Class __.p3// 

Book ^.y/4i_ 






QLinPSES Mi 



OF 



FLORIDA 



-X- 



ANCIENT, 

COLONIAL 



nODERN 



By 
John H. Welsh, 



1893. 



THE OA COSTA PSINTING HOUSE, JACKSONVILLE FLA 



/-3// 



^l%jf' ,W^ 



PREFACE. 



The writer desires to express his obligations to Bryant's " Popu 
lar History of the United Stales,'' and to Campbell's invaluable "Co- 
lonial West Florida," from which he has largely culled. Also to the 
following eminent writers, viz. : 

Messrs. Fairbanks, Kohl, Harrera, Hildreth, Shea, Martyr, Ban- 
croft, Pagafetta, De Vera, Smith, De Beidman, French, Charlevox, 
Lascarbot, Brevoort, Murphy, De Barcia, Biddell, Hackett, Laudon- 
naire, Parkrnan, Hackluyt, and others. 

Should the reader question the writer's conservative estimate of 
the antiquity of Florida, he points to the fact that Professor Cope of 
Philadelphia has a creature which all naturalists are unanimous in 
pronouncing the first representative of the hoofed animal species. 
The animal is not alive, neither is it entire, so far as flesh and blood 
are concerned, but to the paleontologist, who cares only for the fos- 
siled bones, the specimen is perfect. It is not larger than a yearling 
calf and not nearly so tall, and was found in the Wind River country 
in Wyoming. Professor Cope named it Phenacodus Primardus when it 
was first discovered, giving it as his opinion that it was akin to a 
specimen which was found several years ago in France (the paleothe- 
rium), and which gave Cuvier and the other naturalists so much trouble 
to classify. 

At the time of the discovery of the French specimen the savants 
of Europe decided that it was the ancestor of the hoofed kingdom, but 
the Wind River fossil, which is easily distinguished as being a type of 
the same, is believed to be much more ancient. Cope's curiosity was 
found in rocks belonging to the eocene period, and the time when it 
grazed on the Western prairies has been placed as far back as 500,000 
years. 

John H. Welsh. 
January, iSg^. 



INDEX 

ANCIENT FLORIDA 1 

The Phosphate Age 2 

The Bone Age ' 3 

Prehistoric Man , 4 

The Lake Dwellers 4 

An Ancient Coin 5 

Mound Builders 6 

DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA 8 

Chinese Discovery 8 

St. Brandin's Discovery 8 

The Northmen in America 10 

Discovery of America by the Welsh 12 

Venetian Discovery 13 

Columbus' Discovery 13 

Juan Ponce de Leon 15 

French Discovery of Explorations 17 

French, English and Spanish in Florida 19 

Massacre of the Spaniards 23 

French Alliance with the Indians 24 

Massacre of San Mateo 25 

Massacre of the Jesuits 27 

FRENCH AND SPANISH STRUGGLE FOR ASCENDENCY .... 29 

Waldonado 29 

Don Tristram de Luna 29 

Don Andres D'Arriola 30 

Ibervilles's Expedition — The French Capture Pensacola 30 

Spanish Capture and Recapture of Pensacola 31 

British Occupation of Florida 32 

Spain at War with Great Britain 33 

Boundary Lines 34 

Jackson's Invasion of Florida 36 

Seminole War 38 

Jackson's 1 nvasion of West Florida 39 

The War of Reconstruction 39 

MODERN FLORIDA 41 

Topography of Florida 43 

Climate and Healthfulness 44 

CONSUMPTION 46 

TROPICAL AND SEMI-TROPICAL FRUITS 48 

FLORIDA PRODUCTS 48 

EARLY PHOSPHATE DISCOVERIES 49 

Geographical Position of Florida Phosphate 50 

Kinds of Phosphate 51 

Soft Phosphate 53 

Kaolin and Gypsum 60 

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY 61 

The G. A. R. of Florida at Detroit 63 

PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN FLORIDA 66 

Florida Politics 67 

THE TRANSPORTATION LINES OF FLORIDA 69 

The Tropical Trunk Line 71 

The Florida Southern Railway 73 

The Plant System 75 

The Florida Central and Peninsular Railroad 78 

The Clyde Line 83 

The Famed Ocklawaha 87 

The Southern Express Company 91 

STATE OFFICIALS 94 

Roster of National Guard — Florida 95 



ANCIENT FLORIDA. 



4 4 THIRST born among the continents," says Agassiz, "though 
1""^ later in culture, America, so far as her physical history is 
concerned, has been falsely termed 'the new world.' " While 
Europe was represented only by islands, America stretched in an 
unbroken line from Nova Scotia to the far West, the Western conti- 
nent reaching almost from pole to pole. 

Florida is a sea formation of maritime origin, and belongs to 
the eocene period of the tertiary. 

"History," says Prof. Lawrence Johnson, U. S. Geologist, "is 
clearly revealed in the rocks." 

According to this, "at an early period in the world's history, 
there was no peninsula here. That is, Florida was not a part of the 
continent, and all that appeared above the water was a cluster of 
little islands, now indicated on the maps of the State as the Phos- 
phate Belt, to which were added from time to time, small islets that 
grew out of the sea, the whole consisting of silica, shells, and car- 
bonate of lime. Nature was not lavish in expenditure, and there was 
little vegetation, for the soil, such as it was, had no power of pro- 
.duction. 

Following the evolutionary period, the first important event was 
the accumulation of myriads of carnivorous quadrupeds upon the deso- 
late spots, resulting in deposits of enormous quantities of bone and ex- 
creta, which enriched the soil and stimulated growth. Long time 
elapsed, new islands formed, adjacent spols became adhesive, every 
depression becoming the tomb of countless millions of moluscan and 
crustacean creatures, and of aquatic reptiles and mammals. Upon these 
depressions grew vast groves of maugrove, forming roosting places for 
myriads of sea fowl. These depressions in time became marl beds, 
rich m phosphoric acid. This was the source of that class of phos- 
phate rock exemplified in the mines of Dunnellon, Pemberton, An- 
thony, Welshton and others of like character, though not of the lam- 
inated rock of the Archer and High Springs region, or river pebble, 
which had their origin in enormous accumulations of animal matter. 

In time the ancient shoreline of eocene limestone thrown up by 
convulsions of nature and the surging waters into every conceivable 
form of cone and pinnacle, became secure resting places for the birds 
of the sea. This continued for countless centuries, resulting in vast 
deposits of bone and guano, producing rank vegetation, as well as 
vast masses of phosphoric clay, eventuating in rock phosphate as the 



2 Glimpses of Florida : 

swamps became dry and no longer furnished huniic and carbonic acid 
with their solvent powers. 

Dr. Francis Wyatt argues that the phosphate beds were formed 
by the action of phosphoric acid upon the limestone rocks of the 
early geologic era, the acid being derived from the abundant ani- 
mal and vegetable life which pervaded that region. Mr. N. H. Dar- 
ton, of the United States Geological Survey, advances the theory that 
guano was the original source of the phosphate of lime which re- 
placed the carbonate of lime of the limestone. Professor N. A. Pratt 
is satisfied that the phosphate boulders are the fossil remains of a 
low order of animal life, which secreted a skeleton composed of 
phosphate of hme, just as the coral animal deposits a skeleton of 
carbonate of lime. Professor Cox expresses his opinion that the phos- 
phate deposits of Florida are due to the mineralization of an ancient 
guano. 

There is an unsupported theory that the source of the phosphate 
deposits in Florida has to be sought in the eruptive masses thrown up 
by volcanoes of the tertiary period. That is, that phosphatic deposits 
result from the evolution of phonolytic masses, containing large quan- 
tities of phosphoric acid by water, and the metamorphosis of carbon- 
ate of lime, of maritime origin, into phosphate of lime by such phos- 
phoric acid holder. 

This may be called 

THE PHOSPHATE AGE, 

a period long preceding man and the greater part of the present animal 
species. 

The next event in the march of time is a wonderful upheaval — an 
enormous volcanic eruption that transformed plains into mountains 
and vast stretches into oceans, evidences of which exist everywhere 
on the western continent, notably in the Allegheny range, the oldest 
mountains of the world. 

The character of the volcanic masses thrown up is wonderfully 
variable. In the phosphate counties of Florida (as they are called), 
they consist largely of silicate of alumina, oxide of iron, carbonate of 
lime, phosphoric clay, magnesia, cinders, ashes, fragmentary phos- 
phate rock, from tiny pebbles to immense boulders, and vast quanti- 
ties of granulated matter, commonly called soft phosphate. 

The general opinion of geologists is that the eocene period, in 
which these occurrences took place, covered an interval of countless 
years. Dr. Pratt says their history is written rather in countless ages. 

Following the volcanic period there was an interval of gradual 
accumulation. That portion of Florida adjacent to what are known 
as the Ocklawaha, Withlacoochee, Caloosahatchie and Peace rivers 
was the home of the whale and other monsters of the deep. Abundant 
evidence of this swarming of animal life is shown by the fossil remains 
in these rivers, hundreds of tons being dredged daily, consisting of 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 3 

millions of teeth of sharks, bones of whales, hippopotami and kin- 
dred varieties. Occasionally bones in natural condition are fomid, 
but the majority are of fossil character. In the meantime the high- 
lands, now known as the bowlder phosphate belt, extending from the 
Suwanee River to the southern extremity of Hernando County, 
teemed with animal life, mainly of the mastodon species. This is 
proved not only by the phosphate deposits extending 200 miles or 
more, but also by the vast deposits of bones found in. rivers and ponds 
not yet converted into phosphate of lime. This may be called 

THE BONE AGE, 

an age prolific of extraordinary results, distinctly marking the pro- 
gress of events. 

This was an era of wonderful development, due to luxuriant veg- 
etation and contact with the Gulf stream. Islands became adhesive 
and the peninsula gradually assumed something of its present formation, 
land and sea rising in nearly equal ratio. This statement is proved 
by the fact that the State is honeycombed by subterranean streams at 
various and unknown depths, and that the once surface of the State 
is now buried under eight hundred feet of earth, a discovery re- 
cently made in Ocala, the boring of an artesian well at the water 
works disclosing a stratum of brown coal five feet thick, which 
was not of maritime origin, at a depth of eight hundred feet, thus 
clearly indicating that at one time a luxuriant growth of sweet water 
plants existed and afterwards perished. Additional importance is 
given to this discovery by the fact that the excavation disclosed no 
evidence of volcanic or other commotion. "What underlies this 
has not been determined, but it is not unlikely that another 
maritime formation underlies the brown coal." This formation be- 
longs to the eocene period of the tertiary, and, unlike the earth's 
surface, does not contain any appreciable quantity of phosphoric acid. 

Here we leave geology and the no less guiding force of chemistry 
to briefly consider some of the evidences of antiquity surrounding us. 

From the "Boneyard" at Silver Springs have been taken bones 
of whales, the vertebrae of which were nineteen inches in diameter; 
while in a pond near the head of the "run" are seen the petrified re- 
mains of a marine monster ninety feet long and five feet in diameter, 
said to "sparkle like diamonds in the sun."* In the State Museum 

* Away down in the dark depths; of the ocean, there are living lanterns that are 
borne about to light up the darkness. A queer fish called the "Midshipmite," carries the 
brightest and most striking of all these torches.. 

Along its back, under it and at the base of the fins, there are small disks that glow 
with a clear phosphorescent light like rows of shining buttons on the young middy's uni- 
form. In this way it gets its name "midshipmite," by which young sailors in the navy 
are often called. 

These disks are exactly like small "bull's-eye lanterns," with regular lenses and 
reflectors. 

The midshipmite and leviathan of the deep, above referred to, are possibly of the 
same species, lapse of time accounting for difference in size. 

High water prevented an inspection of this wonderful curiosity by the writer. The 
statement, however, comes from reliable sources. 



4 Glimpses of Florida : 

is a nearly perfect skeleton of a mastodon, an animal that has not 
existed in fifty thousand years, which was dag out of the Santa Fe 
river, West Florida. Scattered everywhere are artificial mounds of 
great extent, on which giant timber grows. Shell islands, miles in ex- 
tent, and of unknown depth, the homes of a race who built their habi- 
tations upon water as a protection against hostile tribes, and pottery of 
unknown age, both useful and ornamental, are indubitable evidences 
of prehistoric time . 

It required two thousand years to bury the ruins of the Colosseum 
under forty feet of debris. Imagination runs riot when contemplat- 
ing the centuries required to gradually bury the once surface of Flor- 
ida under eight hundred feet of earth, strata upon strata, or even 
the centuries that have elapsed since the present surface was the home 
of the whale, and, later still, the home of the mastodon. 

Should cumulative evidence of the antiquity of Florida be want- 
ing, it is to be found in the forty-lour toot phosphate rock stratum of 
Welshton, and the still more remarkable sixty-foot deposit of Dun- 
nellon, deposits that could not have formed in a thousand centuries 
according to geology and chemistry. 

PREHISTORIC MAN. 

The first people who appeared after the earth became habitable 
were a swarthy race who wore no covering, lived in caves on the 
shores of seas and rivers, subsisted mainly on fish, game and the 
flesh of their fellows, which they killed with sticks and stones ; and 
who, in course of time, discovered that a sharpened stone was pref- 
erable to a round one, and learned to mould it. 

Geology places this period at one hundred thousand years, giving 
as evidence discoveries among the shell heaps, in which are found 
stone implements and skeletons of birds which have not exiited 
within that time and are only found beneath successive ages of tim- 
ber, forest after forest springing up at long intervals as the climate and 
soil became adapted to the species of animals that followed. 

The first intelligent use man made of his dawning intellect was 
to combine the stick and stone into an artificial weapon ; in time a 
crude hammer or hatchet followed, and with the exercise of inventive 
power other tools were added, such as the flint awl, spear head, stone 
celt, stone scraper and stone dagger. The drinking cup, made of 
clay, took the place of the clam shell or hollow of the hand; skins 
were used for clothing and fire for warmth. This epoch is known as 
the " Stone Age," an important record of primeval progress. 

THE LAKE DWELLERS. 

Following the "Stone Age" came the lake dwellers, who built 
their habitations on water, used a loom, and knew something of agri- 
culture, as proved by the samples of cereals found in their habitations. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 5 

The natives of Florida, when first visited by Europeans, belonged 
distinctively to the stone age; their implements, habits and customs 
being identical with'that age in every particular. It is easy, therefore, 
to associate the relics of a primeval race of Europe with those of the 
American Indian, and to understand that he was contemporaneous 
with his brother of Europe, and possibly antedated him. 

AN ANCIENT COIN. 

The writer of this work has in his possession a great curiosity in 
the shape of a coin, which is probably the most ancient in the world. 
It is about an inch and a half in diameter, and is a mixture of copper 
and gold. , 

The coin was found by a negro named Eichelberger on Mr. B. C. 
Bowman's place, near Welshton. It was at the bottom of a muck bed 
seven feet beiow the surface, in what was once the channel of a stream, 
but is now covered with heavy forest timber. 

On one side of the coin is a representation of one man attacking 
another; boch are armed with clubs, and are without covering, clearly 
indicating them to be of the remotest period. On the same side is an 
inscription, which, though submitted to a number of scholars, has not 
yet been deciphered, nor have the characters been recognized as be- 
longing to the alphabet of any language now known. 

On the other side is a representation of a man, evidently a Cau- 
casian. There is also an inscription on this side which no one has 
been able to make out, though it has been placed under the most pow- 
erful microscopes. The coin was evidently worn as an ornament, as 
shown by a hole punched near the edge. 

This coin may have been made by the same race that built so 
many of the mounds which still remain to perplex the archceologist, 
but, so far as ascertained, it antedates all nations of whom there is any 
written history, and it is not improbable that it is the work of a race 
once inhabiting Florida, for only in such a climate and conditions 
could early man have existed without covering or means of procuring 
subsistence. In the vicinity of this "find" are two large mounds filled 
with bones, pottery, etc. 

There is in the Smithsonian Institute the petrified remains of a 
. pre/iistoric horse — one of man's oldest animal companions — taken about 
five years ago from the Manatee river, Florida. 

In the National Museum, Mexico, are the remains of a human 
being found in a flint rock quarry, imbedded in an immense boulder, 
which is said to have been not less than 35,000 years in forming. 

Near Natchez, Miss., in the early part of the present century, 
were found human bones ift association with bones of the mastodon 
and other extinct animals which existed at a period placed by geology 
at ICO, 000 years. The fissure, at the bottom of which the bones 
were found, was made during the earthquake of 1811-12. 

In 1858 a skeleton was found at New Orleans, beneath four sue- 



6 Glimpses of Florida : 

cessive forests of cypress. Dr. Fowler, into whose possession the 
skeleton came, believed it had lain where found 50,000 years. On 
Petite Ause Island, La., have been found skeletons of the mastodon 
under which lay fragments of pottery and matting in great confusion, 
evidences showing that the animal was driven within an inclosure, 
which was set on fire, and killed by stones and arrows. 

Dr. Koch afifirraed that in 1839 he dug up in the bottom lands 
of Bourbon river. Mo.,' the bones of a mastodon in such juxtaposi- 
tion to human relics as to show that man and this beast met upon the 
spoj in deadly hostility. 

In 1875 ^ human skull was taken from a gold drift 180 feet be- 
low the surface of Table Mountain, Cal., in association with the fossil 
bones of extinct animals; while in 1867 or '68 a cranium was found 
in a mining shaft in Cfalaveras county which geologists pronounced an 
authentic find. The shaft in which the bone was found is 150 feet 
deep, and was sunk through five successive oeds of lava and volcanic 
tufa and four beds of gold-bearing quartz. 

MOUND BUILDERS. 

Evidences of the presence of a people differing totally from those of 
the stone age or North American Indian are found almost everywhere 
upon this continent; these consist of mounds and earth works so nu- 
merous that in the State of Ohio alone there are 10,000 m.ounds and 
1,500 earth works. This race may have been so numerous that as 
many as 1,000,000 may have lived in a single community. They have 
left many remarkable evidences of their habits, customs and singular 
civilization, but they many centuries ago disappeared — exterminated 
by some powerful and pitiless enemy. There is no data by which the 
exact age of these singular relics of a once numerous and industrious 
people can be fixed ; it must have been at a very remote period of the 
world's history, but the ruins of the works, earth and stone which mark 
their occupation are generally in groups, though not continuous like 
a walled town, even where most extensive. But the points evidently 
intended for defense were selected and constructed with military skill, 
witnesses to the occupation of the land by an industrious, vigilant and 
numerous people, having a civilization and knowledge of arts pecu- 
liarly their own. 

Upon one theory only, based upon fact and conjecture, can the 
mound builders of the western continent be accounted for: i. e. , that 
at a period when the western and eastern continents were separated 
only by islands, the Morgolian race crossed over in large numbers by 
way of the islands of Antilla, Seven Cities, Holy Bishop, etc., (found 
on the earliest maps of the world) or by way of Kamschatka, and, 
landing on this continent, formed a juncture with the hordes of Mexico 
known to have migrated and eventually conquered the inhabitants, or 
what is more probable, forming with them a joint occupation. On no 
other hypothesis can the mound builders of America be accounted for. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 7 

Many attempts have been made to determine the antiquity of 
man by reference to the Hebrew Scriptures, the monumental in- 
scriptions of Egypt, and the literature of Eastern nations. Jewish 
and Christian writers have endeavored to settle this question from the 
Pentateuch, but 'he continuity of the chronological record embodied 
m the Pentateuch is by no means certain; and the Masoretic Hebrew 
test, the LXX version, and the Samaritan Pentateuch greatly differ 
in respect to their chronology, as may be seen from a table in Poole's 
"Genesis of the Earth and Man," p. 90, which is reproduced in the 
Bible dictionaries of Dr. Smith and of McClintock and Strong under 
the article "Chronology." The tendency of the early church was to 
conform its chronological system to the indications afforded by the 
LXX. Archbishop Usher, " Chronologia Sacra," (1660), following 
the Hebrew text, fixed upon 4004 b. c. as the date of the creation of 
Adam. William Hales, ."'New Analysis of Chronology" (1809-14), 
taking the LXX. as his guide, assigned the creation of Adam to 5411 
B. c, indicating a reaction in the Christian church in the direction of 
a longer chronology. At this period it should be recollected that the 
question of the antiquity of man was not sharply discriminated from 
that of the earth. The drift of Christian opinion with reference to 
this subject is further illustrated in the preface to the "Oxford 
Chronological Tables" (1835), which says: "The Scriptures were 
written for nobler and more exalted purposes than the mere transmis- 
sion of dates or the gratification of antiquarian curiosity." 

The Tower of BaDel, the greatest work of man, is a thing of the 
past. The pyramids of Egypt are practically buried under mountains 
of drift. The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the wonders of the world, 
exists only in the fragments of its foundations. Assyria is but 
awakening to her once greatness. Pompeii, the once metropolis of 
the East, with its arts and sciences, was lost for ages, while Jeru- 
salem, the "Biblical City," is known but by the teachings of Christ 
and a modern railway of Yankee invention. 

The world lives in the rocks. Man in his architectural ruins. 
Who will say what rich stores of knowledge do not await the antiqua- 
rian and archaeologist under the sands of Florida in buried arts and 
ruined cities. 



DISCOVERIES OF AMERICA. 



CHINESE DISCOVERY. 

THE oldest claim to the discovery of America is found in the 
Chinese Year Book, in which are recorded events of import- 
ance occurring in the empire, in which is related the discov- 
ery of the western continent in the year 499 A. D., by a Buddhist 
priest, Hoei Shin. 

The country which the priest called Fusang, was governed by a 
king who clothed himself in accordance with some astromical theory 
as the color of his garments was changed every two years for a cycle 
of ten years, when the same order was begun again. The title of the 
king is Ichi, who was surrounded by a nobility divided into three 
ranks. 

A thousand miles east of Fusang, the monk said, the people 
were white, were covered with hair and all were women, who when 
they desired to become mothers had only to bathe in a certain river; 
their children were nourished, not from the breast, but from a tuft of 
hair upon the shoulder, etc. 

Not the least remarkable of the narrative is that the people were 
all Buddhist, five beggar monks having discovered the country 
twenty-nine years earlier and introduced the religion of Buddha. 

While there is no absolute impossibility in this story it is too 
improbable to be accepted as an authentic discovery of the western 
continent. There is nothing incredible, however, in the supposition 
that the Chinese may have crossed the Pacific long before Europeans 
crossed the Atlantic, for they were early navigators and knew in the 
second century of our era the use of the mariner's compass. The 
only corroboration of this discovery is the finding of wrecked Chinese 
junks (which have changed but little since they were first known to 
Europeans) on the west coast of America at the time of the first 
Spanish voyage in the Pacific. 

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY ST. BRANDIN. 

Standing on the hills of Munster and looking westward over the 
Atlantic ocean, fourteen centuries ago, St. Patrick said: "A man 
will arise, go out upon the sea and find a land which should be the 
paradise of the world." This declaration is not questioned, but at- 
tracted little attention from later day historians, owing to the fact that 
the story of St. Brandin's discovery of the western continent was lost 
sight of except in song and story. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 9 

The several manuscripts lately discovered in Europe, fourteen in 
all, begin with the prediction of St. Patrick as told to St. Brandin 
nearly 200 years later by Father Barindus, and the calling together of 
the chosen men of the community over which St. Brandin presided, 
to whom he said, "I ask your counsel and aid to find this promised 
land, should it be God's will," to which they replied : "Abbot, your 
will is ours, we are ready." A ship was built, having one mast in the 
centre; provisions and tools are put on board and the monks are on a 
voyage of discovery, of which they had no knowledge beyond the 
prediction of St. Patrick, two centuries before. The account of the 
voyage briefly translated is as follows: 

"They went aboard, and having unfurled the sails they set out 
toward the summer solstice. They had a prosperous voyage westward, 
their only needful labors as they went along being to keep the ship 
braced up, and after fifteen days the wind ceased and the brethren 
rowed until their strength gave out. St. Brandin comforted and adrnon- 
ished them. 'Fear not, brethren,' said he, 'for God is in this a helper 
seaman and captain; take in sU your oars and give out the sails. Let 
God do with his servants and with his ship as He pleases.' 

"After forty days had passed they approached a land exceedingly 
rocky and high. Streamlets descended from the summit of the island 
and flowed into the sea, but they could find no resting place. They 
were troubled with hunger and thirst. Cruising about this land for 
three days they found an inlet capable for the passage of their ship." 
The reports of what they saw are marvelous. 

Throughout Europe, during the middle ages, St. Brandin's n vi 
gation was a popular theme. It has inspired the poet not less than 
the scribe, and manuscript narratives of the daring exploration are 
extant in German, Italian, Portuguese and other European tongues. 

Most writers on Columbus witness the guiding force and value of 
the traditional voyage of St. Brandin. 

The early Portugese had explicit faith in the existence of the El 
Dorado, and kept looking for it. The strong evidence of this is when 
the Crown of Portugal ceded to the Castilians rights and dominion 
over the Canary Islands the treaty included St. Brandin's land. The 
conditional cession of St. Brandin's Iq^d by the King of Portugal to 
a brother sovereign occurred before the transfer to Spain. 

The entire history of Norwegian exploration in the eleventh cen- 
tury pre-supposes the Brandinian voyages ages in advance of it. The 
Norseman, on reaching Iceland and (jreenland, found relics, utensils 
and sundry vestiges of early Irish settlers in that region. In pushing 
farther westward they followed the beaten track of the Irish explorers. 
It is similar with the Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth cent- 
uries. Prince Henry, the navigator, fitted out an expedition to sail 
in pursuit of the Island of St. Brandin. The Irish Abbot traveled in 
Wales and Britain, where he founded missions for people converted 
by himself to the Christian faith. He built in Britain the monastery 
of Ailech, and a church in a place called Heth. The former place is 



lo Glimpses of Florida : 

the electum of the Romans of the olden time and the St. Malo of our 
own day — the port of departure and return i,ooo years later of 
Jacques Cartier, the founder of Montreal. 

In view of St. Patrick's prophecy, fulfilled by St. Brandin's voy- 
age, it is a fact pregnant with significance that the Atlantic cable was 
laid in sight of Mount Brandin, which stands out prominently on the 
southwestern coast of Ireland at an elevation of more than 3,000 feet. 
It strikes the view of all who pass Ireland en route for Liverpool. 

During seven years St. Brandin navigated the Atlantic ocean 
in his first voyage, and is, next to St Peter, associated most closely in 
religious thought with men of seafaring life. The Irish Abbot is pre- 
eminently the mariner saint of the calendar, wherein his memory is 
honored on May 16. 



THE NORTHMEN IN AMERICA. 

Among those who followed Eric to Greenland in 985 was Her- 
julf, whose son Bjarni, returning from a trading voyage, without wait- 
ing to unload his vessel, followed his father. Thick fogs beset them, 
and for many days they were driven by a north wind they knew not 
whither. . When the weather cleared again they made sail and after 
another day and night were gladdened by the sight of land, which 
was not Greenland; so turned seaward, and after two days and nights 
again discovered land, low and wooded; this was not Greenland 
either. For three days and nights they continued on their way as be- 
fore with a southwest wind, and for the third time made land, which 
was high with snowy mountains, but did not land. Three days later 
they once more sighted land which proved to be Cape Herjulfness, 
where Bjarni landed and made his home. 

In the year 1000 Leif son of Eric, ambitious to find new won- 
ders in the country so much talked of, went to Herjulfness, bought 
his ship from Bjarni, and manning her with a crew of thirty-five men, 
put to sea. Leif reversed the order of Bjarni's voyage and sought 
for the land Bjarni saw last— New Foundland. .\gain thev put to sea 
and sought the next land Bjarni, had seen— Nova Scotia. They set 
sail again with a northeast wind and in two days made land as Bjarni 
had done, sailing in an opposite direction with a southwest wind — the 
land before them being that which Bjarni had first seen when driven 
on the coast of New England, the bay in which they found shelter be- 
ing either Mount Hope or Narragansett Bay, where they built a house 
and passed the winter, returning home in the spring, their vessel 
loaded with timber and grapes. 

Two years later Thorvard, a brother of Lief, being anxious to 
visit the new land, was presented by Lief with his ship and with a 
crew of thirty men, sailed for the new country. The buildings which 
his brother erected were found intact, and he went into winter quar- 
ters. The summer they spent in exploring the coast along the shores 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. ii 

of Rhode Island, Connecticut and Long Island, penetrating as far as 
New York. 

The next spring {1004) Thorvard started on a cruise to Cape Cod, 
where for the first time he beheld the natives, eight of whom they 
killed, the ninth making his escape. This cruel deed done, they lay 
down to sleep; soon was heard the war cry of the natives. When 
the battle was over and the natives had retired it was discovered that 
Thorvord was mortally wounded by an arrow. He was buried with 
crosses at his head and feet, and the crew sailed away with the sad 
tidings of the death of their commander. 

There was still another son of Eric, Thorstein of Eric'"ord. He 
had married Gurdrid, the widow of the captain of a shipwrecked 
crew whom Leif had rescued. Thorstein, taking with him his wife 
(the first woman to land within the present limits of the United 
States), sailed in the spring of 1005 for the purpose of bringing home 
the body of his brother; but after cruising about the New England 
coast for months without finding the place of his burial, Thorstein re- 
turned to his native land and died soon after. 

The next and most important expedition of all those to " Vine- 
land,'" next to Leif's first voyage, was made bv Thorfind, a merchant 
of Iceland, (1006) accompanied by Karlsefne, Greenland, who, be- 
fore leaving, married Gurdrid, wife of Thorstein. With Karlsefne 
from Greenland came three merchants, Snorric Thorbraudson in the 
ship Karleslne, and Bjarni Grirn Oppson and Thorhall Gramason in 
a ship of their own. 

The adventurers sailed in the spring of 1007, Gurdrid and Frey- 
dis (a natural daughter of Eric the Red) accompanied their husbands, 
many other women being of the expedition. Nantuckett or Martha's 
Vineyard was the first permanent stopping place and on the shores of 
Buzzard's Bay they spent the first winter. 

Natives now appeared in great numbers, but with signs of peace. 
They landed from their canoes and gazed in wender at the strangers. 
They were described as dark and ill-favored (or fierce); they had 
coarse hair, large eyes and broad cheeks ( St. Brandin describes the 
natives he found on his voyage to America in the seventh century 
also as dark) ; but soon disappeared and did not return until spring, 
when they came in great numbers. But they came in amity, the time 
being spent in traffiicking. Unlortunately a trifling circum- 
stance, the bellowing of a bull, gave offense to the Indians (railed 
Skraellegs by the Northmen) and war followed, the Vikings beating 
an inglorious retreat before an image of a bull stuck on the end of a 
pole. Freydis, the wife of Thorvard, was not of the panic-stricken, 
and vainly exhorting her countrymen not to fear, seized a sword, 
rushed frantically upon the assailants and put them to flight, the 
natives evidently believing the woman a priestess who would bring 
upon them destruction. 

This was the end of Karlsefne's attempt at colonization, and in 
loio the expedition returned, carrying with them two boys who said 



12 Glimpses of Florida : 

there lived in another pirt oT the country a people who " wore 
clothes, shouted loud and carried poles with flags." This was sup- 
posed to be " White Man's Land," a colony of Irish. (Bryant's His- 
tory of America, page 53 ) 

Other voyages were made, but there is no knowledge of perma- 
nent settlement by the Northmen on the Western continent. 

DISCOVERY OF AMERICA BY THE WELSH. 

The story of the discovery of America by Prince Madoc, was 
first related in Carradoe's history of Wales, published in 1584. 
Carradoe's history, however, came down only to 1157. Humphrey 
Lloyd, who translated it, added the story of Madoc. Lloyd re- 
ceived the story from Gutton Owen, a baird, who about the year 
1480, claimed to have found it in the registers of current events kept 
in the Abby of Cornay, North Wales, and Strat Hur. 

The story in brief is: On the death ot Owen Gwyned, prince 
of North Wales, a strife arose among his sons as to who should suc- 
ceed him, in which Madoc took no part, and leaving his country 
about J 1 70, put to sea in search of adventures. He sailed westvvard 
and came to a country where the natives differed from any people he 
had seen before. Here he lett some of his people and returned to 
Wales, where his story of the region he had found created intense in- 
terest. The advantages he offered were so obvious, or his eloquence 
so persuasive, that enough went with him to fill ten ships. There is 
no account of their returning, and it is claimed they made a perma- 
nent settlement. There is some subsequent testimony in corrobora- 
tion of thi'; st^ory, among which are the claims made by Dr. Thos. 
Lloyd, Rev. Mr. Jones, Mr. Chas. Beatiy, Mr. Benj. Sutton, Capt. 
Isaac Steward and Mr. Williams; that between 1660 and 1767, tribes 
of Welsh were visited by them in Virginia, South Carolina, in the 
Missouri and Red river, who spoke the Welsh tongue and preserved 
their national customs. Caltan believes these tiibes a cross between 
the Welsh and the Indians. "The boat they use," says Caltan, "was 
more like the coracle of the Welsh than the canoe of the Indians;" 
and in the color of their hair and eyes, they seem more allied to the 
white than to the red race. 

Should the original source of the narrative or other manuscript 
be discovered touching this subject, light may be thrown on Madoc's 
discovery. Unfortunately no reference is made to this discovery by 
contemporaneous writers, in the absence cf which, and the fact that 
no trace of the Welsh can be found on the continent, the story of 
Madoc is looked upon as little more than a tradition, scarcely 
worthy of serious investigation. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 13 



VENETIAN DISCOVERY. 

In 1558 Francesco Marceloni of Venice published a volume of 
letters, arranged and edited by Nicolo Zeno, purporting to be those 
of his ancestors, Nicolo and Antonia Zeno, written between the years 
1380 and 1404. These letters and a map of the voyage had remained 
in the archives of the family unnoticed and unknown till coming into 
the hands of this Nicolo. 

Starting from Frisland (which never existed), they steered west 
ten days, then four days northeast, and discovered land which was 
claimed to be a new continent — America. What part of the Ameri- 
can coast this was it is not safe to conjecture, for, giving a starting 
point, Frisland, a voyage of ten days to the fabulous island Iceria, 
thence still northeast five days more, the imagination need submit to 
n© trammels of latitude or longitude. From the harbor an active 
volcano was visible, from out ot which poured a substance like pitch 
that ran into the sea. The country was densely populated by a people 
of small stature, timid, half wild, living in caves, etc. 

The defenders of this irreconcilable story do not venture to deny 
that much of it is fable. It is difficult to believe that any actual nav- 
igator should find so many islands as described in the book and map 
that have no existence in the places where put and quite as hard to 
believe; they have all sunk into the sea if they ever existed. The 
Zeno story is utterly irreconcilable with the facts of history. 

CHRISTOPHER COLUMBCTS DISCOVERS AMERICA. 

Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa, in the year 1436, and 
from early boyhood followed the life of a rover; finally, abandoning 
the sea at the age of thirty, and marrying the daughter of a renowned 
navigator, through whom he obtained the charts and journals from 
which he derived the idea of a round earth and a western route to In- 
dia, to which he henceforth consecrated his life, inspired by the belief 
that he was destined by God to teach the truths of the gospel in dis- 
tant and benighted countries. 

With a patience undaunted by disappointments, a perseverance 
unconquerable, Columbus appealed to eyes that wanted light, to ears 
that would not hear. It was one thing, they said, to cruise along the 
coast, another to steer out boldly across a wilderness of waters. Only 
the learned could understand that the world was a globe ; only the 
enlightened could believe that to penetrate the unknown was to find 
new wonders. 

Wearied at last with negotiations ending in failure, Columbus 
was about to visit France, with the hope of procuring the assistance 
of Louis XI, when he was called to the court of Spain, through the 
influence of Louis de Santangel, receiver of the ecclesiastical reve- 



14 Glimpses of Florida : 

nues, who provided the cost of the expedition, 1,282,500 maravidis, 
equal to $3,847.50. 

In April, 1492, an agreement was made by Ferdinand, Isabella 
and Columbus, by which Columbus was made Admiral and Viceroy 
of the seas and lands he might discover, and on the 3d of August, 
1492, he sailed from Palos in command of 12c men, in three vessels, 
the largest, the Santa Maria, being of 100 tons burden. Seven months 
later he returned, surrounded by the barbaric pomp of savages, 
decked out with ornaments of gold and crowned with coronets of 
beautiful feathers, but with no thought of the great continent he had dis- 
covered, but of the Cathay of fable, of which he had dreamed a quar- 
ter of a century, and which was full of splendo'r and opulence. This 
was a delusion from which he never recovered, for not until after his 
death was it known that he had found a new world. 

Columbus' purpose was to find a country lying south of the lands 
he had previously discovered, and on the 31st of July, when about to 
abandon his southerly course in despair, and turn westward for the 
Caribee Islands, one of the sailors saw from the masthead a range of 
three mountains. To this he gave the name of Trinidad,' which it 
still bears. 

Running along the coast, he saw, as he supposed, another 
island, but which was the delta of t. e great Oronoco. Entering the 
GuK of Paria, he sailed for days with Trinidad on one side and the 
coast of the continent on the other, delighted with the beauty and 
verdure of the country and with the blandness of the climate, and as- 
tonished at the freshness of the water, which, with "an awful warning," 
met and struggled with the sea. The innermost part of the Gulf to 
which he penetrated he called the "Gulf of Pearls," the waters of 
which he believed came from the earthly paradise. 

That Columbus had no thought of finding a continent, or that 
he was not the first discoverer of America, detracts in no measure 
from his discovery, for to him we are indebted for a nation of edu- 
cated, progressive people. A world's asylum, where, before his com- 
ing, there roamed only the naked savage, without the capacity of 
civilization, thought of the past or care of the future. A hemisphere 
resurrected from the dead past, which, in the short space of four 
centuries, has reached the highest pinnacle of fame among the nations 
of the earth. 

The subsequent career of Columbus is a stjjking illustration of 
the instability of human greatness, for we see liim sitting on the 
throne of Spain, the honored guest of Ferdinand and Isabella, and 
almost in a breath of time loaded with chains, honored to-day, spat 
upon to-morrow, because he had not discovered the lakes of gold and 
rivers of pearls as fondly anticipated. 

Leaving a colony at Hispaniola, which name he gave the new coun- 
try, of whom he said of that colony, that "there were few men who 
were not vagabonds, and none who had either wife or child," Colum- 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 15 

bus returned to Spain to relate in person to his so\ereign the marvel- 
ous things he had discovered. 

During his absence rebellion and anarchy in Hispaniola had 
reached a point beyond control, and when he appealed to his sov- 
ereign for a judge to decide between him and the colony, the court 
sent, not a judge,- but an executioner. His enemies had so far pre- 
vailed against him that Babadillo, who came professedly to examine 
into the troubles, usurped the government of the colony, put Columbus 
in chains and sent him to Spain, a common felon. 

Columbus describes a "long stretch of low land, with tropical 
foliage." This was undoubtedly Florida. 

Columbus made four voyages to America, and died May 20, 
1506, leaving a name and fame imperishable as the continent he found. 

JUAN PONCE DE LEON. 
First Spanish Discovery and Explorations. 

Juan Ponce de Leon, enriched by the subjugation of Porto Rico, 
resolved, when deprived of the governorship, to increase his fame by 
a new enterprise, and learning of a land to the northward, rich in 
gold, precious stones and fountains of eternal youth, determined to 
find this marvel of the New World; so started from Porto Rico with 
three vessels, March, 15 12, and on the 27th landed at a point on the 
Florida coast at or near the present city of St. Augustine, and took 
possession of the country in the name of Spain. He was subsequently 
made Adelantado, on condition that he would colonize it. 

In 1 52 1, this first governor of territory within the limits of the 
present United States, returned to the province assigned him, and in' 
a fight with the Indians, who apposed his landing, received an arrow 
wound, from which he subsequently died. 

In 1 516 Diego Miruello made a voyage to Florida, and the fol- 
lowing year, 15 17, Hernandez de Cordova touched the coast on his 
return from Yucatan. 

In 1 5 18 Francis Garay, governor of Jamaica, landed somewhere 
on the coast of Florida, but being attacked by the natives, and losing 
most of his men, retired. He returned the next spring and made the 
entire circuit of the Gulf coast of the United States. Florida, he 
found, was not an island as De Leon supposed, and from his ships 
saw many villages. This exploration occupied eighteen months, the 
chart of the voyage showing that the country "bendeth like a bow" — 
a line stretching from Yucatan to the point at which De Leon first 
touched making the string. 

In 1528 a formidable but disastrous attempt to take possession 
of the country was made by Pamphilo de Narvaez, who sailed from 
Spain in 1527 under a commission from the emperor Charles V, with 
five ships, 400 men and 80 horses. He landed at Tampa Bay two days 
before Easter, 1528, and proceeded at once to explore the country. 



1 6 Glimpses of Florida : 

They started May i, and on June 25th a village of forty houses 
was reached from which the Indians had fled. This was Appalachien 
(Tallahassee). The woods abounded with game, the fields with maize, 
and gold they believed was plentiful. But hardly had they left off their 
heavy armor before the Indians attacked them and burned their wig- 
wams. 

But little gold or maize was found, and the natives, though not 
numerous, were savage, and harassed the Spaniards so that no one 
dare venture from the camp. Thus beset with hunger, disease and 
danger, all their hopes of sudden wealth destroyed, they resolved to 
make their way to the sea, which they reached in fifteen days. 

Four survivors of this ill fated expedition slowly and painfully 
made their way across the present State of Texas through the Mexican 
province of Senora, reaching at last the coast of California, where 
they were succored by their countrymen, who had already invaded 
that country in search of emeralds, gold and slaves, and finally 
returned to Spain, heroes of an adventure as remarkable and as roman- 
tic as any recorded in the Spanish annals in North America ; the 
remainder of the expedition were drowned, killed by the natives or 
died of disease and hunger. 

The disastrous results of every expedition to Florida thus far had 
not shaken the belief among the adventurous Spaniards of the value 
of the country, and DeSoto, who had acquired wealth and fame in 
Peru, asked permission to take possession of Florida as its Adelantado. 
News of his intentions were received with enthusiasm, and gentlemen 
of birth and distinction flocked to his standard, some coming even 
from Portugal. So strong was the desire to go that men parted with 
their estates to purchase an interest in the expedition, excitement 
being increased by Cabeca de Vaca also making application to be 
appointed Adelantado. DeSoto went prepared for conquest as well 
as colonization, his force being about 700 men. The fleet consisted of 
nine vessels, and besides their human freight, carried between two 
and three hundred horses, a large herd of swine and a large number 
of blood hounds. The expedition sailed from Havana May 18, 1539, 
and landed at Tampa Bay on the 30th. The first winter was spent 
in the vicinity of Appalachien Bay, and in the spring the expedition 
pushed northward. In April, being 300 miles from Tampa Bay, their 
advance being to the natives as a march of a pestilence. The invaders 
marched northwest via the Appalachien chain, and in October reached 
Mayville — now Mobile — in the vicinity of which a battle took place, 
in which 2,500 Indians were killed or tortured to death; of the Span- 
iards only 18 being killed and 150 wounded by arrows. 

After a month's stay at Mayville, DeSoto moved into the interior, 
finally reaching the Yazoo river, where he went into winter quarters, 
wintering the following year at the present site of Little Rock, Ark. 
DeSoto died May 21, 1542, and was buried in the Mississippi river. 
The remnant of the expedition, haggard, gaunt and half naked, finally 
reaching the Spanish colony Panuco, on the Gulf coast. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 17 

Twerty years after the imposing departure of DeSoto from San 
Lucar, a fleet still larger and of greater magnificence left Vera Cruz, 
Mexico, under Don Iristan de Luna, for the conquest and settlement 
of Florida. De Luna sailed August 14, 1559, with an army of 1,500 
besides many friars, for the conversion of the Indians, and a number 
of women and children, but the accustomed ill fortune followed 
them, the fleet being wrecked in Pensacola Bay. De Luna was re- 
called two years later, returning with but a fragment of his grand 
army of occupation. 

FRENCH DISCOVERY OF EXPLORATIONS. 

In 1522. a single ship of the Magellan expedition, returning 
from Portugal, having circumnavigated the globe and solved the 
problem that by sailing westward the east could be reached, a new 
impulse was given the desire for a new passage to India. Fran- 
cis I, of France, aroused to the great event of his time, in 1523 pro- 
posed to compete with other powers for a share of the New World, and 
to find for France a shorter route to Cathay. With this end in view 
an expedition put to sea from Brittany in the autumn of 1523, con- 
sisting of four vessels, three of which were lost or disabled, leaving 
only a single ship, the Dauphine, commanded by Giovanni da Ver- 
razano, a native of France, and in January, 1524, after 49 days sail- 
ing, reached a new country, in the latitude of Cape Fear. 

Sailing leisurely along the coast they finally reached a country of 
broad palms, forests of various foliage and color, festooned with 
vines, a verdant land, fragrant with wild roses, violets and lillies, 
watered by many lakes and streams, beasts of the chase, birds of gay 
plumage, and song birds innumerable, the balmy air of summer 
blowing gently on the long stretch of coast with neither rocks or hid- 
den dangers to vex the mariner, the natives being humane and hos- 
pitable. 

A few years later, France sent out another expedition, the enter- 
prise being entrusted to Jacques Cartier, which sailed from the port 
of St. Malo in April, 1534, touched the coast of Newfoundland, 
crossed the gulf and entered a bay, which, because of its heat, he 
C-lled the Bay of Chaleur. The natives wore no clothes, subsisted on 
fish and flesh, and lived under their upturned canoes. The country 
was inviting, and he took possession of it in the name of the King of 
France. 

Cartier remained but a short time, returning to St. Malo in Sep- 
tember after an absence of a little more than four months. 

Meanwhile the Reformation took deeper root in France, many 
were anxious to escape. Coligny proposed colonization in the New 
World, and in February, 1562, sent out from Havre, in the name of 
the King, two ships in command of Capt. John Ribault, to "discover 
and view a certain long coast of the West India, called La Florida." 

2W 



t8 Glimpses of Florida: 

Ribault had under his command, besides the seaman, a band of sol- 
diers and a number of gentlemen. 

The voyage was tempestuous and long, but on the 30th of April 
they struck "a fare coast, stretching of a great length, covered with 
an infinite number of fayre trees, without any hills," in the latitude of 
291^ degrees, casting anchor at Matanzas Inlet, entering the St. 
John's river the following day, which is described as "boiling and 
roaring through the multitude of all kinds of fish." It was a safe and 
pleasant harbor; the Indians, running along the lands, welcomed 
them, and "showed by their gestures they were all gentleness and 
amitie." Some looking-glasses and " other pretty things were ex- 
changed for skins and girdles, as well cured and colored as was pos- 
sible. The chief King made an oration, eloquent but unintelligible, 
and the French gave thanks to God. The river they called from the 
day on which they entered it, the river of May, now known as the 
St. Johns. 

There was no bounds to the enthusiastic delight with which the 
impressible French enteied upon their new possessions, and, m token 
of its being theirs, set up a stone column, engraved with the arms of 
France, on the south bank of the river ; the natives looking at it with 
mute surprise, evidently regarding it as one of the strange puzzles of 
their visitors. They had yet to learn that, as heathens, they were 
the rightful spoils of all good Christians. The strangers chose to 
take the country for their own, for to them it seemed ' ' fairest, fruit- 
fulest and pleasantest of all the world." 

From the St. Johns — river of May — they sailed northward along 
the coast, everywhere greeted by the natives with welcome. Every- 
where they found the country full of harbors, rivers and islands, says 
Capt. Ribault, " of such fruitfulness as cannot, with tongue be ex- 
pressed." On the 27th of May they entered Port Royal. Here a 
navy might ride in safety, and it was decided to plant a colony, and 
a fort (Fort Charles) was' constructed. This done, Ribault set sail 
for France with his two vessels June itth, leaving with the colonists 
a store of provisions, ammunition and his blessing. 

In 1564, Coligny, having represented to the King that no news 
had been heard from the colony in Florida, a new expedition of three 
ships, under Capt. Rene de Laudonniere, sailed in April and in June 
arrived in the river May— St. Johns. The Frenchmen being greeted 
with shouts of welcome by a crowd of natives, men and women ; 
their Chief leading the Ffenchmen to the pillar which Ribault had 
set up, which the natives regarded with great reverence. 

The next day the chief received the captain and his suite in 
state, "under the shadow of an arbor, apparalled with a great hart's 
skin, dressed like chamois, and painted with devices of strange and 
divers colors, but of so lively a portraiture, and representing an- 
tiquity, with rules so justly compassed, that there is no painter so ex- 
quisite that could find fault therewith." 

Laudonniere, after sailing a few leagues along the coast, re- 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 19 

turned to the river of May without going to Port Royal, having 
heard, no doubt, either from the Indians or before leaving France, 
of the abandonment of Charles Fort. He determined to settle on the 
May rather, than at Port Royal, as it "was much more needful to 
plant in places plentiful of victuals, than in goodly havens, fair, deep, 
and pleasant to view." The spot chosen was just above what is now 
known as St. Johns Bluff, on the bend of the river. At break of 
day the trumpet sounded to assemble the people; a psalm of thanks- 
giving was sung, the blessing of God was asked upon their enter- 
prise, and then all fell to work with shovels, cutting-hooks and 
hatchets. 

The fort was in the shape of a triangle, fronting the river, with 
the bluff on one side, a marsh on the other, and the woods in the 
rear. 

It was finished in a few days with the aid of the Indians, and 
was named Fort Caroline, in honor of the king, Charles XI of 
France. 

FRENCH, ENGLISH AND SPANISH IN FLORIDA. 

MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH. 

Discontent and insubordination, resulting from disappointment in 
extravagant expectations, prevailed in Fort Caroline. LaRouquette 
and Guere conspired to do away with Laudonniere by mixing arsenic 
with his food. Another plan was to explode a keg of gunpowder un- 
der his bed; before either proposition could be carried out, the plot 
was discovered and the conspirators punished and sent back to 
France. But the spirit of discontent still remained, and soon after 
two small vessels were stolen by the malcontents, who made for the 
West India Islands on a piratical cruise. Two other vessels were 
speedily constructed, but when ready for sea were seized; this time 
the mutineers being strong enough to imprison Laudonniere and com- 
pel him to sign a roving commission authorizing them to make a 
cruise among the Spanish colonies, where by robbing churches and 
sezing treasure ships, they hoped to enrich themselves. But they 
soon quarreled over the booty, and three of the vessels finally fell 
into the hands of the Spaniards, the fourth in time returning to 
Fort Caroline, where Laudonniere seized the ringleaders and punished 
them with death. 

On August 3, 1565, the French were gladdened by the sight of 
an English fleet commanded by Sir. John Hawkins, returning from 
a successful voyage to the coast of Guinea, where he had learned 
three years before that "stores of negroes might be had," and they 
were "very good merchandise in Hispaniola." Hawkins took pity 
on the French colony and relieved their wants. One of the English 
vessels was purchased and provisioned for a voyage to France, but 
on the 28th another fleet hove in sight — seven ships in all — which 



20 Glimpses of Florida : 

proved to be the long expected aid from France, under command of 
Ribault himself, empowered to supersede Laudonnierre, who was 
ordered home to answer charges of unwarrantable assumption of 
power and cruelty. 

A week has passed when a third fleet appeared silently and sud- 
denly at the mouth of the river May. When hailed as to who they 
were and what they wanted, the answer was that they were from 
Spain, that Pedro Menendez was in command, and that they had 
come in obedience to the king to destroy such Lutherans as should 
be found in his dominions. An attack was to be made in the morn- 
ing. Three of Ribault's ships havina; gone up the river to Port Car- 
oline, and the other four being no match for tne Spaniards, no alter- 
native remained but to slip cables and put to sea. They outsailed 
ihe Spanish vessels, and when the chase was over, watched the 
Spaniards enter the river of Dolphins (Matanzas), a few miles south, 
and the landing of men, provisions, ordnance and ammunition. 

When the report was taken back to Fort Caroline that the 
Spaniards had left their ships, Ribault proposed to fall upon them 
with all his force before they had time to fortify. Laudonniere 
urged the great danger of sudden storms at that season, and the de- 
fenseless condition of Fort Caroline. Ribault sailed with all the 
larger vessels and nearly all his effective men, leavmg at Fort Caro- 
line but 240 persons, including the sick, the women and the chil- 
dren, but few of them able to bear arms. 

As Laudonnierr feared, Ribault's ships were scattered by a sud- 
den and violent tempest as they were about to attack the Spaniards. 
This was the opportunity of Menendez, who, learning from the In- 
dians the defenseless condition of Fort Caroline, started on the 
morning of the 17th with a force of 500 men, two Indian guides, and 
a French deserter, reaching the fort on the night of the second day, 
in a drenching rain. One man only is found at his post, who is 
speedily put to death. T^''^''^ ^^^ little fighting — only slaughter. 
Neither sex nor age were spared, according to the French account, 
though the Spaniards declare tnat quarter was given to the women 
and -to children under the age of fifteen. All were hanged a lew 
hours later. Over their heads Menendez put this inscription: "I 
do this not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans." The whole num- 
ber thus massacred in the name of religion was one hundred and 
forty-two. Those who escaped, including Laudonniere, made their 
way through the marshes to two little vessels Ribault had left behind 
him, and sailed for France without waiting for tidings of the expedi- 
tion to the river of Dolphins. 

Thus far Menendez was crowned with complete success; not a 
heretic Frenchman was left alive on the river May, and that not even 
the memory of them might remain the name of the river was changed 
to San Mateo, the nearest saint's day, that of St. Matthew, being on 
the 2 1 St day of September. 

Taking fifty soldiers with him, Menendez returned to his 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 2t 

encampment at mouth of the river of Dolphins, where the Adelantado 
and his followers knelt before and kissed the cross, giving thanks to 
God that He had enabled them to extirpate His enemies and theirs. 

The next anxiety of Menendez was to know what had become of 
Ribault and his ships; nor had he long to wait. Intelligence was 
brought by the Indians that the Frenchmen were wrecked at Anasta- 
sia Island, and proceeding thither with fifty followers he found about 
200 men, to whom he made himself known. Exhausted from want 
of food and rest and with no means of escape or subsistence, they 
appealed to his humanity to aid them in reaching a place of refuge 
at their fort — Caroline. Were they Catholics or Lutherans ? he 
asked. They replied that they were all of the reformed religion. 
Then he told them that their fort was destroyed and all of the men 
put to the sword. As to themselves, he said that being of the new 
faith he "held them as enemies." They begged for shelter until 
succor could come to them from France. His answer was: They 
must give up their arms and place themselves under his mercy. 
Then they offered fifty thousand ducats to spare their lives, but he 
was inexorable, and they, not knowing how small his force was, 
accepted the only alternative that seemed to be left them and surren- 
dered, giving up their arms and standards. 

An inlet divided the two parties, and the Spaniards ordered that 
the Frenchmen should be brought over in squads of ten. As each 
party arrived they were led behind a sandhill out of sight of their 
companions. When towards night all were gathered they were again 
asked if they were Catholics. A dozen who professed to be Catho- 
lics and four others, carpenters and caulkers, whose services were 
needed, were spared, the rest were inhumanly murdered. 

A cruel and inexorable fate seemed to pursue the wretched 
Frenchmen. The sands could scarcely have soaked up the blood of 
the men so treacherously murdered when Ribault himself with the 
rest of his followers arrived on the spot whence the others had been 
betrayed to their death. Menendez hurried back to the inlet. As 
before, he made such disposition of his men as to completely deceive 
the French as to his numbers, who, knowing nothing of what had 
transpired, asked for aid to enable them to reach Fort Caroline. The 
answer was that the fort had been taken and its people put to the 
sword; and to convince Ribault that he was completely at their mercy 
he was -led aside and shown the pile of his murdered countrymen, 
still unburied. A hundred thousand ducats were offered for their 
lives, and they had. or thought they had a pledge for safety. The 
Spanish narrative asserts that no such pledge was given, while the 
French declare Menendez bound himself to spare their lives; but at 
best the answer was equivocal and meant to betray. Of the three 
hundred Frenchmen one hundred and fifty, with Ribault at their 
head, surrendered. The rest refused and went southward. 

The stratagems of the previous day were again resorted to. All 
were led across the ridge bound as on the day before. The question 



2 2 Glimpses of Florida: 

was asked, were they Catholics or Lutherans? Ribault answered 
that all were of the reformed church. Two youths and the fifers, 
trumpeters and drummers were spared. The rest were put to the 
sword, "judging this," says Menendez in his letter to the king, "to be 
expedient for the services of God, our Lord, and of your majesty." 

There were nearly two hundred Frenchmen still in Florida. 
These were soon heard of at a point down the coast (Matanzas inlet), 
entrenched behind temporary works, and thither the Adelantado 
marched against them. Most of the men surrendered on promise of 
safety, but a score of them escaped to the woods, declaring they 
would rather be eaten by savages than trust themselves to any pledge 
of Spanish faith. 

Menendez, probably satiated with blood, did not think the immo- 
lation of the heretics who now surrendered necessary to the glory 
of God, nor was their number sufificient to excite any fear for the 
safety of his colony. These prisoners he held, therefore, to the 
order of the king instead of assassinating them the moment they were 
in his power. And the king wrote in reply: "As to those he (the 
Adalantado) has killed he has done well, and as to those he has saved 
they shall be sent to the galleys." 

The heretics being all, or nearly all, killed or prisoners, Menen- 
dez had time to look after his colony at the mouth of the river of 
Dolphins (the present Matanzas). He had landed at this spot on the 
the 8th of September, after his unsuccessful chase of the French 
ships from the river of May. Taking possession in the name of 
Spain, he began the construction of a fort aided by the Indians, who 
treated them with great kindness, the chief — Seloove — giving them a 
house for immediate shelter. This was the first permanent settlement 
of Europeans within the present boundaries ot the United States and 
was called St. Augastine, because on the festival day of that saint — 
the 28th day of August — the Spanish fieet had come in sight of the 
coast of Florida and run into the mouth of the river. 

Not a month had elapsed since the fleet of Ribault sailed into 
the river of May (St. Johns). Of the French fleet but two ships were 
now afloat — those carrying Laudonniere and his companions back to 
France. Of the people the few who were alive and not prisoners 
were fugitives in the woods of Florida. Eight hundred Frenchmen 
had perished, most of them stabbed to death with their hands tied* 
behind their backs, and the Spanish were for the time being ia undis- 
puted possession. But there was yet to come another act in the 
bloody baptism of the first permanent colony planted in the New 
World north of the Gulf of Mexico. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 



MASSACRE OF THE SPANIARDS. 

The news of the atrocities committed by Menendez was long in 
reaching Europe. The horror and indignation which these tales ex- 
cited were not confined to the friends and families of those who had 
fallen victims to treachery and cruelty, or to those who shared their 
sorrows from religious sympathy. But the king of France took no 
steps to assert the honor of the crown or the rights of the people, 
either by punishing the perpetrators of so horrible an outrage or by 
demanding that Spain bring them to justice. If vengeance or honor 
demanded retaliation it was left to whomsoever might take it upon 
himself to inflict it. 

DOMINIQUE D'GOURGUES APPEARS IN RIVER OF MAY. 

Nearly three years passed away, and the Spaniards in Florida 
-had in all probability dismissed all fear of retribution for their treach- 
ery and cruelty. In the spring of 1568 three small vessels appeared 
off the mouth of the river of May — its name changed to San Mateo — 
and the garrisons ot two forts, built there after the capture of Fort 
Caroline, saluted the strangers as they passed, supposing them to be 
Spanish. The salute was returned, gun for gun, but the ships were 
not Spanish but under the command of Dominique de Gourgues, a 
French captain of the highest reputation, who came to avenge the 
wrongs of his countrymen. 

DeGourgues, returning from foreign service and hearing of the 
wrongs of his countrymen in Florida, and that the deed had gone 
unpunished nearly three years, enraged that Frenchmen should have 
been so shamefully betrayed to death and that no hand had been 
raised to smite their murderers, contrary to the rules of honorable 
warfare, without making his purpose public, sold out his estates and 
borrowing large sums ot money trom friends fitted out an expedition, 
ostensibly for the coast of Africa. 

In August, 1567, he went to the coast and thence to the West 
Indies. His cruise extended through the winter, the expenses largely 
defrayed by traffic in negroes seized in fights which he is known to 
have had with African princes near Cape Blanco. The spring found 
him in harbor off the island of Cuba, when for the first time he dis- 
closed to his crew the real object of the expedition. Calling them 
together, he repeated the story of the slaughter at the "bloody river 
of Matanzas " and asked them to avenge the monstrous cruelty. Open 
ears and quick sympathies received his speech; it was even easier to 
arouse their indignation than to restrain their impetuosity. They 
were hardly willing to wait for fair weather to put to sea. Wherever 
he would lead they would follow. Every man felt that the honor of 
his country was in his keeping, and vengeance for his murdered 
•countrymen was a sacred duty. 



24 Glimpses of Florida : 

DeGourgues stood out to sea, after passing the forts at the mouth 
of the River of May, that he might the better conceal his destination 
from the Spaniards; returning again to the coast when a few leagues 
northward, he entered the mouth of a small river, probably the 
present St. Marys. The Indians, who also supposed the strangers to 
be Spanish, crowded to the shore prepared to oppose their landing, 
for Menendez and his companions had made themselves obnoxious 
to the natives. But when they discovered that the newcomers were 
French, their old friends, they received them with every possible sign 
of satisfaction and welcome, followed by the wildest delight when 
they learned that the expedition was a hostile one to the Spaniards. 

FRENCH ALLIANCE WITH THE INDIANS- 

Satouriona, who had been the friend of the French, according 
to the Indian fashion, was the chief who received DeGourgues. Be- 
tween them an alliance was entered into with the most binding 
Indian solemnities, a son of the chief and his wife being given as 
hostages for the safety of a reconnoitering party sent to examine the 
forts on the May. Satouriona called in all the warriors from the 
country round about. A rendezvous was appointed further down the 
coast, to which the Indians went by land, the French by water. 
Thence they pushed forward, wading through marshes and streams, 
their feet torn and bleeding by briars and shells, forcing their way 
through tangled forests, at their head DeGourgues and Olotocaro, a 
nephew of Satouriona. 

At dawn they were in front of the Spanish fort on the north 
bank of the May, and, as at Fort Caroline when Menendez sur- 
prised it at the same hour of the day, a single sentinel only was at 
his post. Shouting that the French were upon them, he coolly 
plied a gun he brought to bear upon the advancing enemy, till Oloto- 
caro, springing upon the platform, ran him through with a pike. The 
affrighted garrison rushed from their quarters in a vain attempt to 
escape, while French and Indians in hot fury and savage hate poured 
over the defenses. In a few moments, of the Spaniards only fifteen, 
who were seized and bound, were left alive. The attack was so sud- 
den, the onslaught so furious, that the destruction was more com- 
plete than when Menendez, nearly three years before, had fallen in 
the light of the early morning, amid the roar of the storm, the cries 
of men and shrieks of women and children, upon the feeble garrison 
of Fort Caroline. But the work of destruction was but just begun ; 
the completeness of French vengeance was to be made still more sig- 
nificant. The soldiers of the fort on the south bank of the river 
were at no loss to understand what was befalling their companions 
on the other side. The woods were full of Indians, the air was 
filled with their frightful yells of anger and defiance to the Spaniards 
and it was clear that something more than usual had given them 
confidence and courage ; it certainly could be no savage hand that 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 25 

trained the guns and captured the fort so promptly. The murderers 
of Ribault and his men did not need to be told that the whites they 
saw among the Indians were French. 

As speedily as possible DeGourgues embarked his men upon a 
vessel he had taken the precaution to have near at hand to cross the 
river, while the Indians, too impatient to await its return for them, 
plunged into the stream and swam over. The Spaniards, appalled 
and bewildered, made only a feeble attempt to defend their works 
and fled for their lives. The avenging French were behind them as 
they abandoned their fortifications ; in the forest the Indians fell 
upon them as they sought concealment like hunted beasts in the 
shadows of the underbrush and woods. In this and in the other fort 
there were sixty men; fifteen were seized to be held a little while as 
captives, and in this as in the other all the rest were killed. 

MASSACRE OF SAN MATEO. 

San Mateo, a new fort erected by the Spaniards on the St. Johns 
river, about 125 miles above Fort Caroline, was yet to be taken. The 
alarm at that post was intense, for it was only known that both the 
forts below were overcome and that not a man escaped. The com- 
mander sent out a soldier, disguised as an Indian, to learn the strength 
and designs of the invaders, but the quick eyes of Olotocora detected 
the cheat ; the spy was secured and the garrison remained in the be- 
lief that San Mateo was about to be surrounded by two thousand or 
more Frenchmen. DeGourgues rested two days and then apueared 
in the woods behind the fort. The garrison opened fire, which only 
sent the Frenchmen to the protection of the timber. Not knowing 
that DeGourgues' force was little more than a hundred men, the 
Spaniards supposed this to be only a detachment sent in advance and 
a sortie was made to disperse it. But the Spanish soldiers ventured 
too far. DeGourgues threw a body of men between them and the 
fort ; a deadly fire, close at hand, met them in the face, in front, in 
flank, in the rear, the Frenchmen fell upon them sword in hand ; not 
one was spared. 

From within the palisades the Spaniards watched and saw the 
slaughter of their comrades. They thought no longer of defense, but 
only of escape. Rushing in a mob to the opposite side of the fort, 
they threw themselves into the woods, mad with fear for their lives, 
but were met with the exultant war-whoop of hundreds of savages 
eager for revenge, who sprang upon them from their ambush, pierced 
them with arrows, brought them down with crushing blows from their 
tomahawks, tearing the bloody scalps from heads whose brains had 
not yet c«ased to throb. Some few possibly escaped by fighting their 
way through the storm of merciless slaughter ; some turned and fled 
back again, hoping for quarter. But few, if any, escaped from sud- 
den death. But the massacre of Fort Caroline was not yet atoned 
for. The flag of France once more floated over its ramparts; the 



2 6 Glimpses of Florida : 

bodies of nearly four hundred Spaniards lay unburied on the shores 
of the River of May; but there were prisoners still alive. DeGour- 
gues ordered ihem to be brought before him, in the presence of his 
own men and his Indian allies. He was there, he said, to avenge 
acts which were a heinous insult to France as they were atrocious 
crimes against humanity; although such deeds could not be punished 
as they deserved, the perpetrators should at least be made to suffer all 
the retaliation that could be inflicted by an honorable enemy. Near 
by were still standing the trees on which Menendez had hanged his 
prisoners, beneath the inscription : " I do this, not as to Frenchmen, 
but as to Lutherans." To the same trees the French captain ordered 
the prisoners led for execution, and over their heads were the words, 
"I do this not as to Spaniards, but as unto traitors, robbers and mur- 
derers." 

The whole force commanded by DeGourgues, including soldiers 
and sailors, was less than three hundred. It was not sufficient to 
justify an attack upon St. Augustine, nor even to await pursuit in for- 
midable numbers from that point, which would be sure to follow if 
he remained upon the coast. He had done all he could to satisfy the 
wounded honor of his country, to avenge the perfidy and cruelty 
which betrayed so many of his countrymen to death. But to give 
completeness to his work he demolished the three forts whose garri- 
sons he had exterminated ; this done, he took leave of his Indian 
allies with mutual protestations of good will, with interchanges of 
presents, with regrets on one side at the departure of cherished 
friends, on the other with assurances of a speedy return. "Iain 
willing now to live longer," said an aged squaw in the spirit of heathen 
philosophy, "for I have seen the Frenchmen return and the Spaniards 
killed." And that no doubt was, the feeling of her people. There 
was good will toward the French, but the Spaniards were both feared 
and hated. 

The intelligence of what DeGourgues had done reached Spain in 
time for the king to send a fleet to intercept him. It was not far be- 
hind him at Rochelle, where he first arrived, and followed him to 
other ports, but he evaded capture. 

The French king would not have regretted it had the Spaniards 
overtaken him; for much as his deeds in Florida were applauded, 
especially by the Huguenots, he was looked upon coldly at court and 
found it prudent, when the Catholic king oflered a reward for his 
head, to go into retirement, if not concealment. For several years 
he lived in obscurity and died when about to take up arms once more 
against his old enemies, as commander of the Portugese fleet in the 
service of Don Alphonso, then at war with Philip II. of Spain. 

It is not certain whether DeGourgues was a Catholic or a 
Huguenot. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 27 

MASSACRE OF THE JESUITS. 

DeIstruction of' St. Augustine — Building of Fort Marion. 

Menendez, freed from the hated French, did not confine his 
efforts to the colonization of St. Augustine, nor the converbion of the 
Indians, but believing that a passage to India was possible, sent a 
vessel carrying soldiers and priests (1566) to coast along the bays and 
tributary rivers in search of a passage. This expedition was unsuc- 
cessful, but Menendez was still hopeful, and four years later induced 
the General of the Order of Jesuits to establish an advance missionary 
station under Father John Baptist Segura, the head of the Jesuit Mis- 
sion of Florida. 

In September, 1570, the expedition landed on the banks of the 
Potomac, which the early Spanish settlers called Esperita Sancta, 
where the vessel left them, returning to St. Augustine. Traveling 
across the country, on lOOt, they reached the Rappahannock, and 
finally an Indian village, where they built a rude log cabin and chapel, 
which they named "La Madrp de Dios de lacau," (the chapel of the 
mother of God). During the ensuing winter the savages massacred 
the courageous missionaries — an Indian boy, "Alphonse," accom- 
panying the expedition, alone being saved. 

Menendez, during the following year, returned from Spain and 
learning of the massacre sailed up the Potomac, landed a small force 
and marched in pursuit of the Indians. He failed to overtake the 
leaders, but others were captured. The boy Alphonse related the par- 
ticulars of the massacre, pointing out eight of those among the pris- 
oners who were concerned in it. These the Adelantado hanged at 
the yard-arm of the vessel, first having them baptized. This done, 
he returned to St. Augustine, which for more than thirty years longer 
remained the sole European colony witliin the limits of the present 
United States. The unknown site, somewhere on the banks of the 
Rappahannock, of the chapel of Our Mother of God, marked the only 
important attempt of Spanish colonization north of Florida. 

In 1586 Sir Francis Drake, on his way home from an expedition 
to South America, cruising along the coast of Florida in search of an 
English colony supposed to be on the island of Roanoke, saw an out- 
look on Anastasia Island. Entering the river of Dolphins he found 
the Spanish settlement then under command of Pedro Menendez, a 
nephew of the founder. In the fort was a treasure chest containing 
^2,000 which Drake appropriated. The town was a cluster of 
wooden buildings, and these he burned. As he approached the fort, 
from which the Spanish had fled, "forthwith came a Frenchman, 
being a phifer, in a little boat, playin' on his phif ' The Prince of 
Orange.' " 

Of the companions of Ribault, whom Menendez had spared from 
the second massacre at Matanzas Inlet, because he had need of them, 



28 Glimpses of Florida : 

one was a fifer, and he it was, probably, who welcomed the English 
invader. 

The coming of the English was a surprise to the Spaniards, who, 
being unprepared for so lormidable a force, made no resistance. The 
destruction of St. Augustine was the act of a cruel foe, in keeping, 
with the times. 

Sir Francis Drake had no thought of conquest, and having pos- 
sessed himself of everything of value, set sail for Europe, leaving the 
Spaniards to ruminate on the uncertainty of human events, the diffi- 
cult problem of again resuscitating the little settlement on the coast of 
Florida, which had cost seventy four years of almost continuous strife, 
millions of treasure, countless thousands of dead, and the necessity of 
the construction of Fort Marion— the wonder of the 17th century. 

The fort and outer works cover about four acres of ground. 

The walls are about twelve feet thick at the base and gradually 
decrease as they go upward until they reach a thickness of about nine 
feet at the top. 

The material of which it is constructed is peculiar to St. Augus- 
tine and vicinity. It is a curious formation of the sea composed of 
shell, sand and lime, making what is known as coquina. It is splendid 
material for a fortification. It does not fracture a particle, and any 
damage done may be quickly and easily repaired. The Apachian 
Indians were placed under subjection by the Spaniards and compelled 
to labor on the castle for sixty years. It required the labor of hun- 
dreds of workmen for many years in procuring and cutting the stone 
from the quarries on Anastasia Island, transporting it to the river and 
across the bay. and fashioning and raising it to its place ; besides the 
Indians compelled to work on the structure some labor was constantly 
bestowed by the garrison. 

It required 100 guns for its complete armament and a garrison 
of 1,000 men.* 

The subsequent history' of St. Augustine, from a military stand- 
point, is not important. In 1763 Great Britain acquired Florida by 
treaty, and during their twenty years' occupation St. Augustine was 
the capital of east Florida, after which it again became the property 
of Spain by treaty and remained as such until its purchase by the 
United States in February, 182 1. 



*The king of Spain being observed looking intently across the ocean, a co"rtier re- 
marked, "Sire what do you behold V" to which the King replied, "I am looking for Fort 
Marion." The courtier venturing, "Sire, the distance is great " "Oh," said the King, 
"I know the distance, but if all the gold spent on that fort was buried within ite walls, 
I should be able to see it." 



Ancient, Colonial and jSIodern. 29 

FRENCH AND SPANISH STRUGGLE FOR 
ASCENDANCY. 

WEST FLORIDA. 

Narvaes, in command of the four rudely constructed vessels, before 
referred to, landed at Sant^ Rosa Island, October, 1528, and was, so 
far as positively known, the first white discoverer of Pensacola. 
His force consisted of two hundred and forty human beings, worn 
by hunger, fatigue and disappointment. 

The year previously, Narvaes sailed from Mexico with a formi- 
dable force, consisting of men-at-arms, cavalry, etc., and resolving on 
a westward movement, landed at or near Tampa Bay, and ordering 
his fleet to sail along the coast, marched his land forces by a cir- 
cuitous route in the same direction. This parting was fatal, for when 
he again reached the Gulf, in the vicinity of St. Marks, no tidings 
of his fleet was obtainable, and in despair he constructed the fleet we 
have seen off Santa Rosa Island, bound for its destination, Mexico, 
which it never reached. 

WALDONADO. 

In January, 1540, Capitano Waldonado, in command of the fleet 
that brought Fernando de Soto to Florida, entered Pensacola har- 
bor and named it Puerta d'Anchusi. DeSoto determined to make 
the harbor his base of operations, and ordering Waldonado to Havana 
for supplies, sat down to await his return, a resolve probably sug- 
gested by the bones of Narvae's horses and followers. But the re- 
solve was made only to be broken. A few days after Waldonado's 
departure, an Indian captive so beguiled DeSoto with tales of gold, 
that banishing all thoughts of Puerta d'Anchusi, he began that fatal 
march that carried him through South Carolina, Georgia, and Ala- 
bama, finally resulting in a grave in the bosom of the Mississippi river. 
Waldonado returned to Puerta d'Anchusi, October, 1540, according 
to instructions, but although he scoured the coast from Florida to 
Vera Cruz three years in search of DeSoto, it was only to learn that 
seventeen months previously his long-lost chief was laid to rest in the 
Father of Waters. 

DON TRISTRAJVE DE LUNA. 

In 1556, the Viceroy of Mexico and the Bishop of Cuba united 
in a memorial to Charles V. representing Florida as an inviting field 
for conquest and religious work. Imperial sanction was obtained, an 
expedition under Don Tristram de Luna was organized, and on the 
14th day of August, 1559, anchored in Pensacola Bay. 

The population of 2,000 souls which the fleet brought, with 



30 Glimpses of Florida : 

needful supplies, having been landed, the work of settlement began; 
the destruction of the fleet by a hurricane occurred a week after its 
arrival. Several expeditions were sent into the: interior, one of which 
Luna led in person, but where they went is not known. There were 
in this expedition two elements, which made success impossible — 
those who only wanted to search for gold and those who made 
everything subservient to the conversion of the natives. Ostensibly 
to secure supplies, two friars sailed for Havana, but instead persuaded 
the Viceroy of Mexico of the unpromising character of the country for 
purposes of colonization. A vice royal investigation was ordered, but 
was forestalled bv the visit at Santa Maria of Don Angel de Villafana, 
who had in the meantime been appointed Governor of Florida, who 
permitted the dissatisfied to return in his vessels, soon after Luna and 
his followers were recalled. 

In 1693 Don Andres de Pes entered the bay, but how long he 
remained, or why he came, is not known. Pes supplemented the 
name de Luna had given the place with de Galva, in honor of the 
Viceroy of Mexico, and thus it comes into colonial history with the 
title of Santa Maria de Galva. 

DON ANDRES D'ARRIOLA. 

In 1696 Don Andres d'Arriola, with a force of 300 soldiers and 
settlers, took formal possession of the bay and country, built a fort 
with bastions, called San Carlos, and began the erection of a town 
named Pensacola, including a chapel, the first erected on Pensa- 
cola Bay. "Irresistible, therefore," says Campbell, in his interesting 
and exhaustive history of "Colonial West Florida," just issued, from 
which we largely quote, "is the inference that the first notes of a 
church bell heard within the limits of the United States were those 
which rolled over the waters of Pensacola Bay and the white hills of 
Santa Rosa." 

IBERVILLE'S EXPEDITION— THE FRENCH CAPTURE 
PENSACOLA. 

In January, 1699, a French expedition, under Iberville, hove in 
sight of Pensacola, but observing the Spanish flag flying from the 
mastheads of two vessels in the harbor and the flag-staff of San Car- 
los, did not enter, but cast anchor off the island, permission to enter 
being refused. After the refusal of the Spaniards a fleet of three ves- 
sels under command of Lemdine d'Iberville, accompanied by his 
brothers Bienville and Sanville, taking out a colony for the settlement 
of Louisiana, sailed westward and took formal possession of the coun- 
try west of the Perdido river. Iberville's first settlement was made 
at Biloxi, February 27, 1699, but was removed to Mobile in 1702. 

So intimate, says Campbell, were the relations between the two 
colonies, that Iberville coming from France in 1702, with two war 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 31 

ships with succor for the French colonists, terminated his voyage at 
Pensacola and thence sent his supplies to Mobile in small vessels, 
and again in 1703 began a voyage to France by sailing from Pensa- 
cola. 

On the 13th of -April, 17 19, two French vessels brought the 
French colony the intelligence that in the previous December France 
had declared war against Spain, an event of which the then governor 
of Pensacola, Don Juan Pedro Metamoras, had no knowledge. Bien- 
ville at once organized for the capture of Pensacola, and on the 5th 
of May attacked by land and sea. There was nothing for Metamoras 
but surrender, which he did with the honors of war, and was sent to 
Havana in French vessels. The property of the soldiers and inhabit- 
ants was respected. 

SPANISH CAPTURE AND RECAPTURE OF 
PENSACOLA. 

The French vessels, the Touloure and Mareschal de Villers, 
were seized by the governor of Havana, who at once determined 
upon the recapture of Pensacola, and accordingly sent a fleet of nine 
war ships and the two French vessels. In this fleet Metamoras and 
his lately captured troops besides others, embarked for Pensacola, 
and on the 6th of August entered the harbor, the French vessels fly- 
ing the French flag. An armistice of two days was followed by an 
almost harmless cannonade, and Metamoras is again in command 
at Pensacola, but early in September Bienville was ready to try 
issues for his right to regain it, and on the i8th of September, with a 
fleet of six war ships, two hundred and fifty troops, besides large 
numbers of Canadian volunteers, engaged the Spanish fleet and San 
Carlos. 

After a conflict of two hours, San Carlos was the only point of 
defense left the Spaniards, and fearing the scalping knife of the 
Indians surrendered. Some were sent to Havana to be exchanged 
for the Frenchmen who were sent there as prisoners; the others were 
sent to France prisoners of war, and upon the ruins of San Carlos 
was erected a tablet. "In the year 1718, on the i8th day of Septem- 
ber, Monsieur Desward de Champmeslin, commander of his most 
Christian majesty, captured this place and the Isand of Santa Rosa 
by force of arms." 

On February 17th, 1720, a treaty of peace between France and 
Spain was signed, but it was not until January, 1723, that Bienville 
formally restored Pensacola to the Spaniards. 

In 1754 the little town of Pensacola, on Santa Rosa island, was 
for the third time destroyed, this time by a terrific hurricane, during 
which many lives were lost, after which the survivors removed to the 
mainland and built their homes on the present site of the city of Pen- 
sacola. 

3W 



22 Glimpses of Florida : 

BRITISH OCCUPATION OF FLORIDA. 

By the treaty of Paris, February loth, ] 763, Spain ceded Florida 
to Great Britain, and by the same treaty France ceded to Great 
Britain Canada and that part of Louisiana east of a line beginning at 
the source of the Mississippi river and running through its centre to 
the Iberville river, thence through the middle of this river, lakes 
Manrepas and Pontchartain to the Gulf. The British North American 
empire'extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic sea, and on 
the 7th of October, 1763, by royal proclamation, the governments of 
East and West Florida, of which Pensacola became the capital, were 
established. At this time Pensacola was a straggling hamlet of forty 
huts. Johnstone was the first Governor of West Florida and Grant 
the first Governor of East Florida, both Scotchmen, a fact that gave 
great offense in England and caused widespread dissatisfaction among 
the colonists. 

When the governments of West and East Florida were estab- 
lished, their governors were, severally, vested with authority to call 
for the election of General AssembHes by the people, and in 1773 
issued writs accordingly, fixing the time, voiing precincts and quali- • 
fications of voters, including the number of assembly-men to be 
chosen and day of sitting of the General Assembly at Pensacola. 

The writs fixed the terms of assembly-men at three years, a pro- 
vision which proved fatal to this first attempt to establish representa- 
tive government in Florida. The people hailed with pleasure the 
approach of popular government, but opposed long terms of office. 
But what Governor Chester failed to accomplish in West Florida the 
reluctant efforts of Governor Tonyn achieved in East Florida. In 
1780, the latter, against his own wishes and solely at the solicitation 
of others, called for the election of a General Assembly. The call 
having been promptly obeyed, the first representative body in Florida 
met in St. Augustine, January, 1781, the capital of the eastern 
province. This was an era of great prosperity to St. Augustine and 
Pensacola, the latter having a population of 25,000, many of whom, 
however, were slaves. 



x\NCiENT, Colonial and Modern. 33 



SPAIN AT WAR WITH GREAT BRITAIN. 

Spain Recognizes th;e Independence of the United States — 
Events in Florida — Spaniards Capture Pensacola. 

In 1778 the British government anticipating the alliance of Spain 
and France, ordered General Clinton to reinforce west Florida, and 
General John Campbell was sent to Pensacola with a force of 1,200 
men. They did not arrive, however, until January 29, 1779. On 
June 1 6th the Spanish minister departed from London without taking 
his leave. Spain thereupon became an ally of France, and under the 
influence of the court of Versailles. 

Don Bernardo de Galvez, Governor of Louisiana, on June 19th, 
published at New Orleans the proclamation of the Spanish king 
acknowledging the independence of the United States. 

Galvez at once began preparations for offensive operations agamst 
forts Bute and Baton Rouge. General Campbell's first intimation of 
operations was the news of their capture. 

In the beginning of March, 1780, Galvez advanced against Fort 
Charlotte, which, although forced to capitulate, made such a gallant 
defense that Galvez probably concluded he was not strong enough to 
attack Pensacola and made.no further move until he had procured 
from Havana a large additional force and heavy artillery ; but in 
February, 1781, advanced against the place with a large fleet and 
15,000 men. The British force numbered about 1,000 regulars, be- 
sides some provincials and savages of the Creek, Choctaw and Chick- 
asaw tribes. 

In the latter months of 1780 Pensacola and the garrison of Fort 
George (a quadruple with bastions at each corner in which were the 
magazine and barracks for the garrison,) were on the point of starva- 
tion, all the resources of the British government being required for 
the great struggle with the armies of Washington on the Atlantic 
coast. Galvez's conquest had also cut off the customary supplies from 
the rich country lying between Mobile and the Mississippi. 

But want was changed to abundance. A British cruiser captured 
in the gulf a number of merchant vessel loaded with rum, meal, coffee, 
powder, etc., besides $20,000 in coin and large quantities of silver 
plate (General Galvez's outfit for the campaign of 1781.) 

General Campbell, weary of waiting for Galvez's attack, or con- 
cluding he had abandoned the intention of attacking Pensacola, sent 
an expedition against a Spanish post on the Mississippi called French 
Town by the English. The force consisted of 100 infantry, sixty 
Waldeckers and 300 Indians. It was an unfortunate enterprise, and 
on. January 9 the remnant of the expedition reached Fort George. 

On the 9th of March a preconcerted signal from the warship 
Mentor told the British that the long looked struggle for mastery of 



34 Glimpses of Florida : 

Florida was at hand. By 9 a. m. next day thirty eight Spanish ships 
under Admiral Solana were off the harbor or landing troops and 
artillery. On the nth the Spanish opened on the Mentor, to which 
she replied until she received twenty-eight shots, when she retired. 
On the 19th the Spanish fleet sailed past the British batteries though 
subject to a heavy fire, which lasted two hours. On April 16 Gai- 
vez was reinforced by eighteen ships and an additional iand force of 
heavy artillery. On April 22 a landing was effected, and on the 27th 
of April batteries mounted with heavy siege guns completely invested 
Fort George, from which time the firing was continuous until May i, 
when the British suspended operations for the purpose of repairing 
their works. The following day, however, the guns were in full play. 
The disclosure of the angle in which the magazine was located, se- 
cured through a provincial colonel foolishly drummed out of the fort 
for some misconduct, sealed the fate of Fort George. Thenceforth 
that angle became the mark for every Spanish shot and shell. For 
three days and nights the hail of iron missiles beat upon it, until at 
last, on the morning of May 8, the magazine was penetrated and an 
explosion occurred which completely demolished the fort killing fifty 
men outright and fatally wounding as many more. Filteen thousand 
Spanish are ready for the assault, and the English capitulate upon the 
following terms : "The troops to march out with flying colors and 
drums beating. Each man with six cartridges; at the distance of 500 
paces arms to be stacked ; the officers to retain their swords; all the 
troops to be conveyed as soon as possible, at the cost of the Spaniards, 
to a British port to be designated by the British commander, under 
parole not to serve against Spain or her allies, until an equal number 
of the same rank of Spaniards, or of the troops of her allies, were ex- 
changed by Great Britain, and the best of care to be taken of the sick 
and wounded remaining behind, who were to be forwarded as soon 
as they recovered." The capitulation took place May 9, 1781. 

BOUNDARY LINES- 

Great Britain Occupies Pensacola as a Base from Which to 
Operate Against the United States. 

In 1793 France owned what was known as the Province cf Lou- 
isiana, a vast region which comprised, east of the Mississippi, the 
territory south ot the thirty first degree of north latitude and as far 
east as the Perdido river, and, west of the Mississippi, the whole of 
the present Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, Dakota, 
Montana, Idaho, Oregon and Washington, that part of Minnesota 
west of the Mississippi, Wyoming and Colorado east of the Rocky 
Mountains and north of the Arkansas river, and all but a small north- 
western section of Kansas and the narrow northwestern strip of Irdi.an 
Territory. By the Treaty of Paris of 1763, which closed our French 
and Indian War, the French territory east of the Mississippi passed 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern, 35 

to England, and that west of the Mississippi to Spain. By the Treaty 
of Paris of 1783, which ended the Revolution, England gave Florida 
back to Spain. Daring the first years of our national history, there- 
fore, Spain owned the western shore of the Mississippi and both 
shores at its mouth. It was soon seen that our citizens who were 
settling along the Mississippi would have their commerce threatened 
and hampered by Spain, especially as that country at first refused us 
the free navigation of the river. It was not until 1795 ^^at a treaty 
was negotiated by Thomas Pinckney, whereby Spain 'granted us free 
navigation of the river and the right to use New Orleans, or some 
other place which would be provided, as a place of deposit for mer- 
chandise. In 1800 a secret treaty was negotiated between France 
and Spain by which the latter " retroceded" to -France the Province 
of Louisiana. Napoleon, then First Consul of France, threatened to 
send an army and fleet to New' Orleans. It was feared that French 
ambition in Louisiana and Spanish designs in Florida would ulti- 
mately prove hurtful to us. In 1802 the right of deposit in New 
Orleans was taken away and no other place was designated. The 
western portion of the United States clamored for some governmental 
action. Congress appropriated $2,000,000 for the purchase of New 
Orleans, and President Jefferson, in 1803, sent James Monroe as 
minister extraordinary with discretionary powers, to act with our 
Minister to France, Robert R. Livingston, in the purchase. Napo- 
leon at this time found himself burdened with debt and threatened 
with ah English war, and proposed to sell the whole Province of 
Louisiana. A convention to that effect was speedily arranged and 
signed on April 30, 1803, by Livingston and Monroe for the United 
States, and Barbe-Marbois for France. The price agreed upon to be 
paid was $15,000,000, of which $3,750,000 were claims of our citi- 
zens against France, which the United States agreed to assume. The 
people of the United States as a whole rejoiced, though the Federal- 
ists claimed that the measure was unwarranted by the Constitution, 
and even Jefferson thought a constitutional amendment would be 
necessary. The purchase, however, v/as finally accepted without an 
amendment, and was generally acquiesced in. An early session of 
Congress was called for October 17, 1803. Two days later the 
treaty was ratified by the Senate, and on October 25th the House 
passed a resolution to carry it into effect by a vote of ninety to twenty- 
five, the Federalists voting in the minority. Napoleon accepted six 
per cent, bonds, payable in fifteen years," for this territory, which 
more than doubled the area of the United States. Concerning this 
purchase Livingstone is said to have exclaimed : " We have lived 
long, but this is the noblest work of our whole lives." And Napoleon 
is said to have remarked : "I have just given to England a maritime 
rival that will, sooner or later, humble her pride." Portions of the 
boundary line of this purchased territory were in dispute for a long 
time. The region acquired by this purchase was divided into the 
Territory of Orleans and the Territory of Louisiana. 



36 Glimpses of Florida : 

When Great Britain, in 1763, acquired that part of Louisiana 
east of the Mississippi from France and Florida from Spain, she 
joined her portion of Louisiana to Florida and divided by the Appa- 
lachicola river, west from East Florida. Both of these passed to Spain 
in 1783. Spain claimed that when, in 1800, she restored Louisiana to 
France she only gave back what she had obtained from that country, 
and that West Florida, which she obtained from England, still re- 
mained hers. The United States claimed that Spain had given to 
France the whole original extent of her possession, and that conse- 
quently Florida was a part of our purchase from France in 1803. Our 
government did not press this claim till 1810. 

This was the cause of hostility on the part of the Spaniards, 
especially at Pensacola, toward the. United States, and it was easy for 
the British, then her ally in her war with France, to induce her to 
make Pensasola a base from which the Indians could be furnished sup- 
plies to wage war on the United States, and after the surrender of 
Detroit, combined the tribes on the western frontier in a line of war- 
fare extending from the lakes to the Gulf of Mexico, employing as 
their chief emissary Tecumseh, the great Shawnee chief, who excited 
their enmity against the Ameijcans by every argument, art and de- 
vice which his own shrewdness could suggest or the deliberate cun- 
ning of his English allies prompted; in addition to which was the in- 
centive of $5.00 for every American scalp, paid by British agents at 
Pensacola. 

That Pensacola should be the Creek and Redsticks' base of 
supplies was according to the plan of warfare formulated at Detroit, 
based on Tecumseh's promised assistance. 

The first startling result of the British and Indian alliance was 
the massacre of Fort Mims, August, 1813, an event that sent a chill 
of horror throughout the civilized world. 

Not content with -making Pensacola a base for inciting the In- 
dians, there came in 181 4 into the harbor a British fleet under Will- 
iam Henry Percy, and later one under Lieutenant-Colonel Edward 
NichoUs, for the purpose of taking possession of its fortifications. 
This the imbecile commander, Maurique. permitted and Fort George, 
which had been named St. Michael by Spaniards, resumed its English 
name and was occupied by a British garrison. Fort San Carlos and 
the batteries on Santa Rosa island were also turned over to the En- 
glish, even the Governor's house being made their headquarters. 

JACKSON'S INVASION OF FLOHIDA-CAPTURE OP 
PENSACOLA. 

The first aggressive operation of Percy and Nicholls against the 
Americans, after establishing themselves at Pensacola, was an attack 
on Fort Boyer on Mobile Point, preparatory to an advance on Mo- 
bile, but General Jackson's great victory over the Creeks on the 27th 
of March had effectually crushed them, and the treaty which followed 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 37 

enabled him to direct his attention to the movements of the British at 
Pensacola. 

His first move was to put Fort Boyer in condition to resist attack; 
this preparation was barely accomplished, when, early in September, 
1 81 4, the British made a combined attack upon it by land and water. 
The former was repulsed and the latter resulted in the de truction of 
the Hermes, Percy's flagship, and the withdrawal of the other ships 
in a disabled condition, after which the fleet and land forces retired 
to Pensacola. 

Pensacola having lost all claim to neutrality, being under the 
British flag and a refuge for hostile Indians failing to keep their treaty 
with Jackson made with the Creeks after the victory at the Horse Shoe, 
Jackson resolved to advance upon it, and on the 27th of October, 
1814, took up his line of march from Fort Montgomery lor Pensacola, 
his force numbering 3,000 effective men and a few friendly Choctaws, 
reaching the town on the 6th of November, and sent Major Pierre 
with a flag of truce to communicate the purpose of his coming, who 
was fired on by cannon from the fort. Jackson immediately made a 
reconnoissance in person and found the fort manned by Spanish as 
well as English troops. He likewise observed that there were in the 
harbor seven English war vessels, which it was necessary for him to 
take into account in his future operations. His plans were at once 
formed. A force, with several pieces of artil.'ery, occupied the site 
of Fort St. Barnardo, which was once again to be pitted against 
its old antagonist, Fort George, and inferring that the enemy would 
anticipate an attack from the west. General Jackson, on the night of 
the 6th, moved the main body of his army to the eastern side of the 
town. In this movement he encountered a battery of two guns, 
which enfiladed the whole column with ball and grape, while there 
opened upon the troops a shower of musketry from houses, fences 
and gardens. The battery, however, was soon silenced by a storm- 
ing party, the firing parties beating a hasty retreat. 

When the command had well advanced into the town, they were 
met by the governor in person with a white flag, and an offer of sur- 
render at discretion, which ofTer was accepted, only however for the 
purpose of enabling General Jackson to accomplish the real object of 
the expedition — the expulsion of the British. In order to readily 
attain that object, possession of Forts Barrancas and St. Michael was 
indispensible, and to the best of his ability the governor made the 
surrender. Captain Soto, the Spanish officer in charge of St. Mi- 
chael, refused to obey the orders of the governor, and preparations 
were immediately made to storm the fort, which induced Soto to re- 
consider the refusal. The demand was made at six o'clock on the 
evening of the seventh, and the surrender was made at midnight. 

As General Jackson withdrew his forces from the town, they 
were fired upon by the British vessels, but without inflicting any 
serious injury. At eight o'clock the following morning while a force 
was about to move on Fort Barrancas with the purpose of cutting off 



38 Glimpses of Florida : 

the retreat of the British fleet, there was heard a great explosion, oc- 
casioned by the blowing up of Fort Carlos. Jackson, however, sent 
the forces, who returned reporting the fort blown up, everything com- 
bustible burned, and the cannon spiked by the British, who had 
taken to their ships and sailed out of the harbor. 

The only casualties sustained bvthe Americans during these op- 
erations were seven killed and eleven wounded. On the part of the 
Spaniards four were killed and six wounded. Having blown up St. 
Michael, General Jackson set out for New Orleans November 9th, 
which he reached December 2d, and on January 8th won the crown- 
ing victory of the war of 181 2. 

SEMINOLE WAR. 

The Seminoles, like the Redsticks, a brave but uncompromising 
race, refused to comply with the terms of the Creek treaty, and on 
the departure of their allies and friends the English, either fled to 
Pensacola or to the Seminole nation. It was in a district inhabited 
by the Seminoles that the fort built by Nicholls was situated, and the 
spirit and object which prompted its construction remained after 
Nicholls' departure. At length they proved a menace to navigation, 
besides affording an asylum lor criminals, and in iSib an expedition 
by land and water was sent against them under command of Colonel 
Duncan L. Clinch. A shot from a gunboat exploded the magazines 
and destroyed the larger part of the works. The destruction of the 
fort did not, however, give security; a feeling of unrest prevailed gen- 
erally. 

The first act of war was, however, the capture of a Seminole vil- 
lage, near the Georgia line, November 21, 181 7, by an American 
force under Colonel Twiggs. This proved the signal for massacres, 
the first of which was the murder of Lieutenant Scott and his com- 
mand, consisting of forty men, seven soldiers, wives and children. 
Whilst ascending the Apalachicola river they were fired on from a 
dense thicket and all were killed except one woman, taken captive, 
and four men, who succeeded in reaching the opposite bank of the 
river. 

In March, 181 8, General Jackson was ordered to the seat of 
war. He invaded East Florida, and in a campaign of six weeks 
crushed the Indians. In one village he found 300 scalps of men, 
women and children, fifty still fresh, hanging on a war pole. He 
also captured the Spanish Post of Saint Mark, an act for which he was 
severely censured. 

Jackson closed his campaign against the East Florida Seminoles 
early in May, and obtaining satisfactory evidence that the Spanish 
officials at Pensacola were in sympathy with them, decided to march 
upon the place and repeat the lesson taught them in 1814. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 39 

JACKSON'S INVASION OF WEST FLORIDA— CAPTURE 
OF PENSACOLA. 

Don Jore Masot, Governor of West Florida, learning of Jackson's 
purpose, sent him a written protest against his invasion. This pro- 
test was delivered by a Spanish officer, on May 23d, when Jackson 
was within a few miles of Pensacola. This had no effect, and in the 
afternoon of the same day it was received the American army were in 
possession of Fort St. Michael. Masot hastily retreated to Fort St. 
Carlos, to whom Jackson sent a peremptory demand for the immedi- 
ate surrender of Barrancas and Pensacola, to which Masot replied : 
As to Pensacola, I refer you to Don Loui Piemas; as to San Carlos, I 
will defend it tc the last extremity. On receipt of this reply Jackson, 
by arrangement with Piemas, took possession of Pensacola. 

On the 25th Jackson replied to Masot, and on the evening of the 
same day San Carlos was invested firing was continued at irregular 
intervals. At 8 o'clock on the morning of the 27th articles of capit- 
ulation were signed, the conditions of which were that the Spanish 
surrender be made with honors of war, the garrison transported to 
Havana and rights of property respected. 

Having accepted the cession of West Florida Jackson at once 
proceeded to constitute a provisional government under the laws of 
the United States, and having accomplished this, returned to his 
home in Tennessee. 

The United States without disavowing Jackson's conduct signified 
its readiness to restore Pensacola and St. Marks, and in September, 
181 9, the Spaniards were put in possession. 

On the 19th of February, 1821, the long pending treaty for the 
cession of Florida to the United States was ratified and General 
Jackson made provisional governor. 

On the 3d of March, 1822, congress established a territorial 
government for the two Floridas as one, with W. P. Duval as 
governor. 

Florida was admitted to the Union March 3d, 1845. 

Between the admission of Florida, as a State of the Union, and 
secession of the State in i86r, there is little worthy of note. 

THE WAR AND RECONSTRUCTION. 

The war cloud growing out of the proposed admission of slaves 
to the territories, gathering force from the success of the Republican 
party in i860, and the declaration of President Buchanan who, in 
his last message to Congress said : "The general government has no 
power to coerce a State," culminated in the withdrawal of eleven 
States of the Union, including Florida, and the establishment of the 
Southern Confederacy. 

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln was inaugurated President 
of ihe United States, and holding views diametrically opposed to his 



40 Glimpses of Florida : 

predecessor on the right of a Slate to secede, at once issued a call for 
troops to put down the rebellion. 

On August 9, 1865, the war terminated by the surrender of the 
Confederate army, followed immediately by the appointment of pro- 
visional governors in the lately seceded States. 

In the winter of 1865 a general election was held in Florida, re- 
sulting in the choice of David S. Walker for governor. June 25, 
1868, Florida was readmitted to the Union, the election resulting in 
favor of the Republican party, an event that gave rise to grave appre- 
hension on the part of the native whites, owing to the fact that the 
future of the State was in the hands of negroes (their late slaves) led 
by a few whites known in the South as "carpet-baggers," because 
they were alien to the soil and had little pecuniary interest in the 
State. This was the beginning of reconstruction, ending eight years 
a'ter (1876) by the overthrow of the Republicans, years of trial and 
tribulation, destruction and bloodshed, during which the baser pas- 
sions were given free rein — life and the pursuit of happiness being 
but a name That hatred of the soldiers of the Union, or even 
of Republicans, influenced the people of the South originally, is a 
popular error. The soldier of the South enteitained for the soldier 
of the North only that admiration which one brave man accords an- 
other, enhanced by the courtesy shown in the terms of surrender; be- 
sides the soldier of the South came out of the war with no political 
affiliations, especially with the Democratic party of the North. In- 
deed it is confidentially asserted by Democrats that were it not for the 
rights of franchise to the negroes and consequent power over their 
former masters, the South to day would be the stronghold of Repub- 
licanism. 

The struggle on one side was for personal rights under the law, 
on the other self preservation. 

Forcing the ballot on. 4,000,000 negroes of the Southern States 
without preparation or appreciation of the power conveyed made the 
"Solid South." The so-called "carper-bag rule" left as a legacy a con- 
stitution that lasted twenty years, the present code of laws with but 
trifling alterations, and a memory of the famous "returning board" 
which in 1876 gave the electoral vote to Rutherford B. Hayes.* 

*There were three sets of returns: i. The votes of the Hayes electors, with the cer- 
tificate of Governor Stearns attached, according; to the decision of the State Returning 
Board in throwing out certain returns. 2. The votes of the Tilden electors, with the cer- 
tificate of the Attorney-General of the State attached, according to the actual vote cast. 
3. Same as second, with the certificate of the new Governor Drew, according to a re-can- 
vass as ordered by the State law of January 17, 1877. The Democratic counsel maintained 
that the returning board had improperly and illegally thrown out votes, and that the State 
Supreme Court had so decided, and also that one of the Hayes electors. Humphrey's, 
when elected, held an office under the United States and was tlius disqualified. The Re- 
publicans, on the contrary, declared that the commission had no power to examine into 
returns made in due form; that the first return was in due form; that the second had at- 
tached to it the certificate of an officer oflficially unknown to the United States in the 
capacity of certifying officei and that the third set was also irregular, having been pre- 
pared after the electoral college had ceased in law to exist. In Humphrej's' case the Re- 
publicans maintained that he had, previous to his election, sent a letter of resignation to 
the officer that had appointed him and that the absence of that officer was the cause of 
its not having been received in time. The commission in each case sustained the Re- 
publican view by a vote of 8 to 7, a strictly party vote, February 9, 1877. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 41 

The present population of Florida is highly cosmopolitan and 
the differences growing out of the rebellion and reconstruction are 
practically forgotten. 

MODERN FLORIDA. 

A country like the United States is in the position of a million- 
aire who locks up depreciated securities in a box. The bonds or 
shares probably werfe bought for a nominal price out of a super- 
fluity of capital, and have been valued at as little. Suddenly the se- 
curities begin to be quoted again in the money market. The owner 
of some of the description recollects his possessions. ' They are 
drawn forth from the darkness and are seen to be worth sterling 
gold. Peaders of the fascinating notes o^ a tour we have been print- 
ing day by day will perceive how the American people has 
awakened at length to the importance of' a property of which it had 
almost forgotten the existence, in Florida. England may flatter it- 
self that It has had a substantial part in directing attention to this un- 
suspected mine of wealth. English capitalists have been foremost 
among the modern discoverers of the North American Land of 
Flowers, and appear to be in the course of ^aking liberal toll, as is 
their right, of its riches. At any rate, the turn of this lovely penin- 
sula has come for notice and material development. So vast are the 
dominions of the Union that its various capaljilities have to wait be- 
fore their day arrives to be noticed. Florida has had to exercise the 
virtue of patience for sixty years. After its cession by Spain in 
1820, it was left for a couple of generations as still and dormant as 
if Spaniards had remained its masters. It was a winter station for a 
few consumptive Americans, and that was about all which was pop- 
ularly known of it. Native and foreign enterprise was occupied 
elsewhere on the North American continent. Florida, its oranges 
and its alligators were destined to a long repose. Their dreams are 
now broken, and permanently. New York and London both are 
busying themselves about the transAtlantic gardens of the Hesper. 
ides. Already there is a "boom" in the Florida land market. 
British land companies have bought estates by the thousand square 
miles, and alligators are threatened with the doom of elephants. 
American speculation, abetted by British capital, is content to be 
blind to opportunities in its path while it is otherwise engaged. 
When once its eyes are open it makes up for lost time. Every re- 
source IS ransacked with a vehemence and turmoil not favorable to a 
discrimination of merits and demerits. ' AVere it not for the unbiased 
researches of reporters like our correspondent, the tremendous up- 
heaval now proceeding in and about Florida would hide its unques- 
tionable virtues under a golden haze as disappointingly deceptive as 
the Indian legends which beguiled poor old battered Ponce de Leon 
to his wild goose chase after the fountain of perpetual youth. 

Our correspondent warns intending immigrants and investors 
that they are not to expect to find Florida a country paved and 



42 Glimpses of Florida : 

ploughed. Its cities are for the most part in the germ. It is poor 
in roads and canals. There are not many miles of railway. One of 
its principal rivers is a labarynth of tortuous water alleys. Internal 
navigation is served by a set of steamboats not at all resembling the 
packets of the Mississippi and Hudson. Florida is as yet a wilder- 
ness, and they who determine to settle in it ought to inquire of them- 
selves whether they be endowed with the qualities of pioneers. With 
all this, it is manifest from the letters we have published that it would 
be hard to find, since the Garden of Eden, a wilderness so full of 
charms. It is a wilderness of oleanders, orange trees, oaks and 
magnolias. Without manure its best soil yields 400 pounds of sea 
island cotton to the acre. Its second rate pine lands offer without 
labor the finest natural pasturage. They have only to be touched 
to give sugar, rice, tobacco, vegetables and every tropical fruit 
in prodigal abundance. After the harvest has been gathered in, all 
they ask is to be permitted to recuperate their strength for the next 
crop with the weeds, which spring up spontaneously. For the sports- 
man there are myriads of wild duck and turkey, herons, flamingoes, 
terapin, and, for the present, at all events, alligators. Merchants 
have their Jacksonville, wicli Mrs. Beecher Stowe close at hand to 
infuse a literary flavor into the atmosphere. Antiquaries can dis- 
cover a rich store of traditions, Spanish, Indian, French, 
British, and American, ranging from the fortunes of de Soto, Coa- 
con-che and his Seminole?, Sir Francis Drake, martial, gallant and 
unscrupulous courtiers of the Bourbons, stern Huguenots, and General 
Oglerhorpe, the friend of Samuel Johnson, to the soldiers of the 
revolution and the secession. Florida is no new country. History 
has passed across it with steps not so hurried and frequent that one 
track has been trodden out by others. Three centuries are enough 
for the hon^Ts of extreme age when time has been let ripen. The 
Spanish city of St. Augustine, the oldest city in the United States, 
might compare in the marks of venerable antiquity with many three 
times as old in Europe. Social delights are not wanting. Winter 
Park is a very recent rival of Saratoga Springs. Yet, on its own 
showing, its soirees in the town hall are graced by three millionaires, 
eight ladies, a bishop, an insurance man, a money lender, a jeweler, 
three hotel men, two dentists, two lawyers, three judges, with a 
throng of other human beings, such as these imply. There are lakes 
of sulphur. There are fire engines. There are the normal American 
towns, which can count their years on their fingers. One from which 
our correspondent dated a letter, the seductive uime of Kissimmee, 
is barely a year old, and has two churches and a mayor. There is, 
as will be seen by our correspondent's letter of this morning, the 
grandest natural harbor on the North American continent. There 
are newspapers. There is the picus memory of General Jackson. 
There are colonels, judges, governors and senators in plenty. As 
the captain of the steamer on the Ocklawaha remarked to our corre- 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 43 

spondent, "all our people down here" are that sort. There is even 
just now an earl; and always and everywhere there are oranges. 

A fresh and exquisite region is opened out in Florida for the 
pleasure and profit of the human race, especially the Anglo Saxon 
division of it. Florida displays the luxuriance of the tropics without 
their essential lassitude. Men impatient of the limitations of the 
Old World, which includes for practical purposes Massachusetts as 
well as Middlesex, have their area of choice of a new domicile now 
vastly extended. They have Winnepeg and Florida to elect between, 
the land of six months winter and the home of spring, diversified 
only by summer. Not a few constitutions or temperaments, tired of 
life on the old lines, but not prepared to skirt the Arctic regions, may 
embrace the occasion Florida land companies provide. Arcadia, 
planted with orange groves, and not devoid of newspapers, has and 
ought to have its attractions. At the same time, we are inclined to 
think that Florida is a country rather for capitalists than for peasants, 
for those who use brains alone, or muscles alone rather than for pos- 
sessions of both. Investors may obtain a good return for their money, 
and labor is sure to extract its full remuneration. Florida has its 
career, and it is a happy one. It is destined for one of the world's 
most favored health resorts, and for one of its chief orchards, if not 
the chief. Fortunes will be lucratively employed there, and as use- 
fully spent there. For the many who have to carve their own lot in 
life, nature should wear, at their setting out, a harder and more 
austere visage. She must, like the conqueror's bride, be courted 
with blows before she can be persuaded to smile to any purpose. — 
Extracts from the London Times. 



TOPOGRAPHY OF FLORIDA. 

Florida is a long arm of land, reaching from the main body of 
the States down into the sea, until there is but a span left between it 
and Cuba. It touches almost the tropics, yet is so surrounded by the 
ocean's influence that its climate is genial and equitable. 

Florida may be described as low and undulating — the greatest 
elevation 400 feet, the average 100. Beginning at the northern ex- 
tremity of the State, the 31st parallel, there is a'ridge or "backbone" 
south through the center of the State, finally lost in the Everglades. 
From the summit of this ridge, dotted with miniature lakes and stretches 
of golden fruit, the descent is gradual east, west and south, ending in 
a coast line remarkable for countless bays and numberless estuaries 
teeming with oysters and fish, and a tropical luxuriance challenging 
admiration. 

To form some general idea of the coast, the reader will keep in 
the mind's eye a map of the State, and imagine a line extending f^rom 
Pensacola Bay in a southeasterly direction past St. George's Light, 
Appalachia Bay, Suwannee River — famous in song and story — 



44 Glimpses of Florida : 

Clear Water Harbor. Egiiiont Key — the entrance to Tampa Bay — 
Sarasota, Casey's Pass, Gasparilla, Sanibel Island — the entrance to 
lower Charlotte Harbor and the Caloosahatchee River — Boca Ciega, 
Cape Romano, Ponce de Leon and Key West, the southern extremity, 
where an abrupt turn is made to the eastward, gradually tending 
northwest, past Gary's Fort Light, Biscayne Bay, New River, Hills- 
borough Bar and Hypoluxi, from which point to Jupiter Inlet, Wave- 
land, Eden, Indian River Pass and Cape Canaverel, the trend is 
northward by west, where the counter of the shore again changes, 
and then on, via False Cape, Matanzas — the scene of the bloody 
massacre of the French — Anastasia Island — the entrance to St. Augus- 
tine — Pablo, Mayport, Fernandina — the first landing place of De 
Leon — Fort Clinch and Cumberland Sound, there is little change in 
the general direction. Here we pause, having made a tour of the coast 
from the Alabama line on the Gulf to the Georgia line on the Atlantic, 
a distance of 1,500 miles, counting bays, estuaries and inlets, a greater 
area of water front and more harbors than is possessed by any State 
of the Union or any country of Europe. 

Florida embraces 58,680 square miles, one tenth of which is a 
labyrinth of clear water lakes and serpentine rivers. 

The name of this State was originally applied to the whole neigh, 
boring region in 15 12 by Ponce de Leon, who discovered it on Easter 
Sunday (in Spanish Pasqiia Florida, or the Feast of Flowers). It is 
sometimes popularly known as the Peninsula State. 

CLIMATE AND HEALTHFULNESS- 

The conditions of the atmosphere in its degrees of temperature 
and moisture are items which affect organized life, animal and vegeta- 
ble. Since the temperature of the atmosphere falls, as distance from 
the equator increases, one degree of depression to every added degree 
of latitude, and since, moreover, the thermometer falls one degree 
for every three hundred feet in altitude, Florida being so near the 
equator and so little above the sea level, might be thought from these 
premises to be very hot; but there are other influences which must also 
be taken into the account to reach the truth. There are hundreds of 
rivers and streams coursing over the surface; then lakes in Florida are 
thicker than the stars in the skies. The evaporation from these 
streams nnd lakes and from the Gulf hard by on the one side, and 
the Atlantic on the other, rapidly consumes or absorbs the heat of 
the sun, and this process is more rapid, because as the vapor rises and 
takes ail the heat it can render insensible, the breezes from the At- 
lantic or Gulf bear it away and supply other atmosphere to be filled 
with other vapor, performing the same office in the cooling process; 
consequently, the thermometer in summer rises higher in New York, 
Boston and Montreal, than in St. Augustine, Tampa and Key West. 
Sun-stroke, with its terrors, so frequent in the cities, and, indeed, in 
the country north, is never known in Florida. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 45 

Another item to be taken in account when searching for the 
causes of higher temperature in summer of places north of Florida, is 
the fact that the days in summer are longer as we proceed northward, 
and the nights are shorter. There is, consequently, less time for 
throwing off or radiating the heat from the sun during the day until 
his return with new supplies. 

The rainy season in Florida is in the summer months, when the 
showers cool the atmosphere and refresh the crops. During these 
months the average moisture is slightly greater than in the States 
further north. Observation and experiment show, however, that the 
humidity of Florida in summer is only 1.07 greater than that of Min- 
nesota, while in the winter months — Florida's dry season — the mois- 
ture is less than in Minnesota by 1.08 degrees. 

THE HEALTHFULNESS OF FLORIDA 

is attested by reports of army ofificers who kept for years and made 
statistical reports on the subject from various military stations in the 
State. Surgeon General Lawson, of the United States Army, says : 
"The statistics of this Bureau show that the diseases which result 
from malaria are of a much milder type in Florida than in other 
States of the Union; and the number of deaths there to the number of 
cases of remittent fever has been much less than among the troops 
serving in other portions of the United States. In the Middle Divis- 
ion" (meaning Military Division of the United States) "the propor- 
tion is I death to 36 cases of remittent fever. In the Northern, i to 
52. In the Southern, i to 54. In Florida it is but i to 287." * * * 
"From the carefully collected statistics of this ofifice it appears that 
the annual rate of mortality of the whole Peninsular of Florida is 2.06 
per centum, while in other portions of the United States it is 3.03 per 
centum. Indeed, it may be asserted, without fear of refutation, that 
Florida possesses a more agreeable and salubrious climate than any 
other State or Territory in the Union." 



^6 Glimpses of Florida 



CONSUMPTION. 

Its Treatment and Avoidance — Florida the Sanitarium of 
THE World — The Last Hope of the Consumptive. 

Wherever you happen to be when the doctors say " pneumonia" 
or "bronchitis" (they never call it consumption) go to Florida, go at 
once and stay there. Settle down in the high, dry, piney woods ; if 
possible, among pleasant people and you the only invalid. Secure a 
large, airy room on second floor, fill the space under your bed with 
" fat lightwood," split finely ; make sure of good ventilation; wear 
flannel underwear, no matter what the thermometer registers ; keep 
out of draughts ; think of all the jokes you ever heard ; inflate the 
lungs frequently vvith pure, dry air, eat plain food ; drink plenty of 
milk ; exercise moderately ; let the other fellow worry and shoot the 
first fiend who whispers : " Poor man, his days are numbered." 

As to Lymph and the many other "sure cures" — bosh ! Who 
ever knew of a consumptive cured by drugs ? If you want to commit 
suicide, buy the dozen or more beautifully labeled bottles your friends 
are sure to recommend, leave them in sight, talk sick and buy a lot 
in a cemetery. 

One of the important questions is, "What should be done in 
case of a hemorrhage?" ist. Send post haste for a doctor. 2d. Lay 
the patient on his or her back ; apply quantities of crushed ice to the 
chest, using a rubber bag or oil cloth, and tuck clothes alongside to 
absorb the drippings. 3d. Apply a jug or bottle of hot water to the 
feet ; feed all the crushed ice the patient will swallow ; give a tea- 
spoonful of ergot of rye every half hour, and you will have done 
everything possible except to drive every one off the premises who is 
not cool and collected. 

After the hemorrhage the patient should be perfectly quiec for 
several days, feed soups, beef juice, anything easily digested the 
patient desires, positively prohibiting stimulants. 

That consumption can be commun'cated by inhaling air impreg- 
nated with bacilli, has been proved by experience. Experiments on 
the human subject is impracticable, but one case is on record in 
which the disease was unquestionably taken by inhalation. Tappenier 
was making some experiments on the possibility of communicating 
consumption to dogs by causing them to inhale the atmosphere of a 
room impregnated with its bacilli. His servant, a man forty years 
old, and free from all hereditary or physical taint, had been cau- 
tioned against entering this impregnated room. But in a spirit of 
bravado he did so many times. He was taken sick, and alter an 
illness of fourteen weeks died ; on post mortem examination it was 
found that he had the same form of consumption as the dogs that 
died from exposure in the chamber. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 47 

Another remarkable instance is the case of the Fugeans, amongst 
whom consumption was unknown until a missionary and his wife went 
to reside there. The latter was suffering from consumption. She 
took some of the children from the savage stale and clothed them and 
did all she could to educate them. After a short time acute consump- 
tion developed amongst these children and many died; but not a 
single case occurred amongst the children who remained in their 
savage surroundings. 

How else than by communication are we to account for the rapid 
spread of consumption amongst savage nations, where this disease 
was unknown before civilized people began to visit them? This is 
true of our own American Indians, the inhabitants of Central Africa, 
and many other people. Inter-marrying, or any other condition 
which might make hereditary transmission a possible cause, certainly 
could not account for its rapid progress. Besides, some of the best 
observers and investigators believe that consumption is not hereditary 
and there is much evidence in favor of this view. 

With such evidence of the possibility of inhaling the bacilli, the 
question would naturally be asked, how does the bacilli get into the 
atmosphere when they are not found in the breath of sufferers from 
this disease? We know, positively, that in these cases bacilli are 
present in the mucus which is raised after coughing. In its moist 
condition it is impossible for it to be inhaled, but when it dries and 
becomes dust, it is blown about, and it is in this form that it becomes 
dangerous. 

HOW CAN CONSUMPTION BE AVOIDED ? 

1. Every physician who has patients suffering from consumption 
should instruct them wherein the danger lies to others, as well as 
themselves, for it is not impossible for a consumptive to reinfect him- 
self by uncleanly habits. Consumptives should be impressed with the 
importance of a proper disposal of the sputa, and effectual means 
should be employed to prevent its conversion into dust. 

2. Proprietors of hotels and health resorts fo^ those t-uests should 
provide suitable cuspidors, containing a non-smelling disinfectant, 
cleaned morning and evening regularly. It should be made impera- 
tive that cuspidors should always be used. The bedding or any other 
linen about the room should be removed and cleansed before any 
sputa on it becomes dry. When a guest leaves the hotel the walls, 
floor or carpet and furniture of the room should be wiped off with a 
damp cloth. This would be little more trouble than the present 
method of dusting and cleaning the room. Most of the bacilli would 
in this way be removed from the room and a new guest would enter 
it without danger. 

4W 



48 



Glimpses of Florida 



TROPICAL AND SEMI-TROPICAL FRUITS, ETC. 

The history of orange growing in Florida as an industry is very 
recent. With the first settlement of St. Augustine by the Spaniards 
the orange was cultivated. During the period of American occupa- 
tion, from the cession in 1819-21 up to the close of the civil war, 
many Floridians had planted and matured extensive groves. Still 
these ante-bellum groves were merely among the embellishments of 
home surroundings, a business not pursued solely for profit. Florida 
produces every variety of tropical and semi-tropical fruit grown, as 
well as all other fruits known, and crop's of every variety with the 
possible exception of wheat. 



FLORIDA PRODUCTS, 1892. 



OFFICIAL. 



Field Crops $6,948,644 70 

Vegetable and Garden Products 963,823 87 

Fruit Crops 4.863,355 34 

Livestock 6,130,444 00 

Poultry 609,763 00 

Dairy Products 1 ,667,697 00 

Miscellaneous Products 353,436 33 

Cedar 1 500,000 00 

Railway Cars and Engines 435,000 00 

NavalStores 350,000 00 

Engines, Boilei-s and Castings 345,000 00 

Palmetto-pulp Brushes, etc 175,000 00 

Railroad Ties I 750,000 00 

Lumber and Timber 17,500,000 00 

Firewood, etc I 1,000,000 00 

Shingles and Laths I Ascertained and 835,000 00 

Lime '' Estimated 75,000 00 

Cigars 3,350,500 00 

Alligators, Hides, Teeth and Birds 55,500 00 

Wagons, Carts, etc 150,000 00 

Icef..... 335,000 00 

Moss ■• 135,000 00 

Sponges 800,000 00 

Fish, Oysters, etc I 500,000 00 

Ships, Steamers and BoaJ;s J 325,000 00 

Essences .T 10,500 00 

Nursery Trees . . 250,500 00 

Brick and Artificial Stone a50,000 00 

Soft Phosphate 135,000 00 

Rock Phosphate and Pebble 1,350,000 00 

Miscellaneous Manufacture of Products 500,000 00 



$51,617,164 14 



Population, January 1st, 1894, 415,000. 
$134. 37X. 



Per Capita Income from Products, 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 49 

EARLY PHOSPHATE DISCOVERIES. 

Florida Minerals — Phosphate. 

In 1879 phosphate was discovered in Alachua county, but show- 
ing only 45.72 per cent, phosphate of lime, attracted little atten- 
tion, (a) 

In 1 88 1 pebble phosphate was found in the Peace river, but 
though 60 to 65 per cent, phosphate of lime and in large quantity, 
efforts to secure capital for mining were unavailing, and it was not 
until 1888 that operations begun, (d) 

Early in 1888 a body of white marl was found at Welshton, 
which was thought to be fir£clay, but for that purpose proved worth- 
less. Believing, however, it might be of value on sandy land, tests 
were made with gratifying results. Analysis showed 63.38 per cent, 
phosphate of lime, and it was put upon the market, (c) 

In May, 1889, a peculiar rock formation imbedded in a clay 
matrix was found at Dunnellon, which analyzed 80 per cent, phos- 
phate of lime. This deposit, including ten acres, was sold for $10,- 
000 and formed the nucleus of the Dunnellon Phosphate Company, 
whose stock, capitalized at $1,200,000, sold at a premium of 60 per 
cent, (d) 

There are now 108 phosphate companies in Florida, 71 of which 
report invested capital of $14,226,067, and an annual expenditure of 
$1,987,374, including transportation to port of entry. The total cap- 
ital invested in Florida phosphate lands is probably $50,000,000. 

The total phosphate area developed is 33,056 acres, and the total 
phosphate in sight 133 056,416 tons of 2, 240 pounds. The net value 
of ail phosphate lands, including soft phosphate, plate rock, hard 
rock and pebble, is estimated at $1,000,000,000. Some idea of the 
growing importance of the phosphate business may be gathered from 
the fact that in 1888 the total shipments were but 813 tons, while in 
1893 the shipments were 354,327 tons. 

The purchase of the ten acres referred to was the forerunner of 
an era of speculation that honeycombed the State, shook the Nation 
from center to circumference, and reaching across the Atlantic al- 
most paralized an important industry. 



(a) Discoverer unknown. 

(b) Capt. J. Francis Le Baron, U. ^. Engineer Corps, discoverer. 

(c) Capt John H. Welsh, discoverer. 

(d) Mr. Alburtus Vogt, discoverer. 



50 Glimpses of Florida : 

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITION OF THE FLORIDA 
PHOSPHATE. 

The phosphate belt of Florida, as applied to the workable de- 
posits, having an economic and commercial value, commences at 
the head of the VVacissa river in Jefferson county, about four miles 
south and eighteen miles east of Tallahassee; thence it extends south- 
east to the Aucilla river, near a point where the three counties of 
Jefferson, Madison and Taylor join, where deposits of considerable 
extent and of fine quality are found; thence through Taylor county, 
with a trace or straggling deposit here and there, by a southeast 
course to the Steinhatchee river in Lafayette county, where large and 
valuable deposits have been located. Directly north of the Stein- 
hatchee phosphate region, and chiefly on the east bank of the Su- 
wannee river, and around the little village of Luraville, large bodies 
of high grade composite phosphate have been located. Thence the 
belt extends southeast again for a distance of about twenty-five 
miles, with very little evidence of phosphate on the way, and 
Ichetucknee Springs in Columbia county, is reached, around which 
are some rich deposits. Leaving the springs and traveling south, in- 
dications are seen here and there. Passing near the town of Fort 
White and the rich deposits in its immediate vicinity, crossing the 
Santa Fe river and traversing this hard rock territory for a distance of 
twenty-four miles, High Springs in Alachua county is reached; thence 
due south are deposits scattered all about for twenty-four miles to the 
Albion region of Levy county, to the westward of the tracts just de- 
scribed. Straggling along a distance of about twenty miles in the 
western part of Alachua and Levy counties from north to south, is 
the Trenton region, where fine composite phosphate lands, rich and 
easily worked, have beeri located. 

Returning to Albion and traveling south and east through Levy 
county fifteen miles to Stafford's Pond, thence on through Marion 
county, taking in on the way a number of rich mines in the Early 
Bird region, we reach the Dunnellon mines, where the discovery of 
hard rock phosphate was originally made, where the first mine was 
opened, and where is now the largest hard rock company in the state. 
Crossing the Withlacoochee river the belt extends a little east of south 
through the rich and favored mineral ^ounties of Citrus and Her- 
nando, broadening out and reaching so far to the east as to take in 
the western border of Sumter county, again veering to the west, 
thence on to a point four miles south of Dade City in Pasco county, 
where the southern limit of the hard rock belt is reached. Its total 
length from Ichetucknee Springs to the point named is about i6o 
miles, through a broken but continuous chain of phosphate deposits, 
its general trend being north-west to south-east with an average 
width of twelve to fifteen miles, in several places widening out so as 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 51 

to embrace, in a fragmentary way, as much as twenty miles. To the 
east and parallel with the hard rock belt, and lying almost wholly 
within Marion county, is what is known as the plate rock region, of 
which Anthony, Wel^hton, Belleview and Summerfield are the pres- 
ent active centres. The plate rock belt extends from Orange Lake on 
the north to the southwest corner ot Lake Weir on the south, a dis- 
tance of thirty miles or more, with an average wjdth of two to three 
miles. The territory from Ichetucknee Springs to Dade City is 
described as the phosphate belt proper, because it is more compact 
and better defined, but including the Luraville, Steinhatchee, Au- 
cilla and Wacissa rivers, and deposits adjacent thereto, hard rock 
may be found for a distance of more than 200 miles, in its course 
traversing the counties of Jefferson, Madison, Taylor, Lafayette, Su- 
wannee, Columbia, Alachua, Levy, Marion, Citrus, Hernando, 
*Sumter and Pasco. In a general way it conforms to the configura- 
tion of the Gulf coast, but touches it nowhere, and only in one place 
approaches as near as eight miles. The territory described is known 
as the hard rock belt, because the phosphate is hard, as its name ap- 
plies, and is generally high grade, and though subject to several sub- 
divisions, is believed to be of a common origm. 

The sub-divisions are: ist, hard rock; 2d, plate rock; 3d, com- 
posite, a mixture of hard rock and fragmentary stuff, to which may be 
added the gravel screenings and soft phosphate. 

KINDS OF PHOSPHATE. 

HARD ROCK. 

The hard rock belt, which covers so large a part of the phosphate 
field, naturally takes its name from the hard rock phosphate which 
there predominates, and which may be said to be the basis of at least 
three other kinds, viz: the gravel screenings, the plate rock and the 
composite, with an intimate connection with still another kind, the 
soft phosphate. Dr. Pratt believes the soft to have been the produc- 
ing cause of all the rest, the spawn or spore from which it originated. 

PLATE ROCK. 

As described in another place, the plate rock field is a belt by 
itself, with the same general trend as the main belt, running from 
about north-northwest to south southeast. 

It lies almost wholly within Marion county. In extent it is the 
smallest of all the deposits, being about thirty miles long, with an 
average width of about three miles. The peculiar rock from which it 
takes its name is platelike, the rock resembling the broken fragments 
of a stock of plates. The broken pieces are of angular form and vary 
from One to six inches in breadth. In thickness they vary from one- 
fourth of an inch, or even less, to fully one inch. The rock is heavy 



52 Glimpses of Florida : 

and hard, and is often worn smooth and white like ivory. A clean, 
sound piece will ring when struck. The prevailing color is cream and 
yellowish when taken from the mine. 

COMPOSITE PHOSPHATE. 

The composite; belt is so denominated because the phosphate 
there found is of two kinds, the hard rock bowlders, as found in the 
hard rock belt proper, though in smaller quantities, and the drift sur- 
rounding the bowlders, often covering many acres, composed of plate 
rock and gravel screenings, as described elsewhere. At Luraville, in 
Suwannee county, where it was first discovered, this singularity was 
marked. South of Luraville, on the Steinhatchee river in Lafayette 
county, the same general features are observed, though the land lies 
lower and the phosphate is somewhat adulterated with sandstone. 

RIVER PEBBLE. 

The river pebble is so denominated because it is found in the 
beds of rivers and their tributaries. It was first discovered in Peace 
river, but has since been found in the Alafia, Manatee, Miakka, 
Caloosahatchee and Withlacoochee on the Gulf slope, and in the 
Black river on the Atlantic slope. The Peace, the Alafia and the 
Black river deposits are of the same general type, and are now gener- 
ally believed to have had their origin in the land pebble, which it 
much resembles in shape and size, though it is generally smoother, 
and grades down in size the further it is found from the source of 
supply. This is due, no doubt, to abrasion and wear from being so 
often moved in great bodies by the annual floods and changes of the 
channel, as well as the erosion from the never ceasing flow of the 
river currents. In size it varies from less than that of a broken grain 
of rice up to that of a pea or bean, and is often as large as a hickory 
nut. 

LAND PEBBLE. 

The land pebble phosphate is a formation distinct from the 
others. It is pebbly, as its name indicates, is of small size, and is 
somewhat lighter in weight than other forms. In color it varies from 
cream or yellow to slate, brown or gray. When well bleached much 
of it is snow white and of varied degrees of hardness. This pebble 
runs in size from what is called pin head up to the size of a pea or 
bean, and even larger. Often the soft pebbles have run together, 
forming conglomerate balls of various sizes and shapes, the largest 
measuring several inches in diameter. This applies to the drift. In 
that of animal origin the fossils are of all sizes, from the tiniest shell- 
fish or tooth to the remains of the sea-cow, mastodon or elephant. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 



SOFT PHOSPHATE. 

To comprehend the importance of soft phosphate it is necessary 
to know the acreage in cultivation in the United States and the 
amount of phosphate of lime necessary to production. The total acre- 
age is calculated at 429,200,000, and the average consumption of phos- 
phoric acid for a single crop at nineteen pounds. The total consump 
tion of phosphoric acid is therefore 8,142,400,000 pounds, equivalent 
to 16 767,820,226 pounds phosphate of lime, or 838,391 tons 

Estim.ating solt phosphate, the best form of phosphate of lime, at a 
low estimate, there would be required for a single crop, if phosphate of 
lim.e was not otherwise obtainable, 1,676,782 tons, which, at the price 
of prepared soft phosphate; that is, dried, pulverized and in bags, $8.00 
per ton, we have a total of $13,414,256. 

The figures given are for phosphate of lime found in the product, 
phosphate of lime going into the soil, to be taken up later, not being 
calculated. 

HISTORICAL. 

So far back as the year 1698 a celebrated French engineer (Vau- 
ban), writing in the Dime Royal, said: "We have for a long time 
past been universally complaining of the falling off in quantity and 
quality of crops; our farms are no longer giving us the returns we 
were accustomed to, yet few persons are taking the pains to examine 
into the causes of this diminution, which will become more and more 
formidable unless proper remedies are discovered and applied." This 
was a warning note, but it was not until after the commencement of 
the present century that the English farmer oegan to use crushed bones 
as a manure, and even they did so in blind ignorance of the principles 
to which they owed their virtues, as is clearly shown by an article pub- 
lished by one of the scientific papers of that day (1830), in which the 
writer says: "We need take into no account the earthy matters to 
phosphate of lime contained in the bones, because, as it is indestructi- 
ble and insoluble, it cannot serve as a manure, even though it is placed 
in a damp soil with a combination of circumstances analytically stronger 
than any of the processes known to organic chemistry." A subsequen- 
writer upon the same subject declares that "bones, after having under 
gone a certain process of fermentation, contain no more than 2 per 
cent, of gelatin, and, as they derive their fertilizing power from this 
substa' ce only, they may be considered as having no value as ma- 
nure." That such opinions as these should have prevailed only fifty 
years ago seems preposterous because of the gigantic strides which we 
have made since then, and because of the fact that 

THE CHINESE KNEW 

that the fertilizer was a mineral principle, and for many centuries used 
burnt bones as manures. Despite the unflagging researches of the 



54 Glimpses of Florida : 

best minds of the times, it was not until 1843 that the Duke of Rich- 
mond, after an exhaustive series of experiments upon the soil with both 
fresh and degelatinized bones, came to the conclusion that they owed 
their value not to gelatine or fatty matters, but to their large percent- 
age of phosphoric acid. The spark thus emitted soon spread into a. 
flame, and conclusive experiments shortly after published by the illus- 
trious Boussingault set all uncertainty at rest forever. Numerous spe- 
cies of vegetables were planted in burnt sand, which was ascertained 
by analysis to contain no trace of phosphoric acid. It was> however, 
made rich in every other element of fertility. No development of 
these plants took place until phosphate of lime had been added to the 
sand, but after this their growth became flourishing. Meanwhile large 
workable deposits of mineral phosphates were already known to exist, 
having been almost simultaneously discovered in their respective 
countries by Buckland in England, Berthier in France, and Holmes 
in America. In the course ot a lecture delivered to the British Asso- 
ciation in 1845, Professor Henslow, describing the Suffolk coprolites, 
suggested the immense value of their application to agriculture. From 
this time may be dated the development of phosphate mining as an in- 
dustry, the pursuit of which has proved so remunerative to capital and 
labor. 

SIXTY YEARS AGO 

the science of agriculture was in its infancy. Our grandfathers could 
not understand why lands once so fertile and productive should show 
signs of approaching exhaustion. The light only came to us after we 
had studied how outdoor plants live, whence they obtain their food, of 
what elements that food is composed, and how it is conveyed and ab- 
sorbed into their organisms. In point of fact, we have discovered 
that the manner of life in plants is very similar to the manner of life 
in animals and man. They require certain foods in stated proportions 
which pass through the process of digestion ; they must breathe a cer- 
tain atmosphere, and they are subject to the influences of heat and 
cold, light and darkness. 

The tissues of their bodies, like ours, are composed of carbon^ 
hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and certain mineral acids and bases, such 
as phosphoric and sulphuric acids, lime, potash, magnesia and iron. 
Since, therefore, it is admittedly necessary for man to constantly ab- 
sorb a sufiliciency of these elements in the form of food, it follows that 
similar food is required by plants for similar purposes. Having de- 
termined the elementary composition of plants, investigators directed 
their attention to the analysis of soils in order to establish compari- 
sons between virgin or uncultivated lands and old varieties which had 
long been tributaries to every kind of culture. It was found that m 
the former there is an abundance of most of the dominating mineral 
ingredients discovered in plant organisms, whereas in the latter they 
either exist only in minute proportions or are lacking altogether. This 
marked a most important stage in our progress. Argument is no 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 55 

longer necessary to prove that if agriculture is to continue to be the 
basis of national wealth and prosperity, means must be found of restor- 
ing to our soils the chief elements yearly taken away from them by the 
crops. These chief elements have been shown to be nitrogen, phos- 
phoric acid and potash, and the most important parts in the functions 
of vegetation, and are the most liable to exhaustion. 

Previous to 1841 the principal commercial fertilizer was bone dust, 
that being the only form of phosphate of lime then known. About 
the year 1833 Thomas Graham, a Scotch chemist, had made a careful 
investigation into the chemical nature of phosphoric acidadphos- 
phatic salts. The result of his investigation was the widespread use of 
bone dust as a fertilizer. It was found, however, that it was necessary 
to use as much as 1,000 to 1,200 pounds per acre to secure the best 
results, owing to the lact that the phosphate of lime in bones is so 
slightly soluble in water. 

In 1 841 guano was introduced from the Chincha Islands of Peru. 
Because of the greater solubility of this fertilizer and the consequent 
better results obtained from its use the demand for it rapidly increased. 
At this time Liebig, the German chemist, discovered and formulated 
the method of making soluble the phosphate of lime contained in 
bones by treating the bone dust with sulphuric acid. 

Speaking of the advantage to be derived from the application of 
finely powdered raw phosphates. Dr. Wyatt says: 

"Nothing of any serious moment has, in fact, occurred to modify 
the conclusions formulated in 1857 by the well known Frenchman, 
DeMolon, who, reporting on a very extensive series of trials of ground 
raw coprolite in many different departments of France, said that: 
'First, it might be used with advantage in clayey, schistous, granitic 
and sandy soils rich in organic matter; second, if these soils were de- 
ficient in organic matter, or had long been under cultivation, it might 
still be used in combination with animal manure.' " 

Professor E. T. Cox, at the Washington meeting of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, August 20, 1891, refer- 
ring to crude phosphate as a fertilizer, says: 

"But why convert the pebbles into acid phosphate? The acid 
phosphate is reverted into phosphate of iron and alumina after it is 
applied to the land by the presence of iron and alumina that are found 
in all arable soils. It is, in my opinion, far more economical for the 
farmer to apply to his land the phosphate of lime in the form of a fine 
powder than to apply the acid phosphate. 

"In this case the more phosphate of alumina.it contains the bet- 
ter, as it will be more readily assimilated by the plants than reverted 
phosphoric acid, which results from the application of superphosphates 
to soils containing iron and alumina." 

In connection with the foregoing. Professor Cox quoted from a 
letter of Henry Wurtz, Ph. D., to whom he had submitted his paper. 
Dr. Wurtz writes : 

"What you say about a merely mechanical treatment, in the prep- 



56 Glimpses of Florida : 

aration for use of these phosphatic gravels; that is, mainly by fine 
comminution, meets the approval of my own mind, through my own 
reading, experience and investigation in every way. The efificiency of 
phosphate as fertilizers is rationally explainable by their conversion 
into polymeric forms, soluble in the liquids which occur in the soil or 
arise from the natural excretions of the radicles of plants, or from prod- 
ucts of plant decay. Such excrements, i-i?// al., convert phosphates 
into soluble polymeric or other forms. 

"Mulder claimed that these solvent or transforming agents are 
the organic acids of decay, such as those called hurnic, ulmic, crenic, 
apocrenic, etc. H. von Liebig, some ten years since, claimed that 
roots secrete or excrete oxalic acid, which alone, or with the ammonia 
of the soil, or of both, dissolves solid phosphates. 

"Gladding proved that organic salts of ammonia can completely 
dissolve or cause to pass into solution not only lime, but alumina and 
iron phosphates. Other chemists (as Millot) have shown that ammo- 
nia salts even prevent the reversion or precipitation of dissolved phos- 
phates in the soil. It is undeniable that great mechanical comminu- 
iton has been proved by numerous experiments to be almost, if not 
quite, as efificient as chemical solution in the promotion of the absorb- 
tion of phosphates by plant radicles. If the clayey phosphates (mean- 
ing the soft phosphate herein described) you describe snould really 
pan out 50 per cent., or even less, of tri-calcium phosphate, with or 
without iron and aluminum phosphates, its importance appears to me 
incalculable. The mass of remarkable and significant chemical facts 
in the literature of soils and fertilizers has surprised me; apparently 
no master mind has yet reduced them to any available system of soil 
science." 

Soft phosphate should not be confounded with "floats" or rock 
phosphate in any form, the former giving up all its fertilizing proper- 
ties in from one to two years, according to natural solubility and fine- 
ness of pulverization; the latter yielding 5 per cent, per annum until 
its fertilizing properties are exhausted. Besides, there are valuable 
properties in the former, such as magnesia, carbonate of lime, etc., 
which the latter does not possess, and a power of absorption and re- 
tention of moisture of incalculable value. 

The report of the United States Commissioner of Labor on the 
soft phosphate industry of Florida for th ^ year ending December 
31, 1892 (from which we largely quoted), says: 

"The increase in the yield of cotton, in test rows manured with 
soft phosphate, was marked, and proved the phosphate to be better 
than animal manure and standard fertilizers. 

"The concensus of opinions is, that it is a manure of surpassing 
virtue, and for the purpose of restoring exhausted lands and old worn 
out farms is the cheapest and, at the same time, the best fertilizer. 

"It is generally believed that it gives better results than any other 
kind of raw phosphate, or even ground bone. 

"During the protracted drought of 1891 trees and crops treated 



Anciknt, Colonial and Modern. 57 

with soft phosphate endured the trying ordeal much better than others, 
whether manured or unmanured." 

Captain James F. Tucker, special agent Department of Labor, 
Avho has made a long study of Florida soft phosphate, says: "In one 
case I used soft phosphate on a row of orange trees and none on the 
row adjoining. With the exception of phosphate all the conditions 
were equal. The crop on the row fertilized with phosphate was 40 
per cent, greater than the row on which there was no phosphate." 

Professor Lawrence Johnson, U. S. Geolgist, says of Florida soft 
(marl) phosphate: "It is a natural high grade fertihzer, and a great 
boon to the farmers and fruit growers of the country." 

Dr. Shephard, of the Charleston Laboratory, a chemist of world- 
wide reputation, says: "Put all the money you can spare into soft 
phosphate and spread it on your land." 

Dr. Pratt (probably the highest authority in the United States) 
says of soft phosphate: "It will come into general use, with great 
permanent benefit to the land." 

Liebig says: "Organic matter undergoing decay accumulates 
carbonic acid, and thereby acquires the power of taking up phosphate 
of lime." 

TWO EXPERIMENTS. 

To test the comparative productiveness of ground raw phosphate 
and acid phosphate under different conditions, and to determine 
whether decomposing organic matter converts insoluble into soluble 
phosphate, two sets of experiments were carried out by the Alabama 
Experiment Station, one on the farm and the other in the chemical 
laboratory. 

The materials used were carefully analyzed by Dr. Anderson, as- 
sistant chemist, with the following results : The acid phosphate gave 

Water Soluble Phosphoric Acid (P2O5) 9io per cent. 

Citrate Soluble Phosphoric Acid (P2O5) 2.94 ^_ 

Acid Soluble Phosphoric Acid (P2O5) ^ ^- 

Total Phosphoric Acid )P505) '4-36 

The Florida soft phosphate reduced to a fine powder similar to' 
floats gave 

Moisture A'W 

Total Phosphoric Acid (Acid Soluble) i°-59 

Iron and Aluminum Oxides °-^ 

Results favoring soft phosphate by 2.19 phosphoric acid over 
acidulated acid, equivalent to about 5 per cent, available phosphate of 
lime. 

FERTILIZING IN OLDEN TIMES — SEVENTY YEARS EXPERIENCE WITH 
MARL PHOSPHATE. 

"Father's farm was a deep yellow clay. The timber was chestnut ' 
oak, hickory, etc. It had been rented until the tenant could not cut 



58 Glimpses of Florida: 

any clover or timothy for hay; no wheat, and but a few bushels of corn, 
oats and rye. At the first, father and the neighbors began to look 
around for a fertilizer, for they had but a small quantity of stable ma- 
nure; this was spread very sparingly on a few acres of land near the 
barn to raise a few bushels of wheat, corn and oats, and a few loads of 
hay, and he said it was a few, just a few, for a 160-acre farm to pro- 
duce. 

JERSEY SAND. 

"When I got to be about seven years of age, he and his neigh- 
bors got to hauling ashes from Philadelphia, thirty miles away. It 
was brought up in sloops to the nearest landing — Bordentown, on the 
Delaware river — then he and ten to fifteen of his neighbors would go 
with their teams and haul it to one of their farms. These ashes only 
just about paid expenses, with a small margin in favor of the farmer. 
After a few years this source of getting a fertilizer came to an end by 
the introduction of anthracite coal ; and now the farmers were in a 
quandary and the question was often asked, 'What can we get for a 
fertilizer?' For there was not a pound of any kind manufactured that 
the writer ever heard of; but they were soon relieved of their perplex- 
ity — a substance was found in the ground, and right und.r some of 
their poor farms, which subsequently proved to be one of the best fer- 
tilizers. All that some farmers had to do was to uncap a pit and dig 
it out. This fertilizer was called 'marl.' Father and his neighbors 
had to haul it about five miles, and the writer well remembers the 
many cold mornings and blustering, stormy days, and how he and his 
brother had to be up by 5 o'clock, feed the stock, swill the swine, 
harness and hitch up, and off to the 'Pemberton Marl Pits,' chop out 
the frozen lumps, load up, drive five miles home to the field, spread 
it out, feed and back again for the second load — two loads a day. 
This marl cost us twenty five cents a load at the pit. 

JERSEY MARL. 

"Marl soon became in great demand all over the State, and many 
a worthless acre was made productive. After using marl several years,, 
to the treat benefit of the farmer, it was suggested that lime would be 
quite an acquisition, as there was not a particle of lime in the soil. All 
the lime we used had to be shipped from the kilns, over in Pennsylva- 
nia, to within seven or eight miles of our farm. It was in large lumps,^ 
was hauled and thrown in heaps; water was hauled and thrown on to 
slack it, then hauled and spread over the field at the rate of from 
twenty- five to fifty bushels to the acre. On real poor land we dare 
not put un over twenty to twenty-five bushels to the acre, but when 
we had a large quantity of coarse manure or a good grass sod to plow 
under with it, we could put on fifty bushels to the acre, and as the soil 
became richer in vegetation, etc., could put on more manure; then we 
increased the number of bushels of lime to sixty or more to the acre. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 59 

"There is not any fertilizing quality in 

LIME 

of itself, yet it has the peculiar power to hasten the decomposition of 
vegetable matter, and so make it available as plant food. Lime will 
also correct the acidity in soil. 

"Our Jersey marl proved to be a grand fertilizer, and we found 
that lime judiciously used was really an acquisition, and after years of 
lugging and tugging, for it was very laborious work for team and teams- 
ter, and a tremendous wear and tear on wagons and harness, we had 
the satisfaction of seeing our barns, cribs and cellars well filled with 
hay, grain, vegetables, etc. 

"Really like that 'certain rich man' we read of in an old book, 
'whose ground brought forth so plentifully he had not room to bestow 
his fruits, so he thought within himself, this will I do: I will pull 
down my barns and build greater,' and thus did my father, and when 
I left the old domicile and grange in 1844 for Ohio, he had built and 
rebuilt until he had sufficient 'room to bestow his fruits,' and his 
neighbors did likewise, for about all the farmers in those counties be- 
came prosperous farmers, the result of marl and lime, industry, frugal- 
ity and economy; and there are many farms in Ohio, Indiana and 
other States in the Mississippi Valley, notorious for its fertility, that 
could be made to produce double, and sometimes treble, by a judi- 
cious use of marl and lime." — G. W. Emley, in Agricultural Economist. 

MARL and soft PHOSPHATE. 

The marl of New Jersey differs but little from the soft phosphate 
of Florida, especially the Welshton deposits. The New Jersey marl, 
however, contains only 9 per cent, phosphate of lime, while the Flor- 
ida marl contains, on an average, 54 per cent., besides 20 per cent, 
lime, 4 per cent, magnesia, 8 per cent, iron and aluminum, soda, 
etc., making it five times more valuable than that of New Jersey. 
Hundreds of tests in Florida and adjoining States on fields and orange 
groves attest the great value of Florida marl phosphate as a fertilizer. 

Florida's natural manurial resources. 

Florida has unlimited quantities of marl phosphate, muck (more 
valuable than stable manure) and scrub oak with which to make ashes 
(the cheapest form of potash), which, in combination with stable ma- 
nure, makes a complete fertilizer for grove, field or garden. Florida 
should be the garden spot of the world. 

The approved formula per acre is for average Florida soil : 

Prepared Soft Phosphate, 500 lbs $2.oo 

Stable Manure, dry, 1,000 lbs i 00 

Kard wood Ashes, home-made, 500 lbs ^. 3.00 

$6.00 — Less transportation 

This should be well mixed before spreading. In the absence of 
stable manure substitute dry and thoroughly pulverized muck. 



6o Glimpses of Florida : 

Poor pine land needs humus, and will be greatly benefited by 
spreading muck upon the surface. 

For vegetables, or other products that draw heavily from the soil, 
the above formula shouln be increased, possibly doubled. 

KAOLIN AND GYPSUM. 

Among the important discoveries of mineral wealth growing out 
of the search for phosphate none are of greater value than kaolin. 

In 1770, Josiah Wedgworth (father of the famous ware that bears 
his name) said : " Florida kaolin is of great purity, and very valuable 
in fine carved work." Florida kaolin was used centuries ago, but 
for want of transportation facilities was for a time, like the treasures 
of Pompeii and Rome, buried in oblivion. 

The report of the United States geological survey, 1891, speak- 
ing of Florida kaolin, says : 

"The recent discovery of sedimentary kaolin in the miocene 
formation of the State bids fair to be one of the most important 
events in the history of the China clay industry." Tested at the na- 
tional manufactory at Sevris, it proved fully equal to the famous kao- 
lin of Limoges. 

Cornwall kaolin contains 46.27 silica; that of Florida, 46.11. 
Alumina should be about 40; of this the kaolin of Limoges has 42, 
Chinese, 33.70, Florida, 39.55. 

The large kaolin deposits are principally confined to Lake county. 
Kaolin rests on eocene limestone and is from twenty-five to thirty feet 
in thickness. In places it outcrops, but mostly has an overburden of 
two or more feet of ferruginous sand. Estimating the average depth 
of the crude kaolin at twenty five feet and the per cent, of prepared 
clay ready for shipment at 33 per cent., it will give 12,000 tons to 
the acre. 

The principal company now operating is the Standard Kaolin 
Co., with headquarters in Ocala, Fla. 

GYPSUM. 

Among the many recent important discoveries in Florida is gyp- 
sum. This material, generally found in volcanic regions, belongs to 
the Mesozoic or Secondary age. Gypsum is found in Virginia, Ten- 
nessee, Michigan and Kentucky, but not till 1889 was it known in 
Florida.* 

The most celebrated gypsum beds in the world are those of 
Monmartre, near Paris. These quarries are classical ground, having 
furnished Cuvier the material upon which he based his philosophic 
history of life on the earth. 

Gypsum is a mineral, the natural bihydrated calcium sulphate, 
and is extensively used as a fertilizer; also in the manufacture of glass, 
porcelain, etc., and in many of the arts. 

*Colonel Adam Eichleberger was the first to discover gyp»um in Florida, on his 
orange grove on the Withlacoochee river, where there are large deposits. 



THE BLUE AND THE GRAY. 



One People, One Country, One Flag, One Destiny! 

OcALA, Dec. 1 6, 1 89 1. — Forty or fifty Confederate veterans met 
here in the opera house this evening, representing Pensacola, Monti- 
cello, Jacksonville, Dade City, BrooksvilJe, Orlando, Sanford and 
other places. 

On motion, Capt. J. B. Johnston was called to the chair, and 
Wm. Fox was made secretary. Subsequently they were made perma- 
nent chairman and secretary. 

Capt. Johnston's remarks on taking the chair were eloquent and 
full of pathos. Though taken by surprise he was so full of the sub- 
ject that a month's preparation could not have improved hi^remarks. 

As the veterans filled into the hall Mrs. E. W. Agnew, Mrs. Col. 
Badger, Mrs. Gen. Dickinson, Mrs. Dozier, Mrs. S. W. '^ary, Mrs. 
Gen. Finley, Mrs. Bullock, Mrs. John Dunn, Mrs. C. J. AUerd and 
a number of pretty young ladies and little girls pinned a lovely rose 
on the lappel of each coat. The ladies named, in honor of their 
heroic service during the war, were afterward invited to seats on the 
stage. 

At 8 o'clock Capt. Johnston called the delegates again to order. 
On motion of Col. J. M. Martin, Capt. J. H. Welsh, of the Grand 
Army of the Republic, who was present by special invitation, and Dr. 
Dwelly, also a Grand Army of the Republic man, were invited to 
seats by the side of the chairman. Capt. Welsh made a most eloquent 
and amusing speech, which set the audience in roars of laughter, fol- 
lowed by sympathy at the more pathetic periods. 

Col. H. W. Lord moved that a committee of four, the chairman, 
the major-general. Dr. Wallace of Dade City, and Capt. Merrin of 
the Plant City Courier, be appointed to draft a constitution and by- 
laws to govern the State organization of Confederate Veterans. 

After speeches by Dr. Dwelly, Col. Long, Col. Cooper, Dr. 
Maxwell and others. Col. Byrd moved a hand-shake all round be- 
tween the "Rebs" and "Yanks" who were present, which ceremony 
was performed amid much merriment and good feeling. Col. 
Cooper's remarks were sublimely eloquent and patriotic and brought 
tears to every eye in the audience. 

The proceedings and resolution of the ex Confederate Camp at 
Monticello, Fla., were read. They are as follows: 

Before the Camp proceeded to regular business, at 2 p. m., and 
soon after recalling the Camp to attention, Commander W. Capers 
Bird said: 



62 Glimpses of Florida : 

Comrades : We recognize the fact that the war is over. The 
South fought for a separate government, not in enmity to our brothers 
of the North, but for what we, at the time, thought to be the safety 
and stability of our social and political institutions. But the God of 
Battles has settled the issue, and we bow honestly and candidly to the 
result. Hereafter we shall have one people, one flag, one destiny, 
one country. The North fought for the Union and won. We hail 
the old Federal soldiers as brothers, as men who were worthy our 
steel in the hour of battle. I regret that some of those who wore the 
blue are not with us to-day in a re-union which would testify our ap- 
preciation of their valor and generosity, and of the fact that we are 
once more an indissoluble Union of indestructible States. — Florida 
■ Standard. 

WHICH WAS UNANIMOUSLY APPROVED. 

Adjutant Wright, at the conclusion of Colonel Bird's remarks, 
moved that a vote of approval or disapproval be taken at once. On 
this motiijn, put to the house by Major Simpkins, there was a unani- 
mous voice of approbation, showing that the ex-Confederate soldiers, 
while faithful to the memories of the past and quick to resent any im- 
putation upon the patriotism and honor of their dead comrades or 
themselves, stood ready to defend the Union, the Constitution and 
the enforcement of the laws for the future. 

The letter of Capt. John H. Welsh, department commander de- 
partment of Florida, G. A. R.,, in acknowledgment of a communica- 
tion from Col. Bird endorsing action of ex-Confederate camp, Monti- 
cello, Fla., as follows, was also read: 

Welshton, Fla., Dec. lo, 1891. 
Colonel W. Capers Bird: 

Dear Sir : After reading your elegant address to the Confederate 
Camp of Monticello, which you have the honor to command, I said 
Solomon himself was not wiser, nor was not Cicero when pleading 
with his countrymen for unity more eloquently patriotic. 

Thirteen years ago, after spending a winter in the South, I said 
"the soldier of the South is to-day loyal, and should the old flag be- 
come endangered, he would be found fighting as gallantly in its de- 
fense as he ever fought for the Confederacy." I have since seen no 
reason to change the views then expressed. Lee said at Appomattox: 
"The war is over." The South will keep the covenant. An acca- 
sional young orator of the day (God bless her) to the contrary not- 
withstanding. 

Your declaration "henceforth we shall have one people, one flag, 
one destiny, one country," unanimously endorsed by your camp, dis- 
pels the mist and rain of a quarter ot a century. 

"From our dead foemeti comes nochiding forth, 

We live a peace. Heaveu has no South, no North, 
With roots of tree and flower and fern and heather, 
God reaches down and clasps our hands together." 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 63 

Kindly convey to your camp the best wishes of a Union soldier, 
whose fondest desire is a perfect union, and believe me to be sincerely 
your friend. 

John H. Welsh. 

The resolution was unanimously adopted. The resolution and 
letter of Capt. Welsh were ordered spread upon the minutes and read 
in every camp. — From the Florida Standard. 



THE G. A. R. OF FLORIDA AT DETROIT— THEY ARE 
ACCOMPANIED BY THE " GRAYS." 



THE LAND OF FLOWERS GREETS THE CITY OF STRAITS — A SUPERB 

BOUQUET PRESENTED BY THE G. A. R. VETERANS. 
From the Detroit Sunday News, Aug 9, iSga. 

The Car load of orange trees, palms, ferns and other products of 
Florida which the Grand Army veterans from the "Land ot Flowers" 
brought to Detroit were yesterday formally presented to the city by 
Dept. Commander John H. Welsh. The presentation speech was 
made in the mayor's ufhce in the presence of an audience of repre- 
sentative citizens. Others of the Florida delegation present were 
Asst. Adjt. Gen. W. J. Allen, A W. Gates, Col. Hizzard, C. F. 
Avery, Col. Geo. F. Poote, a retired army officer, and Cash Thomas, 
superintendent of the Florida Semi Tropica! Exposition. Commander 
Welsh made a happy presentation speech. He said : 

"The trans- Atlantic garden of the Hesperides sends greeting to 
the metropolis of the " Old Lake State," tne home of a future presi- 
dent, and bids me present you this little token — a few samples of our 
products. 

" But I have another and higher mission. It is said that Michi- 
gan has enough pine to build a fence seventy five teet high around the 
Western continent, and co ijecture places operations at not later than 
1892. We know something of 'Wolverines' and the absence of the 
word fail in their vocabulary, should steam, however, get crosswise in 
the ' biler.' I am here to say a word for Florida, draw on us to any 
extent for pine and crackers."* 

" Returning, like the prodigal son, after thirty years' absence, 
brings to mind an incident of my first visit to Detroit thirty-five years 

♦Native Floridians. 5W 



64 Glimpses of Florida : 

ago. A woman dying of consumption, penniless and alone, seeking 
the home of her childhood on the opposite shore, whom it was my 
privilege to aid. A night or two later she came to me in white robes 
and said, ' Life's fitful fever is over ; I reached home only to die, and 
am now in heaven.' It was only a dream, no doubt, but from that 
day to this, whether in the peaceful walks of life or in the din of battle, 
the gem city, nestling between the 'great lakes,' has been associated 
in my mind with angels. 

" I might tell you of America's mighty onward march, for the 
tramp, tramp of old comrades on your streets, teaching the lesson of 
loyalty, recalls many memories of stockades and Indian wars in Detroit, 
when you were the advanced post in the march of the western empire, or 
of the wonderful growth of your city since last I saw it; but I take 
for granted you prefer hearing something of the wonderland of Amer- 
ica, the new home of my adoption, for though you are on the confines 
of the British dominions and we on the Gulf of Mexico, our interests 
are mutual, our prosperity identical." 

" No pent-up Utica contracts our powers, 
For the wliole bondless continent is ours. " 

"Florida might well be compared to the depreciated securities of 
the millionaire — locked up for a time as worthless, suddenly they are 
quoted, the owner recollects his possessions, they are drawn forth and 
found to be ' legal tender.' Florida has had to exercise the virtue of 
patience, a resort for consumptives, home of perpetual summer: 

" Where the buds ever blossom, the stars ever shine, 
And all save the eight baUot box is divine." 

" But the dream is over. New York and London are everywhere. 
American capital and vim are pushing everything aside in the struggle 
for the billions in our sandhills, lakes and rivers. The sanitarium of 
the world, a wilderness of oleanders, orange trees, palmettoes, lemons, 
pines and magnolias, no longer hiding her unquestioned possibilities 
under a golden haze, has thrown off the sleep of ages and proudly 
takes her place among the great States of the Union. 

" For the sportsman we have myriads of game, for the antiquarian 
rich stores of tradition, and tor the historian there is always the Span- 
ish city of St. Augustine, old Fort Marion, Matanzas and Fort Pickens, 
the landing place of De Soto, Ponce de Leon, the battlefields of the 
French and the Spaniards and the fountain of eternal youth." 

"You never know a gentleman until you have stretched your legs 
under his mahogany. We want you to know us as we are, to see us 
in our homes — so come to Florida. We will show you lakes, rivers 
and seacoast teeming with fish, Flagler's $2,000,000 Ponce de Leon, 
Plant's palace hotel, with its silver domes and its pointed minerets 
glistening like diamonds in the sun, a modern Venice, with white- 
winged messengers of commerce and pleasure turned to every point 
of the globe. Silver Springs and the famous Indian river, railroads 
equipped with every modern appliance, steamers equal to those upon 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 65 

your picturesque river, newspapers whose pens reach around the globe, 
treasures that put Solomon's mines to shame, more cigars manufactured 
in a day than you ever conceived of, a people who dry up and blow 
away when they want to die, a basket of oranges for every man, 
woman and child in the United States, thousands of acres of phosphate, 
the depth of which has not been reached at fifty feet; ships from 
every commercial nation on the globe at Fernandina, Key West and 
Pensacola, the Sub-Tropical and Semi-Tropical at Jacksonville and 
Ocala, respectively, Tallahassee, ' The City of Roses,' sitting like 
ancient Rome upon her seven hills, and everywhere and always 
'Caped mile faihe.'" 

President Livingston of the park commission, in the absence of 
Mayor Pingree, who was indisposed by overwork during the encamp- 
ment, accepted the gift on behalf of the city in a neat speech, in which 
he said that from an extended visit to Florida last winter he could cor- 
roborate all that Commander Welsh had said of her beauties and her 
resources. He had traveled in many countries, but he had never 
found any so pleasant as Florida. He could attest that her hospitality 
and her possibilities are boundless. He had seen trees bearing 3,000 
oranges, and a luxuriant crop of pineapples growing on what had been 
third-rate pine land. He was shown while there a phosphate mine 
from which $270,000 worth of phosphate had been taken fr^m half 
an acre. 

" The exhibit was taken to Belle Isle yesterday afternoon. It will 
be displayed at the park exposition and then kept permanently at the 
park. 

"An interesting feature of the National Encampment, and one 
that created much enthusiasm, was a delegation of the Florida Grays, 
accompanying the Department of Florida G. A. R." 



66 Glimpses of Florida 



PUBLIC SCHOOLS IN FLORIDA. 



Taking the number of schools, viz : 2.333, ^"d placing the popu- 
lation at 400,000, Florida has a public school for every 170 of her 
population, old and young, whice and negro. Census 1890. 

In expenditures for public instruction, white and negroes are 
treated impartially. The average cost of tuition (cost of buildings not 
included) is $7.81. School buildings are erected by the patrons. 

Number of Schools . 2,333 

Nu'iiber of White Schools Ii746 

Number of Negro Schools 587 

Total Eiiiollmeiit of White Youth 55,iqi 

Total Enrollment of Negro Youth 37.281 

Number of Youth of School Age 113 647 

Average Daily Attendance 64,819 

Nun ber of Winte Teachers Fmployed 1,849 

Number of Negro Teachers Kniplov ed 661 

Average Salary of Teachei s per Month $57 72 

Total Expenditures tor Schools $516,532 70 

STATE INSTITUTIONS. 

The State institutions of education are the Florida Agricultural 
and Mechanical College, located at Lake City, Columbia county ; the 
West Florida Seminary, located at Tallahassee ; the East Florida Sem- 
inary, located at Gainesville; the Institute for the Blind and Deaf- 
mutes, located at St. Augustine ; the Normal College for the training 
of white teachers, located at De Funiak Springs, and the Normal Col- 
lege for the training of negro teachers, located at Tallahassee ; tuition 
in each and all of these is entirely without cost to pupils. 

FLORIDA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE. 

This institution is designed not only to give a liberal literary educa- 
tion but to impart also a knowledge of the theory and practice of econom- 
cal and successful farming; and an industrial training, consisting of tool 
craft, mechanical drawing, together with special courses in civil engin- 
eering, a business course, telegraphy and type-writing, at the option of 
the student or his parents. An excellent faculty has been placed in 
charge, large and commodious college buildings and dormitories are 
supplied and equipped in each of their special departments and sup- 
plied with scientific apparatus and appliances, and is now ready for the 
literary, agriculturil and mechmical education of the young men of 
the Stite. The expense of living at the college has been reduced to 
the minimum, being at a cost of $9.00 per month. Wholesome, sub- 
stantial food is supplied. Students are offered an opportunity to reduce 
this by working on the farm and college grounds at an allowance per 
hour. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 67 

This school is, by the law creating it, one in which military tactics 
and science must be taught, and is under military discipline and system. 
This, though an excellent feature of a sound education, is by no means 
paramount, but subordinate, and supplements the main features of the 
college work. It is a feature, however, admirable, in that it begets a 
manliness of deportment and carriage, courage and thorough system. 

Taking the average of new schools and expenditures, the number 
of schools at the present time, December, 1893, would be 2,419; the 
number of scholars 116,986, and the yearly expenditures $638,139.80. 



FLORIDA POLITICS. 

Florida may be said to be nothing if not political — a condition 
prevalent in the South. Just now there are three parties. 
The several platforms may be summarized as follows : 

DEMOCRATIC ISSUES. 

1. Economy in public expenditure. 

2. Tariff for revenue only. 

3. No force bill. 

republican ISSUES. 

1. Protection to American industries. 

2. A sound and staple currency. 

3. A fair and free ballot. 

people's party ISSUES. 

1. Free and unlimited comage of gold and silver. 

2. Increased circulating medium loaned by the Government at 2 
per cent, per annum. 

3. Government ownership and control of modes of transmission 
and transportation. 

Of the Democratic issues, the first is disposed of by the fact that 
the present Democratic Congress was practically as extravagant as the 
preceding Republican Congress; while the third (the force bill) loses 
much of its importance in the curious fact that it has never been 
adopted as a party measure, and was voted down by a Republican Con- 
gress, leaving but a single issue, as follows: 

We denounce the Republican protective tariff" as a fraud upon the 
labor of the great majority of the American people for the benefit of a 
few. We declare it to be a fundamental principle of the Democratic 
party that the Federal Government has not the constitutional power to 
enforce and collect tariff duties, except for the purpose of revenue 
only. 

Of the issues of the Republican party, the second is but a reitera- 
ion, the currency and coinage of silver having ceased to be party 
ssues; while the third, in the form of the so-called force bill, having 
been rejected by a Republican Congress, scarcely deserves the dignity 



68 Glimpses of Florida : 

of a place in the party platform, leaving but protection to American 
industries. 

The Republican party stands upon the following plank : 

We demand that the imposition of duties on foreign imports shall 
be made not for revenue only, but that in raising the required reve- 
nues for the Government such duties shall be so levied as to afford se- 
curity in our diversified industries, and protection to the rights and 
usages of the laborer, to the end that active and intelligent labor, as 
well as capital, may have its just reward, and the laboring man his full 
share in the National prosperity. 

Of the principles of the People's party but the third can be classed 
as National, the second being little more than a monetary transaction 
benefiting the few ; while the first is founded on false estimates of value 
or personal gain. The American silver dollar, not possessing the in- 
trinsic value it represents, leaving, as in the case of the other parties, 
but the following important plank : 

Transportation being a means of exchange and a public necessity, 
the Government should own and operate the railroads in the interest 
of the people. 

The telegraph and telephone, like the postoffice system, being a 
necessity for the transmission of news, should be owned and operated 
in the interest of the people. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 69 



The Transportation Lines of Florida. 



The history of Florida could not be written without taking into 
account the transportation lines of the State, for to them Florida is 
almost wholly indebted for the marvelous prosperity of the past 
decade. 

In 1881 there were three railroads in Florida; the J., P. & M., 
from Jacksonville to Chattahoochee. The Transit, from Fernandina 
to Cedar Keys, and a short line from St. Marks to Tallahassee. 
Throughout the balance of the State, except on the St. Johns and 
Ocklawaha rivers, silence reigned, for only the crack of the cowboy's 
lash broke the everlasting stillness. 

Ancient as is Florida and wonderful as are her natural resources, 
a dozen years ago she possessed but a dismantled fort or two ; a limited 
and listless population ; herds of cattle ; the remnant of a brave but 
merciless race of "red-skins ; " fish, alligators and an occasional con- 
sumptive Yankee. 

The actual necessities of life were easily obtained, and it was the 
boast of the Floridian that he was never in a hurry ; nor was there 
need to be, for there were no means of transportation, except on the 
line of navigable rivers, and whatever he produced beyond his neces- 
sities was a waste of material. There were no markets except for 
cattle, which could be moved on foot ; so the sun shone and the indo- 
lent slumbered. But the unexpected occurred; the screech of the 
locomotive was heard throughout the land, and Florida awoke to an 
undreamed era of prosperity. Enterprise, backed by capital, saw the 
possibilities of the State ; railroads stretched out in every direction. 
Every hamlet is now in touch with the marts of the world. Hundreds 
of cities have sprung into being out of the desert places. Land in 
many parts of the State has increased in value a hundred fold. The 
product of the grove and farm is but three days from ' New York or 
Boston. Palatial hotels, some of them costing millions of dollars, are 
everywhere, and 50,000 tourists winter in Florida — a condition of 
things impossible without transportation. 

Florida is now said to be fifth in railroad construction and third 
in train mileage among the States of the Union, but in increase of 
mileage according to population there is no comparison, Florida out- 
stripping them all. Three of these magnificent roads are nearly parallel 
lines, tapping South America at Gulf ports, and having direct connec- 
tions North, East and West, practically annihilating both time and 
space — Tampa being but forty hours from New York or Chicago. 



70 



Glimpses of Florida 



The surprising feature of Florida railroad construction, however, is 
the vast network of lateral roads in every direction. 

The transportation lines of Florida cost the enormous sum of 
$75,000,000; employ 7,000 people, and expend annually more than 
$6,500,000 in the State. 

Following the railways in order of importance are the steamship 
and river lines, which yearly put in circulation $1,000,000. 

The following are some of the most important lines of transpor- 
tation : 




Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 71 



The Tropical Trunk Line==The J., T. & K. W. 

System. 



Tapping the great arteries of trade and travel, North and West, 
at Jacksonville, the metropolis of Florida, this popular system of rail- 
ways and inland steamers connects Lake Worth, the paradise of the 
East Coast, Punta Gorda, the extreme southern limit ol inland traffic, 
and Tampa, the modern Venice on the Gulf of Mexico, with a long 
arm from Palatka, through the interior, touching Gainesville, Ocala, 
Leesburg, Pemberton and other points of commercial importance. 

Taking the "vestibuled" fast mail south, we stop at Orange Park, 
a pretty little hamlet, embowered in mammoth oaks. Next at Mag- 
nolia, a fashionable winter resort, consisting of a palatial hotel and 
pretentious cottages. Ten minutes later we are at Green Cove Sprmgs, 
noted for its sulphur baths, comfortable hotels, romantic "Lovers' 
Lane," and handsome residences; and an hour later pull up at Pa- 
latka, where connections are made with the Florida Southern, Georgia 
Southern and Florida, Daytona, St. Augustine and all points on the 
St. Johns and Ocklawaha rivers, via daily line of steamers. Palatka 
boasts gas works, street railway, water works, fine hotels (the Putnam 
House is among the finest and largest in the State), beautiful scenery 
and a boundless hospitality. 

Leaving Palatka, our first halt is at Seville, one of the many 
pretty "railroad towns" of the State. Shortly after we are at Enter- 
prise, and while yet it is day, pull into Titusville, the Key City oi the 
east coast, familiarly known as the Indian River country, of which the 
poet sings : 

Palm, palmetto, lime and cypress, 

Aud the wind-pwept cedar trees, 
Live oaks dr'ped with mist like mosses, 

Grace ray banks; yea, more than these. 
Fruits, whose lile is tropic sunshine ; flowers, 

With brilliance rich and rare, 
Aud when stars shine on my waters 

There is fragrance everywhere. 

The roadway from Jacksonville is lined with thriving towns, end- 
less groves and cozy cottages— a delightfully rural panorama not soon 
to be forgotten. 

Titusville is a thriving town of 2,50 population, and is noted for 
its beautiful vegetable farms and oranger goves. It is the county seat 
of Brevard County. The famous Turnbull " Hammock " begins on 
the northern edge of the town, and extends for a distance of forty 
miles, an unbroken body of most fertile soil. 



72 Glimpses of Florida : 



A glance at Titusville, and we are off via the Jacksonville, Tampa 
and Key West line of Steamers for Rockledge — the picturesque ! 
Here one might linger in the lap of summer, counting only the years — 
possibly the hotel bills, but there are said to be even greater attractions, 
so we push on to Jupiter, the southern limit of river navigation, where 
we take the Jupiter & Lake Worth Railway — a part of this system — 
for Juno, and thence via steamer for Pitts' Island, Oak Lawn, Riveria, 
Palm Beach, etc., tourist resorts on Lake Worth. 

Beautiful Lake Worth ! home of summer breezes and endless sun- 
shine. What pen can tell thy charms, what brush can do thee justice ? 
Nature, with omnipotent hand, and ;;/<?«, with the magic power of gold, 
have conspired to make thee exquisite ! Nature was bountiful — man was 
lavish. Incomparable blending of Art and Nature — thou art, indeed, 
a bower oi enchatitment ! 

The officers of this system are : 

Major J. H. Durkee, Receiver, Jacksonville, Fla. 

W. B. Coffin, General Manager, Jacksonville, Fla. 

G. D. Ackerly, General Passenger Agent, Jacksonville, Fla. 

James Menzies, General Freight Agent, Jacksonville, Fla. 




p Ti 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 73 



R ThoFoughfare of the Tropies — The Florida 
Southern f^ailu-iay. 



(Now a Part of tbe J., T. & K. W. System.) 

The Florida SDuthern Railroad, beginning at Palatka, the head of 
deep navigation on the St. Johns, where it connects with the main 
line of the system to which it belongs, was commenced in 1881, and 
before the close of the season the line was in operation to Gainesville. 
In 1882 the southern extension was begun and the road completed to 
Ocala — the "Brick City" — which, before the building of the road, 
was but a jumble of cabins. 

Early in the spring of '83, Major Conant, a man of great execu- 
tive ability, was made General Manager. Work-shops were enlarged 
and fitted with modern machinery. A foundry was built, skilled 
workmen employed and cars and locomotives constructed. " On to 
Leesburg" was the order, and during 1883 forty miles of track were 
laid. The following year the road was extended to Brooksville, and 
a year or two later was further extended to Punta Gorda, its present 
terminus, where it connects by steamship with New Orleans, New 
York, Europe and important points in South America. 

The branches of the Florida Southern are as follows: Micanopy 
Junction to Tacoma via Micanopy, and Oaklawn to Citra. 

Some idea ot the material interests to the State, involved in the 
construction of this road, may be gathered trom the fact that its an- 
nual haul of phosphate is over 100,000 tons, and of oranges more 
than 1,000,000 boxes; besides nearly one-third of all the vegetables 
raised in the State; and that since its construction, 100 towns and 
cities have sprung into being on the line of its march. The line — 
from Palatka to Charlotte Harbor on the Gulf — is, including branches, 
375 miles in length, 

Punta Gorda — the Naples of America — has a harbor in which 
the fleets of the world could ride in safety. This is the rendezvous of 
the yachtsmen, who yearly congregate in Charlotte Harbor to revel in 
sunshine, tropical scenery and tarpon fishing. The bay is thirty miles 
long and connects by lines of steamers with St. James — a popular 
winter resort — Punta Rassa and Fort Myers on the Caloosahatchee. 
Punta Gorda possesses one of the finest hotels in the State, with ac- 
commodations for four hundred guests, built by the Florida Commer- 
cial Company. 



74 Glimpses of Florida : 

The Florida Southern passes through some of the best lands in 
the State, and the scenery is varied and beautiful. It pierces the ham- 
mocks, rushes through the pines, dashes along the lake shores, and 
winds and weaves around orange groves, delightful gardens and ex- 
tensive plantations. The panorama of the route is momentarily- 
changing. It is in turn wild, picturesque and romantic. 

This important natural highway to the tropics through the back- 
bone of the State, one of the most progressive and deservedly popular 
railways of the South, will be changed from a narrow to a broad 
guage during the summer of 1895, equipped with rolling stock of the 
latest and most approved designs, and every appliance ingenuity can 
devise looking to safety and comfort. 

The officers of the road are : 

F. Q. Brown, President. 

R. J. Edwards, Treasurer, Boston. 

Capt. W. B. Denham, General Superintendent, Palatka, Fla. 

The Tropical Trunk Line comprises the Jacksonville, Tampa & 
Key West Railway, the Florida Southern Railroad, the Indian River 
Steamboat Company, the Jupiter & Lake Worth Rail-way, and other 
separately operated lines. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 75 



The Plant System. 



There are in the great sub-divisions of labor — mechanics, trade 
and commerce, men who, by force of intellect, power of combination 
and extraordinary courage, are distinguished. Men whose ambition 
it is to overcome the seemingly insurmountable. Men who, disregard- 
ing the trammels of precedent, or possible previous failures, boldly 
advance and conquer. Of such is the man Henry B. Plant, whose 
life's work forms the text of this article. 

To geographically describe the Plant System of railways, ocean 
and river steamers, would require space beyond the limit we can assign 
it. Let us, however, imagine a line from Charleston, South Carolina, 
southward, to Savannah, Brunswick and Jacksonville on the Atlantic; 
Albany, Thomasville and Montgomery in the west; Sanford, the Ever- 
glades, Bartow, Phosphoria and Tampa in South Florida ; Mobile, 
Appalachicola, Homosassa, Port Tampa and Key West on the Gulf of 
Mexico, and Havana, in the Island of Cuba, the main arm extending 
north and south through Central Florida, with various branches, and 
we have some idea of its extraordinary scope. 

The following lines of railways and steamers comprise the 
system : 

Railway lines, mileage. Savannah, Florida & Western Railway, 
562 ; Charleston & Savannah Railway, 133 ; South Florida division 
of Savannah, Florida & Western Railway, 327 ; Brunswick & Western 
Railroad, 171; Alabama Midland Railway, 235; Silver Springs, 
Ocala & Gulf Railway, 66. Total, 1,494. 

Peoples' Line steamers, mileage, Chattahoochee River, 223; 
Flint River, 36; Appalachicola River, 137. Total, 396. 

Plant Steamship Line, mileage. Port Tampa, Key West & Ha- 
vana Line, 360; Port Tampa & Mobile Line, 360; Port Tampa & 
Manatee River Line, 36 ; Port Tampa to Caloosahatchee River, 125; 
Port Tampa to St. Petersburg, 6. Total, 887. 

Recapitulation, mileage — Railway lines, 1,494; steamer lines, 
1,283. Total, 2,777. 

Studying the maps of to-day, the magnitude of this aggregation 
of lines of travel and traffic is forc:d upon us. Not a foot of which 
existed south of the 31st parallel a dozen years ago. It is not its im- 
mensity, however, but its perfection that is astonishing. Roadbeds, 
cars and steamers being of the most approved construction. Enhanced, 
by numerous and cosdy hotels, notably the Seminole, at Winter Park, 



76 Glimpses of Florida : 

the Tampa Bay Hotel, Tampa, a structure which in extent, elegance 
and management is the admiration of all beholders, and the Port 
Tampa Inn and beautiful Queen Anne cottages, built upon piles over 
the waters of Tampa Bay — the Venice of the Western world. 

ALONG THE S. S., O. & G. , A BRANCH OF THE PLANT SYSTEM. 

Desiring a more thorough knowledge of that almost terra incog- 
nito along the line of the mysterious S. S., O. & G. Railway — myster- 
ious, however, only because of its devious windings and seemingly 
endless branches, the writer recently accepted a cordial invitation 
from General Superintendent O. G. Fmch to see the sights, and in 
the early morning found a special train awaiting the party. Eight 
a. m. is the time for departure. The mail train is waiting for us to 
pull out. The conductor nods, a bell rings, and we are started on 
one of the most interesting trips in this curious land of pleasant sur- 
prises. 

The general conformation of the S. S., O. & G. might well be 
likened to an exceedingly crooked Y, with Ocala at the bottom, Inver- 
ness at the left-hand upper corner, 43 miles distant, and Hommossa 
at the extremity of the right extension resting on the Gulf, 50 miles 
away. This and thirteen of the crookedest branches in existence 
and you have some idea of this famous railroad. 

Dunnellon, named in honor of Florida's lamented son, Hon. 
John F. Dunn, 25 miles from Ocala, is our first stopping place. This 
town is the mother of the Florida phosphate industry, some idea of 
which may be gathered from the fact that in 1892 the shipments were 
87,248 gross tons, with a guaranteed analysis of 75 per cent., compre- 
hending an expenditure of $5,000,000 for lands, and an annual ex- 
penditure of $400,000 for labor, etc. But a stone's throw from the 
depot IS Dunn's bluff, an almost perpendicular bank of the Withla- 
coochee, across which the eye is gladdened by one of the most ro- 
mantic sights on the continent, for here it is that the legendary 
Wekiva, meandering slowly through green valleys and over-hanging 
foliage, finally mingles its ever-changing waters with the less beautiful 
but more practical Withlacoochee. 

" Close beside the meeting waters, 
Long I stood as in a dream, 
Watching how the little river 
Fell into the broader stream. 

" Calm and still the mingled current 
Glided to the waiting sea, 
On its breast serenely pictured 
Floating cloud and skirting tree " 

Of this spot Moore might well have dreamed when composing 
that most exquisite of songs — 

" There is not in this wide world 
A valley so sweet 
As the vale on whose bosom 
The bright waters meet." 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 77 

We could have lingered here indefinitely, but "all aboard" is 
heard and three minutes later we are dashing over the Withlacoochee, 
without a trace of the beautiful little Wekiva. Thirty minutes later 
we are skirting the famous Tsala Apopka, and at ten o'clock pull uo 
at Inverness, where the S. S., O. & G. connects with the main line 
of the system. 

Inverness, like Dunnellon, is the outgrowth of phosphate devel- 
opment, and although but a little more than two years old, is a place 
of considerable importance, giving promise of rapid and enduring 
prosperity. The time alloted is up, good-byes are regretfully said 
and we are doing a forty mile gate for Citronelle, on the right hand 
stem of the Y, belter known as the branch. 

The next place of importance is Crystal River, one of the old 
landmarks of the Gulf country, famous for its fish, game and oysters, 
and twenty minutes later we pull up at Homosassa, the Mecca of the 
sportsman. 

Homosassa is a town peculiar unto itself, for nature — not man — 
is the architect. This sylvan retreat, nestling among tropical foliage, 
is happily situated, being easy of access to the sea, yet sufficiently 
distant to obviate the baneful influence to invalids, especially consump- 
tives, of a too close proximUy to the gales peculiar to the Gulf. Here 
the timid, the weary, or the searchers after health may exclaim : 

"In quiet bays the storm unspent, 
I moor my boat with calm content." 

Officials of the Plant System : General officers — H. B. Plant, 
President; M. F. Plant, Assistant to President; D. F. Jack, Assistant 
to President; H. S. Haines, Vice President; W. B, McKee, Assistant 
to Vice-President; R. G. Erwin, Vice-President and General Counsel, 
12 West Twenty-third Street, New York; C. D. Owens, Freight Traffic 
Manager, Savannah, Ga.; B. W. Wrenn, Passenger Traffic Manager, 
Savannah, Ga.; W. M. Davidson, General Passenger Agent, Jack- 
sonville, Fla.; G. Deming, Traveling Passenger Agent. 

J. A. Larnard, Superintendent S. S.. O. & G. Railway, Ocala. 



yS Glimpses of Florida 



The plopida Centt^al and Peninsular t^ailn 

t'oad. 



FLORIDA'S GRlBAT RAILROAD SYSTEM. 

There is probably no State in the Union which has in proportion 
to its population so many miles of railway as Florida, With a popu- 
lation of about four hundred thousand people, of which nearly one- 
half are of the colored race, it has over 3,000 miles of railway in 
operation, most of which are broad guage and first class. 

At the head of the railway systems in Florida stands confessedly 
the Florida Central and Peninsular Road, now extending Irom Co- 
lumbia, S. C, to Tampa Bay, Cedar Keys, Oviedo, Fernandina, Jack- 
sonville, St. Marks, Tallahassee and River Junction — a total mileage 
of about one thcusand miles. 

The man who originated and made possible these great railway 
systems in Florida was the Hon. David L. Yulee. 

Mr. Yulee entered public life as a member of the Legislature in 
Territorial times; was elected a Delegate in Congress about 1841; 
secured the admission of Florida as a State in 1845 > '^^'^ elected a 
Representative in Congress; and before taking his seat elected to the 
United States Senate, where he remained for many years until the 
civil war, when he resigned his seat. 

With remarkable quickness of apprehension he united great 
power of accomplishment. Almost immediately after the admission 
of the State he entertained the idea of effecting the construction of a 
railway across the peninsula of Florida. After some previous failures 
he procured a charter in January, 1849, ^^^^ Isaac Newton, Alfred 
G. Benson, John Howard, and their associates, by the name of the 
Atlantic and Gulf Railroad Company, to construct a road between 
the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico.. This charter was 
awarded in 1854, and George Law became the principal party in 
the enterprise. These gentlemen were all connected with steamship 
lines, and anticipated opening a line to the Pacific by steamers to 
a Florida Atlantic port; thence across the peninsula to the Gulf, 
with steamship lines to Tehuantepec; thence by rail across that 
isthmus to the Pacific, connecting with steamship lines to California 
and South American ports. 

The Pacific Rciilroad was not then built and hardly seriously 
contemplated, and this project in which Florida was to pliy so im- 
portant a part was at once eagerly embraced by Mr. Yulee, and 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 79 

every effort made by him to aid in its accomplishment. At Mr. 
Law's instance he procured the necessary lands for the Atlantic ter- 
minal point. Obtaining lands on the St. Mary's and Fernandina 
through the agency of the late Joseph Finegan. The road was not 
built under the George Law charter, it being forfeited by expiration 
of the limitation of time. 

In 1853 Mr. Yulee procured a charter under the name of the 
Florida Railroad Company, and Mr. Law transferred his terminal 
interests to parties connected with the new company. 

Mr. Yulee was the controlling spirit of the new company, and 
in order to facilitate the construction of the road united the various 
interests desiring railroad construction, and procured from the Leg- 
islature the passage of an act to encourage a liberal system of inter- 
nal improvement, which provided for the aid of the State being 
given to a line, of railroad from Jacksonville to Pensacola and 
Amelia Island to Tampa Bay, with an extension to Cedar Key, and 
a canal to connect Lake Harney with Indian River. This aid was 
to be given in the shape of an indorsement and guarantee by the 
State of the interest on bonds issued by the railroads to the extent 
of $10,000 per mile, and also the benefit of any land grants made by 
the general government. The Florida Railroad was organized, and 
went to work under the provisions of this act, and received the ben- 
efit of this State guarantee and of alternate sections of land within 
six miles of the line of rail. They also issued what were called 
Free Land Bond?, based on the security of the land held by the 
company. 

With this aid the Florida Railroad built their road to Cedar 
Key b3''ore i860, and the railroad from Jacksonville to Lake City 
and Tallahassee to Lake City were also built, with the further help 
of town and county bonds. 

The civil war came on just as that part of the Florida Railroad 
from Fernandina to Cedar Key was completed, and of course the 
property deteriorated during the ensuing four years. For twelve 
months after the war Mr. Vulee was held as a political prisoner in 
Fort Pulaski, so that it was not until May, 1866, that he was released 
and able to assume charge of the road. Twenty-eight miles of the 
track between Fernandina and Baldwin had been removed ; part of 
it carried to Port Royal by the United States forces, and part of it 
used to build the road from Live Oak to Lawton by the Confeder- 
ate forces. The whole equipment in 1866 consisted of but three loco- 
motives, in bad order, two miserable passenger cars, and twenty-one 
old freight cars. 

The Trustees of the Internal Improvement Fund seized the 

Florida Railroad on account of default in the payment of interest on 

the guaranteed bonds, and sold the road on November i, 1866, to E. 

N. Dickerson, of New York, and the Florida Railroad as a corpora- 

6W 



8o Glimpses of Florida. 

tion came to an end. The iron rail, however, was of a superior 
character, having cost $58.50 per ton, and much of it was in use 
for over thirty years. 

After the sale of the road in November, 1866, the name of the 
road was in 1872 changed to the Atlantic Gulf and West India 
Transit Railroad Company, and at a later day to Florida Transit 
Railroad Company. The part of the main line extending from 
Waldo to Ocala was constructed under the name of the Peninsula 
Railroad Company, and from Ocala to Wildwood and beyond under 
the name of the Tropical Florida Railroad. The branch to Lees- 
burg and Tavares under name of Leesburg and Indian River Rail- 
road; Tavares to Orlando as the Tavares and Orlando Railroad; 
Fernandina to Jacksonville as the Fernandina and Jacksonville 
Railroad in 1880. In 1883 all these roads, inclusive of the Jack- 
sonville and Lake City and River Junction were merged into one 
organization under the name of the Florida Railway and Navigation 
Company. The whole system went into the hands of a receiver, 
and Col. H. R. Duval was appointed such receiver. At the time 
this very able and efficient gentleman assumed control of the sys- 
tem it was generally in a very bad condition. Mr. Yulee had some 
years previously disposed of his interests, being well along in years, 
the road had become much the worse for wear, and the equipment 
altogether inefficient. 

Col. Duval brought to the work a high reputation as a reor- 
ganizer, and with great rapidity proceeded to resuscitate the road, 
laying down new rails, new cross ties ; purchased a large number of 
new locomotives, coaches and freight cars. Aided by the long 
experience of the general manager, D. E. Maxwell, Capt. A. O. 
McDonnell, General Passenger Agent, and others, he soon brought 
the road into first-class condition. The road was restored to the 
stockholders, and the name changed to the Florida Central and Pe- 
ninsular. Col. Duval became the president, and under his control 
and management it has become one of the largest and best conducted 
railway systems in the South. Besides building and acquiring a num- 
ber of extensions and branches in Florida he has purchased the New 
South Bound Road from Columbia to Savannah, and constructed an 
eniirely new road on the shortest line from Savannah into Florida, 
connecting with the main line at Yulee for Jacksonville, Tallahassee, 
Cedar Keys, Tampa and Orlando. Finely equipped luxurious and 
fast trains now run over all these lines. 

Although the Tehuantepec route to the Pacific has never been 
opened, and consequently Mr. Yulee's expectations of his road form- 
ing a link in a great transcontinental line has not yet been realized, 
it may still happen, as now seems probable that when the Nicaiauga 
Canal is opened, Mr. Yulee's anticipations, so warmly cherished by 
him forty years since, may become realities in the near future. 

Florida owes a debt of gratitude to the memory of Mr. Yulee for 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 8i 

the splendid foundations laid for her growth and prosperity, as well 
also to Col. H. R. Duval, for the maturing and carrying out of the 
great development and enlargement of the plans of his distinguished 
predecessors. 

There are many points of interest to the lover of nature on the 
line of the F. C. & P. Railway, notably 

SILVER SPRINGS, 

the feeder of the Ocklawaha. The "Springs" consist of a cluster 
of three wells walled with granite, as if by man, from which 
immense volumes of crystal waters constantly flow. These waters 
have a silvery tint and are so transparent that at a depth of 60 feet 
small particles of metal, such as tin, are clearly discernable. The 
"Springs" are enclosed by a wall of evergreen, shrouded with trailing 
moss and blossoming vines, all of which are clearly reflected in the 
eddying waters. To this Spring the following beautiful tribute is paid 
by Mr. George F. Collom : 

If the scenes where fairies hover 

Are where waters are the clearest, 
With detp skies the b'uest, over, 

And reflected, woodl<nds nearest — 

Flashing with a wild bird's wing. 

Then must fairies — in the silence 

Underneath a sky drea-n-haunted, 
SUkb a sky as fabled islands 

Only, yet have elsewhere vaun'ed — 

Fairies haunt the sILV^R SPRING. 

Silver Springs might justly be called Nature's mirror. An- 
other, and if possible greater attraction, is the historic 

SUWANEE RIVER, 

the scene of that inimitably pathetic song "Way Down Upon the 
Suwanee River." The Suwanee River Spring is unsurpassed as a 
resort, its colonaded hotel annex and cottages furnished throughout with 
taste and elegance. Private baths in most all rooms. Hot and cold 
sulphur water. Grand plunge bath. Most excellent table and per- 
fect service, making it one of the most desirable of homes for the 
tourist as well as seeker alter health. 

Looking over the map of the F. C. & P. of to-day, the mind finds 
it difTicult to grasp its wonderful scope, its seemingly impossible mag- 
nitude. Let us, however, imagine three lines of steel. 

First. — From Columbia, S. C. to Tampa, Florida, via Denmark, 
Fairfax, Sivannah, Yulee, Jacksonville, Baldwin, Waldo, the famed 
Silver Springs, Ocala, Wildwood, Lacoochee, Dade City, Plant City 
and Turkey Creek, with branches from Wildwood via Leesburg, Ta. 
vares and Apopka, to Sanford on Lake Monroe — the head of naviga- 
tion on the St. Johns river — Longwood, Lake Jessup, Orlando and 
Kissimmee on Lake Tohopekaliaga and from Turkey Creek to Alafia. 



82 Glimpses of Florida : 

Second. — ^xova Jacksonville — the metropolis of Florida — to River 
Junction, on the Chattahoochee River, via Baldwin, Lake City. Ella- 
ville, at which point the road crosses the tamed Suwanee, Dri'ton 
and Tallahassee — the capital of Florida, with branches. Drilton to 
Monticello and Tallahassee to St, Marks. 

Third — From Fernandina to Cedar Keys (the old Transit Rail- 
way — familiarly known as the Yulee Road) via Yulee, Callahan, Bald- 
win, Hampton, Waldo, Gainesville and Bronson, and we have some 
conception of this modern leviathan of railway construction. It is 
not, however, the magnitude of this giant that, surprises the beholder, 
but the perfection of its road-bed, the elegance of its equipment and 
comprehensive management. 

What this Southern Hercules of traffic will next undertake is, at 
best but conjecture. A line of ocean grey-hounds from Tampa down 
the coast of Mexico to the Bahamas, Nassau and Jamaica, returning 
around the capes of Cuba, is however among the possibilities. 

The officers of this road are : 

H. R. Duval, President. 

D. E. Maxwell, General Manager. 

T. A. Phillips, Assistant General Manager. 

N. S. Pennington, Traffic Manager. 

A. O. MacDonell, General Passenger Agent. 

W, H. Pleasants, General Freight Agent. 

Walter G. Coleman, General Traveling Agent. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 83 



The Clyde Liine. 



While the prosperity and consequent usefulness, of every line of 
steamers plying upon the waters of Florida, is ^ matter of general 
congratulation, the success of the Clyde Line is especially gratilying, 
for in it we see the morning of a new commercial departure, the 
dawn of a new era of development. 

Seven years ago (1886), Wm. P. Clyde, of the Clyde Line, was 
approached in New York with the query: "Are you going to run a 
steamer to Florida? Why, Mr. Clyde, you never can make a steamer 
pay to Florida; there is no business," to' which Mr. Clyde replied, 
"Well, we can stand it five years. I am going to try it that long ; if it 
don't pay then we can quit." 

The first steamer of the line, the Cherokee, reached Jacksonville 
in November, 1886, with half a cargo and with a passenger list which 
might almost have been placed among the ciphers. 

To-day there are six steamers on the line, the cost of which was 
over three million dollars, besides the St. Johns river fleet of four 
steamers. Some idea of the importance to Florida of this steamship 
company is shown in the fact that their yearly expenditures here are 
$550 000, the greater part of which is expended in Jacksonville. The 
employes now number 600. 

It might be supposed, starting seven years ago with one steamer, 
that now when there is one for every day in the week, the limit was 
reached, but such is not the case, for, though unknown to the public, 
it is a fact that two additional passenger steamers of the most im- 
proved order are in contemplation for this line, the volume of travel 
and traffic being so great that several of the steamers no longer touch 
at Charleston, but ply directly between Jacksonville and New York. 

An important item of freight over this line, at times taxmg its re- 
sources, is cotton, from Texas and Louisiana, while the appreciation 
of the traveling public is demonstrated in the fact that its passenger 
list is always full, even in the dullest season. 

The Florida ships of this line plying between Jacksonville and 
New York, are the Cherokee, Seminole, Iroquois, Algonquin, Yemas- 
see and Delaware. All the steamships of this line are fitted with every 
modern appliance of safety and comfort ; and that they are ably man- 
aged is attested by the fact that not an accident of note has occurred 
to one of these ships since the inauguration of the line. 

The Philadelphia line of the Clyde system are the elegant ships 



84 Glimpses of Florida : 

Delaware, Winyah and Oneida. Weekly between Jacksonville and 
Philadelphia. 

The St. Johns river steamers are the City of Jacksonville, Fred'k 
deBary, Everglade and Welaka. 

The New York docks of this line are the largest in that city, while 
the business facilities of Jacksonville have doubled in the past year. ^^ 

No tour of Florida can be said to be complete without "doing" ^^ 
the St. Johns, so we take passage at Jacksonville on the elegant steam- 
er Frederick de Bary of the Clyde River Line, and on a glorious 
sunshiny day find ourselves gliding over the historic "River of May," 
as it was known by the French and Spaniards. Many pretty towns 
and villages are passed, notably Green Cove Springs, and as the shad- 
ows of night are falling we are at Palatka, the "Gem City," and take 
advantage of a short stay to visit points of interest. 

NIGHT ON THE ST. JOHNS. 

There are many picturesque spots about the "Gem City," but 
nothing to compare with "Big Bend," or, as it is commonly called 
"The Hammock," to which our wandering footsteps led. Two 
steamers, from "up country," racing for the landing, are swinging 
round "the point," throwing a glare upon the waters and belching 
fourth volumes of smoke, reaching far astern. Vulcans of the past — 
shadows of the dread Inferno. A steamer under way is always an 
interesting study, so we light a cigar, and intent only on watching the 
race to a finish, are startled with : "Well, you old Republican, how 

are you any way ?" and there stands Capt. Bill K , the best known 

man in Florida, for (as he says) 1 here is not a foot of it he has not 
traversed. Five minutes later the boats are at their wharves, and 
turning to the Captain, I remark, "This is a scene of enchantment." 

" Enchantment," said the Captain, " Why, sir," (Bill always says 
'sir' when his usual serenity is disturbed) "there is more enchant- 
ment, more romance, if you will, under the shadow of these old oaks 
than you ever conceived — an indefinable something which not even 
an Anchorite could resist. Why sir, it was here under these very 

branches that I ; but what nonsense. You Yankees haven't 

a thought but of dollars. Want to hear the story, do you? Well, 
I'm in a sort of reminiscent mood to-night, tho' as a rule, I'm not 
given to story-telling." 

THE STORV. 

'Twas just after the wah, you see, and having determined to 
squander some of my patrimony in foreign travel, I returned home 
one evening turning over in my mind how I should break the matter, 
when, on reaching the gate, I was greeted with, " Oh, Will! you are 
just in time to see Laura home." Laura Lee — the only daughter of 
the old Major, up in the edge of the " young hammock," was then in 
the first blush of womanhood, tall and willowy, with hair the hue of 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 85 

gold, eyes that expressed every pulsation of the soul, skin of alabaster 
whiteness, and cheeks that rivaled our own beautiful Southern rose in 
exquisite coloring, a very vision of purity and innocence, about whom 
my sisters often joked me, but I knew nothing of love, and, as you 
know, am naturally diffident. 

Well, at last we are on our way, and just as we reached this very 
tree, I felt her tremble, and in my embarrassment, lead her to a seat, 
possibly the one on which you are sitting. 

'Twas a glorious eve, a scene which only the brush of a Turner 
could depict. * * * On the right, stretching as far as the eye 
could penetrate, were residences, discernable thro' waving palms and 
the golden orange, interspersed with mammoth oaks, canopied with 
floating zephyrs, weird palmeitoes, whose heads reached into the 
clouds, and magnolia^:, whose white petals made the senses delirious 
with fragrance, while along the river ran a border of green like a ring 
of emeralds, and but a stone's throw, launches, row-boats and yachts, 
in every variety of coloring and construction, lying placidly at their 
moorings, or floating gently with the tide. While across the river is 
" Hart's Point," its dry docks, quaint Ocklawaha steamers and seem- 
ingly endless groves of lemons, limes, bananas and oranges are re- 
flected in the shadowy but translucent St. Johns; while on the left 
Palatka's thousand lights, mingled with myriads of twinkling stars, 
glimmer on the waters, and ever and anon are heard the note of the 
guitar or mandolin, the melody of song and the twitter of the night- 
ingale — a medley of scenes and songs of which I can give but a faint 
conception. * ^y. :>= ^ t- * *:■ :i^ * 

Lost for the time to all but the surroundings, I feel a touch upon 
my arm, a warm breath upon my cheek. A slender arm steals about me, 
a golden head rests upon my bosom, and I hear the gentlest of voices 
•murmur: "Will, oh Will, I — I love you." I never knew exactly 
what happened next; I was conscious only of some mysterious, inde- 
finable influence I could not resist, and clasping her to my throbbing 
heart, showered kisses upon her upturned face, and plighted eternal 
constancy." 

Whether the story was ended, we know not, for out upon the 
waters is heard the refrain : 

"None can tell Jiow much I loved her, 

She was good and kind 1 1 me ; 
But Heaven has claimed her for an angel, 

Lovelj', dark-eyed Laura Lee." 

And we turned silently away, the Captain merely remarking, with 
the glisten of a tear in his eye as we reached the wharf, I'm now in 



V 



the "sere and yellow" of life, as the poets say, but never come to y 
Just above Palatka is San Mateo, the scene of the bloody massa- 



Palatka without visiting "The Hammock. 



ere ot the Spanish in 1567, and a little later we are at the world-'^amed 
Ocklawaha, down which one of the Han Line of curious little steam- 
ers is twisting and turning with apparent abandon, but surely approach- 



86 Glimpses of Florida : 

ing. Drayton Island, the once seat of a powerful people of the forest, is 
passed, and squeezing out through the narrows we are in Lake George, 
a fine iDody of water, resembling an inland sea. Volusia, another of 
the old Spanish settlements, is speedily left behind, and we are at Astor, 
where connection is made with the St. Johns and Lake Eustis Railway. 
From here on the windings are interminable, a labyrinth of devious 
ways, shrouded in tropical foliage, looking down complacently upon 
the most tranquil of rivers. 

Southward from Jacksonville this most charming of American 
waterways gradually narrows, finally terminating in beautiful Lake 
Monroe, 198 miles from Jacksonville, upon the shores of which are 
Enterprise and Sanford — two of Florida's most famous winter resorts. 

Sanford is the terminus of Clyde's St. Johns River Line, and we 
bid the historic river a silent an revoir, not adieu. 

The Florida officers of the Clyde Line are Major J. A. Leslie, 
Superintendent, Jacksonville, Fla.; F. M. Ironmonger, Jr., Florida 
Passenger Agent, Jacksonville, Fla.; John L. Howard, Florida Freight 
Agent, Jacksonville, Fla. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 87 



The Pamed Ocklauuaha^Hwplotrida's jWystic 

StPeatn. 



Colonel H. L. Hart, a man destined to play an important part iu 
the development of Florida, was born at Guilford, Vt., May 4th, 1827, 
reached Palatka July i, 1855, and a week later made the foUowmg 
announcement : 

United States Mail. 



Change of Proprietorship 

Concord ^ t n rr p Good 

Coaches. o l d, g c j^^^^^^^ g^^ 



PILATKA to TAMPA, 

Via Ortliige Spring, Orange Lake, Ocala, Caiiii) Izard, 
Augusta, Melentlez, Pierseville, and Ft. Taylor. 



Stages leave Pilatka and Tampa, Mondays & Thursdays at 7 (resting 
at night) A.M., arriving at Tampa and Pilatka (respectively) the fol- 
lowing Wednesday and Saturdays; thereby affording Invalids a better 
opportunity for travelling) connecting at Tampa with the 

N. Orleans and K.ey 'W^est Steamers, 

and at Pilatka with the Steam-Boats for Savannah & Charleston. 



Also: Intersecting this line, is a Stage From Ocala, via Fleming- 
ton, Micanopy, and Newmansville, to Alligator 

EXTRA CARRIAGES & HORSES ON HAND, 

at Pilatka, to convay Passengers to Micanopy, Elomington, 
Silver Springs &c., &c. 

ALL EXPRESS BUSINESS PRomptly ATTENDED TO. 

OFFice in PILATKA, AT COL. J. O. DUVAL'S HOTEL. 
July, 1855, H. L. HAliT, Proprietor. 



88 Glimpses of Florida : 

In i860 Col. Hart conceived the idea of putting a line of steam- 
ers upon the Ocklawaha. The first steamer of this line was the 
James Burt, and during the same year he added the steamer Silver 
Springs ; but the civil war coming on put a temporary stop to the en- 
terprise. The war over, he built in succession the Panasofi"kee, Ock- 
lawaha, Okahumka, Osceola and Astatula. In the meantime vig- 
orously prosecuting the work of removing the many obstructions 
which made navigation not only difficult but extremely hazardous, 
especially from Silver Springs Run to Lakes Griffin, Eustis, Harris 
and Denham, at which time but six white families lived in the entire 
" lake region." 

This was an eventful period in the history of the State. The 
present steamers of the line bear the names of three of those first 
built, namely, the Okahumka, Astatula aud Osceola, a daily line ply- 
ing between Palatka and Silver Springs, 135 miles. One of the most 
popular routes on the American continent. 

Adapting to the Ocklawaha Byron's famous apostrophe, the quo- 
tation would read : 

" Nature formed but one such scene and broke the die." 

It was of this river that General Grant remarked after his tour of 
the world: " This is the greatest wonder I have seen." He might 
have added, "Egypt has her pyramids, Epheseus her Temple of 
Diana, Babylon her Hanging Gardens, Alexandria the tomb of the 
Pharos, Olympus her palace of Zeno, Greece the ruins of the Colossus 
of Rhodes, America the Ocklawaha — the grandest of all ; for it is the 
unapproachable work of the Omnipotent." 

Seeing Florida without the Ocklawaha would be as Hamlet with- 
out the ghost. So following in the wake of the throng we take pas- 
sage at Palatka, one of the famed tourist resorts of this almost perpet- 
ual summerland, via Hart's Line of Ocklawaha steamers, and on a 
beautiful mid-winter afternoon are plowing the upper St. Johns on the 
Steamer Astatula, Capt. C. H. Howard, a sort of infantile Noah's 
ark, especially constructed for this route, but possessing all the com- 
forts and many of the elegancies of more pretentious construction. 

Innumerable groves of the lemon, lime and orange are passed, 
and as the orb of day is settling below the distant horizon we are at 
the mouth of the picturesque but seemingly impenetrable Ocklawaha, 
having accomplished the distance from Palatka, twenty five miles, in 
a little more than three hours. 

Ascending this most tortuous and (at night) most uncanny of 
waterways, which in comformation might be likened to a chain, the 
links of which are as the letter S, we pass from one seeming bayou to 
another, enclosed, as far as the eye can discover, by an unbroken wall 
of timber, interlaced with vines in every variety of shade and color- 
ing. Of stream ai' j-z/^/Mhere is none; at least it is not discernible, 
and how we are to proceed becomes a query, speedily answered by a 
torch-light illumination on the upper forward deck, throwing a glare 



Ancient, Colonial and Modkrn. 89 

far in advance, revealing to the trusty pilot the (to him) familiar land- 
marks; ])ointing our destination, and bringing into strong relief scene 
after scene, the most freird and gorgeous imaginable. 

Outside the radius of the illumination, which distinctly reflects 
every tree and shrub bordering the stream in the bosom of the little 
river, the pale moon shines and the stars twinkle; otherwise the gloom 
is illimitable, and the feeling one of awe, possibly not unmixed with 
something of superstition, an influence to which the most sceptical are 
at times susceptible. 

A minister is quoting Whittier's lugubrious "Dismal Swamp;" the 
writer is picturing Dante's mythical river of Death; an old lady tells 
her traveling companion, "This is my third trip on the Ocklawaha; 
but I wouldn't miss this for anything^" 

Ejaculations of pleasure and surprise are heard on every side ; 
and all are lost to everything but the enchantment of the surround- 
ings, when supper is announced, to which we turn with pleasurable 
anticipations of the luxuries as well as substantials, for which this line 
is justly famed. 

Supper over, all are again assembled on the forward or promenade 
deck. Anecdotes are told, songs are sung, interspersed with expres- 
sions of surprise, pleasure and gratification at every recurring change 
in the surroundings, and not until Time heralded the approach of an- 
other day did we desert our posts. The man of God remarking as 
he bade the party a cheery "good night," " I have seen many won- 
ders but nothing to compare with this." 

Grahamville, seventeen miles below Silver Springs, once the 
home of the celebrated Seminole, Osceola, is reached at 9 a. m. 
Eight miles further on we turn into the Silver Spring run, and at 10:30 
are at the world famed Silver Spring, the most remarkable body of 
water on the American continent. Of this enchanting stream one of 
a party of recent tourists said : 

" It has been my good fortune to see some of the most remark- 
able natural wonders that travelers seek to visit in this country, such 
as the mountains and glaciers of Alaska, the wonders of Yellowstone 
Park, the Yosemite valley, the canons of Colorado, the Falls of 
Niagara, the lakes and rivers of Canada, and the volcanoes of the 
Hawaiian Islands, and I am free to say that I am glad at last to add 
the Ocklawaha as a fitting pearl to this long necklace of wonderful 
jewels." 

Silver Springs, the terminus of this line, is the greatest natural 
curiosity on the American Continent. 

" A scene of beauty, such, I ween, 

Has seldom been by mortals seen; 
The forest dark above, below, 

The crystnl waters t-ver flow; 
And fa homrf deep, the mai len hair 

And sedffy grwss is growing there, 
Green, wiih perennial life and tints. 

That vary as sunlight glints." 



90 



Glimpses of Florida 



At Silver Springs connection is made via F. C. & P. Railway for 
all points in the State. 

The headquarters of this line are in Palatka. 




One of the Hart's Line of Ocklawaha Steamers at Silver Springs. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 91 



The Southern E^^ppess Company. 



Students of the marvelous will find much that is interesting, if 
not seemingly improbable, in the history of the Southern Express 
Company, one of Florida's most important lines of transportation. 

Early in the spring of 1861, Henry B. Plant, then Southern Su- 
perintendent of the Adams Express Company, with headquarters at 
Augusta, Ga., realizing the magnitude of the struggle about to take 
place between the North and the South, called a meeting of the offi- 
cers of the Company. The meeting was held at Augusta — now the 
headquarters of the Southern Express Campany — and was attended 
by the following named gentlemen, viz : W. B. Dinsraore, President, 
New York ; Edward S. Santord, General Superintendent, Philadel- 
phia ; Alfred Gaiiler, Superintendent, Cincinnati, and H. B. Plant, 
Superintendent, Augusta, Ga. This meeting discussed the situation 
from the standpoint of practical business, resulting in discontinuance 
of operations in the Southern States and application to the Superior 
Court of Georgia for a charter for the "Southern Express Company ;" 
the petitioners being Messrs. John Bones, George T. Jackson, George 
W. Thew, Henry B. Plant, Francis Whitehead. G. M. Dortie, all of 
Augusta. 

The charter was granted for fourteen years, beginning July 5th, 
1861, and the work of organizing and systematizing a force adequate 
to the necessities of the times at once begun. A Superintendent was 
placed at Memphis to look after the interests of the company in the 
West, the appointment falling to Mr. James Shuter. Mr. Edgar C. 
Hurlbert was made superintendent with headquarters at Atlanta and 
Mr. Rufus B. Bullock, superintendent, with headquarters at Augus- 
ta, Mr. Bullock's division extending to and including Richmond, Va. 
In the meantime war was declared, and the Southern Express Com- 
pany was taxed to its utmost carrying capacity, its success marking 
conspicuously Mr. Plant's extraordinary executive ability. 

The great strain on Mr. Plant, President of the Company, mental- 
ly and physically, sadly impaired his health, in consequence of which 
he was forced to take a trip to Europe. 

As the war progressed, and the Southern armies moved eastward, 
the company thought it prudent to move in the same direction, and as 
a result Atlanta, Gi.. received a notable contingent from the west — 
Mr. M. J. O'Brien exchanging with Mr. Shuter; Mr. O'Brien accept- 
ing outside of his many duties as superintendent, the onerous but im- 



92 Glimpses of Florida : 

portant office of Commissioner of Exchange for the Southern Confed- 
eracy with headquarters at Savannah, Georgia. 

The war over and embargoed lines opened, Mr. Plant returned 
only to find a condition of financial ruin, but his trusted lieutenants, 
who like the legions of Napoleon, that followed the Eagles of France 
to Moscow, and ever after boasted that they were the rear guard in 
the famous retreat, stood at their posts impatient for the herculanean 
task of rehabilitation. 

In this emergency Mr. Plant again assumed active control, and 
the record of his achievements from that time to the present, 
forms one of the brightest pages in the history of personal achieve- 
ment. There is no man, living or dead, who has been a greater fac- 
tor in building up the South than Henry B. Plant. 

THE SOUTHERN EXPRESS COMPANY IN FLORIDA. 

To Mr. H. Dempsey, now Superintendent, Augusta, Georgia, 
belongs the honor of inaugurating the distribution of Express matter 
in Florida. I quote from a recent letter on the subject : 

"I was taken off my run and sent to Florida on important busi- 
ness for the Adams Express Company. This was before the organi- 
zation of the Southern Express Company in the winter of 1858 and '59. 

"My first trip to Florida required a visit to Tallahassee and Jack-, 
sonville. I received the freight packages by steamer at Savan- 
nah, carried them through the country to Jacksonville, collected 
charges and made deliveries. I was much pleased with Florida at 
the time and the people of Florida. They were of the grand old 
style, and I strongly advocated the entry of the Express lines into 
Florida. 

" I he railroad at that time went only as far as Quitman, Ga. I 
established a line connecting the Georgia and Florida system and the 
Florida Railroad system, by wagon, between Quitman, Ga., and 
Madison, Fla " 

Following the special mission and recommendation of Mr. 
Dempsey, the operations of the Southern Express Company were ex- 
tended to Florida, but owing to want of transportation facilities and 
limited population, was slow of growth ; and it was not until the 
advent of Mr. C L. Myers, Superintendent, in 1890, with headquar- 
ters at Jacksonville that the business assumed anything of its present 
magnitude. At the present time the company has offices in every 
city, town and practically every hamlet in the State, and is the most 
deservedly popular of transportation companies, its name being 
synonymous with strict regard to the needs of its pUrons, integrity, 
affability and liberality. 

In 1875 a renewal of the Company's charter was granted, and in 
1886 the Georgia Legislature granted the Company a renewal for thir- 
ty years from Dec. 21st, of that year. When the Company was first 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 93 

organized in 1861, Mr, Plant was elected president, and is still in 
office ; the general management of the Company devolving upon Mr. 
M. J. O'Brien. 

It may not be out of place to say of the Southern Express Com- 
pany that in peace or in war its kindly offices have been appreciated. 
Daring the yellow fever epidemics at New Orleans, La.; Memphis and 
Chattanooga, Tenn ; Charleston, S. Ck; Savannah and Brunswick, 
Ga., and Fernandina and Jacksonville, Fla., all supplies for the suf- 
ferers were carried free by the Southern Express Company, which 
did not wait to be asked to perform the service, but solicited contri- 
butions from the people, and transported them/;r^ of charge, and that 
because of unceasing kindness, its employes are loyal subjects, unal- 
terably devoted to its interests. 

This modern giant of traffic organized at Augusta, Ga., in t86i, 
and nearly annihilated by the war, now embraces every section of 
the Southern States, south of a line bounded by Norfolk, Richmond, 
Lynchburg, Roanake, Cincinnati, Columbus, O., Louisville, Owens- 
burg, Evansville, St. Louis, Springfield, Miss., Memphis, Shrevesport 
New Orleans, and is now one of the strongest and most successful 
express companies in the western world. 

The Southern Express Company covers 24,000 miles of first-class 
railroad lines; has 2,200 agencies; employs 5,100 persons, 725 of 
whom are in Florida, and expends annually in Florida, $275,000, 

LIST OF OFFICIALS. 

H. B. Plant, President, Augusta, Ga., and New York. 

M. J O'Brien, Vice-President and General Manager, Augusta, 
Ga., and New York, N. Y. 

M. F. Plant, Vice President, New York, N. Y. 

Geo. H. Tilley, Secretary and Treasurer, Augusta, Ga,, and 
New York, N. Y. 

C. L. Loop, General Auditor, Chattanooga, Tenn. 

T. W. Leary, Assistant General Manager, Chattanooga, Tenn. 

Erwin, du Bignon & Chisholm, General Counsel, Savannah, Ga. 
New York office, No. 12 West 23d street. 

SUPERINTENDENTS. 

T. W. Leary, Assistant General Manager, Chattanooga, Tenn. 

H. Dempsey, Augusta Division, Augusta, Ga. 

C. T. Campbell, Central Division, Chattanooga, Tenn. 

O. M. Sadler, Piedmont Division, Charlotte, N. C, 

H C. Fisher, Southern Division, Nashville, Tenn, 

G. W. Agee, Western Division, Memphis, Tenn, 

W, J. Crosswell, Atlantic Division, Wilmington, N. C. 

W. W. Hulbert. Georgia Division, Atlanta, Ga. 

C. L. Myers, Florida Division, Jacksonville, Fla. 

V. Spaldine, Eistern Division, Roanoke, Va. 

C A. Pardue, New Oi leans, La. 



94 Glimpses of Florida 



State Officials. 



Henry Lawrence Mitchell, Governor. 

William D. Bloxham, Comptroller. 

John L. Crawford, Secretary of State. 

C. B. Collins, Treasurer, 

William B. Lamar, Attorney General. 

William N. Sheats, State Superintendent of Education. 

Patrick Houston, Adjutant General. 

Supreme Court. 

Milton H. Mabry, Chief Justice. 
Benjamin S. Liddon, Associate Justice. 
R. F. Taylor, Associate Justice. 
J. B. Whitfield, Clerk. 

Circuit Court. 

First Circuit. 
William T>. Barnes, Pensacola. 

Second Circuit. 
John W. Malone, Quincy. 

Third Circuit. 
John F. White, Live Oak. 

Fourth Circuit. 
Rhydon M. Call, of Jacksonville. 

Fifth Circuit. 
William A. Hocker, of Ocala. 

Sixth Circuit. 
Barron Phillips, Tampa. 

Seventh Circuit. 
John D. Broome, DeLand. 

Judges of Criminal Courts of Record. 
Escambia County. 
John C. Avery, Pensacola. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 95 

Duval County. 
H. B. Phillips, Jacksonville. 

Putnam County. 
Robert W. Davis, Palatka. 

Marion County. 
William S. Bullock, Ocala. 

Hillsboro County. 
Gen. J. B. Wall, Tampa. 

Lake County. 
J. B. Gaines. 

Orange County. 
Cecil G. Butt. 

Volusia County. 
J. A. Stewart, DeLand. 

U. S. DISTRICT JUDGES. 

Northern District — Chas. Swayne. 
Southern District — Tas. W. Locke. 



ROSTER OF NATIONAL GUARD— FLORIDA, WITH DATE 

OF RANK. 



Gov. Henry L. Mitchell. Commander-in-Chief, Tallahassee. 
Major-General Patrick Houston, Adjutant General, Tallahassee. 

On the General Staff. 
Col. D. E. Maxwell, Assistant Adjutant-General, Fernandina. 
Col. Fr-^nk Phillips, Quartermaster-General, Marianna, 
Col. F. A. Salomonson, Commissary-General, Tampa. 
Col. Evans Haile, Judge Advocate-General, Gainesville. 
Col. D. G. Brent, Inspector-General, Pensacola. 
Col. Henry Bacon, Surgeon General, Jacksonville. 

On the Personal Staff. 
Col. T. C. Taliaferro. Aide-de Camp, Tampa. 
Capt. L. J. Brumby, Aide-de Camp, Ocala. 
First Battalion. 

Headquarters JacksonviUe, Florida. 

Major M. F. Turner, commanding, June 23, 1893. 

ist Lieutenant E. W. Va;!, Adjutant, July 21, 1893. 7^^ 



g6 Glimpses of Florida : 

I St Lieutenant C. H. Chesnut, Quartermaster and Commissary, 

July 21, C893. 
I St Lieutenant L. Alexander, Surgeon, St. Augustine. 



Co. A, Jacksonville Light Infantry, Jacksonville, Fla. 

Capt. W. J, DriscoU, commanding, June 12, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant B. B. MacDonell, November 27, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant J. S. Maxwell, November 27, 1894. 
Co. B, St. Augustine Guards, St. Augustine, Fla. 

Capt. F. H. Greatorex, commanding, July 18, 1892. 

ist Lieutenant A. J. PaLicer, Jr., August 22, 1893. 

2d Lieutenant M. T. .Masters, August 22, 1893. 
Co. C, Metropolitan Light Infantry, Jacksonville, Fla. 

Capt. L. H. Mattair, commanding, July 29, 1891, 

ist Lieutenant James Y. Wilson, July 24, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant John-W. Kennedy, July 24, 1894. 
Co. D, St. Augustine Rifles, St. Augustine, Fla. 

Capt. J. W. Brannon, commanding, January 23, 1891, 

ist Lieuteant Theo. V. Pomar, December it, 1891. 

2d Lieutenant F. J. Howatt, July 21, 1893. 
Co. F, Wilson Battery, Jacksonville, Fla. 

Capt. J. Gumbinger, commanding, March 2, 1894. 

1st Lieutenant C. M. Smith, January, 1895. 
Second Battalion. 

Headquarters Leesburg, Florida . 

Major C. P. Lovell, commanding, August 17, 1893. 
ist Lieutenant J. N. Bradshaw, Adjutant, July 23, 1894. 
1st Lieutenant Quartermaster Commissary, 

ist Lieutenant R. P. Izlar, Surgeon, June 30, 1892. 



Co. A, Ocala Rifles, O.cala, Fla. 

Capt. R. E. Davidson, commanding, February 13, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant R. T. Biedsey, February 13, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant J. W. Lancaster, February 13, 1894. 
Co. B, Leesburg Rifles, Leesburg, Fla. 

Capt. George E. Lovell, commanding, March 23, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant J. C West, July 26, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant J. Charles Hall, July 26, 1894. 
Co. C, Shine Guards, Orlando, Fla. 

Capt. Philip B. Bewan, commanding, January 3, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant William H. Reynolds, March 17, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant Albert Winston Scruggs, March 17, 1894. 
Co. D, Gate City Rifles, Sanford, Fla. 

Capt. Charles D. Leifler, commanding, January 14, 1892 

ist Lieutenant W. D. Miller, July 28, 1892. 

2d Lieutenant A. P. Hockstein, July 28, 1892. 



Ancient, Colonial and Modern. 97 

Third Battalion. 

Headquarters Pensacola, Florida. 

Major W. F. Williams, commanding, July 21, 1887. 
ist Lieutenant F. A. Ross, Adjutant, July 10, 1893. 
ist Lieutenant S. B. Hutchinson, Quartermaster and Commis- 
sary,- August 3, 1893. 
ist Lieutenant R. W. Hargis, Surgeon, July 21, 1887. 

Co. A, Escambia Rifles, Pensacola, Fla. 

Capt. R. M. Bushnell, commanding, November 24, 1893. 

ist Lieutenant J, K. Hyer, November 24, 1893. 

2d Lieutenant S. J. Gonzalez, November 24, 1893. 
Co. B, Chipley Light Infantry, Pensacola, Fla. 

Capt. R. M. Gary, Jr., commanding, February 15, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant W. S. Oerting, February 15, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant 
Co. C, Franklin Rifles, Appalachicola, Fla. 

Capt. P. S. Hickey, commanding, August 19, 1892. 

ist Lieutenant A. S. Mohr, August 19, 1892. 

2d Lieutenant J. P. Lovell, August 19, 1892. 
Co. D, Suwanee Rifles, Live Oak. Fla. 

Capt. L. K. Kimmerlin, commanding, Nov. 25, 1893. 

ist Lieutenant E. G. Allen, November 25, 1893. 

2d Lieutenant R. H. Haddock, November 25, 1893. 
Co. F, Pensacola Light Artillery, Pensacola, Fla. 

Capt. M. P. Palmes, commanding, August 17, 1891. 

ist Lieutenant A. H. D'Alemberte, August 5, 1893. 

Fourth Battalion. 

Headquarters Gainesville, Florida . 

Major Irving E. Webster, commanding, May 30, 1892. 
ist Lieutenant Walter M. Davis, Adjutant, December 4, 1891. 
ist Lieutenant C. M. Bingham, Jr., Quartermaster and Commis- 
sary, June 17, 1892. 
ist Lieutenant E. L. Stewart, Surgeon, January 17, 1892. 



Co. A, Fernandina Guards, Fernandina, Fla. 

Capt. A. Baushell, commanding, August i, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant J. C. Angel, August i, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant George E. Willis, August i, 1894. 
Co. B, Bradford County Guards, Starke, Fla. 

Capt. R. C. Heiberger, commanding, April 21, 1890. 

ist Lieutenant O. C. Husband, March 30, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant O. G. Husband, March 30, 1894. 
Co. C, Gem City Guards, Palatka, Fla. 

Capt. H. M. DeMontmoUin, commanding, December 4, 1893. 

ist Lieutenant J. Stewart Lewis, July 18, 1894. 



98 Glimpses of Florida : 

2d Lieutenant Jesse E. Burtz, July 18, 1894. 
Co. D, Halifax Rifles, Daytona, Fla. 

Capl. J. S. Herbert, commanding, May 15, 1893. 
ist Lieutenant Jerome D. Maley, May 15, 1893. 
2d Lieutenant W. H. Carter, June 8, 1892, 
Fifth Battalion. 

Headquarters Tampa, Florida. 

Major Douglas F. Conoley, commanding, July 23, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant L D. Craft, Adjutant, August 30, 1892. 

I St Lieutenant Albert F. Shultz, Quartermaster and Commissary 

April 10, 1894. 
ist Lieutenant J. B. Maloney, Surgeon, August 15, 1892. 



Co. A, Island City Guards, Key West, Fla. 

Capt. F. C. Brossier, commanding, June 6, 1888. 

ist Lieutenant M. W. Curry, June 25, 1892. 

2d Lieutenant H. L. Roberts, June 10, 1890. 
Co. B, Tampa Rifle.'^, Tampa, Fla. 

Capt. Charles C. Whitaker, commanding, August 3, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant Frank Burke, Aucust 3, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant Fred W. Krause, August 3, 1894. 
Co. C, Indian River Guards, Titusville, Fla. 

Capt. Arthur T. Feaster, commanding, February 26, 1894. 

ist Lieutenant J. T. Sanders, February 26, 1894. 

2d Lieutenant J. C. Jones, February 26, 1894. 
Co. D, DeSoto Guards, Arcadia. Fla. 

Capt. Charles W. Forrester, commanding, December 14, i'> 

ist Lieutenant E. T. Smith, December 14, 1893. 

2d Lieutenant F. Lutzens, December 14, 1893. 

State Troops number about 900. 



50nE OF THE LEADING HOTELS OF FLORIDA. 




WINDSOR HOTEL. 

JOHN E. BAKER and OWEN TRAVERS, Props. JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA. 




No. 3 



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F\^0 C^_L A 3 H OUsT "^ 







.i&Uiff BiLHARaSjmUS''BAJ-L 



OCALA HOUSE. 

i.mu^'^?.''?^'?*^? °* °"® °* *'^*^ richest counties in Fiorida (Marion), has been clubbed 
ihe Brick City," the hub of Agriculture, Horticulture and Commerce. The enter- 
prise and push of Its business men remind one of the vig-orous Western cities. 

Ihe Ocala House is the finest between Palatka and Punta Gorda, embodying in its 
general arrangement the best modern ideas of comfort and safety. Ocala enioys ex- 
cellent transportation facilities ; is on the line of the Florida Southern Kail'road, 71 
'^^V^^fouth of Palatka, and is reached direct, via the Tropical Trunk Line and F. C. 
oc F. Ky. 




No. 4. 



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