Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Florida during the Indian war--Cumbersome movements of the troops--Cause of the war--Treaty of Payne's Landing--Birthplace of Osceola--Lives with his mother in Okefinokee Swamp--Afterward in the Big Swamp--Osceola expresses opposition to the "treaty"--Jumper unwilling to go West--Charlie Emaltha--Plea for remaining--Indian poetry--Appearance of Osceola--Hostility toward the survey force--Does not favor immigrating--Decision of Micanopy--Osceola in irons at Fort King--Sullen, then penitent--First hostile demonstration from the Indians--Murder of Private Dalton--Killing of Charlie Emaltha--Osceola seeks revenge in the assassination of General Thompson--Dade Massacre--Micanopy fires the first gun--More than one hundred whites killed--Depredations of daily occurrence--Battle of Withlacoochee--Captain Ellis, of Gainesville--Capture of Osceola by General Jessup--Imprisoned first in Fort Marion, afterward sent to Fort Moultrie--His death--Chechotar, his wife--Poetry by a friend--Sisters of Osceola now living in the West.

Shores of the upper St. John's, where various kinds of timber grow, and bony stock range--Mounds and their contents--Their obscure origin--The chasm not yet bridged--Belief in the immortality of the soul--The mounds a shrine--Conduct of the Spanish invaders--Ancestral veneration--Articles for use deposited with the body--Unanswered questions--History of mound-building in its infancy--Found in Europe--Uses of mounds--Monumental mounds--The mystery shrouding their structure--Intrusive burial--The growth on Florida mounds, and the distinguishable feature of mound-builders--Mound near New Smyrna--Mounds in South Florida--The large one at Cedar Keys--Mounds for sacrifice--Description of a victim--Pyramid of Cholula--Mexican teocalli--Pyramids for kings--Mounts of ordinance--Sacred fires--Indians worshiped "high places"--The temple at Espiritu Santo--Residence of King Philip--Lake Jessup mound--Copper weapons--Indians worship the sun and moon--Burial urns--Pearls a heavenly product--The Indian empress a prisoner--Manufacture of beads from conch-shells--Pearls of no value found on the coast of Florida--Who were these architects?--A veil obscures our vision in trying to discover the engineers of these mounds--The key never found--_Tumuli_, mounds, and plateaus, all objects of interest.

A description of the animals and birds seen on the St. John's a century since--Lovely landscape--The happy family--Lake George--Enterprise--Mellouville--Sulphur Springs--Lake Harney and Salt Lake--Indian River--Settlers discouraged on account of the Indians--An order for blood-hounds--Battle of Caloosahatchee--Famished soldiers, and fidelity of the dog--Big Cypress Swamp--Locality of the chiefs--What the Indians cultivate--Their babies never cry--The Prophet, and his influence as a medicine man--Wild Cat in command of Fort Mellon--Speech of Sam Jones--Hanging of Chekika--Major Belknap takes his command into the Big Cypress--Country developed by war--Indian River after the war the sportsman's heaven--Game, oysters, and fish--Scientific theory on the formation of coquina--Fine products of the Indian River country--A resort for consumptives--Camp-cooking--Soothing influences from the surroundings--Coming down the St. John's--The sick man--Stewardess and "'gaitors"--Curious people with curious things--The chameleon--The fawn--The crane--The bug-hunter and his treasures--The many old people in Florida--The sportsman.

Stop at Tocoi for St. Augustine--Scenery along the route--Stage-contractor's notice--Murder of Dr. Weedman--Cloth houses--Two mail-carriers murdered--The blood-hounds--Mr. Francis Medicis and four others shot--Remarks by a resident on witnessing the scene--Wild Cat the leader of this atrocity--The theatricals fill their engagement--Coacoochee admires himself in the glass, also one of General Hernandez's beautiful daughters--His capture and escape--His twin sister and her pearls--Returns, dressed in theatricals, for a parley with the whites--Starts West, and dies on the way.

St. Augustine described in rhyme--The old Spaniards--A place for stimulus of thought--Treachery of legends--Early settlers lured by tales of wealth--Historical antiquity--Astonished Seloes--Capture by Sir Francis Drake--St. Augustine, 1764--French privateers--Rory McIntosh the Don Quixote of the times--American flag raised in 1821--Freedom to worship God--St. Augustine archives--Dr. McWhir the founder of Presbyterianism in Florida--Appearance in 1834--The frost--Every thing shrouded in a kind of tradition--Fromajardis, or Garden Feast--Matanzas River--Nuns--Escribanio, or St. Mary's Convent--The ancient city sleeps all summer--The dear old folks from their Northern homes, and the young ones too--Curiosities--Crafts of all kinds--Gayety of the winter--Remarkable memory of the natives--Peaceful days--No welcome for adventurers--St. Augustine supposed to have been the residence of the Peri--Expressing an unfavorable opinion about Florida not popular here.

The cathedral--Regular attendance of its worshipers--Harsh tones of the church chime--Early mass--Cathedral finished in 1793--Material employed--Moorish belfry--Irreverent visitors--Religion of the natives a part of their existence--The bishop regarded as a vicegerent--Mistaken conclusions of outsiders--Peculiar frescoes representing death--Christmas Eve--Ceremonial conducted by Bishop Verot--Administration of the sacrament--Tolemato Cemetery--Its custodian--Murder of Father Corpa by the Indians--Chapel dedicated to Father Varela--Tablet-inscriptions erased by time--A medallion supposed to have been worn by Father Corpa, which was brought from Rome.

Castle San Marco--Indestructibility of the material employed--Commenced in 1565--Completed by Montiano, 1756, with the aid of Mexican convicts--Attacked by Oglethorpe--Appearance in 1740--Improper change of names--Description of Fort Marion--Its resemblance to Scott's Garde Douloreuse--The chapel and its holy mysteries--Iron cages--Caving in of the bastion--No cages sent to the Smithsonian Institute--The wooden machine--The old sergeant--Human bones not unusual in other ruins--Spaniards branded with the cruelties of the Inquisition--True version of the iron cages from Señor B. Oliveros--No nation exempt from cruelties during some period of their history--The Western Indians retained as hostages in the fort.

The sea-wall--when commenced--Material employed--Boulevard of the city--City gates and vandal visitors--Tapoquoi village--Murder of Father Rodriguez--La Sylphide rose--Fine pulpit talent--Sabbath in January--The Presbyterian Church--Flowers from the gardens of Messrs. Alexander and Atwood--Gushing young men--Dr. Daniel F. March and his words of comfort--A description of the Episcopal church--A curious question about disputed grounds--Dr. Root, the clergyman--A peculiar man and his dog, that walked into the church from habit--St. Augustine a restorer to both health and reason--Public reading-room--Circulating library--What shall we eat?--Ships constantly coming in with supplies--Fresh vegetables--Oranges--Hotels and fine boarding-houses--Growlers--Gratuitous hospitality now obsolete--The most eligible houses--Summer resort--Pleasant people found by the sea.