout 
 Cuba. At the gate of the plantation we were 
 stopped by an old negro armed with a musket, 
 who examined our pass before allowing us to 
 proceed. We then drove on through immense 
 fields of cane on either hand, until we reached 
 the " ingenio," or sugar manufactory, where we 
 were received by the overseer and his wife, both 
 English. 
 
 Outside the crushing-house some fifty or sixty 
 
The "Ingenio." 193 
 
 negro children, apparently from six to twelve 
 years old, of both sexes, were occupied piling the 
 canes on the elevator which conveyed them to 
 the crushing wheel, fresh loads being constantly 
 brought in ox-waggons from the fields. Toiling 
 away for their very lives in the broiling sunshine, 
 the poor little wretches kept a constant eye on 
 a formidable cow-hide whip, wielded by a negro 
 who stood by, ready to crack it across their 
 bare backs if they attempted to idle or eat the 
 sugar-cane. 
 
 Inside the building we were shown the whole 
 process of sugar making, from the raw cane to 
 the boxes of sugar ready packed for export.. The 
 owner of the plantation was very proud of his 
 machinery bought in England, in France, and in 
 America. That used in crushing, boiling, refin- 
 ing, &c, was the best the world has yet produced, 
 or human ingenuity invented, to supply the place of 
 human labour. 
 
 At some of the machines negresses worked, at 
 others Chinese and Africans. In some parts of 
 the building the heat was so intense that negroes 
 and Chinese, though stark naked with the except- 
 
 o 
 
194 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 ion of a cloth round the loins, were pouring with 
 sweat. As many stood in the vats in which the 
 boiling sugar had cooled and hardened, breaking 
 up the mass with picks and treading out the 
 lumps with their bare feet, while the perspiration 
 poured off them, the fact became evident that 
 more foreign matter enters into the composition of 
 sugar than is generally known. Certain quantities 
 of pure lime are mixed with the cane juice to destroy 
 the acid in all kinds of sugar, while in the manu- 
 facture of the coarser qualities molasses are largely 
 used. 
 
 From the mill we proceeded to the negro barracks, 
 as their quarters are termed, consisting of brick 
 buildings one story high, enclosing a large 
 square, entered through double iron gates. As 
 we passed in, two ferocious -looking Cuban blood- 
 hounds, chained one on either side of the gate, 
 sniffed suspiciously near our legs, but, being trained 
 to run down or attack negroes only, did not molest 
 us. 
 
 On the ground-floor, opening on to the court-yard, 
 were the negroes' rooms, secured by heavily barred 
 and padlocked doors. Opening one of these we 
 
The Negro Quarters. 195 
 
 found ourselves ]'m one of the most horrible dens 
 imaginable. Walls black with dirt, uneven clay- 
 floors about fourteen feet square, no means of ad- 
 mitting daylight or air except by the door, a 
 wooden table, bench and bedstead the sole furni- 
 ture. On the latter hung the remnants of a 
 filthy blanket, while the worst filth covered the 
 floor, furniture and walls, which also were alive 
 with vermin. In each of these pestiferous dun- 
 geons, a whole family lived in a condition 
 more foul and degraded than any beasts of 
 
 the field. We looked into several and found 
 
 i 
 
 them all alike, while from an open drain a few 
 feet from the doors a most sickening stench 
 proceeded. 
 
 Mounting a wooden staircase, at the foot of 
 which was chained another bloodhound, we passed 
 through a trap-door on to the upper floor, and 
 found ourselves in a wide • gallery running round 
 the court. On this gallery opened large and toler- 
 ably well ventilated rooms, used as nurseries, sick- 
 wards, lying-in rooms, saddler's rooms and stores. 
 Dozens of naked children of every age, from the 
 fly-devoured baby in its cradle to the black-eyed, 
 
 O 2 
 
196 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 round-bellied urchin of three or four years old, 
 swarmed along the gallery. Their number and various 
 shades of colour, from jet black to nearly white> 
 proved that the negro women were certainly not 
 barren, and that the white man did not disdain to 
 make a concubine as well as a slave of the African. A 
 few old women too sick to work in the fields, or 
 mothers not yet recovered from child-birth, looked 
 after the children, who seemed happy enough, 
 tumbling over each other, and playing with some 
 bloodhound puppies, little thinking of their own 
 unhappy lot, or the use to which these same puppies 
 would shortly be put. 
 
 Outside the lying-in rooms some half-a-dozen 
 young negresses were seated, evidently about to 
 add to the population, engaged sewing cotton gar- 
 ments for themselves, not for the expected infants, 
 covering of any sort being considered superfluous 
 for coloured children of either sex on a Cuban 
 plantation. In the punishment cells we saw only 
 one culprit, a young negro with his feet in the 
 stocks, the rest of the offenders being employed 
 at this busy time of year working in chains in the 
 fields. In the kitchen we found a filthy old negress 
 
The Chinese Quarters, 197 
 
 preparing a scanty meal for the slaves, of sweet 
 potatoes, nothing else apparently being cooked for 
 their dinners. 
 
 In quarters, the Chinese were considerably better 
 off, occupying separate huts at some distance from 
 the negro barracks, and living entirely by them- 
 selves. Nominally not subject to the lash, in 
 reality they experience the same treatment as the 
 African, and are compelled to work the same time, 
 eighteen hours a day in the busy season — a fearful 
 task in such a climate. 
 
 After a thorough inspection of everything 
 connected with the sugar plantation, we re- 
 tired to the house of the English overseer, 
 situated in a grove of cocoa-nut palms, where 
 our hot and weary frames were refreshed 
 with cool drinks and the milk of fresh cocoa- 
 nuts, large bunches of which were carefully 
 fastened to a strong rope and lowered gently down 
 from the tops of the tall palms by a young negro 
 slave, who clambered up the smooth, straight trunks 
 with the agility of a monkey. 
 
 From the overseer I learnt that the plantation 
 consisted of about six hundred and fifty acres under t 
 
198 Wild Life in Florida, 
 
 sugar-cane, employing six hundred slaves, black 
 and Chinese. The annual produce averaged fifteen 
 hundred tons of raw sugar, which at £ 1 6 per ton, the 
 average value in Havana, would amount to 
 £24,000 per annum, or nearly £37 per acre. No 
 wonder then if Cuban planters are now cultivating 
 sugar, and neglecting coffee and tobacco. No other 
 crops will yield such magnificent returns, and while 
 Slavery lasts the Cuban sugar-planter will continue 
 to earn an immense income by the labour of his 
 black cattle, notwithstanding that the market value 
 of a slave is as much as sixteen hundred 
 dollars (£400). 
 
 By the Moret law, every child born in Cuba is 
 free, and every negro becomes free on attaining 
 the age of sixty. I asked how this law worked ; 
 the answer was, that the Moret law compels the 
 children to work in return for their maintenance, 
 up to their eighteenth year, so as yet it has made 
 no difference, while the few negroes who live 
 to the age of sixty are then unfit for work, and 
 a good riddance to the planter. The average 
 duration of life of an imported African is, I was 
 
Condition of the African Slave. 199 
 
 told, little more than five years if worked as a field- 
 hand on a plantation. 
 
 On some of the Cuban plantations the slaves live 
 less miserably than on others, but on all they 
 are compelled to work to a cruel extent. Eighteen 
 hours a day for six days out of seven, under a 
 Cuban sun is horrible brutality, and soon wears 
 out even the magnificently-powerful frame of the 
 African, whose strength is kept constantly exerted 
 to its very utmost efforts by the lash of the 
 slave-driver. Sundays are kept on different days 
 by different gangs, that is to say, one holiday is 
 granted out of seven days to each gang in turn, 
 a precaution taken least all the slaves should 
 combine together to escape or murder their 
 masters. 
 
 Though the fate of the poor African slave in 
 Cuba is horrible, that of the unfortunate Asiatic, 
 who is serving under contract, struck me as even 
 more pitiable. The wan face, feeble frame, and 
 dejected looks of the wretched Chinamen were abso- 
 lutely painful to see. Having enjoyed the blessings 
 of freedom up to the hour when his evil fate led 
 him to quit his native country, the poor Chinaman 
 
200 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 is ill-treated on board ship in a fearful manner, and 
 on reaching Cuba is bought, sold, subjected to the 
 lash, and compelled to work like the negro slaves. 
 Against such treatment his natural intelligence and 
 inborn sense of freedom rebel, and he either runs 
 away and engages himself in some trade in the large 
 towns, or goes about a miserable, heart-broken 
 wretch. 
 
 I had a long conversation with a Spanish gentle- 
 man, an owner of slaves both black and yellow, 
 on the subject of his Chinese servants. He told 
 me they contracted to serve for seven years, receiv- 
 ing a certain stated allowance of food and money, 
 and permitted to be sick every third month, but, if 
 sick for more than four months out of the twelve, 
 they would have to serve the extra time the sickness 
 lasted before counting the seven years of service 
 as completed. The law forbids their being subjected 
 to the lash, or the sale of the contract against the 
 will of the Chinaman contracted for, but in both 
 respects the law is set at naught, and the Cuban 
 buys and flogs his Chinese slave openly and with 
 impunity. 
 
 I asked what became of the Chinaman when his 
 
Condition of the Asiatic Slave. 201 
 
 seven years' contract was ended. 1 was answered that 
 the government then got hold of them, so that not 
 even after seven or more years of slavery does the 
 unfortunate Chinaman regain his liberty. My 
 informant's account of their character was not a 
 flattering one ; he said they were liars, thieves, idle, 
 and given to the most atrocious crimes. The value 
 of the seven years' contract for a Chinese servant, 
 he put at five hundred dollars gold (£125), and 
 complained that one of his servants, for whom he 
 had paid this sum, was first ill for three months out 
 of six, and then ran away, nor could he induce a 
 brother who was in his service to tell him what 
 had become of the runaway, though he was con- 
 vinced he knew well, and had tried all the means in 
 his 'power to make him. Poor devil ! I thought, as 
 I observed the expression of the Spaniard's 
 face. 
 
 While we were in Havana a commissioner arrived 
 from the Chinese government to investigate the 
 condition of the contracted coolies, complaints of 
 whose cruel treatment had reached the Celestial 
 Empire. I met the commissioner at an evening 
 reception, a big, fat, pig-tailed Mandarin, ap- 
 
202 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 parently without much energy, but accompanied by 
 a sharp, well-educated secretary. That there was 
 any course short of absolute prohibition of the 
 export of coolies to the Spanish West Indies, 
 and the forcible prevention of the traffic by the 
 English fleet, likely to be of any benefit to poor 
 John Chinaman, none, among those best able to 
 judge, believed. 
 
 With a considerable experience of the free and 
 independent negro in both Eastern and Western 
 hemispheres, I had always thought that slavery 
 was the only condition of life in which the idle, 
 insolent, lying negro race was endurable ; but then 
 my experiences of slavery had been confined to 
 the domestic form as seen in Egypt, Turkey, 
 the far East and some of the semi-civilized 
 parts of Africa, where there is no outward 
 sign which offends the eye or shocks the 
 senses. 
 
 What I saw of slavery on the Cuban plantations 
 filled me with horror of the institution, and quite 
 did away with my previous leaning towards it 
 even in the milder form. It is all very well to say 
 that the slave is sleek and fat, well cared for and 
 
A Difficult Problem. 203 
 
 happier in that condition than when free ; but those 
 who say so, and I have often heard it said, should 
 observe the cowed, dejected bearing of the slave, 
 and the number of scarred, maimed, half-starved 
 and prematurely worn-out negroes seen even in the 
 streets of Havana, and then cross over the few 
 miles of sea which intervene to Key West. There 
 the negro appears the most light-hearted of the 
 human race, chattering, laughing, singing and dancing 
 break-downs the live long day, or sleeping idly in 
 the shade ; earning just sufficient to supply his 
 daily wants when the last cent in his pocket is 
 gone, a thieving, indolent, insolent, independent, 
 pleasure-loving and happy being. That any stimulus 
 short of the lash, even greed of gold, will make the 
 negro work except by fits and starts, is quite contrary 
 to all experience of the race. 
 
 How then the negro's place is to be filled when 
 the inevitable day comes for the abolition of slavery, 
 without ruining the fair island of Cuba, is a 
 problem the solution of which now occupies the 
 thoughts of both Spaniards and Creoles far more 
 than the guerilla war. Having at their very doors 
 the example of Jamaica and the Southern States 
 
204 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 of America, we cannot wonder if every effort 
 is made to stave off the evil hour, and leave 
 to the next generation a task to which the 
 present has shown itself as unequal as was the 
 last. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 START FOR MATANZAS — SCENES ALONG THE RAILWAY— PLANTERS'* 
 COUNTRY-HOUSES— THE LEON DE ORO— SITUATION OF THE 
 TOWN— THE CUBAN " VOLANTE " — COUNTRY ROADS— A " CAFE- 
 TAL " — CAVES OF BELLAMAR — STALACTITE CAVERNS — 
 NATURE'S ALTAR — UNDERGROUND RIVER — FEARFUL HEAT — 
 THE YUMURI VALLEY— THE ROYAL PALM— GORGEOUS TINTS— 
 A CHAIN-GANG — CONTRASTS — THE THEATRE— THEATRICAL 
 PRESIDENT — SCARCITY OF BRITISHERS— SPANISH TOLERATION 
 — NEIGHBOURHOOD OF MATANZAS— A HOT JOURNEY— FARE- 
 WELL TO HAVANA— A NIGHT ON BOARD A STEAMER. 
 
 ISHING to visit Matanzas, a town 
 ranking next to Havana in com- 
 mercial importance, we took the 
 steam-ferry across the bay at the 
 early hour of five a.m. to Regla, whence we travelled 
 by the cars of the direct Eastern railway to Matanzas, 
 
206 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 distant about sixty miles. Passing the swampy head 
 of the Bay of Havana covered with low mangrove 
 trees, we crossed an undulating country bare 
 and destitute of timber, but traversed by good 
 wide roads in the immediate neighbourhood of the 
 capital, and sprinkled with farm-houses. 
 
 As we advanced the scenery improved, the green 
 mountain ridges on either hand delighting our 
 eyes, so long wearied with the monotonous level 
 of Florida. Rising abruptly to a height of some 
 fourteen hundred feet, these ridges are clothed from 
 base to summit with low green scrub, above which 
 towers the grey stem and dark foliage of the royal 
 palm, standing up clear against the sky line on the 
 rocky ridge. 
 
 Sometimes we crossed valleys of great beauty 
 through which wound streams whose banks were 
 overhung by the graceful bamboo and flowering 
 shrubs ; sometimes we plunged in the tangled growth 
 of natural forests, which still covers a great portion 
 of the island. There the wild vine, stretching from 
 tree to tree, the crimson and white convolvulus 
 covering the shrubs with a brilliant mass of blossom, 
 and many other creeping and climbing plants formed 
 
Arrive at Matanzas. 207 
 
 a mass of low vegetable growth, rising to no height 
 but impenetrable to man, unless a way were cut with 
 knife and hatchet. We saw but few big trees, 
 excepting palm, laurel and hoary old ceiba or cotton 
 trees with gorgeously coloured foliage. In the wide, 
 cultivated valleys the sugar-cane was being cut by 
 gangs of slaves, and conveyed in ox-waggons to the 
 " ingenio," the tall chimney of which smoked away 
 in the middle of the plantation, announcing that 
 sugar making was actively progressing. 
 
 The " hacienda," or planter's country-house, was 
 generally somewhat nearer the line of railway, 
 planted round with cocoa-nut palms, bananas and 
 orange trees, and approached by a perfectly straight 
 avenue bordered by double rows of the royal 
 palm, planted within a few feet of one another 
 on either hand. At the stations were large wooden 
 store-houses piled up with sugar and molasses, the 
 staple produce of the country, no tobacco, and but 
 little coffee, being grown in that section. 
 
 Arrived at Matanzas we put up at the Leon 
 de Oro, a very tolerable, if not very luxurious, hotel, 
 where our appetites, sharpened by the early morning 
 journey, did full justice to the excellent breakfast 
 
208 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 provided. The situation of Matanzas is not unlike 
 that of Havana but the background is far prettier. 
 Standing at the head of a long bay, open to the 
 north-east but completely sheltered from all other 
 winds, the city is built on both sides of the San Juan 
 river, extending round to the Yumuri river on the 
 west. The hills which rise above the valleys of 
 these two rivers are terraced with villas, and the bay 
 is generally well filled with shipping, flying the flag 
 of every maritime power. Substantial stone-houses, 
 bordering the dusty streets, give an air of solidity to 
 the town, and afford a refuge from the burning 
 heat which we found far more oppressive than 
 that at Havana. 
 
 In a couple of " volantes," we drove out to see 
 the caves of Bellamar, situated about four miles east 
 of the town. The " volante," the national carriage 
 of Cuba, is a kind of gig-body with a head, between 
 wheels sixteen feet in diameter and ten feet apart, 
 with shafts eighteen feet in lengeh, drawn by two 
 horses, one between the shafts, the other attached 
 to the orT-side shaft, a head behind the former. On 
 the shaft horse is mounted a postilion, generally a 
 negro, in jack-boots with enormous silver spurs 
 
A " Cafetair 209 
 
 and gold-laced jacket. The leather springs and 
 enormous wheels enable the volante alone to get 
 along the infamous Cuban country-roads, without 
 upsetting or jolting out the unfortunate occu- 
 pant. 
 
 Passing some bathing machines on the sea-shore 
 where the only bathers were a couple of pelicans, we 
 turned off to the right, and were obliged to 
 ascend the hill above the bay on foot, as it was too 
 steep for the horses to pull both us and the vehicles 
 up. From the top we jolted along a road where 
 the left wheel was continually elevated several feet 
 above the right for one moment, and the next was an 
 equal depth below it. On either side were extensive 
 fruit plantations, the hedges filled with wild pine- 
 apple, cacti, Spanish bayonet, and flowers of all 
 sorts. 
 
 Soon we arrived at the gate of a " cafetal " or 
 coffee plantation, which we entered, and drove 
 along through the coffee-plants, passing mangoes, 
 paupaus, cocoa-nut palms, and orange-trees laden 
 with fruit, till we reached the deserted " hacienda" 
 of the " cafetal," near which is the entrance to the 
 caves of Bellamar, only discovered a few years ago. 
 
 p 
 
210 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 " The signors had better strip to their shirts, 
 they will find it very hot below/' said an old 
 mulatto slave, who, with only a linen cloth 
 round his loins, was lighting a bundle of candles 
 preparatory to guiding us through the bowels of 
 the earth. Taking a candle each, we descended 
 about a hundred feet, by a roughly cut staircase, to 
 a large chamber of which the roof was supported 
 by a natural pillar of stalactite of the purest white, 
 about twenty feet in diameter and a hundred in 
 height, while the roof, walls and floor of the 
 chamber were all of the same glittering white. 
 From this first chamber, a narrow passage led by 
 a steep descent to other chambers, sloping to a 
 depth of three hundred feet below the surface of 
 the ground. 
 
 For three miles we wandered through passages 
 innumerable, opening out into chambers and halls 
 of magnificent size, decorated by nature with 
 ornaments of dazzling white or rose colour, more 
 intricate in pattern than the finest lace work, more 
 gorgeous than the arabesque- covered walls of the 
 Alhambra of Granada. 
 
 Assuming all sorts of fantastic forms, the sta- 
 
The Yumuri Valley. 211 
 
 lactites sometimes appeared like a row of transparent 
 rose-coloured statues, at others a snowy sea of ice 
 sloping down from the lofty roof, or an altar with 
 shining cross above it, erected by nature to the 
 almighty workman whose hand alone could fashion 
 such beautiful forms. Sometimes the passage was 
 so low we had to bend nearly double, sometimes so 
 lofty our torches could not penetrate the darkness 
 above. In the lowest cavern we came on a swift} 
 running stream of clear, cold water, which flowed 
 through a tunnel for about thirty yards, then dis- 
 appeared in a dark chasm. The exertion of walking 
 so far, often in a terribly cramped position, made 
 the perspiration run off us in streams notwith- 
 standing our scanty attire, nor were we sorry once 
 more to emerge into the light of day, and indulge 
 in iced drinks until sufficiently cool to don our usual 
 amount of clothes. 
 
 We made another very enjoyable expedition from 
 Matanzas to the Yumuri valley, said to be one of 
 the most beautiful in Cuba. A good road led us 
 winding up the hill behind the town, past numerous 
 villas to the summit of the ridge, where a solitary 
 church stands in one of the most lovely situations 
 
 p 2 
 
212 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 conceivable. Straight down, hundreds of feet beneath, 
 the river Yumuri flows towards the sea through 
 a wild gorge, which has rent the hills asunder in 
 some convulsion of nature. To the north-east the 
 eye wanders over the streets and buildings of the 
 busy city, and the tranquil bay crowded with 
 shipping to the distant ocean. On the south-west 
 it lingers fondly on the fertile green basin called 
 the Yumuri valley, green with an intensity and 
 variety of colouring unknown in other lands. 
 
 Down the steep hill-side we descended into the 
 valley through a dense growth of vegetation, far 
 above which the royal palm reared its stately head ; 
 emerald green savannas met the hills alternately with 
 patches cultivated with tobacco and cane. Farm- 
 houses nestled under groves of cocoa and orange 
 trees, and solitary ceibas added the brilliant colouring 
 of their early Summer foliage to the general wealth 
 of gorgeous tints. It was long after sunset, when 
 we returned to the town, meeting on the hill a 
 chained gang of convicts returning from working 
 on the new road to the valley. They were 
 chiefly Chinese and negroes, with a few white 
 insurgents captured in the mountains, a fierce 
 
Americans in Cuba. 213 
 
 looking crew strangely out of keeping with the 
 romantic scenery and calm beauty of the tropical 
 night. 
 
 Except the situation, there is but little to attract 
 the stranger in the town of Matanzas, the chief 
 points being the gardens in front of the governor's 
 palace and a fine theatre, but little inferior in size to 
 the Tacon at Havana, and much resembling it in 
 internal arrangements. A peculiar feature of both 
 theatres is the large box exactly opposite the stage, 
 occupied in Europe by royalty or its represen- 
 tatives, but in Cuba by the theatrical president, 
 whose duty it is to interfere should he find anything 
 objectionable in the performance, either political or 
 social. 
 
 We met many Americans in Matanzas, but no 
 Englishmen ; in fact, except officially employed, we 
 met no Britishers in Cuba, but a vast number of 
 Americans, most of them engaged in buying sugar 
 or tobacco. No resentment appeared to be shown 
 on account of the " Virginius" difficulty, or the 
 many annoyances which it appears to be the policy 
 of part of the Press and some politicians in the 
 United States to inflict on the Spanish party in Cuba, 
 
214 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 " If any Spanish correspondent in New York," 
 said an American gentleman to me, "had dared 
 to abuse the United States' government and people 
 as the " Herald" correspondent has abused the 
 government and people here, we should soon have 
 made the place too hot for him." The Spaniards 
 were however more tolerant, a virtue for which they 
 have not usually been remarkable. 
 
 At Havana we had been cautioned not to venture 
 beyond Matanzas on account of insurgents and 
 brigands, but our Cuban host at the Leon de Oro 
 assured us there were no insurgents or brigands 
 within a hundred [miles of Matanzas. Certainly, 
 wherever we drove in our volantes the country 
 looked peaceful and prosperous, the slaves hard at 
 work cutting the cane on the sugar plantations, or 
 tending the coffee-plants on the cafetals. Extremely 
 lean cattle endeavoured to pick up a subsistence on 
 the natural pastures, where the long brown grass 
 nearly concealed them, but apparently afforded 
 little nourishment. As in Florida, the dry Winter 
 and Spring had throughout Cuba withered the grass 
 and made water scarce, and the Summer rains were 
 now anxiously expected. After seeing Matanzas 
 
Return to Havana. 215 
 
 and the neighbouring country we returned to 
 Havana, making the journey in the afternoon 
 and being nearly stifled with the heat and dust, 
 the thermometer in the railway carriage mark- 
 ing over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit in the 
 shade. 
 
 A few more days in Havana, busily occupied 
 visiting plantations by rail or road, . and choosing 
 cigars for shipment by Royal mail steamer to 
 England, and we bade farewell to Cuba. Embarking 
 in the New Orleans steam- ship "Clyde," we steamed 
 out of harbour just before sunset, towing to the 
 entrance of the bay a boat-load of Spanish police on 
 either side, to see that no Cuban or negro was 
 smuggled on board, as had been done a short time 
 previously on one of the New York steam-ships 
 Then, with a strong easterly trade-wind on our 
 quarter, the brilliant yellow and green painted houses 
 of Havana, and rock-hewn bathing establishment 
 on the Point, quickly lessened to little specs, and 
 soon the Cuban hills themselves became an in- 
 distinct line on the horizon, and finally disappeared 
 in the increasing darkness.. 
 
 We passed a night of terrible heat in a filthy and 
 
216 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 crowded cabin, the floor covered with Creole men and 
 women smoking cigars or cigarettes between each 
 spasm of sea-sickness. The steamer was one of the 
 most filthy, rotten, and unseaworthy ships it has ever 
 been my lot to travel in, and we gladly turned out 
 at five next morning, to find ourselves moored 
 alongside .the wharf at Key West, and in a 
 short time after in quarters at the St. James's 
 Hotel. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 RETURN TO KEY WEST— DIFFICULTY OF FINDING CONVEYANCE 
 — PERSEVERANCE REWARDED — STORES — VICTUALLING THE 
 SHIP— START FOR THE INDIAN RIVER — THE " IDA MAC KAY " — 
 OUR CAPTAIN, MATE, COOK AND CREW — THE FLORIDA REEF — 
 —BECALMED — A CORAL REEF — SPEARING FISH — ANCHOR 
 NEAR CAYO SAMBE — THE LIFE AND DEATH OF " OLD MAN 
 JOE " — LOS MARTIRES — ANIMAL LIFE — SPONGING — MAN- 
 GROVE ISLETS — EFFECT OF THE MOON — SCORPIONS — TURTLE 
 SPEARING— A MONSTER— TENACITY OF LIFE — TURTLE FLESH 
 — INDIAN KEY — A HUMANE WRECKER — CAYO LARGO — 
 SETTLEMENT AT RODRIGUEZ BAY — PINE APPLE PLANTATIONS 
 — CONDITION OF SETTLERS— PRODUCTIONS— CLIMATE— COR- 
 DIAL FAREWELL— ANGHOR AT CAPE FLORIDA. 
 
 IMMEDIATELY after our return to 
 Key West, we commenced inquiries 
 as to the possibility of hiring a 
 schooner to convey us round to 
 
 Biscayne Bay and the Indian River on the East coast 
 
 of Florida. 
 
218 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 Though the harbour was full of schooners and 
 cutters of all sizes, the owners flatly refused to take 
 us for any consideration ; some honestly confessing 
 that they were afraid to attempt a sail along such a 
 dreaded coast, others stating that they were just 
 about to start for the sponging grounds in the Gulf 
 of Mexico, and could npt therefore make any 
 arrangement for a voyage of such uncertain duration. 
 Apparently no travellers had previously attempted to 
 make the voyage, as we encountered all those 
 difficulties which invariably crop up when attempting 
 any unbeaten track. 
 
 At last perseverance succeeded, and an agreement 
 was concluded with the captain and part owner of 
 the schooner "Ida MacKay," by name De Merritt, 
 who, for the sum of eighteen dollars a day, engaged 
 to convey us wherever we wished to go, providing 
 that the voyage should not be of less than six days 
 duration, and that we should victual the ship for 
 crew of four, besides ourselves. In fulfilment of 
 these terms, we purchased , at a store sufficient salt 
 beef, bacon, coffee, flour, &c; to: victual the ship 
 for twelve days, the bill amounting to about fifty 
 dollars. In twenty 7 four hours" all was prepared and : 
 
Our Schooner. 219 
 
 stowed on board, including the guns, tents, and 
 baggage which had been stored at the consulate 
 during our absence in Cuba, and early in the morning 
 
 of April ist, M , Dr. Hicks, and I proceeded 
 
 on board, the anchor was hove, and with a light 
 breeze from the east we glided through the fleet 
 and rounded the old brick fort which guards the 
 entrance to the harbour. 
 
 The " Ida MacKay" schooner of about forty tons, 
 English measurement, was a curious-shaped craft. 
 Nearly flat-bottomed, she only drew three feet of 
 water, but had a sliding keel sixteen feet in depth ; 
 her length was fifty feet with twenty feet beam. 
 She was stiff enough to stand up to any breeze and 
 proved herself rather a fast sailor, carrying a large 
 amount of canvas. 
 
 Our skipper was a professional wrecker, carrying 
 a license to wreck round the coasts of Florida and 
 the Keys. Born of parents who had migrated from 
 the Bahamas, he was what is called in Key West a 
 " conch," and carried with him a mate also a 
 " conch," but a British subject, haying himself 
 migrated from Nassau and never renounced his 
 allegiance. During the war between the North and 
 
220 Wild Life in Florida, 
 
 South, this mate had commanded a schooner which 
 was engaged blockade-running between the Bahamas 
 and the various inlets on the East coast of Florida, 
 and we now depended on him to pilot us to the 
 Indian River inlet, as our captain had never been 
 there. Next in rank of our crew, came the cook, a 
 half-bred Spaniard, who had once been at Biscayne 
 Bay, which neither the mate nor skipper had ever 
 entered, so he was considered pilot for that port. 
 Lastly, our only able-bodied seaman was a fine full- 
 blooded negro named " Bob," a British subject 
 from one of the Bahamas. Though of immensely 
 strong frame, Bob was extremely lazy and was 
 consequently in everlasting hot water with both 
 captain and mate, as their object was to make him 
 do all the work of the ship, while his was to do 
 nothing but sleep. During the voyage we had 
 considerable difficulty in preventing our skipper from 
 braining Bob, as we were roused by his cries one 
 morning to find the negro at the extreme end of 
 the bowsprit, and the captain beating him on the 
 head with a capstan bar. After this, the threat was 
 daily held over him that on the return voyage he 
 
The Florida Beef. 221 
 
 would be taken to Cuba and sold for a slave to the 
 Spaniards. 
 
 Meeting light head-winds all our first day we 
 made slow progress, and when at four p.m. it fell 
 a dead calm, we had only made fifteen miles. Our 
 course which was nearly east, lay between the keys 
 and the Florida coral reef, which extends from the 
 western-most keys to Cape Florida, at a distance of 
 from two to four miles from the keys. In two 
 places only does the reef appear above high-water 
 mark, the rest of it having a depth of from two to 
 ten feet of water over it. Inside this dreaded reef 
 the channel is so intricate and dangerous that it is 
 impossible' to sail at night, the colour of the water 
 alone guiding the mariner in the day-time. Im- 
 mediately outside the reef the depth of water suddenly 
 increases to over eight hundred fathoms, and the 
 Gulf-stream rushes along to the north-east at the 
 rate of five or six knots an hour. All along the 
 reef are buoys and beacons, with light-houses here 
 and there. On some of the keys a notice is stuck 
 up in a conspicuous position, intimating where the 
 nearest fresh water is to be found for the benefit of 
 shipwrecked crews. 
 
222 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 Finding ourselves close to the reef when becalmed, 
 we lowered a boat, and stowing on board the grains, 
 or double-headed harpoon, we pulled off to the 
 reef to spear fish. A flock of several hundred 
 pelicans, busily employed fishing for their suppers 
 sailed majestically away as we approached, and the 
 water rapidly shoaling to about two feet, we were 
 soon looking down intently through the crystal- 
 clear sea, on that most beautiful wonder of the 
 deep, a coral reef. Among the innumerable cavities 
 in the coral rock darted fish of every size and colour, 
 from sharks to little gold fish no bigger than 
 minnows. Sea-weeds of many brilliant colours and 
 rare species, the sea-fan, pavonia or peacock's tail, 
 and other beautiful forms of corallum, festooned the 
 cavities, while sponges, sea-eggs with their long 
 black spikes, conches, zoophytes and shells of 
 every variety nearly concealed the coral rock from 
 view. 
 
 One of the two spots where the reef appears above 
 the water, we found covered with shells and guano, 
 rising in a mound only a few yards in diameter. As 
 we paddled slowly above the reef, our mate stood 
 in the bows and darted the grains into the hollows 
 
" Old Man Joe." 223 
 
 of the rock with such effect that, in half an hour, 
 we had secured in the boat six purple cray-fish, four 
 conches, one jack-fish, weighing thirty pounds, and 
 several angel-fish. Then, a light breeze beginning 
 to ruffle the water> we hastened on board the 
 schooner, which bore up to meet us, and at 
 sunset dropped anchor near the little island of 
 Cayo Sambe, one of the Pine Island group, 
 situated some five-and-twenty miles east of Key 
 West. 
 
 As we smoked our cigars after supper, our skipper 
 told us the following tale concerning the mangrove- 
 clad islet near which we lay. For thirty years, he 
 said, a solitary human being, known only by the 
 name of " old man Joe," had lived in a palmetto hut 
 on the islet, supporting himself by cultivating 
 vegetables and cutting button- wood, which he 
 every week brought in a little sail-boat to Key 
 West, and there exchanged for such supplies as he 
 needed. Who he was, or whence he came, was 
 unknown, nor was any clue ever sought for as to 
 his identity. About two months ago the old man 
 did not make his usual weekly appearance ; so our 
 skipper, who had dealt with him for years^ when 
 
224 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 the second week expired without his appearing, set 
 off in his schooner to see what had become of the 
 old man. 
 
 On the beach he found old Joe's boat, the sail 
 half hoisted, the boat stored with such vegetables 
 as he was wont to bring to market, while in the 
 bottom lay the old man, dead. Apparently he had 
 died in a fit when in the act of hoisting sail, so they 
 rolled the body up in the boat's sail and buried him 
 on the beach of his lonely isle. A stunted cabbage- 
 palm, which he had planted, marks the spot where 
 cc old man Joe" lies, the solitary and last inhabitant 
 of Cayo Sambe. 
 
 The following morning the easterly trade-wind 
 rose strong with the sun, but being ahead we 
 could only advance by tacks innumerable between 
 the reef, on which the breakers dashed glittering 
 sheets of foam, and the desolate isles called by the 
 Spaniards " Los Mat-tires" or the Martyrs, from the 
 number of men who have perished on them. A 
 vast quantity and variety of animal life had sought 
 the calm waters within the reef, turtles, porpoises, 
 sharks, sea-birds of various sorts, pelicans, ospreys, 
 and thousands of the beautiful rainbow-hued paper- 
 
" Sponging: 9 225 
 
 nautili or argonaut, swimming with their long arms 
 extended in a straight line, their ugly bodies appear- 
 ing hardly connected with the fragile shell. Nor 
 did animal life alone engage our attention, as we 
 fell in with a fleet of sponging schooners whose 
 movements we followed with interest. Each schooner 
 was towing a long tail of ten or twelve boats, in 
 which the " spongers," when arrived in likely spots, 
 row about examining the ground. 
 
 In order to see the bottom when the surface of 
 the water is ruffled by a breeze, a bucket is used 
 with a glass bottom, which being immersed about 
 six inches in the water, enables the sponger to peer 
 down to the bottom through water varying in depth 
 from three fathoms to three feet. When the sponges 
 are spied out, a wooden pole with a hooked knife 
 at the end is used to detach them from the bottom, 
 the shallow water rendering divers unnecessary. 
 The quality of the sponges obtained in these waters 
 and in the Gulf of Mexico is inferior, the value of 
 the best sheep's wool sponges at Key West being one 
 dollar a pound, that of the still coarser sorts from 
 thirty to fifty cents. 
 
 All the keys .we passed that day were uninhabited 
 
 Q 
 
226 Wild Life in Florida 
 
 mangrove covering nearly all, though here and 
 there we noticed a few cocoa-palms rising above the 
 scrub, planted by some unknown solitary like " old 
 man Joe," as the cocoa-nut palm is not indigenous 
 on any of these islands. Our second night we 
 anchored near the light-house on Sombrero bank, 
 opposite the key called Bahia Honda. 
 
 Notwithstanding that a bright moon shone all 
 night, which in these regions is considered more 
 fatal to sleep in than the mid-day sun, withering 
 the face exposed to its rays, I slept on an air 
 mattress on deck every night, with water-proof 
 to keep off the dew, and mosquito net to protect 
 me from these insects. In the low cabin below 
 the heat was unbearable, to say nothing of 
 fleas, mosquitoes, cockroaches, and scorpions, which 
 latter plagues had been brought on board in old 
 logs of fire-wood, and had an unpleasant way 
 of concealing themselves in the blankets and bedding 
 below. 
 
 Our cook, who lay down carelessly one night 
 before examining his blankets, got severely bitten 
 in the hand and suffered much inconvenience from 
 the wound, though no fatal consequences ensued. 
 
 Our third day out we got a slightly more favour- 
 
Tu rtle-Sp earing 227 
 
 able wind, and bowled along until we met such 
 immense quantities of turtle of various species, green, 
 hawk's-bill, and logger-head, floating on the surface 
 of the water, or a few feet below, that the schooner 
 was hove to and a boat launched for the purpose of 
 spearing some of them. Pulling quietly up to an 
 enormous logger-head turtle, which we saw floating 
 about four feet below the surface, our mate stood 
 in the bows of the boat with a single-pronged 
 harpoon in his hand, which, when within a few 
 feet of the victim, he lowered and launched through 
 the water with such tremendous force that it pierced 
 the back- shell, the entire iron head disappearing in 
 the body, and the turtle instantly sinking to the 
 bottom when thus wounded. The line attached to 
 the harpoon, which had been kept carefully coiled, 
 was then allowed to run out, till the bottom was 
 reached, when the line was hauled taut, and a sharp 
 look-out kept for the moment when the turtle 
 would be compelled to rise to the surface to breathe. 
 This he did in about twenty minutes, when a second 
 harpoon was fixed in his body, and then the battle 
 began. 
 
 The turtle rushed backwards and forwards at the 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 bottom of the sea, rising sometimes here, sometimes 
 
 there, and wherever he rose it was necessary to 
 
 have the bows of the boat towards him, or his 
 
 great weight, suddenly jerking the line sideways, 
 
 would have upset us. At last his struggles became 
 
 fainter, and in about an hour from striking we 
 
 hauled him alongside, and lashing a flapper to the 
 
 gunwale we towed the turtle to the schooner. There, 
 
 by means of a pulley and chain passed round his 
 
 flappers, he was hauled on board, biting savagely 
 
 at everything near, with jaws large and powerful 
 
 enough to scrunch the side of a small boat. 
 
 We found that the monster weighed close on six 
 
 hundred pounds, and his flesh made pretty fair soup, 
 
 though too rank to eat. 
 
 Afterwards we killed two hawksbill turtles, from 
 the shell of which species tortoise-shell is manu- 
 factured; its flesh we found eatable, though not 
 nearly so good as that of a small green turtle we 
 captured a day or two later. After our first day's 
 turtle-spearing, we had turtle-soup, turtle-steak, and 
 turtle in every form for the rest of the voyage, 
 while the rigging was hung with flesh drying in 
 the sun, till we quite loathed the sight, smell, and 
 
Indian Key. £2 
 
 taste of turtle flesh. We did not however so quickly 
 tire of the sport of spearing the turtles, which was 
 most exciting amusement. The harpoon, when 
 wielded by the mate standing up in the boat's bows, 
 every limb trembling with excitement until the 
 timbers shook, and hurled with extraordinary 
 strength exactly at the right moment, never failed 
 to pierce and secure a victim ; a success which did 
 not always fall, I may say rarely fell to our own 
 unskilled efforts. 
 
 The tenacity of life exhibited by the turtles we 
 cut up on board was both horrible and grotesque, 
 the severed head snapping at everything near it 
 for hours, and the tail endeavouring to twist 
 itself round the fingers of the operator who was 
 cutting the last slice of meat off the dissected body. 
 Our skipper gravely informed us that not even cook- 
 ing would kill a turtle before moon- rise on the day 
 following its capture. 
 
 The third night we anchored opposite the light- 
 house which is built on Alligator Key, in the harbour 
 of an islet called Indian Key, formerly doing a 
 smart business in wrecking and now inhabited 
 by half a dozen families who have been com- 
 
230 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 pelled to take to sponging for support, since 
 the erection of the light-houses and beacons on the 
 reef. 
 
 " I wish them d d lights was sunk below the 
 
 sea/' growled our humane skipper, as he related to 
 us tales of the many ships he had wrecked, and 
 valuable cargoes he had obtained salvage on a few 
 years ago, before the flashing light near us was 
 there to send its merciful warning to the passing 
 vessel. I should think Indian Key is the smallest 
 inhabited island in the world ; it is not more than 
 a hundred and fifty yards in diameter, and contains 
 exactly five houses, six palm-trees and one dozen 
 plants of the sisal hemp. Its inhabitants are said to 
 be little better than pirates, and are spoken of as 
 lawless characters by those who scarcely consider 
 murder a crime. 
 
 From Indian Key we got a fresh breeze from the 
 east -south-east, which drove us merrily on our 
 course to Cayo Largo, the largest, as its name 
 implies, of this southern group of islands, being about 
 eighteen miles long by from half a mile to two miles 
 in width. In a shallow bay, behind a mangrove 
 islet called Rodriguez Key, we dropped anchor 
 
Gayo Largo. 231 
 
 opposite a settlement of three or four wooden houses, 
 whose inhabitants quickly pulled off to us in a 
 great state of excitement to know what wreck 
 we were after, or what luck we had already 
 had. 
 
 Being with difficulty persuaded that we were 
 travelling for pleasure, and had come to Cayo 
 Largo to visit the pine-apple plantations, great 
 disappointment became evident in the men's coun- 
 tenances, though they hospitably invited us to visit 
 their houses and plantations, and promised us fruit 
 and vegetables in abundance. 
 
 We found the island to be composed of coral rock, 
 in many places bare, but here and there covered 
 with a few inches of dark red soil. In the cleared 
 patches, which vary in size from one to five acres, 
 the settlers raise, among the charred stumps of trees 
 and fragments of rock, pine- apples, bananas, sap- 
 padillos, mangoes, alligator pears, guavas, oranges, 
 limes, sugar-cane, tomatoes, peppers and melons. 
 Of these, pine- apples appeared to do best, many 
 acres being covered with the plant which seemed 
 to flourish in the glowing heat of the rocky 
 soil. 
 
232 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 Bananas, a settler told me, were profitable, one 
 species yielding fruit at six months old, the other at 
 eighteen months. The great difficulty is to find a 
 market for their produce, which has to run the 
 risk of conveyance to Charleston, New Orleans or 
 New York, many hundreds of miles distant across 
 dangerous seas. One old man told me he had tried 
 the previous season to sell a cargo of pines, which 
 he carried in his own schooner direct to Charleston, 
 but the cholera broke out and no one would buy 
 them, so he was nearly ruined by the venture. 
 Oranges appeared to do worse on the island and 
 looked withered by the long drought, for the 
 orange tree needs rain or irrigation in a dry spell. 
 Unfortunately on Cayo Largo there is no fresh 
 water, tanks which hold the water collected in the 
 rainy season alone supplying the inhabitants, and 
 being too scanty to afford irrigation to the land. 
 
 Except these cultivated patches, the rest of the 
 key is covered with a dense natural growth of small 
 timber, among which the mangrove, log-wood and 
 madeira — a species of mahogany — are the most 
 valuable. Mosquitoes and flies, snakes and scorpions 
 abound, and hurricanes are frequent in the Autumn, 
 
Cape Florida. 233 
 
 but they said the island was healthy and sickness 
 very rare. The heat we found almost insupportable, 
 though pretty well seasoned, nor could we breathe 
 without gasping until again on board the " Ida 
 MacKay." There are about seven families settled on 
 the island, all very poor and now engaged in culti- 
 vating the fruits before mentioned, but much 
 regretting the falling off in the profitable bnsiness of 
 wrecking. 
 
 Baskets of fruit and fresh vegetables were pre- 
 sented to us on leaving, nor would they accept a 
 cent of the money we pressed on them. Strangers, 
 they said, even of their own nation, they rarely had 
 the pleasure of seeing in their lonely island, but 
 Britishers had never before done them the honour 
 of a visit. So shaking hands with the whole popu- 
 lation of the island, we bade farewell to Rodriguez 
 bay, and sailed out again past the little mangrove 
 islet, and on past the light-house on Carysford reef, 
 and whole archipelagos of mangrove islets, till 
 the sun set and the anchor was dropped close to 
 the light -house on the south point of the island, 
 called Key Biscayne, which point is named Cape 
 Florida. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 KEY BISCAYNE LIGHT-HOUSE— BISCAYNE BAY — SETTLEMENT OF 
 MIAMI— FORT DALLAS ESTATE — THE DOCTOR'S INVESTMENT — 
 HOUSE AND HORNET FLIES— ARRIVAL OF INDIANS IN CANOES 
 — FIRE-WATER — HOMES OF THE SEMINOLES IN THE EVER- 
 GLADES—THE INDIAN HUNTING-GROUNDS — TIGER TAIL — THE 
 SQUAWS — INDIAN CASTANETS — NATIVE WORK — THE RIVER 
 MIAMI— FALLS OF THE MIAMI — ASCENT TO THE EVERGLADES 
 — DESCRIPTION OF THE EVERGLADES — THE FOUR CRESCENTS 
 — INDIAN ARROW-ROOT PLANT— LEAVE MIAMI— CROSSING THE 
 BAR— BEACH-COMBERS— THE BAHAMA BANKS — A WRECK IN 
 SIGHT — INDIAN RIVER INLET — DANGEROUS ENTRANCE — 
 TOUCH AND GO— FIRST HEAVY STORM — COMMENCEMENT OF 
 RAINS. 
 
 T daylight on the fifth day out from 
 Key West, we rounded Key Biscayne 
 light-house, with a grove of cocoa-nut 
 palms behind; then passing a very 
 good house, the residence of the light-house keeper, 
 
Biscayne Bay. 235 
 
 with patch of garden and cultivated ground, we 
 entered Biscayne Bay. Under the pilotage of our 
 cook we felt our way across, tacking about among 
 the numerous shoals and bars which obstruct these 
 shallow waters. 
 
 The bay is about twenty- five miles long, with an 
 average breadth of six miles, and has narrow and 
 shallow entrances between the keys which separate 
 it from the ocean. Immediately opposite the bows of 
 our schooner, after rounding Cape Florida, appeared 
 a couple of wooden shanties on a bluff of the 
 mainland ; and a few miles further up the coast to 
 the north-east, but on lower ground and not visible 
 to us approaching from the south until quite close, 
 a grove of cocoa-nut palms came into view- 
 marking the entrance to the Miami river, the 
 mouth of which is concealed by the nature of the 
 ground. 
 
 Sailing up to a hundred yards from the cocoa- 
 nut grove we dropped anchor in ten feet of water, 
 and pulling in the gig some few hnndred yards 
 up the Miami river, landed at a rough landing 
 place on the left bank, where we saw a negro lying 
 4 asleep. It was some time before we could arouse 
 
236 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 the darky, but at last we got him on his legs, 
 when he announced himself as cook on the Fort 
 Dallas estate, and though sick, he went at our bidding 
 to inform the manager of the estare of our 
 arrival. 
 
 Throughout Florida the settlement of Miami, on 
 Biscayne Bay, is represented as a sort of terrestial 
 paradise, cultivated like the garden of Eden, where 
 every fruit of the tropics grows luxuriantly, where 
 magnificent scenery delights the eye, and fever 
 and death are unknown. It is in reality a very small 
 settlement on a ridge of limestone, rising from five 
 to thirty feet above the sea, with a loose sandy loam 
 over it, only a few inches in depth, but tolerably 
 fertile. The climate is equable but very hot, the 
 scenery is pretty but never approaches magnificence, 
 while the multitude of insects makes life hardly 
 endurable. 
 
 At Miami there are four houses, two on either 
 bank of the river. On the right bank overlooking 
 the bay, stands the house of an English settler, Mr. 
 Brettle, well situated on a bluf? with gardens and 
 terraces, carefully kept and planted, making it 
 about the prettiest residence in South Florida, and 
 
Fort Dallas. 237 
 
 the only one with any claim to taste in the laying 
 out of the grounds. At the time of our visit the 
 owner was absent, and the place, we were informed, 
 was for sale. Near it is a store kept supplied with 
 necessaries from Key West, which does a considerable 
 trade with the Indians who resort thither for whiskey 
 and beads. 
 
 On the left bank of the Miami river lives the 
 gentleman in charge of what is called the Fort 
 Dallas estate, owned by a company of which our 
 fellow-traveller the Doctor was one. The estate 
 consists of six hundred and fifty acres of land, 
 about twenty of which have been cleared and 
 planted with cocoas, guavas, orange and other 
 fruit trees, but now form a wilderness hardly 
 distinguishable from the forest. There are some 
 stone remains of the old Fort Dallas, occupied 
 by soldiers during the Indian war, and a row 
 of stone-houses or out-buildings now falling into 
 ruins. 
 
 The estate formerly belonged to a gentleman 
 who had employed some two hundred slaves in 
 raising sugar, cotton and fruit, but even before the 
 war he was compelled to abandon the business as it 
 
238 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 did not pay, though a large amount of capital 
 had been laid out. Traces of this remain in the 
 ruined houses, the grove of cocoa-palms which 
 he planted along the left bank of the Miami river, 
 and the wilderness of fruit trees fast becoming 
 jungle. 
 
 Our Doctor, who for the first time beheld his 
 property, did not appear much impressed with the 
 value of his investment, and had to stand a 
 deal of chaff from us on account of the difference 
 between the glowing account he had received 
 and related to us concerning the settlement, and 
 the reality now known by personal obser- 
 vation. 
 
 A great objection to settling at Miami is its isola- 
 tion, the only communication it possesses with the 
 outside world being by a little mail-cutter which 
 sails twice a month to and from Key West ; but a 
 greater objection still, in my opinion, are the winged 
 insects, two species in addition to those we met in the 
 rest of Florida attacking us the moment we landed. 
 One of these was what the natives called a horse- 
 fly, about the size of a very large blue-bottle, 
 and with the buzz of a dozen of them ; its body was 
 
Indians at Miami. 239 
 
 of a brown colour striped with yellow, resembling that 
 of the African tsetse, and it inflicted a sharp sting. 
 The other fly was considerably larger, resembling the 
 striped hornet-fly ; one settled on my leg before I 
 had been on shore five minutes, and gave me a bite 
 through my gaiters that made me jump, and sent the 
 blood running into my boot. 
 
 A great deal is said by Florida land-agents 
 about Biscayne being made the terminus of a rail 
 way to be constructed from Jacksonville, via the 
 town of Enterprise and St. John river to Miami, 
 and from thence to reach along from key to 
 key on tressel work as far as Key West, so 
 as to convey the trade of the West Indies and 
 South America through Florida to the North. 
 Beyond the fact that the track is marked in the 
 maps of Florida published at Jacksonville, there 
 is no reason to suppose that such a line is ever 
 likely to be built as long as Florida remains 
 in her present bankrupt and impoverished 
 condition. 
 
 The day before our arrival at Miami, two canoes 
 arrived at the store I have mentioned, containing 
 two squaws and an Indian in each, belonging to the 
 
240 Wild Life in Florida, 
 
 remnant of the Seminoles who inhabit some of the 
 timbered lands, or " islands," which rise above the 
 Everglades, and raise there corn, potatoes, and other 
 vegetables, with which, and with skins, they trade 
 for their favourite " fire-water. " These Indians 
 had lost no time in getting under the influence of 
 the whiskey, and were dead-drunk a few hours after 
 their arrival. 
 
 It is supposed that there are not more than a 
 hundred and fifty Indians now remaining in Florida, 
 a peaceful and harmless set, but untamed as ever, 
 avoiding the white man, and supporting themselves 
 principally by the chase. They have some negroes 
 living with them on their "islands," and cultivating 
 the ground, not, I was assured by a hunter who 
 had visited them, in a condition of slavery, as is 
 generally supposed in Northern Florida, but perfectly 
 free to go or remain as they please, and treated as 
 equals by the red men. 
 
 One portion of these Seminole Indians hunt the 
 country tp the north-west of the Everglades, up to 
 the Caloosahatchee and Myakka rivers ; the other 
 portion the country south and east of the Ever- 
 glades, from Miami to Cape Sable, called the Indian 
 hunting-grounds. These consist of rolling prairie- 
 
The Seminole Chief. 241 
 
 land, backed by a ridge of pine and mangrove, 
 extending between the sea and the Everglades, and 
 rising from three to ten feet above both sea and 
 swamp. The game on these hunting-grounds 
 consists of deer and turkeys in tolerable abundance, 
 but so much hunted by the Indians, as there is no 
 game in the Everglades, that they are difficult to 
 get near to. There are two chiefs of these Seminoles 
 rejoicing in the name of " Tiger Tail," the elder 
 chief who is the father of Tiger Tail junior, being 
 nearly a hundred years of age. We heard a report 
 that he had been killed by his squaws as useless, 
 but the Indians at Miami either could not or 
 would not say whether the report was true or 
 false. 
 
 The Indians complain that their lodges on the 
 islands in the Everglades are so unhealthy that they 
 cannot rear their children, and there is no doubt 
 that they are decreasing fast, and will probably be 
 extinct even before the game on which they 
 subsist. Should they attempt to migrate from 
 their present locality, the settlers every where 
 expressed their determination to drive them back 
 with the rifle. 
 
242 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 The Red Skins down at Miami were tall, well- 
 grown men, with the usual straight black hair and 
 strongly marked features ; their squaws were a 
 hideous bundle of rags decorated with glass beads 
 and a few old coins. The only curious article of 
 native work we saw was a species of musical 
 instrument, which might be called a pair of Indian 
 castanets. These were made of six small land- 
 tortoise shells, sewn on to pieces of embroidered 
 deer's hide, which was cut so as to fit on to the 
 thighs of a squaw. The shells were filled with 
 the beans of the wild coffee-plant, which, rattling 
 about as the woman danced, produced sounds not 
 unlike that of the Spanish castanets. They were 
 curious specimens of native work and difficult 
 to procure, as the Indians usually refuse to sell 
 them. 
 
 At its mouth the river Miami is about eighty- 
 yards in width, with a depth of eight or nine feet. 
 It has a rocky bed, and shores fringed with man- 
 grove. Ascending the river in the schooner's gig, we 
 found that the tidal water reached about three miles 
 from the bay, the slope of the river's bed being 
 greater than in most of the Florida rivers. Winding 
 
The Everglades. 243 
 
 along between mangrove-clad banks, the haunt of 
 herons, bitterns and alligators, the river has an 
 average depth of four feet for a distance of 
 seven miles further up, when the navigation is 
 barred by what are called the falls of the Miami, 
 some five or six feet high, the highest in South 
 Florida, where the river breaks through the rocky 
 brim of the Everglades, about eight miles above 
 Fort Dallas. 
 
 A glance at the map will show that what are 
 called the Everglades, or Great Glades, extend from 
 Lake Okeechobee on the north, to the limestone 
 ridge I have spoken of as the Indian hunting- 
 ground. A little north of the out-flow of the 
 Miami, the ridge dividing this swampy basin from 
 the Atlantic is only five miles in width, but the 
 slope is south-westerly, so that the Everglades drain 
 into the Gulf of Mexico through the great swamp, 
 known as the Thousand Islands, lying between 
 Cape Sable and Cape Romano. The area of the 
 Everglades is four thousand square miles, presenting 
 to the eye the appearance of a vast plain of coarse 
 saw-grass, above which, here and there, rise keys 
 or islands well wooded and fertile. In most 
 
 R 2 
 
244 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 parts the water forms narrow channels through 
 the swamp; occasionally, as when the out-flow of 
 the Miami occurs, it spreads out into large sheets of 
 water like lakes, with limestone bottom and timbered 
 islands. 
 
 The four distinct crescents formed by the islands 
 of the Everglades, the ridge which bounds them on 
 the south and east, the Florida Keys, and the out- 
 side reef, are all composed of the same coral rock, 
 and are supposed to owe their existence to the same 
 agency — these crescents, according to geologists, 
 having been formed in succession, by the coral 
 insects, first the innermost, and then the other reefs, 
 further and further out in the sea, the rapid current 
 of the Gulf-stream sweeping round to the north-east 
 imparting to each reef its crescent shape. 
 
 In the neighbourhood of the Miami, the Indian 
 arrowroot grows abundantly, and a mill for manu- 
 facturing koontee, as the arrowroot plant is called, 
 formerly did a considerable business, but is now 
 abandoned. As the season for hunting deer was 
 over, we soon had enough of Miami, and on the 
 evening of the second day once more weighed anchor 
 and turned the schooner's head seaward, taking with 
 
Jupiter Inlet. 245 
 
 us a good supply of fresh cocoa-nuts from the grove 
 at the river's mouth, the milk of which our mate 
 pronounced a cure for dysentery from which he was 
 suffering. 
 
 Unwilling to beat up to the light-house on Cape 
 Florida against a head wind, we determined to 
 try the narrow pass between Key Biscayne and 
 Virgin Island, known as Bear Cut, so steered boldly 
 for the line of white breakers which thundered on 
 the bar outside. Rapidly sweeping by the white 
 sandy beach, which extending from both islands 
 left us a passage only a few yards in width, we 
 made for what seemed the deepest part of the line 
 of white foam. After a few anxious minutes, 
 actually touching the bottom once, we crossed the 
 bar safely and stood on our course for the light-house 
 on Jupiter Inlet, with a ten knot breeze from the 
 south-east. 
 
 At Miami we had ascertained that the entrance to 
 the lagoon called St. Lucie Bay, by Jupiter Inlet, 
 had been closed some time previously by sand, 
 leaving only six inches of water at high tide, so we 
 directed our mate, who had now become pilot in 
 succession to the cook, the latter having resigned 
 
246 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 after crossing the bar outside Biscayne Bay, to make 
 the best course he could for the Indian River 
 Inlet, well known to him in his blockade- 
 running days. 
 
 Keeping a few miles from shore, we noticed after 
 dark a camp-fire on the beach, which our skipper 
 informed us proceeded from a party of what he 
 called " beach-combers," that is, ruffians who infest 
 the coast in the hope of plundering shipwrecked 
 crews, or ships which they endeavour to lure on 
 shore by means of false lights. So rapidly did the 
 wind and Gulf-stream send us along that, in nine 
 hours after leaving Biscayne Bay, the light-house 
 on Jupiter Inlet appeared on our port-bow, distant 
 about seven miles. Then the wind suddenly drop- 
 ping to a dead calm, the Gulf-stream caught us and 
 swept us helplessly across to the Bahama banks, 
 between sixty and seventy miles distant, sun-rise 
 rinding us only a few miles off Settlement Point, 
 the north-west end of Great Bahama Island. 
 
 With the sun an easterly breeze sprang up, and 
 by the afternoon we had again sighted the Florida 
 coast near Gilbert's Bar, where the wreck of a steam- 
 ship visible on the rocks threw our skipper and 
 
Indian River Inlet. 247 
 
 mate into a great state of excitement, in anticipation 
 of a- profitable wrecking. On approaching close, 
 however, it became apparent to our skipper's 
 experienced eye that other wreckers had already 
 been at work, so knowing that nothing of the 
 slightest value would by any chance remain, the 
 schooner's head was again turned north, with hearty 
 curses on the unknown discoverers of the wrecked 
 steamer. 
 
 Keeping an anxious look-out from the mast-head 
 as we sailed along the low-land, wooded with 
 cabbage-palm and mangrove, about an hour before 
 sunset the mate sang out from aloft that he could 
 see the breakers on the bar off the Indian River Inlet. 
 As we approached, we perceived on the beach the 
 skeleton frames of three wrecked vessels, a far from 
 pleasant sight to us, who knew we were about to 
 attempt a passage in which it was even betting 
 whether we succeeded, or were broken to pieces 
 among the heavy breakers which thundered on the 
 bar a few ship's-lengths ahead. 
 
 With our hearts in our mouths we dashed 
 through the foaming waves, which swept our 
 deck and hurried us headlong towards the narrow 
 
248 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 inlet through which a six knot tide was rush- 
 ing. " Six feet !" called out our skipper, as he 
 heaved the lead ; " four feet ;" " three and a half," 
 a heavy bump, and then a huge wave lifting us, 
 we were over the bar and tearing madly across 
 to the opposite bank of the river, which makes 
 a sudden turn to the left at an acute angle to the 
 inlet. 
 
 Grazing the trees with her bowsprit, the "Ida 
 MacKay" swung round obedient to her helm, and 
 again we breathed freely, while the skipper cursed 
 
 the mate, and swore he hoped he might be d d 
 
 if he ever would have ventured in, if he had known 
 the risk, and appealed to all the powers above to 
 inform him how he was ever to get out again. 
 Dropping about a mile down the Fort Pierce 
 channel, we anchored just before dark among the 
 mangrove islets on the east bank of the St. Lucie 
 Sound, as this part of the Indian river lagoon 
 is called, about half way between Fort Pierce 
 and Fort Capron which stand on the Western 
 bank. 
 
 Hardly had we dropped anchor, when such a 
 violent storm of lightning, thunder and rain burst 
 
First Bains. 249 
 
 over us, as would have effectually prevented us 
 entering the inlet, and probably driven us ashore 
 had we encountered it outside. Our voyage was 
 ended just in time, the 7th April was the Jast day 
 of fine weather, as it was the first of bad, we had 
 experienced in Florida. Henceforth it appeared 
 that the rainy season had set in, or at any rate 
 commenced, as during the rest of our stay in the 
 country we had daily and nightly storms of terrific 
 violence, the water pouring down in cataracts, 
 and the thunder and lightning crashing and 
 flashing as it is wont to do during the tropical 
 rains. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 A NIGHT AMONG THE MANGROVES — A FOREST OP OYSTER TREES 
 — COON OYSTERS — OYSTER BANKS — REVENUE OFFICERS AND 
 THE BLOCKADE -RUNNERS — LAND AT ST. LUCIE— PROFESSOR 
 " FRED. BEVERLEY" — HIS EXPEDITION TO LAKE OKEECHOBEE 
 — PRACTICAL ROUTES TO THAT LAKE— THE ALPATTIE FLATS — 
 PRAIRIES—THE KISSIMMEE RIVER — BIRDS AND FISH — RIVER 
 SHORES — ENTER LAKE OKEECHOBEE— TOUR OF ITS SHORES — 
 ONLY ONE ISLAND— DIFFERENT VEGETATION — TERMINATION 
 OF THE LAKE IN THE EVERGLADES — NORTH BOUNDARY OF 
 EVERGLADES — MOCASSIN SNAKES — NO FISH — RUINS OF IN- 
 DIAN VILLAGES — HARDSHIPS AND FEVERS — RETURN TO 
 SETTLEMENT, 
 
 UCH a night as we passed at our 
 anchorage among the mangroves, none 
 of us are likely soon to forget. No 
 sooner was the thunder-storm over 
 than clouds of mosquitoes and sand-flies filled the 
 
Oyster Trees. 251 
 
 air, and absolutely tortured us the livelong night. 
 Even the negro " Bob," who lay rolled up in a 
 sail on deck near me, moaned and groaned in a 
 manner that proved that his tough body was suffer- 
 ing severely, nor could a soul on board get a 
 minute's sleep that night. At last the welcome 
 daylight arrived, and it was with no little astonish- 
 ment that we found ourselves surrounded by a 
 forest every tree of which was covered, root and 
 branch, with thick clusters of oysters. 
 
 Rising to a height of forty or fifty feet above 
 the water and mud, a dense growth of mangroves 
 clothed the shore and studded the lagoon with forest 
 islets. The lower branches, stems, and spider-like 
 limbs of every mangrove tree, within reach of high- 
 tide, were completely crusted with a compact mass 
 of oysters, of a species known in Florida as " coon " 
 oysters. We gathered a branch and ate some, but 
 found the flavour bitter ; the racoons, however, 
 are very fond of these tree-oysters, and devour 
 them greedily, whence they get the name of " coon " 
 oysters. Not only did these oysters cover the 
 trees, but on every mud-bank as well as on the 
 shores they lay in heaps three or four feet in 
 
252 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 depth. Large deposits of the common oyster rose 
 nearly to the surface of the water a few hundred 
 yards from the schooner, so lowering a boat we 
 pulled to the oyster-bank, and in half-an-hour 
 had filled the boat with some of the fattest and 
 best oysters I ever tasted. 
 
 Soon after sunrise we perceived, through our 
 glasses, that sail was being hoisted on board a 
 small cutter which lay at anchor by the western 
 bank of the lagoon, near the settlement called St. 
 Lucie, about four miles distant from our anchorage. 
 In an hour afterwards the cutter came alongside, 
 and we were boarded by three men, who announced 
 themselves as the revenue-officers residing at Fort 
 Capron, and requested to know whence we came 
 and what our business was. 
 
 On perceiving our mate, most hearty greetings 
 and hand-shakings were exchanged between these 
 old friends, who had not met for ten years, when 
 blockade-running had been the occupation of both 
 parties. Many cargoes of all sorts had been run 
 in at Jupiter Inlet, which was then open, and 
 at Indian River Inlet, before the Northerners dis- 
 covered the traffic, and many a good tale we heard 
 
St. Lucie. 253 
 
 related by our mate and the revenue-officers, as they 
 sat on deck, about their hair-breadth escapes and 
 occasional captures by the Federal cruisers after 
 chases through the mangroves, in which the 
 Northern sailors generally lost themselves, while 
 the blockade-runners generally escaped by their 
 superior local knowledge. 
 
 Returning in the revenue-cutter to St. Lucie, we 
 proceeded to the house of the principal resident, 
 Mr. James Payne, where we were introduced to 
 
 Professor , a naturalist, well-known as a 
 
 contributor to the New York journals under the 
 nom-de -'plume of <c Fred. Beverley." 
 
 This gentleman and party who had just returned 
 from an expedition to Lake Okeechobee, accompanied 
 us as we travelled northward from St. Lucie, and 
 gave us a most interesting account of the five 
 weeks he and his party had spent in exploring 
 every inlet and lagoon of that little-known and 
 hitherto unexplored body of water, 
 
 The following account of the expedition, sent by 
 the Professor in a letter to the New York <c Forest 
 and Stream," contains the best summary of the 
 many conversations we had relative thereto, when 
 
254 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 gathered round the camp-fire, or floating on the 
 sluggish waters of the St. John River. It is dated 
 from St. Lucie, March 18th, 1874. 
 
 "We left St. Lucie, Indian River, the 14th 
 February, and returned March 17th, having suc- 
 cessfully accomplished the expedition to Lake 
 Okceehobee and the Everglades. It was my inten- 
 tion to have a boat transported to the Kissimmee 
 River, and sail down that river into and around 
 Lake Okeechobee. This plan has been adhered to 
 and has resulted in a complete success. There is 
 but one practicable route to Okeechobee, that via 
 the Kissimmee River.* There are, however, two 
 routes to that river, the one I adopted being, as 
 stated, from St. Lucie, across the country to the 
 location of old Fort Bassinger on the Kissimmee 
 River. The first ten miles is through low open 
 pine woods, very wet in the Winter months, through 
 which flow two deep creeks, the " Five Mile," and 
 the " Ten Mile." From Ten Mile Creek the course 
 
 * The Professor is mistaken here, as there is another practicable 
 route, as I have already mentioned, via, the Caloosahatchee River to 
 Fort Thompson, and thence by road across the prairie to the site of 
 old Fort Centre, on a navigable creek flowing into Lake Okeechobee. 
 
Prairies of St. John. 255 
 
 is north of west for twenty-four miles, at first over 
 the Alpattie Flats, submerged as late as March, 
 and dry and alkaline in the dry season; later a 
 short, wiry grass covers them, and shallow ponds, 
 dry in the dry season, occur at intervals. The 
 clumps of cypress here are characteristic of this 
 section, being in long curving lines, resembling 
 mountains at a distance. At intervals of half a 
 dozen miles, pine islands occur with opportunities 
 for camping. 
 
 " Sixteen miles from Ten Mile Creek, twenty-six 
 from St. Lucie, the prairies of the St. John are 
 taken and kept until the old military road from 
 Fort Capron to Tampa is struck, when the course 
 is due west for five miles through a belt of timber 
 to the Kissimmee prairies. This belt runs nearly 
 north and south, separating the prairies of the 
 Kissimmee from those of the St. John River and 
 the Alpattie Flats. The road over the prairies is 
 rather obscure, as also is that to the timber upon 
 the other side ; the course is south-west. The prairie 
 is dotted with pine-islands, the last one — in which 
 lives the only settler on the route, Judge Parker — 
 is over two miles in width. The Kissimmee at the 
 
256 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 ford is about fifty yards wide, though it sometimes 
 overflows its banks for two miles upon the eastern 
 side. We had to wade a mile before launching our 
 boat. The settlers near the river knew nothing of 
 the distance from the Fort Bassinger ford down to 
 the lake, but thought it to be sixty miles. We found 
 it about fifty -five miles, and it took us two days 
 to reach the lake. The river is extremely crooked, 
 the current swift, and the water the best in South 
 Florida. 
 
 " The width of the ford is maintained throughout 
 almost its entire length, though narrowing in places 
 near its mouth. During the first thirty miles are 
 occasional live-oaks and maple-bluffs, but beyond 
 that the river runs through vast plains of cane and 
 saw-grass, and between low willows. Many lagoons 
 make up from the river. Isolated clumps of 
 magnolia grow in the marsh, appearing like large 
 trees in the distance. Ten miles from the Fort 
 is a settler's cabin, the last on the river. Twenty 
 miles from the lake is the last oak, and three miles 
 from the lake a large cypress, from which a view of 
 the lake can be obtained. The Kissimmee as it 
 enters the lake forms a bay a mile in width and 
 
Eissimmee River. 257 
 
 depth, filled with lilies and water-lettuce. There 
 are two cypress trees near its mouth, but all around 
 is marsh. 
 
 cc The most conspicuous birds on the river were the 
 limpkin or crying-bird, the white ibis, white heron, 
 snake-bird, and vulture. Black bass are plentiful 
 and large ; perch, cat-fish, and bream also abound. 
 All the way down, on either side, is a pine ridge, 
 from three to five miles away, sometimes approaching 
 the river. It spreads out as it nears the lake, and 
 maintains the same distance of the west side, merging 
 itself in the cypress bordering the eastern shore. It 
 is a little over a mile to the first projection of the 
 bay west, where cypress and grass shoals present a 
 dreary appearance. Back of this, however, is a drift 
 of sand, upon which grows a thin belt of elm, maple, 
 and elderberry, interlaced and overgrown with large 
 grape vines. Back of this sand, which must be 
 covered at high water, is a dark lagoon, filled with 
 alligators. A mile further is a camping-ground, 
 used by Indians when hunting, all cypress. The 
 sand here is six inches above the lake, and a quiet 
 lagoon affords shelter for a boat. Detached belts of 
 cypress and marsh occur next, and the only place 
 
 s 
 
258 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 suitable for camping is ten miles south-west. Mul- 
 berry trees occur there, also ash, maple, boxwood, 
 cypress, India-rubber, and elderberry. There are 
 gigantic cypresses six feet in diameter, completely 
 enclosed in the India-rubber, and covered with 
 ivy. 
 
 " The shore tends south-west for about fifteen miles 
 from the .Kissimmee, where a long cypress hammock 
 ends in a lone palmetto. Here a deep bay makes in 
 some three miles, and is about five miles in width. 
 At the end of this bay, the palmetto spurs from 
 the main ridge approached within a mile. All 
 south of this is an unbroken marsh, deeply 
 indented with bays, from which blind creeks 
 or "sloughs" ramify in every direction. Due 
 south of this palmetto point is a low willow 
 island, with but a few inches of sand above 
 water, covered with nests of heron and snake- 
 bird. 
 
 "A marsh extends to this island, and south of it 
 is another deep bay. Below this island the shore 
 tends southward for about eight miles, then the dip 
 is south-east, a desolate region, with a low dark 
 line of willows bordering the shore. It has a very 
 
Island in Lake Okeechobee. 259 
 
 deceptive appearance this same shore, as various 
 shades, from the light of the grass shoals to the dark 
 of the willows, make it seem very high, and the 
 traveller is only disenchanted by a close inspection. 
 About thirty miles south by west of the Kissimmee 
 is the only island in the lake affording foot-hold to 
 man. It is one and a half miles long, and four miles 
 from the south-west shore. It runs north-west and 
 south-east, and is dry upon its eastern or lake side, 
 marshy on its western or shore side. It is no where 
 more than a foot above the level of the water, a dry 
 sand ridge covered with india-rubber, ash, and 
 sweet bay, with a few pau-paus in fruit and flower. 
 Nearly half an acre at one end was covered with 
 the vines of the wild gourd. Upon both sides and 
 at either end is a thick growth of willow, with some 
 cypress. The northern end is covered with the 
 dark vines of the " ipomea," in which hundreds of 
 the white herons and roseate spoon-bill ibis had 
 built their nests. From a tall cypress near, the 
 shore can be traced for many miles, with a few 
 palmetto spurs from the main ridge, some five, miles 
 back. 
 
 " Due south of this island is a sand beach, a mile in 
 
 s 2 
 
260 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 length, covered with large cypress. It is but thirty- 
 feet wide backed by interminable marsh. Some rare 
 minute fossil shells were found here. A bay two 
 miles deep is found south of this point, and thence 
 the shore bends south-east. There are three pro- 
 jecting points from the main marsh of this, the 
 southern end of Lake Okeechobee, covered with a 
 vegetation strikingly different from that of the 
 western and northern shores. It is here that the 
 water filters through the grassy, marshy run to the 
 south. The low custard-apple is the only tree 
 here. Joint grass and lilies are thickly filled in, the 
 whole forming a mass easily permeated by the 
 water. The lake terminates in three great bays, 
 from five to six miles in depth, curving easterly. 
 If there are any streams leading out of them, they 
 are not navigable, or even discernible. Nearly 
 opposite the island before mentioned, a creek comes 
 in, large in some places. Fort Centre, a military 
 post in the last Indian war, was six miles from the 
 lake upon this creek. 
 
 <c After this succession of bays and marshy points 
 the shore suddenly turns northward, and vegetation 
 assumes a different appearance. Cypress appear 
 
North End of the Everglades. 261 
 
 here and there, and a thick sprinkling of ash and 
 palmetto. About four miles from the commence- 
 ment of the northward dip, the shore turns north- 
 east. Three miles south of this curve is a group of 
 three islands, about two miles in length. They 
 curve from south to north-east, and are nearly sub- 
 merged, only covered with ash apparently and low 
 willows. At this curve in the main shore ends the 
 Everglades, and commences a cypress belt that 
 extends north-east for thirty miles. The beach here 
 is composed of disintegrated shells, and there are 
 many species of salt-water shells thrown upon the 
 shore. Fragments of coquina were also found here, 
 and tracks of racoons and rabbits, the first seen 
 since leaving the north-west shore. Moccassin- 
 snakes were unusually abundant, and unwound 
 themselves from nearly every fallen tree. 
 
 " A belt of cypress, in which are mingled all the 
 trees mentioned as occurring in the hammocks of 
 the north-west shore, backs this shell beach, the 
 only breaks in which, to within two miles of the 
 Kissimmee, are, first, a deep sound fifteen miles 
 south-east of the Kissimmee, and a bay two miles 
 from that river. This latter bay so much resembles 
 
262 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 that of the Kissimmee that it is puzzling unless 
 examined thoroughly. Taylor's Creek and another 
 empties into the lake within ten miles of the Kis- 
 simmee, but their channels are so choked with water- 
 lettuce and lilies that an experienced eye is required 
 to discern them. 
 
 " The lake is about forty miles long by twenty-five 
 in width. Its length is greatest from the mouth of 
 the Kissimmee river south-east, its breadth near the 
 centre. It is very shallow, and grass shoals extend 
 for miles into the lake. Nowhere did we find a 
 greater depth than twelve feet. In fish, Okeechobee 
 is deficient ; such is the violence of the storms there 
 that it is often stirred to its very centre, and 
 no fish of ordinary mould can survive such a 
 stirring up; fish-food also, the Crustacea, &c, is 
 scarce. Alligators are not so numerous as one might 
 expect, except in the lagoons and at the creek 
 mouths. 
 
 c< Birds are not abundant, with the exception of 
 fish-haws, crying-bird, snake-bird, and heron. During 
 ali our voyage we saw but one man besides our 
 party, and the only evidence of any people having 
 ever lived there was in the remains of two villages, 
 
Seminole Villages. 263 
 
 the houses sunken to the ground and the plantations 
 overrun with the wild growth of the swamp, upon 
 the eastern shore, eleven miles east of the Kissimmee 
 river. Bananas, pau-paus, sugar-cane, and guavas 
 were growing there in wild luxuriance. The 
 villages belonged to a portion of the Okeechobee tribe 
 of Seminoles, now living near the " Big Cypress," 
 south-west of Lake Okeechobee." 
 
 To this graphic account of a lake about which 
 an incredible amount of ignorance has hitherto 
 existed, I have only to add that on the return 
 journey the party were compelled to wade for two 
 days through water up to the waist, having selected 
 .the more southerly route back. Mosquitoes and 
 other stinging and flying vermin, alligators and 
 snakes, made the journey still more trying, and one 
 of the party, a young Bostonian, nearly died from 
 fever contracted in these pestilential swamps, nor 
 had he recovered from the effects even when I 
 parted from him in New York many weeks after- 
 wards. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF ST. LUCIE— THE " ULTIMA THULE" OF HUNTERS 
 — TURTLE PENS— THE MANATUS AUSTRALIS — INCREASE OF 
 TRAVELLERS — DEPARTURE FOR THE NORTH— THE INDIAN 
 RIVER — A SPORTING PARADISE OR NOT — THE NARROWS — 
 SHORES OF THE LAGOON — OYSTER BANK ISLANDS — THE 
 PELICANRT— THE BREAD PLANT — BLIND MOSQUITOES— CAMP 
 ON SHORE — A NIGHT ON THE INDIAN RIVER — PHOSPHORIC 
 FISH— ELBOW CREEK— COQUINA— MERRITT'S ISLAND— BURN- 
 HAM GROVE — ORANGE CULTURE IN FLORIDA — THE CRAZY 
 HUNTER— SAD EFFECTS OF THE HURRICANE — REACH SAND 
 POINT— HEAVY STORM — HARVEY'S HOTEL. 
 
 EAR the site of old Fort Capron, and 
 three miles above that of Fort Pierce, 
 on the west bank of the St. Lucie 
 Sound, is the settlement of St. Lucie. 
 It consists of a few wooden houses straggling along 
 the bank of the Sound, between the site of the two 
 
St. Lucie. 265 
 
 forts. Being the only kind of hamlet in Brevard 
 county, formerly called St. Lucie county, it is the 
 county town, and possesses a couple of stores and a 
 post-office. The principal inhabitants, the Smith 
 and Payne families, have small clearings planted 
 with corn, melons, bananas, &c ; but the chief 
 business is stock-raising, the stock being grazed on 
 the prairies at the back of the settlement, extending 
 to the Kissimmee river. 
 
 St. Lucie is usually the Ultima Thule of tourists 
 and hunters on the east coast, nor do many pene- 
 trate so far south ; fair accommodation can be 
 obtained by parties staying at the settlement for 
 hunting or fishing, while, some few miles up the 
 St Lucie river, deer and turkey are tolerably 
 numerous, and good camping ground can be 
 found. 
 
 The settlers own small cutters and schooners, 
 which can be hired for about three dollars a day, 
 either to travel north to the Mosquito Lagoon and 
 St. Augustine, or south to the St. Lucie river and, 
 light-house at Jupiter Inlet, the end of boat-travel 
 by the inside lagoons, one hundred miles from the 
 settlement at Miami. 
 
266 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 Besides cattle-raising, the settlers at St. Lucie do 
 a considerable business in turtles, which abound in 
 the lagoons, and when captured are confined in 
 turtle-pens, as the wooden enclosures are called, 
 formed of split rails stuck upright in the water, near 
 the western shores of the lagoon. So remote, 
 however, is the settlement that it is extremely 
 difficult to find a market for the turtles, and an 
 offer was made to our skipper soon after our arrival 
 of a very remunerative freight, if he would convey 
 a hundred turtles to Key West, to be there 
 disposed of. 
 
 Besides the turtle, the Manatee {Manatus Australis) 
 is occasionally captured in these waters, but is now 
 becoming scarce. The last one taken was exhibited 
 in Jacksonville, a strange-looking animal, from 
 nine to ten feet in length, weighing fifteen hundred 
 pounds, and appearing like a mixture of the seal and 
 hippopotamus. It was shot while feeding on the 
 banks of the Indian River, near the Inlet, but we 
 were not fortunate enough to see any of these animals 
 alive. 
 
 Altogether, the settlement at St. Lucie appeared 
 to me more prosperous than any we had seen since 
 
Start for Sand Point. 267 
 
 leaving Manatee, in West Florida, and the tide of 
 travel, which is yearly increasing along these inland 
 lagoons on the eastern coast, is likely to put into the 
 pockets of the settlers money enough still further to 
 promote its growth. 
 
 At the time of our arrival, all the tourists and 
 hunters had already taken their departure for the 
 North, Professor "Fred. Beverley," and his com- 
 panions of the expedition to Lake Okeechobee, alone 
 remaining at the settlement. As they were anxious 
 to lose no time before proceeding northward, we 
 joined our forces, and hired a cutter to convey us to 
 the settlement of Sand Point, a hundred miles 
 distant, near the northern extremity of the Indian 
 River. 
 
 With considerable trouble we got the Professor's 
 miscellaneous collection stowed on board, consisting 
 of bird-skins, turtle-shells, dried flowers, and bottles 
 innumerable, full of snakes, scorpions, toads, and 
 other horrid reptiles beloved by the Professor. Then 
 after bidding farewell to Mr. Payne, and wishing a 
 safe exit from the inlet and return voyage to 
 the skipper and mate of the ? Ida MacKay," we 
 assisted the one negro who formed the crew 
 
268 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 of our cutter to hoist sail, and at five a.m on 
 the 9th April, a faint southerly breeze bore 
 us slowly, but steadily, on our northward 
 course. 
 
 Throughout the Eastern states of America, the 
 Indian River of Florida is spoken and written of as 
 the " sportsman's Paradise," abounding in unequalled 
 hunting and beautiful scenery. A wide arm of the 
 sea, with perfectly flat banks, and running straight 
 as an arrow, cannot well have any pretensions to 
 scenery, nor has the Indian River in truth anything 
 pretty about it, except its name and the foliage of 
 the dense timber which clothes both banks. As 
 to game, the guns of sportsmen have driven most 
 of it away from the vicinity of the river, though a 
 little way up some of the inflowing creeks tolerable 
 sport may still be had. The puma and ocelot still 
 sneak through the thick jungle, but good dogs are 
 necessary to find them, and good dogs cannot be 
 obtained in the neighbourhood of the Indian River. 
 The river, as this lagoon is termed, extends for 
 about a hundred miles from St. Lucie Sound 
 and the inlet we entered by on the south, to 
 the Mosquito lagoon on the north, with which 
 
The Indian River. 269 
 
 it is connected by an artificial canal, five hundred 
 yards long and ten feet wide. 
 
 The waters, which are salt, abound in fish and 
 oyster-beds, which interfere considerably witfy the 
 navigation, rising to within a couple of feet of the 
 surface. The width of the lagoon is from sixty 
 yards, at the north entrance to the Narrows, to six 
 miles, near the settlement of Sand Point. Its average 
 width is about three miles, but so shoal is the 
 water near the banks that we had frequently to 
 wade about a quarter of a mile when wishing to 
 land. 
 
 The narrow strip of land which separates the 
 lagoon from the sea is only a few feet in height, 
 covered with a growth of mangrove, cabbage-palm 
 and palmetto in the southern half, pine and palmetto 
 in the northern. The western shore is marshy, with 
 densely timbered hammocks, behind which, about 
 half a mile from the water, runs a ridge averaging 
 half a mile across, covered with pine, oak, and 
 palmetto. Occasionally this ridge approaches the 
 water's edge, and affords the only camping- grounds 
 obtainable on the west shore of the lagoon. These 
 marshes with mud shores give a gloomy appearance 
 
270 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 to the Indian River, which I did not expect to find, 
 and only here and there did we see any of the 
 beautiful white silvery sand to which we had become 
 accustomed on the southern and western shores of 
 Florida. 
 
 About twelve miles above St. Lucie, we entered 
 what are called the "Narrows," where navigation 
 became difficult, and we were continually bumping 
 and scraping over the oyster-reefs, though only 
 drawing two feet of water. On many of these 
 oyster-reefs the mangrove trees had struck root, and 
 thus formed islands, which are continually growing 
 and still further encroaching on the narrow channel 
 yet left on the western side of the lagoon. 
 
 To a stranger, it would be impossible to find a 
 way through these innumerable reefs and islands, 
 but our sable combination of captain, pilot, and crew 
 made no error, and a couple of hours before sun- 
 down we emerged from the Narrows by a kind of 
 natural gateway where the banks approached each 
 other, and, when we looked back, appeared to meet, 
 for no opening was visible. Above the Narrows we 
 came to the greatest curiosity of the Indian River, 
 known as the Rookery, situated on the east bank. 
 
Camp at St. Sebastian River. 271 
 
 This so-called rookery is in fact a pelicanry, being 
 the abode of some tens of thousands of these birds, 
 which for centuries have built their nests in a forest 
 of tall trees, now dead. Their stems and branches 
 stand bare and gaunt, crusted with white from the 
 pelicans' droppings, and supporting between their 
 highest branches the roughly constructed nests of 
 these birds. Though pelicans abound throughout 
 Florida and its islands, in no other spot do they 
 appear to have congregated in such enormous 
 numbers as in this Indian River pelicanry. 
 
 At sunset the wind dropped, so on reaching St. 
 Sebastian river, a considerable fresh-water creek 
 flowing in on the west bank, we pitched our camp 
 for some hours' rest and supper. Our naturalist 
 fellow-traveller occupied every spare moment in 
 filling still more bottles with every stinging and 
 biting reptile he could come across, till supper was 
 nearly over and pipes lit, when at last we induced 
 him to join the circle round the camp-fire, and relate 
 some of his Okeechobee experiences. 
 
 Near our camp grew great quantities of the plant 
 called by the Indians the cc white koonta" or bread- 
 plant, a species of " zamia," with large fern-like 
 
272 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 leaves, resembling much the "Osmunda regalis," or 
 royal fern of our own island, and forming the chief 
 undergrowth of a rich cabbage-palm hammock under 
 which our tents were pitched. Clouds of what 
 are called in Eastern Florida the blind mosquito 
 filled the air, and crowded into the saucepan in 
 which we boiled our coffee; but, as the blind 
 mosquito differs from the "galley-nippers" of Western 
 Florida in the essential particular of not biting 
 human beings, we stood their presence with equa- 
 nimity, and drank our decoction of coffee and 
 boiled mosquitoes without sensible diminution of 
 appetite. 
 
 After enjoying a short but refreshing sleep, soon 
 after midnight, when a light breeze sprang up from 
 the south we struck camp, stowed the camp equipage 
 on board, and hoisting sail continued our northern 
 course. As the soft southern breeze filled our sails, 
 the water parted before the cutter's bows in literal 
 streams of liquid fire, gleaming with phosphoric 
 light, revealing a spectacle as novel to us as it was 
 beautiful. We could see jew-fish, saw-fish, and other 
 denizens of these southern waters, disturbed by the 
 passing boat, dart beneath the surface of the water 
 
Elbow Creel. 273 
 
 in a blaze of light, which clearly defined every scale 
 on their bodies, while their rapid course was marked 
 by a trail of light like that left by a meteor in the 
 firmament above. 
 
 In the morning we put into a little natural 
 harbour, on the west side of the lagoon, known as 
 Elbow Creek, whence it is proposed to cut a canal 
 to the head-waters of the St. John River at Lake 
 Washington, a distance of only six miles. Like 
 many other public works, however, which would 
 be a great benefit to Florida, it has long been 
 proposed, but no funds are forthcoming to execute 
 the works. 
 
 The banks of the creek rise to the unusual height 
 of twelve or fourteen feet, and are composed of 
 " coquina," a curious conglomerate of broken shells 
 and pebbles, cemented together by carbonate of lime 
 into a mass as hard as soft stone. This ledge of 
 coquina rock is worn into deep holes, and forms 
 numerous angles, against which we were nearly 
 trying the strength of the cutter's timbers as we 
 missed stays when tacking in, and ran within a 
 few feet of the rock before we could bring her 
 round. Eventually we dropped anchor in the 
 
 T 
 
274 Wild Ufe in Florida. 
 
 mouth of the creek, and disembarking, clambered up 
 the bank to the house of Mr. Houston, a settler 
 residing in that locality. There breakfast was 
 hospitably provided for those who preferred the more 
 civilized form of a meal at table to one at our 
 camp-fire, which soon blazed merrily on the 
 bluff. 
 
 Shortly after leaving Elbow Creek we reached the 
 southern point of Merritt's Island, the largest in 
 the lagoon, being thirty miles long, mostly covered 
 with pine trees, and inhabited by some half 
 dozen settlers. That portion of the Indian River 
 which runs to the east of this island is called the 
 Banana River, on the eastern shore of which is an 
 orange grove celebrated in Eastern Florida as Burn- 
 ham's Grove, the property of a settler of that name 
 who resides at Cape Canaveral light-house, five miles 
 distant across the strip of land which divides the river 
 from the sea. 
 
 Most of the settlers on the Indian River cultivate 
 
 he orange, and throughout Florida the Indian River 
 
 jranges have quite a name, and sell at the exorbitant 
 
 price of five cents each. I ate many of these oranges, 
 
 and found them extremely sweet and juicy, of great 
 
Orange Culture in Florida. 275 
 
 size and with thick rinds, but in my opinion they 
 are far inferior in flavour to the Spanish or Italian 
 orange. There is also a serious drawback to the 
 prosperity of orange culture in Florida, in the 
 fact that the tree suffers severely from the ravages 
 of insects and from frosts, though the latter are by 
 no means as severe as frequently occur during the 
 Winters in the north of Italy ; but in the climate 
 of Florida the orange tree appears to be more deli- 
 cate. Another curious feature of the orange produced 
 in Florida is the fact of its not standing export, 
 but rotting quickly after being plucked from the 
 tree. 
 
 North of Merritt/s Island, between the south point 
 of the Mosquito Lagoon and Indian River, is another 
 orange plantation of thirteen acres, called Dummett's 
 Grove, which in good years is said to have produced 
 a crop of more than a quarter of a million of 
 oranges. 
 
 As we bowled along before a strong southerly 
 breeze, we observed with surprise, on our port bow, 
 the half-naked figure of a man standing up to his 
 waist in water, at some distance from the west 
 bank, gesticulating wildly as our cutter approached. 
 
 T 2 
 
276 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 We sailed rapidly past at too great a distance to 
 hear more than inarticulate cries, and soon the figure, 
 which continued throwing its arms about, disappeared 
 far astern. On sighting the figure, our boatman 
 cautioned us not to mind him, saying that this wild 
 gesticulator was a half crazy hunter who for years 
 had lived on the banks of the Indian River, in a log 
 hut which he had built himself, and round which 
 he cultivated a small patch of garden. The hurri- 
 cane of the previous October had carried away his 
 hut bodily, and completely wrecked his little clearing, 
 since which he had wandered about the forests and 
 shores of the Indian River, wading into the water to 
 hail every passing boat. From the occupants he 
 would eagerly inquire for news of the outside world, 
 and replenish his store of powder and shot when 
 short of these commodities, but he never approached 
 the neighbourhood ot any settlement, and refused all 
 offers of assistance. The terrible October storm 
 which destroyed his solitary shanty seemed also to 
 have destroyed the last remnants of reason in his 
 brain, though his animal instinct led him still to 
 keep body and soul together by the help of his 
 trusty rifle. 
 
North End of Indian River. 277 
 
 Near the north part of Merritt's Island the breeze 
 increased to a regular gale, raising a considerable sea 
 in the lagoon, which was here from four to six miles 
 in width, and sending us flying along at such a pace 
 that, we reached the settlement called Sand Point, at 
 the north-western end of the Indian River, a hundred 
 miles from St. Lucie, an hour before sunset. 
 Disembarking at the second long wooden landing- 
 stage, we shouldered our baggage and conveyed 
 it to a small log-built store at the shore end of 
 the pier, just in time to avoid a waterspout of rain, 
 which, with the usual accompaniment of terrific 
 thunder and lightning, continued to pour down for 
 an hour. At the end of that time we procured a 
 waggon from the store -keeper, and before night 
 were safely housed at Harvey's hotel, situated about 
 a mile back from the Indian River. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SETTLEMENT OF SAND POINT, OR TITUS VILLE— CHARGE FOR 
 SAIL-BOATS — STORES — COLONEL H. F. TITUS — A FILIBUSTER 
 TURNED HOTEL-KEEPER — THE INVALID — THE HUNTER'S 
 ANCIENT COIN— A BUSHEL OF FLEAS— AN ENGLISH EMI- 
 GRANT — START WESTWARD— OUR TEAMSTER — A SAD STORY 
 — DISAPPOINTED HOPES— EXPERIENCES OF A POOR MAN — 
 CABBAGE -HAMMOCK — CATTLE-HERDERS — SONG BIRDS — A 
 CYPRESS SWAMP — ATTACK BY MOSQUITOES— SIGHT LAKE 
 HARNEY — THE DESERTED HOUSE — SAW-GRASS PLAIN — 
 REACH THE ST. JOHN RIVER— CAMP ON ITS BANKS. 
 
 AND POINT, or Titus ville, as it is 
 also called, and New Smyrna, twenty- 
 five miles north on the Mosquito 
 Lagoon, both in Volusia County, are 
 the two settlements whence hunting-parties generally 
 make their final start for the Indian River and St. Lucie 
 
Sand Point. 279 
 
 Sound. The usual charge for boats (small cutters of 
 light draught), at either place is five dollars a-day, 
 and a dollar and a-half a day for the boatman, but 
 prices are rising so rapidly with the demand that the 
 present cost is likely soon to be doubled. Stores, 
 but not ammunition, can be procured at either 
 place, but are better and cheaper brought from 
 Jacksonville or Savannah. 
 
 Detached settlers' houses and a couple of stores 
 compose the settlement of Sand Point, most of the 
 houses standing on the high pine land at the back 
 of a rich hammock, which extends from the lagoon 
 about a mile in width. The principal hotel is 
 situated on a point of land projecting into the 
 Indian River, and is a large wooden building kept 
 by Colonel H. F. Titus, a man well known 
 throughout Florida. Having held a command 
 under Walker in his filibustering expedition to 
 Nicaragua, he is called colonel, and is both feared 
 and disliked in the state he has now settled in. 
 I concluded from what I heard and saw that he 
 is an enterprising and energetic man, two very rare 
 qualities in Southern Florida, but so fond of the 
 game of the spider and the fly that he has made 
 
280 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 everybody his enemy. Tourists, however, who had 
 stayed at his hotel, told me they had been made 
 very comfortable, and it is the only house worthy 
 of the name of hotel at the settlement. 
 
 We had Harvey's hotel all to ourselves, with the 
 exception of an unfortunate young man in the last 
 stage of consumption, who evidently would never 
 again see his Northern home, and a hunter who 
 had just returned from an expedition to St. Lucie. 
 The latter showed me a silver Spanish dollar, which 
 he said he had found in one of the Indian mounds 
 on the banks of the lagoon, it bore the inscription, 
 " Carolus et Johan. Hisp. et Ind. reges," easily 
 Jegible, and the arms of Spain. We could not come 
 to terms as to the present value in green-backs of 
 the old silver coin, so the hunter retained this relic 
 of the Spanish occupation of Florida in the sixteenth 
 century. 
 
 In few parts of Florida did we find fleas more 
 abundant and hungry than at Sand Point, our 
 landlord's remark that he " reckoned he would make 
 his fortune if he could sell them at a dollar a 
 bushel," being fully borne out by their numbers. 
 There was but little cultivated land, only a few 
 
Halt at Deserted But. 281 
 
 patches in fact round the settlement, cattle and hogs 
 being as usual the chief worldly wealth of the 
 settlers, many of the latter animals were red- 
 coloured, a variety very common among the Florida 
 pigs. During our stay at Harvey's, an. English 
 emigrant from Missouri arrived with a waggon 
 and mule team, which he had driven all the way 
 from his former home in that state, a distance of 
 over sixteen hundred miles. We hired his waggon 
 and team to convey our baggage to Lake Harney, 
 twenty miles distant, a little to the north-west from 
 Sand Point. There we expected soon to find a 
 steamer to convey us northward down the St. John 
 River. 
 
 On quitting the settlement at Sand Point, a 
 tolerably level and well marked track led us across 
 an undulating country, covered with open pine- 
 forest, with occasional hammocks, of the usual 
 growth of cabbage-palm, water and live-oak, India- 
 rubber, hickory, &x. ; and in nine miles we reached 
 a deserted hut, near a hammock with a creek of 
 fresh water running through it, where we halted to 
 dine and rest the mules. 
 
 After our usual frugal mid-day meal of coffee, 
 
282 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 fried bacon, hominy and biscuit, our teamster related 
 to us the history of his migration from Missouri, 
 a sad tale of disappointed hopes and expectations of 
 wealth never to be realised. The glowing reports he 
 had read of the fertility of Florida, and the certainty 
 of attaining wealth almost without labour, had, he 
 said, induced him to leave Missouri, where he had 
 been settled about a year on a small farm. This 
 farm he sold, purchasing a waggon and mule team 
 with some of the proceeds of the sale ; and pocket- 
 ing the remaining dollars, he started on his long 
 journey, and, after a drive of three months, reached 
 Florida with the intention of there seeking a 
 homestead. Every mile that he advanced through 
 the country the settlers recommended him to go 
 further south, saying that he would find the land 
 better and more fertile a short journey to the 
 southward. 
 
 Believing these false reports, he had travelled on 
 further and yet further south, crossing Central 
 Florida, and reaching the Indian River by following 
 the old military roads. Instead of improving, the 
 land grew poorer and poorer as he advanced, and 
 the natural obstacles to his progress more for- 
 
Cabbage Hammoclc. 283 
 
 midable. At last all trace of road disappeared, 
 and an impenetrable jungle barred his further 
 progress to the south, when about half-way between 
 Sand Point and the settlement of St. Lucie. 
 Obliged to return as he could no longer advance, 
 when we engaged his team to transport our baggage, 
 he was working his way north again, a sadly 
 disappointed man, cursing the lying immigration 
 agents, cursing the settlers, and cursing the in- 
 hospitable soil and poverty of the country. He 
 offered to sell us his waggon and team for money 
 enough to pay his steam-boat and railway fare 
 back to Missouri, and leave a hundred dollars in 
 his pocket to start again in life. 
 
 Leaving the deserted hut where we had rested 
 during the hottest hours of the day, the track soon 
 led us down from the pine-land into one of the 
 largest and most fertile tracts of hammock-land 
 in East Florida, known as IC Cabbage Hammock." 
 Being held under Spanish grant, none of it has been 
 homesteaded, or any attempts made at cultivating 
 the land, which strikes the eye as being of extra- 
 ordinary fertility, judging from the luxuriant vegeta- 
 tion with which it is clothed. Small savannas inter- 
 
284 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 sected the hammock, covered with fresh green grass, 
 and brilliant with flowers chiefly of the orchid 
 tribe. 
 
 On these meadows a large number of cattle were 
 feeding, herded by a party of three rough-looking 
 men whom we met seated under a group of palms, 
 armed with rifle and revolver. They had apparently 
 scared away all the big game from the neighbour- 
 hood, as we saw nothing to shoot for supper except 
 some of the Florida quail, and a couple of sand-hill 
 cranes stalking solemnly among the pines. The trees 
 were, however, full of birds of beautiful song or 
 plumage, the mocking-bird, red-bird, ivory-bill, and 
 many others of the wood- pecker tribe, green parro- 
 quet, robin, &c, which, as the intense heat of the 
 day began to abate, filled the forest with the sound 
 of various notes. 
 
 Beyond the Cabbage Hammock we crossed more 
 pine-land and then a deep cypress-swamp, through 
 which ran a black-looking creek, in which the 
 waggon-wheels sank up to the axletrees ; mocassin 
 snakes unwound themselves from rotting trees lying 
 half buried in the fetid ooze, and mosquitoes drove 
 ourselves and the mules nearly wild by their per- 
 
Lake Harney. 285 
 
 sistent attacks. It was a considerable relief to both 
 man and beast when we again emerged from the 
 cypress-swamp on to the high and dry pine-land. 
 Crossing a few miles of this open forest, through 
 which were scattered small cypress-ponds, we saw 
 before us a belt of cabbage-palms, through which 
 the occasional glimpses we caught of water reddened 
 by the setting sun, told us we were approaching 
 Lake Harney. 
 
 Passing the deserted habitation of a former settler, 
 where the banana and orange trees had now mingled 
 with the natural growth of the soil, and the owl 
 and buzzard lodged among the roofless ruins of the 
 house, we made our way through the thick belt of 
 cabbage-palms, and emerged on a wide treeless 
 plain, through the centre of which wound the St. 
 John River, till it entered the southern end of 
 Lake Harney, whose waters bounded the plain on 
 the north. 
 
 A drive of a couple of miles through the tall 
 saw-grass, which grew as high as the backs of our 
 mules, over ground which at this season of the 
 year was dry and firm, and we reached the banks 
 of the St. John River just as night was closing in. 
 
286 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 There we unharnessed the mules, weary with the 
 length of the journey and intense heat of the day, 
 and turned them loose to graze among the tall grass. 
 A dry sandy bank was selected for the camping- 
 ground, and there, under a wide -spreading cedar- 
 tree, we prepared to pass the night by the side of 
 the dark and silent flowing river, on whose waters 
 we were to accomplish the remainder of our journey 
 to Jacksonville, a distance of about two hundred and 
 fifty miles. 
 
&5L__ ^^**-^^**^^^V^*»^^Y^3«^r^^S* s ^^>^-^* - *^ ~«*° 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 THE ST. JOHN RIVER— CONTEMPLATED CANAL — A FORMER 
 LAGOON — THE HIGHWAY OP TRAVEL IN FLORIDA— STEAM 
 NAVIGATION— TOURISTS— HOTELS — WILD FOWL— ARRIVAL OF 
 STEAMER— LAKE HARNEY— THE '* VOLUSIA"— EXTINCTION OF 
 ALLIGATORS — VEGETATION ON THE RIVER BANKS — THE 
 " PISTIA SPATTJLATA" — A PASSING SHOT — LAKE JESSUP — 
 FEARFUL STORM IN A CYPRESS SWAMP — FIRE-FLIES — A 
 SOUTHERN NIGHT— STEAMING BY TORCH-LIGHT— LAKE MON- 
 ROE — THE "CITY OF ENTERPRISE" — THE BROCK-HOUSE — 
 GREEN SPRING— MELLONVILLE — NUMBERS OF SMALL BIRDS — 
 THE OSPREY AND THE EAGLE— BLUE SPRING— SMALL SETTLE- 
 MENTS — LAKE GEORGE — DRAYTON'S ISLAND — WELAKA — IN- 
 TENSE HEAT— THE OCKLAWAHA RIVER— THE " FOUNTAIN OF 
 YOUTH" — PALATKA — THE LOWER ST. JOHN— CHANGE OF VEGE- 
 TATION — ST. AUGUSTINE — ITS STREETS AND VISITORS — A 
 WOODEN RAILROAD TO TOCOI— GREEN COVE SPRING— MAN- 
 DARIN— OUR RETURN TO JACKSONVILLE 
 
 p^Jgggs| HE St. John River, unlike most other 
 rivers in the world, flows from south 
 to north, until within sixteen miles 
 
 of its mouth, where it turns abruptly to the 
 
288 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 east. Rising in the swamps to the north-east of 
 Lake Okeechobee, it has a total length of about 
 four hundred miles. The slope of its bed is so 
 gradual that at Lake Harney, a distance of over 
 two hundred and fifty miles from its mouth, it is 
 only three feet six inches above tide level, as was 
 proved by a state survey made a few years ago, with 
 the object of constructing a canar from the lake to 
 the Indian River. 
 
 At Lake Washington, some three hundred and 
 forty miles up the river, it is only six miles distant 
 from an inlet of the ocean. The tides are per- 
 ceptible as far as Lake George, two hundred miles 
 up, and the river water is salt or brackish at least as 
 far up as Lake Harney, though that may be partly 
 owing to the numerous salt springs which flow into 
 it. The colour of the water is a rich brown, with 
 a greasy scum perceptible on it, like that we noticed 
 on some of the rivers emptying into the Gulf of 
 Mexico. 
 
 The river is supposed once to have been a lagoon 
 like the Indian River, converted by the gradual rising 
 of the land into its present form of a sluggish river 
 with a current of about one mile an hour, opening 
 
St. John River. 289 
 
 out every few miles into large sheets of shallow 
 water which are known by various names as lakes, 
 but in reality form part of the river itself. The 
 St. John now forms the chief highway of travel in 
 Florida, and is navigated by sea-going steamers as 
 far as Palatka. Thence by smaller craft, ' running 
 several times a week, as far as Enterprise, whence 
 still smaller steamers run during the Winter as far 
 as Salt Lake, which is connected with the St. John 
 by a tortuous creek. After the beginning of April, 
 however, the terminus of steam travel is Lake 
 Harney, owing to the depth of water being in- 
 sufficient from that time till the rains have set in. 
 A steamboat has penetrated as far south as Lake 
 Washington, sixty miles above Lake Harney, but 
 considerable outlay will be necessary to make 
 the river navigable so far, the shallowness of the 
 water, and the immense quantities of water-lilies and 
 other aquatic plants, offering a serious bar to 
 navigation. 
 
 Thousands of tourists annually ascend the St. John 
 River and its sole large tributary, the Ocklawaha, 
 and numerous large hotels have been erected for 
 their accommodation along the banks of these rivers 
 
 u 
 
290 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in favourable localities, usually near the spot where 
 rises some one of the immense number of mineral 
 springs which empty into them. The most southern 
 of the hotels along the St. John is at present at 
 Enterprise, on Lake Monroe, south of which only 
 a very small percentage of Winter tourists penetrate, 
 consisting of those sportsmen who are bound for 
 the Indian River and neighbourhood, and a few 
 travellers and professors exploring the country. 
 
 South of Lake Harney the river winds through 
 wide flats overgrown with saw-grass, once covered 
 by the waters of the lagoon, as they still are by 
 those of the St. John during the rainy season. 
 The forests bounding these flats, or marshes, which 
 have an average width of three or four miles, consist 
 of cabbage-palm and pine, in which are a good 
 number of deer, while the marshes are alive with 
 wild fowl during the Winter. Even at the time we 
 were there hundreds of wild 'fowl still remained, 
 though the large flocks had migrated northward two 
 months previously. 
 
 At length the long expected steamer from the 
 north arrived in Lake Harney, and the following 
 afternoon ourselves and our friends from Okeechobee 
 
The " Volusia: 9 291 
 
 were safely stowed on board, the anchor was hove 
 and we commenced our voyage down the St. John 
 River. The craft on board which we now travelled 
 was named the " Volusia," and built like a Thames 
 barge with a house on the top of it. She had 
 small side-paddles, and a double rudder in the wash 
 of the wheels, a square stern, and a draught of 
 eighteen inches forward and two feet aft when 
 laden. She had sleeping accommodation for about 
 twenty passengers in clean little cabins, and though 
 her utmost speed did not exceed seven knots an 
 hour, she was a most comfortable craft to travel 
 in, and admirably suited to the shallow and tortuous 
 waters of the Upper St. John. 
 
 We had a miscellaneous cargo on board, of oranges 
 from the Indian River, green and yellow parroquets 
 from the neighbourhood of Lake Harney, crimson 
 and white air-plants in full flower from the forests 
 round the same lake, mail-bags from the Southern 
 settlements, fowl and cattle for the Northern markets, 
 and last, but not least odoriferous, the Professor's 
 collection of skins, bottled snakes, &c, from Lake 
 Okeechobee. 
 
 Crossing Lake Harney, which is about four miles 
 
 U 2 
 
292 Wild Life in Florida, 
 
 in length and breadth, with flat, densely timbered 
 and unpicturesque shores, we entered the out-flowing 
 river, here very narrow and winding at acute angles, 
 but with a generally easterly direction as far as 
 Lake Jessup. Any unfortunate little alligator seen 
 basking on a sand-bank, or venturing to show its 
 black head above the water lilies, was instantly 
 greeted with a shower of bullets. So long has this 
 practice been going on that alligators which once 
 abounded in the St. John River are now nearly 
 extinct, nor did we see a single one north of Lake 
 George, or one of any size between Lake George and 
 Lake Harney. 
 
 A rich and beautiful vegetation clothed both 
 banks of the river, except here and there where 
 the timber receded and an immense expanse of 
 marsh extended back to the distant forest, covered 
 with saw- grass, among which were occasional 
 " islands " of timber. In other places we came on 
 broad savannas on which fed herds of cattle, or 
 on dreary cypress swamps, with a rank and tangled 
 undergrowth of vines sweeping the dark waters. 
 In some places the . channel of the river was com- 
 pletely blocked with water-lilies and a peculiar kind 
 
Lake Jessup. 293 
 
 of water-plant, the"Pistia Spatulata," which col- 
 lected in such masses as to form islands, at which 
 we dashed, when the mass parted to unite again in 
 our wake. 
 
 A number of ducks fed among the water-plants, 
 many of them with young broods already able to 
 flap along the surface of the water. At a bend of 
 the river we suddenly came on a flock of turkeys 
 scratching in the sand, out of which a lucky shot 
 into the brown brought down a magnificent old 
 gobbler, which we stopped to secure. It weighed 
 over forty pounds, and afforded the whole of our 
 party a sumptuous repast. 
 
 Touching at a settler's house on the left bank, 
 on a high mound, for wood and fresh water, we 
 reached Lake Jessup just before sunset, amid a 
 fearful storm of thunder, lightning, and rain. 
 Crossing the north-east end of this lake, which is 
 seventeen miles long and five wide, but very 
 shallow, we again entered the narrow river as the 
 storm increased in fury, and such Egyptian darkness 
 succeeded to the sunset that we were forced to 
 lay- to on the ridge of a cypress swamp, lest we 
 should run against some of the lofty trunks which 
 
294 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 rose branchless from the water, or the cypress 
 knees, as the distorted stems of stunted cypress 
 are called. 
 
 There we remained for a couple of hours, while 
 the storm raged with ever increasing fury, the light- 
 ning blazing with a vividness which revealed the 
 deepest recesses of the swamp and made awful the 
 darkness which immediately succeeded, the thunder 
 rolled unceasingly, and a deluge of rain poured 
 down ; a tall cypress tree near us was split from 
 top to bottom by the electric fluid during this 
 magnificent but terrible war of the elements. In 
 a couple of hours the storm ceased, the black 
 clouds disappeared as if by magic, the stars shone 
 out with even more than their usual brilliancy, 
 and countless myriads of fire- flies filled the air, 
 the trees, and the surface of the water with their 
 tiny flashes of light, as they darted hither and 
 thither, in numbers the like of which I never saw 
 before. 
 
 The storm over, we continued our voyage, and 
 through hour after hour of the still, hot night we 
 sat smoking in the bows of the boat as we advanced 
 down the narrow river. The endless succession of 
 
"City" of Enterprise. 295 
 
 hammock, forest, and cypress swamp through 
 which we turned and twisted, assumed all sorts of 
 strange and weird forms, as the light of the 
 torches of pitch-pine which we carried in the bows 
 fell on them. The screech of the owl or note of 
 the whip-poor-will, with the occasional cry of 
 some wild beast in the forest, mingled with the 
 regular beat of the paddles till the small hours 
 of the morning, when the timber receded, and the 
 river spread out into another large sheet of water, 
 some twelve miles long by four broad, called Lake 
 Monroe. Then we turned into bed for a few 
 hours' sleep, to be soon roused up again by the 
 noise made in mooring the steamer alongside the 
 wharf at Enterprise. 
 
 While discharging and loading cargo, we made 
 acquaintance with the cc city " of Enterprise, the 
 county seat of Volusia County. It consists of one 
 large wooden hotel called the " Brock House," a 
 county court-house, post-office, a few stores, and 
 half-a-dozen frame dwelling-houses. The hotel is 
 situated on a high shell-mound on the lake-shore, 
 and is much resorted to by sportsmen and invalids 
 during the Winter ; these had all taken their de- 
 
296 ' Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 parture before our arrival, and the hotel was nearly 
 deserted. 
 
 Half a mile from the hotel is a mineral spring 
 called " Green Spring," of a greenish colour, strongly 
 impregnated with sulphur ; its basin is twenty-five 
 yards in diameter and a hundred feet in depth. A 
 couple of hundred yards beyond is a second smaller 
 sulphur spring, and near it a source of saline 
 waters. Some fine orange groves at the side of 
 the hotel extending along the shore, and little 
 pleasure-boats at anchor, or drawn up on the beach, 
 gave an air of civilization to the place. In the 
 Winter tolerable deer-hunting on horseback can be 
 obtained in the neighbouring forests, and the lake 
 abounds in fish, but there is not much sport of 
 any other sort to be obtained. 
 
 A stage-coach, in connection with the steamers, 
 runs across to New Smyrna, on the Mosquito 
 Lagoon, thirty miles distant ; from which point, as 
 I have already mentioned, some travellers make 
 their final start for the Indian River. 
 
 From Enterprise we crossed to the western shore 
 of the lake, on which stand two hotels and some 
 villas, forming the settlement of Mellonville, a name 
 
Mellonville. 297 
 
 originating from old Fort Mellon, on the site of 
 which it stands. The orange groves are the chief 
 feature at Mellonville, and the place has a generally 
 thriving appearance ; new buildings are springing 
 up and stores increasing, so that it is likely soon to 
 become the chief town of Orange County, in which 
 it is situated. 
 
 A few miles beyond Mellonville the river again 
 narrowed to a width of fifty or sixty yards, and 
 we twisted in and out through cypress swamps 
 and meadows of tall grass, hammocks of live-oak, 
 water-oak, and cabbage-palm festooned with Spanish 
 moss, vild vines, the crimson trumpet-flower, and 
 innumerable parasites. Here and there small alli- 
 gators showed among the water-lilies, but they 
 were very shy and scarce, and the most interesting 
 feature of this portion of the river was the im- 
 mense number of large birds which rose constantly 
 before us. Flocks of the black and white wood- 
 ibis flew out of the branches of the forest trees ; 
 blue-herons, snowy-herons, white ibis, pelicans and 
 cranes rose from the shallow waters at every turn 
 of the river. Above us the osprey poised in mid- 
 air, then darted into the water to rise with a 
 
298 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 fish in his claws, which he was quickly made to 
 drop by the plundering bald-headed eagle soaring 
 above, ever on the look-out to deprive the weaker 
 osprey of his prey, which he would seize, when 
 dropped, before it could reach the ground. 
 
 Twenty-five miles below Mellonville we reached 
 Blue Spring, the most southern settlement of the 
 English, when masters of the country. The spring 
 is warm and sulphurous, with a sufficient body of 
 water for the steamer to float in it at its confluence 
 with the main river, and such clear water that every 
 fish swimming below could be seen. Touching at four 
 other landings, where were small settlements of two 
 or three wooden houses with little groves of orange, 
 lime, and banana trees, an hour before sunset we 
 entered the largest expansion in the whole course 
 of the river, called Lake George, a sheet of water 
 eighteen miles long by twelve wide, below which is 
 Little Lake George, seven miles long and four wide, 
 so that the total length of this expansion of the 
 river may be stated at twenty-five miles. 
 
 Lake George is spoken of by Americans as one 
 of the most beautiful in the world, but to my mind 
 such a term cannot with truth be applied to such an 
 
Lalce George. 299 
 
 immense sheet of water, without any mountains, or 
 even hills, to form a background to the landscape. 
 Back from the north-western shore, the land rises 
 to the height of a few feet in a sandy ridge covered 
 with pine and black-jack oak, called the Eteniah 
 scrub, dividing the St. John from the Ocklawaha 
 river ; while all round the rest of the lake is low 
 forest or dreary swamp land. 
 
 The islands at the north end of the lake make 
 that part a little more picturesque. The largest, 
 called Rembrandt, or Drayton's Island, is cultivated, 
 and contains one of the largest orange groves on 
 the river, but none of those traces of the aborigines 
 spoken of by the old traveller Bartram, except some 
 Indian mounds. 
 
 Twelve miles below Lake George we made fast 
 alongside the landing at Welaka, situated on a high 
 bluff on the east side of the river, in a heavy thunder 
 storm, which lasted with but short intermissions all 
 through one of the most intensely hot nights we 
 had yet endured, my thermometer never registering 
 lower than 90 Fahrenheit, while the damp heat of 
 the atmosphere nearly suffocated us. 
 
 Opposite Welaka, the Indian name of the St. 
 
300 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 John River, signifying a chain of lakes, is the mouth 
 of the Ocklawaha river, navigated by steamboats 
 for two hundred miles, as far as Okahumka, on Lake 
 Harris, in Sumpter County. Great numbers of 
 tourists make the excursion up as far as Silver 
 Spring, a hundred miles from Welaka, so remarkable 
 for the extraordinary transparency of the water that 
 it was much venerated by the Indians, and is supposed 
 to have been the " Fountain of Youth" spoken of by 
 the Cacique to Juan Ponce de Leon. 
 
 From Welaka we steamed on for twenty-five 
 miles, lighted by blazing pine-torches in the bows, 
 till midnight, when we reached Palatka, on the 
 western bank of the river, the chief town of Putnam 
 County and the most southern settlement on the 
 St. John worthy of the name of a town. There we 
 passed the rest of the night, waiting till daylight 
 to ship and discharge cargo, mails and passengers. 
 Palatka is seventy -five miles from Jacksonville and 
 is the terminus of the route of the large steamers 
 from Savannah and Charleston. Situated on high 
 ground, it extends some distance along the river 
 banks and has a population of about fifteen hundred, 
 with two good hotels, boarding-houses, stores, 
 
Palatha. 301 
 
 churches and schools, altogether appearing a most 
 thriving place. Lumbering and orange culture are 
 the principal occupations of the inhabitants ; the large 
 orange groves in the vicinity constitute the chief 
 attraction of the place, always excepting the climate, 
 which is highly recommended as a Winter resort for 
 consumptive patients. 
 
 A short morning stroll along the sandy roads, and 
 we again continued our voyage. The river below 
 Palatka soon opens out to a width of two to three 
 miles, which it retains throughout the rest of its 
 course to the Atlantic, and is generally termed the 
 Lower St. John throughout this distance ; above 
 Palatka it is the Upper St. John. As we advanced 
 down the lower river, the character of the country 
 changed considerably. The banks became higher 
 and less swampy ; forests of pine, live-oak, magnolia 
 and laurel succeeded to the cabbage-palms and 
 palmetto scrubs, the hammocks, savannas and saw- 
 grass marshes, and though occasional cypress swamps 
 occur down to the river's mouth, they became less 
 numerous. Settlements, houses and orange groves 
 increased in number, and the nature of the country 
 generally appeared to be one capable of supporting 
 
302 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 a considerable population, which would be impossible 
 on the Upper St. John, owing to the vast swamps 
 and unhealthy climate of most of the surrounding 
 country. 
 
 The attractions of the forest scenery and the 
 strange tropical vegetation overhanging the narrow 
 stream disappeared below Palatka, owing to the 
 width of the river, and the remainder of the voyage 
 to Jacksonville we found monotonous and compara- 
 tively uninteresting, the banks being too distant to 
 appreciate the beauty of the vegetation, except when 
 touching at the settlements on either bank. 
 Twenty-six miles below Palatka we reached Tocoi 
 on the east bank, connected by a railway, fifteen 
 miles long, with St. Augustine, a monotonous ride 
 of three hours through pine-forests on wooden 
 rails. 
 
 St. Augustine is historically interesting as the first 
 permanent settlement built by the Spaniards on the 
 North American continent ; it is situated on the 
 Atlantic coast, on a narrow peninsula formed by the 
 Sebastian and Matanzas Rivers. The town is small, 
 with many old Spanish buildings still existing ; its 
 streets are narrow and were formerly paved with 
 
St. Augustine. 303 
 
 " coquina," of which conglomerate many of the 
 buildings also are composed. Its climate is considered 
 exceptionally healthy, and its two large hotels and 
 numerous boarding-houses are crowded every Winter 
 with invalids or pleasure seekers from the north. 
 Some hunting parties also hire boats at St. Augustine, 
 in which they sail to the Mosquito Lagoon and 
 thence by the canal into the Indian River, but this 
 route is less frequently chosen than the two I have 
 before mentioned. A young American artillery 
 officer, who travelled up from St. Augustine to New 
 York with us, assured us that after a year's expe- 
 rience in garrison at the former place, he knew 
 few nicer or more healthy quarters in the United 
 States. 
 
 Between Tocoi and Jacksonville, a distance of 
 forty-nine miles, two places deserve notice — Green 
 Cove Springs, and close by Magnolia, forming a 
 watering place so much frequented for rheumatism 
 and skin diseases that it is called the Saratoga 
 of Florida ; and fifteen miles lower on the 
 east bank, the pretty little settlement of Mandarin, 
 consisting of some dozen of private houses almost 
 concealed in thick groves of orange and lemon trees, 
 
304 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 in one of which Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe spends 
 her Winters. 
 
 Between Mandarin and Jacksonville, a distance 
 of fifteen miles, the river banks are thickly studded 
 with villas, and in the river bed are many masts and 
 funnels of sunken steamers and ships, sad memorials 
 of the Civil War of 1861-65. When, after an 
 absence of nearly three months, we once more 
 reached the wharf at Jacksonville, and thence pro- 
 ceeded to our old quarters at the International hotel, 
 we found that our friends had been quite anxious 
 about our safety, all the other tourists and hunters 
 having long since returned from the south without 
 bringing any tidings of our movements. On 
 comparing notes, we found that we had taken the 
 right course in seeking for sport along the Gulf 
 counties, as though we had not killed as much big 
 game as we had hoped to do, we had met with 
 far better sport than any other hunting parties, and 
 had explored a large extent of country altogether 
 untravelled before. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 END OP OTJR WILD LIFE — BREAK-UP OP THE PARTY — RIVAL 
 ROUTES TO FLORIDA — LAND OR SEA THE BEST — START BY 
 RAIL FOR SAVANNAH — ANOTHER TRAIN OFF THE TRACK — 
 LAST NIGHT IN THE FORESTS OF FLORIDA — REACH SAVAN- 
 NAH — EMBARK FOR NEW YORK — DEAD AND LIVING- PAS- 
 SENGERS—LAND ROUTE THE BEST — MEMORIES OF WILD LIFE 
 IN FLORIDA. 
 
 ITH our return to Jacksonville ended 
 our Wild Life in Florida, to the regret 
 of every one of our party. Hence- 
 forth our routes diverged West, 
 North, and East. My travelling companion M 
 
 was bound west for New Orleans ; the Doctor for 
 his home in Augusta, Georgia ; our Okeechobee 
 
 x 
 
306 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 friends for Boston ; myself for New York and 
 England. 
 
 As I had reached Jacksonville by sea and river 
 from Savannah, whither I had travelled by land 
 from the North ; I determined to return by land to 
 Savannah, and thence by sea to New York, so as 
 to. be able to judge of the respective merits, or 
 annoyances of the rival routes by land and sea. 
 A Northern gentleman had remarked to me, when 
 starting for Florida from the North : " If you go by 
 land, you will wish you had gone by sea ; and if you 
 go by sea, you will wish you had gone by land." 
 The first part of the assertion I was fully prepared 
 to endorse. The long railway journey to Savannah, 
 through a dreary succession of pine-forest and 
 swamp, swamp and pine-forest, the wretched negro 
 huts scattered through the forests, the ruined 
 plantations, poverty-stricken people, and other 
 evidences of the sad condition to which part of 
 Southern Virginia, North and South Carolina and, 
 in a less degree, Georgia, are now reduced, had both 
 wearied and grieved me, and made me long to be 
 on the healthy, open, sparkling sea ; nor did my 
 stay in Charleston tend to remove these gloomy 
 
Leave Jacksonville. 307 
 
 impressions, so fearfully are the effects of the Civil 
 War still visible there, both in the state of the 
 buildings and the condition of the citizens. 
 
 My return route from Jacksonville to Savannah 
 being by railway, I took a through ticket to New- 
 York, including both land and sea transit, and 
 presented myself at the railway depot, as I had been 
 warned to do, at the early hour of 6 a.m. It was ? 
 however, four hours later before we were able to 
 start, owing to the line being blocked by the south- 
 ward bound train having run off the rails, a 
 circumstance so commonly happening that nobody 
 expressed either surprise or impatience at the long 
 delay 
 
 At last the telegraph announced all clear, and 
 we commenced our journey. We followed the 
 same route we had travelled when bound for Cedar 
 Keys, as far as Baldwin, where the negro touts again 
 besought us to try " real white folk's breakfast." 
 From Baldwin, where we had formerly turned 
 south-west, we continued our journey due west, 
 through open pine-forest, with occasional creeks, 
 small swamps and scattered settlements, consisting of 
 two or three log-houses. 
 
 x 2 
 
308 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 Lake City, the chief town of Columbia county, 
 appeared a thriving little place, whence we still 
 continued west to Live Oak, the capital of Suwannee 
 County. There an old negress, called " Aunt Polly," 
 had a table laid out on the platform, with " chicken 
 fixins " and coffee, the only refreshments obtainable 
 between Baldwin and Savannah, a journey of eighteen 
 hours. 
 
 At Live Oak, we branched off due north by the 
 Georgia connection railroad, continuing through the 
 same sort of open pine-forest with palmetto under- 
 growth, but seeing occasional ridges, and even low 
 hills. Near Suwannee City, we crossed the river of 
 the same name celebrated in negro song, and a little 
 beyond, reached the settlement called Jaspar City. 
 Then, as night closed in, I retired to the Pullman 
 car, to sleep for the last time in the forests of 
 Florida, and awoke the next morning in the fair 
 capital of Georgia. At Savannah I embarked on 
 board the " Favourite Side-wheel S.S. San Jacinto," 
 bound for New Yoak, where my experiences made 
 me endorse the warning of my Northern friend 
 most fully. The ship was crowded with passengers, 
 both living and dead; two coffins were placed 
 
Beach Neio York. 309 
 
 amidships, by the railing of the quarter-deck, labelled 
 with the name and address of the occupant in full, while 
 at least a dozen of the living passengers, including 
 young and old, male and female, were in the last 
 stage of consumption, and evidently just struggling 
 home to die. 
 
 Though the weather was fine, and the living very 
 fair, often during each of the four days which it 
 took us to reach New York, I wished most sincerely 
 that I had " gone by land." 
 
 Though long and tedious the journey from 
 England to Florida must ever be, to the sportsman 
 and naturalist it is well worth all the tedium and 
 hardship. Even now, when living in the most 
 luxurious city in the world, memories of the free 
 and wild life we led in Florida rise before me, till 
 1 long again to find myself in camp under its 
 graceful cabbage- palms, or sailing among its lonely 
 mangrove-clad keys. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 RANGE OF THE THERMOMETER, 
 
 HE range of the thermometer in Florida 
 is far less than in other states of the Union, 
 and is as follows, at the principal stations 
 on the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts, as deter- 
 mined by the observations of the Army Meteorological 
 Department. 
 
 AT JACKSONVILLE, i860. 
 
 
 Highest. 
 
 Lowest. 
 
 Mean. 
 
 January 
 
 76 
 
 38 
 
 56 
 
 F ebruary 
 
 77 
 
 39 
 
 61 
 
 March 
 
 83 
 
 34 
 
 63 
 
 April 
 
 86 
 
 49 
 
 73 
 
 May 
 
 9i 
 
 66 
 
 76 
 
 June 
 
 92 
 
 73 
 
 83 
 
314 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 
 Highest. 
 
 Lowest. 
 
 Mean. 
 
 July 
 
 9 6 
 
 74 
 
 84 
 
 August 
 
 94 
 
 IS 
 
 8l 
 
 September 
 
 86 
 
 64 
 
 79 
 
 October 
 
 85 
 
 62 
 
 70 
 
 November 
 
 79 
 
 39 
 
 62 
 
 December 
 
 78 
 
 40 
 
 54 
 
 Mean for the year ending December i860, 70*61 Fahr. 
 
 At Tampa Bay the mean of twenty-five years, ending 
 1870, was January, 61 ; February, 63 ; March, 67 ; 
 April, 71 ; May, 76; June, 79; July, 80 ; August, 80 ; 
 September, 78 ; October, 74 ; November, 66 ; Decem- 
 ber, 61. A mean for twelve months of 71*92 Fahrenheit. 
 
 At Punta Rassa the mean of each of the twelve months 
 ending December 1873, was > J anuar y> 5^ » February, 61 ; 
 March, 69 ; April, 77 ; May, 82 ; June, 84 ; July, 85 ; 
 August, 82; September, 82; October, 71 ; November, 
 66 ; December, 63. 
 
 At Key West the mean of fourteen years ending 1870, 
 was, January, 66 ; February, 68 \ March, 72 •. April, 75 ; 
 May, 79, June, 81 ; July, 83; August, 82; September, 
 81 ; October, 78; November, 74; December, 71 ; or 
 for the twelvemonths 76*51 Fahrenheit. 
 
 At St. Augustine the mean of twenty years ending, 1870, 
 was, January, 57 ; February, 59 ; March, 63 ; April, 68 ; 
 May, 73 ; June, 79 ; July, 80 ; August, 80 ; September, 
 
Appendix. 315 
 
 78; October, 71 ; November, 64; December, 57; or 
 for the twelve months, 69*61 Fahrenheit. 
 
 The following list of birds includes those only which I 
 happened particularly to notice during our wanderings in 
 Florida, on account either of their great numbers, or the 
 beauty of their plumage or song. 
 
 Pelican. 
 
 Great white heron. 
 
 Florida blue heron. 
 
 Snowy heron. 
 
 Florida cormorant. 
 
 Bittern (or shy-pook). 
 
 Osprey (or fish-hawk). 
 
 Bald-headed eagle. 
 
 Golden eagle. 
 
 Turkey-buzzard (or vulture). 
 
 Mexican buzzard. 
 
 Wood-ibis. 
 
 White ibis. 
 
 Roseate spoonbill-ibis (or red curlew.) 
 
 Sandhill crane. 
 
 Common crane. 
 
 American flamingo. 
 
 Mallard (or English duck). 
 
 Wood-duck. 
 
 Teal. 
 
316 Wild Life in Florida. 
 
 Widgeon. 
 
 Snipe (English Snipe). 
 
 Solitary snipe. 
 
 Canvas-back duck. 
 
 Sand-piper. 
 
 Shoveler-duck. 
 
 Blue duck. 
 
 Wild Turkey. 
 
 Water-turkey (or snake-bird). 
 
 Limpkin for crying-bird). 
 
 Oyster-bird. 
 
 Loon (or great northern diver). 
 
 Rice-bird. 
 
 Blue-bird. 
 
 Red-bird. 
 
 Cardinal-bird. 
 
 Mocking-bird. 
 
 Doudle red-crested bird. 
 
 American grey kingfisher. 
 
 Whip-poor-Will. 
 
 Owl. 
 
 Green parroquet. 
 
 Golden woodpecker. 
 
 Ivory-bill woodpecker. 
 
 Green woodpecker. 
 
 Turtle-dove. 
 
Appendix. 317 
 
 Ground-dove. 
 Oriole. 
 Swallow. 
 Sparrow. 
 Robin. 
 Florida quail. 
 Sea-gull. 
 Blue Jay. 
 In the rivers, and estuaries, the Gulf of Mexico, Gulf 
 of Florida, and Inlets of the Atlantic, the following are the 
 principal fish we observed or caught. Those marked with 
 an asterisk are considered good to eat. 
 *Pompono. 
 ♦Mullet. 
 *Grouper. 
 * Sheep's-head. 
 *Grunter. 
 
 *Black bass (or trout). 
 *Perch. 
 *Bream. 
 *Jack. 
 *Shad. 
 
 Ten-pounders. 
 Shark. 
 *Eels. 
 Cow-fish. 
 
318 Wild Life in Florida 
 
 Porcupine-fish. 
 Drum-fish. 
 Saw-fish. 
 Sword-fish. 
 *Red-fish. 
 Devil-fish. 
 Cat-fish. 
 Electric-fish. 
 Tobacco-pipe-fish. 
 * Jew-fish. 
 *Angel-fish. 
 Sting-ray. 
 Whip-ray. 
 Porpoise. 
 Conch. 
 Oyster. 
 Coon-oyster. 
 Clam. 
 Sea-crab. 
 River-crab. 
 Purple land-crab. 
 Fidler-crab. 
 Molucca-crab. 
 Cray-fish. 
 Sea-egg. 
 Argonaut. 
 
Appendix. 319 
 
 Also green turtle, loggerhead-turtle, hawk's-bill turtle, 
 gopher or land-turtle, and terrapin. All considered excel- 
 lent eating in Florida. 
 
 Of poisonous reptiles, we came across large and ground 
 rattlesnakes, mocassin-snakes, scorpions, and centipedes. 
 
 Among non-poisonous reptiles were alligators and black 
 snakes. 
 
 Of the u Ferae Naturae," we met the following : — Black 
 bear, deer, opossum, otter, ocelot or cat, squirrel, wolf, 
 wild-boar, wild cattle, pole-cat, puma or panther, rabbit, 
 racoon. 
 
 The noxious insects, the greatest curse of the country, 
 were mosquitoes, sand-flies, horse-flies, hornet-flies, common 
 flies, fleas, ticks, tarantulas, ants, spiders, beetles, and 
 cockroaches. 
 
 Wasps, bees, and butterflies were also numerous, but 
 remarkably few of the latter were of any great beauty. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 London : Printed by A. Schulze, 13, Poland Street. 
 
MESSES. HURST & BLACKETT'S 
 
 4Mu Wrlkattans. 
 
13, GREAr Mahlborough Street. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 
 LIST OF NEW WORKS. 
 
 A BOOK ABOUT THE TABLE. By J. C. 
 
 Jeaffreson, Author of "A Book about Doctors," "Lawyers," 
 " The Clergy," &c. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. 
 Principal Contents: — Grace at Meals; Britons at Table; Antique Feasting; 
 Apician Precepts ; The Form of Oury; Culinary Colourists ; Death in the Pot 
 and Dish Covers; Mediaeval Menus; "Warners and Sv.b tie ties, Ancient and 
 Modern ; Carving and Carvers ; Forks and Napery ; Horn, Bell, and Gong ; 
 Manners and the Want of them ; Spits and Jacks ; Cruelties and Curiosities ; 
 Numbers at Table ; Soup ; Fish ; Joints and Steaks ; Pie and Pie Tart : Poultry ; 
 Goose ; Game; Bread and Vegetables ; The Salad : Eggs ; Dessert; Ordering of 
 Feasts ; Cook Shops and Club Houses ; The Folk Lore of Feeding ; Epicures ; 
 Political Gastronomy ; Cooks and their Natures ; Cookery Books. 
 
 WILD LIFE IN FLORIDA. By Captain F. T. 
 
 Townshend, 2nd Life Guards, Author of " Ten Thousand Miles of 
 Travel," &c. 8vo, with Map and Illustrations. 15s, 
 
 OUR BISHOPS AND DEANS. By the Rev. F 
 
 Arnold, B.A., late of Christ Church, Oxford. 2 vols. 8vo. 
 
 (In the Press.) 
 
 ON THE WING ; A Southern Flight. By the 
 
 Hon. Mrs. Alfred Montgomery. 1 vol. 8vo. (In the Press.) 
 
 VOLS. III. & IV. of the HISTORY OF TWO 
 
 QUEENS : CATHARINE OF ARAGON and ANNE BOLEYN. 
 By W. Hepworth Dixon. Second Edition. Demy 8vo. Price 30s. 
 Completing the Work. 
 
 " These concluding volumes of Mr. Dixon's ' History of two Queens ' will be per- 
 used with keen interest by thousands of readers. Whilst no less valuable to the 
 student, they will be far more enthralling to the general reader than the earlier 
 half of the history. Every page of what may be termed Anne Boleyn's story affords 
 a happy illustration of the author's vivid and picturesque style. The work should 
 be found in every library." — Post. 
 
 41 Mr. Dixon has pre-eminently the art of interesting his readers. He has pro- 
 duced a narrative of considerable value, conceived in a spirit of fairness, and 
 written with power and picturesque effect." — Daily News. 
 
 " Mr. Dixon has completed in these volumes the two stories which he has narrat- 
 ed with bo much grace and vigour. Better still, he has cast the light of truth upon 
 incidents that have not been seen under that light before. Full of romantic and 
 dramatic sentiment as the story of Catharine is, we think that the more absorbing 
 interest is concentrated in the story of Anne Boleyn. Never has it been told so 
 fully, so fairly, or so attractively." — Notes and Queries. 
 
 " This work throughout bears evidence of great research ; and in the hands of 
 a writer of Mr. Dixon's talents, a book on such a subject of course could not 
 fail to be interesting. He has availed himself of all the newest lights brought out 
 by the publications of the Master of the Rolls." — Athenwum. 
 
 "Mr. Dixon's book is written in a most charming style. Moreover, it is written 
 as all history should be written ; the precision of the annalist being combined with 
 the connexion and ease of the simple narrator." — Examiner. 
 
 " Mr. Dixon's work is a most effective sketch, framed with considerable dramatic 
 skill, of the leading incidents and secret springs of one of the most eventful epi- 
 sodes in English history." — The Graphic. 
 
13, Great Marlborough Street. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WORKS— Continued. 
 
 HISTORY OF TWO QUEENS: CATHARINE 
 
 OF ARAGON and ANNE BOLEYN. By W. Hepworth Dixon. 
 Second Edition. Vols. 1 & 2. Demy 8vo. 30s. Vols. 3 & 4, com- 
 pleting the Work, are also now ready. 
 
 "In two handsome volumes Mr. Dixon here gives us the first instalment of a 
 new historical work on a most attractive subject. The book is in many respects a 
 favourable specimen of Mr. Dixon's powers. It is the most painstaking and 
 
 elaborate that he has yet written On the whole, we may say that the book 
 
 is one which will sustain the reputation of its author as a writer of great power 
 and versatility, that it gives a new aspect to many an old subject, and presents in 
 a very striking light some of the most recent discoveries in English history."— 
 Athenaeum. 
 
 " In these volumes the author exhibits in a signal manner his special powers 
 and finest endowments. It is obvious that the historian has been at especial pains 
 to justify his reputation, to strengthen his hold upon the learned, and also to 
 extend his sway over the many who prize an attractive style and interesting narra- 
 tive more highly than laborious research and philosophic insight." — Morning Post. 
 
 " The thanks of all students of English history are due to Mr. Hepworth Dixon 
 for his clever and original work, ' History of two Queens.' The book is a valuable 
 contribution to English history. The author has consulted a number of original 
 sources of information — in particular the archives at Simancas, Alcala, and Venice. 
 Mr. Dixon is a skilful writer. His style, singularly vivid, graphic, and dramatic— 
 is alive with human and artistic interest. Some of the incidental descriptions 
 reach a very high level of picturesque power." — Daily News. 
 
 " Mr. Hepworth Dixon, in his new work, has chosen a theme at once intrinsi- 
 cally interesting and admirably fit for illustration by his practised and brilliant 
 pen. The lives of Catharine of Aragon and Anne Boleyn give ample scope to a 
 writer so clear and vivid in his descriptions, so lifelike in his portraiture, so de- 
 cided in his judgment, and whose sparkling vivacity of style can be shaded off, 
 when necessary, by such delicate touches of tenderness and pathos. For pleasant 
 reading and very effective writing we can warmly commend Mr. Dixon's volumes." 
 Daily Telegraph. 
 
 " Two fascinating volumes. It is a work of careful criticism and conscientious 
 investigation. "Standard. 
 
 WORDS OF HOPE AND COMFORT TO 
 
 THOSE IN SORROW. Dedicated by Permission to The Queen. 
 Second Edition. 1 vol. small 4to, 5s. bound. 
 
 "These letters, the work of a pure and devout spirit, deserve to find many 
 readers. They are greatly superior to the average of what is called religious 
 literature." — Athenaeum. 
 
 "The writer of the tenderly-conceived letters in this volume was Mrs. Julius 
 Hare, a sister of Mr. Maurice. They are instinct with the devout submissiveness 
 and fine sympathy which we associate with the name of Maurice ; but in her there 
 is added a winningness of tact, and sometimes, too, a directness of language, which 
 we hardly find even in the brother. The letters were privately printed and circu- 
 lated, and were found to be the source of much comfort, which they cannot fail 
 to afford now to a wide circle. A sweetly-conceived memorial poem, bearing 
 the well-known initials, 'E. H. P.', gives a very faithful outline of the life. "—British 
 Quarterly Review. 
 
 " This touching and most comforting work is dedicated to The Queen, who took 
 a gracious interest in its first appearance, when printed for private circulation, and 
 found comfort in its pages, and has now commanded its publication, that the 
 world in general may profit by it. A more practical and heart-stirring appeal to 
 the afflicted we have never examined." — Standard. 
 
 " These letters are exceptionally graceful and touching, and may ba read with 
 profit."— Graphic. 
 
13, Great Marlborough Street 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WORKS— Continued. 
 
 LIFE of the RT. HON. SPENCER PERCEVAL ; 
 
 Including His Correspondence. By His Grandson, Spencer "VVal- 
 pole. 2 vols. 8vo, with Portrait. 30s. 
 
 This work contains Letters from the King, the Prince Eegent, the Dukes of Cum- 
 berland, "Wellington, Portland, Richmond; Lords Liverpool, Grenville, Grey, 
 Loughborough, Spencer, "Wellesley, Lonsdale, Castlereagh ; Mr. Pitt, Mr. Adding- 
 ton, Mr. Canning, and other distinguished men. 
 
 " Mr. Walpole's work reflects credit not only on his industry in compiling an 
 important biography from authentic material, but also on his eloquence, power of 
 interpreting political change, and general literary address. The biography will take 
 rank in our literature, both as a faithful reflection of the statesman and his period, 
 as also for its philosophic, logical, and dramatic completeness." — Morning Post. 
 
 " In Mr. Perceval's biography his grandson has undoubtedly made a valuable 
 addition to our Parliamentary history. The book is full of interest." — Daily News. 
 
 1 "We thank Mr. "Walpole for a very valuable and interesting biography, and for 
 doing justice to the memory of one who has too long been without it." — Standard. 
 
 " A very useful, a very honest, and a very interesting political biography." — Pall 
 Mall Gazette. 
 
 " As a contribution to political and Parliamentary history Mr. Spencer "Walpole's 
 work possesses considerable value." — Saturday Review. 
 
 " "We have been extremely interested in Mr. Walpole's book. He has added no 
 little to our knowledge of the character of, and the springs of action in, the times 
 of which he writes. As a Life of Perceval, by his grandson, the work is as valuable 
 as it could be expected to be. As a contribution to history, we are justified in 
 according to it no inconsiderable praise." — Examiner 
 
 SPAIN AND THE SPANIARDS. By Azamat 
 
 Batuk. 2 vols, crown 8vo. 21s. 
 
 " Here is at last a book on Spain of the kind we have been asking for. Azamat 
 Batuk fills his pages with his personal experiences among the armed factions who 
 are contesting the government of the country, and describes the men who have 
 made themselves conspicuous. Altogether, his gallery of contemporary portraits 
 is alone sufficient to recommend his book." — Saturday Review. 
 
 " By the aid of this really entertaining book, the present state of the Northern 
 Provinces of Spain may be easily divined, and the Cosas de Espana of the moment 
 
 be brought before the mind's eye It would be too much to say that this is the 
 
 most interesting book upon Spain and the Spaniards that has appeared of late 
 years, but many may think so after reading it." — Athenseum. 
 
 "A highly interesting and amusing book. In this work Azamat Batuk has 
 made himself more enjoyable and readable than ever." — Examiner. 
 
 " Two clever and readable volumes. Any person who wants to know something 
 about Spanish parties and their prospects, about the probabilities of the present 
 civil war, or about the real inner life of the Spanish people, will do well to consult 
 Azamat Batuk. He is generally instructive, and always entertaining." — Scotsman. 
 
 THROUGH RUSSIA: From St. Petersburg to 
 
 ASTRAKHAN AND THE CRIMEA. By Mrs. Guthrie. 2 vols, 
 crown 8vo, with Illustrations. 21s. 
 
 "Mrs. Guthrie is a lively, observant, well-informed, and agreeable travelling 
 companion. Her book is interesting throughout." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 " No book of travel within our knowledge is pleasanter to read than ' Through 
 Russia.' It is fresh, bright, and comprehensive. Mrs. Guthrie gives us admir- 
 able descriptions of St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Astrakhan, and the voyages on 
 the Volga and the Don are full of incident, character, and observation." — Spectator. 
 
 " A pleasant book to read It contains a fair, and often very picturesque descrip- 
 tion of a part of Russia by no means familiar to tourists." — Saturday Review. 
 
 " The story of Mrs. Guthrie's ramble through Russsia is at once attractive in 
 itself, and likely to be of decided use to future travellers."— Graphic. 
 
13, Great Marlborough Street. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WORKS— Continued. 
 
 RECOLLECTIONS OF SOCIETY IN FRANCE 
 
 AND ENGLAND. By Lady Clementina Davtes. Second Edition. 
 2 vols. 21s. 
 Among numerous other distinguished persons referred to in this work are : — Louis 
 XVI, Marie Antoinette, Louis XVIII, the Duchesse D'Angouleme, Napoleon I, 
 the Empress Josephine, Queen Hortense, Charles X, Louis Philippe, the Duke 
 and Duchess de Berry, the Count de Chambord the Emperor Alexander, King 
 Frederic William, Prince Talleyrand, Prince Esterhazy, Blucher, Ney, Soult, 
 Fouche", the Polignacs, Talma, Napoleon III, the Empress Eugenie, the Due 
 de Morny, Count d'Orsay, Victor Hugo, George IV, Queen Caroline, Prince 
 Leopold, the Princess Charlotte, the Duke of York, the Duke of "Wellington, 
 Lord Byron, Sir Walter Scott, Sir H. Davy, Tom Moore, Mr. Barham, Mrs. Sid- 
 dons, the Kembles, Mrs. Jordan, Miss Stephens, Mile. Mars, Madame Catalani, 
 Mile. Uachel, the Countess Guiccioli, Lady Cork, Lady Blessington, &c. 
 " On proceeding to a conscientious examination of the contents, we found the 
 f amiliar and commonplace matter lightened and relieved by many lively touches of 
 description, many traits of character, many illustrative incidents, which may prove 
 helps to history, and might have been irretrievably lost had they not been marked 
 and recorded as they occurred. Lady Clementina Davies's opportunities were ex- 
 cellent, and the very traditions of her family are fraught with interest. Some of 
 her local and personal impressions are as graphic and distinct as if they had been 
 —so to speak — photographed on her memory." — The Times. 
 
 " Two charming volumes, full of the most interesting and entertaining matter, 
 and written in plain, elegant English. Lady Clementina Davies has seen much, 
 heard much, and remembered well. Her unique and brilliant recollections have the 
 interest of a romance, wherein no character is fictitious, no incident untrue."— Post. 
 
 FROM THE THAMES TO THE TAMAR: A 
 
 SUMMER ON THE SOUTH COAST. By the Rev. A. G. 
 L'Estrange. Second Edition. 8 vo, with Illustrations. 15s. 
 "Mr. L'Estrange's pages have not the least flavour of the guide-book ; they are 
 pleasant and interesting chapters of local history, relieved by cfear and unaffected 
 descriptions of scenery, plainly written, yet picturesque and sufficient" — Times. 
 
 "To all who visit the south coast this book will afford much useful and interest- 
 ing information." — Standard. 
 
 THE SWITZERS. By W. Hepworth Dixon. 
 
 Third Edition. 1 vol. demy 8vo. 15s. 
 
 " Turn where we will there is the same impassioned eloquence, the same lavish 
 wealth of metaphor, the same vigour of declamation, the same general glow upon 
 the pages. Switzerland may be hackneyed as a country, yet there is freshness in 
 Mr. Dixons subjects. Mr. Dixon throws a passing glance at the snow peaks and 
 glacier fields that are the Switzerland of the tourist. If he deals with the grand 
 catastrophes of nature, with avalanche, flood, and storm, it is in their relation 
 to the victims of the elements, for his topics are the people and their institutions. 
 We assent entirely to the parable of his preface." — Times. 
 
 " A lively, interesting, and altogether novel book on Switzerland. It is full of 
 valuable information on social, political, and ecclesiastical questions, and, like all 
 Mr. Dixon's books, it is eminently readable." — Daily News. 
 
 " We advise every one who cares for good literature to get a copy of this brilliant, 
 novel, and abundantly instructive account of the Switzers. The composition of the 
 book is in the very best style." — Morning Post. 
 
 " A work of real and abiding value."— Standard 
 
13, Great Marlborough Street. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WORKS— Continued. 
 
 MY RECOLLECTIONS, FROM 1806 to 1873. 
 
 By Lord William Pitt Lennox. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. 
 
 These volumes contain anecdotes and reminiscences of George IV., William IV. 
 Louis XVIIL, Prince Leopold, the Prince Consort, Prince Talleyrand, Napoleon 
 III., the Empress Eugenie, the Prince Imperial, the Duke of Wellington, the Mar- 
 quess of Anglesea, Lords Byron, Chesterfield, Brougham, Normanby, Q-. Bentinck, 
 Dalling ; Messrs. Pitt, Moore, Rogers, Hook, Barham, Dickens, Thackeray, Kean, 
 Matthews, Young, Talma, Mdlle. Mars, Madame Malibran, &c. 
 
 "Lord William Lennox's book is a very good specimen of the class to which it 
 belongs. In one way or another he has seen a great deal, and he records his ex- 
 periences so as to amuse and interest his readers." — Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
 " It is impossible to find a more efficient chronicler of men and manners than the 
 writer of these fascinating pages " — John Bull. 
 
 "A most entertaining work The author numbered among his friends and ac- 
 quaintance all ranks of society — sovereigns, peers, statesmen, authors, wits, actors, 
 and military men. He gives us some most delightful anecdotes and reminiscences." 
 —Court Journal. 
 
 LIFE OF MOSCHELES ; with Selections from 
 
 HIS DIARIES AND CORRESPONDENCE. By His Wife. 
 Adapted from the German by Arthur Duke Coleridge. 2 vols, 
 large post 8vo, with Portrait. 24s. 
 
 " This life of Moscheles will be a valuable book of reference for the musical his- 
 torian, for the contents extend over a period of threescore years., commencing with 
 1794, and ending at 1870. We need scarcely state that all the portions of Mosche- 
 les' diary which refer to his intercourse with Beethoven, Hummel, Weber, Czerny, 
 Spontini, Rossini, Auber, HalCvy, Schumann, Cherubini, Spohr, Mendelssohn, F. 
 David, Chopin, J B. Cramer. Clementi, John Field, Habeneck, Hauptmann, Kalk- 
 brenner. Kiesewetter, C. Klingemann, Lablache, Dragonetti, Sontag, Persiani, 
 Malibran, Paganini, Rachel, Ronzi de Begnis, De Beriot, Ernst, Donzelli, Cinti- 
 Damoreau, Chelard, Bochsa, Laporte, Charles Kemble, Paton (Mrs. Wood), 
 Schroder-Devrient, Mrs. Siddons, Sir H. Bishop, Sir G. Smart, Staudigl, Thalberg, 
 Berlioz, Velluti, C. Young, Balf e, Braham, and many other artists of note in their 
 time, will recall a flood of recollections. It was a delicate task for Madame Mos- 
 cheles to select from the diaries in reference to living persons, but her extracts have 
 been judiciously made. Moscheles writes fairly of what is called the ' Music of the 
 Future ' and its disciples, and his judgments on Herr Wagner, Dr. Liszt, Ruben- 
 stein, Dr. von Biilow, Litolff, &c, whether as composers or executants, are in a 
 liberal spirit. He recognizes cheerfully the talents of our native artists, Sir Stern- 
 dale Bennett, Mr. Macfarren, Madame Arabella Goddard, Mr. John Barnett, Mr. 
 Hullah, Mrs. Shaw, Mr. A. Sullivan, &c. The celebrities with whom Moscheles 
 came in contact, include Sir Walter Scott, Sir Robert Peel, the late Duke of Cam- 
 bridge, the Bunsens, Louis Philippe, Napoleon the Third, Humboldt, Henry Heine, 
 Thomas More, Count Nesselrode, the Duchess of Orleans, Prof. Wolf, &c. In- 
 deed, the two volumes are full of amusing anecdotes." — Athenoeum. 
 
 " The publication of these memoirs will give satisfaction to many of our readers. 
 The devotees of music in this country are both numerous and earnest. By this 
 class these volumes will be hailed with particular delight ; but they will be accept- 
 able also to a far wider circle — to all who enjoy a sonata at home or a symphony 
 in the concert-room. The scope of the work gives it this popular interest, apart 
 from the technical value it possess. It is as well ' a record of the life of Moscheles' 
 as 'a chronicle of the musical history of his time' — a period of sixty years." — Times. 
 
 " This work is full of interesting information and pleasant gossip about the 
 musical events of the last half-century. Moscheles kept; up to the day of his 
 death a diary, in which he recorded all his experiences, and his constant inter- 
 course with such men as Beethoven, Weber, Mendelssohn, and Schumann, enabled 
 him to collect a mass of facts and anecdotes which throw much valuable light on 
 recent musical history. The greater part of the diary was written in London, where 
 Moscheles settled in 1826; and he describes in a vivid and attractive style the vari- 
 ous incidents of his career in England, and the events which most interested 
 our musical public during that time. Of all Moscheles' recollections none are so 
 interesting as those of Mendelssohn."— Pall Mall Gazette. 
 
13, Great Marlborough Street. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WORKS— Continued. 
 
 VOLS. I. & II. OF HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. 
 
 By W. HEPWORTH DIXON. DEDICATED BY EXPRESS 
 
 PERMISSION TO THE QUEEN. Sixth Edition. 8vo. 30s. 
 
 Contents : — The Pile— Inner Ward and Outer Ward— The Wharf— Kiver Bights — 
 The White Tower — Charles of Oilear s — Uncle Gloucester— Prison Eules— Beau- 
 champ Tower— The good Lord Cobham— King and Cardinal— The Pilgrimage 
 of Grace— Madge Cheyne— Heirs to the Crown— The Nine Days' Queen— De- 
 throned — The Men of Kent — Courtney — No Cross no Crown — Cranmer, Lati- 
 mer, Kidley — White Boses — Princess Margaret — Plot and Counterplot — Mon- 
 sieur Charles — Bishop of Boss — Murder of Northumberland — Philip the Con- 
 fessor—Mass in the Tower— Sir Walter Baleigh — The Arabella Plot — 
 Ealeigh's Walk— The Villain Waad— The Garden House— The Brick Tower 
 —The Anglo-Spanish Plot — Factions at Court— Lord Grey of Wilton- 
 Old English Catholics— The English Jesuits— White Webbs— The Priests' Plot 
 —Wilton Courts-Last of a Noble Line— Powder-Plot Boom— Guy Fawkes — 
 Origin of the Plot— Vinegar House— Conspiracy at Large — The Jesuit's Move — 
 In London — November, 1605 — Hunted Down — In the Tower — Search for Gar- 
 net—End of the English Jesuits— The Catholic Lords— Harry Percy— The 
 Wizard Earl— A Beal Arabella Plot— William Seymour— The Escape— Pursuit 
 —Dead in the Tower— Lady Frances Howard— BobertCarr— Powder Poisoning 
 
 From: the Times: — "All the civilized world — English, Continental, and Ame- 
 rican — takes an interest in the Tower of London. The Tower is the stage 
 upon which has been enacted some of the grandest dramas and saddest tragedies 
 in our national annals. If, in imagination, we take our stand on those time-worn 
 walls, and let century after century flit past us, we shall see in duo succession the 
 majority of the most famous men and lovely women of England in the olden time. 
 We shall see them jesting, jousting, love-making, plotting, and then anon, per- 
 haps, commending their souls to God in the presence of a hideous masked figure, 
 bearing an axe in his hands. It is such pictures as these that Mr. Dixon, with 
 considerable skill as an historical limner, has set before us in these volumes. Mr. 
 Dixon dashes off the scenes of Tower history with great spirit His descriptions 
 are given with such terseness and vigour that we should spoil them by any attempt 
 at condensation. As favourable examples of his narrative powers we may call at- 
 tention to the story of the beautiful but unpopular Elinor, Queen of Henry III, and 
 the description of Anne Boleyn's first and second arrivals at the Tower. Then we 
 have the story of the bold Bishop of Durham, who escapes by the aid of a cord 
 hidden in a wine- jar; and the tale of Maud Fitzwalter, imprisoned and murdered 
 by the caitiff John. Passing onwards, we meet Charles of Orleans, the poetic 
 French Prince, captured at Agincourt, and detained for five-and-twenty years a 
 prisoner in the Tower. Next we encounter the baleful form of Bichard of Gloucester, 
 and are filled with indignation at the blackest of the black Tower deeds. As we 
 draw nearer to modern times, we have the sorrowful story of the Nine Days' 
 Queen, poor little Lady Jane Grey. The chapter entitled "No Cross, no Crown " 
 is one of the most affecting in the book. A mature man can scarcely read it with- 
 out feeling the tears ready to trickle from his eyes. No part of the first volume 
 yields in interest to the chapters which are devoted to the story of Sir Walter 
 Baleigh. The greater part of the second volume is occupied with the story of the 
 Gunpowder Plot. The narrative is extremely interesting, and will repay perusal. 
 Another cause celebre possessed of a perennial interest, is the murder of Sir Thomas 
 Overbury by Lord and Lady Somerset Mr. Dixon tells the tale skilfully. In con- 
 clusion, we may congratulate the author on this work. Both volumes are decided- 
 ly attractive, and throw much light on our national history." 
 
 "From first to last this work overflows with new information and original 
 thought, with poetry and picture. In these fascinating pages Mr. Dixon dis- 
 charges alternately the functions of the historian, and the historic biographer, with 
 the insight, art, humour and accurate knowledge which never fail him when he 
 undertakes to illumine the darksome recesses of our national story." — Morning Post. 
 
 "We earnestly recommend this remarkable work to those in quest of amuse- 
 ment and instruction, at once solid and refined.." — Daily Telegraph 
 
13, Great Marlborough Street. 
 
 MESSES. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WORKS— Continued. 
 
 VOLS. III. & IV. of HER MAJESTY'S TOWER. 
 
 By W. HEPWORTH DIXON. DEDICATED BY EXPRESS 
 PERMISSION TO THE QUEEN. Completing the Work. Third 
 Edition. Demy 8vo. 30s. 
 
 Ooktents :— A Favourite ; A Favourite's Friend ; The Countess of Suffolk ; To the 
 Tower ; Lady Catherine Manners ; House of Villiers ; Eevolution ; Fall of Lord 
 Bacon; A Spanish Match; Spaniolizing ; Henry De Vere; The Matter of Hol- 
 land ; Sea Affairs ; The Pirate War ; Port and Court ; A New Komanzo ; Move 
 and Counter-move ; Pirate and Prison ; In the Marshalsea ; The Spanish Olive ; 
 Prisons Opened; A Parliament; Digby, Earl of Bristol; Turn of Fortune; Eliot 
 Eloquent ; Felton's Knife ; An Assassin ; Nine Gentlemen in the Tower ; A 
 King's Kevenge ; Charles I. ; Pillars of State and Church ; End of Wentworth ; 
 Laud's Last Troubles ; The Lieutenant's House ; A Political Komance ; Phi- 
 losophy at Bay ; Fate of an Idealist ; Britannia ; Killing not Murder; A Second 
 Buckingham ; Roger, Earl of Castlemaine ; A Life of Plots ; The Two Penns ; 
 A Quaker's Cell ; Colonel Blood ; Crown Jewels , King and Colonel ; Rye House 
 Plot ; Murder ; A Patriot ; The Good Old Cause ; James, Duke of Monmouth ; 
 The Unjust Judge ; The Scottish Lords ; The Countess of Nithisdale ; Escaped, 
 Cause of the Pretender ; Reformers and Reform , Reform Riots ; Sir Francis 
 Burdett ; A Summons to the Tower ; Arthur Thistlewood ; A Cabinet Council ; 
 Cato Street ; Pursuit ; Last Prisoners in the Tower. 
 
 " Mr. Dixon's lively and accurate work" — Times. 
 
 " This book is thoroughly entertaining, well- written, and instructive." — Examiner. 
 
 " These volumes will place Mr. Dixon permanently on the roll of English authors 
 who have rendered their country a service, by his putting on record a truthful and 
 brilliant account of that most popular and instructive relic of antiquity. ' Her 
 Majesty's Tower ;' the annals of which, as related in these volumes, are by turns 
 exciting and amusing, while they never fail to interest. Our ancient stronghold 
 could have had no better historian than Mr. Dixon." — Post. 
 
 "By his merits of literary execution, his vivacious portraitures of historical 
 figures, his masterly powers of narrative and description, and the force and grace- 
 ful ease of his style, Mr. Dixon will keep his hold upon a multitude of readers." — 
 Illustrated News. 
 
 "These volumes are two galleries of richly painted portraits of the noblest 
 men and most brilliant women, besides others commemorated by English 
 history. The grand old Royal Keep, palace and prison by turns, is revivified in 
 these volumes, which close the narrative, extending from the era of Sir John Eliot, 
 who saw Raleigh die in Palace Yard, to that of Thistlewood, the last prisoner im- 
 mured in the Tower. Few works are given to us, in these days, so abundant in 
 originality and research as Mr. Dixon's." — Standard. 
 
 HISTORY OF WILLIAM PENN, Founder of 
 
 Pennsylvania. By W. Hepworth Dixon. A New Library Edition. 
 1 vol. demy 8vo, with Portrait. 12s. 
 
 " Mr. Dixon's 4 William Penn ' is, perhaps, the best of his books. He has now re- 
 vised and issued it with the addition of much fresh matter. It is now offered in a 
 sumptuous volume, matching with Mr. Dixon's recent books, to a new generation of 
 readers, who will thank Mr. Dixon for his interesting and instructive memoir of 
 one of the worthies of England" — Examiner. 
 
 " ' William Penn ' is a fine and noble work Eloquent, picturesque, and epigra- 
 matic in style, subtle and philosophical in insight, and moderate and accurate in 
 statement, it is a model of what a biography ought to be." — Sunday Times. 
 
 "The character of this great Christian Englishman, William Penn, a true hero 
 of moral and civil conquests, is one of the fairest in modern history, and may be 
 studied with profit by his countrymen of all ages. This biography of him now 
 finally put into shape as a standard work of its kind, is Mr. Dixon's most useful 
 production. Few books have a more genial and wholesome interest, or convey 
 more beneficial instruction. "—Illustrated News. 
 
13, Great Marlborough Street. 
 
 MESSRS. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WORKS— Continued. 
 
 CRISS-CROSS JOURNEYS. By Walter Thorn- 
 
 bury. 2 vols, crown 8vo. 21s. 
 
 "A lively, graphic, and interesting book." — Daily News. 
 
 "An interesting book. Very pleasant companions are Mr. Thornbury's two 
 volumes of travel, revealing as they do glimpses of the oldest and newest world, 
 enlivened with countless anecdotes and many personal adventures. The reader 
 will find Mr. Thornbury a fascinatiug raconteur." — Graphic. 
 
 "Mr. Thornbury is a shrewd and observant traveller. His descriptions arc 
 singularly life-like and truthful, and his humour is genuine. His journeys aro 
 excellent His descriptions of America are both truthful and valuable, and what 
 he says about Egypt and Russia is worth saying and well said." — Sunday Times. 
 
 BRIDES AND BRIDALS. By J. C. Jeaffreson, 
 
 B.A., Oxon. Second Edition. 2 vols. 8vo. 30s. 
 
 " In this book Mr. Jeaffreson appeals to an audience even larger than those 
 addressed in his books about Lawyers, Doctors, and the Clergy. His • Brides and 
 Bridals ' cannot fail to go straight to the heart of every woman in England. We 
 doubt not that these volumes will be carefully scanned by fair eyes of all ages and 
 conditions, and will afford no less amusement than instruction." — Athensemn. 
 
 THE LITERARY LIFE OF THE REV. WIL- 
 LIAM HARNESS, Vicar of All Saints, Knightsbridge, and Pre- 
 bendary of St. Paul's. By the Rev. A. G. L'Estrange. 8vo. 15s. 
 " The book is a pleasant book, and will be found excellent reading. All those 
 to whom the good name of Byron is dear, will read with an almost exquisite plea- 
 sure the testimony given by Harness." — Athenaeum. 
 
 LIFE AND LETTERS OF WILLIAM BEWICK, 
 
 THE ARTIST. Edited by Thomas Landseer, A.R.A. 2 vols. 
 
 " Bewick's fellow pupil and old friend, Mr. T. LandBeer, the famous engraver, 
 
 has put the materials before us together with much skill . The literary sketches 
 
 which Bewick made of Hazlitt, Haydon, Shelley, Keats, Scott, Hogg, Jeffrey, 
 
 Maturin, and others, are extremely bright, apt, and clear." — Athenaeum. 
 
 THE LION AND THE ELEPHANT. By the 
 
 late C. J. Andersson, Autbor of " Lake Ngami," &c. Edited by 
 L. Lloyd, autbor of " Field Sports of tbe Nortb," &c. 8vo. 
 Witb Illustrations. 15s. 
 
 u This handsome volume contains a most graphic account of the adventures of 
 Mr. Andersson, from papers which he left behind him, and which have been most 
 ably edited by Mr. Lloyd. The favourite pursuit of the deceased traveller was 
 the chase of the lion, and he gives us most minute particulars of the habits and 
 customs of the royal beast. The portion of the work anent elephants is of equal 
 interest. All fond of tales of adventure and daring should procure this capital 
 book." — John Bull. 
 
 " This book is pleasant reading. It gives much valuable information, and many 
 excellent stories about these interesting animals." — Examiner. 
 
 " Interesting to the general reader, this attractive book will be found especially 
 worthy of the attention of naturalists and sportsmen." — Standard. 
 
 " An attractive and exciting volume, full of adventures and hair-breadth escapes, 
 and which will be read with interest and delight" — Graphic. 
 
 MODERN TURKEY. By J. Lewis Farlet, 
 
 Consul of tbe Sublime Porte at Bristol. Second Edition. 1 vol. 14s. 
 " Mr. Farley has a good deal of interesting information to communicate in regard 
 to the resources of modern Turkey ; and we may add that he puts it briefly, clearlv 
 and in an agreeable style."— Saturday Review 
 
13, Great Marlborough Street. 
 
 MESSES. HURST AND BLACKETT'S 
 NEW WOEKS— Continued. 
 
 TO AND FROM CONSTANTINOPLE. By 
 
 Hubert E. H. Jerningham. 8vo, with Illustrations. 15s. 
 
 u Mr. Jerningham has filled a very agreeable volume with the tale of his excur- 
 sions during the last three years among scenes of classic or Oriental interest His 
 style is lively, clear, and picturesque." — Saturday Review. 
 
 "Mr. Jerningham's work includes trips from Brindisi to Athens, to Corinth by 
 Nauplia, and Mycense, to Mount Athos, to Cyzicus, Broussa, Nicomedia, and 
 Niceea, besides chapters upon Constantinople and its environs. While the most 
 interesting parts of the work to a general reader are the descriptions of the 
 people, the author gives a mass'of notices as to the antiquities and interesting 
 sites of the localities he visits." — Standard. 
 
 THE LUSHAI EXPEDITION. 1871-72. By R. 
 
 G.Woodthorpe, Lieut. R.E. 1 vol. demy 8vo, with Illustrations. 15s. 
 
 " Lieut. "Woodthorpe's account of the Lushai Expedition is important as well as 
 interesting. The writer excels in description, and is very pleasing in his geogra- 
 phical and scenic sketches." — Post. 
 
 FREE RUSSIA. By W. Hepworth Dixon. Third 
 
 Edition 2 vols. 8vo, with Coloured Illustrations. 30s. 
 
 "Mr. Dixon's book will be certain not only to interest but to please its readers 
 and it deserves to do so. It contains a great deal that is worthy of attention, and 
 is likely to produce a very useful effect The ignorance of the English people 
 with respect to Bussia has long been so dense that we cannot avoid being grateful 
 to a writer who has taken the trouble to make personal acquaintance with that 
 seldom-visited land, and to bring before the eyes of his countrymen a picture of 
 its scenery and its people, which is so novel and interesting that it can scarcely 
 fail to arrest their attention." — Saturday Review. 
 
 TURKISH HAREMS & CIRCASSIAN HOMES. 
 
 By Mrs. Harvey, of Ickwell Bury. 8vo. Second Edition. 15s. 
 " Mrs. Harvey not only saw a great deal, but saw all that she did see to the 
 best advantage. In noticing the intrinsic interest of Mrs. Harvey's book, we must 
 not forget to say a word for her ability as a writer."— Times. 
 
 MEMOIRS OF QUEEN HORTENSE, MOTHER 
 
 OF NAPOLEON III. Cheaper Edition, in 1 vol. 6s. 
 " A biography of the beautiful and unhappy Queen, more satisfactory than any we 
 have yet met with." — Daily News. 
 
 THE CITIES OF THE NATIONS FELL. By 
 
 the Rev. John Cumming, D.D. Second Edition. 1 vol. 6s. 
 " The work before us contains much historical information of interest and value. 
 We must applaud here, as we applauded in his treatise on The Seventh Vial, the 
 skill and diligence of the author in the vast and careful selection of facts, both phy- 
 sical and moral, the interest of each when taken singly, and the striking picture of 
 the whole when presented collectively to the view."— Record. 
 
 THE EXILES AT ST. GERMAINS. By the 
 
 Author of " The Ladye Shakerley." 1 vol. 7s. 6d. bound. 
 
 " The whole narrative is picturesque, graphic, and entertaining, as well as moral 
 and pathetic."— Morning Post. 
 
 " ' The Exiles at St. Germains ' is an excellent attempt to depict the life of the 
 latter Stuarts while they lived under the protection of the Lilies of France. The 
 author is that skilled penwoman who wrote ' The Ladye Shakerley,' and she has 
 seized fully the spirit of the Stuart age. ' The Exiles at St. Germains ' will 
 every whit as popular as 'The Ladye Shakerley.' "—Standara. 
 
THE NEW AND POPULAR NOVELS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HURST & BLACKETT. 
 
 MY STORY. By Katharine S. Macquoid, Author 
 
 of " Patty," &c. 3 vols. 
 
 THE ITALIANS. By Frances Elliot, Author of 
 
 " The Diary of an Idle Woman in Italy," &c. 3 vols. (In the Press.) 
 
 THE BLOSSOMING OF AN ALOE; and THE 
 
 QUEEN'S TOKEN. By Mrs. Cashel Hoey, Author of " Out of 
 Court," &c. 3 vols. 
 
 OUR DETACHMENT. By Katharine King, author 
 
 of " The Queen of the Regiment," &c. 3 vols. (In Dec.) 
 
 LIZZIE. By Lady Duffus-Hardy. 3 vols. 
 
 " 'Lizzie' is a charming and interesting story, replete with taste, judgment, and 
 spirit The theme of woman's love is worked out with thrilling and enchaining 
 power." — Court Journal. 
 
 HOPE MEREDITH. By the Author of « St.Olave's/' 
 
 " Janita's Cross," " The Blue Ribbon," &c. 3 vols. 
 " A powerful and interesting story." — Morning Post. 
 
 " This interesting novel will afford its readers much entertainment and amuse- 
 ment" — Messenger. 
 " ' Hope Meredith ' has decided merit It is a very readable tale." — Graphic. 
 
 DARKNESS AND DAWN. A Russian Tale. By 
 
 Annie Grant. Dedicated, by permission, to the Duchess of Edin- 
 burgh. 2 vols. 21s. 
 
 " There is much in this book to interest and excite besides the descriptions of 
 Russian people and scenery, which form the groundwork of the romance." — 
 Athenxum. 
 
 " A graceful and pleasantly told story. The glimpses of Eussian manners and 
 eustoms are decidedly Interesting.' 1 — Morning Post. 
 
 QUEENIE. 3 vols. 
 
 " This novel is a bright and charming one, possessing much pathos and deep 
 feeling. There is a decided originality and piquancy about the story. The style is 
 fresh, and the book bids fair to become a favourite." — Morning Post. 
 
 SAFELY MARRIED. By the Author of " Caste." 
 
 2 vols. 21s. 
 
 " The reader will experience rare pleasure in the perusal of this interesting and 
 original novel." — Morning Post. 
 
 " • Safely Married' is decidedly above the average of excellence, and very well 
 worth reading. The story is wrought out with great cleverness."— Graphic 
 
 FRANCES. By Mortimer Collins. 3 vols. 
 
 "'Frances' is decidedly interesting; the style is crisp and racy, keeping the 
 reader pleased as well as amused throughout. Under all the fun and frolic of the 
 story there is evidence of a good deal of reading and refined taste. Frances is a 
 • lovely lady,' and should hold her own on Mr. Mudie's shelves against all comers." 
 Times. 
 
 10 
 
THE NEAV AND POPULAR NOVELS. 
 
 PUBLISHED BY HURST & BLACKETT. 
 
 A KOSE IN JUNE. By Mrs. Oliphant, Author 
 
 of " Chronicles of Carlingford," " May," &c. 2 vols. 21s. 
 
 " ' A KoBe in June ' is as pretty as its title. The story is one of the hest and 
 most touching which we owe to the industry and talent of Mrs. Oliphant, and in 
 its slender grace and playful satire may hold its own with even ' The Chronicles of 
 Carlingford.' " — Times. 
 
 " In ' A Rose in June ' Mrs. Oliphant is at her very best again . The book is full 
 of character, drawn with the most delicate of touches." — Athenseum. 
 
 " One of the most exquisite stories Mrs. Oliphant has yet written. It is an ad- 
 mirable work." — Examiner. 
 
 MARIAN'S TRUST. By the Author of "Ursula's 
 
 Love Story." 3 vols. 
 " The interest must not be marred by premature disclosures, though there is 
 much in ' Marian's Trust ' to make it good reading apart from the thread of the 
 Btory."— Times. 
 
 ROUGH HEWN. By Mrs. Day, Author of " From 
 
 Birth to Bridal," &c. 3 vols. 
 "There ia no lack of incident in 'Rough Hewn' Mrs. Day has succeeded in 
 ■ome original and bold sketches." — Times. 
 
 SYLVIA'S CHOICE. By GeorgianaM. Craik. 2 v. 
 
 "• Sylvia's Choice* is a gentle, pretty story, written throughout with the 
 thoroughly honest and good feeling which has made Miss Craik so popular with a 
 large claBS of the novel constituency.." — Times. 
 
 " This story is brightly and freshly told, and contains many graceful pictures of 
 home life and affection. Sylvia herself is very charming." — Standard. 
 
 WON AT LAST. By Lady Chatterton. 3 vols. 
 
 " A really good novel. Lady Chatterton always writes well. l "Won at Last ' is 
 a thrilling story, and the powers of the authoress were never more apparent."— 
 John Bull. 
 
 SPELL-BOUND. By Alice King, Author of 
 
 " Queen of Herself," &c. 3 vols. 
 " A decidedly clever and original novel, well and charmingly told, the interest 
 being unfiaggingly sustained." — Post. 
 
 OUT OF COURT. By Mrs. CashelHoey. 3 vols. 
 
 •* ' Out of Court ' is a fresh and lively story— far and away the best novel Mrs. 
 Hoey has written. The interest is kept up from the first page to the last" — Times'. 
 
 FOR LOVE AND LIFE. By Mrs. Oliphant. 3 v. 
 
 " ' Tor Love and Life ' is equal in all respects to the reputation of its writer. It 
 will be read with delight."— John Bull. 
 
 GENTIANELLA. By Mrs. Randolph. 3 vols. 
 
 " A thoroughly entertaining and healthy romance, spirited in style, pleasing in 
 tone, and tender in sentiment." — Post. 
 
 SECOND-COUSIN SARAH. By F. W. Robinson, 
 
 Author of "Grandmother's Money," "No Church," &c. 3 vols. 
 " A book which it is impossible to lay aside. The writer exercises a marvellous 
 fascination over the reader."— John Bull. 
 
 11 
 
Published annually, in One Vol., royal 8yo, with the Arms beautifully 
 engraved, handsomely bound, with gilt edges, price 31s. 6d. 
 
 LODGE'S PEERAGE 
 
 AND BARONETAGE, 
 
 CORRECTED BY THE NOBILITY. 
 
 THE FORTY-THIRD EDITION FOB 1 874 IS NOW READY. 
 
 Lodge's Peerage and Baronetage is acknowledged to be the most 
 complete, as well as the most elegant, work of the kind. As an esta- 
 blished and authentic authority on all questions respecting the family 
 histories, honours, and connections of the titled aristocracy, no work has 
 ever stood so high. It is published under the especial patronage of Her 
 Majesty, and is annually corrected throughout, from the personal com- 
 munications of the Nobility. It is the only work of its class in which, the 
 type being kept constantly standing, every correction is made in its proper 
 place to the date of publication, an advantage which gives it supremacy 
 over all its competitors. Independently of its full and authentic informa- 
 tion respecting the existing Peers and Baronets of the realm, the most 
 sedulous attention is given in its pages to the collateral branches of the 
 various noble families, and the names of many thousand individuals are 
 introduced, which do not appear in other records of the titled classes. For 
 its authority, correctness, and facility of arrangement, and the beauty of 
 its typography and binding, the work is justly entitled to the place it 
 occupies on the tables of Her Majesty and the Nobility. 
 
 LIST OF THE PRINCIPAL CONTENTS. 
 
 Historical View of the Peerage. 
 
 Parliamentary Boll of the House of Lords. 
 
 English, Scotch, and Irish Peers, in their 
 orders of Precedence. 
 
 Alphabetical List of Peers of Great Britain 
 and the United Kingdom, holding supe- 
 rior rank in the Scotch or Irish Peerage. 
 
 Alphabetical list of Scotch and Irish Peers, 
 holding superior titles in the Peerage of 
 Great Britain and the United Kingdom. 
 
 A Collective list of Peers, in their order of 
 Precedence. 
 
 Table of Precedency among Men. 
 
 Table of Precedency among Women. 
 
 The Queen and the Boyal Family. 
 
 Peers of the Blood KoyaL 
 
 The Peerage, alphabetically arranged. 
 
 Families of such Extinct Peers as have left 
 Widows or Issue. 
 
 Alphabetical List of the Surnames of all the 
 Peers. 
 
 The Archbishops and Bishops of England, 
 Ireland, and the Colonies. 
 
 The Baronetage alphabetically arranged. 
 
 Alphabetical List of Surnames assumed by 
 members of Noble Families. 
 
 Alphabetical List of the Second Titles of 
 Peers, usually borne by their Eldest 
 Sons. 
 
 Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of 
 Dukes, Marquises, and Earls, who, hav- 
 ing married Commoners, retain the title 
 of Lady before their own Christian and 
 their Husband's Surnames. 
 
 Alphabetical Index to the Daughters of 
 Viscounts and Barons, who, having 
 married Commoners, are styled Honour- 
 able Mrs. ; and, in case of the husband 
 being a Baronet or Knight, Honourable 
 Lady. 
 
 Mottoes alphabetically arranged and trans- 
 lated. 
 
 "A work which corrects all errors of formerworks. It is a most useful publication. 
 We are happy to bear testimony to the fact that scrupulous accuracy is a distinguish- 
 ing feature of this book." — Times. 
 
 "Lodge's Peerage must supersede all other works of the kind, for two reasons: first, it 
 is on a better plan ; and secondly, it is better executed. We can safely pronounce it to be 
 the readiest, the most useful, and exactest of modern works on the subject." — Spectator. 
 
 "A work of great value. It is the most faithful record we possess of the aristo- 
 cracy of the day." — Post. 
 
 " The best existing, and, we believe, the best possible Peerage. It is the standard 
 authority on the subject." — Standard. 
 
 12 
 
HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 OF CHEAP EDITIONS OF 
 
 POPULAR MODERN WORKS, 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BY SIR J. GILBERT, MILLAIS, HOLMAN HUNT, LEECH, 
 BIRKET FOSTER, TENNIEL, SANDYS, E. HUGHES, SAMBOURNE, &C. 
 
 Each in a Single Volnme, elegantly printed, bonnd, and illustrated, price 5s. 
 
 I.— SAM SLICK'S NATURE AND HUMAN NATURE. 
 
 "The first volume of Messrs. Hurst and Blackett's Standard Library of Cheap Editions 
 forms a very good beginning to what will doubtless be a very successful uudertaking. 
 ' Nature and Human Nature ' is one of the best of Sam Slick's witty and humorous 
 productions, and is well entitled to the large circulation which it cannot fail to obtain 
 in its present convenient and cheap shape. The volume combines with the great recom- 
 mendations of a clear, bold type, and good paper, the lesser but attractive merits of 
 being well illustrated and elegantly bound."— Post. 
 
 II.— JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN. 
 
 " This is a very good and a very interesting work. It is designed to trace the career 
 from boyhood to age of a perfect man — a Christian gentleman; and it abounds in inci- 
 dent both well and highly wrought Throughout it is conceived in a high spirit, and 
 written with great ability. This cheap and handsome new edition is worthy to pass 
 freely from hand to hand as a gift book in many households." — Examiner. 
 
 HI.— THE CRESCENT AND THE CROSS. 
 
 BY ELIOT WARBURTON. 
 
 44 Independent of its value as an original narrative, and its useful and interesting 
 information, this work is remarkable for the colouring power and play of fancy with 
 which its descriptions are enlivened. Among its greatest and most lasting charms is 
 its reverent and serious spirit"— Quarterly Review. 
 
 IV.— NATHALIE. By JULIA KAVANAGH. 
 
 " ' Nathalie ' is Miss Kavanagh's best imaginative effort. Its manner is gracious and 
 attractive. Its matter is good. A sentiment, a tenderness, are commanded by her 
 which are as individual as they are elegant." — Athenxum. 
 
 V.— A WOMAN'S THOUGHTS ABOUT WOMEN. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 44 A book of sound counsel. It is one of the most sensible works of its kind, well- 
 written, true-hearted, and altogether practical. "Whoever wishes to give advice to a 
 young lady may thank the author for means of doing so." — Examiner. 
 
 VI.— ADAM GRAEME. By MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 
 "A story awakening genuine emotions of interest and delight by its admirable pic- 
 tures of Scottish life and scenery. The author sets before us the essential attributes of 
 Christian virtue, with a delicacy, power, and truth which can hardly be surpassed. "-Post. 
 
 VH.— SAM SLICK'S WISE SAWS AND MODERN 
 INSTANCES. 
 
 44 The reputation of this book will stand as long as that of Scott's or Bulwer's Novels. 
 Its remarkable originality and happy descriptions of American life still continue the 
 subject of universal admiration." — Messenger. 
 
 Vin.— CARDINAL WISEMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS OF 
 THE LAST FOUR POPES. 
 
 44 A picturesque book on Rome and its ecclesiastical sovereigns, by an eloquent Roman 
 Catholic. Cardinal Wiseman has treated a special subject with so much geniality, that 
 his recollections will excite no ill-feeling in those who are most conscientiously opposed 
 to every idea of human infallibility represented in Papal domination."— Athenseum. 
 
 13 
 
HUKST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 (CONTINUED.) 
 
 IX.— A LIFE FOR A LIFE. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 "In 'A Life for a Life ' the author is fortunate in a good subject, and has produced a 
 work of strong effect" — Athenieum. 
 
 X.— THE OLD COURT SUBURB. By LEIGH HUNT. 
 
 "A delightful book, that will be welcome to all readers, and most welcome to those 
 who have a love for the best kinds of reading." — Examiner. 
 
 "A more agreeable and entertaining book has not been published since Boswell pro- 
 duced his reminiscences of Johnson."— Observer. 
 
 XI.— MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS. 
 
 " We recommend all who are in search of a fascinating novel to read this work for 
 themselves. They will find it well worth their while. There are a freshness and ori- 
 ginality about it quite charming." — Athenaeum. 
 
 XII.— THE OLD JUDGE. By SAM SLICK. 
 
 " The publications included in this Library have all been of good quality ; many give 
 information while they entertain, and of that class the book before us is a specimen. 
 The manner in which the Cheap Editions forming the series is produced, deserves 
 especial mention The paper and print are unexceptionable ; there is a steel engraving 
 in each volume, and the outsides of them will satisfy the purchaser who likes to see 
 books in handsome uniform." — Examiner. 
 
 XIII.— DARIEN. By ELIOT WARBURTON. 
 
 " This last production of the author of ' The Crescent and the Cross ' has the same 
 elements of a very wide popularity. It will please its thousands." — Globe. 
 
 XIV.— FAMILY ROMANCE ; OR, DOMESTIC ANNALS 
 OF THE ARISTOCRACY. 
 
 BY SIR BERNARD BURKE, ULSTER KING OF ARMS. 
 
 " It were impossible to praise too highly this most interesting book It ought to be 
 found on every drawing-room table." — Standard. 
 
 XV.— THE LAIRD OF NORLAW. By MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 
 " The ' Laird of Norlaw ' fully sustains the author's high reputation." — Sunday Times. 
 
 XVI.— THE ENGLISHWOMAN IN ITALY. 
 
 " We can praise Mrs. Gretton's book as interesting, unexaggerated, and full of oppor- 
 tune instruction" — Times. 
 
 XVII.— NOTHING NEW. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 41 ' Nothing New ' displays all those superior merits which have made ' John Halifax 
 one of the most popular works of the day." — Post. 
 
 XVIIL— FREER'S LIFE OF JEANNE D'ALBRET. 
 
 "Nothing can be more interesting than Miss Freer's story of the life of Jeanne 
 D'Albret, and the narrative is as trustworthy as it is attractive." — Post. 
 
 XIX.— THE VALLEY OF A HUNDRED FIRES. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "MARGARET AND HER BRIDESMAIDS." 
 
 "If asked to classify this work, we should give it a place between 'John Halifax 'and 
 'The Caxtons.' " — Standard. 
 
 XX.— THE ROMANCE OF THE FORUM. 
 
 BY PETER BURKE, SERGEANT AT LAW. 
 " A work of singular interest, which can never fail to charm. The present cheap and 
 elegant edition includes the true story of the Colleen ^3^^— Illustrated News. 
 
 14 
 
HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 XXL— ADELE. By JULIA KAVANAGH. 
 
 " ' Adele ' is the best work we have read by Miss Kavanagh ; it is a charming story 
 full of delicate character-painting." — Athenaeum. 
 
 XXII.— STUDIES FROM LIFE. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OP " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 "These ' Studies from Life ' are remarkable for graphic power and observation The 
 book will not diminish the reputation of the accomplished author." — Saturday Review. 
 
 XXIII.— GRANDMOTHER'S MONEY. 
 
 " We commend ■ Grandmother's Money ' to readers in search of a good novel. The 
 characters are true to human nature, and the story is interesting." — Athenxum. 
 
 XXIV.— A BOOK ABOUT DOCTORS. 
 
 BY J. C. JEAFFRESON. 
 
 "A delightful book" — Athenxum. "A book to be read and re-read; fit for the study 
 &8 well as the drawing-room table and the circulating library." — Lancet. 
 
 XXV.— NO CHURCH. 
 
 " We advise all who have the opportunity to read this book." — Athenxum. 
 
 XXVI.— MISTRESS AND MAID. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 " A good wholesome book, gracefully written, and as pleasant to read as it is instruc- 
 tive." — Athenceum. " A charming tale charmingly told." — Standard. 
 
 XXVII.— LOST AND SAVED. By HON. MRS. NORTON. 
 
 " ' Lost and Saved ' will be read with eager interest It is a vigorous novel"— Times. 
 "A novel of rare excellence. It is Mrs. Norton's best prose work" — Examiner. 
 
 XXVIII.— LES MISERABLES. By VICTOR HUGO. 
 
 AUTHORISED COPYRIGHT ENGLISH TRANSLATION. 
 
 " The merits of ' Les Miserables ' do not merely consist in the conception of it as a 
 whole ; it abounds with details of unequalled beauty. MVictor Hugo has stamped upon 
 every page the hall-mark of genius." — Quarterly Review. 
 
 XXIX.— BARBARA'S HISTORY. 
 
 BY AMELIA B. EDWARDS. 
 
 " It is not often that we light upon a novel of so much merit and interest as 4 Barbara's 
 History.' It is a work conspicuous for taste and literary culture. It is a very graceful 
 and charming book with a well-managed story, clearly-cut characters, and sentiments 
 expressed with an exquisite elocution It is a book which the world will like." — Times. 
 
 XXX.— LIFE OF THE REV. EDWARD IRVING. 
 
 BY MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 
 "A good book on a most interesting theme." — Times. 
 
 " A truly interesting and most affecting memoir. Irving's Life ought to have a niche 
 In every gallery of religious biography. There are few lives thai will be fuller of in- 
 struction, interest, and consolation." — Saturday Review. 
 
 XXXI.— ST. OLAVE'S. 
 
 " This charming novel is the work of one who possesses a great talent for writing, as 
 well as experience and knowledge of the world. ' — Athenaeum. 
 
 XXXIL— SAM SLICK'S AMERICAN HUMOUR. 
 
 " Dip where you will into this lottery of fun, you are sure to draw out a prize." — Post. 
 
 XXXIII.— CHRISTIAN'S MISTAKE. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 " A more charming story has rarely been written Even if tried by the standard of 
 the Archbishop of York, we should expect that even he would pronounce ' Christian's 
 Mistake ' a novel without a fault" — Times. 
 
 15 
 
HURST & BLACKETT'S STANDARD LIBRARY 
 
 XXXIV.— ALEC FORBES OF HOWGLEN. 
 
 BY GEORGE MAC DONALD, LL.D. 
 
 " No account of this story would give any idea of the profound interest that pervades 
 the work from the first page to the last" — Athenceum. 
 
 XXXV.— AGNES. By MRS. OLIPHANT. 
 
 " ' Agnes ' is a novel superior to any of Mrs. Oliphant's former works." — Athenceum. 
 " A story whose pathetic beauty will appeal irresistibly to all readers." — Post. 
 
 XXXVI.— A NOBLE LIFE. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 " This is one of those pleasant tales in which the author of ' John Halifax ' speaks 
 out of a generous heart the purest truths of life." — Examiner. 
 
 XXXVII.— NEW AMERICA. By HEPWORTH DIXON. 
 
 " A very interesting book. Mr. Dixon has written thoughtfully and well." — Times. 
 Mr. Dixon's very entertaining and instructive work on New America." — Pall Mall Gaz. 
 " We recommend every one who feels any interest in human nature to read Mt 
 Dixon's very interesting book." — Saturday Review. 
 
 XXXVIII.— ROBERT FALCONER. 
 
 BY GEORGE MAO DONALD, LL.D. 
 " ' Robert Falconer ' is a work brimful of life and humour and of the deepest human 
 interest. It is a book to be returned to again and again for the deep and searching 
 knowledge it evinces of human thoughts and feelings." — Athenceum. 
 
 XXXIX.— THE WOMAN'S KINGDOM. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF "JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 " ' The Woman's Kingdom ' sustains the author's reputation as a writer of the 
 purest and noblest kind of domestic stories. — Athenaeum. 
 
 XL.— ANNALS OF AN EVENTFUL LIFE. 
 
 BY GEORGE WEBBE DASENT, D.C.L. 
 
 "A racy, well- written, and original novel. The interest never flags. The whole 
 work sparkles with wit and humour." — Quarterly Review. 
 
 XLL— DAVID ELGINBROD. 
 
 BY GEORGE MAC DONALD, LL.D. 
 " A novel which is the work of a man of true genius. It will attract the highest 
 class of readers." — Times. 
 
 XLIL— A BRAVE LADY. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 " A very good novel ; a thoughtful, well- written book, showing a tender sympathy 
 with human nature, and permeated by a pure and noble spirit" — Examiner. 
 
 XLIII. -HANNAH. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 "A powerful novel of social and domestic life. One of the most successful efforts of 
 a successful novelist" — Daily News. 
 
 ' A very pleasant healthy story, well and artistically told. The book is sure of a 
 wide circle of readers. The character of Hannah is one of rare beauty." — Standard. 
 
 XLIV.— SAM SLICK'S AMERICANS AT HOME. 
 
 "This is one of the most amusing books that we ever read" — Standard 
 
 XLV.— THE UNKIND WORD. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF " JOHN HALIFAX, GENTLEMAN." 
 
 "The author of 'John Halifax' has written many fascinating stories, but we can 
 call to mind nothing from her pen that has a more enduring charm than the graceful 
 sketches in this work. Such a character as Jessie stands out from a crowd of heroines 
 as the type of all that is truly noble, pure, and womanly."— United Service Magazine. 
 
 16 
 
RETURN TO the circulation desk of any 
 University of California Library 
 
 or to the 
 
 NORTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 University of California 
 
 Richmond Field Station, Bldg. 400 
 
 1301 South 46th Street 
 
 Richmond, CA 94804-4698 
 
 ALL BOOKS MAY BE RECALLED AFTER 7 DAYS 
 
 To renew or recharge your library materials, you may 
 
 contact NRLF 4 days prior to due date at (510) 642-6233 
 
 DUE AS STAMPED BELOW 
 
 MAR 2 9 200B 
 
 DD20 12M 7-06 
 
w^^m 
 
 ■■•■■■ : ■