CHAPTER V.

SOUTH FLORIDA-JUPITER INLET.

"You don't know Jupiter Inlet?" Neither did I a week ago for aught I knew, it might be some newly discovered point in the planet Jupiter; but now that I do know it, how can I help being lifted up with the vanity of superior knowledge, and looking down upon those who do not know it, as showing ignorance of American geography? Perhaps you will think a place not worth knowing where (aside from the Light-house, the Signal Station, and the Life-Saving Station) there is but one house, and travellers have to find lodging in an old steamboat that is moored to the wharf! But I will not raise the curtain too soon. First of all, where is it?

If you will take a map and run your eye down the Atlantic Coast, you will find its lower portion protected by an almost continuous reef, broken here and there into long and low-lying islands, which form a natural breakwater against the ocean. Between this and the mainland is a succession of lagunes, which, with trifling interruptions, furnish a complete inland navigation for hundreds of miles. At long distances there are openings or "Inlets” in this ocean barrier, through which light boats, and in some

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NEW SETTLEMENTS IN THE PINE WOODS. cases large ships, can pass, if they see a storm approaching, and take refuge in these sheltered waters. One of these "Inlets" far down on the coast, bears the mighty name of "Jupiter." To this distant point two gentlemen connected with one of the great railroad systems of Florida -Mr. Mason Young, a name well known in New York, and Mr. Alfred Bishop Mason, a name equally well known in Chicago were about to make a visit, and invited me to keep them company. As the journey was partly by rail and partly by boat, it gave opportunity to see both the interior and the river and coast scenery.

At Palatka we crossed the St. John's, a river which, contrary to what we are accustomed to consider the natural course of rivers, runs north, so that, as far as we followed it, we were going up stream, though down south. Travelling in a private car, we were a little company by ourselves, and I was happy to find that there was a lady in the party, whose society gave all that was wanting to make it complete. As the car was attached to the train at the end, and had plate-glass windows on both sides and in the rear, we had an unobstructed view of the country as we rolled swiftly by. New settlements were sprinkled here and there sometimes houses would be standing alone in the pine woods, and at others half a dozen would be clustered together so as to form the nucleus of a village. In the latter case there was sure to be a New England air about the place, indicated in the fenced grounds and framed houses, neatly boarded and painted, with a pretty church and school-house in the centre-which showed where the first settlers came from. This part of Florida is largely settled by people from the North, and I am told, that while there is no conflict between them and the poor whites known as the "Crackers," yet that the latter, finding themselves unable to compete with the more industrious habits

EXPERIENCE OF AN OLD ARMY OFFICER.

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of the new comers, are generally quite willing to sell out their plantations, which have been run down by long neglect, and move off into the less settled parts of the South, to begin life anew. Their successors here have tried other methods of cultivation, the result of which is seen in the orange groves, richly laden with the golden fruit, that extend for miles along the road.

Look at this pretty village of Seville, that in spite of its Spanish name, might have been transplanted from Massachusetts, since we see in it, what is very rare in Florida, a well-kept lawn, which shows that with proper care it is possible to have the green turf of New England. Here several friends joined us, and added to the gayety of our little party. One gentleman, an old army officer, gave me his experience of life in his new home. He had come here broken in health, almost seeking a place to die; but after awhile concluded that it was better to live; and took his section, of a hundred and sixty acres, to which he was entitled by his soldier's warrant, on which he planted, not his "vineyard and olive-yard," like the ancient Jew in Palestine, but his orange grove; and in due time found himself not only reestablished in health, but prospering in his worldly affairs. Lest, however, anybody should jump to the conclusion that he has but to move to Florida and plant an orange grove, to be rich, it should be added that from the time of planting to the time of bearing will take eight or ten years; so that none need try it who have not some little capital to start upon, and above all a large stock of New England thrift, patience, and perseverance. I could not but listen with wonder to his report of the productiveness of Florida, which reminded me of the marvellous tales that I had heard in Southern California. At first I was a little incredulous: for the country looked very barren, and I thought it must be poor and unpro

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ON THE INDIAN RIVER.

ductive. But he explained that, while this soil would not produce much at the North, it would here, owing to the greater warmth, combined with the greater moisture. The elements which enter into vegetation come not from the soil alone, but from the air, the vapor, and the dew, the rain and the sunshine, all of which are supplied from the resources of nature; so that if man will but help a little, giving very moderate cultivation, the earth will bring forth abundantly.

Nor is this prodigality of nature confined to the subtropical fruits, but extends equally to all the produce of the garden (Irish potatoes growing as well as sweet potatoes), to peas and tomatoes and cauliflowers, from which it seems probable that with the increased production from year to year, and sufficient transportation (for already it is said that the railroads are not able to carry the crops), Florida will soon be able to supply the markets of Washington, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York, with green peas and early potatoes, and all the produce of vegetable gardens, a month or six weeks before they can be obtained from Charleston and Savannah.

The road that we had been following continues to Tampa Bay, where it connects with a line of steamers to Cuba, which will land the traveller in Havana in thirty hours, or in three and a half days from New York, instead of the week now taken by steamer. This will furnish also the quickest route to South American ports. As we however were bound to a point on the Atlantic coast, we left the main line at Enterprise, and turned eastward, and in. an hour were at Titusville, where the train ran down to the wharf beside the steamer, and at three o'clock we were afloat on the Indian river-a name hitherto known to us only by its delicious oranges, but now to be known by its beautiful scenery.

But first of all, it is not a river at

THE PALMS WHISPER TO THE PINES.

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all, but simply an arm of the sea, a long lagune, which in some places is three or four, or even five and six, miles broad. The beauty of it is on its western bank, where the low, flat country rising a few feet above the water, is dignified with the name of a bluff. Its apparent elevation is heightened by its being densely wooded with palms! Not indeed the stately date-palms of Egypt, but only with the "cabbage palm," so named from its cabbage-like head, but which still, with its tall trunk and tufted crown, forms a striking figure in the landscape, giving it more of a tropical character than anything I had seen before, and as I sat on the deck in the gloaming, and watched the shores growing dim, memory went back to the old days when I floated past groves of palms on the banks of the Nile.

All along this bank there are plantations, the houses peering out from under the trees, and every few miles a little village, from which a projecting wharf gives facilities for the conveyance of travellers and the shipment of freight. The most considerable of these river-towns is Rock Ledge, to which they brought President Cleveland and his wife on their visit to Florida last year, to show them the beauty of the country-where we landed and walked a mile along the bank, past a succession of pretty Winter retreats, embowered in palms.

Back of the palms were the orange groves in all their luxuriance: but the orange region ends soon after, oranges giving place to fruits of a more tropical character. The guava is cultivated for the jelly made from it, of which there is a manufactory on Merritt's Island, the product of which is shipped largely to Northern cities; and at Eden, a few miles farther south, is a very extensive plantation of pineapples, which are grown here with entire success.

The morning found us still floating southward, which soon brought us into the narrows of the Indian river, where