Avenue at Palm Beach Pine Lands A GUIDE TO FLORIDA FOR TOURISTS, SPORTSMEN AND SETTLERS BY HARRISON RHODES AND MARY WOLFE DUMONT WITH A CHAPTER ON THE INLAND WATER- WAYS FROM NEW YORK TO KEY WEST / Three Maps and Numerous Illustratioiis NEW YORK DODD, MEAD AND COMPANY 1912 /-J/ 6 4 Copyright, 1911, By dodd. mead and company 17 £CI.A327442 . PREFACE Probably anyone who starts to write of a familiar and favorite region does so with the hope of saying everything that could be said upon the subject. The authors of the present volume have long since renounced any such hope, though the work has been considerably expanded beyond the limits first planned. They hope, however, to have said at least a little upon all Floridian subjects, and to offer io their readers a more comprehensive survey of the State than is otherwise available. There have been good guide books to Florida, but they are now somewhat antiquated. There are many delightful books upon special aspects of the I'loridian Peninsula; they are mostly to be found upon the shelves of libraries now, where it is hoped this present volume may encourage many readers to go to find them, — to which c ikI a bil)liography of works upon the State has II compiled. i his volume is the result of long acquaintance with I^'lorida ; of pleasant h(jurs of desultory read- ing about it, and of a great affection for it. While the writers have tried to restrain any such en- thusiasm as seems to animate the authors of the railway guides and folders, they would admit frankly at the outset that they love the I'lori- dian land and hope to communicate to their read- ers some of the beauty and romance they find there. PREFACE Thanks for assistance in the preparation of the book are gratefully made to James Turner Butler, Oscar T. Conklin, Washington E. Con- nor, Gaston Drake, Arthur C. Freeman, W. H. Green, Dr. John Gifford, W. W. Griest, W. H. Harris, James E. Ingraham, Geo. F. Miles, Dr. A. Leight Monroe, Mrs. Kirk (Mary Barr) Mun- roe, Claude J. Nolan, B. J. Pacetti, Capt. H. E. Sewall and Francis E. Winthrop. CONTENTS PACE Preface Florida, the "Land of I'loweks" ... i History and Antiquities 8 Topography 47 Climate 53 Si'OkTS -ji ROUTES THROL'CII l-I.()Rin\ Jacksonville SV Jacksonville to Fernandina 104 Jacksonville to Maypokt 106 Jacksonville to Key West 108 I Jacksonville to St. Augustine . .108 II St. Aufi^iistine to Palm r>cach . 125 III Palm Beach to Miami ... 169 IV Miami to Key West .... 190 V History of the Florida East Coast Railway 207 VI The Fverpladcs 210 The St. John's River: Jacksonville t<> F\- TERPRiSE '19 The Ocklawaha River: Palatka to Silver Springs ^^^ Jacksonviiii i(» Tai.lahassee and Pr\?A- COLA . . ^}i7 CONTENTS PAGE Jacksonville to Tampa 253 I Via the Atlantic Coast Line . . 253 II Via the Seaboard Air Line . . . 274 Jacksonville to St. Petersburg .... 303 Jacksonville to Fort Myers 289 Jacksonville to Burnett's Lake and Perry 316 The Caloosahatchee River 301 Waycross to Port Tampa 318 INLAND WATERWAYS New York to Key West, Fla 323 New York to Charleston, S. C. . . 329 Charleston, S. C, to Jacksonville . . 347 Jacksonville to Miami 355 Miami to Key West 378 Hotel List . 395 Women's Clubs in Florida 422 Bibliography 425 Index 437 A LIST OF ERRATA PaKc 72- inc 14— for ' ' town " read " towns." 8j — " 34- * * zonito" read "iKiniio." • 83 - •• 14 • Below in Pumpkin " read ' Ht- low Pumpkin Key." ■^J ■ -"J ' Romcano " read "Romant*" • 151 — " 30— •• •McWilliams" read "Mr Wil- liam." • KO — 5 — * James " read "GeorRc." 170- i(»— ' * canal " read " coral." 171 I.? • Lantana City at the head " read " Lantana City to the head " • 192 — • 21 — •' " Miss F. L. Nugent * read "Mrs. F. L. Nugent* 22Z — • 13— •• "pool is most attractive" read "baths and pool are most a! tractive." " A'J - io — ' rich " read " riches." •• 291 — • ,4_ •• ' then " read " also." • 292 — •• 20— " * the " read " their." * .130 — •• 6— •• ' pond " read " Point." • 331 — •* 22 — " "Beam Iwats " rea beam." • 3X^ — * 31 — '" " Bay " read " City." '• 338- • 7- " • rural * read " renal " • 349 — " 6 — •• • is " read " are." • 358- • 25— '* " at " read " a." • 362- " 23 — " * Stretch ' read " kra'ind Waterways, New York Charleston, S. C. Fachtfi f>af^c 330 Inland Waterways. Charles- n, S. C, to Key West, Fla. 350 ILLUSTRATIONS Avenue at Palm Beach . Frontispiece Sir Francis Drake's Attack on St. Aujjustine F acinic pag_c 8 Rihaut Treatinj^ with Indians 9 rinc Lands 18 The Suwanee River ... 19 The Cathedral 30 Fort Marion 31 In Old St. Au).;nsline ... 40 Doorway of Hotel l\)nce de de Leon " \\ Osceola ** \6 Death of Waxe-Hadjo . .\j At the Mouth of the Miami River Pineapple Plantation ... Thompson Creek, near Or- mond A Sugar Plantation ... " Gippinp " on the Ocklawaha Yacht Passing throu^di Canal Pelicans Captured Alligator ... " Ostrich Farm Riverside Park Jacksonville City Hall ... St. John's River Bridge, Jack- sonville " "Old Slave Market." St. Au- gustine " 56 57 65 74 75 «2 «3 )2 93 102 103 112 ILLUSTRATIONS Hotel Alcazar Facing page 113 Memorial Presbyterian Church *' " 122 Treasury Street .... " " 123 The Daytona Beach ... " " 132 Ridgewood Avenue, Daytona . " '* 133 Ruins of Sugar Mill, Port Orange " " 142 The Big Tree, Daytona . . » « 143 Ruins of Spanish Mission, New Smyrna .... « << J22 Ruins of " Turnbull's Castle," New Smyrna " " 153 The Shore at Rockledge . . " "158 A Shell Mound " " I59 White Hall " "162 Cocoanut Palms on Lake Worth " ''163 Alligator Joe at Palm Beach " " 168 Wheel Chairs " "169 Hotel Royal Palm at Miami " " 180 Golf at Kissimmee .... » " 181 The Seminole Club, Miami . " " 190 A Railroad into the Ever- glades " " 191 At Work on Maser Channel Bridge " "196 Mangrove Trees, Jupiter Nar- rows ....... " " 197 Mosher Channel Viaduct . . « « 204 Construction of Concrete Via- duct " "205 Banyan Tree at United States Barracks, Key West . . « << 210 Landing Sponges at Key West " " 211 Seminole Indian Village . . u ^ ^ig ILLUSTRATION'S Seminole Canoes . . Pacini^ poi^e 219 A Celery Farm 22H Conner's Landing;, The Ockla- waha Gathering Oranges .... " Ocklawaha Stcanier ... Barracks and Tarade Gruund, Fort Barrancas ♦. . . . " Bellevue," House of Princess Miirat Palms Pensacola Lip:ht House . . '* In the Lake Country ... ** De Leon Springs .... Tampa Hay Hotel .... Razorbacks " Shell Fence at St. Petersburg Tampa Post Office and Cus- tom House Old Fort Dallas, Miami . . Concrete Mixer " Drainage Canal Works . Captain and Crew .... " A Houscl)oat Pineapple Field ** By the Keys A T'lorida I^'ord " Hotel Ponce dc Leon ... City Gates Gardens of Royal Poinciana Hotel The Catch A China Tree Boca Chica Viaduct A GUIDE TO FLORIDA FLORIDA, THE "LAND OF FLOWERS" For a jii^rcat part of our country Florida is the one winter resort. California is its only rival, and for the people of the east and the middle west the southern State's greater accessibility must always give it an advantage over its western rival. There is no intention here nor anywhere else in this volume to enter into a discussion of the relative merits of the two States, a dis- cussion which, as anyone who has listened to piazza conversations at winter hotels knows, may easily become acrimonious. It must be sufficient to say that there are great numbers of people who prefer the Florida climate and landscape, yachtsmen who think no waters compare with the Floridian rivers and bays, and fishing and shooting men who would exchange the Florida woods, streams and beaches for no others. The number of the State's visitors and admirers in- creases yearly. Yearly, too, is discovery made of its possibilities as a place of permanent resi- dence, and its great agricultural resources. Be- sides the winter tourist there is also the settler, an increasing factor in the State's economy. Florida has been singularly fortunate in its name which we commonly translate " Land of Flowers." In strict accuracy the discoverer gave the name not as descriptive, but because he landed on ** Pascua I'lorida " — the tlowcry Easter — in the Spanish tongue. But in the 2 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA I popular speech Florida has become synony- mous with Land of Flowers the world over. It is curious and significant, too, to find that abroad, where the names of our States are generally nothing but a meaningless jargon to the Euro- pean, the name of Florida seems universally known. It means everywhere blue skies, orange trees, blossoming rose-bushes — in short, sum- mer in winter. And it is scarcely an unfair comparison to say that as to the Spaniards in Cuba and Porto Rico, Florida lay in the west almost like a will- o'-the-wisp upon the horizon calling them to come to the cities of Eldorado and the Fountain of Youth, so even in prosaic modern days for many people in the bleaker North it seems to lie down against the tropic seas and the Indies, in- viting with an appeal which somehow still holds in it something of the old mystery and romance. Florida was the scene of the first settlement by Europeans upon what is now the territory of the United States. It has been, however, oddly enough, the last of the States east of the Mississippi to be completely settled and devel- oped — in fact the process is by no means com- plete yet. It is at once the oldest and the newest country on our Atlantic seaboard or on our Gulf coast. It has in consequence a curious, almost anomalous, character. It abounds in legends, it holds in its woods and by its streams ruined traces of forgotten and inexplicable settlements of early Spanish days. It is filled, on the other hand, with brisk and thriving new cities, " boom towns " almost. The new settler finds land cheap and abundant. • THE LAND OF FLOWERS " 3 but his title to it often rests on some old grant to a grandee of Spain or to an Knj^lish lord. In the Florida of to-day the visitor will find, if he has the interest and the eyes to look, a mixture of the antique and the most modern, such as it would he hard to match elsewhere. He will find the oldest town and the newest. He will dis- cover quaint maps, over three centuries old. of parts of the land he visits, but he will find that even now there is no chart for all the trackless mystery of the Everglades. In short Florida, which had its very begjinnings in romance, in that expedition of Ponce de Leon's in search of the Fountain of Youth, has kept, even to the present day, when the flood of modern progress is pouring into her every corner, something of her own pleasantly romantic character. Time and Plan of Tour. — The plcasantest sea- son, broadly speaking, to be in Florida is from November till the middle of May. Not only is that the period when for many the climate of the States farther north is least agreeable, but it is also the time when the climatic and other conditions of Florida are most nearly to the taste of her visitors. There is much to be said in favor of even the summer climate of the peninsula (see later chap- ter on climate). The rise of temperature is less perhaps than might be expected, the air is in many places freshened constantly by the sea- breezes, and the nights are comparatfvely cool. But on the whole heat and insect pests make it less attractive in summer. And in the autumn in many parts of the State there is commonly a rainy season, sometimes with gales, or even at 4 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA rare intervals the milder Florida form of the West Indian hurricane. January and the first half of February are very often cool (sometimes rainy), in the north- ern and central parts of the State. This is the time to visit the parts lying farthest south, such as Palm Beach, Miami, and the Keys. Later it is wiser, as the phrase is, to follow the spring north. The commonest mistake, how- ever, is to follow it too fast. One cannot put it too strongly that the majority of visitors, while roses bloom, birds sing about them, and the de- ciduous trees are in full leaf, cannot be brought to believe that in the North the spring weather is still treacherous, disagreeable, and often, upon a return from the milder climate of the South, actually dangerous. It is, as all travelers know, a commonplace that there is no place in the world where, according to its inhabitants, you should not be in May to see it at its best. There is no intention here of urging that the northern be sacrificed to secure the southern May. But those who choose to stay so late will find it agreeable. Neither railways nor hotel-keepers, however, do much to prolong the season for visitors. The fastest and best equipped trains are put on in early January and usually withdrawn in late March, and many of the largest and best hotels hold to this same schedule of opening and clos- ing. But' both early and late, good and often cheaper accommodation is provided, so that no one who really wants it need be deterred from a long visit. The " season," however, in the sense of being crowded and fashionable, is Jan- •TMR LAND OF FLOWERS" $ uarv, February and March. During that time, at the more popular places it is often advisable to have secured rooms ahead at hotels, and to have reserved berths, etc., upon trains as much in advance as convenient. Plan of Tour. — In almost all cases tiic visitor arrives at Jacksonville, where, either coming or poinjj. it is probable he will fmd it convenient to sleep at least a ni^lit, and so will have oppor- tunity to visit the city. He may wish to delay for excursions to IVrnandina, or Atlantic and Pablo Ueaches. The ICast Coast is perhaps the most frequented part of Florida. St. .Xuj^ustine is unquestion- ably the most picturesque and intcrestinj^ city <»f the State. Palm Beach its most fashii>nable resort, and Miami, in both town and hotels, a wonderful example of what the Florida East Coast Railway has accomplished. At Daytona, will be found the most important <»f the less pretentious places. Beyond Miami the railway j:oes throuijh the Keys, half over the sea and half over land, on a roadbed which is remarkable from an enj^ineering point of view, as far as Key West. From Miami steamers po to Nassau, and from Key West to Havana, and the I'lorida trip tnay f)e extended to the P.ahamas and Cuba. I'rom Havana it is possible to sail to Tampa and lie^jin the return trip on the West Coast. Tampa and St. Petersburg are favorite resorts well c<|uipped with hotels and attracti Still searching for Bimini, Ponce de Leon came upon and named the Tortugas. He then ran up the western shore to a bay in latitude 27° 30'. This for centuries after was known as Juan Ponce Bay. The caravels sailed in this direction until May 23 and then turned back. On June 14 the little fleet was again headed toward Porto Rico, still searching for the magic fountain. The search was continued from July 25 until September 27, when Ponce de Leon sailed for Spain, leaving one caravel under Juan 12 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA Perez to continue the search for Bimini and the fountain of youth. \ Ponce de Leon, on reaching Spain, gave the King such glowing accounts of his new terri- tories that the latter bestowed upon him the title of Adelantado of the Islands of Florida and Bimini. In addition, he gave him a new patent empowering him to settle " the island Bimini and the island Florida." This settlement was to be effected in three years after the date of the commission, but an extension of time was made until the date of the sailing of the expedition. "^It was, however, many years before Ponce de Leon was able to take advantage of his new patent and continue his explorations in the new lands. The warlike tribes of the Caribs had first to be subdued, and where fighting was to be done there was work for this stout soldier. Per- mission was given him to employ troops engaged in this warfare against the Caribs for his explo- rations, when their subjection should have been accomplished. The natives of Florida were to be required to submit to the Catholic faith and they were to be left unharmed unless they refused allegiance to the King of Spain. "^The Carib war and other matters detained Ponce de Leon until 1521. He had grown older and wiser and he had awakened from the visions of gold and eternal youth which had inspired his earlier voyage. On the eve of sailing on Feb- urary 10, 1521, he wrote thus to the King of Spain : " Among my services I discovered at my own cost and charge the Island Flor- ida, and others in its district which are not men- tioned, as small and useless; and now I return HISTORY 13 to that island, if it please God's will, to settle it, being enabled to carry a number of people with which I shall be able to do so, that the name of Christ may be praised there, and your majesty served with the fruit that land produces. And I also intend to explore the coast of said island further and see whether it is an island or whether it connects with the land where Diego Velasquez is, or any other; and I shall endeavor to learn all I can." To accomplish these pur- poses he carried with him priests, friars, horses, cattle and sheep, and about 400 men. The exact place of his landing is not known. He at once began the erection of dwellings for his followers, but scarcely had the work been under- taken when they were attacked by hostile In- dians. While leading his men. Ponce de Leon received a dangerous arrow wound in his head. The attack was repulsed, but sickness spread among the people, unused to the strange clime, and Ponce de Leon soon realized the hopeless- ness of his endeavor. The attempt to colonize was abandoned and he, with his companions, embarked on board his ships and sailed for Cuba where, after a long and painful illness he died of his wound. xjThus ended the first attempt 'to explore and colonize the land now known as Florida. Al- though Ponce de Leon accomplished no definite results, his name stands highest in the roll of the founders of the Commonwealth, first be- cause he was its discoverer, and hardly less be- cause of the glamour of romance which hangs over his first voyage, and the high purposes with which he undertook the second. He was 14 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA one of the most gallant of the Spanish adventur- ers who first set foot upon the soil of America, and his record is unstained by the cruelty and rapacity which has made the memory of other Spanish explorers of his age less hallowed than execrated. His epitaph in Latin has thus been translated into English : " Beneath this stone re- pose the bones of the valiant Lion, whose deeds surpassed the greatness of his name." -While Ponce de Leon had been delayed in fighting the enemies of his King, other Spanish adventurers without waiting for patents or other formalities had made voyages to the lands which he had discovered. In 15 16 Diego Miruelo, a pilot, made a trading cruise from Cuba to the coast of Florida. He discovered a bay on the west coast, which was probably Pensacola Bay. He traded successfully with the Indians and re- turned after a stay of one year. Francis Her- nandez de Cordova in 1517 led an expedition to capture slaves in the Bahamas. He was driven by storms to the coast of Florida, where his pilot, Alaminos, who had accompanied Ponce de Leon on his first voyage, ran into a bay where he had been before. Here the Indians proved hostile and attacked the Spaniards with great fury, wounding many of them. The Spaniards in repelling the attack killed 22 of the natives, -i There were several other explorers in these years, but they left no impress as the result of their voyages, and their exploits are of interest and importance chiefly to students and historians. Among these was Alonzo Alvarez de Prieda who, in 1 5 19, sailed westward along the coast to the river Panuco in Mexico, which he named. HISTORY 15 His voyage was the first to determine that Flor- ida was not an island but a portion of the main- land. The voyages of Garay and Vasquez de Ayllon in 1520, 1523 and 1526 threw some new light on the discoveries of Ponce de Leon and made the general outlines of the coast familiar to the Spaniards. -^The history of these earliest explorers would be incomplete without a record of that most un- fortunate adventurer, Panfilo de Narvaez. This officer had been sent by Velasquez, Governor of Cuba, to supersede Cortes in Mexico, but that haughty conqueror had contemptuously driven him back. He then obtained a patent from Charles V. to acquire and colonize on the Gulf of Mexico from the Rio de Palmas to Florida. The grant was made on the condition that Nar- vaez was to found two towns and erect two fortresses. The title of Adelantado was given to him. After many vicissitudes by sea he landed, with 100 men, on the coast of Florida on April 15, 1528. The natives were called upon to acknowledge the sovereignty of the Pope and the King of Spain and were threatened with destruction if they refused. Here De Narvaez was told by the natives of a great and rich city called Apalache, in the interior, where much booty could be obtained. Leaving his ships with a portion of his men, he struck out with the re- mainder. When Apalache was finally reached, it was found to be a rude hamlet of about forty small cabins. The party was already in desper- ate straits for food, and after a month of almost unbelievable sufifering, during which they were continually harassed by Indians, they again i6 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA reached the coast, on the northern shore of the Gulf of Mexico. Their horses had already been eaten and the metal work and accouterments j were used to aid in the construction of such' crazy boats as they with their rude implements could manufacture. In these frail vessels they put to sea. They were soon overturned by the waves and De Narvaez and all but four of his fol- lowers perished. Among the survivors was Cabeca de Vaca, the treasurer of the expedition. After years of wandering these castaways finally reached the settlements of Spain in Mexico. De Vaca, returning to Spain, published a re- markable narrative of his adventure, which may be read in the quaint English of Richard Hak- luyt. For purposes of his own he spread abroad the mischievous falsehood that Florida was the richest country he had discovered. '^The marvelous inventions of De Vaca fell upon receptive ears. Among his eager listeners was Hernando de Soto, an adventurer who had ac- quired some fame in the train of Pizarro the conqueror of Peru. He was a man of un- bounded avarice and ambition and now sought for new fields of enterprise. He had asked for and obtained permission to conquer Florida, an4 the wonders unfolded by De Vaca and others [ gave him no lack of recruits for the adventure, i Nobles and gentlemen contended for the priv-j ilege of joining his standard. He set sail from i Havana with a large armament on May 12, 1539, and landed at the bay of Espiritu Santo, now Tampa Bay, in Florida. With him were over j 600 men thoroughly armed and equipped, j Priests also were in th^ tr^in, carrying the j i i HISTORY 17 sacred vessels and vestments, with bread and wine for the Eucharist, for De Soto declared that his enterprise was undertaken for religious pur- poses alone. In addition to the religious para- phernalia, there were brought along fetters to bind prisoners and bloodhounds to hunt them down. ' The wanderings of De Soto bear an important relation to the history of the Mississippi Valley ; with Florida, proper, he had little to do except that he made his starting point within its borders. The story of the wanderings of the expedition through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi is so well known that it need not be repeated here. After over three years of hardship and suffering in the search for gold and treasure, De Soto died miserably and his followers buried his body in the waters of the Mississippi. The survivors of the expedition, after great hardships, reached the Gulf of Mexico and finally arrived at a Spanish settlement on the river Panuco. Of the 620 who embarked upon the expedition, but 311 escaped alive. The bones of their comrades were scat- tered abroad throughout the wilderness which they had traversed. .-^The fate of De Soto did not deter others from attempting the conquest of Florida. A Domini- can monk, Cancello, undertook the task of con- verting the natives to the true faith, but he, with several other priests, were murdered in the at- tempt. In 1558 an ambitious plan of coloniza- tion was formed by Guido de las Bazares. He explored the coast in an attempt to find a suit- able place for the beginnings of his colony. Re- turning to Spain he dispatched a squadron with i8 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA supplies and men, but this was dispersed by storms, and the expedition was a total failure. In 1559 Tristan de Luna landed at Pensacola, and explored a portion of the coast. >"So far as concerned permanent occupation of the land, these various expeditions were without result. Spain had not yet gained a foothold in Florida, a name, it must be remembered, which was not limited to the territory that bears the name at the present time, but included the whole country from the Atlantic on the East to the longitude of New Mexico on the West, and from the Gulf of Mexico indefinitely northward to the Polar Sea. This vast territory was claimed by Spain as a result of the discoveries of Columbus, the grant of the Pope and the expeditions al- ready mentioned. It was claimed, too, by Eng- land as a right of the discoveries of Cabot, while France based a still more shadowy claim upon the voyage of Verazzano and traditions of earlier visits of Breton adventurers. The next attempt at conquest and coloniza- tion was made by Frenchmen under the jealous watch of Spain. The attempted settlement in Canada by Cartier and Roberval in 1541 Spain had regarded with hostile eyes, but the attempted colonization by Frenchmen on the coasts of Flor- ida proper was to occasion in her even more distrust and alarm. * In 1562 France was disturbed by the approach of a religious war. The struggle between the Huguenots and the Roman Catholics was ap- proaching a crisis. In those days there came to Caspar de Coligny, Admiral gf France and HISTORY 19 leader of the Huguenots, a dream of a colony in the new world where the French Protestants might be secure from persecution and destruc- tion. This dream he swiftly turned into a real- ity. An expedition was organized under the leadership of Jean Ribaut, an excellent seaman and staunch Protestant of Dieppe. Enlisted with him was a band of veteran soldiers and a few noblemen. They embarked fro,m Havre in two antiquated ships on February 18, 1562. Crossing the Atlantic without adventure they ar- rived on April 30 in latitude 29° 30'. This was the coast of Florida. The point which jutted into the water they called French Cape. The ships then turned northward and on the following day, May i, they anchored at the mouth of a great river, where Indians running along the beach, beckoned them to land. This river they called the River of May. It is now the St. John's. After a short stay at this place they sailed onward. Voyaging north they came to a commodious haven which they named Port Royal. In all about three weeks were spent in these voyages of exploration. Ribaut left behind him 30 men who were to build a fort at Port Royal called Charles fort, and hold it for the King of France. He himself returned for addi- tional men and supplies. This fort was prob- ably near the city of Beaufort, S. C. The col- onists left behind soon fell into difficulties. Their whole thought was of gold, and the labor of providing for subsistence was repugnant to them, for they were, for the most part, soldiers and sailors, with a few gentlemen. The Indians, too, after the first friendly advances became 20 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA hostile, probably through injustice and ill treat- ment. It was soon a difficult matter to find food. Homesickness fell upon them and soon their chief desire was to leave the spot where such hardships were endured. With great dif- ficulty they made themselves rude boats and put to sea. They drifted about aimlessly for sev- eral days, when their supplies gave out and they began to suffer from thirst. Their hunger be- came so terrible that they killed and ate one of their number. Land finally came in sight, and soon afterwards a small English vessel bore down upon them, and after landing the feeblest of the survivors, carried the rest prisoners to Queen EHzabeth. Jean Ribaut, as we have noted, returned to France to recruit emigrants for the new colony. He arrived just in time to take part in the fierce conflict which had then broken out between the Catholics and Huguenots. The struggle, how- ever, was short-lived and ended by the Peace of Amboise. The Huguenots were in the ascend- ancy and Coligny, their leader, was again strong at court. He at once seized the opportunity and began to solicit, with success, the means of re- newing his enterprise of colonization. He gath- ered together soldiers, artisans and tradesmen and a sprinkling of young Huguenot nobles, for- getting the most important class of all — tillers of the soil. The command of the expedition was given to Rene de Laudonniere. --^ The expedition set sail in three vessels, the smallest of 60 tons and the largest of 120 tons. On June 22, 1564, the coast of Florida was sighted. The little fleet entered the harbor of St. Augustine, which was given the name. River HISTORY 21 of Dolphins, "because," says Laudonniere, " that at mine arrival, I saw there a great num- ber of Dolphins which were playing in the mouth thereof." The commander then turned north- ward, following the coast until June 25, when he reached the mouth of the present St. John's, " the River of May." Here the vessels anchored and a party pulled to the shore. They were warmly greeted by several Indians who had come to gaze at the strange invaders. This cor- dial greeting greatly pleased the Frenchmen. " I prayse God continually," Laudonniere says, " for the great love I have found in these savages." He soon had occasion to amend his thanksgiving. On the following morning another landing was made and this time an expedition was made up the river where the Frenchmen saw for the first time, to their great amazement, alligators and innumerable strange birds. The spot at which they landed seemed an ideal site for the new colony. Around the Indian towns in the neigh- borhood were growing crops of maize, beans, pumpkins and other vegetables, while to their optimistic fancy the river afforded a roadway to the mines of gold and silver and the great stores of precious stones of which they dreamed. The building of a fort was at once begun, and was called in honor of Charles IX., Fort Caro- line. "^ For a time all went well with the little colony; but the madness for gold, which always possessed these adventurers, remained unsatisfied. In ad- dition, an attempt to play one Indian chieftain against another had resulted in trouble with both. The climate proved hot and sickly, the fare was bad, and altogether dissatisfaction prevailed. 22 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA ! This vented itself in complaints against the com- mander, who had placed the garrison of the fort upon half rations in order that the provisions might hold out. Two of the ships had returned to France while the three remaining had an- chored outside the fort. On the returning ves- sels the malcontents sent home charges against Laudonniere of peculation, favoritism and tyr- anny. A number of the men mutinied and, tak- ing advantage of their commander's illness, gained over nearly all the best soldiers in the fort. The mutineers sailed away in two small vessels which had been built, with the object of plunder and trade in one of the Spanish islands. The expedition resulted in disaster, and the mu- tineers returning were put to death. ^- The colonists, now reduced to desperate straits through hunger and homesickness, looked in vain for relief. Their chief desire was to return to France. The Indians had become hostile and the situation of the little band was perilous in the extreme. On August 3, 1565, Laudonniere, while walking on a hill, looked eastward and saw a great ship entering the river's mouth. This was followed by two others. The hope of suc- cor was soon succeeded by fear that the newcom- ers might not be French but Spaniards. They proved neither, but an English vessel under the command of " the right worshipful and valiant knight, Sir John Hawkins," father of the English slave trade. Laudonniere purchased from him one of the smaller vessels and after a brief, but friendly visit, the Englishmen sailed away. Preparations were at once begun for departure, but on August 28, tidings were brought of an- HISTORY 23 other approaching squadron. There was another alarm lest they be their enemies of Spain, but they proved to be the long looked for ships from France under the command of Jean Ribaut. Greetings had scarcely been exchanged with their comrades fromx France when, on September 4, the crew of Ribaut's flagship, anchored outside the bar, saw a great vessel sailing toward them, and, floating from her stern, the dreaded banner of Spain. Others followed in her wake. ---The commander of the expedition which thus brought alarm to the French, was Pedro Menen- dez de Aviles, an officer of the Spanish marine. He had served the King at Flanders and in the Indies, where he served as commander of the fleet and army, and amassed a vast fortune. He fell into temporary disgrace, but was pardoned and his command v\^as restored. To him came the great conception of the conquest and settlement of Florida by Spain, and to his plans the King lent a ready ear. Menendez was empowered to conquer and convert Florida at his own cost and the task was to be completed within three years. Shortly after, the tidings reached Madrid that Florida had already been oc- cupied by French Protestants and that reinforce- ments under Ribaut were on the point of sailing thither. On the receipt of these tidings the force which Menendez had designed to take with him was greatly increased. He was given almost absolute power, not merely over the peninsula which now retains the name of Florida, but over all North America from Labrador to Mexico. His whole force amounted to over 2,600 persons and 34 vessels. 24 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA The chief desire of the commander was to an- ticipate Ribaiit, of whose designs he had been fully informed, and to exterminate the French Protestants. He sailed with 1 1 ships from Cadiz on June 29, 1565, leaving the smaller vessels of his fleet to follow. After many misadventures by sea they discovered on September 4, four ships anchored in the mouth of a river. These ships were four of Ribaut's squadron, anchored, as told above, at the mouth of the river St. John's. The Spanish ships at once prepared for battle, but it was dark before they were able to come within speaking distance of the French. After some parley between the two fleets, Menendez gave his men the order to board. Ribaut was on shore at Fort Caroline. His men cut the cables of their ships, left their anchors and fled. The Span- iards fired and the French replied. The French sailors proved more skillful in maneuvering and ran their ships out to sea beyond possibility of Spanish pursuit. Menendez gave up the chase and turning his flagship ran back alone for the St. John's river. Here, however, he found the French prepared. Armed men were drawn up on the beach and the smaller vessels of Ribaut's squadron were anchored behind the bar to op- pose his landing. He did not venture an attack, but steered southward, sailing along the coast until he came to an inlet which he named St. Augustine. This was the same waterway which Laudonniere had named River of Dolphins. Here Menendez found three of his ships disem- barking their stores and guns. They had taken possession of a large structure which had formed the dwelling of an Indian chief. Around this HISTORY 25 they were throwing up intrenchments, and gangs of negroes were toiling at the work. This was the founding of St. Augustine. On September 8, 1565, Menendez took formal possession of his new domain with impressive and pious ceremon- ials. At Fort Caroline, in the meantime, the first shock of alarm and dismay had given way to dis- cussions as to what had best be done, — whether to remain where they were and fortify their po- sition, to push overland for St. Augustine and attack the invaders in their intrenchments, or to embark and assail the enemy by sea. The last course was decided upon and on September loth the ships, crowded with the best of the French troops, set sail, leaving the remnant of the colo- nists behind, full of dreary forebodings, sj Ribaut reached St. Augustine on September II, and was at once seen by the crew of one of the smaller Spanish vessels, lying outside the bar. The Spaniards on the ships at once gave themselves up for lost, but a wind sprang up and they were able to find refuge behind the bar. On the following day, the ships of Ribaut, with their decks black with men, stood close to the entrance to the port, but the breeze in the mean- time rose to a gale and then to a furious tempest and the French ships were scattered wide on the seas. Menendez at once showed the capacity of a great commander by taking the resolve to march at once to Fort Caroline with 500 men and attack and destroy it while its defenders were absent. September 19 found the vanguard of this force in a deep forest less than a mile from the fort. As they approached still closer 26 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA they met a solitary Frenchman, whom they knocked down and took prisoner. With the cry " Santiago ! At them ! God with us ! Vic- tory ! " the Spaniards rushed upon their unsus- pecting victims. There was no guard on the ramparts. Only a small company of men es- caped. The rest were summarily butchered. About 140 persons were slain in and around the forts. Only the women, infants and boys under 15 years of age were spared. Of these there were about 50. It is affirmed that Menendez hanged his prisoners on trees and placed over them the inscription, " I do this, not as to French- men, but as to Lutherans." The Spaniards gained a great booty in armor, clothing and pro- visions. " Nevertheless," says one of the pious eye-witnesses, " the greatest profit of this victory is the triumph which our Lord has granted us whereby His Holy Gospel will be introduced into this country, a thing so needful for saving so many souls from perdition." Three small French vessels were anchored within range of the Fort and upon these the cannon were turned when the storm had abated a little. One of them was sunk, but the others escaped down the river. The greater number of fugitives, including Lau- donniere himself, finally after many hardships succeeded in boarding the 'French vessels and on September 25th, they put to sea. After the voy- age, in which they endured many privations, one ship arrived at La Rochelle and the other at Swan- sea in Wales. In the meantime the French ships which had appeared at St. Augustine had been cast upon the shores. One of the smaller ships, containing HISTORY 27 about 150 men, landed further to the north than the others, on board which were 350 soldiers and sailors with Ribaut himself. Both parties started at once on the march back to Fort Caroline, each unaware of the whereabouts of the other. The smaller party was discovered by the outposts of Menendez, who had bivouacked his force on the sands of Anastasia Island. Menendez sent a messenger to the little com- pany asking who they were. They declared themselves " followers of Ribaut, Viceroy of the King of France." A brief parley ensued dur- ing which Menendez declared himself, and the Frenchmen gave an account of the disaster which had befallen them. The French were promised safe conduct to Fort Caroline and they ap- proached the Spanish camp with confidence. They little knew the character of the man into whose power they had given themselves. Still professing friendship, he had his prisoners led away over a neighboring hill and there they were butchered by his men. Of the wretched com- pany not one was left alive. Menendez then re- turned in triumph to St. Augustine. He was still apprehensive of Ribaut and the force which remained with him. Soon word came to him from the Indians that a large party of French had been found near the spot where his first victims had landed. He marched to the shore with 150 men and concealed his forces among the bushes. The French were separated from him by an inlet. They had made a raft ready for crossing, which lay in the water. Menendez and his men showed themselves, whereupon the French displayed their banners and set their 28 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA ranks in array of battle. The French asked for a parley and the Spaniards replied. Ribaut sent his sergeant major to confer with Menendez. The former reported that the French numbered 350 and were on their way to Fort Caroline. Menen- dez bade him tell his commander to come him- self with four or five companions and that he pledged his word that the Frenchmen would be returned safe. Ribaut acceded to this request and crossed the inlet with eight gentlemen. Menendez first led him to the spot where the corpses of his followers still lay in heaps upon the sand. Ribaut was prepared for the spectacle for his envoy had already seen and reported it. In spite of what had occurred he urged that Me- nedez should aid him in conveying his followers home. The latter refused a direct reply and Ribaut returned to consult with his officers. Re- turning again he offered a ransom of 100,000 duc- ats in behalf of those who wished to surrender. Menendez, pretending to accept this, directed Ribaut to have his men brought across the in- let. Those who surrendered numbered 150. The remainder had retreated. When all had been landed Ribaut was led among the bushes and his hands were bound fast. He then saw that he had been trapped. After the French had been assembled the Spaniards closed around their victims. They were given an opportunity to recant the Protestant faith but they stoutly refused. Then ensued another butchery. Me- nendez himself in his report says that the lives of five were spared but the rest were all put to the knife. Menendez then again returned to St. Augustine where, while some blamed his cruelty, HISTORY 29 most applauded. The 200 Frenchmen who re- fused surrender were nearly all captured and were made to labor as slaves in St. Augustine. Menendez at once dispatched a glowing account of his successes to the King of Spain. From Spain the news was carried to France. -LThis savage butchery did not long remain un- avenged. Unable to stir the French government to action, Dominique de Gourges, a soldier of an- cient birth and high renown in France, took upon himself to avenge the wrong. Selling his inherit- ance he equipped three small vessels and on August 22, 1567, sailed for Florida. After many adventures he reached the mouth of the St. Mary's, 15 leagues north of the River of May. The Spaniards had in the meantime fortified St. Augustine and repaired Fort Caroline, which they called San Mateo. De Gourges enlisted the aid of Indians and marching stealthily through the forest, came upon San Mateo. The garrison took alarm at its approach, and a detachment sallied from the fort. They were all killed or taken by the French soldiers. Upon beholding this disaster those in the fort were seized with panic and they abandoned it in a body, fleeing into the woods. A body of Indians at once attacked them and only a few prisoners were saved alive. These were led under the inscription, " Not as to Frenchmen, but as to Lutherans," which Menen- dez had placed upon a tree, and there were hanged. Over them was nailed the legend, " Not as to Spaniards, but as to traitors, robbers and murderers." De Gourges had now fulfilled his mission. He had no intention of occupying the country for the Spaniards were in too great force 30 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA at St. Augustine. On May 3, 1568, he sailed away. - Menendez at this time was in Spain where he was high in favor at court. Returning he re- established the Spanish power in Florida, rebuilt Fort San Mateo and established several missions. Thus ended the attempt to plant French Protes- tantism in America. ■^ In the years following these stirring events, the importance of Florida as a colony of Spain grad- ually diminished. No gold or other riches had been found — indeed, it is a notable fact that Florida is one of the few States of the Union in which gold has never been discovered — and to the authorities in Spain there was little interest in the development of new lands except as a source of mineral wealth. Settlement progressed slowly. Desultory efforts were made to convert the Indians to the Catholic faith and many mis- sions were established throughout the territory. '^ In 1586 the inhabitants of St. Augustine were suddenly alarmed by the appearance off the coast of a squadron commanded by Sir Francis Drake, who was returning from a devastating expedi- tion among the Spanish settlements in the West Indies. The famous commander landed a force at night and attacked the fort at the entrance to the harbor. He found this deserted and the gar- rison had fled in such haste that its treasure chest had been left behind. The English force ad- vanced toward the town, when the inhabitants fled. An English sergeant, who commanded a detachment, was shot and killed from ambush. In retaliation for this Drake burned the town. o HISTORY 31 At that time it included among its buildings a hall of justice, a parish church and a monastery. After Drake and his ships had departed, the Spaniards returned and the town was rebuilt. -^i In 1638 the colonists conducted a successful expedition against the Apalachee Indians. The natives who were captured were employed in the construction of forts at St. Augustine and this vassalage continued for sixty years. In 1647 the families in the little city numbered about 300. Up to this time the government of the territory had vested in the family of Menendez, who had received a charter from the King of Spain. This family rule ceased about 1650. The first of a long series of disturbances and disagreements with the English settlements in Carolina began in 1663 with the granting of the charter for South Carolina. It was claimed by Spanish authorities that land included in this charter touched on territory granted by the King of Spain. This feeling of hostility was aug- mented by the attacks on Spanish ships of pirat- ical vessels commanded by Englishmen. In 1665 the pirate Davis sacked St. Augustine. The Spaniards alleged that these vessels took refuge on the South Carolina coast. As a result of these and other disagreements, in 1676 a Spanish force marched to attack the English on the Ashley river in South Carolina, but finding the colonists intrenched the Spaniards retreated. In the same year several Spanish galleys attacked Scotch set- tlements on Port Royal Island, burning many houses and destroying such property as they could find. These attacks aroused great indig- nation among the English, 32 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA The Governor of Florida, Juan Marquez Cab- rera, undertook in 1681 to remove several tribes of Indians from the mainland to neighboring- islands. The Indians resisted and before they could be subdued had burned several towns. Up to this time no effort had been made on the part of the Spaniards to explore the terri- tories under their rule. They had been content to fortify St. Augustine and carry on the work of the missions among the Indians. In 1692, how- ever, the founder of New Spain fitted out an expedition to explore the western coast. Four years later the town of Pensacola was founded, but no other important attempts at colonization were made. In the main, the history of this pe- riod is one of petty changes in the government, accompanied by little real progress. During these years the English colonists in the Carolinas had continued to grow in strength, and Governor Moore of South Carolina conceived the plan of attacking and capturing St. Augustine. The English Government authorized the expedi- tion and a company of 600 militia was raised. Two methods of attack were adopted : A por- tion of the force was to go by sea, while the re- mainder was to form a land expedition, which was to sail in boats by an inland passage to the St. John's river and invest St. Augustine in the rear. The land force was the first to arrive and by a sudden attack gained possession of the town. The Spanish troops took refuge in a strong castle. When the sea force arrived, it was found that the guns at their disposal were of so small a cali- ber that no impression could be made on the HISTORY s:^ strong walls of the fort. The commander of the fleet thereupon started for Jamaica to pro- cure heavier guns. Before he could return, two Spanish vessels appeared off the coast, and Gov- ernor Moore retreated, not, however, before he had burned the unfortunate town. It was long before the little city recovered from the effects of this blow. Moore did not rest here, but attacked and destroyed many of the Spanish settlements, captured a large number of the natives and broke up, as far as he was able, the Spanish missions. In addition to these troubles with their neigh- bors on the north, the Spaniards now came into conflict with the French settlers in Louisiana. In anticipation of possible trouble, Pensacola was fortified. In 1718, Bienville, the French com- mander in Mobile, hearing that war had been declared between Spain and France, led an ex- pedition with three ships against that settlement. The fort was surprised and taken, but was soon retaken by the Spanish. In the following year the French again returned and recaptured the fort. As they were not able to hold it, it was burned and the place was deserted. After the treaty of peace between Spain and France in 1722, Pensacola was restored to Spain. Difficulties between Carolina and Florida con- tinued to be acute. It was claimed by the Eng- lish colonists that the Spaniards in Florida in- cited attacks of hostile Yemassee Indians against them. In order to protect their frontiers they erected a small fort at Altamaha, which they called Fort King George. The Spanish authori- ties claimed that this fort was erected on the ter- ritory of Spain and an attempt was made to 34 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA arbitrate the question. No agreement was reached and this continued to be a source of dis- sension for many years. In 1727 Colonel Palmer collected 300 militia and descended upon the In- dian and Spanish settlements to the very gates of St. Augustine. The towns of the Yemassees were destroyed and large numbers of them were taken prisoners. This insured peace for a season. Plans for colonizing the region now known as Georgia had for a long time been considered by the English colonists in the Carolinas, and the scheme was conceived of vesting in trustees the region between Altamaha and Savannah. The colony was originally designed for the poorer class of settlers. The leading spirit was James Edward Oglethorpe, a soldier and philanthropist. In 1732 he was given a patent for the region under the name of Georgia. A settlement was made by Scotch Highlanders on the banks of the Altamaha and a fort was built at Frederica. This settlement was on land claimed by Spain, and in 1736 the Spanish Governor at St. Augus- tine demanded the surrender of all territory south of St. Helena Sound as belonging to the King of Spain. Governor Oglethorpe maintained the right of England to the land and refused the de- mand. In anticipation of the Spanish attack which he knew would follow, he hastened to Eng- land to call attention to the threatening condi- tions. He returned to Georgia in 1739, having been made a major-general and given command of a regiment of soldiers. Fortifications were at once constructed and preparations made to repel invaders. The Spaniards at the same time greatly strengthened the defenses of St. Augus- HISTORY 35 tine, and both sides sought the support of the Indians. The Creeks, the strongest of the na- tions, sided with the English. Before hostihties began, however, an attempt was made to settle the dispute by arbitration. English commerce had suffered greatly from Spanish interference and redress for this was demanded. Spain agreed to make restitution if the territory in dis- pute should be abandoned. This Oglethorpe re- fused. War having broken out between Spain and England in October, 1739, General Ogle- thorpe planned an expedition against St. Augus- tine. His force consisted of 400 soldiers, several small vessels and several bands of Indians. The English commander captured several Spanish outposts on the St. John's river and ravaged the country about St. Augustine. He erected batteries on Anastasia Island and elsewhere in anticipation of a long siege. On June 25 an at- tack was made from the fort by 300 Spanish soldiers. The English were surprised and lost 20 prisoners. The Spaniards suffered even more. Their commander and 50 men were killed. His batteries completed, Oglethorpe demanded the surrender of the city. The governor, Monteano, refused. A bombardment was then begun on either side. As the fleet could not maneuver on account of shallow water, Oglethorpe was obliged to depend upon his batteries and on the hope of starving out the defenders of the city. A shot from one of his guns embedded itself in the walls of the fort where it still remains. On June 2iy news was brought to the English commander of the arrival of several vessels at 36 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA Mosquito Bar. His own ships had been obliged to put to sea on account of easterly winds. The newcomers proved to be Spaniards, and Ogle- thorpe, feeling himself too weak to cope with these reinforcements, raised the siege on July 7th. Hostilities between the Spaniards and English now ceased for several years. During this period, however, both sides were preparing for a new attack, and in 1749 a great expedition was organized at Havana with the object of destroy- ing Savannah and exterminating the English set- tlements. Oglethorpe early apprised of this, be- gan to strengthen his defenses. A fort was erected at St. Simons Bar and strong defenses were erected at Frederica. On July 5, thirty-six Spanish vessels, carrying over 5,000 men, passed the batteries and sailed up the river. Oglethorpe retreated to Frederica. The Spanish commander landed 5,000 troops four miles below the English camp and on the following day he sent out a de- tail to attack it. Oglethorpe met these, put the Spanish to flight and killed many of them. That night he attempted an attack upon the Spanish camp, but the alarm was given by a French de- serter and the plan failed. What he had not been able to accomplish by force, Oglethorpe brought about by a clever strategy. He contrived to have a letter fall into the hands of the Spanish com- mander in which was given what purported to be the strength of the English forces and con- tained a postscript in which, mention was made of an attack against St. Augustine which was on the point of being made by Admiral Vernon with a large fleet. The Spanish army left their camp in such haste that their dead remained unburied. HISTORY 37 General Oglethorpe with less than 600 men had put to flight a Spanish force of over 5,000. In March of the following year he sallied to the gates of St. Augustine and killed forty Spaniards. This put an end finally to Spanish aggressions against English colonists in Georgia. The treaty of 1748 brought temporary peace between Spain and England. War broke out again in 1762 and resulted in the capture of Ha- vana by English forces. This cut off St. Augus- tine from its base of supplies and placed the col- ony in a critical position. England, which had long coveted the territory of Florida, offered to exchange Havana for Florida and the Bahamas. Spain agreed and in 1763 the Spanish lands passed into the possession of Great Britain. ^ Here ends what may be called the Era of Ad- venture in the history of Florida. This had lasted nearly 300 years, from its first discovery by Ponce de Leon to the English occupation. During that time Spain had accomplished almost nothing in the colonization of her possessions. There were two small settlements at St. Augus- tine and Pensacola, but in the interior of the country there were only a few Indian missions. For many years following Florida was little more than a pawn in the diplomatic game of the nations. The history of this period is not inter- esting and may be passed over briefly. England began at once to organize the territory, which was divided into two provinces, East Florida and West Florida. West Florida embraced roughly what is now Louisiana and portions of neighbor- ing States. East Florida comprised, in the main, 38 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA the borders of the present State. Under English rule a period of prosperity set in. Civil govern- ment v^as established in both provinces and im- migrants w^ere induced to settle w^ithin their borders. In 1769 Andrev^ Turnbull brought a band of about 1,500 Minorcans, v^hom he em- ployed in the cultivation of indigo at New Smyrna. These v^ere, in 1776, removed to St. Augustine. Pensacola w^as made the capital of West and St. Augustine the capital of East Florida. Roads v^ere laid out, some of v^^hich are still in use. This period of prosperity continued until the outbreak of the American Revolution. Florida took little or no part in this conflict. The trans- fer to Great Britain had been too recent for the growth of disaffection, but some of the inhabi- tants were in sympathy with the colonists. The territory was used largely as a refuge for loyal- ists who fled from other States. In 1778 over 2,000 loyalists from the Carolinas sought safety within its borders. Several plans were made to invade the territory but these came to nothing. War broke out between Spain and Great Brit- ain in 1779, and Don Bernardo de Galvez, the Spanish Governor at New Orleans, led an expe- dition which seized the greater number of the English forts in West Florida. In 1781 he cap- tured Pensacola. ~~~^After the close of the Revolution, Great Brit- ain, having lost her other American colonies, found Florida of little importance, and by the treaty of September 3, 1783, East and West Flor- ida were again ceded to Spain. Most of the Eng- lish settlers found Spanish rule repugnant and HISTORY 39 left the territory. In 1800 Spain ceded to France all of West Florida west of the Perdido river, thus giving up the most valuable portion of the territory. France, in 1803, sold Louisiana to the United States. AAfter the Louisiana purchase a troublesome question arose as to how much of the territory east of the Mississippi was included in the land ceded by France to the United States. Up to 1762 Louisiana had reached the Perdido river, Florida's western boundary, but this was retro- ceded by Spain in 1800 and the United States succeeded to what France had recovered. Spain, however, still claimed West Florida. That por- tion of Louisiana between the Perdido and the Mississippi had been obtained by them by con- quest from Great Britain during the Revolution. The United States regarded this claim as un- sound. West Florida was considered to be a portion of the Louisiana purchase. In order to avoid hostilities an attempt was made to pur- chase the disputed territory from Spain. Largely through the influence of Napoleon, these offers were rejected. In 1810-11 the United States troops occupied West Florida to save it from the aggressions of Great Britain or France. ^-iThe American government was convinced also of the necessity of acquiring East Florida. This territory was the refuge of filibusters, hostile Seminole Indians and runaway slaves. The Eng- lish Government had employed these in its service during the War of 181 2, and had made Florida the base for hostile raids. A fort built by the English at Apalachicola had been occupied by 40 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA runaway negroes. Spain was unable to preserve order, and on July 2y, 1816, the American General Gaines crossed the borders, bombarded this fort and captured Amelia Island, the resort of the out- laws. These collisions finally grew into open hostilities and this brought about what is known as the first. Seminole War. In June, 1817, An- drew Jackson was given command in Georgia. Assuming that he had the support of the govern- ment he at once began clearing out the filibusters in Florida. He led his forces into East Flor- ida and finding there two of^cious English sub- jects named Ambruster and Arbuthnot, who were stirring up the Indians, he put them to death. This characteristically impetuous action brought great embarrassment to President Monroe and his Cabinet. Calhoun wished Jackson censured, while all the other Cabinet officers were ready to disavow the deed. The posts seized by Jackson were given up, but Spain was now ready to sell, and in 1819 East and West Florida were formally ceded to the United States. The treaty was rati- fied in 182 1, but civil government was not es- tablished until the following year. General Jackson was appointed military gov- ernor of the new territory and held the ofifice until 1822, when he was succeeded by William P. Duval, the first civil governor. "•^ The settlement of the newly acquired lands was slow, to a great extent on account of difficulties with the Indians. These were the so-called Semi- nole tribes, which originally formed a part of the Creeks, but separated from the main confederacy and overran the Florida Peninsula, when the Creek country was almost depopulated by the In Old St. Augustine c o T3 u C O o O O Q HISTORY 41 English in 1702-3. Among them were also de- scendants of the Yemassees who had been driven out of Carolina by the English in 1715. There was also a considerable negro element from run- away slaves. In 1822 they were reported to number 3,100, besides 800 negroes living with them. The settlers in Florida demanded the re- moval of these tribes to lands west of the Missis- sippi, and on May 9, 1832, a treaty was signed by the representatives of the United States and chiefs of the Seminole Indians, in which the latter consented to such removal. A delay of two years occurred before the treaty was ratified and this produced an unfavorable effect upon the Indians. When preparations were finally made for their removal, many refused to go. The year 1835 was spent in fruitless negotiations. Outrages perpetrated by both Indians and white settlers caused bad feeling. At the end of this year the Seminoles had divided into two parties. Those abiding by the treaty took refuge in Fort Brooke, and the others, under the famous leader, Osceola, resorted to arms. This redoubtable warrior was the son of an English trader and an Indian woman, the daughter of a Creek chief. He had removed to Florida when very young and had acquired great influence among the Seminoles and took the lead in opposition to the territorial aggressions of the whites. In 1835, his wife, a half-breed daughter of a fugitive negro slave, was reclaimed as a slave by her mother's former owner, and Osceola, infuriated by this, threat- ened revenge. He was temporarily imprisoned, but on being released began the attacks on the whites which opened the Seminole War. A 42 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA United States government agent, named Thomp- son, and several others were treacherously killed by Osceola. The American troops in the terri- tory were garrisoned in two forts, Fort King near the Ocklawaha river and Fort Brooke at Tampa Bay. All together they numbered less than 450 men. Between these two forts in almost inac- cessible swamps lay the rebellious Indians. A detachment of soldiers, numbering no men, un- der the command of Major Dade, marching to Fort Brooke from Fort King, was surrounded by Indians on December 28, 1835, and all but three of the men were killed. This atrocity aroused great indignation throughout the country. Three days later General Clinch defeated the Indians on the Withlacoochee river. He then retired to Fort Drane. At that time the military forces of the United States were divided into two divi- sions, eastern and western. Of these General Gaines commanded the Western and General Winfield S. Scott the Eastern. General Gaines, hearing of the massacre of the American force, sailed for Tampa on the " Louisiana " with a con- siderable number of troops. Learning that Gen- eral Scott had been directed to take command of the campaign in Florida, he withdrew. Soon af- terwards Scott took the field with a large force, carrying on the campaign in March and April, 1836. There were, however, few results from this. In June, Governor Call, who had taken over the command, inflicted a defeat on the In- dians, and the greater number of them withdrew to South Florida. In March, 1837, the chiefs ca- pitulated, and agreed to emigration. The agree- ment, however, was not carried out, but during HISTORY 43 the process of the negotiations, Osceola was seized by the Americans and held captive. He soon afterwards died. The war continued, and in May, 1838, General Taylor, who five months previously had defeated the Indians at Okecho- pee, took command. A desultory struggle now continued for several years. In 1841 Colonel Worth took command of the American troops and entered upon an active campaign in which he penetrated the Everglades to which the rem- nant of the Indians had fled and compelled them to surrender. This war was the bloodiest ever carried on with the Indians. It cost the United States thousands of lives and the expenditure of $10,000,000. The Indians, with the exception of a few hundred, who remained in Florida, were removed to the Indian Territory, where their de- scendants constitute the Seminole nation. A convention to formulate a constitution for Florida was held in 1839 and in 1845 the territory became a State of the American Union. Settle- ment in the new State lagged and population in- creased slowly. There was, however, a steady growth. No events of historical importance oc- curred until 1861 when, by an ordinance of seces- sion declaring Florida to be " a sovereign and independent nation," she joined her sister States in rebelling against the Union. The important coast towns which were open to attack were readily captured by Union forces. Fernandina, Pensacola and St. Augustine were taken in 1862, and Jacksonville in 1863. An attempt to invade the interior of the State in 1864 failed, and the Union forces were defeated in a battle at Olustee, February 20, 1864. A new State government was 44 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA organized by Andrew Johnson and a provisional governor appointed in 1865. The Fourteenth Amendment was rejected by the legislature in 1866 and Florida was soon afterwards made a member of the Third Military District. It re- mained under military rule until 1868, when a new constitution was framed and ratified by the electors. From this period onward the State has grown industrially and has been in that happy condition in which it has had little political history. What it has come to be as a prosperous and progressive Commonwealth is shown in the following pages. Antiquities of Florida Almost all the Spanish antiquities of the State, concerning which any historical facts are known, are in the cities of St. Augustine and Pensacola, and are to some extent described elsewhere in the description of these cities. But over the whole northern part of the State isolated ruins are found, sometimes near settlements, some- times hidden in the depths of an almost prime- val forest, relics about which only vague tradi- tion and popular legend have anything to say. Sometimes they are apparently the remnants of fortified houses, sometimes of Franciscan mis- sions and monasteries, sometimes of sugar mills. Near them the soil occasionally still shows the traces of early cultivation by the Indians, by the Spaniards or by the English. Florida history has perhaps not received all the study it deserves. Much, doubtless, might be discovered about the State's ruins, and it is to be hoped that local an- tiquarians will some day lift a little of the mys- tery that lies over them. HISTORY 45 ^^The origin, date, and purpose of the many mounds of Florida are equally uncertain. Both shell and sand mounds are found all over the State. They are evidently the work of the abo- riginal race of the region, and they generally yield to the digger fragments of pottery, sometimes bones, and more rarely silver trinkets, beads, etc. They might well form a subject of winter inves- tigation by any tourist willing to turn archaeolo- gist. _::- The mounds are of two kinds, shell and sand. The former might be subdivided into those com- posed of fresh-water, and those of salt-water shells. The fresh-water shell mounds are found along the St. John's river and other streams. They are often of considerable length and breadth, though rarely of any great height. - The shell mounds of the coast are very numer- ous, both on the Atlantic and on the Gulf. They are often in the form of mere ridges, more or less shapeless accumulations. But sometimes, as in the well-known Turtle IMound at New Smyrna, and the mounds at Charlotte Harbor and Cedar Keys, they are more strikingly sym- metrical, and force one to believe that they must have been intended by their makers for burial and religious purposes. - Opinion as to the origin of these mounds is varied and mostly vague. It is fairly certain that the shells are the accumulation of many years during a time when shell-fish must have been one of the most important foods of the natives. The mounds may mark the sites of large permanent settlements, or of camps to which the inhabitants of the interior resorted to subsist on sea food while their crops were 46 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA ripening. The amount of shells is so great, so astounding, that one is forced to the conclusion that the shell mounds must have been long years in building, unless at some period the aboriginal population was much greater than any of the early writers report it to have been. It is certain that at the time of their building, or later by invading and conquering tribes from the north, they were used for burial purposes. Human bones have been found and it is claimed evidences of cannibalism. The sand mounds are scattered through the State, perhaps the most interesting being the so-called " Kissimmee System " of mounds on Parton's Island, which resemble the earthworks of the mound-builders of the Mississippi valley. The sand mounds seem occasionally to have been designed as protective fortifications ; occasionally as burial mounds. At Charlotte Harbor and near Lake Okeechobee (Dougherty Mound) in- teresting mounds are to be seen. Mount Royal on the St. John's is famous. There is a fairly extensive literature on the subject in archaeological journals and in the re- ports of the Smithsonian Institute at Washing- ton. To these the reader who would like further facts and speculations, is referred. Osceola C3 O TOPOGRAPHY AND GENERAL CHARAC- TERISTICS ^Florida is the most southern of the United States, lying between 24° 31' and 31° N. latitude, and 79° 48' and 87^ 38' W. longitude. It is the largest State east of the Mississippi, its area being 58,666 square miles — of which 3,805 are water. It has the longest coast line of any State in the Union, 472 miles on the Atlantic Ocean, 674 miles on the Gulf of Mexico. Its configuration, of a great peninsula extend- ing toward Cuba and the West Indies, between the Atlantic and the Gulf, with a long western arm along the north coast of the Gulf, separat- ing Georgia and for the most part Alabama from its waters, makes it noticeable on the national map, and is familiar to almost everyone. N Nearly all the Atlantic Coast consists of sand dunes behind which is a salt lagoon. This is largely true of the Gulf Coast. The curving line of the East Coast is continued south and west into the Gulf by the chain of islands known as the Florida Keys, ending, beyond Key West, in the Dry Tortugas. The western arm of the State is topographic- ally like Southern Alabama, a rolling hill country sloping to the plain next the gulf. The penin- sular part of the State is largely formed upon a limestone foundation, overlaid toward the ex- treme south by coral deposits. It is in this un- derlying limestone that flow the numberless un- derground streams which feed the remarkable 47 48 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA Florida springs and the artesian or flowing wells which are found almost all over the State. This same peculiar drainage system explains the vast body of fresh water forming the Everglades and finding its outlet by breaking through the lime- stone and coral rim which keeps it at a level of some twelve feet above the sea. Altogether the Floridian water is one of the most interesting and curious things about the State. Some of the springs are of great size and volume. Silver Spring and Blue Spring in Ma- rion County, Blue Spring, De Leon Spring, Orange City Spring in Volusia County, Chipola Spring in Jackson County, Espiritu Santo Spring in Hillsboro County, Magnolia Springs and Green Cove Springs in Clay County, Su- wanee Spring in Suwanee County, White Sul- phur Springs in Hamilton County, Wekiva Springs in Orange County, Wakulla Springs, Newport Sulphur Spring and Panacea Spring in Wakulla County, are the best known. To give but one example of the magnitude of their flow, the Green Cove Springs discharge about 3,000 gallons per minute, while from the Silver Spring flows a stream which floats the Ockla- waha steamers. At several places on the coast, springs rise in the sea itself, one notably, near St. Augustine, rolls back the waves as if it were a sand bar. ■^ These springs and underground rivers feed also Florida's innumerable lakes which lie in sink holes in the limestone. Of these there are in the central region alone, between Gainesville and the great lake of the south, Okeechobee, ap- proximately 30,000. Orange, Crescent, George, TOPOGRAPHY 49 Weir, Harris, Eustis, Apopka, Kissimmee, To- hopekilaga, and Istokpoga are the principal ones. Okeechobee itself, though shallow, covers 1,250 square miles. Through the central part runs a ridge or water- shed which divides the Atlantic and the Gulf water-systems, though it rarely rises above a few hundred feet. The elevation of the State is less than that of any except Louisiana. Its highest point, Table Mountain in Lake County, is only 500 feet high. •, The St. John's is preeminently the great river of the State, within the boundaries of which are both its source and its mouth. It is navigable for 250 miles. The Withlacoochee is the other important river wholly within the State. The four other large rivers, the Escambia, the Choc- tawhatchee, the Apalachicola and the Suwanee — famous mostly in song — rise in Alabama and Georgia and flow through Florida to the Gulf. Fernandina has a fine harbor, and dredging works and jetties have made the St. John's serve Jacksonville in this capacity. Otherwise the Atlantic Coast possesses no harbors of impor- tance. The west coast is better provided; Charlotte Harbor, Tampa Bay, and Pensacola Bay are the most important, Pensacola indeed in natural ad- vantages being often claimed as the best of all Gulf Ports. The soils of Florida are to be divided roughly speaking into three classes. The pinelands, sand mixed with some vegetable loam and rest- ing upon a substratum of clay or limestone, cover almost half the area of the State. " Hammock " 50 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA I land is of similar ingredients, though richer and supporting a more varied and luxuriant forest growth. " Hammocks " are interspersed in the pine lands through many parts of the State. The word " hammock," variously explained to the visitor, is probably the word which the ab- original Indian inhabitants used; it is said to be the only survival, in modern Floridian speech, of the language of that earlier race. Alluvial or swamp lands are found in east and south Florida. These are the richest in the State, but can be cultivated only when drained. "^The Spanish explorers came to Florida first of all for gold. Remembering this, it is in- teresting to note that no metal of any kind has ever been discovered in the State. The principal mineral is phosphate, both rock and pebble. The rock phosphate is mostly in Marion County. The pebble phosphate is found in scattering de- posits in a belt about 30 miles wide extending from Tallahassee to Lake Okeechobee, most rich in Hillsboro, Polk, De Soto, Osceola, Citrus and Hernando Counties. The value of these de- posits, used in the manufacture of fertilizers, was unrealized twenty years ago. But Florida's production is now more than half of the whole output of the United States, and enormously valuable. ^^ Florida is also the chief source of Fuller's earth and kaolin, a clay used in porcelain manufacture. The flora of the northern part of Florida is similar to that of southeastern North America; but that of south Florida seems a kind of con- necting link between that of North America and that of the West Indies and South America. TOPOGRAPHY 51 Forests still cover almost half the State, chiefly in the northern part. Yellow pine is one of the most important products of the State, cypress is also a valuable timber. "^ The fisheries of Florida are very valuable. Some 600 varieties of fish are found in Florida waters. Mullet, shad, red-snapper, pompano, sheepshead and Spanish mackerel are the chief commercially, the tarpon and the king-fish being taken mostly in sport. The sponge fisheries around Key West are of considerable value. Oysters grow in the greatest profusion along the Floridian lagoons, but the expense of transporta- tion — and its slowness — have so far prevented them from being to any extent rivals of the northern oysters. They, as well as fish, are, how- ever, to be enjoyed by the visitor to the State. The principal occupation of Florida is agri- culture, although even now only a surprisingly small part of the State's area is improved and oc- cupied. Of public lands open for entry, there are still 391,361 acres of surveyed land, 61,648 of unsurveyed. Fruits are normally the chief crop, oranges, lemons, limes, grape-fruit, pine-apples, bananas, guavas, pears, peaches, grapes, figs, pecans being the most important. Orange culture was formerly an industry all over the State, but severe frosts having de- stroyed many of the northern groves, the orange growers are increasingly to be found farther south, while the northern lands are being devoted to less tender fruit trees, or to garden vegetables and strawberries. With increased transporta- tion facilities Florida early fruits and vegetables 52 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA are beginning to take the position they deserve in the northern winter markets. The pineapple is raised in south Florida suc- cessfully and is a most valuable crop. Indian corn, rice, and cotton are raised, though not in quantities which compare with the other Southern states. Tobacco, however, is an increasingly valuable crop, though the State can by no means raise what is required by its extensive manufactures; 3,195,000 lbs. were produced last year. Florida manufactures, though increasing, are not relatively important, with the exception of the manufacture of tobacco. The cigar factor- ies of the State, mostly at Tampa and Key West, turn out a large part of the cigars of the United States. The population of Florida in 1910 was 751,139. Its railway mileage is 4,252 miles. It has local option and there are 35 prohibition counties. CLIMATE The question of climate is to many visitors to Florida the all-important and all-absorbing one. It is to escape climatic conditions which they do not like that most tourists come South, and trust- worthy and accurate information is essential to them. Florida makes the claim to have a cli- mate which is in some respects the best in the world. But the fair-minded visitor must bear in mind that only in averages is anything true about any climate in the world, and that there are ex- ceptions to every rule. There are seasons in Florida which must be termed, comparatively speaking, good and bad. Florida may in truth be said to offer summer in winter, yet there are exceptional years when the cold somehow manages to invade the penin- sula. It is common for people to say that " the climate must certainly be changing," that " such things as frost " were unknown " in the old days." Their view is scarcely borne out by facts. —t^In 1765 John Bartram, an English botanist, whose pleasant book is well worth reading, spent the winter in East Florida. He recounts that on January 3rd at St. Augustine the ground was frozen to the depth of an inch and that all the lime, citron, and orange trees were destroyed. -*^ In 1774 there was a snow storm over all the territory. In 1822, in February all the fruit trees in West 53 54 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA Florida were killed. In 1828 the same thing happened in East Florida. -In 1835 there was a famous frost. The St. John's was frozen several yards from each shore. There have been " big freezes " since. It is probable there may be more. Yet one may say safely that there is a frost line and that a certain portion of South Florida is safe from danger, while above this line there is ordinarily to be counted on a summery winter. Blue skies, soft airs, golden fruit and bright hued flowers do make the Florida picture, and the Northern visitor may t^e sure of finding them. "Florida, climatically, is generally explained as being divided into three zones, called for con- venience, northern, semi-tropical, and sub- tropical Florida. The first of these lies north and west of a line drawn from Cedar Keys on the Gulf Coast to Fernandina on the Atlantic, the Gulf Coast being cooler for its latitude than the Atlantic. The warm waters of the^-gulf do not extend their influence far inland, and the elevation of this northern zone also makes its climate more like that of Alabama and Georgia. The winters are cooler and the summers warmer than they are in the more southern zones. Semi-tropical Florida may be said to extend to a line between the mouth of the Caloosahatchee on the west coast to Indian River Inlet on the east. This is the largest part of the Florida frequented by winter residents or visitors. Its range of extremes of temperature is less than that of northern Florida. Its climate is equal- ized and tempered by the wonderful influence of CLIMATE 55 the Gulf Stream. It is scarcely necessary to describe this great ocean river which issuing from the Strait of Florida flows along the Flor- idian coast and then gradually out to sea, pass- ing Hatteras and ultimately turning northeast where it finally tempers the west coasts of Ire- land and Scotland. (It will surprise many Floridians to learn that there are favored spots on the west coast of Scotland where palms will grow in the open.) The prevailing Florida winds are east and they bring constantly in and sweep constantly across the peninsula towards the Gulf a supply of fresh, pure, highly oxygenized air. The peculiar com- bination of warmth and salty freshness is some- thing which it is difficult if not impossible to match elsewhere. To be warmed, soothed, and yet at the same time invigorated is a sensation which is almost incredible to those who have not felt the breath of the southeast trade-wind pour in over this favored land. In sub- Lrdpical Florida the Gulf Stream is even closer to the shore (it leaves the coast near Jupi- ter Inlet) and its influence still greater. The nearness of the great fresh water expanse of the Everglades helps to make this the most equable region of the State, and so of the United States. Its summer and winter temperatures are closer together and it is safely below the frost line. It is perhaps in this region that the Florida cli- mate is most wonderful. Yet there are many who will prefer the some- what greater variation of the other zones, who will enjoy seeing the modified Floridian version of winter change to spring, and who will find 56 A GUIDK TO FLORIDA more charm in the mingling of northern decidu- ous growth with the southern flora, than in the more definitely tropical vegetation of the extreme south. Each region of Florida has its lovers and its impassioned advocates. It is largely a ques- tion of the visitor's taste where he will find him- self best pleased. In any case the search for the climate which will exactly suit him will be an agreeable one, and it may confidently be as- serted that on the whole the Florida weather has few equals and no superiors in the world. Ex- perts sometimes allege that the island of For- mosa is a worthy competitor, but a winter jaunt to an island in the Pacific ofi the coast of China is not within the possibilities of the ordinary tourist. California, which is a rival of Florida, has the misfortune to have its rains come in the winter instead of in the summer and early autumn when Florida's come. And it unquestionably lacks the peculiar soft tranquilizing quality which Florida possesses. Florida was once strongly recommended for pulmonary complaints. It is certain that its climate does not encourage them ; on the other hand for actual cure it is not perhaps so effi- cacious, according to modern ideas, as a colder, drier climate. Throat affections are, however, relieved if not absolutely cured by it. And though the fact is perhaps not thoroughly recog- nized, nervous patients find great relief in the gentle airs from the Gulf Stream. It is quite possible to spend the summer in Florida, though the inhabitants of the interior seek the sea beaches during that season when CLIMATE 57 they can. The heat of the days does not rise to the point one might expect; indeed it rarely touches the high mark of hot spells in the cities of the North. And the nights are cooler than nights in the north during extreme heat. On the other hand, as is only natural in an equable climate, the heat is constant and little varied. And the insect pests, mosquitoes and the offen- sive though minute red bug which burrows into the skin, are extremely disagreeable. If it is inconvenient to leave Florida, it is quite pos- sible to stay there during the summer, but it can- not be definitely recommended as a summer re- sort. For those who may wish a more definitely scientific treatment of this subject of climate the report of the United States weather bureau is re- printed. Northern Florida ^ The climate is uniform as a result of the State's insular location, and this condition is further ac- centuated by the large bodies of water within the State. Lake Okeechobee, in Section 84, alone covers an area of one thousand square miles, and the combined area of the lesser bodies of water is an element of considerable importance. The normal annual isothermal line of 68° begins at Jacksonville, in the extreme northeastern portion of the State, moving thence southwest, with a slight dip in the interior of the section, to Pen- sacola. The difiference of four degrees in lati- tude southward to Miami gives about a 7° change in temperature. Average temperature, however, 1 From the Bulletin of the U. S. Weather Bureau. S8 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA is not the factor with which the fruit and vege- table growers have to do. The nature of some of the products grown and their susceptibility to damage by cold are involved in the degree to which the temperature may fall during extreme conditions. The seasonal temperatures, based on long records of well selected stations are: Summer, 80° ; autumn, y^"" ; winter, 56° ; and spring, 70°, indicating that the contrast in the seasons is not marked. Notwithstanding this uniformity of temperature, however, past records show that it is susceptible to decided ranges. Warm spells in March and April are not uncom- mon and, occasionally, the maximum summer temperatures are approximated during March. On the other hand, while uniform temperatures are the rule, yet radical departures from normal conditions have occurred, chiefly in February and December. There have been marked cold waves during the last twelve or fifteen years, particu- larly in December, 1894, and February, 1895 and 1899; during the last named year the lowest temperature ever recorded in the State, minus ( — ) 2°, occurred at Tallahassee, Leon County, and on the same date, the 13th of February, the section comprised a zone whose minimum tem- peratures ranged from 2° below to 10° or 14° above zero. This was the coldest weather of which there is authentic record. As indicated by the latitude, the temperature of the section averages high, but the discomfort is less than that usually accredited to sections located in the semi-tropics; in fact, the discomfort generally arises from the long continuation of summer weather rather than the extreme heat thereof, CLIMATE 59 which rarely reaches ioo° on the coast.^ July and August are the warmest months with an average of 8i° ; thereafter there is a rapid decline to 56° in December and January, which are the coldest months. There are only about 2° dif- ference in the average temperatures of spring and autumn, the latter being the warmer. The summers are warmer in the interior of the State than on the coast, and conversely in the winter. Days of extreme heat are usually followed by ccnvectional thunder showers, a temperature change of 20°, or more, within a few hours being a feature of summer weather. Frost may occur over the northern portion of the section during the first decade in November, and at intervals light frost may be expected dur- ing the last of October. It is rarely damaging, however, before the second decade of November, or the fore part of December, and occasionally the lower counties of the section experience none of any severity during the entire winter. The last of February, on an average, marks the passing of dangerous frost, although the vagaries of the climate are indicated in the possibility of frost occurring as late as the first of April ; fortunately, however, such incidents are so rare as not to merit serious reflection. March frosts have damaged fruit bloom over some of the northern counties, but such is possible, as a rule, only when the preceding February was abnormally warm and wet, thereby stimulating premature growth. This condition, when followed by mid- winter temperatures in March, is necessarily damaging to bloom and tender buds. There are rain-bearing winds, and winds that 6o A GUIDE TO FLORIDA are relatively dry. As a rule, the rainfall is quite uniform and seasonable, the proximity to the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf being such as to render a severe drouth an unexpected contin- gency. Abnormal distribution of atmospheric pressure occasionally results in dry spells, and the importance of irrigation, even in this land of heavy precipitation, is a matter of much con- sequence. The fact that droughty conditions sometime occur during the autumn and spring, militates occasionally against a maximum realiz- ation of the husbandman's efforts, and to offset which much interest is taken in sub and surface irrigation. CLIMATE 6i •[Bnuuy •03Q I •AON •PO •Idas ■Snv Xinf •aunf •A^n •ludv 00 "-1 iriVO ova.o>o\ 00 CO t^O» 00 OvXOO OvO> 0^0^ qoJBj^ o^aosO> C^ O VO o 00 OnOO o\ mo ►-■ T^ 0^ OS On On •qsj oo 00 00 00 OS Tt- in t^oooooo OC 00 00 00 •UBf 00 00 CO (» oc 00 00 00 tx lo osin KOO t^t>. VO M O w t^oooooo •pjOD3J 00 tvcio \0 " >- M Tj-vo N ts c)oo^ N OstxtNOO fe "^ c I- « a 62 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA •jEnuuv OOVOVO <^ vo torotx •oaa 430 fO '^ CO ■* •jdas •Sny Xinf •aunf •Xbjv •ludy •qaj •UBf •pj033J OOtxNVO JO mSuaq vo « H. H So: • & • o ■ w Nvo \n tr>\o VO t>. VO <*5oo 00 VO txVO >« ■tx t^OO w o 1> ^ o • - ^ _ <«^ I n: 3 o >, u " p >,ii • w o > o rt U) 1-1 U c4 ^ 0) 3 .^ S o ■«'=2 i 111 *: ^^ CLIMATE 63 •^Bnuuv CO 6s 6 6 6^ \0 vO tx t^vo PON fpppin 't N q 00 00 d\ tAoo" vd N. •oaa to tN. tC C t^ ID 10 ID\£! 10 ■ PJ •-. P4 fO CO 4 Pi' PO inininmm •AOjsJ in ts. in N tv. pj M N tJ-pJ PI « q ^ pj to "06 pi M ■*in P) - -■ d\«o6 d \0 m-O "-.VD •PO vo N q t>. VO ON ■* t>» d d> d pj d m-^OOO ■* pI «vd do in ON TJ-NO " •Idas t^OO O^00 00 00 t>.q tN.vq 0600060000 t^ t^ t^ t^ tN P» tv>-i PI o>dvvd 06 00* q 00 \q 00 00 d>vd N.rN.1^ •Sny M 10 tN. q vo 00 00 000c 00 q fo pj p) ■* 00 00(»!»00 VO 0\t^ PJ «H ti 6 6 >^ >i potx it q'^q ti 6\<>6 6 00 txj^oooo •Xinj; , t^oo in d 6 « d M 0000000000 00 00 00 00 00 N tv P) In. •^ pq d " " M 00 00 00 00 00 P< • d dvd tx t^oo t^J> t^ 1- P'5txO do 6 6^6 t^oooo tvoo inr^inot^ foq-^-o-* doooddi 6 6\6\&d 00 fv t-voo ^s 00 t^ tv tx t^ •XBI^i Tt- f^\d ■* ■4- PI t>.00 ^^i^ 10 in in in in tx t^ t^ tx ^N. in^fOinTt- in •.(»o6 inoo PirOPjOv'* Ovqi-OOTj- d in t^vd t^ vd t^ tN. 4vd l^\0 VOVOVO VO^OvOM^yS •qojBH c^ q -"t q> ro VOvO VOVOVO p^ 00 vq pp IV. T)- -^ -^ in • vovovovovo 00lno^(r)'4■ vqpoa invq PJpJdPOPj -"j-MTJ-POf^ •qaj q>oo q o\ -^ \do6oc3 d^^6 m loioinio vq po'-.vq M in^d l^dv t^ NtxP^CMn qt>.qvqfn d -"J-vd 40 in 4 in pj 4 vomininm in in in m m •UBf q^ (^ --< a^^ q j>."piporo 4pi4dpo inmininm in\r,\fnr,ir) •pjooaj JO ipgua-x n w pq w P0>O '-' N - P< N N NOO C\ P) ON ;^ 1.00 to c .2 KORTHEAST COAST GROUP. Jacksonville St. xXugustine . . . Huntington New Smyrna . . . 2 w H 'Z W H GROUP. Macclenny Lake City Gainesville > < 8 ill: 1' H Tallahassee Monticello Marianna Mean 64 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA 'icnuuv - -' - •oaa 00 ino ■* \c t^ t>.o t^ inin o txtxOO lO •AON 00 miniil lnT^Tl-^ >0 fO ro t>. 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S • • • w • • • H • • ; t I- o W H C ^ :i.r3*=; b = o c S to o — .::>• es'^. re .j; _« o SPORTS Bowling, Tennis and Golf. — All through the State the out-of-doors calls, and games are played. Bowling both in alleys and on greens ; croquet, peacefully pursued ; tennis courts in almost every town, and golf links of fair merit at various hotels and country clubs, all make amusements for the visitor and resident. Base Ball and Foot Ball. — Base ball is played in all the large towns. In some of them pro- fessional clubs play (see local papers). Where there are advanced schools there are students' teams. The employes of the various larger hotels also have contest games. Foot ball is played in the town where there are colleges. Horse Racing. — There has been for some years racing at Jacksonville, but it has been decided politically that it was inimical to the best in- terests of the town, and it has been stopped. At county and district fairs through the State there are still contests of speed making interest for the lovers of this sport. Bicycling. — The bicycle has kept its vogue in Florida, and in all the towns and, where there are good roads in the country, both the ordinary and motor cycle is much in evidence. In addi- tion to the many other reasons for this popular- ity one, especially in the tropic parts of this State, holds good, it is a means by which men and women can go to and from their work in 72 SPORTS 73 comfort. Mornings and evenings the roads are filled with these riders. Riding. — Through the whole State there are bridle paths, and ways across and through primi- tive country that make riding a great pleasure. In the neighborhood of Tallahassee there is rid- ing to hounds — a sport which attracts its spe- cial followers yearly. Polo is regularly played at Orlando. Motoring. — Except in some sections of the northern part of the State, the soil is so sandy that there are no good natural roads. Ex- ceptions to this are the beach drives, where the ocean is the maker, and some of the roads through primeval pine forests where the carpet of needles gives firmness to the sand. Indeed the lesson taught by this latter natural method has resulted in the building of temporary roads on these lines near Mount Dora, which have been found satisfactory. There is no general State road commission. Each County Board of Com- missioners makes its own rules, and as there is no concerted action it is readily understood that there is no continuous highway. In the western part of the State and about Tallahassee there are fairly good roads in the winter time. Motorists come to Elorida from Thomasville, Georgia, and they can reach the towns in the northern part of the State with a fair amount of comfort. About Jacksonville there are many good roads through- out Duval and St. John's counties. There are from there two ways to Tampa ; one, via Mariet- ta, Starke, Gainesville and Ocala — (Here the motorist gets information for reaching Tampa. The second way is via St. Augustine, Ormond, 74 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA Daytona, DeLand, Sanford, Orlando and Kis- simmee — here directions for reaching Tampa are obtained). About Tampa there are good local roads. Each town of any size has roads that are hard-surfaced in its neighborhood. The highway down the East Coast is slowly being completed, or ** connected up " as is said in the vernacular. Motoring about Ormond and Day- tona is encouraged by the beach drive between these places. Local committees arrange races and carnivals here each year. Many of the world's speed records have been made on this beach. From Daytona south, the good road runs to New Smyrna and on toward Titusville. Brev- ard and St. Lucie counties have not as yet done their work on the continuous highway south. Palm Beach county's road begins at the bridge across the St. Lucie river, and from there south all through this county and in Dade county there are good roads ; not only is there the main high- way, but also branch roads out toward the Ever- glades, and to settlements, groves and planta- tions on their borders, have been built. These good roads extend as far south as Homestead. In the Lake country are many stretches of wide- built roads, but further south on the West Coast, there is much to be desired. -^ Canoeing. — This is a favorite sport all over Florida, during the winter season, on the East Coast, through all the sheltered waters from Jacksonville to Miami, and in the rivers and sheltered bays of the West Coast. A particu- larly interesting waterway for canoeists is the St. John's river, with its chain of lakes extend- ing southward. The U. S. Coast and Geodetic OS u b/D b£ bC o OS u c bl) o SPORTS 75 Survey charts Nos. 577, 455^., 455c., 445^., 508, 509 and 458 will be useful from the St. John to Lake Washington. An enterprising explorer can, with a short portage by railroad from Clifton on Lake Jessup to Kissimmee, reach the chain of lakes and rivers that form the waterway to Fort Myers and Charlotte Harbor on the West Coast. J Motor and Sailboat Cruising. — Boats come from the north both by the East Coast, the At- lantic Ocean and the sheltered way, and by the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, and the sounds and bays tributary to it. The East Coast route is fully explained (See p. 323 Inland Waterways). The other way is becoming more important each year, affording a route by which boats from the Great Lakes district of the north- west can reach Florida expeditiously. The gov- ernment charts for this cruise should be used and all the general advice given for the Inland Water- way followed. The long stretches of open water and the fact that, until Homosassa is reached, there is no reason for lingering, make this route one of necessity, not of choice. From Homosassa on to the Ten Thousand Islands and Cape Sable there is a succession of bays, inlets, etc., which are in themselves each attractive cruising grounds, but between each of these are stretches of outside open gulf, that must be navigated in the onward journey up and down the coast. The fishing is unexcelled, and in the sub-tropic part of the State primitive conditions add to the other attractions. Climate has much to do with the comfort of the boatman. In the northern part of the State, '^(i A GUIDE TO FLORIDA along the East Coast south to Daytona, and along the west to Homosassa, the weather during the winter has occasional cold days, and there is sometimes a touch of frost in the air though there is but little rain. The waters in this part of the State are not very extensively used as cruising grounds. From Daytona to Palm Beach and from Homosassa to Charlotte Harbor the weather is much warmer. There are occa- sional northers which are usually concomitant with very low temperature in the north (though by no means do the cold waves always reach Florida). These winds make warm clothes com- fortable aboard ship, but the days on which they blow are just the ones for shore excursions. From Palm Beach southward on the East Coast, and from Charlotte Harbor on the West the climatic conditions are ideal for life on shipboard during the winter months. It is never cold and frequently in the middle of the day it is as warm as in hot midsummer. It is not the province of this book to describe in detail, only to set forth the chief or guiding facts in regard to boating life in Florida and to emphasize its charm. It is well for the boatman to go to the southernmost waters early in the winter and come northward along the coast in the spring. To cruise from Jacksonville to Char- lotte Harbor by way of the East Coast and Cape Sable and back again makes an ideal voyage for the tourist, the naturalist and the sportsman. He goes down with the " northers," leaving winter behind him, and comes back, following the spring, and he can be in her wake all the way back to New York again if he so wills. SPORTS yy V The sort of boat to be used is any sort, so it is seaworthy and can be made to go. Some boat- men have merely little open motor boats with which they make their way from one point to another, stopping ashore at hotels or boarding houses each night or carrying tents; this class, however, can go no further than the sheltered waters of Biscayne Bay. Next comes those who have a little motor boat with a hunting or glass cabin, and a flat-bottomed row boat, as a tender. These can go all the way in what they call safety. The next class contains those boats which have, in addition to their engine, a sailing rig of some sort, this making for safety in case of an accident to the motor machinery. These are the only boats that are really fitted for cruis- ing in all the Florida waters. They may be of any size and kind, from a small cabin launch with an emergency mast, through the various motor and auxiliary sail-boats to luxurious house-boats, with crews ranging from the owner alone to ten men. A boat longer than lOO feet is unwieldy in the narrow turns of some of the creeks and dredged cuts; 75 feet is even a better length, as three feet is in draft. Boats drawing seven feet can come in at Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Miami, Key West, and the deeper harbors on the West Coast, simply to lie at anchor in the chan- nel's offing. It is imperative that every boat has a flat-bottomed row boat as a tender, if the real pleasure of the Florida waters is desired, and a shoal-draft launch is usually carried by all the boats of any size. Boats may be hired at the larger sea-side places by the day, or for longer periods. The ones 78 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA most in favor cost from $15.00 to $30.00 a day, have accommodations for from four to six men, and carry a crew of from two to four. In addi- tion to the charter price, an allowance of $1.00 per day per person for food is charged. The commissary is good and the accommodations comfortable. The boatmen know the fishing and shooting grounds, and the interesting places. A reasonable amount of fishing tackle is aboard these boats. They are usually staunch cruising launches with small auxiliary sail area and are from 50 to 65 feet in length. For the man who loves sailing there are auxiliary schooners, yachts and ketches of the same size and a little larger, on which the pleasures of good sailing can be enjoyed in addition to these others. The waters of Biscayne Bay are filled with pleasure craft of every description, and Miami is a boating center of importance equal to any in America during the winter season. Shooting. — There are many people who come to Florida for this alone and there is no place in winter in the United States where so much sport afield can be found. The average of days of good weather is above that of the summer north, there being less rain in Florida than there. The weather is never cold. At most there are frosty mornings in the northern part of the State the rime disappearing with the first sunbeams. The nights are always cool, even in the tropic parts of the State. Game is varied and abun- dant, black bear, deer, panther, wolf, wildcat, gray fox, weasel, mink, otter, raccoon, rabbit, squirrel, gopher, opossum, porcupine, and manatee are all found. Wild turkey, quail, woodcock, part- SPORTS 79 ridge, grouse, turtle doves, pigeons, plover, snipe and ducks of many kinds abound. In north and w^est Florida quail shooting is very- good. The birds are smaller than those farther north, but they are wary and quick of flight. Rabbits are found here, wood doves and grouse. The gopher lumbers through the pine woods. He is not really a game bird though he is hunted and eaten by some of the natives. Weasels are found here also, and about Cedar Keys, mink. In the swampy hammocks are raccoons, and roosting in trees and on the borders of streams the elusive wild turkey may be found and shot. About Jacksonville, though not near the city, quail are still to be found, and up the St. John's and at Great Island near its mouth there are plenty of ducks early in the season. Quail are found on the island and plover and snipe along the shore at the mouth of the river. Better shooting of this same sort is to be had on the prairies about Enterprise in the pine woods and along the shores of the lakes in the central counties and through the upper counties of the West Coast. Down the East Coast there is duck shooting along the rivers and sounds, and back in the pinewoods quail, pigeon, turkey, wildcat, panther and deer. Game is not plenty until Mosquito Inlet is passed and from there on it increases as civilized life decreases. Along the peninsula from there down, are bear, wildcat and opossums, with shore birds of many kinds on the ocean beaches. In the rivers the duck shooting is good, the varieties very nu- merous and all edible. It is only late in the Spring that the seafood diet of their winter resort 8o A GUIDE TO FLORIDA gives them a fishy taste. Plover and snipe are to be found as well. In unfrequented creeks alligators are to be taken, and wild turkey and panthers and deer are on the mainland back from the shore. On the Keys there are opossums, coons and wildcat with an occasional deer, but the bird shooting there is the most interesting. At Cape Sable there is good deer shooting, with plenty of aquatic birds. There are wolves in the timber about White Water Bay. Fort Myers is in the center of the best shooting country and is the gateway to the Big Cypress country which holds all the different game of Florida in an immense natural preserve. This can also be reached from Punta Gorda. Further north on the West Coast, while the shooting is still good in places, there has been too much immigration and agricultural develop- ment for it to equal its old time repute. It is almost impossible to consider the shooting except in the northern part of the State apart from the cruising. Most of the good hunting grounds are reached by water, and gun and rod chum it aboard the many boats that are the sportsmen's temporary homes. Fishing.^ The most competent of fishermen, who really form the court of last resort in pass- ing judgment on the size and quality of both fish and story, are unanimous in placing the tar- pon at the head of all game fish, and the quest of this king of all the herring brings many searchers for him to Florida. He comes out of the sea from no one knows where and returns to an unknown bourne. The word is brought that the tarpon are leaping and the fishing begins. The SPORTS 8r classic rod, reel, and other equipment is in the fisherman's hand and the boatman has his part of the outfit ready. Then comes the setting forth, the day's or night's work, and the return with or without the spoils of the chase, and the crowning of it all in the story afterward. Tar- pon lore would make a book, and everyone who has ever caught one is as enthusiastic about the fish as a most loyal biographer. "^ The tarpon comes earliest to the waters about Cape Sable (where it is too muddy and too far from supplies for the fishermen to gather), to Long Key Fishing Camp, and also to the waters of the upper bay at Miami. His arrival at these places has been as early as the middle of Febru- ary. The sport begins three weeks earlier here than on the West Coast, where Charlotte Harbor deserves all its renown as the headquarters for tarpon fishermen. Records have been kept there longer, and more fully, of each season's fishing than anywhere else in the State. The inlets north from there on the West Coast are also good tarpon grounds. On the East Coast, about Indian River Inlet tarpon are also taken in large numbers, and late in the season they are found at the mouth of St. John's river. At all the places there are guide boats and tackle to be had. The guides take entire charge of the ex- pedition and a rank outsider may have a rare day's sport in charge of one of them. \The tarpon is of the herring family, a giant, weighing when grown from 70 to 180 lbs. His scales are of a lustrous silver hue. His fight for liberty and life on being caught is the gamest made by his kind. Not even the giant carp of the 82 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA East Indies, the leaping tuna of California, the landlocked salmon of Canada, Ireland's sea salmon, nor the brave trout of the mountains, sends the thrill of challenge along the line to the fisherman that comes from this, the worth- iest of his quarry. "^ It is not on the tarpon alone that Florida's renown as a winter fishing-ground rests. The inland lakes and streams have fresh-water fishing. It is, however, the sea-fishing in the sheltered waters and outside that is most inter- esting. As the tropics are neared the shapes and colors of the fish that are found become more varied, and the catches are often a lesson in nat- ural history to the fisherman. Going down the East Coast the fishing is done in the creeks, the rivers, inlets, and on the reef outside, which runs parallel with the lower part of the Florida coast. In the inlets, beginning at St. John's bar, sheeps- head, blackfish, sailor's choice, flounders and whiting, with other edible fish, are to be taken, and with these, many undesirable foul fishes, at all the fishing points. At Mosquito Inlet all of these and many others — blackfish, calvallo, channel bass, grouper, ladyfish, jewfish, moon- fish, sergeantfish and mullet, etc. Mullet is the universal Florida fish. --i Hillsboro lagoon has good fishing, turtles are netted here. At Indian River Inlet is mackerel and tarpon fishing. At Gilbert's Bar commences the king fishing on the outside reef, and the man- grove snappers are found in quantities, pompano too and many Spanish mackerel. At Lake Worth Inlet barracuda, zonito, amberjack, margate fish, grunts and runners are added. At the inlets CO C a. ■ , ..si r I^^W^^^^^^HH < SPORTS 83 further south and in Biscayne Bay and on the reef is the best general fishing in Florida. The cuts between the Keys are good fishing grounds. A typical catch cruising about one of these will number parrot-fish, pork-fish, porgies, grunts, snappers, muttonfish, turbots, groupers, angel- fish, cowfish, and even jewfish and sharks. On the reef outside, kingfish, amberjack and barra- cuda are taken. • Mangrove snappers abound in the creeks be- low Cocoanut Grove, turtles too are found, and in addition to the above, sparkfish, bream, sea- trout, sand-perch, schoolmasters, lizard-fish, chub, etc. are found. Below in Pumpkin Keys the gamy bonefish is taken. It is also found on the landward side of Card's Sound near the opening into Barnes' Sound. Caesar's Creek is a favorite fishing ground. All the way to Long Key Camp is good fishing. Local guides know the grounds, which change somewhat each year. At Long Keys Camp is good sport, tarpon fish- ing, and general fishing as well. Killing shark which are found in the channel which the viaduct crosses, is great and commendable work. At Cape Sable with its muddy water the fisherman does not linger long. Tarpon spearing by the natives is here a specialized sport. The way around to the West Coast leads to the Coxambas Pass at Cape Romeano, and the same good fishing is found among the islands and passes there, but the best fishing on the West Coast begins at Charlotte Harbor where the ground is classic and where each inlet has its own set of fishermen. The same fish that are found about the inlets on the East Coast are 84 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA found here. There is not, however, the outside reef fishing. Useppa Island, Captiva Pass, Boca- grande Pass, and Gasparilla Pass especially are fishing centers. Sarasota Bay also, Tampa Bay and the waters of Boca Ceiga Bay and Clear- water Harbor. Tarpon Springs, Homosassa and Crystal river are all frequented by fishermen, but have not the great variety or abundance of fish that are found further south. For data in regard to fishing outfits, expenses, mode of taking fish, etc., the reader is referred to the many books on Florida sports. (See Bibli- ography.) ^^It might be well to mention the manatee, the alligator and crocodile which with certain re- strictions are hunted and taken in Florida. The manatee is a warm blooded amphibian, a rare survival of its type, the dugong of East Indian Waters being the only other existing member of its Order. It is an herbivorous ani- mal, feeding on the marine grasses and plants that grow in brackish streams and about inlets. It has teeth and grinds its food. Its head is small with a muzzle like a cow. Its front flippers are small and terminate in a hand-shaped form, with nails. Its tail is broad and flat and of great use in swimming. Its skin is thick and dark brown with a few coarse hairs scattered over it. There are long whisker-like hairs about the muz- zle. The eyes are small. It has no neck, but its body is shaped somewhat like a sea-lion. It grows to a length of ten and even twelve feet. It rises to the surface to breathe every two or three minutes. It is docile and intentionally harmless, but in a struggle to get away may hurt SPORTS 85 its Captor by a stroke from its powerful tail. To capture it a long seine with a mesh like a turtle net of 18 inches is stretched across the stream where it has been feeding, one end only being securely fastened, the other fastening breaks as the sea-cow encounters the net, and in struggling for freedom it becomes enmeshed and can easily be secured. They are protected by law, a permit to take one being necessary. It is strongly urged not to kill these harmless interest- ing creatures. Though their flesh is palatable, their presence gives more zest to life, than their flesh does to the table. \ Alligators live in brackish or fresh water, dig- ging burrows, the entrance to which seem impos- sibly small in comparison to the size of the deni- zen. They lie on the banks of fresh-water streams, and their slides near favorite swimming places are easily recognized. They grow to an extreme length of fifteen to eighteen feet, and live to an age of a hundred years. They are dark brown and black on the upper side, a muddy amber on the lower. Their skin is almost in- vulnerable. A shot can only kill by penetrating just above the eye, or where the head joins the neck, or just close behind the forelegs. They have a rounded nose and small eyes. The long tail is a swimming factor, a help in getting over land, and a formidable weapon of offense and de- fense. Their food is fish, turtles, snakes, birds, water turkeys, and the young of their own species. They also take pine knots and cypress knees as part of their fare. They can wait for intervals of weeks between feeding times in winter. They are inactive when undisturbed, 86 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA but very wary, and on the first approach of dan- ger or warning- of new conditions, they slip away into the water, or enter their holes. In either case they are ahnost sure to escape. The water retreat is not to be followed and their holes are usually provided with two entrances. The bull alligators are fighters and their cries and threshings in a battle are not easily forgotten. The swift turn of the head to the side and the lightning-like snap of the vicious jaws makes defense almost impossible and the stunning, rush- ing, falling blows of their lashing tails add to the fury of the combat. The females build their nests on the banks of fresh water streams, of grass, leaves, sticks and muck. In these they lay as many as a hundred eggs. The decomposition of the nest makes the necessary heat to hatch the eggs. These later are pearly white, about as large as hen's eggs in the smaller dimensions, but slightly longer. The baby " gators " fend for themselves. There are tales of the mother guarding them during infancy, and even hiding them by opening her mouth to a sheltering place within her in times of danger, but the verdict as to the truth of this is " not proven." ""^ To hunt the alligator, the locality of his haunt is discovered, and the sportsman endeavors to come upon him gently. The least noise sends the quarry to safety. The shot must be unerring, else he is away from all danger for that day. If it is the purpose to take him alive, the better plan is to attempt to get him in his cave. The two entrances must be watched and one must be used by the hunters for aggressive measures. They should go armed with a long pole to which SPORTS 87 is strongly attached a shark-hook, a gaff, a coil of rope, rifles and a spade. The long pole and hook is used to drag the game from his hole, the gaff to quiet him if necessary, the coil of rope to bind him if taken alive, and the rifle to dispatch him if occasion demands; the spade is not to dig his grave, but to facilitate operation if the hole is too deep. What happens on the hunt may be of various sorts. The hissing, bellowing, harsh protests of the alligators are not the least of the exciting incidents. Fire-hunting is done at night, when a light is set in the bow of the boat, and the game is " shined." The alligator remains quiet as the boat approaches, and is not afraid of the light. It may be shot then easily, but this is skin-hunting, not sport. "^ai. The crocodile is to be distinguished from the alligator in color and shape and habitat. It is not so broad in proportion to its length. Its snout is narrower and its head more pointed. Its color is lighter and varies from dingy black to gray. Its lower canine teeth protrude through two holes in the upper jaw when the mouth is closed, and are seen above the upper lip. Its hind feet are more deeply webbed and larger than an alligator's proportionately, and there is a ridge of projecting scales along the hind legs that is absent in the alligator. The male croco- dile is as vicious as the alligator. They are enemies, and fight on meeting. The catching of the jaw by the victor is a deciding moment in a battle, a vicious wrench, a rolling over and over of the combatants, the neck of the victim is broken and the fight ends. The crocodile lives in the lagoons bordering the coast, and in salt 88 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA water lakes on the Keys. The female makes her nest by digging a hole in the sand, where less than a hundred eggs are deposited. It is almost impossible to kill a crocodile because of the in- accessibility of its haunts, but the general method in its chase are the same as in alligator hunting. General State Game Law of Florida An Act for the preservation of- wild deer, birds and other game, and to prescribe the time in which they may be hunted, and to provide that all non-residents of the State shall take out a license before they shall hunt such wild deer, birds or other game, and prescribing a penalty for the violation thereof. Open season for deer: It shall be unlawful for any person to hunt, chase, kill, molest, or have in his, her or their possession, any wild deer in the State except during the months of Novem- ber, December and January of each year. Any person violating this section shall be fined for each deer killed, or in his, her or their posses- sion, not more than one hundred dollars, or less than twenty-five dollars, or be imprisoned not more than six months or less than three months. Venison or deer hides not to be sold : No per- son or persons, firm or corporations, shall sell, expose for sale, or have in his, her, their or its possession for sale at any time any wild deer, venison or deer hide, and it shall be unlawful for any person or persons, firm or corporations, to ship or transport any deer, venison or deer hide or hides in this State for sale at any time, and it shall be unlawful for any common carrier tO' GAME LAW 89 transport any deer, venison, or deer hide or hides at any time to be sold. Any person or persons, firm or corporations, violating the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than fifty dollars or more than two hundred dollars, or be imprisoned not more than three nor less than one month. Hunting or trapping turkey or quail : No per- son or persons shall have in his, her or their pos- session, or shall hunt or kill any wild turkey, quail or partridge in any part of this State, save only from the first day of November until the first day of March of any year. No person shall kill more than two wild turkeys, or more than twenty quail, and no party of two or more per- sons shall kill more than four wild turkeys or more than forty quail in any one day, and no person shall kill more than five wild turkeys in any one year, and no person or persons, firm or corporation, association, or company shall sell, expose for sale or have in his, her, or their pos- session for sale in this State, any wild turkey, quail or partridge. Any person, or persons, cor- poration, association or company, violating any of the provisions of this section shall upon con- viction thereof be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five dollars or more than one hun- dred dollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding sixty days, or less than thirty days. Unlawful to kill carrier pigeons: It shall be unlawful for any person to catch, kill, maim, wound, detain or molest any homing pigeon or carrier pigeon, or pigeon carrying a metallic band, the property of another. Any person vio- lating the provisions of this section shall be pun- 90 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA ished by a fine of not less than five dollars, nor more than twenty-five dollars, or by imprison- ment not to exceed sixty days, and in addition to such fine or imprisonment shall be required to pay as costs in the case to go to the prosecuting witness the sum of ten dollars. Must not ship game out of county: Any per- son or persons, firm or corporation, who shall ship any deer, deer hide or hides, venison, wild turkey, quail or partridge beyond the limits of the county in which the same were killed, shall upon conviction thereof be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and shall be punished by not less than twenty-five dollars or more than one hun- dred dollars, or imprisonment not less than three months or more than six months. Any common carrier, or any agent or employe of any com- mon carrier who shall receive for carriage, or who shall permit the carriage of any such deer, deer hide or hides, venison, wild turkey, quail or partridges by any such common carrier across any county line in the State, shall be punished in the same manner as the shipper: Provided, Hunters or hunting parties may take their game home with them in this State, but not for sale. Non-residents to secure license: All persons who are not citizens of this State, before hunt- ing for the purpose of killing any wild game in this State, shall apply to the clerk of the circuit court of the county the said non-citizen purposes to hunt in, and upon the payment of ten dollars to the said clerk by the applicant, the clerk shall issue a permit to hunt in said county, only as provided for in this act and the same shall not be transferable, and it shall be unlawful for any GAME LAW 91 non-citizen of this State to hunt in this State without first obtaining said permit, which permit shall expire on the first day of March next fol- lowing the date of its issue. That all money col- lected as provided for in this section shall be paid by the clerk to the county treasurer and shall be applied to paying the fees or salary of the game warden for said county. Provided; That in any county where there is no game warden, then all money collected as provided for in this section shall be paid by the clerk to the county treasurer for the use of the fine and forfeiture fund. Any person violating the provi- sions of this section shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction thereof, shall be punished by a fine of not more than one hundred dollars, or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding ninety days: Provided, That the provisions of this act shall not apply to counties having special game laws. Dispositions of fines: Any person making af- fidavit giving information sufficient to convict another for violating any of the provisions of the six preceding sections shall be entitled to and shall receive one-half of the fine so imposed and collected, if informant be the game warden; any other shall receive one-third of the fine. Shooting ducks out of season: It shall be un- lawful for any person or persons to shoot wild ducks between the first day of April and the first day of October. Any person or persons violat- ing the provisions of this section shall be pun- ished by fine not exceeding fifty dollars or by imprisonment not exceeding thirty days. Protection of birds, their eggs and nests: No 92 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA person shall within the State of Florida kill or catch or have in his possession, living or dead, any wild bird other than a game bird, nor shall purchase, offer or expose for sale any such wild bird after it has been killed or caught. No part of the plumage, skin or body of any bird pro- tected by this section shall be sold or had in pos- session for sale. For the purpose of this act, the following only shall be considered game birds : The Anatidas, commonly known as swans, geese, brant, and river and sea ducks ; the Rallidce, com- monly known as rails, coots, mud-hens, and gal- linules ; the Semicol?e, commonly known as shore birds, plovers, surf birds, snipe, woodcock, sand pipers, tattler and curlews ; the Gallinae, commonly known as wild turkeys, grouse, prairie chickens, pheasants, partridges and quails, also turtle doves, tame and wild pigeons and robins. No person shall within the State of Florida take or needlessly destroy the nest or eggs of any wild bird, nor shall have such nest or eggs in his or her possession. Any person violating the pro- visions of this section shall be liable to a fine of five dollars for each offense, and an additional fine of five dollars for each bird, living or dead, or part of bird, or nest and eggs possessed in violation of this section, or to imprisonment for ten days. Who exempt from foregoing section, and man- ner of exemption: The foregoing section shall not apply to any person holding a certificate giv- ing the right to take birds and their nests and eggs for scientific purposes as herein provided. Certificates may be granted by the Commissioner of Agriculture of the State of Florida, or by any o cs a. 'en u > GAME LAW 93 incorporated society of natural history in the State, through such persons or officers as the said society may designate, to any properly accredited person of the age of fifteen years or upwards, per- mitting the holder thereof to collect birds, their nests and eggs, for strictly scientific purposes only. In order to obtain such certificate the ap- plicant for the same must present to the person having the power to grant such certificates, writ- ten testimonials from two well known scientific men, certifying to the good character and fitness of said applicant to be entrusted with such privi- lege; must pay to said person or officer one dol- lar to defray necessary expenses attending the granting such certificates ; and must file with said person or officer a properly executed bond in the sum of one hundred dollars, signed by two re- sponsible citizens of the State as sureties. The said bond shall be forfeited to the State and the certificate become void upon proof that the holder of such certificate has killed any bird or taken the nest or eggs of any bird, for other than the purposes named herein, and subject the holder of the certificate to same penalties as violators of the preceding section. The certificate mentioned herein shall be in force for one year only from date of issuance, and shall not be transferable. Birds not included in preceding sections : The English sparrow, shark-shinned hawk (commonly known as the little blue darter), cooper's hawk (commonly known as the big blue darter), great horned owl, crow, ricebird, meadowlark, jackdaw and butcherbird are not included among the birds protected by the two preceding sections. Noth- ing in said sections shall prevent any citizen of 94 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA the State of Florida from destroying birds which are found injuring grapes, fruits, garden or farm products on his premises, or from taking and keeping in a cage any cardinal redbird or mock- ingbird for his own pleasure or amusement : Provided that the same shall not be sold or shipped out of the State. Protection of manatee or sea-cow: Any per- son who shall kill or capture in the waters of the State of Florida a manatee or sea-cow (Triche- chus latirostris), without having obtained the permit hereinafter mentioned, shall be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars or imprisoned not exceeding three months. Permit to kill: Whenever the county commis- sioners of any county shall be satisfied that the interest of science will be subserved, and that the application for a permit to kill or capture a manatee or sea-cow in that county is for scien- tific purposes and should be granted, they may grant to such person making the application a special permit to kill or capture a manatee or sea- cow, which permit shall only extend to the cap- turing or killing of one of such animals. Default of fish or game warden : Any fish and game warden who shall fail to take cognizance of the violation of any of the fish and game laws of this State when same is brought to their notice, shall be punished by a fine not exceeding fifty dollars or imprisonment not exceeding sixty days. Local Game Laws: In a great many counties there are special laws which rule instead of the Gfeneral State Law. These are often quite volu- minous, but local guides can give the needed information to sportsmen as to their restrictions GAME LAW 95 in each section. Should more definite informa- tion seem necessary an application to the Secre- tary of State will bring copies of any desired law. The fishing laws have relation to commercial fishing, and can be obtained from the State au- thorities. There has been a large section of the East Coast set aside as a fish and game preserve. There are at present no fish commission stations, but Congress has authorized a fishery laboratory which will be located at some point on the Gulf Coast. For information in regards to fish and fishing, application should be made to Mr. John Y. Detwiler, Honorary Fish Commissioner, New Smyrna, Florida. ROUTES THROUGH FLORIDA JACKSONVILLE Jacksonville (Pop. 57,699), the county seat of Duval Co., is the metropolis of Florida, its chief commercial city, and its railway center. It is the most important port upon the South Atlantic Coast. It is also the Atlantic port farthest west, being in about the longitude of Cleveland, Ohio. Arrival. The station is at the west end of the business section of the town. Street cars will be found waiting in which one may go to most of the hotels. There are also excellent open cabs at a charge of 25c per person ; after midnight 50c. When distance exceeds two miles 50c ; after mid- night 75c. Children under five years of age ac- companied by adult, free; over five and under twelve, half fare. Cabs by the hour, day rate $1 ; after midnight, $1.50. Jacksonville is located upon the north bank of the St. John's river, twenty-five miles from its mouth. It was called by the Indians Wacca Pilatka — "the cows' crossing over" — and in early accounts of the vicinity it is commonly called merely The Cowford. There was, how- ever, no white settlement here until 1816. At that time a certain Lewis Z. Hogan, w^ho had settled upon the south side of the river, married a Spanish widow, Dona Maria Suarez, who had a grant of 200 acres upon the present site of the city. Thither the new family removed. The new set- tlement was well situated to take advantage of the tide of immigration and trade which was then 99 100 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA beginning- to tlow south into the State. In 1820 a ferry was established. In 1822 an inn was opened by one John Brady. In 1833 the town was in- corporated and named Jacksonville after General Jackson, who was not only a national hero, but one who had been closely connected with Florida history at the time of the cession from Spain. During the Seminole \\'ar it was often a place of refuge for fugitives from other parts of the State. During the Civil War Jacksonville was four separate times captured by the Federal troops. On March 11, 1862, the United States gunboats *' Ottawa," " Seneca," and " Pembina " crossed the bar of the St. John's and with some lighter draft vessels captured the city peacefully the next day. In April the force was withdrawn. The following autumn, in October, it was again seized and again abandoned. In March, 1863, it was again captured, this time by colored troops, the ist South Carolina Volun- teers under the command of Colonel Thomas Wentworth Higginson, and part of the 2nd South Carolina Volunteers, under Colonel Mont- gomery. The presence of the black troops gave considerable offense to the population of Jack- sonville and must have led to ill feeling, for, w^hen the tow'n was within a month again abandoned, there was much burning and looting, which even in the North was much criticized. It was, how- ever, again taken by colored troops February 7, 1864, and held till the end of the war. Since that time its history may be said-to be that of its growth and commercial development. In May, 1901., there was a great fire, which de- JACKSONVILLE loi stroycd some 2,600 buildings with a loss of over $15,000,000. This calamity, as so often proves with fires in ill-built cities, was really a blessing. In the ten years that have since elapsed the city has been rebuilt, some 8,000 buildings valued at $25,000,000 replacing those destroyed. The town is now a clean, cheerful, pleasant place, with well- paved streets planted with trees, open parks and squares, electric lights, excellent shops, good street car service (all cars start from Bay and Main Streets), and modern hotels. The water supply is from artesian wells, and is abundant and good. Bay Street contains the best shops and most of the railway and steamer offices. The City Hall, the Duval County Court House, and the TY^deral Building, all in Forsyth Street, a little to the north of Bay Street, are the chief public buildings worthy of notice. Hemming Park is in the center of the city, bounded by Hogan, Monroe, Laura and Duval ►Streets. It is a spacious, well-kept square, with better turf than is ordinarily found in Florida. The arriving visitor from the north will very pr(jbably stroll into it his first day or evening and receive a pleasant impression of Jacksonville as a sub-tropic city. The park is planted with char- acteristic specimens of Florida flora. In the center there is the confederate monument erected by the city. Other parks, all of which may be reached by street car and which afford pleasant excursions, are Riverside Park, with a pine grove (Riverside Park Line), Plioenix Park (Phoenix Park Line), Ortega Park (Ortega Line), Springfield Park 102 . A GUIDE TO FLORIDA (Phoenix Park, Fourth and Pearl or First and Walnut Street Line), Waterworks and Dignan Parks. The residential part of Jacksonville is attrac- tive and worth a walk or drive. Riverside, es- pecially, stretching along the St. John's above the city, with its pretty houses standing in well- kept, well-shaded gardens, should be seen. Talleyrand Avenue, in what was formerly called East Jacksonville, is named for a Marquis de Talleyrand who settled in Jacksonville a few years before the Civil War. He had married a Miss Winslow of Boston, and for a few years lived lavishly in what is still known as the Tal- leyrand Place. But he became involved in finan- cial difficulties and gave up his Florida residence. A favorite excursion (Fairfield Line of street cars) is to the Florida Ostrich Farm. The rais- ing of these birds has never become a regular industry of the State as it was once hoped it would, but the ostrich farm shows it as a prac- tical possibility, and offers the visitor an op- portunity to see the ostrich at every stage of its existence. The farm also contains a zoological collection. A good excursion by automobile is over the Atlantic Boulevard Drive, completed in 1910 at a cost of $20,000. This is a hard roadway of shell, brick and asphalt, eighteen miles in length, which runs from Jacksonville to the Atlantic Ocean. For many visitors the most interesting thing about Jacksonville will be the general evidences of its growth and commercial prosperity. Its en- thusiastic inhabitants believe it to be destined to be the South's chief commercial city. And with- *^ u > c c u o CO u Vi CO JACKSONVILLE 103 out venturing an opinion upon such a question it may be said that Jacksonville's energy, civic feel- ing and rapid growth are unquestioned. Its population has increased from 28,000 in 1901, to nearly 60,000 in 191 1. It seems probable that it will remain the " gateway " of Florida and the natural outlet for the produce of the greater part of the State. And if the growth of its manufac- tures makes anything like the progress of which it now gives promise, the hopes of its most hopeful inhabitants may be realized. It is certain that few if any States east of the Mississippi have as great undeveloped resources as Florida, of which Jacksonville is the commercial capital. Jacksonville is a deep water port, the St. John's river, from the city to the jetties at its mouth, having at low tide a depth of twenty-four, which dredging operations now in progress are expected to make thirty feet. It has three coastwise lines of steamers. The Clyde Line sends five ships a week to New York and Boston, the Southern Steamship Company two a week to Philadelphia, and the Merchants & Miners Transportation Company three a week to Baltimore. The Burg Line and the Cans Line have steamers to Bre- men, Amsterdam and other European ports; the Logan Line to Liverpool. There are two lines to West Indian and Central American ports, and it is hoped, even promised, that soon the lines to the south will be more numerous and better equipped. JACKSONVILLE TO FERNANDINA (Via Seaboard Air Line R. R. — 36 m. i^ hr.) Leaving Jacksonville the train runs north to Panama Park (7 m.), crosses Trout Creek and a smaller stream and arrives at Broward (12 m.) ; Duval (14 m.) is the next stop. Near Hedges (20 m.) the Nassau river is crossed. Yulee (24 m., hotel, see list) is a junction with the line to Baldwin (35 m.) with connections to Lofton (30 m.). The Amelia river is crossed and the rest of the way is over Amelia Island to Fernandina. Fernandina (36 m. pop. 3,482), a seaport town of some importance. Fernandina harbor is the finest on the Atlantic coast south of Chesapeake Bay. It was not, however, the site of a town of any importance until 1808. Later, on account of the Embargo Act of Jefferson's administration, it suddenly assumed considerable importance as a neutral port and it is said that as many as a hundred and fifty vessels lay there at one time during the war of 1812. It lost its commercial importance afterwards, and has never completely regained it. It is attractively situated near the north end and on the west side of the island, Fort Clinch and Fernandina Lighthouse being to the north. The exports are chiefly naval stores, lum- ber and phosphates. Vessels load here, not only for the coast, but for foreign ports as well. Amelia Beach on the east side of the island is reached by a good road (2 m.). The climate is 104 JACKSONVILLE TO MACON, GA. 105 pleasant and bracing and many winter visitors are attracted here. A pleasant excursion is to go by boat to the channels that encircle the Sea- Islands to the north. Cumberland Island, the nearest of these, is remarkable for its beauty. It was the site of " Dungeness," the old home of Col. Nathaniel Greene of the Continental army, pre- sented to him by the State of Georgia. The property is now owned by Mrs. T. M. Carnegie. '' Light-Horse Harry " Lee's grave is in the de- mesne. The islands are all very fertile, and a high-grade of " long staple sea-island " cot- ton is grown upon them. Many of the islands have been bought by private individuals, who have built beautiful winter homes upon them. Jacksonville to Macon, Ga. (Via Ga. So. & Fla. R. R., via Valdosta, Ga.— 261 m.). Leaving Jacksonville in a northwesterly direc- tion, the first of the route is in Florida, passing through Hoyt (5 m.). King's Grove (8 m.), and Plummer (11 m.). The railway turns directly west at Crawford (18 m.), passes Kent (23 m.) and crosses the St. Mary's river into Georgia. At Momac, Ga. (38 m.) it crosses the river again into Florida to Baxter (39 m.). Eddy (46 m.) is passed and the State line again crossed and then on to Valdosta, Ga. (no m.), and to Macon, Ga. (261 m.). JACKSONVILLE TO MAYPORT (Via F. E. C. R. R.— 26 m., i hr.) The train crosses the river to South Jackson- ville (i m.), where the main line of the Florida East Coast R. R. is left, and, turning to the east, St. Nicholas (3 m.) is reached. The suburban re- gion is passed, and Spring Glen (5 m.), Hogan (6 m.), Center Park (11 m.) and San Pablo (15 m.). San Pablo Beach (17 m.) is on the ocean and has a fine beach. It is a favorite resort fre- quented by the residents of the State during the Summer. The railway here turns to the north and follows the shore to Atlantic Beach (20 m.), a shore resort much visited in the spring by tour- ists returning North. It has an excellent beach. Its hotel was built by the F. E. C. R. R., and is now under leased management. Its standard of excellence is good, and the fact that it is open in the late spring and summer recommends it to tourists who wish to make a late return to the North. Manhattan Beach (23 m.) and Burnside Beach (24 m.) are the next stations. - Mayport (26 m.) is at the mouth of the St. John's river, and is an old settlement with plain accommodations for tourists. The St. John's Lighthouse adjoins the town. The name May- port is a reminder that the French called the St. John's " Riviere de Mai " — May river. It was near Mayport that the ill-fated French Huguenot settlement of Florida was made — a settlement antedating that of St. Augustine. 106 JACKSONVILLE TO MAYPORT 107 Pilot-town Is an interesting village situated west of Mayport on the river bank. It is a settlement of sea-farers. Pilots for the ships making port at Jacksonville start from here. Near Pilot-town was the Spanish fort taken by Des Gourges on his romantic and thrilling ex- pedition of revenge. The run of shad into the St. John's begins in January and lasts until April. It is the tradition of the local fishermen that the fish never go out again ! The excursion to Fort George Island is inter- esting. The old oak woods are picturesque. In the sedgy channels round here is still some duck shooting, and there are quail upon the island. There was at one time upon the island an ideal Southern plantation of the old school, with a fine mansion surrounded by negro quarters. The drive from Pablo Beach to Mayport is a very pleasant one along the beach. Sea-bathing at these resorts is comfortable in late March. The trade-winds are balmy and the water is not cold. The F. E. C. R. R. has large docks and wharves for handling coal and lumber at May- port. JACKSONVILLE TO KEY WEST (Via F. E. C. R. R.— 522 m.) I — Jacksonville to St. Augustine (37 m., i hr.)- The St. John's is crossed by a long bridge, from which a good view of this really noble river is obtained, and of the city of Jacksonville. South Jacksonville (2 m.) is also connected with Jacksonville by ferry. It has several manu- facturing plants, ship-repair and boat-building yards. Also a certain suburban population go- ing to business on the north shore of the river. Bayard (15 m.) A small village in the pine woods which, with perhaps not too much care for the reputation of other towns in the State, boasts that it has fewer mosquitoes and insects than any other location in Florida. Its atmos- phere is drier than that of the coast and river towns and is said to be beneficial to convales- cents from throat or lung affections. The country is not especially interesting, as one is quickly carried through it by the train. Yet it is characteristically Floridian, stretches of pine barrens varied occasionally by the rich tangle of palmettoes and deciduous trees which mark hammock and swamp land. The traveler on the railways of the State will go through hun- dreds and hundreds of miles of such country. And the complaint is constantly made that it is actually ugly. That it is monotonous one must admit, desolate too and even a little sad at times. But there are connoisseurs of landscape, who, 108 JACKSONVILLE TO ST. AUGUSTINE 109 especially when they can go into the back coun- try without the confinement of a railway car, find a beauty in the pine tops against the blue sky and in the varied green of the hammocks. The lone- liness, the extraordinary feeling of remoteness is to them a merit of the country. Some travelers who begin by actually disliking these Florida flat- lands end by finding in them a curious and char- acteristic charm. In any case to them the clear- ing of a pretty town must seem like an oasis — in the pines. As St. Augustine is approached, a view of the city is to be had at the left, beyond salt marshes. St. Augustine, (37 m., pop., 5,494). Railway porters meet trains to carry hand baggage. Hotel omnibuses and cabs (25c per person ; baggage, 25c per person) are in waiting. Agent of St. Augustine Transfer Co. usually goes through train before arrival to arrange for transportation of passengers and their baggage. — St. Augustine, the oldest city in the territory of the United States, is one of the most attrac- tive and interesting. It is ui^questionably the one great "sight" of Florida; no visit to the State could possibly be thought complete or satis- factory which did not include it. It is also, con- sidered merely as a pleasant place of resort or winter residence, one of the best which Florida can oflfer. The history of St. Augustine was for centuries the history of Florida, at least of East Florida, in the days when they spoke of The Floridas, and Pensacola was the capital of the province of West Florida. Much of the story of St. Augustine has necessarily already been given in the preliminary no A GUIDE TO FLORIDA chapter of this book upon the history of the State. Only a part of it will be here recapitulated, es- pecially such part as lends interest to still exist- ent antiquities. The settlement of St. Augustine was made by the expedition which went forth from Spain un- der Pedro Menendez de Aviles to drive out the colony of French Huguenots which had already been established near the mouth of the St. John's. Menendez agreed with Philip II. of Spain to carry out a force of 600 men, also horses, cattle, hogs, sheep and goats, and, if he wished, slaves. He was also to take twelve priests, including four Jesuits. He was not only to expel the French, but also to make settlements in the country. He was to be Adelantado — Governor — of the coun- try and to receive the title of marquis, a salary, and certain valuable privileges. On the 7th day of September, 1565, Menendez's fleet cast anchor in what had already been named the River of Dolphins, the present harbor of the town. An Indian village, Selooe, stood upon the site of the present St. Augustine. Menendez dis- embarked with religious ceremony and military pomp, and took possession of the country. Earthwork defenses were hurriedly thrown up, and the settlement named in honor of the saint upon whose feast day they had sighted the low- lying Floridian coast. The first business, however, was the destruc- tion of the French. The tragic story of the ac- complishment of this has already been told in the introductory historical chapter. The French Fort Caroline was captured. The fleet of Ribaut which had come to the rescue of the little settle- ST. AUGUSTINE in ment put to sea and was wrecked upon the coast somewhere near what is now Daytona. The miserable survivors made their way to the inlet by St. Augustine which they were unable to cross. Here they surrendered themselves upon definite promises of clemency and safety. They were fetched across in small groups, bound by the Spaniards, and upon their admitting that they were of the " new religion " were butchered with- out hesitation, over two hundred of them. The several wandering bands of Huguenots were all discovered and massacred. Sinister though such beginnings were, St. Au- gustine maintained its existence, no easy task. Provisions ran low, the Indians were unfriendly. Disease appeared, and disaffection reduced the numbers. Menendez's energy and courage were wonderful. In spite of difficulties he sought aid in Cuba, explored the coast, planting forts and lecturing the Indians on Catholic theology. Finally after Menendez had in Cuba, to obtain provisions, pawned his jewels and the cross of his order, succor and a fleet arrived from Spain. Menendez, thinking he might leave the colony for a while, returned to Spain. After the famous expedition of Des Gourges, who in revenge for the destruction of the French colony now de- scended upon the Spanish at San Mateo on the St. John's, Menendez returned again. The chronicle of St. Augustine during these years is that of all the early American settlements. Me- nendez died, during a trip to Spain in 1574. The next event of great interest was the cap- ture of the town by Sir Francis Drake, the great freebooter. The town was at once re-occupied 112 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA and re-built after this. The missionary activities of the Franciscans increased and a number of In- dian churches were started near the settlement. But conversion was followed closely by retro- gression and there were many massacres of priests. There is a moving story of one who ob- tained permission to say the mass before he died and was as he finished struck down at the very altar. In the year 1638 St. Augustine and the colony waged war successfully against the Apalachian Indians near the Suwanee river country. It was with captives taken in this war that work on the fort was carried on. In 1648, al- most a century after its foundation, St. Augus- tine is said to have had three hundred house- holders, besides a monastery of fifty Franciscans, and the garrison. In 1665 St. Augustine was again captured and sacked by an English free- booter, Captain Davis. The fort, however, safely protected the inhabitants and the garrison, though it offered no resistance to the English. About 1700 the first sea wall was being con- structed ; remains of this still exist in Bay Street. During the early part of the eighteenth cen- tury the Spanish colony came into conflict with the English settlements along the coast. In 1702 Governor Moore of South Carolina made a suc- cessful descent upon the town and carried away much booty. In 1740 a considerable expedition under Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia invaded Florida and laid siege to St. Augustine for twenty days. But the fort was now strong and well de- fended. The invaders ultimately retired. St. Augustine had by this time grown to over 3 3 < c75 4-1 O X ST. AUGUSTINE 113 two thousand inhabitants. The fort was com- pleted, in almost its present form, under Don Alonzo Fernandez de Herrera, 1755. For over sixty years Apalachian captives had been work- ing on it. It was at that time called St. John's fort ; when it came to be called San Marco seems uncertain. In 1763 Florida was ceded to the English. St. Augustine became the seat of great governmental activity, for under the English rule roads were built, agriculture was encouraged and for the first time in centuries the colony became self- supporting, even profitable. There are many ac- curate accounts of the city during this time. There was an interesting and cultivated society resident there. The population was considerably increased by the Minorcans, Greeks and Italians who escaped from Dr. Turnbull at New Smyrna. They had been brought there under indentures to do agri- cultural labor for an English company, but had been ill-treated until they revolted. The Span- ish names of St. Augustine, many of which the tourist will see upon the pews in the cathedral, are mostly of Minorcan families. Florida was loyal to the British crown at the time of the War of Independence. In fact upon the receipt of the news of the Declaration of Inde- pendence the inhabitants of St. Augustine burned John Hancock and Samuel Adams in efiigy upon the public square. Throughout the war St. Augustine was a British base of operations against the Americans. Several famous Caro- linians, prisoners of war, were at St. Augustine, in the fort, in 1780. 114 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA In 1784 St. Augustine again became Spanish. The English residents departed, and for thirty- seven more years, comparatively peaceful ones, the town was left to its quiet and pleasant ex- istence. It lay picturesquely embowered in or- ange groves. Its inhabitants though poor were generally light-hearted. They loved music and dances, they celebrated the carnival each year with masking and frolics. It is perhaps the pe- riod of the town^s history which its present ap- pearance most strongly recalls. In 1821 it became American, though for a long time it must have remained more strongly Span- ish in character. (Writing even as late as 1858, Fairbanks, the best known of Florida's histor- ians, says that most of the citizens speak Eng- lish and Spanish with equal facility.) At first the legislative council of the territory of Florida held its meetings here, and the first Governor, W. P. Duval, lived here, before he moved to his log cabin in Tallahassee, all the new capital af- forded at first as a gubernatorial mansion. Read- ers who will turn to the Ralph Ringwood sketches of Washington Irving will find an inter- esting account of this famous and original man. -~^St. Augustine must have been a picturesque town in these days. The carnival was celebrated as late as 1848 with some curious local ceremo- nies. " Shooting the Jews " — in effigy — was one of them. Another odd performance was by maskers who were dressed as St. Peter and went through the streets endeavoring to throw a net over the heads of anyone who dared approach too close. " Posey Dances " were another local gayety. ST. AUGUSTINE 115 "■^ The outbreak of the Seminole War in 1835 made St. Augustine for some years an impor- tant military post. Though it was unsafe to venture without the gates, and massacres by the Indians took place near the town, there was a period of great activity and seeming prosperity while the military remained. During the war the famous Seminole chief Osceola was confined in the fort. The history of the city during the Civil War is an uneventful one. It was taken by the North- ern forces in March, 1862, and held by them till the close of the war. Its later history may be said to commence with the arrival of Mr. Flagler and the Florida East Coast Railway, when the ancient city, which had been sleeping so long and so peacefully in the sun, was suddenly transformed into one of the leading winter resorts and show places of the country. Never, it may safely be said, was more care taken to preserve the character and charm of an old town when the time came to give to it all the improvements of modern life. There will, of course, be some who will always regret the passing of the drowsy, foreign, far-away town they once knew, but they must admit that St. Augustine still has a charm and beauty and in- dividuality which make it stand quite alone among American cities. The railway station lies to the west of the town near the San Sebastian river, between which and the Matanzas the city lies. The center of the town is the Plaza, which opens at one side upon the river. It is pleasantly planted and with its surrounding buildings, some in the Spanish style, Ii6 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA and its glimpses of narrow streets with overhang- ing balconies it gives one at once something of the town's romantic quality. At one end, next the river, stands a plain but picturesque white structure, a simple gable roof supported on pil- lars, which is popularly called the Old Spanish Slave Market. It is as a matter of fact neither old, Spanish, nor a slave market. It was built in 1840, for the ordinary purposes of a market, burned in the fire of 1887 and restored. It is now a pleasant resting place with a flowing well of sulphur water for the passer-by's refreshment. The pyramidal monument of coquina covered with weather-beaten stucco in the center gives the Plaza its name, Plaza de la Constitucion. It was erected by the Spanish in 1813 in honor of the Constitution granted by the Spanish Cortes during the War of Independence. The inscrip- tion in Spanish is translated into English, Place of the Constitution Promulgated in this city of St. Augustine of East Florida the 17th of October, 1812, the Governor being Don Sebas- tien Kindalem, Knight of the Order of Saint James, For Eternal Remembrance The Constitutional Council erected this obelisk under the superintendence of Don Fernando de la Maza Arredonto, young municipal officer, dean of the corporation and Don Francesco Robira, Attorney and Syndic. In 1814 Ferdinand VII. having regained the throne promptly annulled the constitution and ordered all monuments raised in its honor de- stroyed. Here in this remote provincial capital they contented themselves with removing the in- ST. AUGUSTINE 117 scription which, however, was restored without opposition in 1818. The Plaza under British rule was called the Parade and until 1865 the dress parade of the United States garrison took place here. To the west of the Plaza is the Post Office. To the north the Cathedral is the most notable build- ing. The present edifice erected from designs by Carrere and Hastings, replaces the older church destroyed by the fire of 1887. The orig- inal design of fagade was retained, and the ef- fect of the Cathedral is in the main that of the old one. The earlier building was begun some- time during the first half of the eighteenth cen- tur}^ and completed in 1793. It is dedicated to St. Joseph. One of the bells of the first church, itself from a still earlier edifice, bears the in- scription " Sancte — Joseph — Ora — Pro — No- bis — D — 1682," and is probably the oldest bell in America. Before the fire of 1887 there was a lamp before one of the altars which, local tradi- tion said, had not been extinguished for over a century — a reminder that before we realize it America is becoming an old country. Along the river-front from Fort Marion at the north to the barracks at the south extends the sea wall, of coquina topped with granite. It af- fords a pleasant promenade, with a view of the Matanzas, of Anastasia island across, with its striped black and white " barber pole " light- house. In the days before St. Augustine's mod- ern improvements and magnificent hotels, when it was a sleepy little town visited by few tourists, the sea wall was a famous sight. It was built by the United States Government in 1835-42, ii8 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA durino^ the busy times of the Seminole War, at an expense of about $100,000. There had been a protectinjT^ wall as early as 1700. North from the Plaza leads the main street of the town, St. George, to the City Gates. On the right Treasury Street is passed, the narrowest of St. Augustine's streets, and one of its most pic- turesque. All this quarter of the town is still full of bits that give it an odd and romantic char- acter. It is true that the overhanging balconies are disappearing and the whitewashed houses with only a few small windows on the street, the reminders of old Spain, are gradually being blot- ted out. But for the sentimental idler the town still has an atmosphere and a charm, persistent and haunting. The City Gates at the North End of St. George Street are all that is left of the wall that encircled the town. St. Augustine, lying between the San Sebastian and the Matanzas rivers, was easily fortified against slight dangers. In case of siege the inhabitants had a refuge in the then almost impregnable Castle of San Marco. The Gates are all that remains of the wall which guarded the land approach, a drawbridge across a moat leading to the entrance of the town. They are a modest but well-proportioned gray structure of coquina, not intrinsically, perhaps, a notable *' sight," as " sights " abroad might be reckoned, but in our country, where gray city gates are rare, a worthy and pleasant goal for any pilgrim- age. Their date is uncertain, though they are probably of the period when the fort was com- pleted, the middle of the eighteenth centur}^ Fort Marion, formerly called San Marco, is the ST. AUGUSTINE ii9 most important antiquity of St. Augustine ; it^ is the most perfectly preserved example of the mili- tary architecture of its time which exists in this country. It stands at the north end of the town in a pleasant park, utilized as a golf course. It is no longer occupied in a military sense, but it is the property of the United States Government, and is open free of charge from 8 to 4 every ^^y- 11 r The first fort of St. Augustme was naturally of logs, and was called St. John of the Pines. Later the name of St. Mark was given to the town's de- fense, and then that of that revolutionary hero. General Francis Marion, shortly after Florida be- came American. The fort was for centuries be- ing changed and strengthened. The present structure, which is planned upon the military system of Vaubun, was a long time in being built. All through the second half of the seventeenth century Apalachian Indian captives toiled upon its walls. It was not till 1765 that it was con- sidered finished. The material is the curious coquina rock which is quarried on Anastasia Island, opposite the town, and is found at various places along the Florida coast. It is an agglomeration of shells and shell fragments which, comparatively soft when quarried, harden with age and exposure to the air. It is a characteristic and interestmg building material. The fort is surrounded by a moat — now dry, and a glacis or earth wall beyond this. It is en- tered by a barbican or fortified gate at the south. A drawbridge originally led part way across^ the moat to the barbican and a second drawbridge 120 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA to the entrance of the fort. Over this entrance is the arms of Spain and an inscription recording the completion of the fort in the reign of Ferdi- nand VI, when Field Marshal Don Alonzo Fer- nando Hereda was Governor and Captain-General of East Florida and Don Pedro de Brozas y Garay was Chief Engineer directing the works. The fort is a square with bastions at the four corners (originally called after four of the apostles) and an open court in the middle; around this are rooms, and from it a staircase mounts to the upper works. Around the court are a series of rooms designed for the ordinary uses of a garrison. In the north wall is the chapel. In the northeast bastion is an inner dark room, designed as a powder magazine. Later, when it had become damp it was disused, and finally walled up. When the Americans took posses- sion of the fort they knew nothing of the exist- ence of this inner chamber until 1839 when the caving in of some masonry led to its discovery The old powder magazine is commonly called the dungeon. Possibly it would be rendering a poor service to visitors to attempt to disprove any of the gruesome legends of starved and tor- tured prisoners which the popular imagination has since provided for this *' dungeon.*' Such tales will be heard as one goes about the fort, and indeed within its grim gray walls they begin to sound plausible. " Coacoochee's cell " is pointed out near the southwest bastion, as the one in which the fa- mous Seminole chief was kept a prisoner and from which he with a companion escaped by squeezing through the embrasure and dropping' ST. AUGUSTINE 121 into the moat. The more famous Osceola was also a prisoner here. A stone staircase leads up to the terrace or terrepleine of the ramparts, where artillery was formerly mounted. The view from here of town and river is beautiful, and no pleasanter place could be found to lounge away a half hour and let the imagination play over the centuries' his- tory of this little Spanish provincial capital. At the corners are picturesque sentry boxes. The moat is forty feet wide. Beyond it on the river front is a stone water-battery built by the United States in 1842. A small brick building in the moat was a hot shot furnace and was built in 1844. At the south end of the sea wall are the St. Francis Barracks. They stand upon the site and contain some bits of wall of the old Alonas- tery of St. Francis which formerly stood here, in the days when St. Augustine was the center of Florida's religious life and missionary activity. The garrison has now been withdrawn, and the dress parade is no longer the pleasant feature in St. Augustine's daily life that it once was. The barracks are now devoted to the uses of the local military organizations. To the south of the barracks is the Military Cemetery where are buried many who lost their lives in the Seminole War. Three low pyramids of stone mark their grave. There is a shaft to those who died under Major Dade's command, when they fell into an ambuscade of Indians in a pine barren near the Great Wahoo Swamp, and were, all but three, shot dov/n, August 28th, 1835. Charlotte Street, St. Francis Street, and the 122 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA side streets ninnino- east and west should all be visited to complete the view of the city. The Vedder Museum on Bay Street at the corner of Treasury is worth seeing. Old St. Augustine, as it still exists, will be seen in its full attrac- tiveness by the tourist who has leisure time and an eye for the historic and picturesque. A few hours spent in browsing among the old books on the town and its history would more than re- pay the sympathetic visitor to the "ancient city." New St. Augustine is a gorgeous and worthy successor of the quaint old town. In the very center of the historic ground of centuries now rise beautiful Spanish buildings, richer and love- lier than could have been imagined by any in- habitant of those earlier days. Yet the new buildings have something of the same suggestion for the imai^ination as the simple old structures which once^formed the town. St. Augustine, as it grew modern and sumptuous, preserved almost more than anv place one can think of, its indi- vidual note and its special exotic charm for the northerner. The Hotel Ponce de Leon, since its opening, has been described in the periodical press and in the advertising folder and booklet almost ad miuscam. Yet,^ although it is perhaps no longer what it was once, the latest wonder of the world, it still remains a remarkable and famous hotel. Architecturallv it is still one of the most inter- esting and successful experiments of American architecture. Other hotels in Florida are com- fortable, luxurious, or even splendid caravan- series • St. Augustine hotels alone definitely de- BiKv:^.:iaHB __ mMWl 1 '^'- ' "^ T^^^^^^^^^^^^^B ' ri-/-^''>^-^'^^ ;■ m^ J ^^^H^^.^^^-i^ W^VB^ r^ T^Cv ^ ■•■•^^^H T ^\\vv t': ,.^^!nH 1 , - ^\ > t^^wn '^"-- '*llSP^ : 'l mm^^g^mgm'' - - r^mm "2 M ^l j^^jcP ■IP' flv^' '' n ^^k fll^^p^'-'$^jl .. , 1 < ■ ' %"HI L ' '1 IHI K V ..| r' ^ ^4.ri ^ .; ,. -'T'Tre, Treasury Street ST. AUGUSTINE 123 serve to be classed among " sights " which might well, wholly on their own account, attract the intelligent tourist to the town which contains them. The Ponce de Leon, designed by Carrere and Hastings of New York, is an elaborate example of what may roughly be described as Spanish Renaissance architecture. Flattened domes, towers, broadly projecting eaves under red-tiled roofs, courtyards surrounded by broad colon- nades, and filled with luxuriant tropical plants, rich heraldic and symbolic decorations every- where, compose a somewhat fantastic but ex- tremely picturesque and lovely whole. The de- tail of carving, design of fountains, everything of the hotel's exterior may be said to demand notice and to compel appreciation. The interior is elaborate and sumptuous. It is, however, perhaps less original and successful from the point of view of design than the exte- rior. Opposite the Ponce de Leon is the Hotel Al- cazar, also in the Spanish style. Crossing a little green square and going through a passage- way between twin towers one enters the fore- court or patio of the hotel. In the arcades around it are shops and offices. In the center is a fountain flowing into a pool. A rustic bridge crosses this and palms and flowers sur- round it. In the evening especially the Alcazar Court is a delightful and favorite promenade. One wing of the Alcazar is what used to be the Hotel Cordova, a construction of somewhat sterner style of architecture which contains di- rect adaptations of various buildings in old 124 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA Spain, of the Puerta del Sol in Toledo and of some Sevillian houses. The Presbyterian Memorial Church, on Va- lencia Street, is the gift of Mr. H. M. Flagler. It was designed, in the Spanish style, by Messrs. Carrere and Hastings, and adds not a little to the new Hispanic picturesqueness of St. Augus- tine. All the newer buildings of St. Augustine are built of coquina concrete, compounded of ce- ment and the crushed shell rock. Beyond the fort is a pleasant quarter of villas and winter residences, sitting in leafy and flowery gardens. There is also, on the edge of the green that surrounds Fort Marion, the house of the Golf Club. This green is the field upon which take place some of the ceremonials of the Ponce de Leon festival which is occasionally given in St. Augus- tine in the spring in commemoration of the great explorer's landing. Spanish ships appear in the " River of Dolphins " and from them disembark the Spaniards. They are met by the Indians. It is an agreeable pageant, reminiscent of the masking and carnival for which the town used to be famous. In the evening the Plaza and its adjacent streets are illuminated and there are fireworks on the water front. Excursions Anastasia Island lying directly opposite St. Augustine is a favorite excursion. The bridge from the foot of King Street crosses the river. It carries a light railway. The island is sand dunes overgrown with scrub-pine, pal- ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 125 metto, and other characteristic growth of the Florida seashore. The Lighthouse is usually open to visitors. Its queer black and white spiral stripes make it a notable feature of the landscape. Farther south are the coquina quarries. At Ma- tanzas Inlet, twelve miles southward, are the ruins of an old Spanish fort which guarded this approach to the river and the town. This was the scene of the capture and massacre by Menen- dez of the ship-wrecked French expedition in 1565, and to some even now the desolate sand dunes will seem filled with sinister memories. There are drives to be taken both north and south of the city. But for the automobilist there is still a lack of good roads. However, the trip to Jacksonville is comparatively easy, and even south to Ormond the adventurous motorist will find an interesting road through an almost uninhabited country. II — St. Augustine to Palm Beach (243 m., io4 hrs.) East Palatka to San Mateo. New Smyrna to Orange City Junction. Titusville to Sanford. Leaving St. Augustine, the first place is Elkton (47 m. from Jacksonville). This is the be- ginning of the famous potato raising district of which the center is — ^ Hastings (54 m., pop. 400). — About fifteen years ago it was discovered that the soil of this region, which had been merely the ordinary pine forest, was peculiarly adapted to the growth of 126 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA Irish potatoes, which would mature early and compete with the Bermuda product. Since that time the growth of the potato culture has been remarkable. The small way station, then scarcely more than a water-tank, has become an animated and prosperous town. The traveler who passes through Hastings in the spring at the time of the potato digging will even in the short time of the train's stop, see an amusing and characteristic street scene. The need of ex- tra labor at this time attracts to the town great numbers of colored people of both sexes. They crowd the part of town around the railway sta- tion, in picturesque clothes, and in a mood of gayety which suggests that a jaunt to the potato- digging is for them like a trip to some spring- time carnival. Sometimes there are also the " camp followers " whom one would expect, an occasional quack doctor or an open-air dentist, an itinerant vendor of tawdry finery, or the wan- dering proprietor of some small moving-picture show. Such a glimpse of Hastings is all the ordinary tourist will get. But for the settler or the man more seriously interested in the new agriculture of the South the important thing is that the potato crop runs in value to $100.00 an acre. It is claimed that cotton can be raised as an after-crop upon the potato land. If this- " in- tensive culture " can be successfully maintained the productive value of the land will be doubled. Hastings is the railway station for the small settlement of Federal Point on the St. John's river, in a fruit-growing and farming district. Small hotel. East Palatka. (63 m.) Junction for the branch ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 127 line across the St. John's River to Palatka (p. 224), also for branch to San Mateo. East Palatka to San Mateo (3 m.). The small village is pleasantly situated on a ninety-foot bluff overlooking the St. John's river. It lies among pine woods interspersed with orange and grape-fruit groves. Here extensive and success- ful experiments have been made by the San Mateo Fruit Company in growing orange trees under sheds to protect them from the danger of frost. Their groves and packing houses are open to visitors. After leaving East Palatka the railroad which from St. Augustine has run southwest towards the St. John's turns sharply east and later south- east, making its way back to the Atlantic coast, and passing Espanola (82 m.) and Bunnell (87 m.). Dupont (90 m.) of some importance in the lumber and turpentine trade, with large mills. There is a tram to the Haw Creek district. The railway goes through long stretches of pine lands, much thinned out by the lumbermen. The trees that remain are almost all tapped for turpentine manufacture. The ^' turpentining " of the Florida woods is often done with an almost cruel recklessness, mere saplings being stunted or totally killed in this way for the sake of a very trifling profit. Florida's timber, at one time her greatest resource, has been wastefully dimin- ished, owing to the lack of proper control from the Federal or State authorities. The live-oak was long ago almost completely taken out of the 128 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA woods. And the pine forests are being thinned out at a rate which is a serious danger both to the prosperity and the climate of the State. The practice, which has existed in the peninsula from time almost immemorial, of burning over the back country so that the cattle may be pastured on the fresh grass which springs up after the fire, is also responsible for enormous timber losses every year. The railroad crosses the Tomoka river, a clear brown stream flowing sluggishly northeast into the upper waters of the Halifax, and soon reaches Ormond (104 m., pop. 780). The express trains, during the winter season, cross the Hali- fax river by a long bridge and go to the entrance of the Hotel Ormond. Certain local trains, and during the time of the year when the hotel is closed, all trains stop at Ormond station on the west side of the Halifax. A horse-car connects with trains at the station and crosses the river to the Hotel Ormond and the small village of the same name. Ormond is situated on the Halifax river a few miles south of its head. The Halifax is, ac- curately, what the Matanzas river at St. Augus- tine is, a tidal saltwater lagoon rather than a river. Behind a peninsula of sandy dunes which shelters it from the Atlantic it runs parallel with the coast for almost twenty-five miles to the Mos- quito Inlet, where the ocean breaks through the sand dunes and pours its flood into the river. This topography is characteristic of almost the whole Florida East Coast, and gives it its spe- cial characteristic, an ocean beach and a river ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 129 with luxuriant green vegetation on both banks. The hotel at Ormond, and most of the most attractive residences, are upon the peninsula fac- ing west, with a view of the river, which is here about a half mile wide. The peninsula is a little less wide; an easy walk brings one to a smaller hotel on the very edge of the Atlantic, to bath houses, and to the famous beach, which is the chief boast of both Ormond and Daytona. For motoring and driving it is practicable for a few miles north from Ormond, its condition varying a little with weather and season. But to the south there is, for several hours each side of low tide, a hard packed smooth roadway of clean gray sand extending past Seabreeze and Daytona to the Mosquito Inlet, almost twenty miles away, a beach probably without an equal in the world. Motoring is naturally one of the chief amuse- ments of Ormond visitors, for not only is the beach available, but excursions are possible along the banks of the Halifax, and, if the motor- ist can content himself with wood roads of in- different quality, into the beautiful hammocks and pine lands of the back country. Driving, riding, or walking will still further enable the visitor to come to know the beauty of the Flor- idian country-side. Sailing has unfortunately been largely given lip along the Halifax; but motor boats and steam launches are available for trips on it and its tributary rivers and creeks. Ormond has for a long time been the chief, if not only, center of golf play on this part of the East Coast. The old links, near the rail- way station, was somewhat flat and monotonous. 130 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA The new links, which has been laid out on the sand dunes next the sea, to the east of the Hotel Ormond, will, it is expected, be ready for play soon as an eighteen-hole course. The location inevitably reminds one of some of the famous old courses in Scotland, and if grass can be made to grow thickly enough on these rolling wind- swept dunes — the question of turf is always a difficult one in Florida — Ormond will possess a golf course unique in the South, a characteristic and delightful new version of St. Andrew's set among the tropical blue-green scrub-palmettoes. There is a Golf Club House near the bath houses on the beach. Information as to permission to avail oneself of the privileges of the golf course is to be obtained at the office of the Hotel Or- mond. Sea bathing is always in season. It may seem to some a rather rigorous pleasure in January and February, yet there is scarcely a day of the year when some bathers may not be seen. The beach is with ordinary precautions a perfectly safe one, yet it is inadvisable for even the strong- est and most experienced swimmers to venture beyond their depth or to try to swim beyond the surf. The quality of the water is very agree- able, and the bathing a delightful tonic. Excursions from Ormond The Tomoka River. — This water trip, which can be easily made either in a specially chartered launch, or in one of the public boats which run regularly every day during the season from both Ormond and Daytona, is the most famous and delightful excursion in this region. It is usual ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 131 to devote a day to it, taking provisions and hav- ing a picnic meal before the return. Hot coffee and lunch may usually during tte season be secured at the " Tomoka Cabin " at the end' of trip. Inquiry as to this should, however, be made beforehand at the hotels or at the boat landing. It is common to make the return trip by land, in carriage or motor, from the head of navigation on the Tomoka across country to Or- mond or Daytona. This shortens and varies the day. But it is probable that the majority will not find retracing the course by water other than agreeable. From Ormond the boat goes north on the salt blue waters of the Halifax for between three and four miles, passing occasional cottages and orange groves. It then rounds a low-lying heavily-wooded point on the west bank and turns sharply south and a little west into the clear dark brown stream of the Tomoka. The river takes its name from the tribe of Indians which inhabited the region in the early days. In the old books and manuscripts Tomoka is also spelled Tomoca, Timuqua, Timuaca, and Timagoa. The tribe was a well- known and important one, and was, among Floridian Indians, comparatively civilized. Their language in especial seems to have been held in high estimation throughout the penin- sula, and served as a general means of inter- course; was in fact a kind of noble language or lingua franca. It engaged the attention of missionaries and students. Works on it are among the earliest Spanish writings on Florida, and a translation of the catechism into it was 132 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA perhaps the first book ever printed in the Indian language. From its r^iouth the river is ascended in long lazy curves, a wooded bank rising gradually to a bluff of shell-rock — coquina — on the left, on the right wide grassy marshes. It is on sunny mud-banks in the corners and tiny bays of this winding shore at the right that one may hope to see the alligator at his ease. The luck of tour- ists varies, and so the score of alligators seen is an exciting matter for comparison by different parties of Tomoka visitors. But the animals really abound in these dark waters where they are '' preserved " by a law which forbids killing them anywhere along or in the Tomoka. No at- tention need be paid to apocr3^phal yarns of stuffed saurians placed along the river at the beginning of the season by the enterprising pro- prietors of the excursion-boats. If too much swash from the launches and too much noise from the passengers have not already sent them glid- ing to retreats below alligators are almost to be counted upon along this bit of water. By a high coquina bluff the boat goes under the railroad bridge. Near here the famous King's Road built during the English occupation in the early nine- teenth century crossed the river, on its way north from New Smyrna to St. Augustine, at a point called Tomoka Ferry. Beyond the railroad the river narrows, the tangle of vegetation on both banks grows more luxuriant. Palmettoes and live-oaks overhang the water. The scene becomes suddenly in- tensely tropical, by comparison with the blue waters and the salt breezes which have been left RIdgewood A\eniie, Daytona ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 133 behind. Here, even in the winter days when northers blow, the wind scarcely penetrates. The dark river, which flows with such a sluggish current, seems to have fallen asleep in the hush and silence between its green banks. An occa- sional bird skims along the glassy surface, a fish jumps, or a turtle falls awkwardly ofif some drift- ing log. The wave from the launch runs lapping along the bank, but one feels that when it has subsided the same mysterious silence will again fall upon the Tomoka, broken only by birds sing- ing in the green treetops high up above. The variety of color in the Floridian vegeta- tion is unusual. The combination in one thick growth of evergreen and deciduous trees gives the whole range of greens, every possible shade and tint. Blue-green of palmettoes, the yellowish brightness of tender young oak, the dark mass of the parasitic mistletoe, or of the " resurrec- tion " ferns which clothe great gray limbs, ris- ing in a feathery green glory at each rainfall — the list could be extended almost indefinitely if one were to try to describe in any detail the tangle of green between which these brown waters lie. The strangeness, the magic of the tropics hangs in the very air, the beauty is al- most overpowering. The boats stop at the Tomoka Cabin where there is a large flowing well, a notable sight even in this country of artesian water supply. Passing under a bridge beyond this point, it is possible in a small boat or canoe to go for some miles up the constantly narrowing stream, till the overhanging trees meet and one is in shaded darkness even at midday. But the most note- 134 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA worthy part of the Tomoka is what is seen on the ordinary excursion. On the return by land to Ormond, a detour may be made to the '' Chimneys," a ruin of what was probably a sugar mill. A favorite drive is directly north past the Hotel Ormond along the " River Road " on the peninsula side of the Halifax to " Number Nine," an orange grove where the fruit and various fruit preserves are to be purchased. Farther north the road turns west, crosses the canal between the Halifax and Matanzas rivers and comes to Knox and Reed's grove. Beyond this the road, which though often not more than a sandy track through the woods, goes on towards St. Augustine. It is, however, fre- quently traversed by motors, and except some- times after a long drought, is not too difficult for the ordinary driver. It is advisable, how- ever, to make inquiries at Ormond as to the con- dition of the road before attempting it. It will give the visitor a vivid idea of the lonely beauty of the back country, and of the curious isolated lives of its few inhabitants. Ormond is one of the most attractive of the smaller places of this part of the State. Its life is largely dependent on its hotels, and except during their season it is quiet. It lies, however, in the zone of climate which allows visitors to come early and to stay late. It offers, moreover, a variety of out-of-door pleasures both on land and water. The country around it is accessible and interesting. Daytona (no m., pop. 3,082). This is also ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 135 the station which serves Seabreeze and Daytona Beach, suburbs of Daytona upon the peninsula lying between the Halifax river and the Atlan- tic. Da3^tona and its adjacent villages form the largest town on the East Coast between St. Augustine and Miami, and one of the most im- portant tourist centers of the State. Omnibuses and cabs (25^ per passenger in Daytona itself) meet all trains day and night. '- Daytona's special character comes from the great number of its private residences. More than many resorts it possesses a population which, though northern in origin, does not so much " go to Florida for the winter " ^s " live in Florida and go north for the summer." There are in the town a great number of hotels and boarding houses. Furnished rooms are to be secured by those who like to do " light house- keeping " or to eat in restaurants. Furnished houses are also easily to be had. Hotel accom- modation ranges from extreme simplicity and low prices to the elegance and expensiveness of the newest hotel, which may properly be ranked with the best hotels anywhere in the State. Yet Day- tona does not compete with St. Augustine, Palm Beach, or Miami as the resort of fashion. It is especially suited to a quieter and perhaps a longer stay. The natural beauties of its situation and of the surrounding country are unquestionable, the town itself unusually well-kept and attrac- tive, the number of excursions and the variety of outdoor amusements great. With its famous beach and various hard roads upon the main land it is a notable motoring center, and its climate allows a prolonged stay. 136 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA There would seem to have been no early Span- ish settlement of any size at Daytona, but for a long time there was in the vicinity a large Indian town known in the Spanish records as Pueblo de Autumcas. Later the land then known as the Williams Grant was highly improved and cultivated as a sugar plantation, but was abandoned during the Seminole War of 1835, and allowed to go back to its original wild condition. On Ridgewood Avenue at the corner of Loomis is to be seen some wrecked machinery which may probably have belonged to this early plantation. It is notewortjiy how untouched by rust is the metal in all these Florida ruins. The present city of Daytona was founded in 1870 by Mathias Day of Mansfield, Ohio, who named it " Tomoka." In 1871, however, Thomas Saunders, a well known landscape gardener of Washington, renamed it, substituting for the earlier attractive and suitable name the more commonplace " Daytona," under which the town has nevertheless grown and prospered. Daytona lies with a waterfront of almost two miles on the west bank of the Halifax, which is here crossed by three bridges. Beach Street contains the post office and the principal shops. It is separated from the river by parkage of varying width and offers a pleasant water-view wiih, beyond, the green peninsula, its shores lined with cottages half hidden in the trees. It is the chief promenade of the town, and has, at both its northern and southern ends, a residen- tial quarter. Near the South Bridge is the Hal- ifax River Yacht Club's house, picturesquely ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 137 built over the water. Sailing is unfortunately little indulged in now, but from the club go forth many steam yachts, launches and motor boats. Parties cruising along the coast almost invar- iably stop a day or two at Daytona, and the sight of stranger yachts constantly diversifies the river view near the club house. The " City Island " north of the South Bridge is being improved as a park, largely by the ef- forts of the Woman's Club, the Palmetto. On the island stands the. Free Library and Reading Room, an ugly but useful building. Ridgewood Avenue, which runs parallel to Beach Street along the crest of a slight ridge from which the town slopes to the Halifax, is the show street of the town. It is lined with private residences and hotels, and bordered with great trees, mostly oaks, which spread till they almost meet over the roadway. From their branches the gray Spanish moss hangs heavily — the vista down the street is a curious, strik- ing and beautiful one. The side streets of Daytona ofifer also pleas- antly shaded walks, and give the visitor a full impression of its character of a "home city." There are houses of all kinds from the humblest to the most pretentious. There are churches of all denominations. There is an excellent new school building. There is a Free Library. There is a Woman's Club, " The Palmetto," es- tablished in an attractive house and doing an ad- mirable work for civic culture and municipal im- provement. There is electric lighting, and a city water system, which supplies water from artesian wells. There are in short an unusual 138 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA number of city advantages in what is fortunately essentially still a country town. Seabreeze and Daytona Beach, municipally separate incorporations, in appearance merge in- distinguishably one into the other. They are the rapidly-growing settlements which have sprung up opposite Daytona on the peninsula between river and ocean. There are hotels and cottages on the crest of the sand dunes on the very edge of the beach itself. And from there to the houses on the riverside there are more or less thickly built-up allotments. The river bank of the peninsula has naturally the richest vegetation. Both oaks and palmettoes fringe it, and huge oleanders, roses and orange trees flour- ish. In a state of nature the center of the pen- insula's width is covered with a small wood of scrub pines which do not raise their tops much above the point where the dunes by the sea shelter them from the east wind. In the parts of the peninsula where this miniature forest has not been cleared away one may find occasional paths or trails cut through it. These are de- lightful sheltered walks, under dwarfed and twisted branches, over a fragrant carpet of pine needles. Where clearings have been made it is astonish- ing to find what may be grown in this peninsula sand. On the very dunes by the shore, where the sand is so fine and hard and clean that it would not soil the most delicate fabric, potatoes, tomatoes, and other garden vegetables grow, sub- sisting, one would think, on air and water alone. It is the beach, however, which is the final goal of everyone who crosses to the peninsula. ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 139 At Daytona begins the very best part of it, and from there south to the Mosquito Inlet are twelve miles of the broadest, hardest, smoothest beach, the most perfect automobile course in the world. For two hours each side of high tide the beach is not firm enough for traffic. But at all other times it is constantly traversed by motors of every description, by motor-cycles, by bicycles — an almost forgotten sport survives in Daytona — by carriages, by horseback riders, even by pedestrians. A racing car thunders by, doing its mile in thirty-five seconds, and some old lady searching for shells puts in an hour on a half mile at the water's edge. Bathers scamper across the sand and plunge into the surf. The blue waves roll in, the white beach shimmers away in a long curve southeastward and in the faint misty distance rises the lighthouse at the Inlet. Climbing the sand dunes you see behind them a long valley of blue-green palmetto scrub, a strip of rolling heath-like country and behind that the top of the dwarf pine wood. For the lover of nature's beauty this Florida beach, in the blaze of noon, at sunset or at moonrise, is an ever- changing delight. It is preeminently the one great sight of Daytona. The North or Peninsula Bridge crossing the Halifax at an angle leads first to a part of Sea- breeze on the river, and then by a broad avenue to the Clarendon Hotel on the beach. The Cen- tral Bridge crosses direct and its continuing road across the Peninsula takes one past the cemetery to the ocean at the Seaside Inn. These two bridges start from the extreme north end of the town's waterfront. The South Bridge starting Z40 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA near the City Hall and the Yacht Club leads to a part of the peninsula containing only private residences and estates. The small building over- hanging the water on the right-hand side is the jail ! There is also a ferry (launch) running at frequent intervals from the Daytona waterfront to the peninsula. From the farther end of the South Bridge the road leads to the beach where is the Club House of the Florida East Coast Au- tomobile Association. It was under the auspices of this association that the famous automobile races were held in 1904, 1905, 1906, 1907, 1908, 1909, 1910. The most notable records established here have been — STRAIGHTAWAY FREE-FOR-ALL RECORDS. REGARDLESS OF CLASS Distance. Time. I kilo. ... 15.88 1 mile. . . 2 miles. . 5 miles. 10 miles. , 15 miles. I mile. , 25.40 51.28 2:34 5:142-5 10:00 :40.53 Driver. Car. Date. ...Burman Blitzen Benz. .Apr. 23, 191 1 . ..Burman Blitzen Benz. .Apr. 23, 1911 ...Burman Blitzen Benz. .Apr. 23, 191 1 . ..Hemery Darracq Jan. 24, 1909 .. .Bruce-Brown. . ..Benz Mar. 24, 1900 . . . Lancia Fiat Jan. 29, 1906 (Standing Start) .Oldfield Benz. ,Mar. 16, 1910 Excursions. The trip to Ormond and the Tomoka river, a favorite one from Daytona, has already been described under Ormond. The Big Tree. — Following the road to Port Orange — a continuation of Ridgewood Avenue south — and turning west after about two miles, (signboard marks the road) one reaches a fa- mous old oak tree, in the spreading branches of which a platform — reached by a staircase — ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 141 has been built. It is one of the largest and probably one of the oldest trees in the State. A small admission is charged to orange grove in which the Big Tree stands. Motoring. — The most varied and interesting trip is over the road to New Smyrna. As far as six miles Port Orange (p. 142) the road runs in- land, through a succession of hammock and pine lands. Beyond Port Orange, it skirts the Hali- fax for a great part of the distance, passing small beaches, shell mounds, crossing arms of the river, and finally through a wonderfully wooded stretch reaching New Smyrna (15 m.). It would be difficult to find a road which in the same dis- tance ofifers an equal variety of scene, gives such a complete idea of the charms of this East Coast country. The road to DeLand is also a favorite one for motors. It goes through the heart of the almost uninhabited back country. It is somewhat monotonous and desolate, but for many these lonely stretches of pine lands have their own unmistakable charm. A visit to DeLand (p. 256) may be combined with one to the delightful De Leon Springs (p. 255). Mosquito Inlet and Ponce Park may be reached by water or along the beach, crossing the Halifax at either Daytona or Port Orange where there is a bridge. The characteristics of the ride along the beach have already been in- dicated. As the inlet is approached the vegeta- tion of the peninsula disappears and the land ends in a waste of dazzling white sand dunes be- tween river and ocean. Through the inlet itself the tide is always rushing, either on the flow or 142 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA the ebb. The streaming currents, the constant white line of breakers on the bar, the presence of the half-submerged wreckage of an ill-fated steamer, whose boilers still stand embedded in the sands, make the picture of Mosquito Inlet one to be remembered. The lighthouse, a graceful brick tower, i6o feet high, is worth a visit, and may be ascended, for the sake of the lantern itself and of the ex- tensive view from it. It was built in 1887. The light is of the first order and is visible 18 miles to sea. The neat group of houses of the keepers at its foot is a pleasant oasis in the wild dunes. On the riverside is the small settlement of Ponce Park. It has two hotels, a number of private houses and a picturesque store and post office overhanging the water. It is frequented chiefly by fishermen, and boats, guides, etc., are easily secured. Ponce Park is also the center of the administration of the Mosquito Inlet Bird Reservation. From Daytona to beyond New Smyrna to the south the United States Govern- ment is protecting the wild birds. In the four years only during which the " preserve " regula- tions have been in force the increase in wild life has been remarkable. Birds that were rare have increased in numbers, and birds which were only remembered by early settlers have come back again. The warden is Mr. Bert Pacetti. Port Orange, (115 m.) which in earlier days was simply but pleasantly called The Orange Grove. A village charmingly situated on the west bank of the Halifax which is here crossed by a bridge, rendering the famous beach acces- c u o Oh CD ci C o Q - Three of the leaders escaped along the coast, swam the Matanzas inlet and appealed to Gov- ernor Tonyn at St. Augustine. Encouraged by him they returned to New Smyrna, and armed with rude weapons and carrying such provisions as they could the entire colony suddenly and secretly started on a march to St. Augustine, under the leadership of a certain Pallicier — a name still common in the region. At the col- onial capital legal proceedings were successfully begun and successfully carried through freeing the Minorcans from any further demands upon their services. Lands were allotted to them in the northern part of the city, where their de- scendants may still be found. Certain of them returned to New Smyrna or its vicinity upon as- surances that there was no danger of their re- enslavement, and Minorcan names are still found at New Smyrna, Ponce Park, and Daytona. The Turnbull history is a curious one; it has been made even more highly colored and sen- 146 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA sational in the hands of a widely read novelist, the late Archibald Clavering Gunter, who con- cocted from it, with liberal and inaccurate imag- inative additions, his volumes " Susan TurnbuU " and "Bally-Ho Bey." The English promoter of the colony must have lost enormously by it, as it was necessarily abandoned just as it was becoming prosperous. Dr. Turnbull had been an important and re- spected man in the community, a member of the colonial privy council, and at one time a prospec- tive appointee as Governor. It may be some- thing to redeem his credit that at the time of the Revolutionary War he forfeited his estates ow- ing to his adherence to the cause of the col- onies. His son, Robert James Turnbull, born at New Smyrna a year before the Minorcan revolt, was educated in England and studied law in Charleston, S. C. (to which city his father had removed), and at Philadelphia. He practiced law in Charleston, and became a leading writer on political subjects, advocating strongly " nulli- fication." A monument to his memory was erected in Charleston by his political admirers and friends. His name is in all dictionaries of American biography. After the Minorcan rebellion New Smyrna was deserted until early in the nineteenth cen- tury when it was again cultivated until the Sem- inole War forced its abandonment. The Civil War again brought it into some slight prominence. Blockade runners made frequent use of the Mosquito Inlet. Finally two United States gunboats, the " Penguin " and the " Henry Andrew," passed the inlet and attacked the town, ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 147 which had fired on them. Every building or wharf which could aid the blockade runners was burned. To this day there is a legend of hulks containing treasure which lie somewhere at the bottom of Spruce Creek, where they were sunk to escape capture by the Yankees. New Smyrna in these days is a pleasant river- side town at the beginning of the Hillsboro river. It was for a long time chiefly a resort of those who came for the shooting and fishing of the region. Nowadays, however, it is participat- ing in the new wave of Florida prosperity. Neat houses and gardens are springing up everywhere and it is becoming one of the pleasantest towns of the East Coast. ^ There are remains of a stone wharf, of the Turnbull period, to be seen by the river. And on the waterfront north of Sams' Hotel the con- siderable ruins of what must have been either a large and strongly fortified house, or a small fort, with bastions at each of the four corners. It has been partially excavated, and is open to the public. It is commonly called Turnbull's Castle, but it is not absolutely known whether it dates from his time or is a relic of earlier days of the Spanish rule. Perhaps no more interesting, but more pic- turesque, are what are commonly called the ruins of the Spanish Mission, a few miles back from the town. Again of these little accurately is known, but it would seem probable that they are what is left of a church and a small cloister of the Spanish times, dating probably late in the seventeenth century, and used late in the eight- eenth as a sugar mill. It is a charming and ro- 148 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA mantic experience to come upon such gray me- morials hidden in the green of the Florida back country. Excursions By motor the chief trip is-*o Port Orange, Daytona and Ormond. South the roads are ex- cellent to Hawks Park. By water may be visited Ponce Park and Mos- quito Inlet. (See p. 141.) Spruce Creek, which is navigable by boats of small draft, has a channel not marked out, and often obstructed by sunken logs. With a guide it is however possible to explore it for many miles. It has the same general character as the Tomoka river, though it is a smaller stream. The vegetation is a rich tangle along its banks at places, at other shell banks rise crowned with pine trees. It is a lonely stream, rarely visited^ — some will prefer it for that reason. Coronado Beach. Crossing the Hillsboro river by the bridge at New Smyrna — a two-mile drive leads to this pleasant little resort on the very edge of the Atlantic. There is a small hotel here. The beach is a hard one like that at Day- tona, though not so long. It and the bathing are the chief attractions, though proximity to New Smyrna and the country behind it allows of many excursions. New Smyrna to Orange City Junction A branch line of the F. E. C. R. R. runs from New Smyrna 2.y miles to Orange City Junction, a ride of two and one-half hours. The way is at first through a beautiful oak hammock, the ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 149 trees being of large growth and particularly free from underbrush. Traces of old settlements are seen in the fields, now partly forest-grown, in the ridges and furrows of the old cultivation. The extensive indigo plantations here have left traces in their ruined walls, mills and old vats. Glencoe (2 m.) is the first station. The low flat- woods country, succeeded by prairie and ponds, is only of service as grazing land for cattle. Through Briggsville (7 m.), Indian Springs (10 m.) and Rogers (15 m.) the country becomes more attractive. Lake Helen (21 m.) is one of the most charm- ing spots in Florida. There are numerous other lakes in easy reach among the pine forests on the high ridge lands. This section is a favorite resott for the tourist. There is a bracing quality in the air, and the call of the pines makes every hour out-of-doors delightful. There is a succes- sion of sports of all kinds, filling the days with wholesome pleasures and occupations. In the town the streets are strewn with pine needles, fragrant and soft to the tread. The houses are within well-kept grounds. Large peach orchards and orange groves surround the town on all sides. There are also manufacturing interests here — lumber mills, box factories, brick and lime yards, and a factory for making starch from cassava and Indian arrowroot, both of which grow abundantly here. (Hotels, see list.) Camp Cassadaga is most beautifully situated less than a mile south of Lake Helen. It is on a high blufif, and overlooks several beautiful lakes. It is the Southerners' Cassadaga — the Spirit- ualists' assembly for the winter. Many of the 150 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA visitors, however, come here because of the great natural advantages. The breezes are fragrant with pine odors, the air is soothing and balmy. The out-of-door life that may be enjoyed to such perfection here cannot fail to benefit both soul and body. Meetings are held, with regularly ar- ranged programs. Speaking and healing medi- ums are here, and others for the demonstration of the reality of the eternalness of life by phe- nomena. The philosophy of Spiritualism is ex- pounded. It is the Mecca for believers, and many come to study and be instructed. There is a constant growth in the number of visitors, and every year finds its influence extending more widely. Twin Oaks (24 m.) is the next station west of Lake Helen, and then Orange City (26 m.), an attractive little settlement. There are many winter homes here, and the conveniences of city life are found — lights, water, good streets, schools, a library, etc. In the surrounding coun- try are many orange groves, some of which, be- fore the " great freeze," were among the finest in the State. Those who did not abandon their groves, but made their care and conservation during slight frosts a study, are reaping a re- ward in the renewed prosperity of the industry. Out-of-doors life claims most of the visitors, and there are many interesting and beautiful places near. (Hotels, see list.) Orange City Junction (27 m.) is the terminus of the line. Here connection with the main line of the A. C. L. Ry. for the south is made. Blue Springs (p. 229) on the St. John's river is reached from Orange City Junction. Wekiva ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 151 Springs is not far away. DeLand (p. 255) can also be easily reached by automobile transfer from Orange City Junction. From New Smyrna the oak hammock is soon left and the way lies to the right of the Hillsboro or North Indian river, with pine woods and roll- ing lands extending in towards the lake country to the west. -V Hawks Park (127 m.) has long been a resort for sportsmen, both on water and the shore. Turtle Mound can be reached from here by an interesting water trip. (See p. 362, Inland Wat- erways.) There are some fine orange groves in this neighborhood — some of the oldest ham- mock groves in the State were here at the time of the frost in 1895, with trees over forty years old in full bearing. One of great beauty was at Massacre Bluff, a plantation on the Hillsboro near here. The gruesome name — Massacre Bluff — was well earned. The house was built on an Indian midden mound, and the burial mound near contained skeletons that were evi- dently the remains of fighting men. In Seminole times the inhabitants were massacred there. During the Civil War the owner of the place was killed, and about eighteen years ago the people then living there were murdered. Thus a series of violent deaths have made a haunted spot of this beautiful place. The groves and apiaries of McWilliams Hart are well worth a visit. The country can be reached by good shell roads. There are some cottages of winter resi- dents. (Hotels, see list.) Hucomer (131 m.) is a station for the conven- 152 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA ience of the settlers, chiefly orange growers, in the neighborhood. Oak Hill (136 m.) has its clientele of sports- men, some of whom have been regular winter visitors for many years. The waters of the Hillsboro, the surrounding country and the pen- insula to the east are their natural preserves. The railroad now leaves the water to the left and crosses the spur of land that divides the Hillsboro from the Indian river. Lyrata (143 m.). Here the Indian River stretches away on the left. On its opposite side, a little farther on, is " The Haulover." (See p. 364, Inland Waterways.) The way is along the water's shore, and the soil is particularly fer- tile in this region. The famous, or rather in- famous Turnbull Hammock is now traversed. East Mims (150 m.) is passed. Titusville (154 m. pop. 838) is an old town lo- cated at the virtual head of navigation in the days before the railroad was built down the coast. The famous Indian river oranges and the early vegetables from Merritt's Island were brought here to be shipped by the primitive little rail- road to Sanford on the St. John's. Here there are good stores and a boat-yard for hauling out and repairs. Fishing and oystering are active in- dustries, and the commercial interests of the town are reviving. It is a center for a well-tilled agri- cultural region, though orange growing is the chief industry. It is a sportsmen's center, as much of the surrounding land is still forest and unused prairie, and the waterways to the east- ward across the Indian river open up much more. Local information can be obtained as to excur- s E CO t CO u 3 g *3 ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 153 sions, etc. (Hotels, see list.) The steamers plying from St. Augustine south touch here. (See schedules.) Titusville to Sanford (47 m., 3 hrs.) A branch line of the F. E. C. R. R. leaves Titus- ville to the northwest. Passing South Lake, La- Grange (2 m.) is reached, through country filled with new citrus groves and many old ones being brought back to their former high estate. The gleam of their rich shining leaves and golden fruit is seen from the car windows. Mims (4 m.) is passed, and then Turnbull (8 m.), an his- toric though execrated name here. The rich Turnbull hammock lies to the east. Aurantia (9 m.), with orange groves and ripening fruit justifying its name. Passing Maytown (16 m.) at Cow Creek (21 m.) a little stream is crossed, and vegetable gardens and celery farms are seen. Celery City (23 m.) and Kalamazoo (26 m.) lie north of Lake Harney, one of the chain of lakes forming the upper St. John's. Osteen (29 m.) and Garfield, (34 m.) are in the midst of garden country. From Enterprise (36 m.) to Enterprise Junction (40 m.) the road follows the shore of Lake Monroe to Sanford (47 m. See p. 229). Leaving Titusville, several small stations are passed as the railroad follows the river south- ward. Pritchards (158 m.), Delespine (163 m.), Frontenac (165 m.), Sharpes (168 m.), where the river narrows to three miles, and City Point (169 m.). 154 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA Cocoa (173 m. pop. 618) is a thriving little town with stores, churches and schools. There is a good wharf; oysters and fish abound. Good roads lead to the open country, the one along the shore to Rockledge, south i| m., is an especially attractive ride. Fishing and shooting are found in the neighborhood. Cocoa Point on the way to Rockledge has a good little beach for still- water fishing. Cocoa is also the railway station for Indianola and Merritt on Merritt's Island. The water protection on all sides makes the cli- mate of the island several degrees warmer than the main land, while breezes temper the heat even in the summer. Shooting and fishing, and at Indianola, sulphur baths, are the chief at- tractions for visitors. The tropical vegetation of the island, particularly the bananas, is worthy of noting. The island takes its name from a cer- tain Merritt who had thriving plantations here in the early days, wholly abandoned by him later. Rockledge (175 m.) is to the left of the rail- road and has one of the most picturesque situa- tions on the upper Indian river. It was the first winter resort of any importance in early times. The formation of rock coquina on which the town is built is water-worn in curious shapes, and there is a fringe of vigorous trees on either side of the road skirting the river bank that is most tropical in appearance. The water life is very attractive here. The open river extends north and south from its northern end to the Narrows, a distance of seventy miles, and the conditions are perfect for motor cruising in small boats. The Indian river oranges are in perfec- ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 155 tion here. There are golf links, etc. Excur- sions to Merritt's Island by boat are worth mak- ing; also to the Banana river. Information as to these can be obtained locally. (Hotels, see list) for the convenience of visitors, and other accommodations, are of the first class. Bonaventure (179 m.) and Pineda (183 m.) are next passed. Eau Gallie (190 m.) is a small town on high land. Directly opposite is the mouth of the Banana river. (See p. 366, Inland Waterways.) There are boat-ways here and facilities for repairs. The local industries are saw-mills and turpentine stills. (Hotels, see list.) The orange region has now been left, and a tract of sandy country with a sparse growth of pine and much palmetto is traversed. Elbow Creek is crossed, and Military Park (192 m.) is reached. Here on the high bank of the river are the quarters where the Kentucky Military Institute spends its winter term. This plan of moving a whole school so that its pupils may have constant out-of-door life, and also oppor- tunity to learn something of the different sec- tions of the country, seems an interesting and wholly novel experiment. The river gradually narrows to a width of two miles at Melbourne (194 m.), a small town at the mouth of Crane Creek, having stores, churches and schools. There are pools in which sulphur baths may be taken, the water being at a natural temperature of 'j'j degrees. The shooting and fishing in the neighborhood is good. Crane Creek is a good cruising ground for small boats. Across the river is East Mel- 1S6 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA bourne with a good road across the peninsula, a third of a mile, to the beach. (Hotels, see list.) Tillman (197 m.), Malabar (200 m.) and Val- j karia (203 m.) are passed. West of here, eight miles, is the St. John's river. Grant (206 m.). The name of this small sta- tion wakens memories in every old visitor to the Indian river. Opposite the station, in the river, .vas a small island — Grant's Farm, and the ciiannels on either side of it were almost impassable. Everyone going either north or south has made involuntary visits there, detained by persuasive sandbanks and insistent oyster- bars. (Hotels, see list.) Micco (209 m.) and Roseland (212 m.) are small stations. The Sebastian river, a wide stream with picturesque stretches is crossed. Se- bastian (215 m.) is a small settlement. Here the Warden for the Bird Reservation on Pelican Island is found, and a visit from here is easily made. Wabasso (219 m.). Quay (222 m.), Gifford (226 m.), Vero (228 m.), Oslo (231 m.) and Vi- king (235 m.) are stations that have a vista of conventional Florida scenery on the right, and on the left the mirror of the Indian river, the nearer view of which would reveal clusters of beautiful islands, making the exploration of the boat channel in this part of the river, called " The Narrows," well worth a visit. Fort Capron, the site of a fort in Seminole days, is passed just befote reaching St. Lucie (239 m.). For many years this was the winter home of the late Matthew S. Quay, Senator from ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 157 Pennsylvania. Through his efforts the Indian river inlet opposite here v^as dredged and chan- nels made for the convenience of fishermen. He brought Ben Sooy from Atlantic City to be master of " piscatory art," and every year men of prominence gathered here for that king of sports — tarpon fishing. It v^^as from here that the " shake the plum-tree " telegram v^as sent that struck such a far-carrying note in the poli- tics of those times. Fishing is still the great at- traction here. A few miles to the south of St. Lucie is one of the interesting foreign colonies occasionally to be found in Florida. A few years ago Count Malherbe, a French catholic, purchased land and was followed by a few of his compatriots, who settled and have a church of their own not far from Fort Pierce. -^From now, on the white sandy rolling ledge between the Indian river and the savannahs that extend to the north fork of the St. Lucie river, begins the cultivation of pineapples. This in- dustry has been a great success, and the land adapted to it extends southward, even to the Keys. The principal district from which the " pines " are shipped in great quantities lies from Fort Pierce to Palm Beach. The most specialized varieties are grown successfully, and large shipments of the ordinary varieties are marketed every year. There is no doubt of the success of this industry if the question of ship- ping rates and transportation can be adjusted, but as yet this is in an unsolved state. During the past year more progress has been made, and the future of the industry seems a great one. The plantations may be seen from both sides of the 158 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA J railroad, usually open fields of the plants, some-, times stretches of the finer varieties covered witli lathes for protection from the sun and frosts. The season for ripened fruit begins in May, but occasional " sports " reach the tables of the winter visitors. This stretch of country has the distinction of being the only part of the United States adapted to pineapple culture. r^Fort Pierce (242 m., pop. 1,333) is an old set- tlement from Seminole times which has devel- oped into a thriving town. The long wharf, ex- tending to deep water in the Indian river, is the scene of great activity when the fishing boats come in. It is one of the most important fish and 03^ster shipping points in Florida. In the nets of the fishermen are often found, among the hun- dreds of edible fish, strange specimens of both ocean and river denizens. A quaint sight at the wharfs are the flocks of pelicans diving for fish, which are attracted here by the waste from the fish houses. The Seminoles still come in from the Everglades to trade, and the townspeople are familiar with much of the Indian lore of a by-gone day. Fort Pierce is a center for both fishing and shooting, and points that are as yet practically undisturbed may easily be reached. The usual water excursions may be made, and the boat from St. Augustine to Palm Beach stops here. (Hotels, see list.) Below Fort Pierce the river front is again a most beautiful hammock fringe. Back of it lies the high sandy ridge, but sparsely forested, and back of that the savannahs, rivers and lakes, and • the Everglades. Such is the contour of the country in general from here to Miami. o O o n3 C o ST. AUGUSTINE TO PALM BEACH 159 White City (246 m.), Eldred (247 m.) and Ankona (249 m.) are small stations for the pine- apple growers. Walton (252 m.) is a small settlement with a fishing industry. It has agricultural lands de- veloping between it and the St. Lucie river, and is in the midst of thriving pineapple plantations. (Hotel, see list.) \^ Eden (254 m.) was the home from 1878, when he came there from Newark, N. J., until his death eight years ago, of Capt. Thomas Edward Richards, to whom belongs the distinction of hav- ing introduced commercial pineapple culture into the United States. He also engaged in the preparation of a " pineapple digestive cure." He made a considerable fortune for those early days, surrounded his house with a beautiful gar- den, kept open house, and was, in short, a fa- mous local character. Jensen (257 m.) is a small town that has been settled a long time. There were many colo- nists who came to Florida over twenty years ago and settled on the Indian river, and below on Hobe Sound. In most instances these were people of good families, and made a social life here that still gives an attraction to this region. Below Jensen is the Mid-Rivers Country Club, and near it the homes of many pineapple grow- ers. Col. R. M. Thompson's extensive planta- tions are here. The north fork of the St. Lucie river to the west is navigable, and the sailing and fishing ground in the Indian river from Jen- sen to Gilbert's Bar Inlet is frequented by many well-known sportsmen. Rio (259 m.) and Gosling (261 m.), and then i6o A GUIDE TO FLORIDA the wide St. Lucie is crossed by a long viaduct with a draw. Stuart (261^ m.) is a sporting center, where the late President Cleveland came for his winter fishing. James W. Perkins has a cottage here; further down the St. Lucie river, near Sewall's Point, is the winter home of Lieut. Willoughby, where he has a wireless equipment, and has built a catamaran float from which his aero- planes are to make flights. The new town, Port Sewall (264 m.), at the inlet, will grow with the development of this country. The inlet has greater navigable possibilities than any other on the East Coast. Aberdeen (266 m.), Fruita (269 m.) and Gomez (272 m.) are all stations in the pineapple region. Hobe Sound (275 m.) on a high ridge, is among extensive plantations. The Jupiter river is crossed at Likely (278 m.), where there is a view to the left of the lighthouse, the weather, cable and wireless stations, then out to the inlet, and on the south side of the river, of the town of West Jupiter (238 m.). The waters are very attractive here, and the fishing good. \jjupiter Inlet, at one time of its history had what might be called a precarious existence. Wil- liams, in his book published in 1837, records that it had opened and closed again three times in seventy years. Readers of American fiction will remember Miss Constance Fenimore Wool- son's " Jupiter Lights " as among the first and still among the pleasantest novels about Flor- ida. The way now leads to the right of Lake Worth Creek, through an uninteresting country, pass- ST. AUGUSTINE TO PAL^I BEACH i6i ing Prairie (291 m.). Four miles further on the west bank of Lake Worth is Riviera, the former home of Lady Alicia Ross, in the early times at Lake Worth, before the railroads came. Then the site of the Royal Poinciana Gardens was Dimmock's Hotel. The place was then called Cocoanut Grove. The cactus gardens were then in existence. The Clarks had a winter home there, and the Inlet was open to big boats of seven feet draft. Pitt's Island, now Munyon's, was covered with wild acid grape-fruit, shad- docks and pomelos, and the shells on the beach were almost as fine as those at Cape Sable. The fishing in the fresh water lakes to the west was famous, as well as that at the inlet and outside. This brings us to West Palm Beach (299 m.) a thriving town upon the west bank of Lake Worth. It was laid out when the Florida East Coast Railway had reached this point. It was possibly originally intended to be no more than an adjunct to Palm Beach itself, to contain the various commercial enterprises which are ex- cluded from the east shore of the Lake, and to offer homes to the many people engaged in one way or another in ministering to the wants of the Beach's winter population. Such purposes it in- deed still serves, but it has long since outgrown any such merely supplementary position, and has its own commercial life and its own winter visitors. It has electric light, a public water supply and sewerage system. Along the shores of Lake Worth both north and south from the town are residences. The accessibility of the greater gayeties of Palm Beach is an asset of West Palm Beach, where life may be made more i62 A GUIDE TO FLORIDA tranquil and more inexpensive than at the great resort itself. The train crosses Lake Worth to Palm Beach. Palm Beach (300 m.). The train stops first at the Royal Poinciana Hotel station and then continues to The Breakers, the hotel on the oceanside. At both these hotels porters meet trains. In the height of the season it is advis- able to have engaged rooms in advance at Palm Beach, though the hotels are so large that ac- commodation of some sort is almost always to be secured. Palm Beach is indisputably the most famous of Florida resorts. It has an international celebrity, and it is almost safe to say that to have heard of Florida is to have heard of Palm Beach. It has the most colossal hotels, the most fash- ionable and pleasure-loving visitors, the gayest season, furthermore the most characteristic and individual note of any winter resort in America. In February and March, private cars which have brought parties from the North, East and West are always standing at the station at West Palm Beach, and yachts from distant ports are lying in the sheltered waters of Lake Worth. And crowded trains bring daily fresh hundreds to this winter capital. Palm Beach did not grow, it was made. Be- fore the arrival of the railway there were only a few houses along the lakeside and a small hotel. The rare opportunity was offered of creating, according to one plan completely car- ried out, a fit setting for idleness, luxury and fashion. Palm Beach is wholly for the winter visitor. So far as possible all the baser com- X