A
G U I D E - B O O K
OF
FLORIDA AND THE SOUTH,
FOR
TOURISTS, INVALIDS AND EMIGRANTS,
WITH A MAP OF THE ST. JOHN RIVER,

By DANIEL G. BRINTON, A. M., M. D.,
———
PHILADELPHIA:
GEORGE MACLEAN, 719 SANSOM STREET.
JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA:
COLUMBUS DREW.
1869.

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by
DANIEL G. BRINTON, A. M., M. D.,
In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court of the United States, in
and for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

FROM THE PRESS OF WYLIE & GRIEST,
Inquirer Printing House and Book Bindery, Lancaster, Penn’a.

PREFACE.

This unpretending little book is designed to give the visitor to Florida such information as will make his trip more useful and more pleasant. In writing it I have had in mind the excellent European Guide-Books of Karl Bædeker, the best, to my mind, ever published. Though I have not followed his plan very closely, I have done so to the extent the character of our country seems to allow.

I have borrowed from him the use of the asterisk (*) to denote that the object so designated is especially noteworthy, or that the hotel thus distinguished is known to me to be well-kept, either from my own observation or that of friends.

Most of the localities are described from my own notes taken during an extended tour through the peninsula, but for much respecting railroad fare, accommodations, and charges, I am indebted to a large number of tourists and correspondents who have related to me their experience. To all these I express my warmest thanks for their assistance.

As of course such matters are constantly changing, and as I shall be most desirous to correct any errors, and bring the work fully up to the times in future editions, I shall esteem it a particular favor if those who use this book will forward me any notes or observation which will aid me in improving it. Such communications may be addressed “care of the Penn Publishing Co., 710 Sansom Street, Philadelphia, Penna.”

The map of the St. John River is based on that drawn by my friend, Mr. H. Lindenkohl, U. S. Coast Survey.

Philadelphia, August, 1869.

CONTENTS.

G U I D E - B O O K
OF
FLORIDA AND THE SOUTH.

PRELIMINARY HINTS.

THE SEASON FOR SOUTHERN TRAVEL.

The season for Southern travel commences in October and ends in May. After the latter month the periodical rains commence in Florida, and the mid-day heat is relaxing and oppressive. About mid-summer the swamp miasm begins to pervade the low grounds, and spreads around them an invisible poisonous exhalation, into which the traveler ventures at his peril. This increases in violence until September, when it loses its power with the returning cold. When one or two sharp frosts have been felt in New York or Philadelphia, the danger is chiefly past. Nevertheless, for mere considerations of health, November is soon enough to reach the Gulf States. Those who start earlier will do well to linger in some of the many attractive spots on their way through the more Northern States. A congestive chill is a serious matter, and even the lightest attack of fever and ague can destroy the pleasure and annul the benefit of a winter’s tour.

PREPARATIONS FOR THE JOURNEY.

The comfort of a journey is vastly enhanced by a few simple precautions before starting. And if I seem too minute here, it is because I am writing for many to whom the little miseries of traveling are real afflictions.

Before you leave home have your teeth thoroughly set in order by a skilful dentist. If there has been a philosopher who could tranquilly bear a jumping toothache, his name is not on record.

A necessaire containing soap, brushes, and all the etceteras of the toilet is indispensable. It is prudent in many parts of the South to carry your own towels.

Spectacles of plain glass, violet, light green, or light grey, are often a comfort in the sun and in the cars, and if the eyes are weak should not be omitted.

A strong, silk musquito net, with fine meshes, will be highly prized in the autumn nights. A teaspoonful of carbolic acid or camphor, sprinkled in the room, or an ointment of cold cream scented with turpentine, will be found very disagreeable to these insects, and often equally so to the traveler.

One or two air cushions take up but little room, and should be provided for every invalid.

Shoes are preferable for ordinary journeys. In their make, let reason and not fashion rule. They should be double soled, have low and broad heels, lace firmly around the ankle, and fit loosely over the toes. Rubber boots or overshoes should be abolished, especially from the invalid’s outfit. Rubber overcoats are equally objectionable. They are all unwholesome contrivances. A pair of easy slippers must always be remembered.

For ladies a hood, for gentlemen a felt hat, are the proper head-dresses on the route.

In all parts of the South woolen clothing is required in winter, and flannel under-clothing should be worn by every one who goes there in pursuit of health. Next to flannel, cotton is to be recommended. It is more a non-conductor of heat than linen, and thus better protects the body from changes of temperature.

Every person in feeble health—and those who are robust will not find the suggestion amiss—should have with them a few cases of devilled ham, sardines, potted meats, German sausage, or other savory and portable preparations, which, with the assistance of a few crackers or a piece of bread, will make a good lunch. A flask of wine or something similar, helps out such an impromptu meal. Frequently it is much better than to gulp down a badly cooked dinner in the time allowed by the trains.

A strong umbrella, and a stout pocket knife, are indispensable. Guns, ammunition, rods, and fishing tackle should always be provided before starting. They should be well protected from dampness, especially the guns and powder. Florida is the paradise of the sportsman, and those who are able should not omit to have a “camp hunt” while there. Tents, camp equipage, and the greater part of the supplies should be purchased in the North, as they are dearer and not often the best in the Southern cities.

On arriving at a hotel, first see that your baggage is safe; then that your room is well aired, and the sheets on the bed dry.

It is always well in traveling to have baggage enough—always a bother to have too much. A good sized leather traveling-bag will do for the single man; but where a lady is attached, a medium sized leather trunk, which can be expressed or “checked through,” and a light traveling-bag, to be taken into the cars and staterooms, and carried in the hand, are the requisites.

Money can be transmitted so readily by certified check or draft, that a tourist need not carry much with him. He should, however, have a reserve fund about him, so as to be prepared for one of those disagreeable emergencies which nearly every veteran traveler has at some time experienced.

Every one who visits a strange land should strive to interest himself in its condition, resources, history and peculiarities. The invalid, beyond all others, should cultivate an interest in his surroundings. Nothing so well sustains a failing body as an active mind. For that purpose, local histories, maps, etc., should always be purchased. I have indicated, under the different cities, what works there are of this kind in the market, and, in the introductory remarks on Florida, have mentioned several of a more general character, which should be purchased and read before going there. (For further hints see the last chapter of this work.)

PART I.

SOUTHERN ROUTES.

1. STEAMSHIP LINES.

In visiting the South Atlantic States the tourist from the North has a choice of a number of routes.

Steamers leave New York for Charleston, Savannah, Fernandina, and Key West, advertisements of which, giving days of sailing can be seen in the principal daily papers. Philadelphia has regular steamship lines to Charleston, Savannah, and Key West. From Charleston and Savannah boats run every other day to Fernandina, Jacksonville, and Palatka on the St. John river. The whole or a portion of a journey to Florida can be accomplished by water, and the steamships are decidedly preferable to the cars for those who do not suffer much from sea sickness.

The most direct route by railroad is the “Atlantic Coast Line,” by way of Washington, Acquia Creek, Richmond, Petersburg, Weldon, Wilmington, and Charleston. From Philadelphia to Wilmington the time is 28 hours, fare $21.90; to Charleston 40 hours, fare $24.00; to Savannah, fare $33.00; to Jacksonville, fare $38.65. Through tickets and full information can be obtained in New York at 193 Broadway; Philadelphia 828 Chestnut Street.

It is proposed to establish a direct line of steamers from New York to Jacksonville. It is to be hoped that this will be done promptly, as it will greatly increase trade and travel.

2. WASHINGTON TO RICHMOND.

Distance, 130 miles; time 7.30 hours.

Until the tourist leaves Washington, he is on the beaten track of travel, and needs no hints for his guidance; or, if he does, can find them in abundance. Turning his face southward, he may leave our capital either in the cars from the Baltimore depot to Alexandria and Acquia Creek, or, what is to be recommended as the more pleasant alternative, he may go by steamboat to this station, a distance of 55 miles. The banks of the Potomac present an attractive diversity of highland and meadow. A glimpse is caught of Mt. Vernon, and those who desire it can stop and visit those scenes once so dear to him whose memory is dear to us all. The reminiscences, however, which one acquires by a visit to Mount Vernon are rarely satisfactory.

From Acquia Creek landing the railroad passes through a country still betraying the sears and scars of conflict, though, happily, it is recovering in some measure from those sad experiences. Fredericksburg (15 miles; hotel, the Planter’s House, poor,) may have enough of interest to induce some one to “lay over” a train. It is an unattractive spot, except for its historical associations. These are so fresh in the memory of most that it is unnecessary to mention them.

Beyond Fredericksburg a number of stations are passed—none of any size. The distance to Richmond is 60 miles.

Richmond.

Hotels.—Ballard House ($4.00 per day); Spottswood, Exchange (each $2 per day); Ford’s Hotel on Capitol Square ($2.50 per day); St. Charles ($2.00.)

Boarding Houses.—Arlington House, corner Main and 6th street; Valentine House, on Capitol Square; Richmond House, corner Governor and Ross streets; Mrs. Bidgood’s, 61 East Main street; Mrs. Brander, 107 E. Franklin street, (all about $12.00 per week).

Telegraph Offices in Spottswood and Exchange Hotels.

Reading Rooms at the Y.M.C.A. The Virginia State Library was pillaged in 1865, and the Virginia Historical Library burned.

Theatre.—The Richmond Theatre has a respectable stock company, and is visited by most of the stars of the stage.

Booksellers.—West & Johnson, 1006 Main St., (Brinton’s Guide-Book.)

Churches of all denominations.

Richmond derives it name from the ancient burgh of the same name on the Thames. The word is supposed to be a corruption of rotre mont, and applies very well to the modern namesake. Like Rome, it is seated upon seven hills, and if it has never commanded the world, it will be forever famous as the seat of the government of the whilom Confederacy. It is situated at the Great Falls of the James river, on the Richmond and Shoccoe hills, between which flows the Shoccoe creek.

In the early maps of the colony, the site of the present city is marked as “Byrd’s Warehouse,” an ancient trading post, we can imagine, said to have stood where the Exchange hotel is now built. In 1742 the city was established, and has ever since been the chief center of Virginian life.

The capitol is a showy edifice, on Shoccoe hill. The plan was taken from the Maison Quarre, of Nismes, with some modifications, among others the Doric pillars. It stands in the midst of a square of eight acres. In this building the Confederate Congress held its sessions. It contains, among other objects, a well cut statue of Washington, dating from the last century, “fait par Houdin, citoyen Francais,” as we learn from the inscription, and a bust of Lafayette. Two relics of the old colonial times are exhibited—the one a carved chair which once belonged to the house of Burgesses, of Norfolk—the other a huge stove, of singular shape, bearing the colonial arms of Virginia in relief. This latter is the product of a certain Buzaglo. It is eight or ten feet high, and slopes from base to summit. A letter of the inventor is extant, addressed to Lord Botetourt, in which he speaks of it as “excelled anything ever seen of the kind, and a masterpiece not to be excelled in all Europe.”

In the square around the capitol is an* equestrian statue of Gen. George Washington, constructed by Crawford, and erected February 22, 1858. Its total height is sixty feet. Around its base are six pedestals, upon which are figures of Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, Marshall, Gov. Nelson, George Mason and Andrew Lewis, the latter an Indian fighter, once of celebrity in Western Virginia.

To the left of this is a small statue of Henry Clay, erected by the ladies of Virginia, made by Hart, and inaugurated in 1860.

On the eastern side of the square is the residence of the Governor, and on another side the City Hall, a handsome edifice with Doric columns.

St. John’s Church, on Richmond Hill, is the oldest church edifice in the city. The tower and belfry are, however, a modern addition. From its church-yard, dotted with ancient tombs, one of the most charming views of the city can be obtained. In this church, in 1775, the young and brilliant orator, Patrick Henry, delivered his famous oration before the Virginia Convention, which concludes with the famous words, “Give me liberty, or give me death.”

The Tredegar Iron Works, Libby Prison, at the corner of Thirty-fifth and Main streets, Belle Isle, and Castle Thunder, will be visited by most tourists as objects of interest. *Hollywood cemetery, near the city is a quiet and beautiful spot, well deserving a visit.

In the fire of April 2, 1865, about one thousand buildings were destroyed, but the ravages of that disastrous epoch are now nearly concealed by new and handsome structures.

The Falls of the James are properly rapids, the bed of the river making a descent of only eighty feet in two miles. They furnish a valuable water-power.

*Hollywood Cemetery, one mile from the city, is a spot of great natural beauty. Here lie the remains of Presidents Monroe and Tyler, and other distinguished men, as well as of many thousand Confederate soldiers. A rough granite monument has recently been erected in memory of the latter.

Butler’s Dutch Gap and Drewy’s Bluff, and the famous battle fields near the city, will be visited with interest by many.

Those who would visit the mineral springs of Virginia, will find ample information in Dr. Moorhead’s volume on them, or in that by Mr. Burke. Both can be obtained of West & Johnson, booksellers, Main street.

The Natural Bridge, one of the most remarkable curiosities in the State, is best approached by way of Lynchburg, from which place it is distant 35 miles, by canal.

3. RICHMOND TO CHARLESTON.

From Richmond to Petersburg is 32 miles on the Richmond and Petersburg railway. The earthworks and fortifications around the latter town, memorials of our recent conflict, are well worth a visit from those who have not already seen too many such curiosities to care for more.

64 miles beyond Petersburg the train reaches Weldon, on the Roanoke river, a few miles within the boundary of North Carolina (Gouch’s Hotel.)

From Weldon to Goldsboro, the next stopping place of importance, is 78 miles, 7.30 hours. It is a place of about 5000 inhabitants, half white and half colored.

Hotels.—Griswold Hotel, Gregory’s Hotel, both $3 per day.

Boarding House by Mrs Tompkins, $2 per day.

The road here intersects the North Carolina, and Atlantic and North Carolina railways, the latter running to Morehead city and Beaufort, on the coast, (95 miles) and the former to Raleigh, the capitol of the State, (48 miles) and interior towns. From Goldsboro to Wilmington is 84 miles.

Hotels.—Purcell House, $4 per day; Fulton House, $3 per day.

Boarding Houses.—McRea House, Brock’s Exchange, about $2 per day, $40.00 per month.

Newspapers.—Post, republican, Journal, democratic.

Steamboat Line to Fayetteville, N. C., (130 miles, fare $5.00); to Smithville, at the mouth of Cape Fear, (30 miles, fare $1.50.)

Wilmington (16,000 inhabitants) is on Cape Fear river, 25 miles from the sea. It is well built. The staples are turpentine and resinous products. The vicinity is flat and sandy. At this point the railroad changes from the New York guage, 5 feet, to the Charleston guage, 4 feet 8 inches.

The journey from Richmond to Charleston can also be made by way of Greensboro, Charlotte and Columbia. This route leads through the interior of the country, and, though longer, offers a more diversified scene to the eye.

To Greensboro, on the Richmond & Danville and Piedmont Railways, is 189 miles; thence on the North Carolina Railway to Charlotte, 93 miles; then on the Charlotte & S. Carolina railway to Columbia, S. C., 107 miles (Nickerson’s hotel, $3.00 per day, newly fitted up); thence by the Columbia Branch of the South Carolina Railway to Charleston, 130 miles.

Salisbury, N. C., 150 miles south of Greensboro, is the most convenient point to enter the celebrated mountain regions of North Carolina. A railway runs thence to Morgantown, in the midst of the sublime scenery of the Black mountains, and in close proximity to the beautiful falls of the Catawba. Charlotte (hotel, the Mansion House), is in the center of the gold region of North Carolina, and the site of a United States Branch Mint. It is also the scene of the battle of Guilford Court House, during the revolutionary war.

The capitol, in Columbia, is considered a very handsome building.

Charleston.

Hotels.—*Charleston Hotel, Mills House (newly furnished), both on Meeting Street. Charges, $4.00 per day. *Pavilion Hotel. Mr. Butterfield, proprietor, $3.00 per day, also on Meeting Street. Planter’s Hotel, Church Street, Victoria House, King Street, both $2.50 per day.

Telegraph Office, on Broad near Church Street; branch office in Charleston Hotel.

Post Office, on Hazel Street, near Meeting.

Churches.—Roman Catholic, Episcopal, Huguenot, Methodist, &c.

Theatre, at the corner of King and Market Streets.

Bathing Houses.—One of salt water near the battery; two, with water of the artesian well, one at the well, the other in the Charleston Hotel.

Livery Stable, 21 Pinckney Street, connected with the Charleston Hotel.

Street Cars run on several of the streets; fare, 10 cts., 15 tickets for $1.00. All the hotels have omnibuses waiting at the depots.

Physician.—Dr. Geo. Caulier, 158 Meeting Street.

Newspapers.—The Daily Courier, the Daily News.

Depots.—The depot of the Northeastern R. R. from Wilmington to the north, is at the corner of Chapel and Washington Sts.; that of the road to Savannah is at the foot of Mill street; and that of the S. C. R. R. to Aikin, Augusta, Atlanta, etc., is in Line street, between King and Meeting streets.

Bookseller.—John Russell, 288 King street. (Brinton’s Guide-Book.)

Libraries.—Charleston library, 30,000 vols.; Apprentices’ library, 12,000 vols.

Charleston claims 40,000 inhabitants, the whites and blacks being about equal in number. It is curious that since the war the mortality of the latter has been twice as great as of the whites.

The city is seven miles from the ocean at the junction of the Ashley and Cooper rivers, and has an excellent harbor, surrounded by works of defence. On the sea line is Fort Moultrie; Castle Pinkney stands at the entrance to the city; south of the latter is Fort Ripley, built of palmetto logs; while in the midst of the harbor stands the famous Fort Sumter.

The ravages caused by the terrible events of the late war have yet been only very partially repaired in Charleston. The greater part of the burnt district is deserted and waste.

The history of Charleston, previous to that event, is not of conspicuous interest. The city was first commenced by English settlers, in 1672, and for a long time had a struggling existence. Many of its early inhabitants were Huguenots, who fled thither to escape the persecutions which followed the revocation of the edict of Nantes. A church is still maintained in which their ancient worship is celebrated.

Of public buildings, the ancient church of St. Michael’s, built about 1750, has some claim to architectural beauty.

The fashionable quarter of the city is the Battery. *Magnolia cemetery, on the Cooper river, is well worth a visit. It is one of the most beautiful in the South. It was laid out in 1850, and contains some handsome monuments.

The Custom House is a fine building, of white marble.

Those who wish to visit Fort Sumter, and review the scenes of 1861, can be accommodated by a small sailing vessel, which leaves the wharf every morning at 10.30 o’clock.

In the church-yard of St. Philip’s is the tomb of John C. Calhoun. A slab, bearing the single word “Calhoun,” marks the spot.

The museum of the Medical College is considered one of the finest in the United States.

4. AIKEN, S. C., AND THE SOUTHERN HIGHLANDS.

Within the past ten years the advantages for invalids of a residence in the highlands of the Carolinas, Georgia and Tennessee have been repeatedly urged on the public. The climate in these localities is dry and mild, exceedingly well adapted, therefore, for such cases as find the severe cold of Minnesota irritating, and the moist warmth of Florida enervating. Aiken, S. C., Atlanta, Ga., Lookout Mountain, near Chattanooga, East Tennessee, and other localities offer good accommodations, and have almost equal advantages in point of climate. Like other resorts, they do not agree with all invalids, but they are suitable for a large class.

One of the best known and most eligible is

Atlanta.

From Aiken to Augusta, 16 miles, $1.00. From Augusta to Atlanta by the Georgia railway, 171 miles, $8.50; 11 hours.

Hotels.—The National, on Peach Tree Street, $4.00 per day; the United States and the American, opposite the depot, $3.00 per day.

Telegraph Office in Kimball’s Opera House. Post Office, corner of Alabama and Broad streets.

Bathing House on Alabama street, near U. S. Hotel.

Circulating Library at the Young Men’s Library Association on Broad street.

Atlanta has about 20,000 inhabitants. The water is pure, the air bracing, and the climate resembles that of Northern Italy. The Walton Springs are in the city, furnishing a strongly chalybeate water, much used, and with great success, as a tonic. The fall and spring months are peculiarly delightful, and the vicinity offers many pleasant excursions.

Communication by rail either to Chattanooga and East Tennessee, or south to Macon, etc., is convenient.

5.—FROM CHARLESTON TO SAVANNAH.

The tourist has the choice of the railway via Coosawhatchie, or via Augusta, Georgia, or the steamers. The first mentioned road was destroyed during the war, and is not yet in running order.

Steamboats also leave Charleston every Thursday and Saturday, direct for Fernandina, Jacksonville and Palatka, and should be chosen by those who do not suffer from seasickness. They are roomy, and the table well supplied.

Savannah.

Hotels.—*Screven House, Pulaski House, both $4.00 a day. *Marshall House, $3.00 per day, $15.00 per week, an excellent table. *Pavilion Hotel, Mr. Noe. Proprietor; a quiet, pleasant house for invalids, $3.00 per day.

Boarding Houses.—Mrs. McAlpin, South Broad street; Mrs. Kollock, South Broad street; Mrs. Savage, Barnard Street; all $3.00 per day, $14.00 per week.

Post Office and Telegraph Office on Bay street, near the Pulaski House.

Street Cars start from the post office to various parts of the city. Fare, 10 cents; 14 tickets for $1.00. Omnibuses meet the various trains, and steamboats will deliver passengers anywhere in the city for 75 cents each.

Livery Stables are connected with all the hotels.

Restaurants.—The best is the Restaurant Francais, in Whitaker Street, between Bay and Bryan Streets.

Newspapers.—Daily Savannah News, Daily Morning News.

Bookstores.—J. Schreiner & Co., near the Pulaski House. (Brinton’s Guide-Book, Historical Record of Savannah.)

Depots.—The Central Railroad depot is in the southwestern part of the city, corner of Liberty and E. Broad Streets. The railroad from Charleston has its terminus here. The Atlantic and Gulf Railroad is in the south-eastern part of the city, corner of Liberty and E. Broad Streets.

Savannah is situated in Chatham county, Ga., on a bluff, about forty feet high, seven miles above the mouth of the river of the same name, on its right bank. Its present population is estimated at 40,000.

The city was founded by Gov. James Oglethorpe, in 1733. It played a conspicuous part during the Revolution. With characteristic loyalty to the cause of freedom the Council of Safety passed a resolution in 1776 to burn the town rather than have it fall into the hands of the British. Nevertheless, two years afterwards the royal troops obtained possession of it by a strategic movement. In the autumn of 1779 the American forces under General Lincoln, and the distinguished Polish patriot, Count Casimir Pulaski, with their French allies under Count d’Estaing, made a desperate but fruitless attempt to regain it by assault. Both the foreign noblemen were wounded in a night assault on the works. Count Pulaski mortally. The spot where he fell is where the Central Railroad depot now stands.

The chief objects of interest are the monuments. The *finest is to the memory of Pulaski. It is in Chipewa square, and is a handsome shaft of marble, surmounted by a statue of Liberty, and supported on a base of granite. Its height is 55 feet; its date of erection 1853.

An older and plainer monument, some fifty feet high, without inscription, stands in Johnson square. It was erected in 1829, and is known as the Greene and Pulaski monument.

The city is beautifully laid out, diversified with numerous small squares, with wide and shady streets. Broad Street and Bay Street have each four rows of those popular southern shade trees known as the Pride of India, or China trees (Melia Azedarach).

A praiseworthy energy has supplied the city with excellent water from public water works; and, in Forsyth Park, at the head of Bull Street, is a fountain of quite elaborate workmanship.

Some of the public buildings are well worth visiting. The Georgia Historical Society has an excellent edifice, on Bryan Street, with a library of 7,500 volumes, among which are said to be a number of valuable manuscripts.

The *Museum, on the northeast corner of Bull and Taylor streets, contains a number of local curiosities.

The Custom House is a handsome fire-proof structure of Quincy granite.

The Exchange building, now used as the Mayor’s office, etc., offers, from its top, the best view of the city.

Excursions.—Several days can be passed extremely pleasantly in short excursions from the city. One of the most interesting of these will be to

*Bonaventure Cemetery.—This is situated 3 miles from the city, on the Warsaw river. A stately grove of live oaks, draped in the sombre weeds by the Spanish moss, cast an appropriate air of pensiveness around this resting place of past generations. A cab holding four persons to this locality costs $8.00.

Thunderbolt, a small town, (two hotels), 4½ miles south-east of the city, on a creek of the same name, is worth visiting, chiefly for the beautiful drive which leads to it. Cab fare for the trip, $8.00.

White Bluff, on the Vernon river, 10 miles from the city has two unpretending hotels, and is a favorite resort of the citizens on account of the excellent shell road which connects it with the city. Cab fare for the trip, $10.00.

Bethesda Orphan House, also 10 miles distant, is erected on the site chosen by the Rev. Mr. Whitfield, very early in the history of the colony. Selina, the pious Countess of Huntington, took a deep interest in its welfare as long as she lived, and it is pleasant to think that now it is established on a permanent footing.

Jasper Spring, 2 miles from the city, is pointed out as the spot where the bold Sergeant Jasper, with one assistant, during the revolutionary war, surprised and captured eight Britishers, and forced them to release a prisoner. The thoughtless guard had stacked arms and proceeded to the spring to drink, when the shrewd Sergeant who, anticipating this very move, was hidden in the bushes near by, rushed forward, seized the muskets, and brought the enemy to instant terms.

6. SAVANNAH TO JACKSONVILLE.

The tourist has the choice of three routes for this part of his journey. He can take a sea steamer, and passing out the Savannah river, see no more land until the low shores at the mouth of the St. John River come in sight. Or he can choose one of several small steamboats which ply in the narrow channels between the sea-islands and the main, touching at Brunswick, Darien, St. Catharine, Fernandina, etc., (fare $10.00). Or lastly he has the option of the railroad, which will carry him through to Jacksonville in twelve hours and a half, in a first class sleeping car.

The channel along the coast lies through extensive salt marshes, intersected by numerous brackish creeks and lagoons. The boats are small, or they could not thread the mazes of this net-work of narrow water-courses. The sea-islands, famous all over the world for their long-staple cotton, have a sandy, thin soil, rising in hillocks and covered with a growth of live-oak, water-oak, bay, gum and pine. Between the islands and the main land the grassy marshes extend for several miles. In the distance the western horizon is hedged by a low wall of short-leaved pine. The sea islands are moderately healthy, but the main land is wet, flat and sterile, and its few inhabitants are exposed to the most malignant forms of malarial fever and pneumonia.

On St. Catharine island is the plantation formerly owned by Mr. Pierce Butler, and the scene of Mrs. Francis Kemble Butler’s well-known work, “Life on a Georgia Plantation.” On Cumberland island, the most southern of the sea-islands belonging to Georgia, is the Dungerness estate, 6000 acres in extent, once owned by Gen. Nat. Greene, of Revolutionary fame, and recently bought by Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island, for $10 per acre. With proper cultivation it would yield magnificent crops of sea-island cotton.

Fernandina on Amelia Island, the terminus of the Fernandina and Cedar Keys Railroad, is a town of growing importance (pop. about 2,000; hotels, Virginia House, containing the telegraph office; the Whitfield House, both $3.00 per day; newspaper, the Island City Weekly.) This is one of the old Spanish settlements, and the traces of the indigo fields are still visible over a great part of the island. Fernandina-Oldtown is about a mile north of the present site.

The sub-tropical vegetation is quite marked on the island. Magnificent oleanders, large live oaks, and dense growths of myrtle and palmettos conceal the rather unpromising soil. The olive has been cultivated with success, and there is no reason why a large supply of the best table oil should not be produced here.

A low shell mound covers the beach at Fernandina, and in the interior of the island are several large Indian burial mounds. Several earthworks thrown up during the late war overlook the town and harbor. Fernandina harbor is one of the best in the South Atlantic Coast, landlocked and safe. Its depth is 6½ fathoms, and the water on the bar at low tide is 14 feet. The tide rises from 6 to 7 feet. In spite of what seems its more convenient situation, Fernandina does not seem destined to be a rival of Jacksonville.

PART II.
FLORIDA.

1. HISTORICAL.

Long before Columbus saw

“the dashing,
Silver-flashing,
Surges of San Salvador,”

a rumor was abroad among the natives of the Bahamas, of Cuba, and even of Yucatan and Honduras, that in a land to the north was a fountain of water, whose crystal waves restored health to the sick, and youth to the aged. Many of the credulous islanders, forsaking their homes, ventured in their frail canoes on the currents of the Gulf, and never returning, were supposed to be detained by the delights of that land of perennial youth.

This ancient fame still clings to the peninsula. The tide of wanderers in search of the healing and rejuvenating waters still sets thitherward, and, with better fate than of yore, many an one now returns to his own, restored to vigor and life. Intelligence now endorses what superstition long believed.

The country received its pretty and appropriate name, Terra florida, the Flowery Land, from Juan Ponce de Leon, who also has the credit of being its discoverer. He first saw its shores on Easter Sunday, March 27, 1513—not 1512, as all the text books have it, as on that year Easter Sunday came on April 20th.

At that time it was inhabited by a number of wild tribes, included in two families, the Timucuas, who dwelt on the lower St. John, and the Chahta-Muskokis, who possessed the rest of the country. In later times, the latter were displaced by others of the same stock known as Seminoles (isti semoli, wild men, or strangers). A remnant of these still exist, several hundred in number, living on and around Lake Okee-chobee, in the same state of incorrigible savagery that they ever were, but now undisturbed and peaceful.

The remains of the primitive inhabitants are abundant over the Peninsula. Along the sea shores and water courses are numerous heaps of shells, bones and pottery, vestiges of once populous villages; small piles of earth and “old fields” in the interior still witness to their agricultural character; and large mounds from ten to twenty-five feet in height filled with human bones testify to the pious regard they felt toward their departed relatives, and the care with which, in accordance with the traditions of their race, they preserved the skeletons of the dead. As for those “highways” and “artificial lakes” which the botanist Bartram thought he saw on the St. John river, they have not been visible to less enthusiastic eyes. Mounds of stones, of large size and enigmatic origin, have also been found (Prof. Jeffries Wyman).

For half a century after its discovery, no European power attempted to found a colony in Florida. Then, in 1562, the celebrated French Huguenot, Admiral de Coligny, sent over a number of his own faith and nation, who erected a fort near the mouth of the St. John. As they were upon Spanish territory, to which they had no right, and were peculiarly odious to the Spanish temper by their religion, they met an early and disastrous fate. They were attacked and routed in 1565 by a detatchment of Spaniards under the command of Pedro Menendez de Aviles, a soldier of distinction. The circumstance was not characterized by any greater atrocity than was customary on both sides in the religious wars of the sixteenth century, but it has been a text for much bitter writing since, and was revenged a few years after by a similar massacre by a French Protestant, Dominique de Gourgues, and a party of Huguenots.

Pedro Menendez established at once (1565) the city of St. Augustine and showed himself a capable officer. Under the rule of his successors the Spanish sway gradually extended over the islands of the eastern coast, and the region of middle Florida. The towns of St. Marks and Pensacola were founded on the western coast, and several of the native tribes were converted to Christianity.

This prosperity was rudely interrupted in the first decade of the eighteenth century by the inroads of the Creek Indians, instigated and directed by the English settlers of South Carolina. The churches were burned, the converts killed or scattered, the plantations destroyed, and the priests driven to the seaport towns.

The colony languished under the rule of Spain until, in 1763, it was ceded to Great Britain. Some life was then instilled into it. Several colonies were planted on the St. John river and the sea coast, and a small garrison stationed at St. Marks.

In 1770 it reverted once more to Spain, under whose rule it remained in an uneasy condition until 1821, when it was purchased by the United States for the sum of five million dollars. Gen. Andrew Jackson was the first Governor, and treated the old inhabitants in his usual summary manner. In 1824 the seat of government was fixed at Tallahassee, the site of an old Indian town.

At the time of the purchase there were about 4,000 Indians and refugee negroes scattered over the territory. These very soon manifested that jealousy of their rights, and resentment against the whites, which have ever since been their characteristics. From the time of the cession until the out-break of our civil struggle, the soil of Florida was the scene of one almost continual border war. The natives gave ground very slowly, and it was estimated that for every one of them killed or banished beyond the Mississippi by our armies, the general government expended ten thousand dollars.

2.—BOOKS AND MAPS.

The facts which I have here sketched in barest outline have been told at length by many able writers. The visitor to the scene of so many interesting incidents should provide himself with some or all of the following works, which will divert and instruct him in many a lagging hour:

Parkman, Pioneers of France in the New World. This contains an admirably written account of the Huguenot colony on the St. John.

Fairbanks, The Spaniards in Florida. (Published by Columbus Drew, Jacksonville, Florida.) An excellent historical account of the Spanish colony.

Sprague, History of the Florida War. This is a correct and vivid narrative of the struggle with the Seminoles. The book is now rarely met with in the trade.

Gen. George A. McCall, Letters from the Frontiers. (Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia, 1868.) These letters are mostly from Florida, and contain many interesting pictures of army life and natural scenery there.

R. M. Bache, The Young Wrecker of the Florida Reef. (Claxton, Remsen & Haffelfinger, Philadelphia, 1869.) This is a “book for boys,” and is interesting for all ages. The author was engaged on the Coast Survey, and describes with great power and accuracy the animal and vegetable life of the Southern coast.

Life of Audubon. (Putnam & Son, 1869.) This contains a number of letters of the great ornithologist while in Florida.

A detailed description of the earlier works on the peninsula can be found in a small work I published some years ago, entitled “The Floridian Peninsula, Its Literary History, Indian Tribes, and Antiquities.” (For sale by the publishers of the present book.)

On the Antiquities of the Peninsula. Prof. Jeffries Wyman, of Harvard College, published, not long since, a very excellent article in the second volume of the American Naturalist.

Every tourist should provide himself with a good State map of Florida. The best extant is that prepared and published by Columbus Drew, of Jacksonville, Florida, in covers, for sale by the publishers of this work. Two very complete partial maps have been issued by the U. S. government, the one from the bureau of the Secretary of War, in 1856, entitled, “A Military Map of the Peninsula of Florida South of Tampa Bay,” on a scale of 1 to 400,000, the other from the U. S. Coast Survey office in 1864, drawn by Mr. H. Lindenkohl, embracing East Florida north of the 29th degree, on a scale of 10 miles to the inch. The latter should be procured by any one who wishes to depart from the usual routes of tourists.

3. PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY OF FLORIDA.

• 1. Geological Formation.
• 2. Soil and Crops.
• 3. Climate and Health.
• 4. Vegetable and Animal Life.

1. Geological Formation.

Florida is a peninsula extending abruptly from the mainland of the continent in a direction a little east of south. It is nearly 400 miles in length, and has an average width of 130 miles. Its formation is peculiar. Every other large peninsula in the world owes its existence to a central mountain chain, which affords a stubborn resistance to the waves. Florida has no such elevation, and mainly a loose, low, sandy soil. Let us study this puzzle.

The Apalachian (usually and incorrectly spelled Appalachian) plain, sloping from the mountains to the Gulf of Mexico, lies on a vast bed of tertiary, limestone and sand rock. About the thirtieth parallel of north latitude this plain sinks to the sea level, except in middle Florida, where it still remains 200 feet and more in height. This elevation gradually decreases and reaches the water level below the 28th parallel, south of Tampa Bay. It forms a ridge or spine about sixty miles in width, composed of a porous limestone somewhat older than the miocene group of the tertiary rocks, a hard blueish limestone, and a friable sand rock.[A] Around this spine the rest of the peninsula has been formed by two distinct agencies.

[A] This “Back-Bone Ridge,” as it has been called, has a rounded and singularly symmetrical form when viewed in cross section. Where the Fernandina and Cedar Keys railroad crosses the peninsula, the highest point, near Gainesville, is 180 feet in elevation, whence there is a gradual slope, east and west.

Between the ridge and the Atlantic ocean is a tract of sandy soil, some forty miles in width, sloping very gently to the north. It is low and flat, and is drained by the St. John river. So little fall has this noble stream that 250 miles from its mouth it is only 12 miles distant from an inlet of the ocean, and only 3 feet 6 inches above tide level, as was demonstrated by the State survey made to construct a canal from Lake Harney to Indian River. A section of the soil usually discloses a thin top layer of vegetable mould, then from 3 to 6 feet of different colored sand, then a mixture of clay, shells, and sand for several feet further, when in many parts a curious conglomerate is reached, called coquina, formed of broken shells and small pebbles cemented together by carbonate of lime, no doubt of recent (post tertiary) formation. The coquina is never found south of Cape Canaveral, nor north of the mouth of the Matanzas river.

For the whole of this distance a glance at the map will show that the coast is lined by long, narrow inlets, separated from the ocean by still narrower strips of land. These inlets are the “lagoons.” The heavy rains wash into them quantities of sediment, and this, with the loose sand blown by the winds from the outer shore, gradually fills up the lagoon, and changes it into a morass, and at last into a low sandy swamp, through which a sluggish stream winds to its remote outlet. Probably the St. John river was at one time a long lagoon, and probably all the land between the ridge described and the eastern sea has been formed by this slow process.

The southern portion of the peninsula is also very low, rarely being more than six feet above sea level, but its slope, instead of being northward, is generally westward. Much of the surface is muddy rather than sandy, and is characterized by two remarkable forms of vegetable life, the Everglades and the Big Cypress.

The Everglades cover an area of about 4,000 square miles, and embrace more than one half of the State south of Lake Okee-chobee. They present to the eye a vast field of coarse saw-grass springing from a soil of quicksand and soft mud, from three to ten feet deep. During the whole year the water rests on this soil from one to four feet in depth, spreading out into lakes, or forming narrow channels. The substratum is a limestone, not tertiary, but modern and coralline. Here and there it rises above the mud, forming “keys” or islands of remarkable fertility, and on the east and south makes a continuous ridge along the ocean, one to four miles wide, and from ten to fifteen feet high, which encloses the interior low basin like a vast crescentic dam-breast.

Lake Okee-chobee, 1,200 square miles in area, with an average depth of twelve feet, is, in fact, only an extension of the Everglades.

South of the Caloosa-hatchie river, between the Everglades and the Gulf, extends the Big Cypress. This is a large swamp, fifty miles long and thirty-five miles broad. Here the saw-grass gives way to groves of cypress trees, with a rank and tangled undergrowth of vines. The soil is either bog or quicksand, generally covered one or two feet deep with stagnant water. The sun’s rays rarely penetrate the dense foliage, and on the surface of the water floats a green slime, which, when disturbed, emits a sickening odor of decay. Crooked pools and sluggish streams traverse it in all directions, growing deeper and wider toward the Gulf shore, where they cut up the soil into numberless segments, called the Thousand Islands.

The whole of this southern portion of the peninsula lies on a modern, coral formation. The crescent-shaped ridge which forms the eastern and southern boundary of the Everglades, commences north of Key Biscayne Bay, and sweeps southwest to Cape Sable. From the same starting point, another broken crescent of coralline limestone, but many miles longer, extends to the Dry Tortugas, forming the Florida Keys. And beyond this again some five or six miles, making a third crescent, is the Florida Reef. Outside of the Reef, the bottom abruptly sinks to a depth of 800 or 900 fathoms. Between the Reef and the Keys is the ship channel, about 6 fathoms in depth; and between the Keys and the main land the water is very shallow, and covers broad flats of white calcareous mud. Between the coast-ridge and Lake Okee-chobee, the “Keys,” which are scattered through the Everglades, are disposed in similar crescentic forms, some seven regular concentric arcs having been observed. They are all formed of the same character of coral rock as the present Reef and Keys, and undoubtedly owe their existence to the same agency. Each of these crescents was at one time a reef, until the industrious coral animals built another reef further out in the water, when the older line was broken up by the waves into small islands. Thus, for countless thousands of years, has this work of construction been going on around the extremity of the tertiary back bone ridge which at first projected but a short distance into the waters.

What, it may be asked, has impressed this peculiar and unusual crescentic shape to the reefs? This is owing to the Gulf Stream. This ocean-river rushes eastward through the Straits of Florida at the rate of five or six miles an hour, yet it does not wash the reef. By some obscure law of motion, an eddy counter-current is produced, moving westward, close to the reef, with a velocity of one or two miles an hour. Off Key West this secondary current is ten miles wide, with a rapidity of two miles per hour. Its waters are constantly whitened by the calcareous sands of the reef—the relics of the endless conflict between the waves and the untiring coral insects. The slowly-built houses of the latter are broken and tossed hither and thither by the billows, until they are ground into powder, and scattered through the waters. After every gale the sea, for miles on either side of the reef, is almost milk-white with the ruins of these coral homes.

But nature is ever ready with some compensation. The impalpable dust taken up by the counter-current is carried westward, and gradually sinks to the bottom of the gulf, close to the northern border of the gulf stream. At length a bank is formed, reaching to within 80 or 90 feet of the surface. At this depth the coral insect can live, and straightway the bank is covered with a multitudinous colony who commence building their branching structures. A similar process originated all the crescent-shaped lines of Keys which traverse the Everglades and Big Cypress.

2. SOIL AND CROPS.

Much of the soil of Florida is not promising in appearance. The Everglades and Cypress Swamps may be considered at present agriculturally worthless. The ridge of sand and decomposed limestone along the southern shore, from Cape Sable to Indian river, is capable, however, of profitable cultivation, and offers the best field in the United States for the introduction of tropical plants, especially coffee. Its area is estimated at about 7,000,000 acres.

The northern portion of the Peninsula is composed of “scrubs” (dry sterile tracts covered with thickets of black-jack, oak, and spruce), pine lands and hammocks (not hummocks—the latter is a New England word with a different signification). The hammocks are rich river bottoms, densely timbered with live oak, magnolia, palmetto, and other trees. They cannot be surpassed for fertility, and often yield 70 to 80 bushels of corn to the acre with very imperfect tillage. Of course, they are difficult to clear, and often require drainage.

The pine lands, which occupy by far the greater portion of the State, make at first an unfavorable impression on the northern farmer. The sandy pine lands near the St. John, are of deep white siliceous sand, with little or no vegetable mould through it. The greater part of it will not yield, without fertilizing, more than 12 or 15 bushels of corn to the acre. In the interior, on the central ridge, the soil is a siliceous alluvium on beds of argillaceous clay and marl. The limestone rocks crop out in many places, and could readily be employed as fertilizers, as could also the marl. Red clay, suitable for making bricks, is found in the northern counties, and a number of brick yards are in operation. Over this soil a growth of hickory is interspersed with yellow pine, and much of the face of the country is rolling. By mixing the hammock soil with the sand, an admirable loam is formed, suited to raising vegetables and vines.

Persons who visit Florida with a view to farming or gardening, should not expect to find it a land of exhuberant fertility, that will yield immense crops with little labor. East Florida is as a whole not a fertile country in comparison with South Carolina or Illinois, and probably never will be highly cultivated. On the other hand, they must not be discouraged by the first impressions they form on seeing its soil. Labor can do wonders there. The climate favors the growth of vegetables and some staples, but labor, hard work, is just as necessary as in Massachusetts. Middle and West Florida have much better lands.

The leading crops of the State are corn and cotton. Of the latter, the improved short staple varieties are preferred, the long staple nourishing only in East Florida. Some experiments have been tried with Egyptian cotton, but on too small a scale to decide its value. The enemy of the cotton fields is the caterpillar which destroys the whole crop in a very short time. Nor can anything be done to stop its ravages. In the vicinity of Tampa Bay and Indian River the sugar cane is successfully raised, quite as well as in Louisiana. In good seasons it is also a very remunerative crop in the northern counties, as it yields as much as fifteen barrels of first class syrup to the acre, besides the sugar.

Tobacco, which before the war was raised in considerable quantities in Florida, has been much neglected since. Good Cuba seed has been introduced, however, and some of the old attention is paid to it. The character of soil and climate of certain portions of Florida, especially the southeastern portion, is not very unlike that of the famed Vuelta Abajo, and with good seed, and proper care in the cultivation and curing of the leaf, it might be grown of a very superior quality.

The climate is too warm for wheat, but rye and oats yield full crops, though they are but little cultivated.—Sweet potatoes, yams, peas, and groundnuts are unfailing, and of the very best qualities. The vine yields abundantly, and it is stated on good authority that two thousand gallons of wine per acre have been obtained from vineyards of the Scuppernong grape in Leon county.

Apples grow only to a limited extent, some being found in the northern counties. Peaches, pears, apricots, oranges, limes, lemons, etc., are well suited to the soil and climate. The orange has two enemies, the insect called the coccus, and the frost. The former seems disappearing of late years, but the frosts have become more severe and more frequent, so that north of the 28th degree, the orange crop is not dependable.

The tropical plants, such as coffee, indigo, sesal hemp, etc., can undoubtedly be cultivated with success on the southern and southeastern coast, but hitherto, no serious attempt at their introduction has been made. For further particulars under this head, see a pamphlet of 151 pages prepared by Hon. John S. Adams, and published by the State, in 1869, entitled, “Florida, its Climate, its Soil, and Productions.”

3. CLIMATE AND HEALTH.

In regard to climate, Florida is in some respects unsurpassed by any portion of the United States. The summers are not excessively hot, the average temperature of the months of June, July, and August, being at Tallahassee 79 degrees, Fah.; at St. Augustine, 80 degrees; Cedar Keys, 79 degrees; Tampa, 80 degrees; Miami, 81; and Key West, 82 degrees. The winters are delightful, the temperature of the three winter months averaging as follows: Tallahassee, 57 degrees; St. Augustine, 58 degrees; Cedar Keys, 60 degrees; Tampa, 61 degrees; Miami, 67 degrees, Key West, 70 degrees.

The summer heats are debilitating, especially in the interior. On the coast they are tempered by the sea-breeze, which rises about 10 a. m. No part of the State is entirely free from frosts. In Jacksonville they occur about once a week during the month of January, while at Miami they only happen once in several years. Now and then a severe frost occurs, which destroys the orange groves far to the south. One such in 1767 destroyed all the orange trees at Fernandina and St. Augustine; another in 1835 cut them down as far south as New Smyrna; in December, 1856, ice was noted on the Miami river; and in December, 1868, there was such an unprecedented cold snap that Lake Griffin, on the upper Oklawaha, bore ice one-and-a-half inches thick. The orange crop was destroyed as far up the St. John as Enterprise, and most of the trees ruined. On Indian river, however, the cold was not felt to a damaging extent.

The nights in winter are cool, and in the interior accompanied with heavy dews.

In summer, the prevailing winds are east and south-east, being portions of the great air currents of the trade winds. Thunder storms are frequent. In winter, variable winds from the north, northeast, and north-west prevail. At times they rise to violent gales of several days duration, called northers. These are most frequent on the west coast.

The seasons of Florida are tropical in character, one being the dry and the other the wet season. The annual rain-fall averages from fifty to sixty inches. Three-fourths of this fall between April and October. Sometimes there is nearly as much rain in the month of June as during the six winter months together. Two inches and a-half is a fair average each for the latter. The air is usually well charged with moisture, but owing to the equability of the temperature, this would hardly be suspected. Fogs are almost unknown, the sky is serene, the air clear, and no sensation of dampness is experienced. The hygrometer alone reminds us of how nearly the atmosphere is saturated with warm, watery vapor.

In the concluding chapters of this work I shall discuss at length the adaptation of the climate to invalids, and shall here speak of it chiefly as it affects residents.

The prevailing diseases are of miasmatic origin. Dysentery of mild type, pneumonia and diarrhœa are occasional visitors, but the most common enemy to health is the swamp poison. Intermittent and remittent fevers are common along the fresh water streams. On the sea coast they are rare, and after the month of October they disappear, but in the summer and early autumn they are very prevalent in some portions of the State. They are, however, neither more severe nor more frequent than in the lowlands of all the Gulf States, or in southern Indiana and Illinois.

These complaints are characteristic of new settlements, usually disappearing after the land has been cleared a few years. They can be generally avoided by care in habits of life, and the moderate use of some bitter tonic. All who are exposed should be on their guard, avoiding excesses, over-work, getting chilled, the night dews, damp clothing, etc.

One fall I ascended the Ocklawaha river in a “pole-barge”—a large scow propelled by poles. At night we fastened the boat to a tree, and slept at some neighboring house. The captain and several of the “darkies” had a diurnal shake, with great regularity, and I entered hardly a single house from Palatka to Ocala in which one or more of the family were not complaining of the same disease. I had no quinine with me, and in default of it used as a preventive a strong tincture of the peel of the bitter-sweet orange. Either through its virtues or good luck, I escaped an attack, quite to the surprise of my companions. I repeat, however, that during the winter there is no danger from this source, and even during the sickly season an enlightened observance of the rules of health will generally protect the traveler.

4. VEGETABLE AND ANIMAL LIFE.

The traveler who, for the first time, visits a southern latitude, has his attention most strongly arrested by the new and strange forms of vegetable life. I shall mention some of those which give the scenery of Florida its most peculiar features.

The most abundant is the saw palmetto, chamærops Adansonii. This vigorous plant is found in all parts of the peninsula, flourishing equally well in the pine barren and the hammock. It throws up its sharp-edged leaves some four or five feet in length, from a large, round root, which is, in fact, a trunk, extending along the surface of the ground. The young shoots and inner pith of the root are edible, and were often eaten by the Indians.

The cabbage palm, another species of Chamærops, is one of the most beautiful of trees. It raises its straight, graceful trunk to a height of 50, 60 and 100 feet, without a branch, and then suddenly bursts into a mass of dark green, pendant fronds. In the center of this mass, enveloped in many folds, is found the tender shoot called the “cabbage.” It tastes like a raw chestnut, and was highly prized by the Indians. This palm is not found north of St. Augustine, and is only seen in perfection about Enterprise, and further south.

The live oak and cypress are the tenants of the low grounds. The former has a massive trunk, much esteemed for ship timber, spreading branches, and small green leaves. It is a perennial, and is not found farther north than South Carolina. The cypress stands in groups. Its symmetrical shaft rises without branches to a considerable height, and then spreads out numerous horizontal limbs, bearing a brown and scanty foliage. The base of the trunk is often enlarged and distorted into strange shapes, while scattered through the swamps are abortive attempts at trees, a foot or two thick and five or six feet in height, ending in a round, smooth top. These are called “cypress knees.”

Two parasitic plants abound in the forests, the mistletoe and the Spanish moss, tillandsia usneoides. The former has bright green leaves and red berries. The latter attaches itself to the cypress and live oak, and hangs in long gray wreaths and ragged masses from every bough in the low lands.

The southern shores and islands are covered with the mangrove, a species of the rhizophora. It is admirably adapted to shore building. The seed grows to a length of five or six inches before it leaves its calyx, when it resembles in form and color an Havana cigar. When it drops into the water it floats about until it strikes a beach, where it rapidly takes root and shoots out branches. Each branch sends down its own root, and soon the shore is covered with a dense growth, which in time rises to a height of twenty or thirty feet, and prevents the sand from any further shifting.

Two varieties of a plant called by the Seminoles koonta, bread, grow luxuriantly in the south. The red koonta, the smilax china of botanists, is a thrifty, briary vine, with roots like a large potato. The white koonta, a species of zamia, has large fern-like leaves and a root like a parsnip. Both were used by the Indians as food, and yield from 25 to 30 per cent. of starch.

At some seasons, dense masses of vegetation form on the lakes and rivers and drift hither and thither with the wind, natural floating islands. They are composed chiefly of a water plant, the pistia spathulata, with the stalks and leaves of the water lily, nymphea nilumbo.

The bitter-sweet orange grows wild in great quantities along the streams. It is supposed to be an exotic which has run wild, as none of the species was found in the New World, and no mention is made of the orange in the early accounts of the peninsula, as undoubtedly would have been the case had it then flourished. The fruit has a taste not unlike the Seville orange, and is freely eaten by the inhabitants.

The cork tree, the sesal hemp, and other tropical plants have been introduced, and no doubt could be successfully cultivated in the extreme south. The coacoanut palm grows vigorously at Key West, and on the adjacent mainland.

The animal life of Florida indicates its proximity to the tropics. Alligators are now scarce in the lower St. John, but are found in great numbers in the interior. They are by no means dangerous. The largest I ever saw was nearly 15 feet in length.

The manatee, or sea cow, an herbivorous cetacean, midway between fish and flesh, once abounded in Florida. When Audubon visited the peninsula, his guide boasted of having killed “hundreds” of them, and their bones are often found as far north as the Suwannee river. The Manatee spring and Manatee river bear record in their names to their former abundance. Now, I think, they are nearly extinct. A few still linger in the extreme south. Two were caught on the Indian river in the commencement of 1869, and exhibited in Jacksonville and Savannah.

The gopher, testudo polyphemus, is a large land turtle found in the pine woods, and is esteemed as an article of diet. The deer, panther, black bear, black and grey wolf are quite common.

Beautiful perroquets, wild turkeys, white and rose-colored curlew, the latter prized for their tinted wings, pelicans, cormorants, herons, fish-crows, and cranes are seen in great numbers.

The moccason and rattle-snake are the only venomous serpents. The former is most feared, but I do not remember to have heard of many deaths from the bite of either. Scorpions, centipedes and tarantulas abound, but are not very poisonous, and never fatally so. The mosquitoes are at times dreadfully annoying, and there is no escape from them. Sand-flies, ticks, and knats also mar the pleasures of camp life, but the true hunter rises superior to such inconveniences.

The best river fish is the trout—not the speckled native of the northern streams, but of good flavor, and “game” when hooked. The mullet—a fish about a foot long—swarms on the coast in incredible numbers. The pompano is considered almost as good as the salmon. Catfish are large and coarse.

4. THE ST. JOHN RIVER, ST. AUGUSTINE, AND INDIAN RIVER.

The St. John river is about 400 miles in length, and from two to three miles wide, as far up as Lake George. It is, in fact, rather an arm of the sea than a river, and probably is the remains of an ancient lagoon. Its current is about one mile an hour, and the slope of its bed so little that at such a distance from its mouth as at Lake Monroe, a careful survey showed that it was but three feet six inches above sea level. The tides are perceptible as far as Lake George, and its water more or less brackish at least this far. This may be partly owing to several large salt springs which empty into it. Its waters are of a light coffee-color, frequently covered with a perceptible scum. Above Lake George they are pleasant to the taste, but do not easily quench the thirst, apparently owing to the salts of various kinds in solution.

Contrary to all the other large streams in the United States, the St. John flows nearly due south until within fifteen miles of its mouth, when it turns abruptly to the east, entering the Atlantic at 30 degrees 24 seconds, north latitude. For this peculiarity of its course, the Chahtas named it Il-la-ka, corrupted into Welaka by the whites. Mr. Buckingham Smith asked an intelligent native what the word meant. He answered slowly: “It hath its own way, is alone, and contrary to every other.”

The only important tributary it receives is the Oklawaha. They each drain a row of numerous ponds, lakes, and marshes, and are separated by the Thlauhatke, or White Hills, the highest hills in the peninsula, and an elevated sandy ridge, covered with scruboak, known as the “Eteniah scrub.”

The St. John was discovered in 1562, by Jean Ribaut, leader of the Huguenot colony of Admiral Coligny. He named it the River May, having entered it in that month. In the Spanish chronicles it is referred to as the Rio de San Matteo (St. Matthew). When it was named San Juan, does not appear, but the English took this name and translated it into the present appellation.

In accordance with the best usage of our geographical writers, I shall omit the possessive sign, and speak of it as the St. John river; and in mentioning localities on the right or left bank, the reader is notified that while geographically these terms are used as if a person were descending the river, for the convenience of the traveler I use them as of one ascending it.

The mouth of the St. John is hardly a mile wide, and is impeded by a shifting sand bar, having rarely more than seven feet of water at low tide. The entrance is by a southerly pass, which leaves the course of the stream concealed by the shore of Baton island, on the north. This island is settled by a number of river pilots with their families, hardy and worthy people. On the southern shore the tourist sees the old and new lighthouses, and a row of brilliantly white sand dunes extending inland a mile or more.

Baton Island passed, an extensive salt marsh is seen to form the northern bank of the river; through this numerous sluggish streams wind their way, forming part of the “inside, passage” to Fernandina. Near the entrance of this passage a number of symmetrical mounds, from 20 to 50 feet in height, strike the eye. These are known as “The Sisters,” or more prosaically as the “Oyster Banks,” as, on examination, they prove to be composed almost exclusively of broken oyster shells, covered with a tangled low shrubbery. No doubt they are relics of the many glorious oyster feasts indulged in by the indigenes in times gone by. I regret that they were not visited by Prof. Jeffries Wyman, who has given us so excellent an account of the “Fresh-Water-Shell-Heaps of the St. John’s River, East Florida,” (Salem, Mass., 1868).

Having passed the bar, the river rapidly widens. About six miles from the entrance the channel runs close along the base of a hill or headland of moderate height, covered with pine, cedar, etc. This is *St. John’s Bluff, and is unquestionably the site of Fort Caroline, the settlement of Coligny’s band of Huguenots in 1562.

A tragic interest surrounds this spot. Here, in 1564, Rene de Laudonniere established the colony of French Protestants, intending to reclaim a portion of this vast wilderness. His action was soon reported at the jealous court of Spain.

Phillip II. at once despatched Pedro Menendez de Aviles, an accomplished soldier and earnest Catholic, to root out the feeble colony. It was done only too well. In the excitement of a surprise, Sept. 19th, 1565, the orders of Menendez to spare the women, the old men, and the children were disregarded by the furious soldiery, and nearly every one was massacred. Laudonniere and a few others escaped by scrambling down the rough and thorn-covered eastern face of the bluff, and wading through the marshes to the mouth of the river, where they reached their ships. They bore the distressing tidings to France. The ruler of that realm, the projector of the massacre of St. Bartholemew, and the son of Catharine de Medicis, was not the one to trouble himself about the death of a few Huguenots who had encroached on foreign soil. But the stain of unavenged blood did not remain on France. A private gentleman, Dominique de Gourgues, fitted out an expedition in 1568. Suddenly appearing before Fort Caroline, then manned by Spanish troops, he attacked and routed the garrison and burned the structure. As it was reported that Menendez had inscribed on a tablet that the massacre of the Huguenots was not done “as to Frenchmen but to heretics;” so De Gourgues returned the grim courtesy, and left an inscription that the dead men around had been slain “not as Spaniards, but as traitors, thieves and murderers.”

In 1856, some copper coins were found near here bearing the inscription:

KAROLUS ET JOANNA RE.

They were identified by Mr. Buckingham Smith as of the reign of Carlos I. (Charles V.) and Donna Juanna, and therefore date from about 1550.

More recently a coin of about the same period, and from the same spot, but with a different and not fully legible inscription was exhibited to the Numismatic and Antiquarian Society of Philadelphia.

During the late civil war the Bluff was fortified by a detachment of Confederate troops, and for some days held against the gunboats of the United States forces. At length they were out-flanked by a party of Union soldiers, who made their way in the rear by the margin of the swamp, and the work was surrendered.

A few miles beyond the bluff the boat stops at

YELLOW BLUFF.

It has a post office and one small boarding-house, ($8.00 per week,) about 40 inhabitants, mostly engaged in fishing. Near by is a small fort, built during the recent war, and on the opposite bank of the river, on a plantation called New Castle, are an Indian mound and the vestiges of an ancient, quadrilateral earthwork of Spanish origin.

Yellow Bluff was first chosen by Col. I. D. Hart as the city which he proposed to build on the St. John, but as he found some marsh land near which he thought might prove disadvantageous to such a large city as he contemplated founding, he passed further up the stream and built his cabin on the spot now known as the “Cow’s Ford,” where the King’s Road in the old days crossed the river and connected St. Augustine with the northern settlements, twenty-five miles above the bar. This spot, then occupied by a few straggling whites and half breeds, is now the site of the flourishing city of

JACKSONVILLE.

Hotels.—*St. James, on the public square, with airy piazzas, $4.00 a day; *Taylor House, fronts the river; *Price House, close to the railroad depot; St. John’s House, in the center of the city; Howard House; Cowart House; Union House; Florida House; *Rochester House, on the bluff south of the town; from $2.00 to $3.00 a day.

Boarding Houses.—Mrs. Freeland, Mrs. Hodgson, Mrs. Alderman opposite the Taylor House, and many others.

Newspapers. The Florida Union, repub.; Mercury and Floridian; Florida Land Register.

Bookseller.—Columbus Drew, publisher of Brinton’s Guide-Book of Florida and the South. Mr. Drew makes a specialty of keeping works on Florida.

Churches of all the principal denominations.

Jacksonville, so named after General Andrew Jackson, has now a population of 7,000 souls, and is rapidly increasing that number. It is destined to be the most important city in Florida, as it is already the largest. It is located between two creeks which fall into the St. John about a mile and a quarter apart. These form the present corporation limits, but several suburbs or additions have been recently formed beyond these streams. Brooklyn and Riverside are on the bank southwest of the town; Scottsville, immediately east of the eastern creek, is the principal location of the large saw mills which constitute one of the most important industries of the city; Wyoming is on the bluff one and a half miles northeast; and finally La Villa is a small suburb on an island to the west.

Many of the residences of Jacksonville are substantially built of brick manufactured from native clay, but wood is the prevailing material. Several handsome residences are conspicuous from the river, and every season a number of elegant cottages are added to the town. It is a favorite residence for invalids during the winter months, on account of its superior accommodations and ease of access. Indeed, too many of them remain here who would be improved by a nearer approach to the extreme south. The sight of so many sick often affects one unfavorably.

The streets of Jacksonville are sandy, and the vicinity only moderately fertile. The health of the city is good at all seasons, miasmatic disease not being common. There was an epidemic of yellow fever in 1857, but it has never since returned.

During the war Jacksonville suffered severely. It was first partially burned by the Confederates, then three separate times occupied by the Union troops, the third time catching fire in the assault. About half a dozen blocks of houses were then burned, including the Catholic and Episcopal churches. Of course the result of these experiences was little short of desolation. Grass grew waist high in the streets, and the few cattle that remained found for themselves stalls in the deserted stores and houses. Now, however, one can hardly credit the fact that such was ever the case.

Steamboats leave Jacksonville for Enterprise (206 miles), about every other day. One line is owned by Capt. Brock, who for many years has run the steamer “Darlington” up and down the river. The accommodations on all the steamers are fair, and no one should omit to make the round trip, even if he does not tarry on the road. Fare to Enterprise, $9.00.

About a mile above this city the river widens once more. The banks are usually 3 or 4 feet high, thickly set with live oak, pine and cypress. Here and there the pine barren cuts across the hammock to the river. In such places the banks are 8 or 10 feet high, and the tall yellow pine with an abundant undergrowth of palmetto gives same variety to the otherwise monotonous view. 15 miles from Jacksonville, on the left (east) hand is the small town of

MANDARIN.

Post Office. No hotel. Boarding can be had with Mr. Chas. F. Reed, near the landing. Mr. Foote, the postmaster, will give further information about the chance for accommodations in private families. A new School house and church. The name is said to have been derived from the Mandarin or China orange introduced here. This little place has about a dozen houses and a back country three or four miles in extent. The location is pleasing and the soil good. Several flourishing orange groves can be seen from the river. One of them about six acres in extent is owned by Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe, who has a pleasant country house here, and visits it every winter. It stands close to the river, on a bluff about 12 feet high. A little higher up the river the Marquis de Talleyrand has laid out handsome grounds.

This is one of the localities associated with the atrocities of border warfare. In December, 1841, the Seminole Indians attacked and burnt the town and massacred the inhabitants almost to the last soul. “For sixteen hours,” says Captain Sprague in his account of the occurrence, “the savages, naked and painted, danced around the corpses of the slain.”

Above Mandarin the river narrows and then again expands, the banks continuing of the same character. Ten miles above, on the right (west) bank is

HIBERNIA.

*Hotel, Mrs. Fleming, one of the best on the river, accommodates about 35 persons, $2.50 per day, $15.00 per week. This very pleasant spot is on an island, about five miles long, immediately north of the entrance of Black Creek. It is separated from the mainland by a body of water known as Doctor’s Lake, which, toward its southern extremity, is lost in a broad marsh. The “river walk” near the boarding house is a delightful promenade about three-fourths of a mile long under the spreading branches of noble live oaks. The hotel is near the landing, which is on the east side of the island. Visitors can readily obtain boats, and the vicinity offers many attractive spots for short excursions, picnics, and fishing parties. Rooms should be engaged by letter.

Three miles above Hibernia is

MAGNOLIA.

This large building was erected by Dr. Benedict in 1851 with special reference to the wants of invalids, and their treatment under medical supervision. During the war it was used for various purposes and was much injured, but it has now been thoroughly refitted by a company, and placed under the charge of Dr. Rogers, formerly of Worcester, Mass., a capable and judicious physician, who proposes to continue it as a sanitarium. The building can accommodate comfortably about 50 boarders. The position is agreeable, a majestic oak grove shading the grounds, while at a little distance the pine forest scatters its aromatic odors in the air.

Divided from it by a small creek, but 2 miles above as the river runs, is

GREEN COVE SPRING.

Hotels. Green Cove House, by Mr. J. Ramington, and boarding houses by Captain Henderson, and Captain Glinskie, all said to be well kept; fare about $15.00 per week. This spring has been long celebrated for its mineral properties. It is sulphurous, and has been found of value in chronic rheumatism, cutaneous disease and dyspepsia. The temperature is 78 Fah. at all seasons. The basin varies in diameter from 35 to 40 feet at different points. The water rushes up with force forming what is called the “boil.” Recently a portion of the bottom of the spring gave way, and the orifice through which the water rises was covered. But the earth was cleared out, and the “boil” re-instated. Facilities for bathing are afforded, though not to that extent which were desirable.

12 miles above green Cove on the left bank is

PICOLATA.

Boarding with Mr. T. F. Bridier. This is the station where passengers to St. Augustine land. It is much to be regretted that there is no hotel here, and only poor and insufficient accommodations in the house owned by the stage company. Usually but one line of stages runs to St. Augustine, and they are often densely crowded, and most uncomfortable. A second line was put on in Jan., 1869. The usual fare to St. Augustine is $3.00; distance 18 miles. By competition it has been reduced to $1.00.

FROM PICOLATA TO ST. AUGUSTINE

the road leads through an open pine country with an undergrowth of palmettoes. Here and there a clump of cypress, with a tangled mass of briars and vines around their trunks, diversifies the scene. The soil is miserably poor, and hardly a dozen houses are passed in the whole distance. Deep white sand obstructs the stage, and not so rarely as one wishes the wheels strike a pine or palmetto root with a most unpleasant effect upon the passengers, especially if they are invalids. After 3½ hours of this torture, the stage is checked by the Sebastian river, over which a miserable ferry boat conveys the exhausted tourist who at length finds himself in St. Augustine.

ST. AUGUSTINE.

Hotels: Florida House (dear and poor,) Magnolia House, fine piazza (grounds recently fitted up.) About $4.00 per day, slight reduction by the month.