Wild Life in Florida, with a visit to Cuba

Front matter

WILD LIFE IN FLORIDA, WITH A VISIT TO CUBA, CAMP IN MYAKKA SWAMP WILD LIFE IN FLORIDA, with A VISIT TO CUBA. HY F. TRENCH TOWNSHEND, B.A ATTAIN, SECOND LIFE GUARDS. I Mini; OF ' TEN THOUSAND MILES 11F TRAVEL,' ETC. A GROVE OF CABBAGE TALJI LONDON : HUKST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS. 13 GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1875. All Rights reserved, TO EDMUND A. MANSFIELD, ESQ. MASTER OF THE KILDARE nOUNDS MY FELLOW-TRAVELLER IN FLORIDA THESE PAGES ARE DEDICATED. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY. History — Geography — Climate — Natural Productions — Antiquities — Condition, Political and Social, of the Peninsula of Florida, and Inducements to Visit it . . 1

Chapter I

First View of Florida — Florida " Cities " — Fernandina — Cumberland Island — St. John's River — Crossing the Bai — The Sisters — Pablo Creek — Huguenot Colony — Yellowbluff — Bass Fishing — Oysters — Reach Jacksonville .... 15

Chapter II

A Sable Jehu — Jacksonville — Tourists — Hotels — Streets — Riverside — A Southern Villa — A Shell Road — Climate Fever — Frost — Weekly Dances — Means of Visiting the Neighbourhood — Stores — Necessary for Camp Life — Maps of Florida — Hunting Grounds — A Veteran Sportsman — Determine to make for the Gulf Counties ...... 22

Chapter III

A Freight Train — Baldwin — White Folk's Breakfast — Log Huts — Gainsville— Spanish Moss — Carding Machine— A Prophet of Evil — A Wrecked Train — Southern Procrastination — Construe, tion of a New Line — A Hospitable Northerner — A ruined Contents. Planter's Home— Hammock— Tressle Work Bridges— Cedar Keys— A ' Hard ' Place— A Night Walk— Gulf Steamers— The Hiram B. Cool— The Gulf of Mexico— Clear Water Harbour- Tampa Bay— Cast Adrift at Night— Judge Yates' House. 30

Chapter IV

Manatee Settlement — Buildings — Situation — Invalids — A Hammock — Pine Lands — Prairies —Area and Population of the Southern Comities — Manatee — Monroe — Dade — Brcvard — Birds— Fish— Wild Beasts— Hunting Dogs— The Baronet's Camp — Sailing — Temperature — Manatee River — Turkeys — ■ Fish— Bait -Fidler Crabs— Espiritu Santo Bay— Settlement of Tampa — Cattle Trade — Indian Mounds — Sulphur Spring — Sugar Plantation — Fossil Remains — Solemn Council. 41

Chapter V

Start for the Interior Lakes — A Mule Team — In a Hammock — Above and beneath — The Florida Prairies — Difficult Travelling — Ponds — Alligators— The Sand-bill Crane — Grey Wolf and Buzzards — Florida Crackers — A Murderer — A Settler's Home in the wilds — Fleas and Dirt — Dr. Hufl's Farm — Humble Fare — Upper Myakka Lake — Multitude of Alligators — Wild Fowl Shooting — Water Meadows — Hogs — Squirrels and Racoons as Food — The Cabbage-palm — A Palmetto Hut — Palm-wood Piers — A Texan Horse-Dealer — Morning and Night in the Southern and Northern Forests ..... 50

Chapter VI

Hog Raising — Travelling by Ox-waggon — The Cuban Blood- Hound — Florida Hunters — Saw-grass Ponds — Turkey- Shooting — Ocelot or Cat — A Rattle-snake in the Palmetto — Camp in the Myakka Swamp — Lake Vanderipe — Lake and River Fish — Boar, Bear, and Turkey Hunting — A fat Gobbler — Camp under Palms — Camp Duties — Mosquito Burning — A Shower of Snakes — Antidotes to Snake Poison — Still Hunting — Moisture and rust — Intense Heat — Cattle Branding — Bear sign — Break up Camp — Our Wandering Course. .... Contents. IX

Chapter VII

Striking South— A Narrow Escape— Desolate Country— Murray's Hut— Round the Camp Fire— Vicissitudes of a Settler's Life— Before and After the War— Poor Immigrants— Quail Shooting in the Savannas — Abundance of Snakes — Start for Myakka River— Our Cypress tree Canoe— Pitch and gum for Caulking — Florida Trout— An Alligator's Charge— A " Square " Shot— A Parting Meal — Shell Mound— Start on our Canoe Voyage— A Hearty " God Speed" ..... 84

Chapter VIII

The Myakka River — Mineral Oil — Stowage and Draught of Canoe — A Lonely River — Snake-Birds- — A Scene in a Tropical Forest — Camp — Murray's Illness — Slough Creek — Nearly Swamped by Alligators — The First White Explorers — Obstacles to Navigation — Danger of Wading — Cutting our Way — Camp on the Prairies — Cold in the Tropics — A Bee Tree — The Paw-Paw — The Salt Spring — Beware of Alligators — Fresh and Salt Streams — Savannas — The Wild Beast's Home — Face to Face with a Bear — Deer-Stalking — Mocassin Snake — The Florida Puma or Panther — Wild Cattle — Bathing — Irregular Tides — Indian Hunting — Indian Sign ..... 93

Chapter IX

Serious Illness of our Guide — Descent of Slough Creek — Alligator Shooting— Camp in a Pine Forest — An Alligator Pool — Mangrove Islets— The home of the Egret and Ibis — Young Pelicans—Animal Life in the Water— Addled Eggs— Dangerous Illness of Murray — Roaring Alligators — The River Banks — Snake Islands— A Lost Dinner a Sore Trial — Burnt Out— Lost in a Mangrove Swamp— Sent Aloft — A Dangerous Crossing — Narrow Escape— Extraordinary Quantity of Fish — Reach Pease Creek. . Contents. X

Chapter X

Pease Creek— Settlement of Hickory Bluff— The Platt Family- Contemplating Matrimony — The Pioneers of Civilization — Unthriftiness of Florida Settlers — Dysentery and its Cure— Fishing— Native Objection to Bathing— An Ex-Negro Leader — Engage Passage for Punta Rassa — On board the " Santa Maria " —Our Cargo — Cockroaches — Night and Morning — Charlotte Harbour — Pine Island — Old Man Brown — Landing Hogs — The " Grains " — Aground on an Oyster Bar— Carraho Key — Captain Jocelyn the Pirate — An Anxious Night — Afloat at Last — Cormorants and Fish — Spanish Fishermen — The Telegraph Station — Two Shivering Wanderers .... 124

Chapter XI

Telegraph Station at Punta Rassa — A French Cook — A "Boss" Clerk and his Welcome — Staff of Telegraph Company — Visitors — Galley Nippers — Fort Dulaney — The October Hurricane — Fishermen's Key — Cattle Shipping — The Caloosahatchee River — Fort Myers — Captain Henry — The Largest Cattle Owner in Florida — Lake Thompson — Best Route to Okeechobee — Sulphur Spring — Trade with Indians — " His Reverence " from Georgia — Prospecting for Iron — The Corkscrew River — Camped in a Barn — Sanibel Island — Rare Shells — Mosquitoes — Scarcity of Water — A Mangrove Swamp — Ocelot-Hunting — Attacked by Mosquitoes — Swamp Fever — Molucca Crabs — Activity of Fish — Introduction to Captain Jocelyn — Departure for Key West . . . ... . . 141

Chapter XII

The " Valley City " — Passengers and Cargo— Religion of Settlers — Down the Gulf — The Home of the Coral Insect — Reach Key West — Origin of Name — Island and Town — The American Fleet — Deserters — Fortifications of the Island — Great Heat — Natural Woods — Evening Rambles — Creole Immigrants — Cigar Manufactory — Occupation of Inhabitants — Wrecking — Character of the Negro — No Fresh Water — Price of Provisions and Lodging — Passports — Start for Cuba. . . . Contents. XI

Chapter XIII

First Sight of the Cuban Hills— A Romantic Yankee— Havana Harbour — Custom-House — Havana from the Sea — Inside the Town — Streets, Vehicles, and Buildings — Life behind the Bars — The Tacon Theatre — Salvini — Occupation of the " Upper Ten " — Deterioration of the Creole Race — Life in Havana — Society — Paper Money — Public Buildings —Public Gardens and Squares — Country Seat of the Captain-General — The Campo de Marte — Real Fabrica de Tabacos — Effect of Guano on the Tobacco Crop — Prices — The Honradez Cigarette Factory — Hot Weather and Cool Breezes — Scenes in the Bay and on Shore — Noise and Drainage — The Insurgents — Spaniard and Creole — Regiments for the Seat of War . . . 168

Chapter XIV

The last Stronghold of Slavery — A Sugar Plantation — Marianao — The " Ingenio " — Children and Slave-Drivers — Intense Heat from Furnaces — Foreign Matter in Sugar — The Negro Barracks — Bloodhounds — Horrid Dens — The Nurseries and sick wards — Numbers of Children — Punishment Cells — Chinese Quarters — The English Overseer's House — Produce of a Plantation — The Moret Law — Duration of Negro Life — A Day's Labour — Condition of the " Contracted " Chinamen — The Law and the Slave- Owner — Arrival of Chinese Commissioner — Coolie Traffic — The Only Remedy — Slavery in Theory and Slavery in Reality — An Unsolved Problem ..... 191

Chapter XV

Start for Matanzas— Scenes along the Railway — Planters' Country Houses— The Loon de Oro— Situation of the Town— The Cuban " Volante "—Country Roads— A " Cafetal"— Caves of Bellamar — Stalactite Caverns— Nature's Altar— Underground River- Fearful Heat— The Yumuri Valley— The Royal Palm— Gorgeous Tints— A Chain -Gang— The Theatre— Theatrical President—Scarcity of Britishers— Spanish Toleration— Neighbourhood of Matanzas— A Hot Journey— Farewell to Havana— A Night on Board a Steamer . Contents. XII

Chapter XVI

Return to Key West— Difficulty of Finding Conveyance— Perseverance Rewarded — Stores — Victualling the Ship — Start for the Indian River— The "Ida Mackay"— Our Captain, Mate, Cook, and Crew— The Florida Reef— Becalmed— A Coral Reef— Spearing Fish— Anchor near Cayo Sands — The Life and Death of "Old Man Joe" — Los Martires — Animal Life — Sponging — Mangrove Islets — Effects of the Moon — Scorpions — Turtle Spearing— A Monster— Tenacity of Life— Turtle Flesh— Indian Key — A Humane Wrecker — Cayo Largo — Settlement at Rodriguez Bay — Pine Apple Plantations — Condition of Settlers — Productions — Climate — Cordial Farewell — Anchor at Cape Florida 218

Chapter XVII

Key Biscayne Light-House — Biscayne Bay— Settlement of Miami — Fort Dallas Estate — The Doctor's Investment — Horse and Hornet Flies — Arrival of Indians in Canoes — Fire-Water — Homes of the Seminoles in the Everglades— The Indian Hunting-Grounds — Tiger Tail — The Squaws — Indian Castanets- Native Work— The River Miami — Falls of the Miami — Ascent to the Everglades — Description of the Everglades — The four Crescents — Indian Arrow-Root Plant — Leave Miami — Crossing the Bar — Beach-Combers — The Bahama Banks — A Wreck in Sight — Indian River Inlet — Dangerous Entrance — Touch and Go — First Heavy Storm — Commencement of Rains . 234

Chapter XVIII

A Night among the Mangroves — A Forest of Oyster Trees — Coon Oysters — Oyster Banks — Revenue Officers and the Blockade- Runners — Land at St. Lucie — Professor " Fred. Beverley " — His Expedition to Lake Okeechobee — Practical Routes to that Lake — The Alpattie Flats — Prairies — The Kissimmee River — Birds and Fish — River Shores — Enter Lake Okeechobee — Tour of its Shores — Only one Island — Different Vegetation — Termination of the Lake in the Everglades — North Boundary of Everglades — Mocassin Snakes — No Fish — Ruins of Indian Villages— Hardships and Fevers— Return to Settlement Contents. XIII

Chapter XIX

Settlement of St. Lucie — The " Ultima Thule " of Hunters- Turtle Pens— The Manatus Australis— Increase of Travellers- Departure for the North— The Indian River— A Sporting Paradise or not — The Narrows — Shores of the Lagoon — Oyster- Bank Islands — The Pelicanry— The Bread-Plant— Blind Mosquitoes- Camp on Shore — A Night on the Indian River — Phosphoric Fire — Elbow Creek — Coquina — Merritt's Island — Burnham Grove — Orange Culture in Florida — The Crazy Hunter — Sad Effects of the Hurricane — Reach Sand Point — Heavy Storm — Harvey's Hotel ...... 264

Chapter XX

Settlement of Sand Point, or Titusville — Charge for Sail-Boats — Stores— Colonel H. Titus — A Filibuster turned Hotel-Keeper — The Invalid — The Hunter's Ancient Coin — A Bushel of Fleas — An English Emigrant — Start Westward — Our Teamster — A Sad Story — Disappointed Hopes — Experiences of a Poor Man — Cabbage-Hammock — Cattle- Herders — Song Birds — A Cypress Swamp — Attack by Mosquitoes — Sight Lake Harney — The Deserted House — Saw-Grass Plain — Reach the St. John River — Camp on its Banks ..... 278

Chapter XXI

Tho St. John River — Contemplated Canal — A former Lagoon — The Highway of Travel in Florida — Steam Navigation — Tourists — Hotels — Wild Fowl — Arrival of Steamer— Lake Harney— The "Volusia" — Extinction of Alligators — Vegetation on the River Banks — The " Pistia Spatulata " — A Passing Shot — Lake Jessup — Fearful Storm in a Cypress Swamp — Fire-Flies — A Southern Night — Steaming by Torch-Light — Lake Monroe — The " City of Enterprise " — The Brock-House — Green Spring— Mellonville —Numbers of Small Birds — The Osprey and tho Eagle — Blue Spring — Small Settlements — Lake George — Drayton's Island — Welaka — Intense Heat — The Ocklawaha River — The " F'ountain Contents. XIV of Youth " — Palatka — The Lower St. John — Change of Vegeta tion — St. Augustine — Its Streets and Visitors — A Wooden Rail road to Tocoi — Green Cove Spring — Mandarin — Our Return to Jacksonville ...... 287

Chapter XXII

End of our Wild Life — Break-up of the Party — Rival Routes to Florida — Land or Sea the best — Start by Rail for Savannah — Another Train off the Track — Last Night in the Forests of Florida — Reach Savannah — Embark for New York — Dead and Living Passengers — Land Route the best — Memories of Wild Life in Florida ...... Hoti LBlicluu ?.V Mint-arri Broa imp INTRODUCTORY. HISTORY— GEOGRAPHY — CLIMATE — NATURAL PRODUCTIONS — • ANTIQUITIES — CONDITION, POLITICAL AND SOCIAL, OF THE PENINSULA OF FLORIDA, AND INDUCEMENTS TO VISIT IT. LORIDA, the most southern of the United States of North America, was so named by Juan Ponce de Leon, the Spanish Governor of the island of Porto Rico in the Caribbean sea, to whom a marvellous story was related by an Indian Cacique. This Indian told of a land of great riches in gold and precious stones, to the north of the setting sun, not many leagues away from Porto Rico, exceeding all other lands in beauty of scenery, and possessing i; a marvellous fountain of water, which gave health to the sick and youth to the old.

No tale was too wonderful to obtain credence in those days, so Ponce de Leon fitted out an expedition of three ships, and landing on the eastern shores of the peninsula on Palm Sunday, a.d. 15 13, gave the land the name it still continues to bear. According to some accounts, in honour of the day — Pascua Florida — according to others, on account of its being — Terra Florida — the Flowery Land. Returning to Porto Rico, after a vain search for the fountain of youth, the gold and precious stones, Ponce de Leon made another expedition ten years later to Florida, when he was attacked by the natives and received a wound from the effects of which he died. Many other expeditions were after wards undertaken with a like object, but instead of wealth and everlasting youth, ruin and death re sulted to most of the adventurers, while the Indians fought with a courage and desperation which astonished and disheartened the Spaniards.

It was not until a.d. 1565 that Florida was per manently settled by the Spaniards, but she did not long retain her nationality. Ceded to Great Britain Desolating Wars. 3 in 1763 with a population of only six hundred, she was re-ceded to Spain in 1784, sold to the United States in 181 9, received a territorial government in 1822, and was admitted to the Union as a State in 1845. From 1 815 to 1858, the country was harassed by repeated Indian wars, and in 1861 Florida joined the Southern Confederacy ; then her soil was for four years the scene of many bloody fights, until 1865, when the ordinance of secession was repealed, and in 1868 she was re-admitted to the Union. Thus for three centuries and a half, constant changes of nationality and desolating wars have so depopulated and retarded the progress of Florida that she has to-day all the characteristics of a newly settled territory, notwithstanding the fact that on her soil was built the first permanent town erected by Europeans on the continent of North America.

Looking next at the geography of Florida, it will be seen that her shape is that of a boot turned up side down, the foot part extending some three hundred and fifty miles from east to west, along the parallel of 310 north latitude, and from 8o° to 88° of longitude west of Greenwich ; whilst the leg or B peninsula proper extends southwardly from 310 to 2 50, north latitude, thus reaching over some four hundred miles. The State contains about sixty thousand square miles, with a population estimated in 1860 at one hundred and forty thousand, in 1870 at one hundred and eighty-seven thousand. The peninsula has an average width of a hundred miles, with a coast line exceeding eleven hundred miles, exposed to the cool gulf winds on the side of the Gulf of Mexico, and trade winds or variables on the Atlantic side, which constantly blow from sunrise to sunset.

Lying within the region denominated as " hot" by physical geographers, Florida has the same latitude as Northern Mexico, the Sahara desert, Arabia, Northern Hindostan, Burmah and South China. The seasons are tropical in character, consisting of a wet and dry season, with an annual rainfall of nearly sixty inches. The wet season commences in April or May with almost daily thunder-storms, the regular rains setting in late in June, and lasting until September, at which time the greater part of the peninsula is under water, and the climate is debilitating in the extreme and unhealthy. During the Winter, or dry season, from October Glorious Climate. 5 to the middle of April, scarcely any rain falls, the climate is glorious, and exceptionally healthy in some favoured spots. Diseases of miasmatic origin are prevalent all the year round, such as dysentery and fever, but are more severe in the middle parts of the State than on the sea-coast, where between October and May they are comparatively rare.

The large amount of rain during the wet, and heavy dews during the dry season, combine with a burning sun to produce a power of vegetable life so wonderful as to be almost incredible in the swamps, lagoons and low-lying belts of jungle called " hammocks." Frost has been felt in all parts of the State in the two coolest months of December and January, but very rarely below latitude 2 8° north. So charming did we find the climate from January to the middle of March, that when things went a little wrong, and we felt in clined to grumble at the hardships which are inseparable from life in a wild country, one or other of us was sure to make some remark on the " glorious climate," and the thoughts of the hard ships would fade away before the sense of what a pleasure life was under such a cloudless sky, and amid such beautiful vegetation.

After the middle of March, the heat became too great in Southern Florida to hunt or exert ourselves after sunrise, but up to that time the climate was simply perfection, with the exception of two or three days on which a " norther," or gale from the north west, blew, when the temperature fell some forty degrees, and we felt the cold severely. In October, the peninsula and keys are liable to violent hurricanes, which cause great destruction to life human and vegetable, driving numerous ships upon the sandy shores, and uprooting forest trees with their furious blasts. On the 6th October, 1873, occurred one of the worst hurricanes ever known in these latitudes, its effects being most violent throughout the Gulf of Mexico. Frequent mention of this hurricane will be found in the pages of this book, as we continually come across signs of its devastating passage.

The greatest drawback to personal comfort, when camping out in Florida, undoubtedly are the mosquitoes, besides which plagues there are sand flies, horse-flies, blue-flies, fleas, ticks, tarantulas, scorpions, centipedes, rattle-snakes and mocassin- National Sanitarium. 7 snakes in incredible numbers. Although in the excitement of the chase we thought but little of danger, still the whir of the rattle-snake would sometimes send a shudder through us, when heard as we forced our way through a dense covert ; and a rustle among the dry palmetto leaves, outside our tents at nights, would cause a thrill of fear to mingle with the silent curses which were wont to greet the sharp buzz of the first intruding mosquito. What Southern France and Italy are to Europe, Florida is now becoming to the more Northern states of America, i.e., a refuge for those whose state of health compels them to seek a more genial climate ; that of Florida being considered preferable to any other portion of Northern America for those suffering from pulmonary diseases.

To Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Pilatka, and the numerous hotels along the banks of the lower St. John river, tens of thousands of visitors flock from the Northern and Southern States every Winter, arriving in November and departing in March. Beyond a trip up the St. John river, however, these passing visitors see nothing of the country ; the south-west, south, and south-east of the peninsula are still unvisited and unknown, except to the men who herd cattle on the vast palmetto prairies of the interior, and the few Indians who still wander among the swamps of the Everglades. Though big game is now scarce in Florida, and is becoming every year scarcer, wild fowl and fish abound in numbers I have never seen equalled in any other part of the world. Three hundred and fifty varieties of birds have been already found in Florida, and their multitude perfectly astonished me ; flowers covered the ground and hung in brilliant festoons from the trees, while flowering shrubs of rare and beautiful species clothed the banks of every little stream and formed a dense undergrowth in the wooded, river bottoms.

For the naturalist and geologist Florida may truly be called a Paradise, and for them it still contains a wealth of undiscovered riches. Few traces of its original inhabitants remain except the shell and earth heaps, and what Elevation of Florida. 9 are called " Indian mounds," some thirty feet in height, which have been found, when opened, to contain human bones, beads, charcoal, and pottery, and are seen in all parts of the peninsula, and also on some of the larger islands. The greater part of the State is a dead level, the highest elevation crossed by the railway traversing Northern Florida, between Fernandina on the Atlantic and Cedar Keys on the Gulf of Mexico, being only one hundred and eighty feet above sea level, reached by a gradual slope from the sea-coasts, while in Southern Florida the land rarely rises more than six feet above the level of the tide.

So tired does the eye become of this monotonous level that the traveller longs for a range of hills to bound ' the view, or break the dead sameness of the vast palmetto prairies which stretch out to the horizon, as unbroken a level as the ocean in a calm. In order to attract immigration into the State, a Bureau of Immigration has been established at Tallahassee, the State capital, under a com missioner of immigration, by whom are issued pamphlets of so called, "Reliable information concerning the resources of the State, and the inducements it offers to those seeking new homes." These " resources" and " inducements" are dilated on with an unsparing liberality which must considerably disappoint the new-comer, who is thereby led to think he has reached a land " flowing with milk and honey," where the soil will spontaneously produce fruit sufficient to main tain him and his family with little or no labour.

The truth is that hard work and steady labour are necessary to the success of the settler in Florida, and that in a climate where the white man's energies soon become relaxed and labour of any sort is hard labour indeed. The scrub-palmetto which covers the whole face of the country, excepting the swamp lands and savannas, from the borders of Georgia to the Everglades, requires a heart-breaking amount of labour to eradicate it from the soil, though this must be done before cultivation can be attempted. Fire will only destroy the tops of the palmetto, the roots, which run along and just beneath the surface of the ground, have to be stubbed up, while they grow so thickly that from Spanish Grants. 11 half an acre of cleared ground I have seen a collection of palmetto roots forming a pile some forty feet square.

Some of the best land in the State is at present uncultivated and unsettled owing to its being held under what is called " Spanish Grants," that is, ancient grants of large tracts of land made by the Spanish Government to individuals at the time when Florida was a Spanish possession. When ceded to the United States, these land-grants were secured to their then proprietors and their heirs, so that they are generally held by aliens who do not reside on their property or take any interest in it, thus forming a serious bar to the prosperity of a large portion of the State. All that part of Florida which has been surveyed by the Government is divided into squares six miles in length and breadth, called townships. Each town ship is divided into thirty-six sections which are each one mile square, and each section is divided into quarter sections containing one hundred and sixty acres each, measuring half a mile on each side.

Each of these sections of one hundred and sixty acres of Government land forms what is called a homestead, and may be homesteaded or entered free by any head of a family who is a citizen of the United States, or who has declared his intention of becoming such, provided he does not own that amount of land already, or that he has never before entered a homestead. Government land near the railroads is valued at two dollars and a half the acre, and only eighty acres are allowed for a homestead, except to officers and soldiers who have served in the United States army ; they are allowed a hundred and sixty acres of the lands valued at two dollars and a half. The valuation of the rest of the Government land is one dollar and a quarter the acre. As was the case when starting for the hunting grounds on the Far Western plains and in the Rocky Mountains, I found it impossible to obtain any reliable information in the Eastern cities as to the prospect of sport in the wilds of Florida.

Even in Jacksonville, the west and south of the peninsula were unknown ground, concerning which I could obtain neither books, accurate maps, nor information derived from personal experience. Starting, there fore, quite in the dark as to what means of loco- Inducements to visit Florida. 13 motion we might we able to obtain, or what sport we might expect, we were fortunate enough to succeed in making a complete tour of the peninsula, visiting many remote spots scarce known even to the native hunter, cutting our way with the axe through jungles, paddling in canoes down unex plored rivers, and sailing with half-savage " wreckers" among the lonely islands off the southern coast of Florida, one of the most dangerous and dreaded coasts in the world. Many Englishmen now visit Florida in the Winter, both for health and for the sake of sport and adventure, and to them I trust the following account of our tour may be of some interest ; while to those who have not yet visited Florida, but who may chance to read these pages, I say " Visit Florida between the months of October and February, and you will enjoy one of the most perfect climates, and see one of the most interesting countries in the world."

Though not a " paradise " for sportsmen, the sport is still sufficiently good to please those who go in for sport and not for slaughter ; though the fare is hard, and the draw backs neither few nor insignificant, I know no time I ever enjoyed more, taken altogether, than the months of wild life I spent in the forests, prairies, swamps, and mangrove-clad keys of Florida.

Chapter I. First View Of

FLORIDA— FLORIDA " CITIES"— FERN ANDINA— CUMBERLAND ISLAND — ST. JOHN'S RIVER — CROSSING THE BAR — THE SISTERS — PABLO CREEK — HUGUENOT COLONY — YELLOWBLUFF— BASS FISHING— OYSTERS — REACH JACKSON- VILLE. BACKGROUND of sand-hills topped by palmetto, pine, and live oak, and fringed by a beach of glittering sand, stretching away to the south ; a foreground of sand-banks at the mouth of a river, over which the white-crested waves dashed furiously, formed the first picture of Florida presented to our view on the last Sunday in January, 1874, about a couple of hours before sunset. We had left Savannah, Georgia, the previous afternoon, on board the steamer " City Point," in such a storm of rain and wind that, unable to cross the bar at the mouth of the Savannah river, we had been compelled to drop anchor inside, and wait till the weather moderated.