Chapter I: Preface

Writing, like other employments, furnishes a reward to those who are fond of it--elevates the mind to a higher and happier state of enjoyment than merely grasping for earthly treasure, a desire to discover something beautiful in our surroundings, a nobility of character in mankind, a grandeur in all God's works.

My travels, both in Florida and Cuba, when not suffering from sickness, were an uninterrupted source of pleasure and entertainment, made thus by the smiles of friendship, intercourse among kind-hearted people, combined with the luscious fruits and delightful scenery by which I was almost constantly surrounded.

In arranging the historical portion of this work, I have endeavored to sift conflicting events, at all times retaining those which were the most tangible, and rejecting many which have been received by superficial observers as consistent truths.

I shall feel amply rewarded if any sad, sensitive heart, wounded in life's struggles, is cheered even for awhile in perusing these pages, or the consumptive invalid entertained with a pleasanter potion than his cod-liver and gloomy forebodings of future ill.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.....17

Adieu to Atlanta and arrival in Macon--Early settlement of Savannah by General Oglethorpe--Met by the Yamacraw Indians with presents--Death of Count Pulaski--Bonaventure Cemetery--The inland route to Florida--Pass St. Simon's Island--Wesley visits Frederica to establish his faith--Cumberland Island, the home of Nathanael Greene--Olives--The scuppernong vine--Dungenness, the burial-place of Light-Horse Harry Lee--General Robert E. Lee visits the grave of his father--Amelia Island--Taken by filibusters--Their surrender--Fine beach and light-house--The turtle--Sea-shells--God's treasures--A resting-place for the weary.

CHAPTER II.....28

Fate of the Spanish galleons--St. John's Bar and River--General remarks on Florida--Lumber-mills--Jacksonville--Grumblers--The invalid--Churches--Dr. Stowe preaches in the Methodist church--Mrs. Harriet Stowe goes to sleep--Sermon by a colored brudder--Journalism--Moncrief Springs--The invincibility of boarding-housekeepers--The cemetery--Too much delay with invalids before coming to Florida.

CHAPTER III.....46

Jacksonville Agricultural Association, and its advantages--Exhibits of wine, perfume, and fruits--Industries of the ladies--Yachts--General Spinner--Steamer Dictator--Nimbus on the river--Mandarin--Employment of its inhabitants--Murder of Mr. Hartley by Indians--Weariness of war by the settlers--Fanciful names given to towns--Hibernia and Magnolia--Green Cove Springs--Fort at Picolata--Pilatka--Putnam House--The _Herald_, edited by Alligator Pratt--Colonel Harte's orange-grove--The Catholic Bishop as sexton--Ocklawaha River.

CHAPTER IV.....55

No fossilized Spaniards on the Ocklawaha--Scenery on its banks--Thick growth of timber--Passengers amuse themselves killing alligators--Climbing asters--Air-plants--Water-lily--An affectionate meeting at Orange Springs--The deaf lady--Pleasure-riding in a cracker-cart--Northern and Southern crackers--March of improvement--Make fast!--Wooding up--Passengers take a walk--Night on the water--Surrounded by thickets--Our flame-lit craft moves on with its pillar of fire--Who!--Plutonic regions--Pyrotechnic displays.

CHAPTER V.....69

Incident as we enter Silver Springs--A gentleman loses his grinders--The Mirror of Diana--Sunset--A beautiful legend of the Princess Weenonah--A scientific description by Prof. J. Le Conte--Vicinity of the springs--Improvements--Description of Ocala--Impressions of DeSoto--Public Square--Contented, hospitable people--Marion county the back-bone of the State--Matt. Driggers and his neighbors go on a mastodon hunt--Lakes and long prairie-grass above Silver Springs--The man who wanted a sheriff to marry him--Leesburg and its improvements--A dredging-boat mistaken for a cook-stove--Indian trails--Historic relics--Lake Dunham--Okahumkee--The Ocklawaha historic ground.