EAST FLORIDA-ALLIGATORS-THE SEMINOLES, ETC.

BY 'ORSON.'

EAST FLORIDA, the land of flowers' 'sweet Florida' is the land of fiction, and always has been so. In this sense, it may be the land of poetry, but in sober earnest, it is for the most part a flat, pine barren, full of swamps; and where there are hills, they are sand hills, which frequently fall through, and reveal a pond of water-so that the word terra firma has no application to this territory. We could not help advising a speculator, who was boasting of his purchase, that he had better erect a steam engine, and paddle his land to some place in the ocean where there is a bottom, if he wished to have it settled. We knew of one who had pitched on a site for a house, and when he took a friend with him to look at it, the foundation of his project had literally fallen through. There was a pond in the place of the hill. In one section, the country is full of such ponds for miles. The reason of falling through in this manner is, that there is a soft limestone below, and a quicksand above, and when the limestone dissolves, down goes the land, of course, however high speculators may raise land in other places. But we will stop punning, and be serious.

The first impression of this country, as seen from the ocean, is that of a sandy reef, thrown up by the Gulf Stream, and I am not very sure that it is not the correct one. There are no primary rocks, and only such as have lime for their basis, that I remember. I have also met with pieces of rock coral in the centre of the peninsula. The natives term it petrified live oak,' but I fancy that the roots of these live oaks stand on the bottom of the ocean, and form the foundation of the territory. But no matter, at present, what is below-there is not much to support enthusiasm above. Here and there are oäses in the desert, and they appear more beautiful by the contrast than do like spots in another country.

For instance, near the Devil's Elbow,' on the St. John's River, there is a lovely place. The trail from St. Augustine to this great bend is about thirty miles, is almost as level as a board floor, and has not a house on it for the whole distance. In dry weather, you can hardly find a drop of water on the route; but should it begin to rain when you start, you must spur ahead, or next day the whole country will be deluged, and you must tie your clothes on your head, and swim your horse over deep creeks, and wade him all the rest of the way, excepting for a short distance near the town just mentioned. So you must not turn back for rain; neither should you go forward, unless absolutely compelled; for it is much more dangerous to be wet at the South than the North. A check of perspiration is likely to be fatal in a short time in low latitudes. Some persons can resist exposure wonderfully, while it is soon death to others. We heard of a boat load of sixteen persons being overset near New-Orleans, and not taking care to change their clothes, they took the fever, and only one survived. The like danger prevails even in the West India Islands, and Florida is not exempt. Along the coast it is as healthy as at the North, taking the year round; but at the time I was there, the back-woodsmen were nearly all sick. I have been wet all day, but, by drinking a sufficient

quantity of good wine at night, escaped all evil consequences. In truth, with care, a man may live almost any where, and expose himself also, if he will only take counteracting measures in time.

I was about to describe a beautiful spot, but if we should reach it too suddenly, justice will not be done to it, and nature will not have been followed - for you cannot be there by one wish. For the most part of the time, you must consent to mount your horse early, and let him paddle you there, through swamps and creeks - and if it should chance to be a horse of the country, ten to one your feet will be dragging in the water all day long, for they are not larger than Shetland ponies. A traveler makes a strange figure on one of them, with his saddle-bags projecting out on each side. To a humane man, they seem to be chosen so that the rider may take turns in duty, and carry his horse when the horse becomes tired of walking.

One day in August, desiring to travel this trail - for there is no road -and it being very warm, I waited until afternoon, so as to escape the heat of the day, and have the cool of night. After securing a passage over a deep creek by day-light, I did not regard the night, as it was at the time of full moon, and I depended on this to find my way. But a cloud arose, and as it began to grow dark, the first company I met was a large bear; I had not taken the precaution to carry pistols, dirk, or any thing in the shape of arms, beside what nature gave me, although sometimes I did. However, bruin left me; but I had remarked a great many tiger tracks in some parts of the trail, which were out of water, and I did not like their owners much at night, with odds against me: I had now to penetrate a deep branch called Moccasin Branch, from the number of moccasin snakes in it. Beside, there were alligators, and the water, between two and three feet deep, extended two or three miles, and had fallen logs and crossing roots in it, which sometimes catch hold of the horse's feet, and keep him fast. I was once served so. Withal, the roots of the cypress rise up in the shape of a sharp sugar-loaf, and make a horse stumble. Sometimes a horse, when he is lost in such a swamp, must leap over a fallen tree, and one knows not exactly where he may alight.

In this condition, I found myself one night alone, and it became so dark that I could not see my horse's head; he was lost also - for he stopped, catching at the wild grass which arose above the water, and began to try to scent his way like a dog. I knew he had a poor chance for this, as there was nothing but water to smell to, and this will not hold a scent of tracks. Had I not become accustomed to such dangers, I should have felt very disagreeable, for Major Chad lost his horse in this very place by the bite of a moccasin snake; and one mannot remarkable for his veracity, however had told me that he had been attacked by an alligator in the morass, and escaped with considerable difficulty. I had heard so much of these things, without having been alarmed at any time myself, to any great degree, that I had impatiently, and I must confess imprudently, refused to be troubled with arms any more, excepting on especial occasions. Where there are no brigands or lawyers, a man is pretty safe, wherever he may be― and to say truth, whatever appearances of danger there may be to the uninitiated among bears, wolves, tigers, alligators, moccasin and rattle-snakes, scorpions or centipedes, miasma or malaria, in a pitch dark swamp

at midnight there is less in reality than with many a lawyer or merchant I could mention, who has obtained a great name by impudence and cunning. We shall grapple with them, likely as not, one of these days: but let us go on.

I got out of the swamp, by the light of the moon, after the shower passed over, and on reaching the open pine barren, the horse's instinct assisted me to find the trail again. We then jogged on at a dogtrot pace, and by two or three o'clock reached a long line of thick woods, which told me that the softly-flowing St. John's River was near at hand. Here was a camp of enterprising live-oak cutters procuring timber for the navy; and near this place I threw dull care away, or rather lost it, in slumber. It was at the wigwam of an old Indian 'medicine-woman' that I stopped. She had wandered there from the east end of Long-Island, and there she lived entirely alone, although sixty or seventy years of age. -a strange being, who did not lack shrewdness, by any means, nor skill in the cure of simple sores, or fresh wounds. She would have been thought a witch in Scotland or New-England, in the days of witchcraft. I have known her to catch turtles, weighing forty or fifty pounds, with a fish-hook not larger than a perch-hook and this, of itself, would have given her some credit; her independent tone and manners would have confirmed her claims. Her hut stood near the loveliest spot in Florida, and it is this I was about to describe.

By looking on the map, about a hundred miles from the mouth of the St. John's, a short turn will be seen in the river. It is the place described by one of the historians of Florida* as so thickly abounding with alligators, that a dog might cross the river by leaping from the back of one to the other, all the way over-a story larger than I intend to tell. But it is indeed a lovely spot, to which my careless pen can hardly do justice.

To view the place advantageously, we must sail up to it in a pleasure-boat, and then land. At first, we are in a broad bay, but as we approach, the river contracts, and exhibits that rare beauty in Florida rippling water, running under the long, pendent, gray mosses of the live-oak, and the gracefully-bending, golden, wild orange tree, bowing to the waters, and towering above all, the giant magnolias. Often the stream foams with fish, and the wild duck seems to be at home, and the deer comes down to drink the waters, and the alligator bellows like distant thunder. Otherwise, silence and solitude reign, and all appear as if man had never intruded here. I have gone on shore to enjoy the coolness created under the wild orange groves by the current of the river, and have seen the Indian come paddling down the stream with his child; his squaw also rowing with one oar, while he paddled and steered, and every thing has had the appearance of the time of Columbus. The hand of civilized man was not visible; all was primitive, and few could better enjoy the scene. This was my favorite place of resort. The alligator was not the least interesting neighbor. With my good rifle, I could prove my skill without any compunctious visitings of conscience, which is not always the case with a good marksman. When a man wings a noble eagle, he is apt to regret it, and to

* Bartram.

wish that it might soar away again. But an alligator, a man must be a first rate shot to kill-and when he is dead, we rejoice even as though we had killed that old serpent which is called the devil,' for truly, nothing can seem more like the tempter. You would take him for an old log, on which you might step with safety; and it requires a practised eye to see him when he is close by you: but only give him a fair shot, and he will soon show his power by whitening the river with foam — unless, indeed, the shot should be point blank, in which case he will only turn over and lift up his quivering black arm and hand, and die. I have counted ten or fifteen in sight on the river, at once, on a calm day; but generally they are close in shore, and then they make the finest shots.

One day, with a half-grown Indian and an Indian mulatto boywho, by the way, was as handsome a fellow as ever I saw in my life, and the least to be depended on — was out with me in a canoe near this place, on an alligator hunt, and I shot one about twelve feet long, but did not kill him. Being the first one, and not long after my arrival in the country, I desired to secure his skin as a trophy. Thinking him sufficiently wounded, I made a noose of the rope at the bow of the canoe, and slipped it over the end of his rough, jagged tail, where it held on; but in attempting to tow him backward to a good landing-place, to have him. skinned, he came to himself in a great measure, for he had only been stunned. There was a time then! The water foamed, and the canoe was jerked hither and thither, and he would come up alongside with his great jaws wide open, as though he would like nothing better than to swallow us, canoe and all. The boys were for cutting him loose, but this was out of the question. My only fear was, that he would break loose. So I sat the boys down on the bottom of the crank canoe, that he might not overset us, while I stood up with the butt-end of an oar, in the position of a harpooner, to give it to him' in the mouth and eyes every time he came up. After fighting in this manner for a time, and battering up the end of the oar so that it was spoiled, by good fortune he dragged us near an overhanging live-oak, on which I placed one of the boys, that he might go and get an axe. He soon returned, and I astonished him by a blow on his cranium, and then fairly settled him. He had sand, and pine-knots, and other hearty food in his stomach. One of his hands had been lost, probably bitten off in battle with some wild beast, or brother reptile. He made a very pleasant morning's sport, especially as it was my first conquest, and entitled me to all the privileges of a Floridian.

At this my favorite place of resort, a Gretna-Green affair happened, just before my arrival, and was witnessed by a companion who was often with me, but who now - poor fellow ! -sleeps in the sands, as indeed do most others of my acquaintances of sweet Florida' for the truth is, all the beautiful pendent mosses are, to the initiated, weeds of mourning for a depopulated country. But to the Gretna-Green affair of the Seminoles.

One day, as he described it, warm and calm, the river glossy, and the air silent, excepting with the voices of alligators, he heard, up the river, a confused, hurried splashing of paddles, and what should he see shoot around the point, but a man and woman in a canoe he dashing with might and main, while she pulled with one oar, which, by