THlE MAGNOLIA. PALM, AND WILD ORANGE. 
A
WINTER
IN
FLORIDA;
OR,
OBSERVATIONS ON THE SOIL, CLIMIATE, AND PRODUCTS OF OUR
SEMiI-TROPICALI STATE; WITII SKETCHES OF THE PRIN    CIPAL TOWNS AND CITIES IN EASTERN FLORIDA.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
A BRIEF HISTORICAL SUMMARY;
TOGETtIER WITH
HINTS TO THE TOURIST, INVALID, AND SPORTSMAN.
BY LEDYARD BIIL.
ILLUSTRATED.
SECOND EDITION.
NEW YORK:
PUBLISHED BY WOOD & HOLBROOK,
13 & 15 LAIGHT STREET.
1869.
P7'O tt,, 
Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
LEDYARD BILL,
In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the
Southern District of New York.
BOSTON:
PAND, AVERY, & FRYE, STEREOTYPERS AND PRINTERS,
NO. 3, CORNHILL. 
0
THIS YOLUME
IS CORDIALLY INSCRIBED
T.
BY.:L. A.,
BY THE AUTHOR. 
0 
PREFAOCE.
THE tour of which this volume is the
record was an unforeseen one, the sudden
illness of a friend having been the occasion
of our visit to Florida.
Diligent inquiry brought to light no
work on the State, whereby we might be
guided. Beyond several historical summaries, given the public a quarter of a century
since, there was absolutely nothing worthy
of mention; and even these were valueless
except to the historical student, anxious
only to know its colonial history and
status up to the period of its acquisition 
PREFACE.
by the United States. To in some measure
supply this deficiency has been the object
of our labors.
Florida is the oldest settled portion of
the Union, notwithstanding which it is the
most of a wilderness. Especially is this true
of the eastern half, which was the portion
visited by us, and to which we have in the
main confined ourselves.
The history of the State is renowned,
from its first settlement to its annexation,
for its many battles and conquests, in which
the victors of to-day were among the vanquished on the morrow; and thus its masters alternated for centuries, leaving little
else behind them than vestiges of their
occupation. But, since our Government has
held possession, much has been accomplished
in material prosperity and in increase of
population: still, three-fourths of the land
a
6 
PREFACE.
is apparently as wild and unoccupied as
ever.
Within, however, the past few years,
Florida has attracted considerable attention
as a winter resort for invalids and pleasureseekers.  It is, practically, the only strip
of tropical land within our boundaries, and
the only State where the invalid can find
an equable and mild temperature through
the greater portion of the year. Visitors
to the State are already numbered by
thousands, and each year since the war
has witnessed a rapid increase.
The St. John's, whose source is in the
everglades of central and southern Florida,
running due north for two hundred miles,
then abruptly turning eastward to the ocean,
is in many respects the most remarkable
river in North America. To the sportsman
it presents opportunities such as no other
7 
PREFACE.
offers, while the pleasure-seeker is amnply
repaid in viewing its unusual beauties.
The capabilities of the State in an agricultural point of view are unbounded.
The growth of coffee, cotton, and cane, as
also indigo, and not unlikely tea, together
with the production of wine, is likely to
form an important chapter in her future
history; but the thing above all others in
which Florida is certainly destined to excel
her sister States is in early fruit-growing and
marketing.   The clitnate is favorable for
most of the tropical fruits, as also for those
grown in more northern latitudes. The soil,
too, is admirably adapted to their rapid and
early maturity. Already a large share of
attention is given this department of agriculture, both from the native and immigrant
population; and we hear, that, in the matter
of oranges alone, over half a million trees
8 
PREFACE.
have been set out along the St. John's
and its tributaries within the last twelve
months.
There are many advantages to any
people who have more than a single interest in which to enlist their energies. Hitherto the South has had but one great crop,
and that was cotton. It was profitable to
the large planter; and its tendencies were
a concentration of wealth and the elevation
of the few: whereas a diversified industry
among a people not only makes them more
independent, but greater enlightenment
follows. There is no country on the globe
where this is so remarkably exemplified as
in "sterile" New  England.  The  whole
Southern country to-day needs, more than
all things else, a broader culture both in the
field and ill the school. This accomplished,
together with an entire revolution of her
9 
PREFACE.
old-time intolerance and exclusiveness, and
her road to independence and importance
will be found both broad and easy.
JUNE 30, 1869.
10 
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTORY CHIAPTER.
WVHAT TO EXPECT, AND IIOW TO GO.
PAGE.
Thle Manlia for Travel.- Contrast in the Modes of Living. -
The South behind the Age. -Absence of Home Comforts.
-Florida a Wilderness.-Luxuries from the North.-How
to go to Florida.- The Best Routes.- Benefits of a Sea   Voyage........... 17
CHAPTER II.
DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA.
Sebastian Cabot first discovers Florida in 1497.- Columbus dis
covers South America in 1498.- De Leon's Expedition i
search of the Fountain of Youth. -He gives Florida it
Name.- Hostility of the Indians.- De  Leon  mortall
wounded. - The Expeditions of Narvaez and De Soto.   Their Battles, Sufferings, and Marches. -The Discovery o
the Mississippi. - Death of De Soto. - Early Boundaries o
Florida...............
11
. 26 
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
CHAPTER III.
EARLY HISTORY OF FLORIDA.
The First Protestant Colony in America. - Enmity of the Span   iards. - Their Cruelty and Barbarism. - The Founding of
St. Augustine by Menendez in 1565.- The Death of Ri   bault avenged by De Gourgues.- Capture of St. Augustine.
- Drake's Expedition.- Interior Settlements of the Span   iards. - Trial of an Indian Chief for Treason. - Gov. Moore's
and Oglethorpe's Attack on St. Augustine.-Florida ceded
in 1763 to Great Britain, and re-ceded in 1783 to Spain.   Border Troubles.- Annexation of Florida to the States by
Treaty in 1821.........
CHAPTER IV.
MISCELAIXNEOUS TOPICS.
Bravery of the Indians.- Their Peculiar Modes of Warfare. -
Duplicity taught them by Europeans. - Injustice then and
now.- Gen. Jackson's Views of Duty.-Personal Appear    ance of Coa-cou-chee. - His Capture, Confinement, and
Dream. -His Removal West with the Remnants of his
Tribe.- An Affecting Scene. - The Present Boundaries of
Florida. -Its Geological Formation and Probable Age.    The Antiquity of the Race.-East and West Florida.. 56
CHAPTER V.
UP THE ST. JOHN'S TO JACKSONIILLE.
The Harbor of Fernandina.- Entering the St. John's River. -
Appearance and Impressions given of the Country.- The
St. John's River contrasted. - Its Peculiarities. - Jackson
12
38 
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
ville, its Railroads add Hotels. -Its Rapid Growth, and
Large Commerce. - Its Suburban Residences. - The St.
James Hotel.- The Lumber Trade.- Mail and Telegraph
Facilities.......... 72
CHAPTER VI.
FRONI JACKSONVILLE TO GREEN-COVE SPRINGS.
Attractions of the Lower St. John's. -Its Great Width.
Passengers, their Hopes, and Prospects. - Mandari
Winter Residence of Mrs. Stowe. - Ancient Landima
Hibernia and Magnolia Point. - Green-Cove Springs
Attractions for Invalids.- Capt. Henderson and his
ern Friends. - Black Creek and Alligators. - An Adve
-Ride to Middleburg.........
CHAPTER VII.
CENTRAL FLOITIDA.
From Green-Cove Springs to Picolata.- Appearance of Pico   lata.- The Steamer "Darlington." - Capt. Brock and "Ad   miral" Rose.- Palatka, its Commerce and Importance.   Climate. - An Orange-Grove. - Dunn's Lake. - The Ock —
lawaha River. - Beauties of the Upper St. John's. - The
Mocking- Bird......... 105
CHAPTER VIII.
THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S.
Lake Monroe. - Old Fort Mellon.- The Back Country.- En   terprise.- What we thought of it, and what we found it.
13
.. 87 
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
Its Fine Hotel. - Abundance of Game. - A I Ish Story. -
Enterprise the Place for Sporting-Men.- Lakes Jessup and
Harney. - Capt. Brock's Hotel and Orange-Grove.- The
Two Enterprises. -Indian-River Country. - Tropical Fruits.
- Climate at Enterprise....... 123
CHAPTER IX.
CELEBRATED SPRINGS.
The Green Spring at Old Enterprise.- Its Great Depth.- Tropi   cal Scenes.- The Towering Palm.- Silver Springs on the
Ocklawaha.- The Blue Spring near Lake Berresford.   Bartram's Account of this Spring. -The Spring at Green
Cove........... 133
CHAPTER X.
ALLIGATOR-SHOOTING ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S.
The Steamer "Hattie."'-Sportsmen on Lake Harney and be
yond. -What they bagged. - The Grandfather of all th
Alligators.- Difficulty of killing them.- Their Display o
Gymnastics.- The Party camp for the Night.- A Thril
ing Scene. - Our "John." - A  Wild Night of it.-Th
Morning Alligator Reveille. - Reflections.. 
CHAPTER XI.
ST. AUGUSTINE.
IIow to get there.- The Way we went. - The Iton. Mrs. Yelver   ton. - A  Successful Experiment. - "Duroc" and "Fire   Fly." - The Stage-Driver. - The Ferryman's Fire. - Across
14
. 142 
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
the St. Sebastian River. -Midnight and St. Augustine.The Florid.t House.- Quaint Appearance of the City.The Coquina Rock. -Fort Marion.- The Cathedral and
Plaza. - The  Minorcans. - Tropical Fruits. - A  Hotel
wanted........... 150
CHAPTER XII.
THE CLIUIATE.
Influx of Visitors.-Who are benefited.-Necessity of Recrea
tion. - Cool Nights. - Thermometerranges. -Earliest Frosts
-Steadiness of Climate.-The  Trade-Winds.-The Tim
to visit Florida. - Statistics. - General Health of the People
- Care to be exercised...........
CHAPTER XIII.
THE SOIL.
First Impressions.- Varieties of Soil.- Cane, Cotton, and
- Adaptability of the Soil for Early Vegetables. - Th
ture of Rice, Coffee, and Tea, considered. -The Chine
A Prediction.- Good News to all Housekeepers. -         -
fornia Senator. -His Triangular Position..
CHAPTER XIV.
FRUITS.
The Orange.-Its Cultivation.-The Several Varieties.-A
Roasted "Bitter-Sweet."-The Wild Orange a Native of
Florida. -The Frost of 1835.-The Orange a Prolific Bearer.
- Peculiarities of the Orange. - Scarcity of Orange-Groves.
-Where the largest may be seen. -The Lemon and Lime.
15
. 173
.. 188 
CONTENTS.
PAGE.
The Grape indigenous. - The Scuppernong. - Florida as a
Wine-growing Country.- Peach-Culture.- Figs and Pomegranates flourish......... 195
CHAPTER XV.
HILNTS TO IMMIIGRANTS.- THE SOCIAL CONDITION.
Value of Lands. -The Florida Land Company.-The Fernan
dina and Cedar Keys Railroad.- Inducements to Settler
- What Immigrants should do. - Cost of clearing Lands. -
Colonies along the St. John's.- Negro Labor. - The Reaso
of Idleness. - The Poor Basket-maker. - His Trials, Suffer
ings, and Fears.- The Social Condition of the South.- A
Un-reconstructed Carolinian. - Spirit of the People.- Thei
Necessities and Prospects......
16
. 212  
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A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER.
WHAT TO EXPECT, AND HOW TO GO.
The Mania for Travel. - Contrast in the Mlodes of Living. - The
South behind the Age.- Absence of Home Comforts.- Florida
a Wilderness.-Luxuries from the North. -How to go to Florida.
- The Best Routes.- Benefits of a Sea-Voyage.
THE visitor to Florida is likely to be disappointed
in many respects. The exchange of the comforts
of a home for a temporary residence in any remote
portion of our country is always effected at a sacrifice; and those who undertake journeys, whether
for pleasure or health, have to learn the lesson of
circumscribing  their wants,  and,  not  unlikely,
many of their necessities. How many of our
fashionable people feel it ilmperative to arrange
some excursion by rail and river in midsummer to
17 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
the over-packed hotels, where they'tre bunildled
into the fifth story, and their families crammed into
one or two confined and heated rooms, in exchange
for their cool and ample apartments at home. No
complaint is made in these cases, since fashion
dictates; but this weak and amiable dame has as
yet scarce heard of Florida.   If this periodical
hegira was for the purpose of escaping any ill, then
it would be tolerable; but they fly to a thousand
they have little knowledge of. In this perhaps,
after all, compensation may be found, since the
monotony of life is broken; and, by being divorced
from abundant and self-satisfying supplies, people
are better prepared to return to their enjoyment
with an appreciating relish.
If, in lieu of this watering-place mania, it were
the annual custom of the people of the North to
take their flight with the birds, and leave behind
them the chilling winds and frosts of winter, for
sunnier skies, where the wild-flowers and songs of
birds are perennial, then the object could not be
doubtful, and the advantages so obscure.
There is in humanity an innate desire to follow
the retreating sun, and live beneath shadowing
trees, and slake the thirst from the cool waters of
18 
CONTRAST IN LIVING.
unfrozen streams; but the laws of labor and of our
civilization are such as to make it impossible but
for the few to avail themselves of these privileges.
The deprivations attending a journey into any
sparsely-settled State are seldom considered.
The prospective pleasures are alluring, while the
realities are unknown.   In nearly all southern
countries, whether in the New or Old World, there
is a great dearth of what northern people know as
"home comforts."  Instead of the snug and neat
dwelling, a plain and often rude structure is seen;
but this is, after all, to the advantage of health,
since it gives ample ventilation, and in all warm
countries this is a very great desideratum.  It is
doubtful if the inhabitants of a tropical country
would survive a single generation in our air-tight
dwellings.   But  the contrast to the visitor is
naturally great, and is not viewed except with
some slight alarm. The universal indolence of
southern populations is proverbial, and is attributed
to the effects of the enervating climate in which
they reside, as also to the ease which attends the
cultivation and growth of such products as are
necessary to their inexpensive modes of living.
The South is full a hundred years behind the
19 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
North in many things; and this is more true when
speaking of Florida than of the other Southern
States. It is a sort of a wild pasture-ground,
parceled out into great estates, several thousand
acres each, under the old Spanish grants. Not a
tenth of the land is yet cleared, while the remaining portion is but a tangle of swamp and pineforest, interspersed with lakes and rivers.  Great
herds of cattle roam unrestrained over the State,
being gathered in by the owner perhaps once a
year, for the purpose of marking the increase, and
again turned loose. During the late war, thousands of these cattle were slaughtered, both by
the Union and Rebel forces, and often were the
only source of supplies. The loss of property
to the State in this way alone must have amounted
to several millions of dollars.
Notwithstanding the quantities of nearly wild
cattle, there is not, so far as our observation
went, a single first-class milch cow in all Eastern
Florida. Why the inhabitants should pay so little
attention to what would contribute so much to
their comfort, is a question not answered by them.
Perhaps, now that the State is being invaded by a
class of people who will clamor for these ordinary
20 
HOME COMFORTS WANTED.
comforts,- luxuries, we should say, for good milk
and butter is more or less a lLtxury in Florida,the inhabitants may wake up to their necessities.
Poor milk, and a great scarcity of that, is the
rule wherever we traveled.
There are no good pastures at present for cattle:
the wild grasses and shrubs on which this present
neat stock subsist would not do for dairy stock; and
whether or not the soil and climate are favorable
to the growth of northern grasses, we cannot say,
thoughll we see no reason whily clover should not
grow luxuriantly.  There is one way, at least, as
practicable there as anywhere, and that is stallfbedingr; but that would be an extravagance and
a labor unheard of.  All the butter used is brought
from  thle  North, chiefly  from  the  New-York
market.  Beef  is also imported,  but  generally
firom some of the Southern cities with which steam
communication is had. Florida beef we met with
occasionally, which was very good, being both
sweet and tender; thourlgh this does not tally with
the experience of others who have traveled the
State.
Venison and various kinds of wild game abound,
together with the finest of fish, that may be had
21 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
from every river and lake. These, with what of
luxuries are imported from the North in the way
of butter, canned ifruits, and ice, make up a variety
of fare that should satisfy every appetite, however
pampered it may be. It was our universal
experience, whether on the river steamers, or at
the hotel or boarding-house, that the table was
unexceptionable: we mean in the traveler's sense
and view of these things.
The cost of living in Florida, for a family,
would be thought much cheaper than in the more
northern States.  This is doubtless true, so far as
the native population are concerned; but the
families from the North who continue their
previous style would likely find it quite as expensive, since many of the articles are procured
from the same markets as when at home. By and
by this will be greatly changed, and to the advantage of the people of Florida, as well as to those
who temporarily sojourn there; as where now little
beside the wilderness is seen, must in a few years,
in all probability, be found the prosperous homes
of a new population.
It is in fact only since the war, that Eastern
Florida has been truly opened to the North. The
22 
HOW TO GO.
former system of espionage upon all Northerners,
and their certain ostracism by the chivalry, was
even more effectual in its results than any Chinese
Wall could possibly be.
A brief mention of the various routes by which
the invalid or tourist may reach the State seems
desirable.  The cheapest method is to embark in
some sailingcr-vessel leaving New York, Boston, or
Philadelphia, direct for Jacksonville.  Those who
go to make the State their home would at least
do well to ship all their household articles, in this
way saving very much in transportation, and losing but very little in time, since the passage does
not occupy over ten, and firequently is made in five
days.  Once at Jacksonville, direct and rapid communication is had with all portions of the State.
Those desiring to avoid a sea-voyage can go to
Jacksonville by railroad the entire distance, by
way of Savannah, the cars and sleeping-coaches of
the South being in most respects equal to those in
use in any portion of the country. Still another
route, combining both land and water, is to proceed
23 
A WINTEPR IN FLORIDA.
to Charleston by rail, where tri-weekly steamers
run direct to the St. John's River, and up it to
Palatka. There are, indeed, two lines of steamers
from Charleston to Florida, one known  as the
"inside " and the other as the "outside " line.
The former follows the bays and inland waters
along the coast, touching at the small towns and
landings along the seaboard, and is nearly sheltered
from the ocean. The latter line goes directly out
to sea from Charleston, touching at Savannah
and Fernandina only, but mnaking every landing,
on the St. John's as far as Palatka. A dav in
Charleston, viewing the "hot-bed," and a sail down
the bay to old Fort Sumter, where Anderson and
his brave band stood so nobly, is not lost; and a
night at the commodious and well-kept Charlestonl
I}otel gives rest and refreshment for the balance
of the journey.
But the easiest and most expeditious way is,
however, by some one of the various steamship lines
from New York, Philadelphia, or Baltimore. They
average at least one boat per day. We regard these
lines as in many respects the best means of access
to Florida, whether for the invalid or excursionist.
The time occupied is less, and the expense is also
24 
WHEN TO GO.
less; and they run first-class ocean steamers, with
every accommodation required. The passage to
Savannah is usually made inside of three days,
and direct connection is made with some one of
the steamship lines to Florida; or, if parties choose,
they can, by taking the cars at Savannah, reach
Jacksonville in twelve hours, making the entire
trip from New York in from three to four days.
The sea-voyage, dreaded by some, is of short
duration, and in most cases a decided benefit to all,
and especially the invalid. It is frequently recommended by physicians to those whose health makes
it necessary to visit a warmer climate.   There
need be no fear of taking cold, for few people ever
take cold from any exposure to the open sea-breeze:
it is, on the contrary invigorating and healthful.
We have elsewhere stated with greater particularity the time visitors to Florida should start.
October is as early as Northern people need to
go, and they may remain as late as May. Of
course we now refer to special classes, who go
for pleasure, and those seeking a restoration of
their health.  Northern people may and do remain
the year round, with perhaps  as much immunity
from disease as when at lhore.
25
i 
CHAPTER II.
DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA.
Sebastian Cabot first discovers Florida in 1497.- Columbus discov  ers South America in 1498.- De Leon's Expedition in search of
the Fountain of Youth.- He gives Florida its Name.- Hostility
of the Indians.- De Leon mortally wounded.- The Expeditions
of Narvaez and De Soto. -Their Battles, Sufferings, and Marches.
-The Discovery of the Mississippi. -Death of De Soto.- Early
Boundaries of Florida.
FLORIDA was first discovered by that bold and
early navigator, Sebastian Cabot, who, with his
father, John Cabot, in 1497, coasted the whole of
the eastern shore of the peninsula; and, so far as
history authenticates, theirs was the first landing
made by any Europeans on this continent. Every
child is taught, however, that to Christopher Columbus belongs the honor of the discovery of the
New World, in 1492, five years prior to the landing of Cabot in Florida; but his discoveries at that
time embraced only a portion of the Bahama
Islands. He did not touch upon the main until
26 
DE LEON'S EXPEDITION.
the year 1498, when hle landed at the mouth of
the Orinoco in South America; and, even then,
he did not know that his feet pressed the soil of
a new hemisphere, but, on the other hand, believed
that he stood upon the eastern shores of Asia:
and in this faith he died, not even dreaming of the
real grandeur of the discovery. Both Columbus
and Cabot were, however, robbed to a great extent of their due share of honor, by a subsequent
navigator, who was more fortunate in giving a description of his voyages, which was published in
the Old World about the year 1500.
Little further was known of Florida by any of
the Europeans until the spring of 1512, when
Juan Ponce de Leon, an aged Spaniard, sailed
firom Porto Rico in search of a fountain reputed
to exist among the Bahama Islands, which would
restore the aged to immortal youth, if they but
drank of its sparkling waters. Of this romantic
old man of the sea, all have read in history. That
he had a poetic frenzy, bordering on extravagance,
the reader will scarcely question. If he had lived
in the present age, he would, doubtless, have been
sent away, by either his heirs-at-law or his darling
children, to contemplate Nature from behind some
27 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
Gothic window, carefully protected against intrusion from either burglars or Bohemians.
His career is indeed fascinating in its contemplation; and to think of him setting sail from old
Spain, in that early age of navigation, across the
far-reaching and stormy waters of the Atlantic,
in his rude vessel, surrounded by a few devoted,
and, we must presume, unlettered  sailors, challenges our admiration, and we follow his subsequent career with unabating interest.
The object of his search was like the mirage in
the desert to the worn and weary traveller, who is
beguiled to pursue its ever-retreating cool fountains and inviting groves, till at last he sinks
exhausted, yet believing that the object of his
search lies nearly within his grasp.
De Leon, after a fruitless visit to the Bahama
Islands, steered north-west for the coast of the
continent, and landed at what is now St. Augustine, still pursuing the object of his industrious
search.   He landed in April, 1512, on Easter
Sunday, which day the Spaniards call Pascua
Florida; and, finding the country abounding in
wild-flowers, he gave it the name of Florida:
vwhich is, indeed, a very beautiful name for a beau
28 
FIRST BATTLE WITH TIHE INDIANS.  29
tiful land. Hie at once arranged for an active
campaign of discovery for the one absorbing
object of his ambition.  By land,  lagoon, and
river he traveled, suffering hardships and endur ing every thing. Thus he journeyed and coasted
southward the whole extent of the peninsula,
even to the Tortugas Islands in the Gulf, whence
hle returned to Spain, disappointed but not entirely
disheartened; for, in a few years, we find him
commissioned by the home authorities as governor
of Florida, conditioned on his establishing a colony
in that country. This enterprise he readily undertook; and, gathering a company of emigrants, he
set sail and effected a landing, but was met by the
aborigines with frowns and suspicions, which speedily grew into open and determined hostility,
resulting in the killing(r and driving of the colonists
from the shores to their ships.  From  that day,
now over three hundred and fifty years, one continuous battle with the red men of the forest has
been waged, with brief respites only intervening,
till they now stand at bay two thousand miles ill
the interior of the continent, cut off, surrounded,
and hunted like wild beasts, they and their history
soon to be swept away by the great wave of civi 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
lization which has fully set in along the iron road
across the continent to the ocean beyond.
In this first conflict with the red men in Florida,
De Leon was mortally wounded, and soon after
died in Cuba, whither the expedition had set immediate sail. Thus did this romantic voyager's
life abruptly and tragically end. There is scarcely
in history a character so unique as his. That he
was a man of influence among the rulers of Spain,
and was possessed of remarkable parts, can not be
questioned; nor the fact of his many amiable
weaknesses, which seemed to exert a controlling
influence over him.
A dozen years later, and the Spanish Government had appointed one Narvaez as ruler over
this wild-flowery land of De Leon's.   He sailed
from Cuba with a force of three hundred men,
well armed and equipped, to take forcible possession, and hold the vast territory which was now
regarded as so valuable to the Spanish crown.
His expedition attempted little of colonization, but
gave their time chiefly to the exploration of the
interior country. They were beset on all sides in
their marches, and at last so hunted and harassed
by the Indians, and cut down by sickness, that
30 
THE AGE OF ADVENTURE.
only four who survived were able to reach a friendly settlement, hundreds of miles away in Mexico;
and this only after several years of wanderings.
De Leon's dreams still haunted the minds of adventurers, changing only in that gold and precious
gems took the place of his fountain which was to
impart the gift of perpetual youth.
In this age of romantic and chivalrous adventure, of new-found worlds and empires, it is not so
wonderful, perhaps, that eager knights embraced
almost any opinion concerning the mysterious
recesses of lands which now lay open to their view.
The discovery and conquest of Peru preceded the
discovery of Florida but a brief period; and the
wealth whlich fell to its captors but added to the enthusiasm that already stirred the breasts of the
people of Spain.
Ferdinand de Soto, a principal actor in this
grand drama, who had returned to Spain loaded
with fame and wealth, at once resolved on an expedition to Florida, and sought permission to conquer and govern the territory, which was granted.
Rallying around him great numbers of adventurers
and admirers, he selected from among them about
a thousand men suited to his purposes, and on
31 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
the sixth day of April, 1538, set sail in a fleet of
ten vessels.  Arriving  at Cuba, where he was
joined by Porcalho, a distinguished and wealthy
soldier of fortune, he was obliged to repair and
re-form. This occupied nearly a year; and it was
not until the following spring of 1539 that he
landed on the shores of Tampa Bay, in Florida.
It was the sincere wish of De Soto to conciliate
the inhabitants, and open the way to a peaceful
exploration of the country. In fact, the measures
he adopted were admirably adapted to that end;
but the natives well remembered the cruelty of
Narvaez, and they regarded the new comers as but
another band of robbers.
De Soto sent out couriers to trace, if possible,
the fragments of the preceding expedition; but
this proved fruitless, since they were invariably
detained, and usually put to death.  Finding all
measures of conciliation unavailing, he resolved
on conquering the country by force of arms.
To thlis, Porcalho dissented, and, unable to effect
an agreement, sailed away; and immediately De,
Soto set out on his perilous and disastrous march.
Had the native population possessed an organized
body of men, and a seat of government, and pros
32 
DE SOTO'S GREAT CAMPAIGN.
ecuted hostilities any thiing like ordinary mortals,
they would have been overpowered and speedily
reduced, and brought under the sway of the disciplined and hlardy veterans of Spain; but De Soto
struggled ag(rainst a multitude of fierce, petty
tribes, who, although offering no point at which an
effective blow could be struck, never left him master of more than the spot on which, for the moment, his army stood. Wherever he advanced, a
wild shower of poisoned arrows greeted him, or
else the foe fled before him, leaving but a barren
waste behind.
The natives at length prepared a plot for the
extermination of the invaders, and, professing
fri-iendship, advanced suddenly upon them, taking
them wholly by surprise.   The battle wavered
but for a moment; when the soldiers, having
rallied with their arms, poured in a destructive
fire, which killed great numbers of the enemy,
and put to flight the remainder, except a few
who were  surrounded.   These, on seeing their
position, plunged into a lagoon, and there floated,
exposiing nothing but their faces above the water.
In this position they were kept till the following
day by the determined Spaniards, when they were
81
a
33 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
glad to surrender. They constituted, however,
but a fragment of the dusky warriors who everywhere haunted the unbroken forest.
Florida was at this time without definite
boundaries. At the time of De Leon's expedition,
or soon after, the Spanish Crown claimned authority
from Cape Sable up as far as Labrador; but their
expeditions seldom if ever extended farther up the
coast than Cape Hatteras, and their pretensions to
territory above the Carolinas was abandoned; but
up to that point they laid strenuous claims.
Remembering his great good fortune in Peru,
and still dazzled by the wealth and splendors of
that conquest, De Soto's thoughts still dwelt on
some sunny clime in Florida, where temples
and princely palaces glittered with burnished
silver and gold, where sparkling gems gave back
with added brilliancy the slanting sunlight, and
where the very air was soft and fragrant with
aromatic and priceless gums and balsams.
Weary and worn, yet undaunted, this brave
and gallant knight of the middle ages of chivalric
and adventurous Spain set his face toward the
wilderness, and resumed his perilous marches across
low lands and rivers, through forests and by foes,
34 
THE SPANIARDS SURPRISED.
back into the unknown and heretofore unexplored
regions of America. Passing at first northward,
lie traversed what is now Georgia, and then, turning
south and westward, miarchled to Mauvilla (Mobile), in what is now Alabama, near which place
lived the chief of the Choctaw nation, a powerful
tribe inhabiting that region.
While entertaining him and his followers as
guests, and amidst the hilarities of the occasion,
the Indians commenced a fierce attack, compelling
the Spaniards to fall back to their camp, when,
mounting their horses, they advanced and drove
the Indians, though a cloud of arrows, it is narrated,
darkened the sky. On entering the village, they
were fired upon from all sides, till they resolved
to fire the town, which, being constructed of reeds
and branches, flamed like tinder: many were
thus destroyed, and a total loss is reported of over
two thousand Indians, while but eighteen of the
invaders were killed. This tragedy ended, and
De Soto learning of the existence of a great river
westward, he set out once more through a trackless region, and this time in search of the "Father
of Waters." Arriving in tlie Mississippi Valley,
he sou,ghlt the capital of the Chickasaws, and spent
35 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
here the winter. The treachery of the savages again
burst upon this devoted band; again were they
surprised and slaughtered, losing some lives and
many horses anti all their baggage.  They then
moved forward to the banks of the great river; and
for the first time, in the spring of the year 1541,
the eyes of Europeans rested upon it.
Here they lingered to construct means of crossingl; and then, still undaunted, the bravest soldier
and explorer of any age or country moved on,
penetrating the wild regions of the Missouri.
But to follow and describe all his wanderings
would require a volume. Three years had worn
away since he landed at Tampa Bay with his
brave army, which now had dwindled to one-half
its original numbers. Ile determined to reach the
coast, obtain re-enforcements, and inaugurate a new
campaign.   Descending the Washita and Red
Rivers to their confluence with the Mississippi, he
here halted to prepare for the descent of that
river, when he was seized by fever, which in a
few brief days terminated his intrepid career. His
body was secretly and solemnly buried, at midniight, in the bosom of the great river, by a few of
his chosen companions, with nothing around save
36 
ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES OF FLORIDA.  37
the starlight night, the rolling flood, and the dark,
impenetrable wilderness.
His survivors, descending the river, soon reached
the coast, and returned to their native country,
having lost twothirds of their original number.
We have followed, briefly, the career of this,
the third governor of Florida, and his most remarkable expedition, since it not only concerned
the territory of Florida itself, but was important
in other respects. Every step which De Soto
advanced westward but added to its area. Thus
we see Florida extended from Cape Sable to Cape
.Hatteras in the north, and westward more than a
thousand miles, embracing all the country to and
west of the Mississippi, and south of the Missouri
River, including all drained by the Red and intervening rivers to the Rio Grande. 
CHAPTER III.
EARLY HISTORY OF FLORIDA.
The First Protestant Colony in America. - Enmity of the Spaniards.
-Their Cruelty and Barbarism. -The Founding of St. Augus  tine by Mlenendez in 1565. - The Death of Ribault avenged by
De Gourgues.- Capture of St. Augustine. - Drake's Expedition.
-Interior Settlements of the Spaniards. -Trial of an Indian
Chief for Treason. -Gov. Moore's and Oglethorpe's Attack on St.
Augustine.-Florida ceded in 1763 to Great Britain, and re-ceded
in 1783 to Spain.- Border Troubles.- Annexation of Florida to
the States by Treaty in 1821.
WE have seen how three successive Spanish
expeditions came and went, and yet Florida held
no settlement of Europeans. The failure of the
last, under its great leader, had dampened the
ardor of that nation; and at this time the Hiuguenots of France, persecuted at home, resolved to
found a colony in the New World, and immediately put their project into execution.
Under the patronage of the French Admiral
Coligny, a company of these people sailed in 1562,
under the lead of John Ribault, who, landing at
38 
BASE ATTACK ON RIBAULT.
Port Royal, took possession of that section in the
name of King Charles (Carolus) of France, and
gave the name of Carolina to the northern portion of Florida, - a name that still continues,
divided between two States.   In 1564, Ribault
sailed in charge of another expedition, and landed
at the mouth of the St. John's, and there established a colony. The news of this expedition,
reaching Spain, aroused the Spanish people; and
the crown at once authorized one Don Pedro
Menendez to proceed to Florida, being first duly
appointed governor. He departed with nearly a
thousand men, direct for the coast of Florida, and,
landing, established in 1565 a settlement on the
present site of St. Augustine.*   His objective
was the French settlement on the St. John's
River. Ribault was instinctively aware of this, it
would seem, and made an effort to circumvent
the Spaniards, which proved abortive. Menendez
began duly to arrange for an attack on this colony
at or near the mouth of the St. John's; and, taking
some five hundred of his men, he commenced,
though not without some protests, his march across
the country, urging them forward in the name of
* Wiliams8, the historian, gives 1564 as the date.
39 
A WDINTER IN  FLORIDA.
honor and  their religion.   Arriving  near the
French settlement, early on the morning of the
fifth day, and finding the gates of the fort open,
they rushed in, giving no quarter to the occupants,
both citizens and soldiers, slaughtering over two
hundred, and only saving some of the women and
children, and not even them till their thirst for
blood had been fully satiated.* A more heartless
butchery is nowhere to be found in the annals of
history; and no people among Europeans, even at
this early period, save the Spaniards, could have
committed the awful catalogue of crimes of which
they were guilty.
Even in this nineteenth century their passions
seem as uncontrolled as ever, of which the conflict in Cuba gives ample proof. No country has
so long withstood the influence of the centuries as
has Spain; but it is a consolation to contemplate
the wheels of progress, and to note that the days
of her priestcraft and old tyrannous system of
government are passing away, while new Spain is
robing herself, as we trust, in the beautiful garments which Liberty is weaving.
* A Spanish writer gives this statement of the ea'ving of women and
children, but the French never believed any were ever spar(d from the
sword.
40 
RIBAULT AVENGED.
Tile infamous Menendez, when the work of
assassination had ended, suspended from the neig,hboring trees a number of the mangled bodies, with
the following words attached: " Not because they
are Frenchmen, but because they are heretics and
enemies of God."
When the news of this dreadful i;usiness reached
France, it greatly excited the Protestant inhabitants; but they were powerless, since their sovereig,n, Charles IX., did not sympathize with them.
Roused by grief and rage, the HIuguenots eventually found a leader in the daring warrior, Dotl;inique De  Gourgues, who  had himself suffered
every indignity during(r a period of captivity under
the  Spaniards.   He  clandestinely  procured  a
license to engage in the slave-trad(le, and set sail in
three ships in the summer of 1567. After sailing
southward, he announced his determination and
real intention to his men, which was to attack thle
Spanish settlement at St. Augustine, and avenge
the slaughter of Ribault and his companions At
first, several ships' companies desisted; but, being
urged, they consented, and the expedition effected
a landing.  Before marching to the attack, he secured the co-operation of the natives, who were
41 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
only too ready to aid in the dislodgment of the
hated Spaniards. The garrison of the forts were
apprized of the rapid advance of the enemy, and
were preparing to receive them, when the assault
was commenced upon an outer fort, or blockhouse, which was speedily carried, as was also the
next; but there yet remained the fort proper,
whose garrison far outnumbered  the assailants.
From this fort a company of soldiers advanced to
meet the attack of the assailants, but they were
cut off and destroyed. A panic seized upon the
remainder of the garrison; and, abandoning their
stronghold, they fled precipitately to the woods.
Numbers of them were captured. These the
French leader took to the fatal trees where the
fragmentary remains of his own countrymen still
hung, and, having reviled them for their cruelty,
caused a portion of them to be suspended, and, in
place of the former, substituted the following inscription: "Not because they are Spaniards, but
because they are traitors, robbers, and murderers."
Retribution had been swift and sure. Had none
but the ringleaders been executed, the world would
have justified the deed.
The conquerors, having accomplished the object
42 
THE OLDEST CITY.
of their visit, set sail for home, and were, by their
friends, joyfully received.  De Gourgues was subsequently obliged to retire from his country
(France) to escape the embarrassments under
which this expedition had brought him; his king
neither daring to imprison nor allow him to remain.
Thus was the foundation-stone of St. Augustine
baptized in blood; and its subsequent history, for
upwards of two and a half centuries, is one of prolonged slaughter and destruction.  No other city
in America has so often and so severely suffered
from the ravages of fire and famine, and the general vicissitudes of fortune, as this, the first permnanent settlement on the continent.
Menendez, perhaps unfortunately, was not
among those who perished; and, after the departure of the conquerors, he resumed his rule, and
continued for twelve years to preside over the destinies of the town and adjoining settlements or
trading-posts.   In 1578 he returned to Spain,
having first nominated his successor.   Spanish
ambition in this portion of America had been too
severely pruned by the sword for any rapid development of power or numbers: yet we find no
diminution of papal fanaticism; but, on the other
43 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
hand, they now gave their attention to the conversion of the aboriginal inhabitants to their superstitions and fanatical religious faith. Under the
patronage of the pope of Rome, the king of Spain
dispatched a large company of teachers, of the
order of Franciscans, to Florida. Thus, while enlarg,ing the boundaries of their church, they sought
to obtain peaceful control over the tribes surrounding them, which, up to this period, had been a
fruitless effort. The savage tribes of all countries
have ever been more or less impressed with the forms
and ceremonials of the Romish Church; and in a
few years, by their persistent and insinuating manners, coupled with lessons of civilized life, the
Spaniards acquired great influence over them, and
by 1585 their rule was acknowledged by all of the
tribes as far west as the Mississippi River. It was
during this period that those convents and missionary houses were built, the ruins of which the traveller will meet with here and there in the central
portions of Florida, and which excite considerable
interest in the antiquarian.   All of these institutions were but outgrowths of the central establishment at St. Augustine.
The succeeding year the town was again
44 
DRAKE'S DESCENT ON FLORIDA.
attacked, though, we should judge, quite accidentally.   This time the Anglo-Saxons  were  the
aggressive party, for the first time venturing to
take a hand in this rather uncertain Florida
business. The hero was none other than that
restless and dauntless old sailor, Sir Francis Drake
of England. An expedition was fitted out by
some private adventurers, consisting of twentysix sail, with Drake  as admiral.   Their main
object could have been little else than plunder;
and they made no small fist of it either, for they
captured a number of Spanish seaports in the
West Indies, raked their commerce generally, and
wound ulp by paying a reconnoitering visit to the
coast of Florida, in the hope that they might add
to their spoils or their glory. They descried a
"look-out," or tower, off St. Augustine, and at
once made a descent upon the neighborhood.
Advancing, they encountered quite a formidable
fort, but poorly garrisoned, as the sequel showed.
On this they made a rapid advance, and were
greeted by a few random shots, when the guiard
fled, leaving fourteen giuns, and military stores,
including a treasury-chest of several thousand
pounds. This latter trifle was straightway escorted
45 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
with military honors to the fleet! The succeeding
day, Drake marched upon the town, which the inhabitants, with a very slight show of resistance,
evacuated, leaving it in the peaceable possession
of the English. History does not seem fully to
agree as to the burning of the place by Drake;
but since he did take the place, and as his hatred
of the Spanish was only second to their hatred of
him and his people, it is altogether probable that
he fired the town. Indeed, the weight of evidence inclines to this supposition. It is not unlikely, that, since they immediately left and re-embarked, but a small portion of the city was burned.
Drake had no intention of holding the country,
and, having completed his " swinging round the
circle" of Spanish settlements, set sail for home,
where he arrived in July of the year last above
named (1586).
The city of St. Augustine was, before this
attack, as large in point of population as it is today. It soon recovered from this temporary, and,
as we believe, slight injury by Drake; and its
growth continued for nearly half a century,
though one writer asserts, that, about 1610,
the natives, from some unknown cause, made a
46 
FIRST TRIAL FOR TREASON.
descent upon the town, capturing it, and utterly
destroying it by fire.  This we do not in any
manner credit. In 1665, however, it was attacked
and plundered by a Capt. Davis, an English
buccaneer,- a class of persons who, from about
Drake's time and for over two centuries afterwards, swarmed among all the islands of the West
Indies and the adjacent seas.  It was likewise
about this period, that an English colony, of, more
than likely, freebooters, established a settlement
at St. Helena, on the St. Mary's River, within the
then boundaries of the State, but now in Georgia.
In 1680, the Spanish governor became jealous of
the great power of the chief of one of the largest
and most powerful tribes in Florida, and decided
to procure his arrest for treason; and it is not improbable that he had adjudged him worthy of
death, even before a council had assembled to
formally determine the question. He was, of
course, pronounced  guilty, notwithstanding his
solemn protest that he was both loyal to and zealous in papal faith and power. He was sentenced
to die; and his last words were to his countrymen
not to avenge his death, thus actually proving the
sincerity of his asseverations. The tribe over
47 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
which he had held undisputed sway felt outraged.
as they unquestionably were, in the death of their
beloved leader; and fierce and bitter war ensued,
resulting in the driving out of all the Spanish
settlers north of the St. John's River. From this
period, the Spanish power in this colony commenced
rapidly to decline, while the English settlements
increased, till they had full possession of the
Carolinas.   The French  had to a very great
extent withdrawn, and planted a colony at the
mouth of the Mississippi River.
In 1702, the English Gov. Moore, of South
Carolina, planned an attack on St. Augustine,
which proved disastrous only to himself.
Up to this period, most of the attacks on the
Spanish had been at St. Augustine, that being the
capital of their colony; but in 1703, Gov. Moore,
having a wish to retrieve his reputation, sought
and obtained a large force of Indians, accompanied
by a few whites, and made an incursion back from
the sea-coast on Lewis Fort, from which, by skillful maneuvering, he managed to draw out the
garrison, when a sanguinary battle ensued, resulting in the complete triumph of Moore's party.
The effect of this was to break the power of the
48 
EARLY LESSONS TO THE INDIANS.
Spanish in Middle Florida; and they withdrew from
that region, and the less reluctantly, since, in this
conflict, their principal school and convents had been
destroyed, together with their settlements. What
had taken three-fourths of a century to build up
had, as it were, in a day been utterly annihilated.
A few years of peace followed, -long enough
to prove to the Indians, who had fought and won
for the English their crowning victory in Florida,
that "white men were very uncertain," and that
those who were their friends to-day might be their
enemies to-morrow. The truth of this they fully
realized, as many better people have before, but
more especially since these times of which we
write.
They felt so outraged, that they did not hesitate
to form an alliance with their ancient enemy, the
Spaniards; and under their leadership, and in conjunction with them, they were marched into what
is now Georgia, but at that period claimed as a
portion of Florida, though in actual possession of
the English, who had, during the last few years,
added greatly to their numbers and wealth, with
their chief settlement at Savannah. This combined army marched, about 1717, into Georgia,
4
49 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
only to succeed in obtaining a sound drubbing at
the hands of the Britons and their Indian allies of
that section.
The Spanish governor concluded, thereafter, to
remain at home, and to quietly surrender the rilde
over a portion of his territory. The effect was,
as the humorous Artemas Ward used to say, to
make the ways of "Lo! the poor Indian," very
hard indeed. The governor restricted their privileges, and drove them from their fields, so that they
came to be kicked and cuffed in turn by the English or Spanish people, as fortune led them. Thus
one of the most powerful tribes on the continent,
the Yomasees, were, at this time, among the most
abject. The Spanish now held St. Augustine and
the adjacent settlements and territory on the
Atlantic; while, on the Gulf coast, their corresponding strong point was St. Mark's.
The boundaries of Florida were now substantially diminished, and extended on the north between St. Mary's and the Altamaha Rivers, and
westward by south to the Mississippi River. This
western boundary was put in jeopardy by an
attack on Pensacola, a place founded prior to 1690,
and that had been held at times by the French
50 
OGLETHORPE ATTACKS ST. AUGUSTINE. 51
and then by the Spaniards, up to 1722, when it
was permanently relinquished to Spain by a
treaty.
Difficulties were continually springing up be tween the encroaching English settlers on the
north and the Spanish, culminating, in the spring
of 1740, by Gov. Oglethorpe of Georgia planning an invasion of Florida, and particularly
the reduction and capture of the city of St.
Augustine.  With an army of rising two thousand men (and Indians not taxed!) he marched
on that place, seconded by an English fleet under
Com. Price, who arrived off the harbor too late,
however, to prevent re-enforcements reaching the
town by the sea. An unsuccessful siege was prosecuted, chiefly from Anastasia Island, opposite the
city. The distance was such as to render the
shots ineffectual, though some of them struck and
buried themselves in the sides of the fort. These
shot-holes and abrasions may still be seen on the
east and north-east side of the fortification, or
could at the time of our visit. Oglethorpe was
obliged to retreat, and fell in disgrace among his
people: but later, in a counter-attack on his own
colony by the enemy, he was, by some strategy, 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
enabled to regain their regard; and, in 1743, lie
put on foot another expedition, which was marched
by land to St. Augustine.   This proved more
disastrous, if possible, than the first. The Spaniards followed them on their retreat ha]rassing
and killing many, aided, of course, by the savages,
who hung on their flanks, following and destroying
some of the English settlements in Georgia.
Finally, in 1748, a treaty was concluded between
Spain and England, which had the effect to produce a period of comparative quiet.
In 1763, Spain ceded Florida to Great Britain;
whereupon a large portion of the Spanish settlers
withdrew, and in their places came army-officers
and pensioners, together with emigrants from
Britain.   The  country soon became  quiet, and
agriculture again flourished; but in 1783, after
twenty years of occupancy by the British, the
territory was re-ceded to Spain, and a corresponding hegira of the English occurred, as in the case
of the previous cession. It only needed this to
complete the desolation.  Of course, the incoming
Spaniards did nothing, not knowing what moment
word would come of another transfer. Beyond a
single disturbing element of small proportions,
52 
BORDER TROUBLES.
there was little to hinder the advancement of the
peaceful arts; but the country retrograded rapidly.
A more lamentable condition no state or territory could well find itself in.  The industry of a
century had been allowed to go to decay; and
rapine and war had driven nearly every vestige
of civilization from existence.
The United States, meanwhile, had( grownilldeed were at this time- a powerful people, and
looked upon this wilderness of Florida (for such
it had now become) with eyes of longing, which
was not wholly unnatural.
Troubles and disputes began to thrive along
the northern borders, when President Monroe
dispatched a small force in 1811 to act as a corps
of observation; but its commander, more zealous
than prudent, soon found a pretext for occupying
the whole of Amelia Island, on which the town of
Fornandina is situated.  His course was disapproved by the Government, and our forces were or(lered to be withdrawn. While preparations for this
object were going forward, the Spanish governor
caused an attack to be made on the retiring forces,
resulting in the killing of some of the troops. Instead of hastening, this act but detained our forces.
53 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
Again the commanding officer was superseded by
Gen. Pinckney. Meanwhile, the administration
sent two more commissioners to negotiate for a
transfer of the territory to the United States; but
this effort proved abortive. Internal strife and
commotion flourished; but, in the spring of 1813,
our troops evacuated the territory. The succeeding year witnessed an attempt on the part of the
British to occupy West Florida.  The "Yanks"
needed but just such an attempt to give them
license to "move in;" which they speedily did,
under the direction of Gen. Jackson, five thousand
strong, and made an early call on the redcoats
who already occupied Pensacola.  A trifling "unpleasantness" ensued: the English left on their
fleet which brought them; and Jackson proceeded
soon after to arrange for the more important duties
to come off at New Orleans on the succeeding,
and now memorable, 8th of January.
We pass the period which was well filled with
Indian conflicts and border warfare, to 1818, when
Jackson, in punishing the savages, was affronted
by the Spanish commander at Pensacola, in whose
vicinage he was. Whereupon he repeated the capture of the place,. and sent the Spanish prisoners
54 
EXCHANGE OF FLAGS.
and governor to Havana.   This  brought  the
question of a transfer of the territory plainly
before the authorities of Spain. It was evident
that "manifest destiny" would annex this territory to the Union, either with or without their consent. They at once entered into a treaty in 1819,
whichl was ratified by an exchange of flags on
the 17th of June, 1821.
55 
CHAPTER IV.
MISCELLANEOUS TOPICS.
Bravery of the Indians.- Their Peculiar Modes of Warfare.- Du  plicity taught them by Europeans.- Injustice then and now. -
Gen. Jackson's Views of Duty. -Personal Appearance of Coa-cou  chee.- His Capture, Confinement, and Dream. - His Removal
West with the Remnants of his Tribe.- An Affecting Scene.  The Present Boundaries of Florida.- Its Geological Formation
and Probable Age. - The Antiquity of the Race. - East and
West Florida.
THE transfer of authority over this peninsula
was a notable event in its history. No human
agency could well have averted such a result.
Out of this fierce caldron of hates and retribution,
order was to come, but not yet. Years of struggles and many precious lives were the real price
we had to pay. No race of beings under the sun
ever fought with such persistence and desperation
as did these red men, the Seminoles, in the swamps
of Florida. Their chief, Coa-cou-chee, was a brave
and cunning savage, and his fighting-men excelled
in every element of strength and agility. A
56 
A BRAVE PEOPLE.
pitched battle was out of the question. They were
outnumbered, and fought, economizing life, behind
the trees, or concealed from view in some jungle or
thicket. A hissing arrow, and all else was silent.
When least expected, they screamed their wild
war-cry, struck, and vanished in the impenetrable forest.   Nothing  impeded  their marches:
they were expert as swimmers, and as tireless as
the rivers whose dark, calm waters often swallowed
and shielded them from their pursuers. Living
on the fruits and fish which a provident nature
abundantly supplied, they were enabled to pass
rapidly over great distances, and seemed, indeed,
almost ubiquitous. They were the terror of our
troops; and considering themselves the rightful
occupants and owners of the soil, and believing
that this struggle was to be their last great effort,
their courage and daring rose with the occasion.
The history of this band of braves, so replete
with thrilling interest and real romance, would
afford ample material for a Walter Scott, from
which to weave as many tales of this "place of
flowers" as of his own bright and bonny land.
It is a sad history, that of the Florida aborigines. The rising sun brought with it no people
57 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
firom the east who were to prove their friends.
Spaniards, Frenchmen, and Britons were all alike
in selfishness and duplicity.   Their lessons had
been severe and were well remembered: hence,
by the time the utilitarian population of the States
had acquired power and permanency, they, too,
were adepts in deceit and diplomacy.
History will account them a barbarous band;
but, while this is doubtless true, it should not lose
sight of the influences which wrought out this
result in their characters.   Would any people,
however enlightened, even in this age, escape the
doing of many acts of savage wantonness, if they,
as were these red men, were hunted from their
country, and their cities and public works leveled
to the ground, by some invading race of Titans,
who sought to change their lands back to their
primeval character and beauty, and who, by duplicity and right of might, defrauded them of even
their right to live! That the Indians believed
themselves the children of the Great Spirit, whom
they sought to worship in their rude way, is true;
and that they knew the white mall to be an intruder is also true.
It may not be among the possibilities for the
58 
INHUMANITY.
two races to live together; and, if we concede
that it was in God's providence to establish the
white race on this continent, then we may, in
some degree, be reconciled to the march of events
here: but that can not palliate nor excuse the inhumanity and fraud continually practiced upon
these rude children of the forest, from the earliest intrusive visits of the whites to the present
time.
We have no right to judge of the former tribes
by the present degenerate fragments we see and
know upon our remote borders westward. They
are only the residum of a mighty race of men,
who for three hundred years have been plundered
and robbed of every possession, and schooled in
every vice, by the worst of our own people. It
was no crime to practice upon them; and, by systematic approaches, they have been entrapped into
every imaginable difficulty, for the sole purpose of
plundering them or the government who presumed
to shield them.
The problem of the two races living peaceably
near each other may never reach a desired solution; and, with the present roving bands, it may
indeed be impossible, in view of their long deg'a
59 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
dation. Few venture now, since the effort of a
Schoolcraft has been unavailing, to even stand up
long in their defense. The shafts of sarcasm and
ill-concealed contempt, which is leveled at these
efforts, doubtless deters many whose hearts are
inclined to be moved in their behalf, so far at least
as to demand justice and fair treatment.
Gen. Jackson was too much of a fighting-man
to allow any high moral duties to enter into the
calculation of any of the rights of the Florida Indians; and the battles partook of the vengeful
spirit of the chiefs.
Osceola and Little Cloud were among the more
distinguished of the Indian chiefs; but of Coa-couchee, though less is known, that little is full of
unusual interest.  HIe  was perhaps  the  royal
prince. He was a son of the famous King
Philip, and hence was an hereditary chief, which
was not the case with Osceola, who was an
accidental or elected chief, and only a half-blood
Indian. Our royal scion might h]lave served for a
model,- tall, straight, and slender, with the eye
of an eagle, and as shrewd, agile, and untiring
as history has painted him: yet he was captured,
but subsequently escaped by leaping down from
60 
DREAM OF COA-COU-CHEE.
the tower of San Marco Castle at St. Augustine,
where he had been kept imprisoned. He was
again captured, and this time so heavily ironed and
so long imprisoned, that his proud spirit was bent
if not broken; and, to procure his release, he was
compelled to sign articles of removal to a home west
of the Mississippi River, and also to induce his tribe,
now but a remnant, to go with him. This they
consented to do for their chief's sake. Coa-couchee, believing in the protection of the Great
Spirit, was measurably reconciled to the loss
of his beautiful home and glorious huntinggrounds, and to an exile in what was to him an
unknown and distant land. The historian Sprague
tells the story of a dream as related to him by this
Prince of the flowery land, which occurred while
confined in the dungeons of the fortress at St.
Augustine.
"The day and manner of my death," he says,
" are given out, so that, whatever I may encounter,
I fear nothing. The spirits of the Seminoles
protect me; and the spirit of my twin-sister, who
died many years ago, watches over me. When I
am laid in the earth, I shall go to live with her.
She died suddenly. I was out hunting; and, when
61
I 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
seated by my camp-fire alone, I heard a strange
noise, - a voice that told me to go to her. The
camp was some distance off; but I took my wife
and started. The night was dark and gloomy;
the wolves howled about me. As I went from
hummock to hummock, sounds came often to my
ear: I thought she was speaking to me. At daylight I reached the camp, and she was dead! I
sat down alone, and under the long gray moss of
the trees, when I heard strange'sounds again. I
felt myself moving, and went alone into a new
country, where all was bright and beautiful. I
saw clear-water ponds, rivers, and prairies upon
which the sun never set.  All was green:  the
grass grew higfh, and the deer stood in the midst
looking at me.  I then saw a small white cloud
approaching; and, when just before me, out of it
came my twin-sister, dressed in white, and covered
with bright silver ornaments: her long black hair,
which I had often braided, fell down upon her
back. She clasped me around the neck and said,
' Coa-cou-chee! Coa-cou-chee!'  I shook with
fear. I knew her voice, but could not speak.
With one hand, she gave me a string of white
beads: in the other, she held a cup sparkling with
62 
SPANISH DUNGEONS.
pure water. As I drank, she sang the peace-song
of the Seminoles, and danced around me. She
had silver bells on her feet, which made a loud,
sweet noise. Taking from her bosom something,
she laid it before me, when a bright blaze stream
ed above us. She took me by the hand, and said,
' All is peace!'  I wanted to ask for others; but
she shook her head, stepped into the cloud, and
was gone. All was silent. I felt myself sinking,
until I reached the earth, when I met my brother
Chllilka. He had been seeking me, and was alarmed at my absence."
Coa-cou-chee was undoubtedly greatly influenced to sign the articles of removal in view of this
dream. There are, perhaps, no people so studious
as the untutored savage to follow what they believe
to be the dictates of the Great Spirit, whom they
hold in such supreme reverence and awe.
When he was asked what had become of the
"white beads," he declared he had lost them in
the darkness of his dungeon at St. Augustine.
We can the more readily credit this, having ourselves been permitted to enter them for inspection;
and surely darker and more dismal caverns of
prisons can not possibly be even imagined. To say
63 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
that they were constructed under the supervision
of the Spaniards is sufficient assurance of their
completeness for every purpose for which they
were made.
Standing once more free, on the deck of the
ship in Tampa Bay which was to transport him
and his people beyond the Mississippi, folding
his arms upon his breast, he gazed intently upon
his native land, wrapt in silent contemplation of
the past and its eventful history; and, running in
thought up the long line of his royal ancestry and
back to his own and his nation's humiliation,
his proud heart for the first time melted, and
blinding tears veiled his sight. Turning silently
away from view of the land which held all that
was dear to him, he breathed a brief prayer to the
Great Spirit; then, gathering up his mantle, sank
down upon the deck, never again to gladden his
eyes with the scenes of his youth he loved so well.
The Union had acquired, by the cession of this
territory, 59,268 square miles, embracing about
thirty-eight millions of acres, or an area nearly
equal in extent to all of New England. A very
64 
GEOLOGICAL FORMATION.
large proportion of this is an extensive marsh,
which during the rainy season, between June
and October, effectually prevents an overland
transit from one shore to the other in the southern
portion. The northern and eastern section of the
peninsula is of, a level character; the middle and
western portion will be found in places quite
uneven and considerably elevated, yet no mountains will be found.
The geological formation of Florida is of comparatively recent origin, and is indeed among
the latest-formed land on the continent, excepting
only the delta of the  Mississippi  River.   Its
present condition would, even to the ordinary
scientist, give many proofs of this; but we are
not without the opinions of learned savans on
this question, who hold that the whole peninsula
has been formed by the successive growths of coral
reefs, added concentrically, from north to south, to
the first deposits, while the accumulation between
these reefs has been a mixture of coral and fragments of shells: the coral prevailing in some parts,
as in the regions of the everglades; and in other
5
65 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
portions, especially the northern and eastern, the
shell.  In various places, imbedded in these shells,
fossil remains of animals now inhabiting the country may be found. Upon this marine limestone
formation and its inequalities, fresh-water lakes
exist. On the shores of one of these,- Lake
Monroe, - near the head waters of the St. John's,
and through which that river passes, we exhumed
the remains of human beings. They were in a
most remarkable state of preservation, and indicated a race of men equal in stature to that of the
strongest of Anglo-Saxons. It is not known how
long a period these remains have been buried; but
a learned writer has said that Upper Florida, as far
south as the head waters of the St. John's, constituted a prominent peninsula before Lake Okee-cholee was formed, and that the whole of the southern extremity of the State, with the everglades,
has been added to that part of the continent
since the basin has been in existence in which the
strata with human bones have been accumulating.
Agassiz, in referring to the formation of the lower
and later half of the peninsula, that part which
lies south of the fresh-water system, - being in
extent some three degrees of latitude, - assumes,
66 
GROWTH OF THE CONTINENT.
that if the rate of growth be one foot in a century
from a depth of seventy-five feet, and that each
successive reef has added ten miles of extent
southward, it would have required, on this computation, one hundred and thirty-five thousand years
to have formed the southern half of the peninsula
above referred to. The peculiar growth of some
of the islands of the Carribean Sea is quite like
that of the lower half of the peninsula of Florida.
They are formed on the tops of some mountain
under the sea; and, through the agency of animals
which inhabit the water, these coral growths are
established on them, and are gradually elevated to
the surface.
It is altogether probable, that, previous to the
last four centuries, there was nothing known of
this continent by the Europeans. After its discovery, the appellation of the New World was given
to contradistinguish it from the eastern hemisphere.
It was to them indeed a new empire;  and its
marvelous attractions in climate, fruits, and flowers led them to great exertions in the way of discovery and exploration.   They  little  dreamed
that this vast continent was peopled throughout its
entire extent, anid that its birth antedated that of
67 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
their own "Old World;" yet later investigations
prove this to be true, and also startle us of the
present century, when  we are informed that an
exuberant flora existed in Louisiana more than
one hundred and fifty thousand years ago, and that
in all probability the human race existed in tihe
delta of the Mississippi over fifty thousand years
ago. The reasons by which these conclusions are
reached are generally well known and accepted
by the more eminent geologists.
In the course of excavating for some public
works, it is stated, at New Orleans, the laborers
came to and cut through four successive growths
of cypress timber, the lowest so old as to cut like
cheese; and one tree was found full ten feet in
diameter. The growth of these trees is very slow,
requiring about one hundred rings to give an
inch in diameter from the center. This would
make the age of the largest about six thousand
years. It is not known how many generations of
these trees have perished on each of the several
levels; but it is assumed that at least two have.
This would give to each strata of cypress growth
twelve thousand years; and the four growths multiplied by this, to which must likewise be added
68 
THE NTIQUITY OF MAN.
the era of plants prior to the cypress, estimated at
fifteen hundred years, also the present live-oak
platform, or era, thought to be about the same in
time, would make a grand total of fifty-one thousand years. And it was under this fourth growth
of cypress, that a skeleton of a human being was
found, belonging to the aboriginal American
family! This was found within about fifty feet of
the surface, while the total depth of the delta
itself is between five and six hundred feet, and is
believed to have required fully one hundred and
fifty thousand years for its accumulation.* This
is probably somewhere near the age of the lower
half of the peninsula of Florida.   How much
older the upper portion may be is unknown; but
that even dwindles into comparative insignificance
when we contemplate the age of the elevated portions of the continent. This much as to the formation and age of the peninsula; and we pass to
the consideration of its admission into the Union.
The territory, embracing the two provinces of
East and West Florida, was consolidated, and
* See Types of Mankind.
69 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
Gen. Jackson was its first territorial governor.
In 1845, Florida was admitted into the Union; and
for a time there was comparative quiet, and new
settlements were established. But poor, harassed
Florida was not long to enjoy either peace or prospelity. The secession movement in 1860 raged
in all portions of the South; and this State, with
others, was by fraud and violence carried out of
the Union. It soon became again, for almost the
hundredth time, a theater for war. The general
government at once occupied all of its chief seaports, and places along its rivers, with troops;
and incursions into the interior were the standing
order. No great battle was fought within its
borders, though numerous and sanguinary conflicts were caused by the various raiding-parties in
all the more northern portions of the State.
Finally the war ended, and peace again has
spread her wings over this oft devastated and many
times ruined people. And now let us hope that
this is the inauguration of a prolonged and flourishing period which time has in store for her.
Thus far we have considered Florida as a unit:
while giving its general history, we could scarce
have pursued any other course, and make ourselves
70 
THE TWO PROVINCES.
at all intelligible to the reader. It was perhaps
desirable to cover the whole ground in that particular, as a clearer idea would be formed of the
eastern half, as related to the State and its eventful history. The territory was, however, early
divided into two provinces, known as East and
West Florida; and in each there was for many
years a local head. As it suits our present plan to
continue the division, we shall hereafter speak
mainly of the eastern half, since our travels and
observations have been confined to that region,
except, perhaps, in a casual way, when we (ome
to treat of the climate and the products of the.
State in future chapters.
71 
CHAPTER V.
UP THE ST. JOH-N'S TO JACKSONVILLE.
The Harbor of Fernandina.- Entering the St. John's River.-Ap  pearance and Impressions given of the Country.- The St. John's
River contrasted. - Its Peculiarities.- Jacksonville, its Rail  roads and Hotels.- Its Rapid Growth, and Large Commerce.  Its Suburban Residences. - The St. James Hotel. - The Lum  ber Trade.- Mail and Telegraph Facilities.
IT was five o'clock in the morning, when the
steamer  "City Point" rounded  the  southern
end of Amelia Island, and steamed up to the
wharf at Fernandina.   We  roused  ourselves
firom a broken, weary slumber, and, drawing aside
the blinds to our state-room window, cast our
eyes for the first time upon this antiquated town,
situate near the mouth of St. Mary's River, and
at thle extreme north-eastern corner of the State.
It was low tide; and the wharf had a kind of
black-spider look, which did not charm, neither
did it deter us from dressing, and proceeding on
shore. The wharf is a projecting one, with a
72 
FERNANDINA.
commodious  warehouse  at the  landing.   The
morning was darkened by a sea-fog, which now
commenced to drift in, partially obscuring observation. A brief excursion satisfied us that this
was an uninviting place to stay in. Its look of
decay and hard times seemed as legible as if
written on every plank in town. Beyond the
sight of the railroad, which runs from here to
Cedar Keys, there was nothing of special interest.
Hurrying back to the steamer, which till now
had seemed never so friendly, we were glad to
receive its protection, and quite rejoiced when the
wheels splashed the water, bearing us away.
The truth was, we were disappointed; and this
made us feel homesick, and created a wish that
the steamer would head northward, and away
from the desolate shores of Amelia Island.
A  few hours of steaming brought us near to
the bar in front of the mouth of the River St.
John's, - called in the times of Bartram, St. Juan.
The fog, was dense, and the locality dangerous for
an advance: thirty minutes of this bewilderment,
and the penalty paid is detention till the succeeding tide. A few moments, however, and a whif
of air drives the fog, and lifts it skywards. The
73 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
pilot is proved skillful, for we lay but a few yards
from the mouth of the river. Crowding, on all
steam, we barely pass over the bar; and then,
fair sailing.   And this is the famous river of
which we have so much heard, and whose praises
are being sounded far and wide by every tourist
who visits it.
Passing the headlands, an open flat, or savanna,
appears, in width perhaps five miles, extending
however, many miles up along the coast as
far as the eye can reach. The river crosses, in a
westerly direction, this low tract, much resembling the Jersey flats between Newark and New
York.   We  soon  pass  on, and  by the solid
banks of the main land.   Three hundred years
ago and more, Jean Ribault threaded his way
over the dangerous quicksands at the entrance of
this noble river, and, proceeding up, landed, and
built a monument of discovery; then sailed away,
to return in a few years with a colony of his
countrymen, who were subsequently slaughtered
by the Spaniards, as we have seen in a previous
chapter.
Not more than a mile from the mouth of the
river, and on the banks of this low marsh, we
74 
MAY  PORT.
saw, to our great wonderment, as the steamer
hugg(d the  banks, seven alligators of varying
sizes, and all within a few yards of each other.
They did not stir, or even wink, so far as one
could observe, though the steamer's waves washed
up to and partially over them.  This was a new
and curious silght, and gave promise of some fine
sport, which it was hinted we should have on the
upper portion of the river, where they abound.
Having, passed through  this savanna, or low
marsh, we steam close to the bank of the river,
keeping the principal channel; and, as we stand
upon the decks, our attention is called to the
first landing, May Port, an inconsiderable place.
A  rickety old wharf of palmettoes, with several
corresponding habitations, constitutes every thing.
But here we catch the first glimpses of a tropical
growth.  A  few rods distant from  the landing
stands a small grove of palmettoes;  though not
over  twenty-five  feet  in  height,   yet  their
peculiar character attracts the attention of the
Northern  traveler.   Casting your eye  farther
inland, and the green forests tell of a perpetual
spring; and we now realize that we have passed
from the chilling winds of a Northern winter to
75 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
the genial skies of that sunny land, of which we
so often hear, but seldom or never experience in
any other of the Southern States.
A recent traveler, entering the river, and
sailing westward across the marsh before referred
to, to the point of the main land where the river
turns abruptly southward, asserts, that, in making
this turn, a curious atmospheric phenomenon i-met
with: a current of warm air is so suddenly encountered, drawing down the river, that the
change is like going from a cold hall into a warm
room;  that this change can  be observed, not
only on a calm day, but when a high wind is
blowingc. It is undoubtedly the gate, as it were,
to that tropical land where perpetual summer
reigns.
The invalid and the tourist flock eagerly to the
steamer's decks, to drink in this balmy air, and
feast their eyes on the green foliage of the forest
which flanks on either side the water's edge.
The drooping spirits of the passengers rise as the
steamer advances up the broad and beautiful river
which so delights all eyes and gives eloquence to
every tongue. The surface of the country is low
and uriform, presenting none of those grand an4
76 
THE ST. JOHN'S RIVER.
startling features which characterize the Hudson
or render the Connecticut  surprisingly lovely;
yet it possesses a marked and pleasing contrast to
the muddy waters of the Santee, Cooper, Savannah, and other rivers of the South.  Its shores of
glistening white sand, and rich verdure of Southern
foliage along its banks, with its broad, expansive,
slow-moving waters, attract and interest all, and
especially those who are accustomed only to the
bolder outlines and scantier vegetation of the more
northern water-courses.
The course o' the River St. John is noteworthy.
There are but few rivers on the globe, of any
magnitude, that run in the same direction. Rising
in the southern half of the State, fed by and
flowing  out  of  that  vast  fresh-water  basin
formed by the everglades and savannas, and cominencing below the 28th degree of latitude, it runs
in a due northerly course for about two  hundred miles, when it abruptly turns  eastward,
and empties into the ocean.  It is a magnificent
hilghway, and is to Eastern Florida what the Hudson is to Eastern New York.   We know of but
two rivers of any importance whose direction is
exactly the same,   One  of these  drains  the
77 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
northern limits of British America, and debouches
into the Arctic Ocean; and the other, having its
sources in Middle Europe, into the Baltic Sea.
We have said the St. John's was a noble river: and
it is truly so; for what river can the reader call to
mind, which he has seen, that for over one hundred miles of its length has a general average of
even one mile and a half?  We know of but one
other in this countiry, which would come even up to
this estimate. Yet shall the truth be credited,
when we state that this river will average about
three miles in width for the distance above named!
In places it expands to twice that; and we can not
recall seeing it contract at any point to less than a
mile, after you get fairly into the river, until Lake
George is passed, above Palatka, when it narrows
suddenly, and continues thus to Lake Monroe,
which is the head of regular steamboat navigation,
though a small steamer does go on as far as Lake
Harney, and even beyond, but only at the instance
of excursion parties. This portion of the river,
known as the " Upper St. Jolhn's," we shall speak
of in a subsequent chapter; meanwhile we return
to " The City Point," on which we were just now
steaming up, on our way to Jacksonville, some
78 
THE CITY OF JACKSONVILLE.
twenty miles from the river's mouth.   Passing
Yellow Bluff, a small landing of trifling inmportance, at which the steamer halted, and rounding
a bold point in the river, we heave in sight of
Jacksonville, the commniercial metropolis and business center of Eastern Florida. All eyes are
upon the town, and all are pleasantly surprised to
see what is apparently and actually a flourishing
little city.  Its bright, cheerful appearance, having
a fine view, as we near the pier, is attractive, and
so differing fiom  Fernandina, the  first  point
touchl-led in the State, that we already are having
our original anticipations more than realized, and
begin to rejoice that we have made the journey,
which was undertaken at the outset with some
misgiving,s.
JACKSONVILLE
is situated on the western bank of the river. There
is a ferry across to the opposite shore, where are a
number of pleasant homes, and among them is that
of the present State Executive, Gov. Reed. The old
stage-road, called the "Kings Road," runs from this
place along the coast, north, into Georgia, and across
the river south-west some forty miles, to St. Augustine. The travel now goes to that place chiefly bythe
79 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA
way of Picolata, some thirty miles lip the river,
thence by stage eighteen miles across. The railroad connections of Jacksonville are considerable,
and give a life and bustle to the town which we
scarce  expected.   True,  but one line of road
enters the city; but this runs in direct connection with the various roads in, and those entering
the State. At Baldwin, some twenty miles west,
connection is made with the Fernandina and Cedar
Keyes Road, which crosses at that point. Proceeding westward to Live-Oak Junction, connection is made with the Florida and Atlantic and
Gulf R. R., for Savannah, which is distant from
Jacksonville twelve hours and a half by the night
express-train.   Continuing westward from Live
Oak, the road runs through to Tallahassee and St.
Marks on the Gulf.
Jacksonville, named for Gen. Jackson, is an incorporated city, having the usual city officers and
a board of trade. It is regularly laid out, having
eight principal streets about two miles long, and
running parallel with the river: these are crossed
by others  at  right angles, their length  being
easily extended, ad infinitum. Shade-trees abound,
and of fine size, consisting of live and water oaks,
80 
THE SUBURBS OF JACKSONVILLE.
the latter making for this purpose much the finest
tree. Its luxuriant and rapid growth and hardiness have caused it to be adopted. They are both
evergreens. From the river, northward a short
distance, the land has a gentle elevation; then
descends, terminating in a low tract or swamp.
On the north-western side of the city is a beautifill bluff, covered with attractive residences, shaded
with stately trees, and bearing the pleasant name
of " La  Villa."   The view up the river from
this point is delightful. Fifteen miles away is
Mandarin, a projecting tongue of land, which, from
where we stand, seems to sever the river. The
river has such a reach of view from this point, and
such breadth of waters, as to give the appearance
of a lake with wooded shores, fifteen miles
long and from three to five miles wide. Passing
on from this village a short distance, and toward
the river-banks, you come to the new town, appropriately  named  " Riverside,"  and  likewise  a
suburb of Jacksonville. This place is now being
built up, and designed to lie mlade a select quarter.
Its streets are spacious, and a park has been reserved, and many shade-trees planted. None but
fine buildings are to be erected; and all must be
6
81 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
painted, instead of whitewashed,- a practice followed by owners of cheaper dwellings in the
city.
No city of the South can show better evidences
of prosperity, or a larger increase of population,
relatively, than Jacksonville.
The waste and stagnation caused by the war
has in this place quite disappeared.
On every hand, we behold the magic touch of
Northern hands and Northern capital. Whichever
way we turn, new buildings and stores greet our
view; old ones being enlarged, streets cleaned,
and substantial, or at least convenient plankwalks laid where lately they were innocent of any
such improvement. On the river, wharves are
enlarged, till now its accommodations seem ample
for an extensive commerce. In short, new impulses and new ideas have seized the town; and its
present watchword is "Forward."
The population of the place is about six thousand, increased during the winter months to about
eight thousand, by the influx of strangers from
all portions of the North, seeking temporary
homes. Not until the past year has there been
any thing like adequate accommodations for this
82 
HOTELS AT JACKSONVILLE.
large number, not taking into account the,onstant
flow of visitors going and returning. Great exertions have been and are being made to supply the
demand for small houses, and Northern energy
and capital are kept busy. Even that venerable
and itinerant agriculturist of" The Tribune," SIr.
Solon Robinson, is busied almost night and day, we
should judge, in  superintending  and  building
houses of this class.
As to hotels, there are several; though the most
pretentious is " The St. James," erected in time
to reap considerable of a harvest from last season's
business. It is a large, overgrown, yet rather imposing establishment, capable of receiving two
hundred guests. It is situated about half a mile
from the steamboat landing, and likewise the railroad depot, and seems every way adapted to the
wants of the traveling public. Another house of
equal capacity is, we learn, contemplated.  " The
Stickney House" has a good reputation, and
several friends stopping there spoke very well of
it.  There are, in addition, the "Price" and
"Tyler" houses, and numerous private boardinghouses kept by Northern people, with pleasant
surroundings, and quite as inviting as the hotels to
83 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
those seeking but a temporary home. Price of
board ranges from twenty-five dollars to ten dollars
per week at these various places.   Unfurnished
cottages can be had from twenty dollars to thirty
dollars per month. Pleasant furnished rooms in
private houses, including fuel, light, and attendance, are from four dollars to six dollars per week;
and the best board, without rooms, at the hotels, is
eleven dollars per week, while in boarding-houses
it can be obtained at a less figure. Laundry work
is extra, and costs usually one dollar per dozen.
The town contains ten churches, four of which
are colored, the most of them having pastors.
But the most of them need paint, with a little upholstering, which, with a few additional yards of
carpeting, would, even in Jacksonville, - more favored than many towns of the South, - add much
to the comfort of both residents and strangers.
But time will change this, and we must not expect
overmuch from those who are already doing great
credit to themselves.
The colored element in Jacksonville is numerically the largest. They support churches and
schools, and are represented in the city government and in the courts, and are to be found, as
84 
STEAM SAW-MILLS.
they always have been more or less, in the mechanics' shops and behind the counters of some
stores.  Under and by the direction of'the Freedman's Bureau, a normal-school building was some
time since erected, at a cost of fourteen thousand dollars, which offers superior educational advantages for all classes; though we are informed
that none but colored children avail themselves of
its benefits.
The chief article of manufacture and export,
not only from this city, but from Eastern Florida,
is pine lumber. Jacksonville has over a half-dozen
extensive steam saw-mills, kept constantly in motion, cutting up logs into lumber for the markets
north. Whole forests go down to keep the maws of
these monsters supplied. Whether this will always
last is doubtful; for, in the aggregate, a small
army is kept plying the axe just back of the main
river and along its tributaries. We say "just back"
firom the river. Along the banks of the watercourses no pine lumber grows; but a short distance
back from them, in many cases less than a hundred
rods, pine lumber abounds: indeed, it is the chief
thing in this State, as it is in all the States belting
the Atlantic, as far up as the Janaes River in
Virginia.
85 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
The commerce of this place is equal to that of
some cities in the North of three times its population. Brigs, schooners, and steamers, several in
the aggregate, arrive and depart almost daily for
different ports up the river or along the sea-coast
from Savannah to Portland.
A daily mail arrives by rail from the North; and
this, with the telegraph, gives Jacksonville an importance which no other town in East Florida possesses: indeed, this is the only town which has
both of these luxuries, though all the river-towns
have abundant mail facilities.  There is a telegraph to St. Augustine.
In our next chapter, we shall continue our voyage up the river, noting every thing of interest
which came under our observation.
86 
CHAPI ER VI.
FROM JACKSONVILLE TO GREEN-COVE SPRINGS.
Attractions of the Lower St. John's. - Its Great Width.- The Pas  sengers, their Hopes, and Prospects.- Iandarin, the Winitcr Besi  dence of Mrs. Stowe.-Ancient Landmarks. - Hibernia and Mag  nolia Point.- Green-Cove Springs.- Its Attractions for Invalids.
- Capt. Henderson and his Northern Friends.- Black Creek and
Alligators. -An Adventure.- PRide to Middleburg.
A BEAUTIFUL day is this in which to resume our
trip.  The sun comes out full and warm: overcoats are not thought of. It is quite like a warm
day in May, when the bees are busy with  the
flowers, and apple-orchards are more fragrant and
delig,htfiul than any Eastern perfume. The air
seems redolent with the odor of balsam and wild
flowers, wafted thitherward by southern gales,
while on either shore the foliage is bursting into
freshest and tenderest green, contrasting finely
with the dark verdure of the perennial laurel, oak,
and magnolia, which line the river-sides.
It is a common term, "up the river," or " up
87 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
north; " and since most rivers rt n southerly, up
the river gives an impression of goiing northward.
We say " up north" and "down south.;" these
terms are all understood when thus used: but to
say " up the river," in speaking of the St. Johns's,
means going south, since the river runs from the
south toward tbhe north. Hence, every revolution
of the stealrer's wheels carries us "up the river,"
and at the same time "down south."
By the time our steamer had gotten fairly under
way, the passengers had chiefly assembled upon
the decks to feast their eyes on each interesting
point and feature of the river, and to gaze in wonder at its emerald shores, which now stand several
miles away on either hand, while our vessel plows
its trackless way in the center of the river.
Turning toward Jacksonville, it seems but a
small village, and nearly hidden at that by its
luxuriant shade-trees. If one were suddenly placed
where we now are, the first query would likely be,
"What lake is this?" and such it seems to those
who have been accustomed only to the streams
and rivers of New England.
Our passengers may be divided into four classes,
and preponderate in the order in which they are
88 
THE PASSENGERS.
named: first, those who are seeking pleasure; second, those who are seeking health; third, those who
come to invest in land for speculation or occupancy;
fourth, the resident population living along the
river, and traveling on their ordinary business.
The first and more numerous class appear generally
to realize their object, and are greatly interested
and delighted with every thing they see, which is so
novel, if not so wonderful, as to engage and enliven
them constantly. It is indeed a source of real
amusement to observe the younger portion of this
class rush from point to point, as some stray member of the company spies some near or distant object thought worthy of the others' attention. The
next class, the invalids, are not so demonstrative,
but show many signs of confident hope and real
delight to find themselves in a climate where they
can, with comparative impunity, not only sit and
walk in the open, genial air without detriment, but
with real benefit to their spirits and general health.
This class is largely composed of those on whom
disease has so recently fastened itself as to scarce
indicate its presence. These must be very greatly
benefited, if not wholly cured; while others are so
far reduced as to make traveling of any kind a
8t 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
burthen and labor. Such we greatly pity; for in
their faces hope is a stranger, and they can not
long remain in any clime or earthly habitation.
They come here to die, far from home, deprived
of the sympathy and attention of loving and watchfill friends, and of home-comforts which money
can not purchase. It is true that the people here
are kind, and give such attention as is in their
power; yet this does not compensate for a wife's,
a mother's, or a sister's tender interest and presence.
The speculative class may be known by their
inquisitive look. Every feature of their face seems
an interrogation point. They seem bent on extracting from you informiation as to the best location, kind of soil, and climate, and if'there are any
snakes in that neighborhood, and if we know of a
good place for a hotet! Many are the times we
have been greatly amused by the ingenious
methods of these persons in their attempts at eliciting their prized information.  To such as we felt
were anxious to locate, our limnited knowledge was
freely imparted; but to the other portion of this
class, those looking for a "good thing to hold,"
our snake-stories had no relish: they were twice too
90 
THE RESIDENCE OF MRS. STOWE.
long and plenty for their fancy, and they invariably "moved on," quite astonished and disappointed.
Nothing but the "pesky rebels and them are
snakes" gave them cause for any apprehension.
There is a good deal of a fitful fever of speculation, which is prevented from settling into any
thing like a decided type, in consequence of the
difficulties surrounding a good title. Then, too,
many of those who hold lands are women  (widows,
made so perhaps by the war); and these especially,
if asked to set a price, fear to do so lest they should
regret not having asked twice as much. Purchasers are not a little disgusted, and generally
return without having made an investment. By
and by these things will change; and, even as it is,
new settlers are working their way into all portions
of the State.
A long shrill whistle by the steamer announces a landing, and the wharf at
MANDARIN
lies just before us. This place is famous as the winter
residence of MIrs. Stowe. It is but a small settleinent, of perhaps a hlalf-dozen dwellings scattered
along a tongue of land projecting toward the center of the river, and forming a kind of bay. The
outlook is northerly toward Jacksonville, which
91 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
lies half a score of miles distant down the river.
The location of Mandarin is exceedingly pleasant,
and the view fine and far-reaching.
The water near the bank of the river on tlhe
Lower St. John's is quite shallow, necessitating a
projecting pier of some length at all of the landings; and this is especially the case at Mandarin.
Mrs. Stowe's house is near the bank, and but a few
rods to the left of the shore-end of the pier. It is
of a dark brown color, of very moderate cottage
size, wholly unpretending in appearance, and quite
inexpensive. The chief feature of her place, as
seen from the river, is its magnificent towering
shade-trees, -the water-oak.  They attract and
fasten the eyes of all by their unusual size and
beauty. Their wide-spread and over-shadowing
branches give an air of seclusion and dignity to the
quiet home beneath. Her place, we are informed,
consists of some forty acres in the rear of her
dwelling, with three or four acres of orange-trees,
large enough to bear fruit. This grove is being
added to, and doubtless in time she will possess a
very large and beautiful orcharid and one of great
value.
There is but one small boardinghouse at Man
92 
HIBERNIA -MAGNOLIA POINT.
darin, and few disembark; none that we notice,
except such as reside in the vicinity. The mails
being exchanged and freight left, we steam on, and
up the river; and, rounding the point,
HIBERNIA
is seen just ahead, on our starboard bow. Beyond
is a spacious, overgrown New-England-appearing
farm-house, hid behind clustering trees and
branches, on a pleasant and inviting spot of land;
and, aside from this, nothing else appears. The
steamer stops, and here a goodly number leave for
the hotel. Here and there appears an occasional
fine plantation, with comfortable dwellings and
numerous outbuildings, once the house of the
lordly planter and his slaves, but now simply
monuments of a past and exploded system.
Next is
MAGNOLIA,
with a large and commodious hotel. This place
was formerly owned by Dr. W. D. Benedict, and
originally selected by him after careful examination for its attractive natural scenery and high
sanitary reputation. This property has recently
been purchased by Dr. S. Rogers and 0. F. iHar
93 
A WVINTER IN FLORIDA.
ris, formerly of Worcester, Mass., and by them
greatly improved; the buildings having been ens
larged, thoroughly repaired, and newly furnished
throughout for the accommodation of about one
hundred guests. From the reputation of these
new proprietors, we should judge visitors would
find this a desirable winter home. The house is
to be opened by the first of November. Its
proximity to Jacksonville and Green Cove Springs
give it some advantages not possessed by towns
further up the river. The facilities for reaching
these several towns, situate on the banks of the
St. John's, are the same. The Savannah, Charleston, and river steamers all touch, going up and
down, long enough to leave or take aboard both
passengers and freight. The captain of one of
the river steamers states that Magnolia Point, contiguous to Magnolia, is one of the highest, if not
the highest point of land extending into the river
between Jacksonville and Palatka. It certainly
has two commanding views: that down the river
extends to Mandarin, and up the river your prospect is not less circumscribed.  Black Creek, a
navigable stream for twenty miles, and quite well
settled, empties into the St. John's but a short
94 
GREEN-COVE SPRINGS.
distance north of Magnolia Point. Small steamers
make trips regularly once a week from Jacksonville
up Black Creek as far as Middleburg, and  not
unfrequently oftener, as parties or business require.
Immense quantities of pine timber and lumber
are floated down this creek to Jacksonville; and an
equal quantity of alligators might be taken out,
we have no doubt, if there were only as good a
market for them as for the lumber, which at
present unfortunately does not  appear.  These
animals, after passing the first few miles at the
mouth of the river,- which is through a low
marsh, as we have stated, -  are scarcely seen
between Jacksonville and Palatka, not because
they are not numerous enough, perhaps, but for
the reason that they find more quiet and better
feeding-places in the coves and up the large and
small creeks which flow into the St. John's; and,
among these, Black Creek seems a favorite resort.
Two miles beyond Magnolia, past-the first point
of land, a beautiful spacious bay is seen, on the
shores of which stands
95 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
GREEN-COVE SPRINGS.
This is the first village after Jacksonville, and the
only considerable place between it and Palatka, a
distance of one hundred miles (round numbers).
More than a score of well-dressed people are
standing on the end of the pier, awaiting our
arrival: and full that number land with piles of
baggage, looking quite as though they had come to
stay; and this is likely, for here the tourist and
invalid find extra attractions as the name would
indicate.  There  is a healthful  and  charming
spring here, where all may bathe and frequent,
without money or price. The village is scattered
along and back from the banks, in a somewhat
straggling manner, with not over thirty dwellings;
yet you feel their influence and companionship,
and this drives off the blues, and is certainly an
advantage to thie invalid as also the traveler.
The accommodations for guests are quite ample;
though, if they were greater, tllev would not stand
idle.  We know of quite a number, wh-o, coming
in on the steamer, were informed that all rooms
were filled, and were obliged to re-embark and
seek some less frequented place. There is a large
96 
ACCOMM5fODATIONS AT GREEN COVE.  97
hotel here, The Union House, kept by MIrs. Eaton,
though nlominallv in charge of MAir. Remington, a
Northern man. This house will receive comfortably about fifty guests. It is large and airy, but
shockiingly needs a coat of paint and some repairs,
and also more prompt attention to guests, to make
it more welcome as a home.  Still, it does very
nicely; and doubtless it is the intention of the
owner to introduce the suggested improvements
by another season. There is also a large boarding-hlouse near the spring, whose proprietor has
such an odd foreign name that it quite escapes us.
His house accommodates twenty.* Then a few private families open their houses and receive guests.
Capt. Henry Henderson  and his warm-hearted
companion never turn any away if they have any
sort of accommodations for them. Their house is
not large, but it covers a great many people.
Capt. Henderson is a favorite with the visitors.
His extensive acquaintance with, and long experience in the State, have given him a vast fund of
information and anecdote with which he beguiles
the evening hours,- the center of attentive circles.
Everybody knows him among the natives; and he
* Captain Glinskie.
7 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
is muc} respected and esteemed by them as a man
of spotless integrity and honor. He is a native of
St. Lawrence County, New York, and has been
in Florida forty-five years: he is now seventythree years of age, yet he boasts of his ability to
"take his horse and hunt with any of the boys."
He enjoys a social game of eucher; and scarce an
evening, when not interesting some one with his
wild and fascinating adventures, hlie  might  be
found seated with Tompkins of Stony Point, Merrill of Vermont, and Hughes of Ohlio, each trying
to outdo the other in friendly strife. The captain
is hale and hearty still.
Our home in this village was with the family of
P.R.  Coleman of Orang,e County, New  York.
He has been in the State but a couple of years.
He came out alone, afflicted with chronic rhleumatism; but settling at this point, by systematic
bathing and copious drinking of the pleasant waters
of the spring here, hlie claims to be entirely cured:
certainly he has now a fresh and vigorous appearence. Deciding to settle here, he sent for his
family; and with them we found a comfortable
home.   MIrs. Coleman,  a most  amiable lady,
brought with her what many people can never
98 
CHARACTER OF THE SPRING.
carry, for obvious reasons, the perfect art of house keepilng as known in our best Northern homes.
Should this family remain at Green Cove, we feel
bound to assure all who are so fortunate as to find
lodgings under their roof, that they need borrow
no trouble or anxiety as to their comfort while they
remain.
The price of board varies from ten to fifteen
dollars per week. By the day, at the hotel, it is
three dollars; at the private houses, two dollars.
Fresh fish, venison, and fowl grace the tables in
this village, and can usually be had in abundance.
The river is, in fact, full of every kind of fish,
and on its surface float nearly all kinds of waterfowl; while the woods afford an abundance of
game and wild animals, of wjhich we shall more
fully treat in some succeeding chapter.
The  spring is the attraction at Green Cove,
distant not over ten rods from the river, and
double that from the principal hotel.  It is owned,
as are most of the village lots, by two parties,Mrs. Ferris and a Mr. Palmer at Jacksonville;
who being opposed to improvements, and seemingly to every enterprise as well as to their own
interests, suffer the spring to remain surrounded
e....
9I
e";ka-          X~ 
i)Flit 
99 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
by a clump of wild trees, which, however, serves
a good purpose in screening bathers; yet it is not
to the interest of the villagers to have affairs continue in their present unimproved state. The
spring has scooped for itself a bed, twenty by
fifty feet, and lies some ten feet below the surrounding level. It flows freely from its fountainhead into this spacious reservoir, of an average of
five feet in depth, and then runs rapidly off to the
river.  The  water is at a temperature  of,  we
should judge, about seventy-five degrees, very
pleasant, and thoroughly unharmful to drink. It
bursts up with considerable force, and clear as
crystal. It has a slight sulphurous taste, and leaves
slight traces of the same mineral on the sides of
the spring.   Both  magnesia and iron  are,  we
think, held in solution.  Every one spoke in high
praise of this spring-water, both as a drink and for
bathing uses; for the latter of which, regular
hours are assigned to the different sexes. A dozen
or more rude yet convenient dressing-hiouses surround it.
In a short time, Green Covre must become, for
invalids at least, the chief point of attraction on the
River St. John's. This conclusion we have come
:...:' 
100 
AN ADVENTURE.
to after having visited every other place on its
entire length. The sportsman, however, should
locate on the Upper St. John's, many miles above
this. The tourist and pleasure-seeker will not unlikely visit all the towns along the river; and even
this latter class would find this point a proper and
convenient one as a head-quarters. It has quick
and frequent communication with Jacksonville,
often several times each day; the mails are very
regular; and, in case of any exigency, the telegraph is accessible at the latter place, where also
the usual accessories to comfortable housekeeping
may be easily obtained.
Up Black Creek to Middleburg, the head of
navigation, is some twenty miles. The countyseat is located there; and before the war it was a
respectable village, with a convenient hotel, where
numerous invalids found cheap and not uncomfortable quarters. This, with other buildings, was
in one of the many raids through this section
destroyed. A small steamer runs up there once
each week from Jacksonville, when not otherwise
employed; which happened to be the case at the
time we were ready to go! A trip across the
country through the woods was resolved upon.
101 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
The needed equipments were a horse and " Colt,"
the latter of the revolving breed; to procure which,
we were directed down the river road, a mile away,
and thither we bent our steps. The first halfmile we had no difficulty in following the "road;"
after that, it became a serious question: but, keeping the edge of the river, we came where several
old slabs, and a log or two half submerged, lay
across the arm of a projecting pool, overgrown
with pond-lilies, and filled with water as black as
ink, colored doubtless by the decaying vegetable
matter it held. We essayed to cross. Rapid motion was a necessity.  Having gained the center
in comparative safety, we made a long stride, and
leaped on what seemed a portion of the floating,
jointless bridge; when, horror of horrors, in a moment, a flash of time, yet long enough to awaken us
to the imminent danger, a sudden, writhing plunge,
and fierce splash of the living tail of the supposed
log, and we went swirling into the water among
the slabs, from which our fright and frenzy speedily
brought us, somewhat wet and bruised, but exceedingly thankful.  The deceitful "old log, " was
a few yards away, slowly sailing toward a circle
of weeds and tall grass, with his round eyes just
102 
OUR ALLIGATOR.
above the water's surface, and evidently surveying
us, while we shook our impotent fists in rage at his
head. This clump of grass and reeds, we concluded, must have been a regular alligators' nest;
for, besides this big fellow that had so incontinently
upset us, we counted three others adjacent, and all
within five rods from the spot on which we now
stood. That alligators are comparatively harmless
to people, we had been told, and had now some
reason to believe: still, we should not like to encounter them in the water. A hundred years ago,
they were much more plentiful than now along this
river. Bartram, the younger, relates having seen
them everywhere along the river and the banks
of the St. John's. HIe also mentions their trying
to get into his boat when it was tied to the bank;
but he did not suppose it was their intention to
destroy it, but merely to possess its contents.
They will give fearful battle among themselves
frequently. The two master animals of different
communities have, like champions, been seen by
Bartram to engage each other in a terrible contest;
the others being silent spectators to the close of the
scene, when the friends of the winning combatant
would roar with a victorious clamor. We have
103 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
never heard of any person being destroyed by them,
or injured except when imprudently approaching
them on shore while wounded. We might have
captured one had Mr. Murray's intrepid guide, of
Adirondack celebrity, been along at the time of
Ci-ossiig( the floating bridge, we should have had no
difficulty in securing the alligator for preservation
in some historical or antiquarian collection; since,
if he had had the same presence of mind as when
he caught and held Murray's deer, the question
of capture could not have been a doubtful one,
as his opportunities to hold on would have been
greater! We should at least have surrendered
with as much   onchtalaence as Mr. Murray, our
claim to the beast.
We returned to the village with courage unabated, but our bump of caution had been by the
morning's adventures considerably enlarged. Procuring a team of a villager, who kindly consented
to accompany us, we proceeded, but on quite
another road, across the pine woods, dodging the
obstructions, and, notwithstanding, making good
timne.
104 
CHAPTER Vll.
CENTRAL FLORIDA.
,rom Green-Cove Springs to Picolata.- Appearance of Picolata. -
The Steamer "Darlington." - Capt. Brock and "Admiral" Rose.
-Palatka, its Commerce and Importance. - Climate.- An
Orange-Grove. - Dunn's Lake. - The Ocklawaha River. - Beau  ties of the Upper St. John's.- Thle Mocking-Bird.
PICOLATA.
To Picolata from Green Cove is but a couple of
hours' sail; fare, one dollar. The only impression
made bv this short trip on the river was its lakelike appearance. Picolata figures conspicuously on
most of the maps as an important town; but the
reality is so absolutely nothing, that it is truly
laughable to think that it should ever have had
any name beyond, perhaps, "Brown's Farm," or
"Smith's Stables." An inventory is as quickly
given as aniy thing: one beer-shop, one comfortable farm-dwelling, and a few rude stalls constructed and occupied for the use of the stage-lines to
St. Augustine is all. Beyond being the nearest
point on the river to that old city, and the place
105 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
where passengers destined for St. Augustine disembark, it is of no importance. We doubt whether
a respectable pauper at the North would take the
whole thing as a gift, and be obliged to stay upon it.
On our return trip, we shall get off here, and go
by stage 18 miles through the pine woods to the
old city. But, for the present, we propose to take
the reader to the Upper St. John's, the gem of all
rivers.
Making no note of the several small landings,
where our steamer, "The Darlington," called for
wood and delivered the mails, we are only interested in the broad river which moves toward
the sea, and watch the flocks of wild ducks as they
fly athwart our bows, and dream of the fascination
which this land had for those who were its first and
rightful owners. Here were fish, flesh, and fowl at
their feet, in quantities sufficient to supply their
demands; and no wonder they disputed the invader's right to the last acre with an unequaled
desperation and heroism.
The  sky, which has all day been bright and
sunny, is fast becoming overcast with threatening
clouds, that seem to gather rapidly in the southwest: an hour later, and the slanting rain warns us
106 
THE "DARLINGTON."
off the deck, and we seek the cabin of our good ship
"Darlington."  Perhaps a word as to the boat
and its officers will be welcome, since this floating
hotel is to be our home for a day or two. First,
as to the boat, which has accommodations, we should
think, for not over forty passengers, and this trip she
was not crowded; of fair speed, and built not unlike the Western river-boats,- giving up all of the
first deck to the machineiy and freight, while the
upper deck is devoted to passengers; having two
saloons, one quite small for ladies and children,
while the main saloon is frequented by all; around
this are ranged the  state-rooms, while at mealtime it serves as a dining-hall. Its chief officers
are Capt. Jacob Brock and Admiral  "Rose."
The first sails the boat, assisted by a pilot, while
the Admiral is in actual command. Since she
(the Admiral) is better known along the river
and by travelers by the name of "Rose," we may
follow the custom, though unquestionably the title
is due her. She was not born to bloom and blush
unseen,- not she. Her every word of command
might be heard ringing out sharp and clear above
the noise and confusion at every landing. Her
word was law: her orders were instantly executed
107 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
by every officer below the captain; and with him
she held occasional conference, in which it could
well be observed, by the tone and gesture, that it
was she who gave the final word.   A stout-built
athlete of two hundred pounds, of medium heilght,
a full piercing eye, regular features, and with a
peculiarly commanding voice, and look of one whom
experience had taught that life was a battle, and
they who made the best fight won; a flow of ideas,
logical and pointed, with a half ubiquity of presence and an equal mixture of the Seminole and
Anglo-Saxon wine of life, and you have before you
the portrait of "Admiral Rose."   She was a study
and an object of no little interest to all.
Our captain was formerly from Connecticut,
we believe: he at least married there, but has
lived long enough away, buffeting the world, as at
times to quite forget the pious teachings of his
early youth.   However, he is a very efficient,
and, so far as we observed, a very obliging officer.
His native energy and tact have served him to
excellent purpose, we judge; since he is now not
only the master but owner of his boat, as also of
the hotel at the end of the route, and other
property in the State of considerable value. iHe
108 
PALATKA.
informed us that he commenced his steam-boating
career on this river nearly fifteen years ago, and
that this same "Darlington" had been in service
most of that time, and she still seemed good for
lalf a score of additional years.
PALATKA
is reached late in the afternoon.   This  town
is on the west side of the river, and is larger
than Green Cove: indeed, this is the largest place
on the river above Jacksonville, and is about one
hundred miles south of the river's mouth.   Its
population can not be over half a thousand.
Occupying a high and dry site above the river,
extending a quarter of a mile along its banks, it
appears to be a pleasant, thriving village, with
eight stores, including a fine drug(-store, two large
hotels, two churches somewhat neglected, two
steam saw-mills, and several fine residences, with
the balance plain and scattering.   The  stores
seemed well filled with a large stock of goods,
from which an extensive back country had to be
supplied. Palatka is a kind of steamboat headquarters for the Upper St. John's and its tributaries,
and is the terminus of the Savannah and Charleston
109 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
lines; namely, the "Dictator" and " City Point,"
running from Charleston to Jacksonville, thence
to thlis place.  This line is known as the " outside
line," since it takes to the ocean between the
mouth of the river and Savannah.   The other
line, composed of the "Nick King," and "Lizzie
Baker," runs along the inside passage, off the seacoast and the mainland, to the mouth of the river,
thence to this place, and is known as the " inside
line." The two lines make four round trips each
week. Then there are the river-lines, which run
from Jacksonville up to this place, and beyond, to
the head of navigation. These, with the lines to
Dunn's Lake and Ocklawaha, which run weekly,
make daily arrivals at this point.  We  counted
four steamers tied up to the wharf the evening of
our arrival. Most of them lie over here all night,
passengers having the privilege of remaining on
board or going to that excellent hotel, The Putnam
House, kept by 0. E. Austin, of "Down-East"
enterprise.
Palatka has a newspaper, "The Eastern Herald,"
a weekly, of circumscribed dimension and circulation. It gave us a surprise to find such an article
here, and helped to drive away an impression
110 
AN ORANGE-GROVE.
which some how had taken hold of us, that we
were in the woods.
Malny of the recent settlers or new-comers
are from Auburn, and the vicinity of Central
New York,- persons whose health has been
more or less precarious,  and  who  have found
benefit in a residence here. Though their speculations, we understand, have not proved as remunerative as was anticipated, still, some have taken
hold with a resolution that doubtless will, in a
few years, "prove some things as well as others."
This place affords a delightful climate most of
the year, and is in our opinion as far south  as
invalids need to go, though many do go farthler,
and perhaps with advantage.
Early vegetables can be had here in March;
and, indeed, we have eaten here, new peas and potatoes this month. What a strange experience for
the Northerner, who has come away from the
frozen fields and gardens of the North, where
these things do not ripen, on the average, before
the 1st of July, over four months later!
Opposite this place, on a high bank, stands a
beautiful orange-grove, with a few oranges left
fi-om the December frosts. Not since 1835 has
ill 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
there been a frost to kill the trees or destroy the
crop till last December (1868), when a heavy
frost destroyed most of the fruit, except in the
southern half of the State; but the trees themselves received no damage.  This grove opposite
Palatka contains five hundred trees, and is the
largest we have seen in the State. They had
commenced to gather the fruit before the frost;
and a single tree had yielded sufficient to net
sixty-five dollars, while some,, trees had over a
hundred dollars' worth of oranges.* This grove is
neatly kept and very beautiful, and forms the
chief attraction about Palatka.
The character of the river above Palatka is in
striking contrast with that of the portion below.
The town stands nearly at the central point of its
length; and that portion below, to its mouth, may
be rightly designated the "Lower," and that above
the " Upper" St. John's; though, strictly, it is
some miles above this town where the river contracts rapidly its banks, and discloses those peculiar
features which make this peerless river of the
South the admiration of every lover of the picturesque and beautiful. The water is clear, and the
* Letter of Frank L. Burr, Esq., in Hlartford Times. Our thanks are
due to Mr. Burr for copies of his letters.
112 
THE OCKLAWAHA RIVER.
banks present a richer and more luxuriant growth
of semi-tropical vegetation; and then there is no
longer that uniform and monotonous landscape, as
below, while each bend of the river presents new
beauties in delightful and endless variety. Seven
miles above Palatka, and we come to the outlet of
Dunn's Lake, lying a few miles to the south-east,
which is reached by a small steamer once a week
from Palatka.  The lands around this lake are highly esteemed, being favorable to the cultivation of
fruit and vegetables. Several Northern gentlemen
own interests there. Our friend David Clark of
Hartford is among these.  He is a half-owner in
a wild-orange grove of several hundred acres,
which is now being transplanted into rows, and
budded with the sweet fruit. In a few years, he
will probably possess one of the finest groves, as
well as one of the largest, in the State.   The
entrance to Dunn's Lake and the mouth of the
Ocklawaha River on the St. John's are separated
by a distance of about ten miles.  The Ocklawaha
is a navigable stream for some one hundred miles,
running in a tortuous manner westward and
southward, passing through occasional lakes, with
its source in the everglades of Southern Florida.
8
113 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
It is a very narrow but a very deep stream, and
is over two hundred miles in lenthl.  The region
of country through which it runs is thought to be
finer in many respects than that along the St.
John's. Some distance up the river is the famed
Silver Spring, a great basin of surprisingly clear
and deep water, around which it is supposed clustered a populous village of the aborigines numbering over six thousand inhabitants. All this
vast region was once thickly settled by these
people.   We  regretted that it semed impossible for us to explore the country bordering on
this stream; but that would have consumed more
time than it was possible to give.
Near the mouth of the Ocklawalha is the old
town of Welaka, once the site of an Indian village,
and afterwards a flourishing Spanish settlement:
now scarce a vestige of either of these populations
survives to tell of their existence, so completely has
time leveled every thing.  Volusia, farther up,
and beyond Lake George, is another city of the
past with an unwritten history, though known to
have been an important point when both the Spanish and English held it.  It was on the line of
travel, and one of the principal points for crossing
114 
LAKE GEORGE.
from St. Augustine and the Miusquito Inlet country,
on the east coast into Middle and Western Florida.
It occupies a high site; and the opposite shore
stands boldly out, - quite in opposition to the
theory of one writer, who asserts there are no
points opposite in this river where both sides are
high and dry. Indigo was extensively cultivated
in the surrounding country a century ago, while
rice and cotton received considerable attention
Before reaching this section, however, we pass
through a large lake, some sixteen miles long and
more than half that distance across, known as
Lake George. On entering it, several islands are
seen, and one of considerable size, called Rembrandt's, that contains near two thousand acres,
on which an orange-orchard stands, and a twostory frame-house, which is rather a novelty, since
few houses of any sort are seen on the river, so
much of a wilderness is it.  Even the shore of this
lake is scarce broken in its entire circumference
by any settlement.
The St. John's is separated from the ocean its
entire length by a comparatively narrow strip of
land of not over forty miles in average width.  Its
banks are mostly low, very apt to be swampy, and
115 
A WLNTER IN FLORIDA.
are densely covered with the primeval forest,live-oaks, water-oaks, bay, gum, and magnolia,
hung with the long waving drapery of solemn mnoss,
while the beautiful palm with its crested crown sentinels its shores.  Beneath and interwoven among
these are the wild jessamine and creeping vines,
lacing the undergrowth over with an unbroken verdure, and rising from the water to the tree-tops.
Then a dell appears, festooned with climbing and
o'er-arching growths, gracefully curtaining its entrance, and tempting its beholder within the halfhidden sylvan retreat; farthler on, and a broad expI)anse, or savanna, is seen, bounded by the distant
forest, with here and there a solitary palmetto standing alone like a plume. Flowing for some distance
between banks of living green, the river suddenly
widens, and we come to the placid waters of the
lovely Lake George, across which we sail to the continuing channel beyond. By some strange instinct
and guidance, as it were, we find, hidden behind
the tall grass and floating islands of this really
fairy land, the sought-for channel, though a halfscore of equally promising openings had nearly
tempted us astray.
Again and again, this bewitching transfer is
116
a 
THE BEAUTIFUL RIVER.
made firom lagoon to river and from river to lagoon
and lake again. The shores here and there close
to within a hundred feet, and is constantly turning
the sharpest of angles, running back- beside itself,
fascinated with its own beauty as it were, then
whisking suddenly about, as if on a wager to outdo
itself. On either hand, glimpses are had of bays
and mirrored waters, whose surface and shores
seem likely never to have waked to other echoes
than those of the wild birds that inhabit them.
Again the river seems lost in a bewildering perspective of silver streamlets, separated only by
some narrow knife-blade of meadow-land and flowers; but up them they are all verdure-banked and
moss-hung and vine-curtained and flower-bedecked, - the very picture of tropical profusion and
summer loveliness. The swelling waves from the
passing steamer lift and move away islands that
just now were, but which a moment after are
seen drifting with the current and breeze in fragmentary sections, each a living, floating, tropical
bouquet.
On these shores were the beautiful homes of
those brave red men who were so cruelly hunted
by the bloodhounds of Jackson, the story of which
117 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
is a dark and cruel one, and causes marvel at that
inscrutable Providence which permits the inhumanity of man to his fellows.*
The weatheris delightful; and with this odor of
summer in the air, the spirit of Beauty everywhere
around us, in the voiceful forest and bright waters,
we are soon lost in silent contemplation.
Along the banks, and at the more elevated portions, crops out just under the soil a crust of a foot
inl thickness, of snail-shell formation; and also the
coquina, a species of shell-rock, was seen. Wherever this shell is, the soil is fertile, and especially
favorable to the growth of the orange, which may
be found in a wild state on the banks and lands
adjacent.
The birds and wild fowl seem to have possession
of this land, with no one to question their right or
to make them afraid - of gunpowder.
One half of the country upon the Upper St.
John's is but a wide, extended plain, half soaked
* The Administration, it is reported, sanctioned the use of bloody
hounds in driving the Indians out of Florida.
118
1. 
T E H OME OF TiE HERON.
THE HOME OF THE HERON.
.   I  
HOMIE OF THE WILD BIRDS.
in water, and covered with the tall reed-grass,
trampled and broken down by the  gigantic waterfowl whichl inhabit them.   Great flocks of herons
rise and circle the air, flying in long lines, and
making at early morning the sky vocal with their
wild song(r  then descenlding in regular column,
li,lght either upon the plains to feed, or on the tops
of the tall cypress, venerable  with years,  and
bearded all over with the long, waving gray moss
which here drapes the forest everywhere.   Then
again the white curlews, so handsome and so shy,
look like troops of embodied spirits, -  they are
so pure and brilght in color.   The  tall cranes,
standing singly here and there, - to birds what the
palm is amiong trees,-  start up wvithl  a dull and
heavy stroke, beating the rank growths heavily
for rods along.  We have seen them, so larg,e,
and so suddenly startled, causilngc them to fly forestward, where their sweep was so penlt up as to
prove an ignominious failure, coming down wvith
a piteous cry or squawk, as if for mercy.   The
pelican is not so often seen.   Tifs bird is among
the largest in the State, and chiefly firequents  the
low savannas, but seldom  in pairs.  Loons  of
various species inhabit these w-iters: one is of a
119 
120        A WINTEtR IN FLOIZIDA.
somewhat  remarklable  character  in  color  and
habits, possessing a sharp bill, and a long slender
neck of dun  or cream-color, and the body and
tail of a jet black, with the latter whlite-tipped.
They  seem fond of airiing themselves on limbs
just above the  mnirrored  waters,  whence  they
doubtless contemplate their figures as reflected by
the polished surface beneath with as much interest as any modern belle adcljusting her toilet in
her boudoir. If discovered, they suddenly drop
into the water and quite disappear, and in a few
moments may be descried rods away, skimming
the surface, withl notlling(r but their long necks and
the tips of their tails visible above  the  water.
Tlhey present the appearance  of a w-ater-snake
at this time, and are therefore known  among the
people as snake-birds.  In paroquets, the colored
people find an article of trade and commerce.
Numbers of them were brought on board at one
of the land(ling,s, and  were  speedily snapped  up
by- the ])ter familias of admiring, and persuasive young ladies, -whlo thloulght them  "so 8splendidjc," that a couple of dollars a head was readily
paid for them, whenl, we believe, in thle  ew-York
bird-imarkets they can be had for half that sum. 
THE MIOCKING-BIRD.
But the poor birds were short-lived. A subse quent investment in a young  alligator, of dimen sions suitable for a cigar-box, was so much more
"charnming,"  that the brilliant but woe-begone
looking paroquets died from exhausted admiration!
Eagles are frequently seen, as also great fish-hawks
that are often mistaken for the former. This land
is to them one of unbounded resources, and they
wax fat, and lord it with keenest relish.
Innumerable smaller birds infest the woods, and
chant their grand oratorios at dawn, while their
inexplicable chatter fills up the day. But the
queens and glory of this tropical land, in birdmusic, are the somber-robed, bright-faced mocking-birds, who for a moment halt in their aimless
ways, scattering glittering and delicious gems of
song through all the woods.  What silence ensues
in the vast company of choristers and imitators
when these Jenny Linds appear, eloquent with a
melody all their own!  It seems, while we listen,
as if this were "Paradise Regained," such are the
si,ghts and sensations as we sail up and down this
upper river, so tropical and so unique. It is one
long dream of beauty, with choicest pictures of
Oriental luxury and repose. Here let some un
121 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
known artist come, with the hand of genius to
imitate these scenes, and his work shall ever rank
with the most favored, as it would be among the
most attractive in the land.
122
$ 
CHAPTER VIII.
THE UPPER ST. JOIHN'S.
Lake Monroe. - Old Fort Mellon.- The Back Country.- Enter.
prise.- What we thought of it, and what we found it.- Its Fine
Hotel. - Abundance of Gamrne. - A Fish Story. - Enterprise the
Place for Sporting-Men. -Lakes Jessup and Harney. - Capt.
Brock's Hotel and Orange-Grove.- The Two Enterprises. - In  dian-River Country.- Tropica! Fruits.- Climiate at Enterprise.
LAKE MONROE.
OUR last chapter brought us to Lake Monroe,
which stands at the head of regular steamboat
navigation on the St. John's River. Entering this
handsome sheet of water, of about five miles in
diameter and nearly circular, we are able in clear
weather to at once discern its two principal points
of interest. The first is Mellonville, on the western shore, formerly the site of Fort Mellon, built
during the campaigns against the Indians. This
point was orig,inally, however, a trading-post with
tile natives, and quantities of furs were annually
broucght here. The town itself is nothing worth
123 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
nanling, beyond a wharf, small warehouse, and an
humble dwelling combined. It looks desolate;
and yet we see a full half-score of. settlers from
the near interior, in waiting on the pier to obtain
such articles as they had severally ordered. We
were detained here a half-hour in discharging
freight, consisting of flour, meal, some little
machinery, implements of agriculture, and other
minor packages of store articles brought from below. The country adjacent is little cultivated; but
back some twenty miles and more it is of a much
better character, and has a prosperous settlement of quite intelligent and industrious planters.
The soil here seems sandy, as it appears everywhere away from the hummock4ands.  The mails
of "Uncle  Samuel"  are exchanged;  and the
steamer, veering round, steers straight across to
the eastern shore, and to the town of
ENTERPRISE.
A half-hour of steady work of the engines
brings us to its wharf, extending ten rods into the
lake. Our eyes surveyed the place a score of
times ere the gang-plank could be made ready;
and we were near having convulsions at the
124 
ENTERPRISE.
thought of what we had pictured it and the reality
before us.
A half-dozen buildings is the sum total of Enterprise, about which so much is heard by travelers
on the river. A feeling of disappointment is inevitable; notwithstanding the traveler soon accommodates himself to the fact of utter barrenness in a
country which has been for a century forgotten;
yet, that at the head of navigation, the termini of
steamships and travel, there should be found but
one house, is beyond all belief!   This is, however, the case; though a new dwelling was in
course of erection during our visit. The hotel,
the Brock House, the center and circumference
of this city, is also a disappointment; but it is in
this case an agreeable one. From Jacksonville up
to Enterprise, no hotel equals this. It is a genuine
Northern-looking hotel, such as you may see at
a watering-place on the seaboard, like, for instance,
the old "Watch Hill House" at Watch Hill, in
Rhode Island. It stands broadside to the lake,
one hundred and ten feet long, and two stories
and a half in heighth, with a veranda its entire
front, broad and airy. The house is well painted,
and has attractive green blinds, and comfortable
125 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
accommodations for upward of fifty guests. It is
also well kept, by a gentleman from Maine, who
makes himself a polite and pleasant host. The
table during our stay was well supplied with meats
and fish. The night of our arrival the landlord set
before us beef-steak, ham and eggs, roast venison,
and fish. The venison had been caught that
morning; and before sunset, within a mile of the
hotel, another buck was shot, a fine large one, off
which a large party breakfasted the next morninrg.
The woods are full of game, and the lake swarms
with a variety of good table-fishi. Trout, perch, and
mullet are found in nearly all the lakes, while bass,
sheep's-head, and bream abound the entire length of
the river. Shad are taken in their season, as in
other rivers to which they have access. Probably
no river on the globe of equal size affords a greater
supply of food for man than this. The most of
our rivers are so dragged and hunted that fish are
scarce; and it would seem only in fancy that we
could, within a four days' journey from the "Empire City" of New York, find a river full of fish,
and as plentiful as though its discovery was but
yesterday, instead of its being probably the first
river entered on the continent by any European.
126 
ABUNDANCE OF WILD GAME.
Why, you may see them fairly dancing on the surface of some of these lakes. Bartram, a hundred
years ago, tells a story, that, at Battle-Pass, he
witnessed a sight which those who know this river
can readily credit.  He was working his way up
stream, when, observing the bloody appearance of
the water, he hastened onward, and soon came to
a narrow pass, where he was wonder-stricken at
the sight that met his view. A vast swarm of fish
was crowding by this point: they moved rapidly,
yet the river was gorged and fairly dammed.   On
either shore, and in the stream, were a score of
huge alligators, with distended jaws, crushing and
destroying the helpless creatures with an astonishing rapidity.
The fish caught in the Lower St. John's will
average from one to forty pounds; while in the
Upper River, from a half pound to. fifteen is about
the average weight.
Of wild fowl suitable for the table, ducks are
the most abundant. There are several varieties.
Almost the first thing seen in coming into the
river, at its mouth, are flocks of ducks; and they
may be found all over the State, but especially on
this river, which seems their favorite home.  Wild
127 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
geese are common in the season for them, but yet
they go farther south as a rule. Indian-River
country, some thirty miles eastward, is more frequented by them. Quails and partridges are often
seen; but the hawks and other birds of prey, so
numerous here, keep them from increasing their
numbers to any great extent.
Enterprise is the paradise for sporting-men.
For invalids to discuss the respective merits of this
or that place is proper, but there is no question
where the huntsman or sporting-man should go.
This place is their true head-quarters: none other
equals or compares for a moment with it. Once
here, they have a central point from which they
can move at leisure, and return for repairs and
rest. If it be fishing, the lake is before them, and
they need not angle around half the day with a
"fly" and no  fish.  It may be all very well for
those who like it, to stand braced against a tree or
sit silent as death in a boat, perspiring at a nibble,
and catching nothing but a cold; or possibly, if
very lucky, bringing home a half-pound trout or
two, scarce enough to smell of, much less to satisfy
a ravenous appetite. This is the usual modicum
of luck and result elsewhere, the Adirondacks not
128 
THE ORANGE-GROVE OF ENTERPRISE. 129
excepted. But, when we go fishing, we like to do
a good business, both for ourselves and friends;
and here it can be done, for instead of a bag it is
your boat full.   The  glory and delight which
thrill the nerves of such fishermen is royal and
worth experiencing.
Lakes Jessup and Harney, above, are also well
stocked with fish of excellent quality, which are
easily caught by nets, hooks, and spears.* A very
attractive sight at Enterprise is the orange-orchard
standing at the left of the wharf, and owned by
Capt. Brock, who is also proprietor of the hotel,
and, for that matter, of every thing else of any account at Enterprise, not excepting the steamboat
line which brings you and on which you have to
return. This grove is a very handsome one, and
covers a couple of acres across the roadway from
the hotel. The trees are of fine size, and very
pretty in appearance. There was some fruit still
hanging, large and golden, but valueless, its juice
having dried away, though the exterior was fair
and plump-appearing. In the tops of the trees,
blossoms could be seen at the time of our visit,
and another fall they will again be loaded. There
* Letter of Solon Robinson, in Tribune. 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
are a few lemons in this grove, and also some of
the sour orange. These doubtless are left for
variety's sake; though the lemons are as profitable
and useful as the orange, but not so commonly
grown.
Capt. Brock built and founded this new
"Enterprise," and ran his line of steamers,
determined to make it pay; and he is now able to
realize the fruit of his persevering toil.  The
past year the house has been crowded, the applicants being double the number that could be
entertained. Old Enterprise is, as we have already remarked, about a mile above, on the lakleshore. This was formerly the place; but Brock,
having the steamers, had the power to establish
a successful rival.  Old Enterprise is nevertheless
the place where Brock's hotel and orange-grove
should be, as it is higher, and has from fifty to one
hundred acres of cleared lands in a condition for
cultivation; whereas at Brock's Enterprise, beyond
his garden and orange-orchard, there is not one
acre of thoroughly cleared land that we observed.
Old Enterprise has an orange-grove too; but it is
scatteritg and in no wise particularly attractive.
Dr. Stark, its occupant and owner, though a
130 
CLIMATE AT ENTERPRISE.
Southern sympathizer during the war, as we
learned, is, nevertheless, a very courteous and
intelligent gentleman. If a hotel were erected on
this old site, with bathing-rooms supplied with
water from the large spring just back of his
grounds, - of which we shall hereafter speak,it could not fail to take its share of the winter
travel.
Enterprise is the point at which passengers land
who are bound for New Smyrna, Musquito Inlet,
Hillsborough, or Indian River on the sea-coast, and
directly eastward, a score and a half of miles from
this place.
There the banana, fig, and pine-apple are seen,
and the coffee-plant grows wild and luxuriant.
You may revel in the delights of earth, and wish,
as De Leon did three hundred years before you,
for some fountain or fruit of which to taste, and
live for ever in the possession of youth, giving
beauty a second consideration entirely.
The climate at Enterprise is perceptibly milder
than at any point below. This is not greatly to be
wondered at, perhaps, since every hundred miles
south, when so near the tropics, makes a distinguishable difference, - far more markled than the
131 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
same distance southward in the Northern States.
The winter here is not unlike in temperature the
month of May in New England. We find that
fires are comfortable and necessary evenings in
February at Enterprise, and they are also equally
necessary in June in the Connecticut Valley.
The health of people all over our country would
be much improved, and many cases of fevers prevented, were small fires started in the evening,
during most of the spring and fall months.
132 
CHAPTER IX.
CELEBRATED SPRINGS.
The Green Spring at Old Enterprise. -Its Great Depth.- Tropical
Scenes.- The Towering Palm.- Silver Springs on the Ockla  waha.- The Blue Spring near Lake Berresford. -Bartram's
Account of this Spring.- The Spring at Green Cove.
THE springs throughout Florida are numerous,
and many are quite remarkable. They form one
of the wonders of the State.
At Enterprise, every visitor seeks the famous
spring of this locality. It is nearly a mile southward from the hotel, and we have the choice of
two   ways by            whic h       it may be reached; and they
are quite like the Irishman's roads, for, whichever
one you take, you will be likely to wish you had
t a k e n the            other.  One i s b y the beach, where
little swails and sluices, emptying into the lake,
have to be leaped in wet weather; the other is
back of the hotel, -a winding cart-path among the
low scrub palmettoes and tall long-leaved pines,
then through a clump of magnolias, gums, water                                     133 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
oaks, and sweet bays, with the towering palm
shooting straight into the air as an arrow for
ninety feet, capped by its globe of green. We pass
a wilderness of jungle and forest and vines and
wild flowers, without name and number. The
air is soft and tropical; and the scene is what we
might easily fancy a Brazilian forest to be, lacking only in the flashing eye-balls of some crouching
animal, to light up the jungles by which our circuitous pathway leads. Turning suddenly aside,
across a clearing into the woods beyond, and we
stand at the spring. It is circular in form, and
nearly eighty feet in diameter; and its surface is
as smooth and unrippling as if congealed. The
water is of a delicate green and quite transparent.
Its depth is said to be full an hundred feet. No
living thing was seen in its waters, which are
sulphurous, though not markedly so. Its taste,
however, was not especially pleasant; and we
should prefer good clear spring-water to it, for
purposes of health. It might serve a good use
for bathing; but it is, in all respects, far inferior
to the healthful crystal spring at Green Cove,
which is employed by citizens and strangers for
every domestic use, and as a healthful tonic. This
134 
SILVER SPRING.
spring is not now used, and we observed no signs
of its having been by any one. It is simply a
curiosity, and is visited as  such.   An  expert
swimmer might bathe in it, but none others, since
its shores are as deep as its center, and it is quite
forbidding in view of its depth and color. A
small outlet, six feet wide and as many inches in
depth, carries the wastage waters to the lake, a
third of a mile distant.
Our party grouped themselves for a few
moments, long enough to hang this Oriental
scene in memory; then, gathering a few wild
branches as mementoes to our friends away on the
banks of the White Water and the Ohio, the
Hudson and the Delaware Rivers, returned, aAid
Old Enterprise, to our hotel.
We have spoken in a preceding chapter of the
beautiful Silver Spring on the Ocklawaha River.
That is a great basin of surpassingly clear and
deep water. Springs of salt water, and springs
of mineral water, are not uncommon in various
sections of the State. They are all usually of a
tepid character, standing at about seventy-seven
degrees, we should judge, having frequently bathed
in them, although we never subjected any of them
135 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
to the test of the thermometer. These springs are
usually near the rivers or lakes, and occasionally
they have been discovered boiling up in the lakewaters. Mr. Solon Robinson relates having passed
oiver one while sailing in a small boat along the
shores of Lake George, and gives currency to the
report of springs being found off the coast of St.
Augustine, which is not unlikely, when we consider the peculiar character of the peninsular
formation.
Right in the middle of the St. John's River
up   toward  Lake iHarney, there  boils up a
tremendous spring, which makes a conspicuous
turbulence on its bosom, - enough to shake the
steamer; and, in ordinary stages of the river, this
spring lifts its waters visibly above the surface.
The captain stated he had sounded it to a depth
of three hundred feet, and found no bottom!
Lake Jessup, on its western shore, has several
large sulphur springs.   This  lake  can  not be
entered by a boat drawing over three feet of
water. It is some seventeen miles long by five
in width, with  shallow waters generally.   Its
shores are low and marshy, as a rule; but here
and there are dry shell-banks on which the wild
136 
THE BLUE SPRING.
orange grows. Some miles to the west, however, the land is better, being higher and
healthier.
One of the most famous springs in the State,
perhaps, is but a few miles south of Enterprise. It
is known as the Blue Spring; but among the inhabitants, here, all springs are called blue springs, little
mattering what the real shade of color may happen to be. This spring is on the east side of the
river, near Lake Berresford, and empties into the
St. John's a half-mile from the steamboat landing.
It is perhaps the largest spring in the State: the
quantity of water which issues from it in an hour is
enormous. It forms a river of itself, one hundred
and fiftv feet wide and six deep; sufficiently large
to admit the passage of a considerable craft. The
water boils up out of the earth as though from a
boiling caldron of four-score feet across.   An
excursion party from Jacksonville tried to row a
boat into the center of this boiling kettle, in order
to take soundings, but were foiled, after several
earnest efforts, in consequence of the violent motion of the elevated surface.
A trip to this spring is a pleasant and easy excursion with the little steamer " Hattie."
137 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
With a quaint account by Bartram of a spring
hle observed, we shall close what we have to say
under this head.
He says,... "On my right, and all around
behind me, was a fruitful orange-grove, with palms
and magnolias interspersed; in front, near my feet,
was the enchanting and amazing crystal fountain,
which incessantly threw up, from dark rocky caverns below, tons of water every minute, forming a
basin capacious enough for large shallops to ride
in, and a creek of four or five feet depth of water,
and nearly twenty yards over, which meanders
six miles through green meadows, pouring its
limpid waters into the great Lake George, where
they seem to remain pure and unmixed. About
twenty yards from the upper edge of the basin,
and directly opposite to the mouth, or outlet, of the
creek, is a continual and amazing ebullition, where
the waters are thrown up in such abundance and
great force, as to jet and swell up two or three
feet above the common surface; while sand and
small particles of shells are thrown up with the
waters near to the top, subside with the expanding
flood, and gently sink again, forming a large rim,
or funnel, round about the aperture, or mouth, of
138 
A STORY BY BARTRAM.
the fountain, which is a vast perforation through a
bed of rocks, the ragged points of which  are
projected out on  every side.... The waters
are so extremely clear as to be absolutely diaphanous as the ether; the margin of the creek (?) is
shaded by a great variety of fruitful and flowering
shrubs and trees, the pendent golden orange dancing, on the surface of the waters, and the songs of
merry birds vibrating through all the trees. Below,
innumerable bands of fish are seen, some clothed
in the most brilliant colors; the voracious crocodile,
stretched along at full length like the trunk of a
tree; the devouring gar-fish, trout, all the varieties of gilded bream, catfish, sting-ray, skate, and
flounder, spotted bass (trout), sheep's-head, and
drum, all in separate bands, and circling in peaceful evolutions with none of their usual signs of
enmity.... See whole companies of these fish
descend into the abyss; they entirely disappear:
are they gone for ever?.... Looking intently
to observe if they returned, when, lo! they were
seen emerging from the depths, apparently at a
vast distance, as they at first seemed no bigger
than flies or minnows; now gradually enlarging,
and rising rapidly, they ride forth with the elastic,
1319 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
expanding column of crystalline waters, and gently
move each to their kindred tribes to re-form and
renew the sport. This scene seems unreal, since
it appears that you are at times able to almost
grasp the fish as they rise toward the surface,
when in fact they are thirty feet away."
Though we have spoken in a previous chapter
of the spring at Green Cove, yet to omit mention
of it here would be an injustice, not for any thing
remarkable about it as seen by the beholder, but
for its high value as a remedial agent. In this
particular, it excels all others with which we are
acquainted. Its water is pure and pleasant, and
has the credit of having cured some invalids and
greatly benefited many others. Its depth is such
that any one may bathe in it without fear, and the
use of the water increases the appetite and
strengthens the system. Indeed, this is the only
spring with which we are familiar in this State
that has any reputation as a curative agent.
Being located within the village of Green Cove on
the St. John's River, it is accessible to those in
feeble health as well as the robust, and all may be
benefited by its use; though, in this matter, it is
proper for the invalid to consuLlt with his medical
140 
SPRING AT GREEN COVE.
adviser, since in some cases, doubtless, its use
would be injudicious.
Springs abound in all portions of the State, in
the wvestern as well as the eastern section; and
they are all of more or less interest as curiosities,
and will well repay the tourist.
141 
CHAPTER X.
ALLIGATOR-SHOOTING ON THE UPPER ST. JOHN'S.
The Steamer " Hattie."-Sportsmen on Lake Harney and beyond. -
What they bagged.- The Grandfather of all the Alligators.  Difficulty of killing them.- Their Display of Gymnastics.- The
Party camp for the Night. - A Thrilling Scene. - Our "John."
-A Wild Night of it.- The MIorning Alligator Reveille.- Re  flections.
THERE is a small steamer, the little " Hattie,"
which runs to accommodate hunting or pleasure
parties above Enterprise, and can make the run to
Lake Harney and back in a single day. Toodles
would have set an inestimable value on this
)ocket-craft, as, indeed, do scores of people who
come to Lake Monroe. She can be chartered for
any length of time; and, if there are a half-dozen
to go, it is not expensive, as the cost does not exceed the price of board at a first-class hotel. We
know of a hlunting-party composed of New Yorkers and Baltimoreans, who proceeded to Lake
Harney, and beyond, as far as it was possible with
142 
ALLIGATOR SHOOTING.
~afety to take the little steamer. All were well
equipped with arms, ammunition, and provisions.
Their brightest expectations were fully realized.
Game of all kinds was found in great abundance.
They shot twenty-seven deer and one hundred
and sixty-two alligators, not to mention any thing
of smaller game.   They returned bronzed and
delighted, and with an increase of avoirdupoise.
All who come as high as Enterprise should come
to take a hunt, and try the lake-fishing.
Alligator shooting is among the finest of sports,
and besides is strange and pleasing to most visitors,
who, fresh from Northlern snows and ice, takle to
the fun with a rare relish. A bright day is
necessary: such was the one chosen, when, with a
small company, we set sail for the mouth of the
river on the south side of Lake Monroe.  "The
Hattie" puffed vigorously across the lake, but, entering the river, "slowed," and quit her "wheezing:"  all assembled on deck, and, with rifles
plenty, we had not long to watch for the amphibious monsters. They are soon seen swimming
across our bows, or lying lazily on the shores as is
their habit; when, crack, bang, and pop, go the
rifles, and an alligator flounders down from the
143 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
shore into the water. Some times a half-dozen
bullets would strike the monster at about one
and the same time; and the huge  beast would
writhe in agony, lashing the reed-rass with his
powerful tail, and lurch into the dark waters with
a despairing and desperate plunge. Again a lucky
or scientific shot back of the fore-arm would bring
the scarlet tide, when with a sudden whirl upon his
back, and with uplifted, quivering limbs, he was
off to the land of shades without further ado.
These cases were valued, since it afforded an
opportunity to draw up to the shore, land, and decapitate the giant, bringing his head away, not
only as a trophy, but for the purpose of practicing
at our leisure a little dentistry on his teeth; and
in time these became, in the hands of some
expert, a beautiful whistle, or, carved into various
forms, were prized as charms.
At first our shots were  wild, owing  to the
excitement: soon all became practiced, and could
aim the deadly missiles with rare exactness;
yet comparatively few were killed outright,
thlough  numbers  were  wounded.    This  was
attributable to our finding the majority of them
in the water; for, hearing us, they would slip off
144 
THE FATHER OF ALLIGATORS.
of the bank and float on the surface, when nothing
could be seen but their head just above the water.
It takes a keen and practiced eye to detect an alligator, they so closely resemble a rotten log half submerged and motionless.
If a ball enters their eye squarely, they are
finished; but to do this is difficult. A good
loud rap on their heads can be given them, however; and the way the water flies when they are
thus hit and hurt is both amusing and wonderful.
It is beaten into a perfect foam ere they plunge
firom sight. One was a mighty fellow. He was
seen at a distance, lying on the marshy banks at
the bend of a river, and appeared the great grandfather of all the alligators. Experience had taught
him it wasn't safe to wait for excursion parties,
and he began to move "early;" but our crack
marksman drew a bead on him, and at the vital
spot. Halting to take a final observation before
making a plunge, the sharp crack of the rifle, and
a dull thud for the echo, told the story. His delay
had proved fatal, and hlie went down to his grave
with a gorgeous display of gymnastics. Suddenly
throwing up his fore-arm, he rung down the curtain and his own life at the same time.
10
145 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
The day passed rapidly by, and the party
decided to tie up for the night, and continue the
sport another day. Passing onl to a dry shore, we
made our camp in a grove of the wild orange,
and under the towering palm. It was a lovely
place for our purpose.   Those  who preferred
remained  on  board,  while  full  half  of the
company pitched the fly-tent, and prepared a
faggot fire, wherewith to cook our fish-supper.
This was soon accomplished, and as soon disposed
of; for what will sharpen appetites better than a
day upon the water, full of excitement, fiolic, and
fun! A  few sauntered back inland among the
maples and magnolias for game, and were not
long in starting a flock of wild turkeys from
among the tall trees, where they were about going
to roost. A little management was required to
secure a good shot at the cock-turkey; two of us
agreeing to fire at a given signal from the third,
and  he to follow with his rifle if we missed.
The distance was considerable, and at quite an elevation; but, at the word "Fire," the bouncing gob bler came to the ground, the balance of the flock
scaling away from our sight and reach.  Shloulde-r ing our Thanksgiving-bird, we reached camp, and
146 
A MIDNIGHT ADVENTURE IN CAMP.  147
were congratulated heartily by our companions.
Ere long the moon, full and clear, swung itself above
the tree-tops, and all joined in some stirring
melodies that woke the echoes of the woods and
surrounding shores.  A few branches and leaves
from the palmetto served, with a blanket overspread, for our bed.
In the night we were all aroused by the hooting owls; and such a din! A dozen barking pups
would have been out-matched. "John "decided to
give them a salute with his double-barrelled gun,
and, rising to reach it, imagine his feelings, and
ours as well, for it was but a moment after his
discovery that he telegraphed, by a vigorous kick,
the news to us.  Not over ten feet away was a
good-sized and every way respectable-looking
"gaitor," ptaying his addresses to our proposed
breakfast, the turkey, which was hanging to a
low limb of an orange-tree close by. How long
he had been there we did not know; or how long
it would have been ere he would have snapped up
our poor gobbler, or swallowed a pair of boots
with John's feet in them! it would be difficult to
determine; but that crocodile was hardly ex.
pecting such an emphatic greeting.  Our rising 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
had evidently checked his progress toward the
turkey; for now his eyes were turned fully upon
us, as if unable to make out whether we were
friend or foe. His suspense was brief: a moment
fully undeceived him. Such a crash of minnieballs and  buck-shot  as landed in among "his
horns" was  totally unexpected.   His  manner
indicated as much; for in a trice hlie performed the
"Grecian," and tilted endwise into the river, with
such a roar and splash of water as we never
heard before. The owls were silenced, and disturbed no more  our camp.   We voted  them
unanimous thanks; and, placing a guard, tumbled
down  into our nest.   But slumber came  not,
though the morning did, when we expeditiously
roasted and ate our turkey, and sailed away
down stream, giving vengeful shots at the roaring(r
monsters, wuo were now heard in all directions
bellowing like bulls. This noise they frequently
make in the early morning of a warm day; and,
to those first experiencing it, it strikes alarm: but
this soon passes away.
We  steam on, and past what were, a lhundred
years ago, plantations of indigo and cane, owned
and cultivated by the Spaniards; past sites of
148 
REFLECTIONS.
cities and villages of the aboriginal races, where
now the tall pine and bright-leaved magnolia and
swveet-bay  flourish.   Then   past  the  pleasant
shores and the extending savannas, half submerged, and dotted all over with sleeping(r islands;
then by the quaint capes and headlands, all
glorified by the rising, cloudless sun, our thoughts
alternately enrapt by the gushing songs of the
morning birds, and the remembrance of the tide
of human life that swept the bosom of this river
centuries ago, where nowv none but a few curious
and idle visitors sail pensively over its waters.
149
I 
CHAPTER XL.
ST. AUGUSTINE.
How to get there.- The Way we went. - The Hon. tIrs. Yelverton.
- A Successful Experiment.-" Duroc" and "Fire-Fly." -The
Stage-Driver.- The Ferryman's Fire.- Across the St. Sebastian
River.- Midnight and St. Aulgustine. - The Florida House.  Quaint Appearance of the City. - The Coquina Rock. -Fort
Marion.- The Cathedral and Plaza. - The Minorcans. -Tropi  cal Fruits.- A Hotel wanted.
HAVING returned to Picolata from the charming
scenes and wild adventures of the upper and the
incomparable river, we now, with a dozen of fellowtravelers, turn our faces eastward toward the
ocean and to St. Augustine. There are two ways
of reaching this, the oldest city in America, and
the Mecca of all Florida tourists. One is by the
steamer "i Henry Burden," from Jacksonville,
down the river and round the sea-coast, - a run
of perhaps eight hours; sometimes a smooth pas             150 
THE ROUTE TO ST. AUGUSTINE.
sage, and again a somewhat rough one. To those
who do not dislike a sea-voyage, this is a very
pleasant trip. The price of passage is four dollars each  way.   Only weekly trips are made,
leaving Jacksonville in the latter part of the week
and returning the following day.
The other route is to take a river-boat, - and
they are to be had nearly every day, or every other
day, at Jacklsonville, - and proceed up the river
to Picolata, then across the country eighteen miles
by stage-line.  The fare this way is two dollars
on the steamer, and three dollars from Picolata by
stage. The fare by the outside line is reasonable,
since the steamer runs to accommodate that particular travel; while by river-boats it ought not to
exceed one-half their present rates, as these boats
do not run on the river solely for this travel.
Then, again, the stage-fare is fullly one-third in excess of paying-rates.*
* Since writing the above, we are informed that the St. John's Railroad is being built, and will run between St. Augustine and Tocoi, on
the river, forty miles above Jacksonville, in time to accommodate the
travel of the coming season. Of couse, this will then be the route
for travelers proceeding to St. Augustine, via Jacksonville, thence by
steamer to Tocoi, thence by rail across.
151 
A WVINTER IN FLORIDA.
Picolata, as we have remarked in a preceding
chapter, is simply a settlement of one family -
nothing more. If the reader were to take passage
on the Pacific Railway, and get off at the last new
made and named station anywhere along its entire
length, hle could not well be left more in the woods
than travelers are left at this town of Picolata.
But what of its history? Next perhaps to St.
Augustine itself, it was among the earliest founded
of all the Spanish settlements.  Two hundred and
fifty years ago, there were more white people
stationed and trading here than we find to-day.
It grew to be in a hundred years, under the Spanish rule, a town of more than a hundred dwellings
and shops.  It was the main artery of supply for
the up-country, and chief channel for the return
of all articles of export, including furs, indigo,
sugar, and fruit.  Crossing over to St. Augustine,
these were sent in trading-vessels home to Spain.
The order of Franciscans erected here an imposing church edifice; and within its walls assembled
the devotees of Spain and the Pope, together with
the proselyted savage, still plumed and decked in
his wild costume. But, of all this ancient civilization, scarce a vestige remains: by savage wars and the
152 
OLD FORTrFICATIONS.
desolation and destruction of towns and missions
and plantations, together with the changes in government, the transformation has been made complete; and now the original wilderness everywhere covers the State, and as nearly primeval as
in the time of Adam.
Opposite Picolata, on the western shore, is a
mark of these olden times that has however
withstood the leveling influence of the past. It is
a great earthwork fort, with its sharp  angles
smoothed and round, yet still evidencing its original strength and power. Its walls must have been
twenty feet in heighth, and were constructed entirely of the surrounding earth. It is now overgrown with grand old oaks, deep rooted in its
walls, and the wild birds and beasts have made
here their home.
Those who have been beguiled into reading the
small volume on St. Augustine, said to have been
written by Mrs. Yelverton, will be doomed to a
bitter disappointment in the plain, and somewhat
unromantic and uninteresting stage-ride, which
she, in her volume, has made so marvelously
enchanting.   She exhausts  the vocabulary of
flowers and sentiment quite, in her florid delinea
153 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
tion of what the country is, or was. We found
this ride of eighteen miles one of the most disagreeable and miserable we ever made, and
through a tract of country entirely devoid of
unusual attractions.
After a protracted delay, the stage and horses
were ready; and such Rozinantes as they were,
too, -just fit to be knocked in the head by a
windmill, and so starved-looking as to suggest
the thought that they were the very horses which
are said, after considerable experimenting, to have
been successfully taught to live without eating.
The drivers seemed a cross between the lazaroni
of Italy and the village loafer. Our party was
too large to be all carried in a single coach, and
an old rheumatic wagon, without seats or covering,
was tied up, and braced with sticks, for the
journey. The trunks served for seats; and, thus
equipped, we set out upon our winding way. It
was five o'clock in the afternoon when we started;
and at half-past ten that night, we struck the
ferry, just outside the old walls of St. Augustine.
The reader can imagine the speed we came the
eighteen miles. The prospect bade fair at one
time for us to camp among the pines, along the
154 
THE STAGE-RIDE.
roadside.  Our horses, "Duroc" and "Fire-fly,"
were no "Dexters."   They had,  as we have
observed, learned to live without eating; but,
hauling a wagon eighteen miles through the sand,
they had not calculated upon, in connection with
their abstemious habits. Their wind gave out;
and, having no special knowledge of time or tune,
they got off irregularly, first "Duroc," and then
"Fire-fly," shot a neck ahead.  The lumbering
coach behind us fared no better.   Their four
horses were reduced to three, one having been
turned out to brass, we were about to say, but
that would be an imposition on the dumb beast,
and we have the fear of Bergh before our eyes,
it was out to sand, Spanish bayonets and pinetrees. For our part, we should have preferred
the sand, of the three, as that did appear white
and ahlmost palatable, even to ourselves; for we
had tasted nothing since noon, and it was fast
approaching  midnight, to  say nothing  of the
appetizing effects of our eighteen-mile ride in a
lumber-wagon with trunks  for seats!  In our
younger days we have read of the lonely traveler
on the desert, who afar off descried a faint light
that cheered him on, and brought him safely to
155 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
shelter and to rest. We think all had a lively
sense of appreciation of this traveler's gratitude,
when we hailed the light of the ferryman's fire
burning on the roadside in front of his cabin.
Even the poor jaded horses took courage, and
absolutely dashed forward at an unaccountable
rate. Across the St. Sebastian River, on the
rope-ferry, and a rapid drive through the dark
and narrow streets, and we were ushered into the
Florida House, tired, and hungry, and battered.
A  plain, comfortable, clean  room  would have
been a luxury: it was what we had hoped for, a
place to lay our bones for a refreshing sleep; but
this was not on the programme. We were told
the house was filled, and the town crowded, but
wve could have a room. Dispatching a hurried
meal, we were shown through the house and
across the yard, up a rickety pair of stairs, to a
filthy room over the dirty kitchen, the former
"negro quarters," and with a stinking black lamp,
that had been innocent of soap and water since it
fell into its proprietor's possession. Left here in
this indecent room, with a flavor of onions and
stews from below, and a sickening odor of bugs
above, our first impressions of St. Augustine were
156 
A DIRTY HOTEL.
likely to have a rather biased and unpleasant coloring. Determined not to be considered a growler,
and feeling too stupid to become properly enraged,
we concluded to stay in that room, and we did.
A comfortable breakfast improved our condition; and, not wishing to cultivate the further
acquaintance of the lazy and incompetent young
man who was the only landlord we saw, we left
for private lodgings.
We have in the historical review of Florida, in
the earlier chapters, given a comparatively full and
accurate account of the settlement and history of
this ancient town. To these chapters the reader
is referred for historical details. More than half
a century prior to the landing of the Plymouth
colony, this was a town of considerable reputation,
and long before 1620 was a fortified stronghold,
challenging the stoutest navies on the globe.
The appearance of St. Augustine to the visitor
is as quaint and peculiar as its history is bloody and
remarkable.  Nothing like it is seen in this country; and, having been built by a people so entirely
different in manners and customs from our own, it
has been surrounded with an interest not shared
by any omner city in the land.
157 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
For a sketch of this old city, we prefer to give
that written by Rev. H. Clay Trumbull, in "The
Springfield Republican," though we  can hardly
share alr his sentiments regarding this antiquated
and dilapidated town.
"Its principal building material is a unique
conglomerate of fine shells and sand, known as
coquina rock, found in large quantities on Anastasia Island, at the entrance of the harbor, and
which is easily cut in blocks to be laid in courses,
and  perhaps  covered over with stucco.   The
streets are quite narrow; one, which is nearly a
mile long, being but fifteen feet wide, and that on
which a principal hotel stands being but twelve
feet, while the widest of all is but twenty-five
feet. An advantage of these narrow streets in
this warm climate is, that they give shade, and
increase the draft of air through them as through
a flue. Indeed, some of the streets seem almost
like a flue, rather than an open way; for many
of the houses, with high roof and dormer windows, have hanging balconies along their second
story, which seem almost to touch each other
over the narrow street; and the families sitting
in these of a warm evening can chat confidential
158 
...
"eI
*I 
eeee U
*-eo
STREET VIEW IN ST. AUGUSTINE. 
I,,: 
ST. AUGUSTINE.
iy, or even shake hands with their over-the-way
neighbors.
"The street walls of the houses are frequently
extended in front of the side garden, - the house
roof, and perhaps a side balcony, covering this
extension; or the houses are built around uncovered courts, so that, passing through the main
door of a building, you find yourself still in the
open air, instead of within the dwelling. These
high and solid garden walls are quite common
along the principal streets; and an occasional
latticed door gives you a peep into the attractive
area beyond the massive structure, with perhaps a
show of huge stone arches, or of a winding staircase between heavy stone columns, or of a profusion of tropical vegetation in the winter garden,
bringing to mind the stories in poem and romance
of the loves of Spanish damsels, and of stolen
interviews at the garden gate, or elopements by
means of the false key or thile bribed porter. The
principal streets were formerly well paved or
floored with shell concrete, portions of which are
still to be seen above the shifting sand; and this
flooring was so carefully swept, that the dark-eyed
maidens of old Castile, who then led in society
159 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
here, could pass and repass without soiling their
satin slippers. No rumbling wheels were permitted to crush the firm road-bed, or to whirl the
dust into the airy verandas, where, in undisturbed repose, sat the indolent Spanish dons and
dames.
"Built as a military town, the city was formerly
walled across its northern end; which sufficiently
protected it, as it stands on a peninsula nearly
surrounded by the St. Sebastian River and St.
Augustine Bay. The gateway of the old wall
still stands, and is quite an imposing ruin, with
ornamented lofty towers and loopholed sentryboxes. The ditch before the old wall (or possibly it was a stockade, except at the gateways) is
clearly marked, and even yet partially filled at
high tides. It runs from shore to shore, and was
evidently broad and deep.   The old fort, once
called San Juan, then St. Marco, but now known as
Fort Marion, is a curiosity. It stands on the seafront, at the upper end of the town, the wall or
stockade formerly running from it to the gateway,
and west to the river. Its material is the inevitable coquina rock.  It was a hundred years in
building.  While owned by the British, it was said
160 
FORT M1ARION.
to be the "prettiest fort in the king's dominions."
Its castellated battlements; its formidable bastions,
with their frowning guns; its lofty and imposing
sally-port, surrounded by the royal Spanish arms;
its portcullis, moat, drawbridge; its circular and
ornate sentry-boxes at each principal parapet-angle,
its commanding look-out tower; and its stained and
moss-grown massive walls,- impress the external
observer as a relic of the distant past; while a
ramble through its heavy casemates; its crumbling
Romish chapel, with elaborate portico and inner
altar and holy-water niches; its dark passages,
gloomy  vaults, and  more  recently  discovered
dungeons, - brings you to ready credence of its
many traditions of inquisitorial tortures, of decaying skeletons found in the latest-opened chambers
chained to the rusty ringbolts, and of alleged
subterranean passages to the neighboring convent.
"These stories lose none of their force by being
recited in the fitful light of the dim lamp of your
military guide, as you follow him into the damp
and noisome recesses to the echo of your own footfall or the grating lock and creaking hinge of the
slow-swinging ancient doors.   Many a dark tallylist on the moldering walls, or a rudely-executed
11
161 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
sketch, shows how the dragging days were noted
or employed by weary prisoners of long ago; and
the narrow loopholes are shown through which the
two Seminole chiefs attempted their escape, one
making it good, and the other sticking fast in the
crevice until he was rescued with barely his life
remaining.   At  the time of Gen.  Oglethorpe's
attack on St. Augustine, the old fort, or castle as
it was then called, stood a bombardment of thirty
eight days from batteries erected on Anastasia
Island.  But the injury to the fort was only slight;
for the spongy walls of coquina received and imbedded the heavy shot, as would the embankment
of a modern earthwork. The marks left by the
shot are plainly seen to-day. But time is at length
doing its work with the old fort.  Its walls are
showing huge fissures, and on recent inspection it
was declared unfit for further defensive service.
" Ill the buildings of the town are some remains
of elegance, as well as much of antiquity.  The
cathedral is unique, with its belfry in the form of
a section of a bell-shaped pyramid, its chime of
four bells in separate niches, and its clock, together
forming a cross. The oldest of these bells is
marked 1682. The old convent of St. Mary's is
162 
ST. AUGUSTINE.
a suggestive relic of the days of papal rule.  The
new convent is a tasteful building of the ancient
coquina.   The  United-States barracks, recently
remodeled and improved, are said to have been
built as a convent or monastery. The old government house, or palace, is now in use as the postoffice and United-States court-rooms. At its rear
is a well-preserved relic of what seems to have
been a fortification to protect the town from an
over-the-river or inland attack. An older house
than this, formerly occupied by the attorney-general, was pulled down a few years ago. Its ruins
are still a curiosity, and are called (though incorrectly) the governor's house.
"The' Plaza de la Constitution' is a fine public square in the center of the town, on which
stand the ancient markets, and which is faced by
the cathedral, the old palace, the convent, a modern Episcopal church, and other fine structures.
In the center of the plaza stands a monument
erected in honor of the Spanish Liberal Constitution. When the Constitution was abolished, these
monuments in all dominions of the crown were to
be destroyed; but a compromise was effbcted on
this by the removal of the inscribed tablets. On
163 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
the cession of Florida to the United States, the
long-concealed tablets were brought from their
hidingr-places, and re-inserted in the mnonument.
On this plaza were burner effigies of John Hancock and Samuel Adams, early in our Revolution,
while the British held Florida.
"The old Huguenot burying-ground is a spot of
much interest; so is the military burying-ground
where rest the remains of those who fell near here
during the prolonged Seminole war. Under three
pyramids of coquina, stuccoed and whitened, are
the ashes of Major Dade and one hundred and
seven men of his command, who were massacred
by Osceola and his band. A fine sea-wall of
nearly a mile in length, built of coquina with a
coping of granite, protects the entire ocean front
of the city, and furnishes a delightful promenade
of a moonlight evening.  In full view of this is
the old lig,ht-house on Anastasia Island, built more
than a century ago, and now surmounted with a
fine revolving lantern.
"The street names, Cuna, St. Hypolita, Tolomato, St. George's and the like, have an ancient
and a foreign smack about them; while the family
names, such as Dumas, Fatio, Hernandez, Oli
164, 
THE MINORCANS.
verez, Alveres, Monardi, Segui, Andrea, Sanchez,
Medices, and Bravo, mark it as any thing, but
American in its origin. Some of the RomanCatholic customs of carnival and evening serenades
before Easter are still kept up by the Minorcan
population."
A word as to these people, who constitute no inconsiderable portion of the present population of
St. Augustine. While Florida was in possession
of the English, a Dr. Turnbull went to Greece,
and received permission to transport such families
as choose to go to Florida. Obtaining a small
number, not enough for his proposed colony, he
halted at the islands of Corsica and Minorca in
the Mediterranean, where over a thousand joined
his company. They landed just inside of Musquito Inlet, at New Smyrna, some seventy-five
miles south of St. Augustine. Turnbull soon became imperious, and by the aid of a few immediate
friiends reduced these patient, hard-working, people
to a state of slavery, assigning them tasks under
overseers, and treating them in the most shameful
manner. His promises of lands and creature
comforts, made at the time of their joining his
expedition, were disregarded, and with acquired
165 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
wealth came added austerity and hardships for
these now dependent people.  Thus for nine years
they were in bondag(e, when, stung to resistance,
they assembled clandestinely, and marched in a
body to St. Augustine, where they were kindly
received, and allowed to remain. They form a
very quiet class, attentive to their own affairs, and
never meddling with their neighbors. They are
intelligent and industrious, and some have acquired
considerable property.
There are a few fine residences in St. Augustine; and these, with their ample surroundings and
beautifuil gardens, give a heightened interest to the
place. Senator Gilbert has a summer residence
here, the first as you enter the town, by the bridge,
on the right; then Buckingham Smith's, nearly
opposite, and Dr. Bronson's on the plaza, with
others, are beautiful homes. A profusion of tropical plants and shrubs and trees ornament their
grounds.    HIere  the orange flourishes,  and is
abundant and delicious: several fine groves invite
the visitor's inspection. The fig and date and
palm and banana are all seen here, as also the lime
and lemon, which grow to a great size, and the
sweet and the wild olive; the citron, the guava
166 
ST. AUGUSTINE.
(from which a delicious jelly is made), and the
pomegranate, are all indigenous. This is the home
of the grape, and peaches luxuriate in this climate,
s likewise the Japan plum.
Besides the gardens spoken of, we see few flowers; and this is what quite astonishes us in this
"land of flowers," where they grow so easily, and
with so little care that there seems no excuse why
all the gardens should not have these simple yet
beautiful adornings.
For many years the town has been at a stand
still, and property at a low figure.  Good titles
can with difficulty be obtained; and this is now the
great drawback to the improvement of the place,
though within a few years Northern people have
been coming in and taking such titles as were
offered.  One gentleman, Mr. HIoward, from New
York, has within a year past invested near fifty
thousand dollars in real estate in the city,
which is beginning to feel the effects of this healthfal influx, property hlaving already risen to fourfold its value five years ago, and still not high.
The residence of Senator Gilbert, before alluded
to, was bought by him at the close of the war, as
we are informed, for about eight thousand dollars,
167 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
and we judge worth forty now.  This place has
several acres of ground in it.
There is one thing the town lacks, and that is,
a comfortable hotel. This it has not at present,
though a more splendid opportunity never seemed
to present itself.  Hundreds visit this city during
the season, and other hundreds are kept from
coming in consequence of this lack.  Our  own
experience attests the great want.   There  are
three hotels here, so called; but a respectable
mechanic's and clerk's boarding-house at the North
is, in most respects, their superior. The Florida
House -well, it don't deserve either patronage
or mention, except that it is now for sale; the
owners, not unlikely, having become themselves
disgusted with it. The place for strangers is the
private boarding-house, of which there are, luckily,
quite a number; and they seem so well patronized,
that, to secure accommodations for any thing of a
party, it is needful to make application a week before your arrival. Mrs. Abbott's, Mrs. Gardner's,
Madam  Fatio's, and Mrs. Dummet's are among
the best known, and are all pleasant homes, and
furnish excellent accommodations, at about half
the price of the hotels. There are a half-dozen
168 
A HOTEL WANTED.
other private  families,  whose  names  do  not  so
readily occur to us, but who are well known to
the  stage-lines, where  visitors  are  quietly  provided for and made comfortable.
But, as we said, the great need is a hotel, not
elegant nor expensive, but convenient in location
and arrangement, where the invalid and tourist
may find a home. The season commences early in
November, and ends in May,-  full seven months
in which to reap a harvest; and some remain the
year round, finding the climate here less trying in
summer than at the North. Every third man you
meet from the North is arranging to build a hotel;
but since they do not grow of a night, like Jonah's
gourd, why, St. Augustine will have to wait till
one is built in the usual way. The last party
who had shouldered the undertaking was a
Baltimorian, with a very Yankee countenance; but
what will come of it time will tell. Burns has
written something in relation to "the  best-laid
plans of mice and men," &c.; and, as we reflect,
we have some doubts of the result of even this
last project. If, however, St. Augustine wishes
to become prosperous, and her citizens to accumulate of this world's stores and to secure the annual
169 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
influx of visitors, a new hotel is the first steppingstone, and can not be lost sight of.  The people of
the place could afford to levy a tax for its erection,
rather than it should go undone. This being accomplished, with a railway from the city to Picolata, which was once graded, the tide of travel will
be greatly increased.*
The longer one remains in this antique town,
the more he is attached to it: at least, this was
our experience.   It improves on  acquaintance.
The plaza, or public square, affords a pleasant
retreat from the sand, which everywhere else
covers the place. Hlere are shlade-trees, and tile
firm green turf and benches, whereon the visitor
may lounge, and idle away the hours. At the foot
of the square, whicli fronts on the bay, is the
market-louse, so entirely different firom those elsewhere seen; being here neat, airy, and attractive.
It consists of a roof supported by brick pillars, a
half-dozen on either side, with a floor of the same
material, and is altogether unique in appearance.
The military band, on pleasant evenings, has
* Since penning the above, we have been informed that the work of
grading and track-laying on this proposed railroad has commenced with
a prospect of its being finished this year. Its terminus, on the St. John's,
is Tocoi.
170 
A PLEASANT DRIVE.
been accustomed to assemble on this square, and
discourse the national airs and other melodies, to
the great delight of the people.  This source of
pleasure and amusement has ended, we regret to
say, in consequence of a recent act of Congress,
consolidating regiments, and reducing the number
of military bands in the service.
The number of strangers here greatly exceeded
our expectations, and thronged in every street
and public place.  The fashionable belle of Newport and Saratoga, and the pale, thoughtful, and
furloughed clergyman of New England, were at
all points encountered. The meeting of friends
whom we had not seen for years, and others
whom we had never met, but yet could call our
name, seemed strange and quite a dream.
Our visit being ended, and a few phlotographs
secured of points of interest as mementoes, together with a cane of the pomegranate, presented by a
firiend, which he had cut from his garden, we commenced our journey back over the road we came,
to Picolata. It was a bright April morning; and
as we sped out of the city and over the St.
Sebastian River, through the thickets, and into the
piny woods, a pang was felt at parting from the
171 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
old city and our new-made friends. We had now
the day before us, with new horses, a lighter
carriage, and a gayer company; and what before
was a tedious, wearing ride, was now made a
pleasing journey of three hours, though among
the inevitable pines, only here and there broken
with clumps of clustering vines and overarching
branches, whose friendly presence was owing to
swampy places by which the roadway led.
At Picolata we again hailed the river, where a
steamer was in waiting to bear us on our journey.
172 
CHAPTER XII.
THE CLIIMATE.
Influx of Visitors. —Who are benefited.-Necessity of Recreation. -
Cool Nights. - Thermometer ranges. - Earliest Frosts.- Steadi  ness of Climate.-The Trade-WlVinds.-The Time to visit Florida.
- Statistics. - General Health of the People. - Care to be exer  cised.
THIE chief interest, perhaps, that the State of
Florida possesses for the people of the North, is
its delightful climate, and the reputed beneficial
effects thereof on the health of certain classes
of invalids.
Its location is the most southern of any portion
of the United States, and is the most tropical in
character. Reaching almost to the tropical zone,
and extending up to the thirty-first degree of
latitude, its entire coast-lines are bathed by the
warm waters of the surrounding seas; while the
gentle trade-winds cool and purify its atmosphere,
making the peninsula, as a place of residence,
both healthful and delightful
173 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
Invalids have long sought this portion of the
Union; and its general reputation has steadily
increased, till now scores and hundreds annually
migrate to some point in the State, as their predilections seem to favor: but as a rule a majority
of them remain upon the St. John's River and its
tributaries, or else upon the Atlantic coast at St.
Augustine and the  Indian-river country, which
is an extensive inlet running very near and quite
parallel to the seacoast at the central portion.
The story was everywhere current along the
river, that full fifty thousand people had, this
last  season, visited  Florida.   This, of course,
included all classes: but we can scarce credit so
large a statement; and if we cut it down one-half,
then  the  statement may  be taken  with some
allowance for interested motives.   There is no
denying, however, that great numbers have
visited the State within the winter 1868  and'69.
The chief hotel in Charleston, S.C., the
Charleston House, was kept crowded to its
utmost capacity during the winter by this Florida
travel.  It may not be too much to say, that ninetenths of all the arrivals at that house were on
their way to or from that State. We mention
174 
OVER -WORKED PEOPLE.
this as indicative of the growing and already
great importance of the question as to the effects
of the climate upon invalids and those who seek
rest and recuperation from the steady and exacting demands of business. There is needed among
those who fill the various professions more of rest
and play than they get.
While we write, an eminent gentleman connected with one of the chief journals of the
metropolis has been suddenly snatched away, in
the full meridian of life, from over brain-work.
To say that his was an impaired constitution
would not be warranted, since he had a perfect
physical organization, and, mentally, was as well
balanced as any man we ever knew. Mr. Raymond possessed an intellect of the very highest
order, and practical talents exceeded by but few
in the history of our leading men, together with a
capacity for steady mental exertion beyond all
others; and yet this noble man fell a victim to
over-work.  His health was indeed so perfect as
not to break, as in most cases would be the result
of such intense application, and thus sound a
warning. It is this over-worked class, as well as
the invalid, who need to go to Florida. For the
175 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
former, it is just the place in which to spend a
winter: there is no doubt in our minds of the
benefit they would derive by a few month's
residence in that climate. Then there are the
weak and nervous,- those whom care and anxiety
have broken down, and who now need, above all
things, a change of scene, and a quiet life away
from their former  surroundings.   With  a new
diet and a dozing climnate, they will rapidly recover: these, therefore, need not hesitate to pack
their trunks and start for Florida.  We know of
no place equal to it for persons tl-hus afflicted:
all improve under the influence of this warm and
genial climate, where a comparatively even temperature is maintained, and where the rule is cool
nights, in which sleep, the sweet restorer, comes
with so many blessings to the fevered and fretful
invalid, and the over-worked.  No physician is so
skillful, or remedy so marvelous in restorative power, as sleep. This the resident of Florida may
more easily obtain than in any other climate of
which we have any knowledge. The winters are
not so cold as to freeze during the night, or to
necessitate artificial, over-heated air in the dwellings, rendered often quite impure by this furnace
176 
THE EQUABILITY OF CLIMATE.
system so general in the North during the cold
season; nor are the summers so sultry and heated
as to deprive you of rest, as is the case in the
severest hot weather in nearly every other portion
of the country. The thermometer never settles
as low, or rises as high, as at any point between
this State and Canada. The lowest point reached
in winter is seldom below thirty degrees, while in
midsummer it rarely exceeds ninety-five degrees;
the average being, for the three summer months,
about eighty degrees. In New York, Boston,
or Montreal, every summer carries the thermometer to a greater height.   The  earliest frost
recorded occurred on the 27th October, in 1857;
and the latest frost was in February (the 14th),
1859. Severe frosts usually occur in January,
when ice is formed in pools of water or buckets,
if left exposed. Since 1835, no very destructive
periods of cold weather have been experienced;
then it was cold. People who were living in the
State at that time speak of it as a severe cold
snap, reminding them of Northern latitudes. The
vines and shrubs and orange-trees, with many
other kinds of trees, were quite annihilated; and
what are now seen have been either grown from
12
1,7 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
the seed, or are sprouts from the old stumps of
the frost-killed trees.
It is the severe and sudden changes in temperature at the North that do the injury to enfeebled
constitutions. One day in winter it is quite mild
and pleasant; while the next morning it is so
dreadfully cold, that the going out of doors is a
trial to the able-bodied, and a severe shock to
those lacking in vitality.   The  spring is even
worse than  the winter; for while  the latter,
though cold, has a dry atmosphere for the most
part, the former is piercing, cold, and wet, and
miserably coquetting, with all degrees of temperature in a single day. Spring has in fact got to be,
if, indeed, it has not always been considered in
most of the Northern States, worse for all kinds of
invalids than any other season of the year; and
where the east winds prevail at this season, the
mortality list exceeds, for March, April, and May,
that of all the balance of the year. An escape
firom these months to a more equable climate is, to
the invalid afflicted with pulmonary difficulties, a
vital one.
A continuous, steady cold, dry climate, or an
even warm one, is the most to be desired for a
178 
QUESTIONS TO BE SETTLED.
majority of the suffering and afflicted of our race.
Florida and Minnesota are the two points which
most nearly represent these conditions.   They
have been frequently contrasted, and, like every
other subject, each has its special advocates. We
shall not even pretend to decide between them,
for undoubtedly  both  are  beneficial  as  a  resort; but to determine which of the two  is the
better adapted to benefit certain cases is beyond
possibility, since they differ in many particulars:
that is for the family physician to decide, who
should know the constitution and habits of his
patient, and whose counsel should always be
wei,ghled in all matters of this kind. Only general hints can be given, and each is to determine for himself between the one and the other,
or whether remaining quietly at home may not
be best.  When  patients  are so debilitated  as
to make traveling a trial and a burthen, they
should remain at home, where their nearest
friends may watch and tend them; but in the
incipient stages of tubercular formation, with a
judicious change of residence  and a nutritious
diet, coupled with great care, the disease may be
arrested, especially if resort is had to gentle exer
179 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
cise in the open air.   Northern latitudes admit
of exposure to the weather only during the summer season, and herein lies the great advantage
of a residence in Florida. We met at St. Augustine a lady from Syracuse, afflicted with pulmonary disease: we should judge it was constitutional in her case.   She stated she had been
unable to go out of doors during the cold and wet
weather of the preceding winter, at her home,
but had not failed to walk out daily (except it
was raining) during the whole winter in Florida.
She had at first, in coming into the State, spent
several weeks on the St. Johln's River, and then
took up her residence at St. Augustine.   This
was undoubtedly a very judicious plan; for the
climate of the river differs materially from that of
St. Augustine, on the seacoast.   The former is
milder and more gentle; and the patient suffering
with disease of the lungs would do well to remain
on the river for a while, and then the climate of
St. Augustine, with its sea-breeze acting as a mild
tonic, braces up the system.
The whole peninsula is in the range of the
trade-winds, and is swept by them daily, rendering it as cool and pleasant as one could ask.
180 
WHEN TO GO.
Sufferers from nervous prostration and general
debility need not delay their visit to St. Augustine for any reason above given, since they would
probably experience as great benefit at the outset
as at any subsequent period of their sojourn.
People usually do not go to Florida before early
in November, though they might leave home at an
earlier date, making tarries on their way; but, if
they reach the State by that time, they will not
have gone wrong. They can remain until the
first of May, when  it is safe to return to the
Northern States.
We speak in reference to invalids, of course.
Pleasure-seekers, or those in health, may visit
Florida, and the next week take a sleigh-ride
among the hills of New England with impunity,
perhaps. There are those from the North, both
invalids and others, who make Florida their home
the year round; and they speak in the very highest
praise of the climate during the summer, declaring
they do not suffer with the heat as much as they
formerly did at home, and that the benefit derived
from a residence is increased by remaining. This
may be true in some cases, whereas it might be too
debilitating in others; not from the great rise in
181 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
the thermometer, but from the iong continuation of
hot weather. It commences to be warm in April.
We have seen the thermometer in the early portion of that month as high as eighty degrees in the
shade at two, P.m.  True, that was exceptionable;
but it was warm weather at mid-day through the
half of that month; and to continue this temperature on to October makes a long season of summer weather, which might  be objectionable  in
some instances.
There are those who assert the climate of
Florida to be proved, from statistics, to stand at the
lowest rates of mortality. From the census report
of 1860, we find the average number of deaths
from      consumption, in various States, to be
One in  254 in Massachusetts.
One in  473 in New York.
One in  757 in Virginia.
One in 1139 in Minnesota.
One in 1447 in Florida.
This  table  certainly  speaks  very highly  in
favor of the climate for this class of diseases.
It is not impossible, however,  that the returns
may have been less perfect for Florida than those
of other States, owing to the sparseness of popula
182 
THERMOMIETER RANGES.
tion and the inferior facilities for obtaining exact
data.
The following table of observations  mad(le  at
Jacksonville shows the highest and lowest range
of the thermometer each month for five years from
1857 to 1861, both inclusive: * -
185711858[1859!1860 1861
MONTHS.   I    --                          REMARKS.
H. L.H. L. H. L.IH. L. H. L.
January... 72 16 76 38 7630 76 40....   Ice one to two inches
February.. 81 44 77 39 79:39 79 44 75 42 thick, Jan. 19, 20, 1857.
March.... 85 41 83 34 84 45 83 40 83 43
April..... 81 47 86 49 89i53192 58 85 54
May...... 91 61 91 66 92 64192 58 94 64
June...... 91 73 92 73 94170i97 69 98 73
July...... 89 68i96174 95 70 98 74 92 70
August... 95 75 94 75 91175 93 73 91 73
September. 92 64 86 64 92170 89 65 92 58
October... 81 42 85 62 84150 87 53 86,57   At 7, A.M., Nov. 25,
November. 82 27 7939 79 35 80 25 79145 1860, the thermometer
December. 8039 78 40 79:36 7232 74138 stood at 25~.
Thlere is a marked difference in the thermometric range at Enterprise, two hundred miles south
of Jacksonville; not that it so much exceeds, if
any, the above table, but that it does not reach as
low a point, making the climate more even in temperature, and consequently more desirable. This,
* This table is from the report by the Hon. J. S. Adams, the Com.
missioner of Immigration, published in 1869.
183 
A  WINTER IN FLORIDA.
even, is observed at Palatka, which is also a more
favorable place for these reasons.
A comparative table, from the same source,
showing the monthly and yearly mean for twenty
years at St. Augustine, thirty-one years at West
Point, and thirty-five years at Fort Snelling, is
given, showing the equability of climate of the sev
eral localities:
St. Augustine, Fla.. 57.03 59-.94 63. 34i68.7873. 50179.36.....
West Point, N.Y... 28.28 28.80 37.63148.70159.82168.41.....
Fort Snelling, Minn. 13.7617.57 31.41156.34 58.97168.46.....
July. Aug.  Sept.  Ocn. Nov.  Dec. Year.
St. Augustine, Fla..
West Point, N.Y...
Fort Snelling, Minn.
None need expect that every winter day in
Florida will be like a selected day in May or
September at the North.  There will be cool and
cloudy days; there will be occasional rainy days,
though the winter months are usually very free
from rain. The rainy season is in the summer;
and of these months August is usually prolific in
heavy falls of water. In most countries where
i
I
I
I
i
184
April.IMay. IJune.
Jan. Feb. Mar.
80.9Oi8O.56
73.75li71.83
73.40!70.05
1
78-60
164.31
58.86
71.88 64. 12 57.26
53.04142.23 31.98
47.15131.67 16.89
i
69.61
50.73
46.54 
THE WINTER EVENINGS.
they have what is denominated the wet season,
this occurs in the winter or spring months, leaving
the summers, when vegetation needs rain most,
very dry, and trying to the crops; whereas in
Florida this is reversed, and in the hot weather
the heaviest rains fall.
The mild atmosphere of winter, which permits
so much life in the open air; the sea-breezes from
the ocean on the one side and the gulf on the
other; the mode of living without air-tight stoves
and hot-air furnaces, but with ample ventilation
in, around, and under their dwellings, which have
no cellars, and usually stand on posts a couple of
feet from the surface,-to these things may be
ascribed the freedom from lung complaints, though
the character of the soil itself greatly contributes
to the absence of this disease, by its loose, sandy
nature quickly absorbing moisture, and yet being
most of the time warm and comparatively dry.
Visitors may expect to find the evenings and
nights often damp and chilly in winter, and occasionally frosty. Our May and September have
such nights; and yet these months are thought to
possess the most agreeable temperature in the
North. Snow is not seen, nor ice, except as rari
185 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
ties.  It is no unusual thing to sit without a fire(
and with open doors in the winter; and it is never
absolutely uncomfortable to be out of doors, except
in a storm or at night. Fires are, however, a
great comfort most of the winter evenings and
morning,s, chiefly ill removing the dampness, and
taking off the chill; but an open door or window
at the same time is not a discomfort. A good
idea of a Florida winter may be best had, perhaps,
by letting our months of September, November,
and May, stand for their December, January, and
February.
There is no doubt, notwithstanding the fine climate, that people do die in Florida! They have
hitherto, and will continue to drop away there as
elsewhlere from some one of the many ills that all
flesh is heir to. Fevers, malarious and bilious, and
fevers with chills, are not infrequent, as they will
always be in a country Tlat is new, and heavily
timbered, and filled with rivers and numerous
lakes.  Still, we believe that the ague prevails
more in the Wabash Valley, and that fevers were
as common in many other States, where now a good
degree of health is maintained, in their early settlement, as at present in Florida.
186 
WHOMI THE CLIMIATE WILL BENEFIT. 187
Of course, the climate is not a panacea for all
ills. All pain will not vanish under its influence,
nor will it act as a certain balm to those whose
disease is deeply seated and far advanced. Alluring hope should not tempt such from the comforts
of home, even for the placid skies of Italy. There
is no question that many who are constitutionally
predisposed to, and those who are in the first
stages of, pulmonic troubles and kindred complaints, also those wanting in vitality, and the
over-worked, and those suffering from nervous
prostration, may reasonably hope for the most
beneficial results; but all should exercise the
same care here as at home. As a rule, they
should not expose themselves to the night air, nor
be tempted on warm, bright days to lay aside
thick shoes and comfortable clothing. The invalid
should always be clad in woolen clothing; and the
robust do not require a linen suit except in the
summer months. Better suffer withl the heat at
mid-day than with a feeling of chilliness at sunset. 
CHAPTER XIII.
THE SOIL.
First Impressions.- Varieties of Soil.- Cane, Cotton, and Corn.-.
Adaptability of the Soil for lEarly Vegetables.- The Culture of
Rice, Coffee, and Tea, considered. - The Chinese. -A Prediction.
- Good News to all Housekeepers.- A California Senator.- His
Trianguiilar Position.
THE soil of Florida differs very greatly from
that of every other State with which we are familiar. Its first appearance is that of a worthless
character, unproductive and quite valueless; but
yet you are everywhere confronted with such
stately, vigorous trees, and rank growths, that it
seems quite paradoxical that out of the sand should
come so giant a Flora.  On closer inspection, we
find the subsoil is often a mold, and, again, filled
with broken marine shells and fragments of limerock; and this has worked itself in with the fine
sand, giving it its power to sustain such forests
as abound everywhere along the river-courses.
Over the whole State there are, of course, great
188 
CHARACTERP OF THE SOIL.
varieties of soil. In the rich hummock and bottom lands, a black mold, with a mixture of the
sand, is seen; the dark, vegetable compound predominating: and you have this soil shaded off
till you come to the almost pure silica, or dry
sand, where little else but the scrub-oak and blackjack flourish. The pine-forests, as we have before
remarked, cover a majority of the surface in the
northern and eastern half of the peninsula. These
pine-lands are not so desirable for crops as the
river-lands; yet they, even, are valuable.   The
first-rate pine-land possesses considerable vegetable matter, and has a kind of marl or limestone
substratum, that gives it an enduring fertility.
This sort of land is, perhaps, to the early settler,
the very best, since he may always find within the
pine-woods a suitable and healthy location for a
dwelling. This is not always true of the riverbanks, where the hummock-lands are. Time, and
the opening-up of the country, will render them
quite habitable; but, at present, chills and fevers
have to be encountered unless the site is very high
and airy. The settlor may, however, by judicious
purchase, procure on almost any portion of the St.
John's River a fifty or a hundred acre tract,
189 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
which shall not only front on the river, embracing
considerable of the rich river-land, but extend
back into the pine-woods, where he may locate his
dwelling, and be tolerably free from the diseases
which come from a home near the lowland and
standing waters of the bays that indent the shores.
Much of the second-class pine-land will grow
nearly all kinds of vegetables; and even cotton
and the cane will flourish, this having a clay and
marl foundation. Three hundred pounds of SeaIsland cotton have been taken from an acre; and
Cuba tobacco and all kinds of fruit may be cultivated with success upon it.
It is the bottom and river lands, however, that
seem the most highly prized; and this is not
strange when their productive power is so great.
The sugar-cane matures in this country only in
Florida. True, it is grown in Louisiana and Texas
extensively; but it no where tassels out like our
Northlern corn, except in this peninsula; and this
is the  sure sign of its maturity.   The term
"hummock "land- the Indian name for elevated
tracts lying above the low or wet lands- is now
applied to nearly all the hardwood lands in the
State.  It may  be cultivated, year after year,
i90 
VIEW ON LAKE HARNEY.  
MARKET GARDENING.
with the most exhausting crops of tobacco or
cane, without apparent diminution of its power.
For gardening purposes it is unsurpassed; and is,
indeed, what the greenhlouse man sifts and mixes
in fine compost, for his delicate plants and shrubs.
The time is coming, when, with a semi-weekly
line of steamers running direct from Jacksonville
to Newv York, the markets of that city will be
supplied with early vegetables grown on the St.
Jolhn's River.  A  few industrious Yankees have
already initiated the enterprise of early gardelning,
and there is not a shadow of doubt as to the
result. Green pease may be had in abundance by
the 1st of April; and farther up the river, new
potatoes can be grown for market by that time.
We know this to be possible; for they were upon
our table as early as that, as were also strawberries and blackberries. The ordinary vegetables can be raised to great profit for the Northern
markets: pease, potatoes, melons of all kinds,
string-beans, &c., mature rapidly and early,
and with very little care beyond planting and a
single hloeing(. Of all crops, the melon grows the
most spontaneous, and may be raised on the very
poorest soil, as light and air contribute chiefly to
191 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
their growth. All these articles can be safely
shipped, even with the present means of conveyance to New York. Sweet potatoes are, of course,
grown here, and they sell at an extremely low
rate.   In  this article  alone a handsome profit
might be realized.  By and by, when quick water
communication is had, tomatoes, cucumbers,
squashes, and other articles, may be sent to distant markets: at present these products, embracing all we have named, except, perhaps, sweet
potatoes, find a ready sale at Jacksonville, as the
demand exceeds the supply.
Under British occupation, there were extensive
indigo plantations, this crop forming the chief
article of export; and even now it may be seen
growing in its wild state, having become naturalized and indigenous. Coffee and rice, especially
the latter, could easily be made profitable; and
their culture. will some day employ, doubtless,
many hundred pairs of hands.
The experiment of raising the article of tea in
this country has been attempted and abandoned:
but never tried in Florida. We are quite sanguine it can be  grown  there.   The  northern
half of the State lies in the same parallels of
192 
THE COMING MAN!
latitude with the noted tea-districts of China; and
the soil is thought to be much of the same character as that on which the choice teas are grown
in that country. Of course it must be at first,
from the very nature of the case, an experiment,
as the culture of any new product, even if seemingly adapted to the locality, is pretty likely
to be; yet, with Chinamen to dress and tend
the plant, its successful culture may be considered
assured. Nor is this an impossible dream; for,
while penning these lines, the telegraph flashes
the arrival in the harbor of San Francisco of one
of the Pacific mail-steamships with twelve hundred Chinamen as passengers.   And this wholesale immigration is being constantly repeated.
They are now numerous on the Pacific coast; and
we venture to predict that a million of Chinamen will reach our shores within the next decade.
They are industrious and frugal beyond all knowledge of our people; and they will yet solve the
problem of obedient, honest, and respectful labor
at a cheap rate, both in doors and out. Where
now the  Green  Isle, witlh its ever-green  sons
and daughters, hold high and triumphant carnival
let us hope these patient and faithful people
13
193 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
may be found instead.   It is a matter for profound regret, that, on the Pacific coast, these
" Children of the Sun" are so universally misuse(d,
if not often brutally treated by the resident population. That one of California's senators, himself the son of a foreigner, whose father, under
the laws of the United States, was, after a brief
residence, admitted to all the rights of citizenship,
should publicly denounce these peaceful and lawabiding people as a common nuisance, when their
only crime is that of working faithfully, and for
one-half the wages of an ignorant Irishman, is
too preposterous for credence; yet the fact seems
indubitable.  Shame on this ignoble "Roman."
194
N 
CHAPTER XIV.
FRUITS.
The Orange. -Its Cultivation.- The Several Varieties. -A Roasted
"Bitter-Sweet." - The Wild Orange a Native of Florida.- The
Frost of 1835. - The Orange a Prolific Bearer.- Peculiarities of
the Orange. - Scarcity of Orange- Groves.- - Where the largest
may be seen. -The Lemon and Lime. - The Grape indigenous.
-The Scuppernong. -Florida as a Wine-growing Country.  Peach-Culture. -Figs and Pomegranates flourish.
THE most important of all fruits in Florida is
the
ORANGE.
There are four varieties to be found in the State.
Three of them - the sour orange, the bitter
orange, which is very bitter, and the bitter-sweet
orange -  are found growing wild, in irregular
groves, along the principal rivers and streams,
though in greatest numbers near the center of the
peninsula, up  the  Ocklawaha  River.   There,
thousands of the wild trees grow; and, in their
beating season, it is a beautiful sight to wander
195 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
through these natural groves laden  with  such
beautiful globes of gold, peeping on all sides from
the bright green foliage, bending low the branches
with their weight, and exhaling an aroma at once
delicious and powerful. The fruit clings with a
good deal of tenacity for a long time after it has
ripened; but during the winter and early spring
it mostly falls, though  you may see the  new
blossoms and the young oranges while the ripe
fruit still remains.  No  other large fruit-bearing
tree does this, to our knowled(ge; and it is a rare
sight, worth a journey, to be able to stand within
a wild orchard of these beautiful trees, and feel
the drowsing influence of fruit and flowvers.
The  " sour" variety is too sour for any sort
of good purpose; and the " bitter" is too outrageous for any use save to remind you of the "DeadSea fruit" whose taste is never forgotten by even
those of not usually very tenacious recollections.
The "bitter-sweet" are not put to a very great
use at present, and may never be; yet the Indians,
and some of the native people, use them in the
manufacture of a pleasant beverage, quite like our
lemonade, and full as palatable perhaps. Barrels
of the juice of this orange could be had for the
196 
THE WILD ORANGE.
labor of procuring and pressing them. Whether
it might be made illto a lemon sirup, and thus
become an article of commerce, we do not know;
but we see no reason it should not, except that our
inventive Yankees, or others, have substituted in
late years a sirup from chemical combinations,
which finds a ready market; and, since the public
seem never over nice in small matters, they unhesitatingly gulp it down in quantities sufficient,
with other drugs, to in time poison, if it were only
taken pure, the whole population.
A  very delicious thing is a roasted "bittersweet." They have to be treated with care, lest
the oil in the thick rind should get mixed with the
juice. If it is ever the fortune of any reader to
camp near this variety of the orange, let us suggest that they try roasting one as an experiment.
Cut a circular piece of the rind from the top of the
orange, push carefully down a portion of the pulp
to admit the introduction of sugar, then replace
the cap of rind, and fasten with several wooden
plugs, not penetrating beyond the rind; then roll
it in paper, leaves, or moss,-  any thing to keep it
clean, —and bury in the earth under the fire.  In
due time, when it is thought the inside has
197 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
thoroughlily assimilated, carefully withdraw the
fruit, and remove the lid; when, armed with a
spoon, you have a nectar such as no caterer ever
dreamed.
It is generally thought the orange is not a native
of this country, but must have been brought to
Florida by the early Spanish colonists. This is
the accepted theory, but not a known fact. It is
our opinion, that the orange is indigenous to the
soil; and our reasons are, that it flourishes and
seems as hardy and natural to the soil and climate
as the magnolia, the live oak, or the palm  and
date. The great frost of 1835 killed nearly every
tree on the peninsula; and yet there is to-day, as
good authority asserts, a million of acres of the
best lands of the State covered by the wild
orange.* Again, the cultivated fruit, the sweet
variety, excels the fruit of any other country, both
in size and sweetness. This is the general testimony of competent judges, and we unqualifiedly
concur, especially when we remember those
grown  in what is known  as  the  Indian-river
country.  These seldom reach any of the Northern
* Dr. D. H. Jacques, in tho October number of" The Horticulturist"
for 1868, gives this statenment.
198 
TEE ORANGE INDIGENOUS.
markets, the home consumption being sufficient to
require them all. The orange is a native of Asia
and the East Indies, and also, we shall add, of
Florida. It was not grown in Europe till about
the fifteenth century; and it is scarcely likely the
Spaniards introduced it, since they cultivated it
very indifferently up to the sixteenth century, and
Florida was discovered by them in 1512. The
fact that some of the early Spaniards left no account of this fruit argues little, since they gave
very little account of any thing they either saw
or undertook, beyond general expressions. The
first elaborate sketches of Florida were given by
the Bartrams, father and son, about a hundred
years ago; and these writers  mention   seeing
everywhere in the forests, as the traveler may now
who seeks the interior and central section, groves
of the wild orange, with the fruit so abundant as to
actually cumber the ground. The evidence all
tends to the one conclusion, so far as we have examined the subject; and flthat is, as before stated,
that the orange is indigenous to the soil in Florida.
Next to the Florida is thle Havana orange, a
large and handsome fruit of a bright color, with a
rich and juicy pulp, and very free from seeds.
199 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
The Maltese orange is also a favorite, and is
thought the sweetest of all varieties.   Its red
pulp has been considered objectionable; but now
this is less thought of, and already by many it is
preferred.* Then there is the Mandarin, a fine
new orange, grown in China, which is peculiar in
consequence of the looseness of the rind which
scarce adheres to the pulp. This is likely to become a favorite.
The orange is the longest-lived firuit-tree known
to us. It is reputed to have attained the age of
three hundred years, and known to flourish and
bear fruit for more than a hundred years. No
fruit-tree will sustain itself and produce firuit so
well under neglect and rough treatment. It comes
into bearing about the third year from the budding,
and by the fifth year produces an abundant crop,
though the yield is gradually increased by age and
favorable circumstances. The early growth of the
orange is rapid; and by its tenth year it has grown
more than it will in the next fifty, so far as breadth
and height are concerned: but it is age that multiplies its fruit-stems; and we are informed, on fair
* The red color of the pulp is said to have Come fr )m grafting the
orange on the pomegi an ate.
200 
THE YIELD OF TIlE ORANGE.
authority, that ten thousand oranges have been
produced by a single tree.  A  correspondent, in
The Horticulturist " of last year, states  that
eight thousand were gathered in one season from a
tree in St. Augustine.* We know these figures
will be thought highl, and they are far beyond the
common experience; yet they show what may be
done. The yield of the present groves in the
State, which we observed, would not, however,
average over two thousand to a tree; and they
were from ten to fifteen years old.  These groves
have not, as yet, attained maturity; and, in time,
the average will run above this figure.  They can
be marketed readily at twenty-five dollars per
thousand: this would give an income of fifty dollars
from each tree, or to an acre of rising a hundred
trees, five thousand dollars.   The labor of one
man is quite sufficient to tend the largest grove in
Florida, except at the time of gathering, when two
are required.
The usual method of propagating the orange is
quite like that of the peach; and one who understands the latter, need have no fear of mastering
the other. Indeed, it is an easier thing to grow
* See October number of "            oIrticulturist " for 1'68.
201 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
the orange in Florida than the peach in New Jersey; and that is saying considerable in favor of the
orange.  It is almost sure to live in the transplanting, and is in every way a very easy tree to
manage. It has but one enemy in the insect line;
and latterly that has not done the slightest damage, and nlever. has the power to destroy the tree,
as the " borer" has the peach.  Then the tree
itself is free from disease; and we all know the
peach is subject to the "yellows," which, during
the last fifteen years, has nearly driven it from
every homestead in New England.  Still another
great consideration in favor of the orange over most
firuit-trees is the tenacity with which the fruit
clings to the tree after it is fully ripe.  Ten days
is about the usual time for the peach-tree to hold
its fruit after commencing to ripen: though varieties differ, we might say the limit was not over
twenty days; and all know how a thunder-gust
will, when they are ripe, despoil the tree of its
fruit.  They have to be marketed rapidly, or they
are lost from decay; whereas the orange will,
when fully ripe, remain fresh and sound upon
the tree for several months, while the winds and
storms but gradually shake them off; and when
202 
THE ORANGE A STEADY BEARER.  203
they are thus shaken or gathered regularly, they
may be kept for many weeks, though, of course,
they slowly deteriorate in size, and lose something in juiciness and fine flavor.
The orange is not only a prolific, but is likewise
a steady bearer. It puts forth blossoms during
the last half of winter and the first half of spring,
by which time the flowering is mainlv over: this
is itself unusual, and peculiar to this tree. The
peach, cherry, plum, quince, pear, and apple
bloom promptly and fully, not holding in flower
over ten days, and their fruit progressing in growth
uniformly; while the orange may hold in February, blossoms, the green firuit, and the matured.
These advantages, in connection with its longevity, make it the most profitable and least expensive fruit grown in America.
The ground needs only to be cleared of timber
and under-brush to start an orchard of these trees;
though, of course, if thoroughly prepared  and
cultivated, it is only so much the better. The
wild-orange tree is used for budding or grafting in
the establishing of an orchard or grove. They can
be had in any number; and there are parties who
are in the habit of procuring them for customers, 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
while others, owning extensive tracts where ilatural groves abound, supply the market in very much
the same manner as the nursery-men North do,
and for the present at very reasonable prices,the usual charge being fifty cents per tree. They
vary in size from one to four inches; though a
greater percentage of the larger ones die, and are
not consequently so desirable. If, however, the
tree is in the spring taken up with ordinary care
and seasonably transplanted, ninety per cent will
live, and become well established the first season.
They should be set in rows, about twenty feet
apart each way; though the most of the groves we
saw were standing nearer.   This would  give
something over a hundred trees to the acre, and
in time the whole surface would be covered by
the branches.  Meanwhile the space between can
be used for the growing of vegetables, with actual
benefit to the trees.
All trees for transplanting should be cut off to
within five feet of the ground, all the main limbs
being lopped off, leaving little else beside the
stump, and perhaps one or two of the smaller
branches.
Those who have groves of.the wild orange, in
204 
THE PROPAGATION OF THE ORANGE. 205
locations to suit, do not disturb such as they wish
to remain, but take up all others, and with them
fill il here and there to perfect the rows; and with
the surplus either extend their orchard, or dis
pose to such as may desire. The usual plan is to
bud the sweet orange on the stock of the wild
orange, at any time after the tree, having been
transplanted, puts forth strong shoots, showing a
renewal of the flow of sap.  This ig usually done
during the summer; but budding is attended with
success whenever the sap is flowing upward, and
this is the case most of the year. The bud is
placed in the arms, or trunk, or the shoot when
old enough.   If grafting is preferred, you have
only to follow the usual custom; that is, when
strong shoots have started, cut off the tops of the
arms or trunk, and insert the grafts, leaving a
shoot, if convenient, to assist the flow of sap upward, covering the surface cut with any suitable
material, that the air and rain be kept out. The
best plan, if graftiung is not resorted to, is, -we
think, to bud the shoots after they have had ten
or twelve weeks start, breaking off, early, all shoots
not designed for budding.
The practice of raising trees from the seed is 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
receiving attention; and, where parties can wait,
this is the more desirable plan, still, a much
longer time is required to come to bearing.  The
seed of the wild orange may be planted, thoualgh
the sweet-orange seed is the best. Both require
budding, which, of course, is the only proper way
of treating young stock; yet it will be found that
the latter will produce a superior fruit.
The sweet variety may be grafted or budded
upon the stock of the lemon not only without
deterioration, but it is claimed by some to be improved both in size and quality. It is used whenever it can be obtained, the same as the wild
orange.   It  is asserted  that the  lemon  is a
much shorter lived tree than the orange; but of
thiis we could not say.
The common impression of those  who  have
never been to Florida is, that this beautiful fruittree may be everywhere seen and that they
literally  abound.    This  notion  would  vanish
were they to visit the State. It is only in the
older settlements that you see groves of the sweet
orange.   It is true, single trees, or a half-dozen
trees, are not unfrequent in numerous localities; but
we  have  never  seen  over  a  half.dozen  that
206 
THE LEMON AND LIME.
were worthy of the name of grove or orchard.
One at Mandarin, three in St. Augustine, two in
and near Palatka, and one, the finest in Eastern
Florida, about thirty miles south of New Smyrna,
near Indian River.* Western Florida has, in the
aggregate, a great many orange-trees; but we are
not familiar with any groves there, excepting one
at Fort Myers and another at Sarasota Bay.
The tree itself is of handsome form, seldom
over twenty feet in height, and near twelve feet
across the branches or top, which is conical in
form and not unlike the well-trained dwarf peartree in general outline, though growing much
larger than they do.
The dryer hummock-lands suit the orange best;
yet it does well in every soil in the State with
which we are acquainted, excepting the scruboak land, and even on that it will produce fruit.
The lemon, lime, and citron, all members of the
same family with the orange, attain perfection,
and are quite as easily grown  as the orange itself.
They will be found growing wild in Central and
Eastern  Florida, and  may  be  cultivated  with
* Likewise one at Enterprise.
207 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
profit. Indeed, whatever has been said of the
orange, as to soil and its capabilities, is nearly
equally applicable to these; and, beyond this
simple mention, we shall therefore not dwell upon
them.
Wild grapes of several grades are found in the
swamps, and along the rivers and streams, through
all the State. They are indigenous to the soil:
and it is quite probable that the Spanish people
brought with them their cultivated varieties; and
these growing wild, and mingling with the natives,
have produced kinds varying from every other,some being quite desirable, and all producing a
fair wine-making fruit.  Bartram speaks in their
praise, in his time; and he was undoubtedly a
connoisseur in all matters of that sort. The
SCUPPERNONG GRAPE,
quite famous for its fine wine, may be raised in
great perfection and profusion in almost any
portion of East Florida. Even the pine lands of
poorest quality suit it; and more wine can be
made from an acre of this land than from any
two acres of the ordinary wine-growing country
in Europe.  The highest yield in Europe is not
208 
GRAPE CULTURE - THE SCUPPERNONG.')09
over five hundred gallons to thle acre: whereas,
in this State, over fifteen hundred gallons is a
common yield. When these facts become fully
known, it must excite the grape-growing population of worn-out France and Italy to try their
fortunes in our more favored land.
The Scuppernong is one of the hardiest varieties
grown; is free from the rot, the premature falling
of fruit, and is here, quite out of the range of
frost.  The heat being uniform, and not so great
even as it is subjected to inll higher latitudes, the
fruit matures fully; being a never-failing bearer,
and grandly luxuriant in its growth and development.   A  vine  once planted, and  well-established, will take care of itself, requiring no
pruning or attention beyond giving it an arbor
large enough to spread itself upon: with this it is
content.   This  grape  is not grown north  of
Virginia with success, though it may be cultivated
in that State; but it increases in size and in fineness of flavor as you go southward. A gentleman
in South Carolina, near the center of the State,
has several  acres of this grape, and  his wine
finds a ready market.   The banks  of the St.
John's, we  predict, will, in time, be as famous
14 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
for its vineyards and wine as are those of
the  Rhine  in Europe.    There  is no sort of
necessity for America importing the miserable
adulterations that she is now doing, and sending
her gold across the ocean by the millions in
exchan,ge, when, within her own boundaries,
she is favored beyond all lands in soil and climate
adapted to the production of superior wine, and
in such quantities as not only to supply the home
demand, but have a surplus for exportation.
PEACHIES
are another crop that can be raised with great su(,cess. They ripen in June, and the different varieties carry the bearing season into October. At
present, not much attention is given them; and
that is not so extraordinary either, since few things
have received much attention in Florida for the
past hundred years: and, all the older marks of
civilization having ceased to be, the elements have
almost as clear a title now as on the morning of
creation.
Peaches will bring as high a price in the markets as oranges: and though not so long-lived or
as hardy a tree, yet it will bring quicker returns
o10 
THE PEACH AND FIG.
to the settler; and their cultivation is so easy a
matter that they can not, in due time, fail to command the attention of the shrewd and enterprising.
Perhaps the great trouble in this State is, that, as
remarked before, it is " so easy a matter " to do
this or that in husbandry, that most things go undone, and little stimulus is given labor where its
necessity is not absolute.
Figs grow freely, as also the pomegranate and
the  guava.   Our  Northern  markets  are now
wholly supplied by importations. The latter article, prepared in a jelly, finds a ready sale everywhere, and is delicious.
Cuba has heretofore furnished us this fruit, but
Florida is even better adapted to it than any of
the West-India Islands.   It is only that it is a
new-sounding and strange fruit which will likely
prevent its extensive introduction at present. By
and by, we may hope  for a wider and a more
profitable horticulture, not only on the peninsula,
but in all of the more Southern States.
211
C3 0 
CHAPTER XV.
HINTS TO IMMIGRANTS. - TIlE SOCIAL CONDITION.
Value of Lands. -The Florida Land Company.-The Fernandina
and Cedar Keyes Railroad.- Inducements to Settlers. -What
Immigrants should do.- Cost of clearing Lands. -Colonies along
the St. John's. - Negro Labor.- The Reason of Idleness.- The
Poor Baske-nakler. - His Trials, Sufferings, and Fears. - The
Social Condition of the South. - An Un-reconstructed Carolinian.
- Spirit of the People.- Their Necessities and Prospects.
WERE the lands of Florida ten feet higher than
they now are, its future would be great. No State
could then equal it in capacity to maintain a dense
population. As it is, ditching and draining will
have to be extensively resorted to. Three crops
can be taken from the same land in a single year
by a judicious system of rotation.
Many inquiries are made as to the price of lands.
The State owns a large portion of the wild lands,
and the price, we believe, is fifty cents per acre.
At an auction of several thousand acres of unimproved lands, held at Jacksonville in April of this
212 
THIE FLORIDA LAND COMPANY.
year, the prices ranged from twenty-five cents to
fifty dollars.  Lands fronting on the St. John's
River between Jacksonville and Palatka, unimproved, can be had from five to fifteen dollars,
while improved lands - farms - are held at from
twenty to thirty dollars. Of these there are, however, but very few, - scarce a dozen, all told, firom
one end of the river to the other.  Again, wherever there is an orange-grove, the price is enhanced
very greatly; but of these there will not be found
a half-dozen, hi bearing, along the whole river.
There is an association known as the Florida
Land Company, with an office in New-York, who
own several hundred thousand acres lying along
the  line of the Florida Railroad.    They  are
perhaps better prepared to give titles, and offer a
wider choice in location and quality of lands, than
any other parties. To actual settlers they offer
very great inducements, charging little, if any thing,
ill order that the local trade and travel may be increased alongT the line of their railway, seeking by
this method to obtain remuneration. Their policy
is dictated in wisdom, and at the same time is of the
utmost advantage to the settler, and especially to
those with limited means. Their lands are adapted
213 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
to the growthl of the long-staple cotton, so valuable in all markets. Sugrar-cane and coffee likewise
flourish, as also the orange and olive on these lands.
Their line of railway extends from Fernandina
on the Atlantic in a south-westerly direction to
Cedar Keyes on the Gulf coast, affording unusual
facilities for shipping or receiving any article of
commerce, since lines of steamers already make
prompt and frequent connection at either end of
the road with all parts of the country.  It is an
important road to Florida, but scarcely less so to
the Union, since, by any means should we lose the
"Key" to the Gulf, this line of railway would
afford a quick and sure means of communication
to all of the Gulf States.
The true way for immigrants seeking a home in
Florida is to combine, and send out an agent to investigate and report.   Any purchase should be
made with a view to the establishment of a colony.
In this way they will be able to render to each
other great assistance, and can at the same time
make their investment in lands to better advantage
then if each was to buy or locate on a small tract
independently.  They, as a body, could do many
things impossible for the individual.
214 
TROUBLESOME INSECTS.
The cost of clearing lands varies from five to
thirty dollars per acre, depending upon the kind
of lands and manner of clearing.  The cheapest
is that of clearing the pine lands; and the manner of doing it consists in simply girdling the trees
and cutting away the under-brush: the followingr
year there remains nothing but the trunks and dry
limbs, which offer no impediment to the rays of
the sun sufficient to hinder the growth of any
crop.  The more expensive clearing is the hummock-lands, where the whole has to be cut down
and burnt, and many of the smaller roots removed.
Every  company of settlers, who  can, should
provide themselves with material for a tent. This
would give them shelter while preparing their new
homes, and be both desirable and inexpensive.  Living in warm climates is, of course, attended with
some disadvantages; but the dread of reptiles and
poisonous insects is not well-founded as to Florida,
however true it may be of countries in lower latitudes.  Excepting a single harmless w-vater-snake,
we saw no reptiles.
IMusquitoes, in the season for them, and in their
favorite haunts, abound, as they do in many local
215 
A WVINTER IN FLORIDA.
ities at the North. The greatest pest, however,
is the flea.  Some  they do  not annoy, others
escape them entirely; but this was not our fortune. Their abundance is partially explained
wvhen we remember Josh Billings's assertion, that
a careful estimate gives a total of but sixteen
deaths per annum, and these from accident!  We
unhesitatingly indorse this statement. Think of
thirty millions of people, with industrious habits,
being able to overtake only that number!  Beyond stating that the flea crop of Florida was a
full average one the season of our travels, we
shall dismiss the matter. It isn't a pleasant one
to dwell on. Very pious people should travel in
some other country.
We have, in a previous chapter, adverted to the
settlement of several Northern colonies along the
St. Johln's, and particularly to that at Palatka, the
pioneer and leading spirits of which  are, we believe, Mr. H. O. Woodruff and the Rev. P. P.
Bishop, both formerly active and influential gentlemen of Auburn, N.Y.   By way  of indicating
the interest in, and travel to, the State of Florida,
as manifested withlin the last few years, we may
mention the fact, that over thirty ladies and gelltlemen, from the place above mentioned, sat down
216 
THE NEGRO -HIS TRIALS.
at dinner together in Palatka, one day last
spring.
Negro labor seems abundant, yet we understand there is difficulty in securing it. But there
are reasons why this is so. They dislike, as a
rule, to do any labor for their old masters, since
that would seem to them very much like the old
system which they now have such a horror of.
Again, we suspect the chief reason why the negro
is loth to labor is the uncertainty of his wages.
The Southern country, immediately after the war,
was utterly destitute in every thing, especially of
money, and finding they received nothing but
promises, the negroes naturally became idle. A
couple of crops of cotton has put in circulation
among these States considerable currency; but
this was not true of Florida, since her crops have
been small, and little of any thing for exportation.
Hence the colored people have been compelled to
give their time to building homes for themselves
wherever they were permitted to purchase lands
and live in quiet.   We  say "permitted;" for
that more nearly expresses the case than any other
term. It seems almost a resolut!on apong the
217 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
whites not to dispose of any land to the colored
people, however much they may be anxious to sell.
They are put off with promises; and, in case of
sale, they are charged two prices. It is the one
thing dear to the late slave population, a home.
They seem very anxious to secure to their families a
resting-place, where they shall be free from molestation. We met an aged negro, living on Black
Creek, a basket-maker, who was working in the
shade of a bay-tree, close beside a rude cabin, the
temporary home  of himself and  famnily.   Approaching, we entered into conversation, and
learned, from quivering lips, his history and present circumstances. His story was a touching one.
He had toiled-for his master half a century, in the
broiling sun and chilling winds; the war had left
him a free man: but he was now aged and infirm,
and the fruit of his long life of toil was beyond his
reach. He had rented this log-cabin, without
floor or chimney, and gathered into it his family,
and was struggling to secure a home of his own.
He had commenced life anew, and at a time when
most of us end ours. He longed to purchase one
of God's acres, where he could build his castle,
,nd read his title clear. He did not mind paying
218 
AN AFFECTING STORY.
Shylock his price, if the acre could be had. Tears
filled the old man's eyes, and his arms grew nerveless,' as he repeated his doubts and fears. His
family had gathered round, and the wife, an intelligent, thoughtfiul woman, with eyes fastened intently
on the ground, trying, as it were, to solve the mysteries of Providence, in human affairs.   Looking out and around us, upon the worn-out and unimproved lands, stretching miles on either side,
with scarce a human hand to tend them, yet here
was this worthy, industrious, hard-working, and
native citizen, half denied the right, in his new
condition, to a home among those who recently
periled life that he should not go away! I
This is but one of many cases coming to our
knowledge.
There are no people on the globe so kind
hearted, and so cheerful under wrongs and affliction, abiding in the faith of an inscrutable Providence, which, if not understood, is believed to
work all things for good, and no people so deserving of considerate and generous treatment firom
those who were their late masters, as are the
negroes of the South.
The social condition of Florida is much like
219 
%A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
that of other Southern States. The war has
broken up not only families, but neighborhoods,
and even States; and what is left is but a wreck
of former and more prosperous days. The great
questions of State rights and slavery have been
settled adversely to the South, and there is no
appeal fiom the decision rendered. Of this fact
they seem duly conscious; and having thrown
every thing into the contest, and lost, they now
find themselves destitute, with no time and less
inclination to enter into discussions of what are
nothing but dead issues.
At the close of the war, they were not long in
taking account of stock, or of coming to the true
solution of their situation. Minus friends, capital,
and labor, they wisely concluded to accept the
situation, and we believe have done so in good
faith, and resolved to put behind them their false
leaders, together with their principles, which so
led them into the red sea of difficulty. In our
travels from New York to and through Florida
and home again, we met with but a single
Southerner who offensively obtruded his politics
into our notice, and who still held that the North
was the aggressor. This party we met in South
2S20 
THE SPIRIT OF THE PEOPLE.
Carolina, and hle was of the same "chivalrous"
type as might have been encountered at any crossroad in South Carolina before the war. What
ditch he could have been hid in when Sherman
passed that way is beyond comprehension.
The spirit of the people, taken as a whole, is
most excellent, and much better than they have
the credit for. There need be, we believe, no
apprehension of molestation on this score. All
seem intent on getting a living. It would, however, be nothing strange, even with a people
disposed to let bygones be by-gones, if here
and there were found uncontrollable characters.
Much time must necessarily elapse, under
favorable circumstances, before all classes, so
recently antagonistic, and whose relations have
been so abruptly and greatly changed, can quietly
assimilate, and, out of the chaos of State and
National legislation, with the newly-acquired
rights and circumscribed privileges of the two
races, settle down together in perfect peace and
harmony. It would seem marvelous to see a
privileged class, a compact people with absolute
authority, shorn in a day, as it were, of all power
and reduced politically to a common level with
221 
A WINTER IN FLORIDA.
their late slaves, and not expect a ripple of rebellion. And yet this marvelous sight is seen in the
South. The late elections in the Southern States,
and especially in Virginia, attest these facts.
So far from there being any animosity toward
the immigrant, the people of the South, on the
other hand, seem to welcome every new-comer;
and in Florida there is a bureau established to
supervise and induce an influx of people from any
and every quarter.   This is their only resource
to build up the State; and in time, with wise
legislation, this can be done. A period of prosperity must then dawn on that portion of our
country, such as hitherto they have never seen
and little dreamed of.
222 
GREAT SOUTHERN
FREIGHT & PASSENGER ROUTE
NTIA
SAVAN N AH, GA.,
FOR
FIT,OItIDA,
AND ALL POINTS IN THE SOUTH AND SOUTH-WEST.
One of the following First-Class Steamships will sail every other day
a    s     follows,  — punctually at 3 o'clock, P.M.:
EVERY TUESDAY,
From Pier 16, E.R., foot of Wall Street,
LIEO & VIRGO, of M[urray's Line.
ML]RRAY, FERRIS, & Co., Agents, 61 and 62 South Street.
EVERY THURSDAY,
From Pier 36, N.R.,
HERMAN LIVINGSTON & GEN. BARNES, of Atlantic
Coast M.S.S. Line.
LIVINGSTON, FOX, &2 Co., Agents, 88 Liberty Street.
EVERY SATURDAY,
From Pier 8, N.R.,
SAN SALVADOR & SAN JACINTO, of Empire Line.
W. R. GARRISON, Agent, 5 Bowling Green.
Making close connections at Savannah with the Central R.R. of Georgia
trains twice a day for all points in the South and South-west, and with
the Atlantic and Gulf R.R. trains twice a day for all points in Florida;
also with steamers Nic King and Lizzie Baker, for points on St. John's
River. 
On and after this date, the Rates of Passage between
New York and the following places will be as fol lows:
Sav-anina.................................... $20
AND VIA CENTRAL R.R. TO
Augusta.................22.00 Eufaula................. 835.00
Macon.................. 27.00 Montgolnery........... 37.00
Atlanta.................. 27.50 Mobile................... 45.00
Columbus............... 35.00 New Orleans............ 48.00
Albany.................. 35.00
AND VIA ATLANTIC AMND GULF R.R. TO
Jacksonville............$25.75  Enterprise 3........ $33.75
Hibernia................. 28.75  Lake City................ 30.25
Green-Cove Springs.... 28.75  Quincy.................. 35.75
Picolata................. 28.75  Monticello.............. 33.00
Orange Mills............ 28.75  Tallahassee............. 34.25
Palatka.............. 28.75
Including meals and first-class state-rooms on steamships.
Passengers for St. Augustine purchase tickets to Picolata, thence by
stage four hours.
On comparison, this will be found to be the cheapest as well as the
most delightful route to the points above named; the above prices to
many points being forty or fifty per cent less than the All-Rail Route;
the time made being nearly as short, with the addition of a table furnished with all the luxuries of the season, without additional expense.
Trains leave Savannah morning and evening. Sleeping-cars on all
night trains.
Through Rates of Freight given, and through Bills of Lading signed to
all points.
For'urther particulars, freight or passage, apply to
MURRAY, FERRIS, & CO.,
61 and 62 South Street.
LIVINGSTON, FOX, & CO.,
88 Liberty Street.
W. R. GARRISON,
5 Bowling Green.
Nnw YoRtK, Sept. 15, 1869. 
CATALOGUE OF BOOKS AND MAGAZINES
PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY
WOOD & HOLBROOK, 15 LAIGHT ST., NEW YORK.
:EIEALD OF IEALTE, and Journal of Physical Culture.
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" DEAR DR. HOLBROOK, -'  The Herald of Health' delights us.  The
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" With warm esteem,                   DIO LEWIS."
From the Scientific American.
"'The Herald of Health' is a journal which contains more sensible
articles on subjects of a practical moral bearing, than are to be found in
any other monthly that comes to our sanctum."
From the New - York Tribune.
"' The Herald of Health' well sustains the high standard which it has
held forth since the commencement of the new series. In fulfilling its
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The Tree of Life;
Or, Human Degeneracy, its Nature and Remedy.
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It contains the following Table of Contents:-Man's Spiritual Degeneracy; Physical Depravity; Physiological and Psychological Reform;
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Physical, Intellectual, and JIoral Culture;
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A Winter in Florida;
OR,
OBSERVATIONS ON THE CLIMATE, SOIL, AND FRUITS OF THE STATE;
WITH HILTS TO THE TOURIST, INVALID, AND SPORTSMAN.
BY LEDYARD BILL.
This is the most complete work on Eastern Florida and the famed St.
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8
a 
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A. I.. WOOD, M.D., Physician.
The objects of this institution, which has been in successful operation
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1. The treatment and cure of the sick without poisoning them, by
Hygienic agencies.
2. To furnish a pleasant, genial HOME to friends of Hygiene throughout the world, whenever they visit this city.
CURE DEPARTMENT.
Thousands of invalids have been successfully treated at this institution during the past twenty years, and its fame extends wherever the
English language is spoken. Its appliances for the treatment of disease
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of any institute in America. They comprise the celebrated
Turkish Baths, Electric Baths, Vapor Baths, Swedish
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the varied and extensive resources of the WATER CURE, LIFTING
CURE, MAGNETISM,  Healthful Food, a Pleasant Home, &c.  Particular attention is given to the treatment of all forms of CHRONIC
DISEASE, especially of Rheumatism, Gout, Dyspepsia, Constipation,
Torpidity of the Liver, Weak Lungs and Incipient Consumption, Paralysis, Poor Circulation, General Debility, Curvature of the Spine,
Scrofula, Diseases of the Skin, Uterine Weaknesses and Displacements,
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HEALTHFULLY PREPARED, AND PLENTY OF IT.  In these respects it is
unequalled. Come and see, and learn how to live healthfully at home.
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Drs. WOOD  &  HOLBROOZ, Proprietors,