CHAPTER III.

ST. AUGUSTINE AS A PLACE OF RESORT FOR INVALIDS.

ADVANTAGES OF CLIMATE.

This city enjoys many advantages in respect to climate, which are peculiar. The same may be true of the climate of the Florida peninsula in general. An intelligent correspondent of the Army and Navy Chronicle, in an interesting article, thus writes of the climate of Florida:

“Florida, from its position, lying just north of the Tropic of Cancer, and being nearly surrounded by water, would be judged to possess one of the blandest and most equable climates in the world. And such, in fact, for several months in the year, is found to be the case.

“In the interior and upper portions, the variations in the annual temperature are considerable--80 and 90 degrees. The diurnal variations are considerable. On the sea-coast and in the lower part of the territory, where regular trade-winds prevail, the temperature is so much less variable, that the islands about capes Florida and Sable are in this respect unexcelled perhaps by any other region of the globe.”

Dr. Forry,[16] U. S. A., thus writes of the climate of this region:--“Among the various systems of climate presented in the United States, that of the peninsula of Florida is wholly peculiar. Possessing an insular temperature, not less equable and salubrious in winter than that afforded by the south of Europe, it will be seen that invalids requiring a mild winter residence, have gone to foreign lands in search of what might have been found at home. Florida therefore merits the attention of physicians at the north; for here the pulmonary invalid may exchange for the inclement seasons of the north, or the deteriorated atmosphere of a room to which he may be confined, the mild, equable temperature, the soft, balmy breezes of an evergreen land.”

“For many years,” says Dr. Wardeman, “afflicted with phthisis, and compelled to pass the last seven winters in the West Indies and the southern parts of Florida, we have been necessarily placed in communication with numerous invalids similarly affected, many of whom were under our professional care; and from personal experience and the observation of others, we have had ample opportunities for comparing the effects of different climates on the disease. Premising that we have passed five winters in Cuba, one at Key West, and one at Enterprise, East Florida. Florida has the advantage over Italy, in having no mountain ranges covered during winter with snows; the cold blasts from the Apennines and the Jura mountains, rendering a large portion of Italy and southern France unfit for invalids unable to bear a sudden and great increase of temperature.”

Dr. Bernard Byrne thus writes of the climate of Florida (see the National Intelligencer of May 18th, 1843): “Taking it the year round, the climate of East Florida is much more agreeable than any other in the United States, or even than that of Italy. In the southern portion of the peninsula frost is never (rarely) felt; even so far north as the Suwanee River, there are generally but three or four nights in a whole winter that ice as thick as a quarter of a dollar is formed. The winter weather is delightful in East Florida, beyond description. It very much resembles that season which in the Middle States is termed “Indian Summer;” except that in Florida the sky is perfectly clear, and the atmosphere more dry and elastic.”

We now will consider the climate of St. Augustine in particular. There is circulated a sentiment prejudicial to the virtue of the climate of St. Augustine, as a resort for invalids in search of health. This may be all very natural, when the interest north of this city, served by the traveling public, is considered; but it is not just. Experience usually contradicts this sentiment. It is encountered under various exaggerated forms of statement, all along the southern inland route. In the face of declarations designed to forestall opinion against the place, however, many have persevered, and found experience the wisest counselor.

Says a correspondent to the Florida Herald, 1848: “I have occasionally been in the interior. In every instance, however, I have found the climate of this city preferable on the whole. The same is true of every place I have visited south, if I except the climate of south or tropical Florida, which I believe to be without a parallel.”

These remarks on the nature of the climate, exhibiting its advantages, are founded on the experience and observation of individuals who have thoroughly tested its virtues, and who were capable of forming and of expressing an intelligent opinion--many of these writers being called, in the course of professional duty, to analyze and study the nature and effects of climate.

Let me suggest certain peculiarities, which impart to the climate of St. Augustine peculiar advantages over any interior or more northern locality, and which are properties peculiarly favorable to a restoration of impaired health.

During the winter months, the extremes of temperature, though the transitions are somewhat more sudden, are nevertheless not so great here as in the interior. This peculiarity follows a law of climate, which, both north and south, causes it to be _warmer in the neighborhood of the sea in winter_, than in regions remote therefrom. It is also cooler in summer.

The east winds here are far different from the east winds at the north. Though somewhat raw and gusty, they are nevertheless shorn of their intensity, and greatly modified, in their passage across and along the Gulf stream. They thus lose very much of their asperity, and would hardly be recognized by a New Englander, being usually unattended with rain. In summer, the air is neither so hot nor as sultry as it is inland, where respiration is attended with a suffocating sensation. The atmosphere of the sea-coast is not so highly rarefied. The process of evaporation, which is perpetually going on, tends to equalize temperature, and so to adapt the atmosphere to the action of the respiratory organs, that one breathes freely and easily. By the same process, the intensity of the heat is greatly abated. The afternoons and evenings are invariably cool and refreshing.

The atmosphere exhilarates. On one’s energies and spirits, it acts as a stimulus, so that one does not suffer from lassitude here, as is usual at the north. The nights are refreshing in the hottest season. This remark is true, I believe, only of the atmosphere in the neighborhood of the sea, amid the coast climate. Indeed, the whole body of the atmosphere on the coast is more pure and healthful than in the interior; and is believed also to be medicinal in its effects. The various chemical ingredients of the atmosphere on the coast, are powerful disinfecting agents, which are perpetually elaborated, from the prodigious evaporation and other chemical combinations of the mineral waters of the sea, whose grand elements are _soda_ and _chlorine_. These impart to the atmosphere healing power and medicinal virtue. The sea and the sun are laboratories of healthful energy and influence, which are projected into this atmosphere from natural resources, and which are taken into the system by the ordinary process of respiration. For _these reasons_, invalids have often experienced as great, if not greater benefit, from a summer residence here, than from a winter sojourn. Disease, taken in its incipient stages, may be eradicated, under the influence of the climate alone, aided by the “_vis medicatrix naturæ_.” Air and exercise are the chief medicines required.

CLASS OF DISEASES REACHED AND FAVORABLY AFFECTED BY THIS CLIMATE.

In relation to this interesting point of inquiry, the opinions and reasoning of Dr. Samuel Forry (in the Journal of Medical Science, in the year 1841) are full and explicit. _Bronchitis._--“The advantage of a winter residence in a more southern latitude, as respects this disease, becomes at once apparent.

“If the invalid can avoid the transition of the seasons, that meteorological condition of the atmosphere which stands first among the causes that induce catarrhal lesions, he will do much towards controlling the malady.

“As regards the change of climate, it will be observed that in the advantages enumerated, reference is made only to _chronic bronchitis_.

“The climate of Florida has been found beneficial in cases of incipient pulmonary consumption, and those threatened with disease from hereditary or acquired indisposition. It is in _chronic bronchial_ affections more particularly that it speedily manifests its salutary tendency.

“But there are other forms of disease, in which such a climate as that of East Florida is not unfrequently of decided advantage. To this class belongs _asthma_.

“In chronic disorders of the digestive organs, where no inflammation exists, or structural changes have supervened in viscera important to life, but the indication is merely to remove disease of a functional character, a winter’s residence promises great benefit; but exercise in the open air, aided by a _proper regimen_, are indispensable adjuncts.

“In many of those obscure affections called nervous, unconnected with inflammation, exercise and traveling in this climate, are frequently powerful and efficient remedies.

“_Chronic rheumatism_, though apparently much less under the influence of meteorological causes than pulmonic affections, will be often benefited by a winter residence in Florida. As these cases often resist the best directed efforts of medicines, it is the only remedy which the northern physician can recommend with a reasonable prospect of success.

“When there exists a general delicacy of the constitution in _childhood_, often the rubeola, or scarlatina manifesting itself by symptoms indicative of a scrofulous disposition, a winter residence in a warm climate frequently produces the most salutary effects.

“Another form of disease remains to be alluded to, in which change of climate promises healing power, viz.: _premature decay_ of the _constitution_, characterized by general evidence of deteriorated health, whilst some tissue or organ important to life commonly manifests symptoms of abnormal action. This remarkable change occurs without any obvious cause, and is not unappropriately termed in common parlance, ‘a breaking up of the constitution.’ In treating of the climate of Florida, the primary object held in view, is to direct attention to its fitness as a winter residence for northern invalids.

“A comparison with the most favored situation on the continent of Europe and the islands held in the highest estimation for mildness and equability of climate, affords results in no way disparaging. A comparison of the mean temperature of winter and summer, that of the coldest and warmest months and seasons, furnishes results generally in favor of the Peninsula of Florida.

“On the coast of Florida, the average number of fair days, is about 250; while in the Northern States, the average number of fair days per annum, is about 120. Though climate is one of the most powerful remedial agents, and one, too, which in many cases will admit no substitute, yet much permanent advantage will not result, either from traveling or change of climate, unless the invalid adheres strictly to such regimen as his case may require.

“The attention of many persons suffering with pulmonary diseases having been directed to the southern section of the United States, as a temporary residence for the benefit of their health, and there being much diversity of sentiment as to the location most proper for attaining this desirable end, I propose to offer to the public some facts derived from personal observation. Having in the early part of last year been the subject of an attack, that threatened a rapid termination in consumption, the unanimous opinions of several of my medical friends concurred with my own judgment, to induce me to avoid the vicissitudes of the approaching winter in our varying climate; and I felt compelled to make an effort, which to every appearance was to decide the event of my disease.

“St. Augustine in East Florida, was the place to which my views had been directed, and I arrived there soon after the commencement of the present year. A few days’ residence convinced me of the efficacy of the climate in promoting my own health; and from the observations I was continually enabled to make, in reference to the invalids who had resorted there, from motives similar to my own, I became assured of the excellent effects of the climate: and am fully satisfied, that although prudence would have dictated a removal two months earlier in the season, the present great improvement of my health is to be attributed almost wholly to having substituted for the variations of our own latitude, the mildness of that favored region. St. Augustine is the most southern location[17] _on our_ extensive seaboard to which a valetudinarian can resort, with any prospect of obtaining the attentions and comforts requisite for the improvement of health.

“The climate of St. Augustine, seems peculiarly adapted to the improvement of patients with consumptive chronic affections of the lungs, asthma, spitting of blood, rheumatism, and dyspepsia. It is a fact worthy of remark, that though it is universally acknowledged the advanced stages of pulmonary consumption are often beyond the power of medical skill to produce restoration, yet most of those who resort to a change of climate for cure, reject the advantages to be derived from the removal, until the disease shall have made such extensive ravages as to render hopeless every prospect of renovation.

“Many cases of this nature I had an opportunity of observing during the last winter; and, in some instances, the patients seemed to have hastened from their homes whilst the last glimmerings of life only remained.

“The benefit of the climate of St. Augustine will be particularly evident in the incipient stages of those affections, for the cure of which it has been celebrated; and those invalids who contemplate a removal thither, ought not to allow the commencement of winter to surprise them whilst preparing for departure.

“The glowing, and even exaggerated reports of this climate, that have been given by some persons of lively imagination, have occasioned disappointment to a few whose expectations had been greatly excited. Nevertheless, I am persuaded, generally, a residence there during the winter season will contribute much to the advantage of every stage of pulmonary affections.” _Extracts from a Circular published in Philadelphia, 1830, by James Cox, M. D._

TEMPERATURE.

TABLES OF THE COMPARATIVE AND ABSOLUTE TEMPERATURE OF THIS CITY.

TABLE I.

_Exhibiting a Comparison between the Mean Temperature of the most favorite Resorts for Health in other Countries and that of St. Augustine--Fahrenheit’s Thermometer._

MEAN DIFFERENCE OF THE | MEAN ANNUAL RANGE. SUCCESSIVE MONTHS. | | deg. | deg. Pisa, 5.75 |Naples, 64 Nice, 4.74 |Nice, 60 Rome, 4.39 |Rome, 62 Penzance, Eng., 3.5 |Penzance, 49 Madeira, 2.41 |Madeira, -- St. Augustine, Flor., 3.55 |St. Augustine, 59

TABLE II.

_Exhibition of the Mean Temperature of each Month at St. Augustine, East Florida--Years 1825, 1828, 1830._

deg. January, 62.15 February, 64.97 March, 66.53 April, 68.68 May, 76.44 June, 81.12 July, 82.36 August, 82.68 September, 77.55 October, 73.61 November, 67.47 December, 61.31

TABLE III.

_Exhibition of the Mean Annual Monthly Range for the same Years._

Annual range, 59°.

deg. January, 35 February, 30 March, 25 April, 31 May, 20 June, 17 July, 14 August, 12 September, 14 October, 22 November, 22 December, 36

TABLE IV.

TROPICAL FLORIDA.

_Northern Limits of the Tropical Fruit-growing Region--Fort Pierce, Indian River Inlet._[18]

ABSTRACT FOR ONE YEAR.

From Meteorological Reports on file in the Surgeon General’s Office.

June 16th, 1848.

|Hot-|Cold- |test|est | WINDS. | MONTHS THERMOMETER |day.|day.| | ----------------+----+----+---------------------------------------+ 1840 High-|Low-|Mean |Mean|Mean| N. |N.W.|N.E.| E. |S.E.| S. |S.W.| W. | est°|est°| | T. | T. |d’ys|d’ys|d’ys|d’ys|d’ys|d’ys|d’ys|d’ys| ==============+====+=====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+====+ April, 86 | 68 |74.07| 78 | 69 | 8 | - | 3 | 4 | 2 | 10 | 2 | 1 | May, 90 | 65 |76.43| 82 | 70 | 5 | - | 3 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 6 | - | June, 90 | 70 |78.61| 82 | 74 | 2 | - | 7 | 2 | 9 | 4 | 3 | 3 | July, 88 | 72 |79.61| 81+| 76+| - | - | 1 | 13 | 6½| 2 | - | 8½| August, 88 | 72 |78.95| 83 | 75+| - | - | 1½| 5½| 13½| 6 | 1 | 3½| September, 90 | 72 |78.65| 82 | 75+| - | - | 13½| 9½| 6 | ½ | ½ | - | October, 80 | 62 |75.88| 78 | 64 | ½ | 3½ | 8 | 9½| 3 | 3½| 1 | 2 | November, 73 | 44 |64.40| 70 | 51+| 2 | 7 | 8 | 2 | 9½| 1½| - | - | December, 72 | 46 |61.51| 68 | 48 | - | 4 | 15½| 1½| 6½| 2 | - | ½ | January, 84 | 38 |66.13| 76 | 47+| ½ | 3½ | 3 | 6 | 14½| - | - | 3½| February, 82 | 32 |63.18| 76 | 41+| 3½| 3 | 4½| 4½| 13 | 1 | - | 1½| March, 80 | 48 |67.19| 74+| 54+| 4 | 4 | 4½| 9 | 5½| ½ | 1 | 2½|

| WEATHER. | Rain. MONTHS | | +----------------------+------- 1840 |Fair|Cl’dy|Rain.|Sn’w.| |d’ys|d’ys.|d’ys.|d’ys.|Inches. ==============+====+=====+=====+=====+======= April, | 25 | 1 | 4 | - |No instrument May, | 26 | - | 5 | - |to measure rain. June, | 25 | - | 5 | - | July, | 26 | 5 | - | - | August, | 20½| 10½ | - | - | September, | 19½| 10½ | - | - | October, | 24½| 6½ | - | - | November, | 18 | 12 | - | - | December, | 15 | 16 | - | - | January, | 24½| 6½ | - | - | February, | 25½| 2½ | - | - | March, | 26 | 5 | - | - |

ADVANTAGES OF ACCOMMODATION.

The accommodations for invalids, in this city, are comparable with any that can be furnished in this region, and will be ample.

There are four public houses, two of which, in regard to style, convenience, and comfort, will compare well with any like establishments.

The “Magnolia House,” erected by B. E. Carr, is a spacious and attractive resort. Its style of architecture is neat; its grounds are laid out with taste; its location is eligible. Its host was trained in one of the best establishments of the city of New-York, and of course understands well how both to _satisfy_ and _please_ those who make his house the home of their sojourn. The Magnolia House, though recently opened for public accommodation, it has been found necessary considerably to enlarge. This work its enterprising proprietor is now engaged upon. It will be also modified so as to suit the convenience and meet the wants of the public, by affording many comforts and conveniences not generally attached to a hotel. Seventeen additional rooms, with a new and spacious dining hall, are to be added, which in many respects will make it one of the most desirable places of sojourn for families and travelers in this city, as well as for invalids.

The “Planters’ Hotel” is a spacious and convenient public house, well adapted to the accommodation of the public. This large establishment is to be opened the ensuing fall, under the supervision of its present proprietor, Mr. Loring. The “Florida House,” on the side opposite, is a large, well-kept establishment, belonging to Mr. Cole; the “City Hotel,” under Mr. Bridier, is also open.

There are several neat private residences, where strangers and sojourners can be accommodated, at reasonable prices. The boarding establishment of Mrs. Reid is an attractive establishment, capable of accommodating many persons, both families and single.

The residence of Mrs. Dr. Anderson is conspicuous on the avenue leading over the bridge near the St. Sebastian River. It is built of the native coquina rock, and was embosomed in a grove of young orange trees, of which the decaying stumps and sickly shoots are all that remain, together with the hedge of Spanish bayonet, which inclosed it. These suffice to designate “Markland,” though shorn of its glory--which is partially supplied by a grove of olive trees now in bearing.

“Yallaha” is the neat cottage residence of P. B. Dunnas. It is the Indian word for orange. Yallaha is situated on the river St. Sebastian, and is distinguished for the beauty and healthfulness of its position, and also for the delicious strawberries which enrich its blushing gardens in the month of March.

It was in orange times the site of a beautiful and extensive grove of trees, variegated with green foliage and golden fruit and fragrant blossoms.

It is the purpose of the proprietor to erect on his grounds commodious boarding establishments.

RECREATION AND AMUSEMENT.

This city contains a small circle of intelligent and cultivated society. It is not as yet deformed with the arts and moral conveniences of more fashionable circles, in the higher walks of life. It needs not the blandishments--it dreads not the encroachments which, if tolerated in higher circles, would dissipate the fictitious colors that glow to deceive around fashionable intercourse. Its very simplicity is at once its greatest charm and surest defence against impertinent intrusion. The city affords comfortable, if not elegant homes, to the invalid sojourner, both in public houses and private families, through which he will have a more or less direct connection with the avenues to the Anglo-American society. Excellent medical aid can here be commanded, from resident members of the profession; and the institutions of religion can be enjoyed under the several forms of the Episcopal, Presbyterian, Methodist, and Roman Catholic churches. The invalid will here find a home in his sojourn, where he will meet with some of the advantages which distinguish the more cultivated circles of northern society.

The sportsman, with his line and gun, can satisfy his largest desires in the way of game and angling. The boatman has a spacious harbor and the broad Atlantic open to him for health and pleasure, though it must be confessed that _good boats_ are in great demand without a supply.

The active, agile “_Indian Pony_,” is a luxury to those who seek health in horsemanship. In the neighborhood, on the estate of Capt. Hanham, of the ordnance department, are springs, which are alleged to contain mineral waters; and to which invalids sometimes ride in a conveyance the proprietor has had fitted up, and runs for that purpose.

And then pleasure excursions over the beach are frequent. A boatman with his crew are secured the day beforehand, a party having been made up for such an expedition.

The boatman and crew are usually negroes. The party having provided themselves with a lunch, apparatus for making coffee, knives and forks, and other necessary and useful articles for an oyster pic-nic, embark in the morning. They wend their way across the harbor, debark, and arrange matters so as that the scattered fragments of the expedition shall be gathered at the proper time and place, to partake of the refreshments, and then disperse,--some for the light-house, and others for the quarry--while the boat’s crew are left to collect oysters, and gather fuel for the roast on the beach.

When the repast has been finished, the party return, loaded with specimens of rocks and natural history, fatigued, indeed, but gratified and benefited. This excursion is both pleasant and useful; and should the resort to this watering place for health increase as it has been doing, there doubtless will be afforded greater facilities for more extended and healthful water excursions: such expeditions, whether for shell or fish, in this climate being healthful and pleasant. Ordinarily, exposure does not induce colds, and may be taken without risk.

The moonlight walks, are truly delightful beyond description. Those who reside at the north, and have never beheld, can have no adequate conception of a moonlight scene on the coast of Florida. A recent writer thus speaks of it: “The nocturnal aspect of the heavens differs from a northern one, in the same manner that two paintings may differ, the warmth and richness of the one contrasting with the coldness and poverty of the other.” It is no unusual thing for ladies to appear abroad on the public promenade, in their light, loose, flowing dresses, without shawl or bonnet, with denuded neck and arms, till near midnight, and not suffer the least risk or inconvenience. Nature, in silence, majesty, and beauty, invites her children to enjoy her moonlight luxuries. She fans them with soft and fragrant breezes. She allures them into the open air, and charms them with the gorgeous magnificence of the nocturnal scene, in which every object, earth, sea, and sky, are made to glow in rich and pure effulgence. Who can restrain himself from the enjoyment of health and exercise, amid such attractions? and that, too, without peril from evening dews and tainted atmosphere?

The maiden and her lover, the matron and her spouse, the youth and children, alike participate in the enjoyment of these natural luxuries; and make the welkin ring at midnight often, with the merry peal of joy and life, or with the notes of music, accompanied with the soft mellifluous strains of the guitar and viol.

There are various customs, relics of Popish superstition and Spanish practice, yet prevalent in the city.

CARNIVAL.

Carnival is here observed, though not with its ancient excess of folly. This is a religious festival, observed in Roman Catholic countries, as a season of feasting, by which another religious festival called Lent is introduced. It is usually celebrated “by feasts, operas, balls, concerts, &c.” In this city it is celebrated by masquerade dances by night, idle and frivolous street sport, in processions of vagrant men and boys, disguised in masks and grotesque array by daylight.

A most ridiculous burlesque is exhibited in honor of St. Peter, the fisherman of Galilee, by which his professional skill in the use of the net is attempted to be illustrated. This is the closing farce of the feast of carnival. The description of this, as it passed under the eye of the author at the very last carnival, may suffice to give a stranger some idea of its folly.

As I passed along one of the narrow streets of the city, my attention was arrested by the various exclamations and boisterous cries of a motley crowd of black and white, who thronged the street, occasionally surging to the right hand and left.

I was at first at a loss to account for it. On a nearer approach, I perceived two half-grown men heading a rabble of boys and others, with the face masked and concealed, and the person attired in a coarse, shabby fisher’s dress. Over the shoulder of each was flung a common Spanish net. Whenever a boy black or white came within range of a cast, the net was suddenly spread, and thrown over the lad’s head so as to inclose his person. There was seldom more than one throw of the net; and if it were not successful, it was seldom repeated on the same individual. Thus the streets were beset till the farce--the solemn farce--in illustration of the call of Peter to become a “fisher of men” was ended.

SHERIVAREE.

On an evening after the celebration of the nuptials of an inhabitant of the city, who has been before married, and thus emerges from a state of widowhood, the welkin is made to ring with a most discordant concert of voices, horns, tin pans, and other boisterous sounds. It is an excessively annoying exhibition, to say nothing of its ill-manners, and gross violation of the peace and good order of society. The whole city is usually disturbed by such riot and confusion, as in any orderly community would consign the perpetrators to a guardhouse, or prison, till they had taken some practical lessons in decency. This is what is here termed Sherivaree. The residence of the newly married pair is beset by the rabble in some cases, till it is bought off with money, or whisky.

There are some other customs and practices growing out of the foreign extraction of the city, and connected with religious festivals, and which are the relics of the past, that are now passing rapidly away.

FACILITIES OF COMMUNICATION.

There are two routes, by which invalid strangers from the north may reach this city.

The one is direct by sea, from either Charleston or New-York; the other is by the inland steam and stage route. The former is occasional; the latter is always available, though there is some prospect that a direct communication will be opened, and sustained between this city and Charleston ere long.

The voyage from New-York, by sailing or steam-packet, through to Charleston or Savannah, is the most reliable and expeditious. Twice a week, steamboats connect between Savannah and the St. John’s River, at Picolata. The distance from Picolata to St. Augustine, is over land, and about eighteen miles. This distance is overcome by stage-coach, and a new and convenient omnibus the present proprietor of the line, Mr. Bridier, has just had completed for that route. Passengers are met by these conveyances, and usually reach St. Augustine by 4 o’clock P. M., and often about noon. There is an inland steam connection between Charleston, S. C., and Savannah, Ga., with which the Florida boats connect twice in a week.

The most expeditious and economical route to Florida is that by which the traveler takes passage direct from New-York to Savannah, where he will be received by the steamer, with his baggage, and brought into Florida and landed within eighteen miles of St. Augustine; the distance to which, from Savannah, is 218 miles.

The passage from Savannah, especially over the waters of the noble river of the St. John’s, is pleasant and instructive. The lover of nature--the curious stranger--may each be gratified. In passing along this route, the traveler will get a “bird’s-eye view” of a considerable portion of the southern country, on the seaboard. The plantations--marshes--and peculiar varieties of trees, among which the noted cabbage-tree will be conspicuous--creeks--inlets--and the various specimens of natural history--the alligator--and peculiar species of water-fowl met with--and the various contrasts between northern and southern habits, as presented in agricultural life--will be novelties, more or less interesting and instructive to the curious traveler. Many prejudices will be dissipated--many errors will be corrected--many contrasts will be presented.

FINIS.

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES:

[1] TRANSLATION.--“Don Ferdinand the Sixth being King of Spain, and the Field Marshal, Don Alonzo Fernandos de Herida being Governor and Captain General of this place, St. Augustine of Florida and its province, this fortress was finished in the year 1756. The works were directed by the Capt. Engineer, Don Pedro de Brazas y Garay.”--_See Williams’s Hist. Flor._

[2] Sprague’s Hist. War in Florida.

[3] Bauer.

[4] Johnson’s Life of General Green.

[5] As there are some slight variations among historians in respect to the order of the events in the destruction and overthrow of the colony on the St. John’s and of this massacre, I have inclined to the numerical preponderance of historical proof, inclining to Bancroft, reconciling the several particulars.

[6] Williams.

[7] Bancroft’s Hist. U. S. A.

[8] Ibid.

[9] Family Library.

[10] Cohen.

[11] Stephen’s Hist. Geo., art. in Southern Quarterly; April No. 1848.

[12] Spanish accounts say less than this.

[13] It is more than probable that the American government connived at, if it did not encourage, these transactions.--EDITOR.

[14] It is well known that the Spanish governor of West Florida attempted to withhold from the United States the public papers, and that Governor Jackson was under the necessity of resorting to compulsory measures to obtain them.

The same disposition was exhibited by the governor of the East. Captain Hanham had been appointed sheriff of East Florida, and was dispatched for St. Augustine, and required to be there in seventeen days. He arrived within the given time, and applied to Governor Coppinger for the public records. The governor declined, and gave him to understand that he should resist his authority. Understanding that a vessel lay in the offing ready to receive the papers and convey them to Cuba, Hanham forced his way into the governor’s room. There he found the papers nearly all packed in eleven strong boxes. He seized them all, and delivered them over into the hands of the collector of the United States. It was afterwards found that the papers thus rescued were of the greatest importance to the United States.

These summary proceedings created an excitement at the time, which however soon passed away.

[15] This was told the author as coming from the lips of the man who was the subject of this anecdote, who still lives.

[16] Author of a standard work on climate, and of the highest professional authority.

[17] There are now points in South Florida in a tropical climate, where preparations are being made for the accommodation of invalid strangers. The banks of the Indian River, St. Lucia Sound, and the Miami, possess advantages over any other place in this country.

[18] The region of fruit of tropical growth is clearly defined by the appearance and change in the vegetable kingdom, especially by the mangrove tree.

The eye will detect the line of demarcation, as one sails along Indian River northward. The Table No. IV. indicates the temperature of the climate where this region begins.

End of Project Gutenberg's Sketches of St. Augustine, by R. K. Sewall