270 REMARKS ON THE 



To the south there is a gentle slope to the open pine-bar- 

 rens which extend in this direction beyond St. Augustine, 

 and westward, the slope too is gradual, until the banks of 

 the river are but little elevated above the water's edge. It 

 was just where the level ground commences on this side of 

 the blufl* that we made our home, in a large house originally 

 built for a boarding-house, but then only tenanted by a w4- 

 dow lady and two grandchildren, with the usual accompani- 

 ment of a variety of negroes of all ages, who, however, lived 

 in the yard close by. We were fortunate in obtaining an 

 introduction to Mrs. Smith (such was the name of our excel- 

 lent landlady), for nowhere else in East Florida could we have 

 found so comfortable a home. At this time, south of Man- 

 darin, there w^as no safety, a foe 



" Curst with each evil that pollutes, 

 Mankind where least above the brutes, 

 Without e'en savage virtue blest," 



had deluged the homes of the planters with blood : and the 

 tomahawk, the scalping knife and the firebrand had again 

 converted the shores of the St. John's into a wilderness. 

 Mournful truly was it to ascend the St. John's. The cotton- 

 grounds and the cane-fields were overgrown with thorny 

 briars, the cattle wandered wild round the ruins of the dwel- 

 lings of those who once were their owners ; here, a large 

 black spot on the ground, a few scattered fruit-trees, and per- 

 haps some flowers, not indigenous, told that once the white 

 man had dwelt where now nature reasserted her dominion ; 

 there, the same story was more clearly told, by the ruins of 

 some saw-mills, and the scattered fragments of the steam- 

 engine rusting on the ground. 

 St. Augustine, and that town 



" of hectors, 

 Thieves, supercargoes, sharpers and directors," 



Jacksonville, were the only other places where we should 

 have found any accommodation, and neither of these could 

 be prefen-ed to St. John's Bluff. We had comfort, and 

 what was more, perfect freedom, for we had scarce any 

 neighbours, there being only two or three little houses 

 near. A small room up stairs was soon fitted up as our 

 laboratory; our boxes, setting-boards, jars, and all such 

 apparatus were ranged against the walls, which w^ere fur- 

 ther adorned with an axe, a cutlass, a gun, and its accom- 

 paniments of shot-belt, pow^der-hom and game-bag, and 

 our insect nets. I selected this room, because on one 

 side it commanded a view^ of the open western slope of the 

 bluff, on the other, of the wooded hill at the back of the 



