NATIONALITY AND GENERAL CHARACTERISTICS. 25 



Fishermen of Cedar Keys — Nearly all of the two hundred and sixty fishermen of this 

 place are Americans or of American birth. The majority of them are men who have been engaged 

 in the different branches of the fisheries on the Atlantic coast, in such places as Chesapeake Bay 

 and coast of the Carolinas, and the balance are natives of West Florida, who have, in most cases, 

 taken up this business quite recently. Taken as a class they are quite intelligent, industrious, and 

 quick to adopt new methods that will tend to facilitate their work. 



The Spanish, Italian, and French Creoles, who are generally lazy, ignorant, and inclined to 

 keep up old styles of fishing, &c*., and are found in the majority at many of the other fishing 

 communities west of Cedar Keys, are not often met with among the fishermen, and are not at all 

 popular. 



Financial profits of fishermen. — Although they work steadily and well, the seasons foi 

 profitable fishing are so short that they do not gain more than a bare subsistence. 



There is great wear and tear to the nets also, one man often using up three or four nets in one 

 season. When these nets, perhaps a new boat, and their household expenses are paid for there is 

 little or nothing left to support them during the time that fishing is not carried on. Some are 

 fortunate enough to get other employment, or to be engaged in the turtle fishing, but many are 

 not, and such ones get so deeply in debt to the storekeepers that the profits of the ensuing year 

 are taken to pay them. Nearly all are in debt from various causes, with no prospect of ever get- 

 ting clear again. 



Fishing population of Appalachicola. — The fishing population of Appalachicola includes 

 representations of nearly all the nations of the world, the Americans aud Spanish Creoles being in 

 the majority. Of the older men in this business here, some are Europeans who came in vessels 

 when Appalachicola enjoyed a large cotton trade; others are New Englauders, left by men-of-war at 

 various times, and the rest are natives of the Southern States. Many of the young men are of that 

 class of rovers found aboard all the merchant vessels of this country, who have drifted here in 

 some unaccountable manner, to stay but a season or two and then to continue their wanderings. 



Those of the fishermen that are really inhabitants of the place are, as a rule, good citizens in 

 every way. There are but few among them whose fathers had been in the fishing business before 

 them, but the rising generation will probably adopt their parents' profession, perhaps more from 

 necessity than choice. Their health is very good, in spite of the popular supposition that men 

 engaged in sponge-fishing are unhealthy. Sickness is a rare visitor, a touch of biliousness or slight 

 attack of "chills and fever" being the only forms. One captain told me that he had been here 

 ten years, and believed there had not been over a dozen deaths of children from sickness in the 

 whole time. In the fall a few cases of fever and ague occur. While on the water, in the bay, or 

 on the "sponge reefs" a case of sickness is a very rare occurrence. They are not especially re- 

 markable for longevity, but many of the old men of seventy, eighty, and eighty five years of age 

 are still hale and hearty, and in some cases perform hard labor. With the women it is different. 

 They marry young, and when thirty five or forty are broken down, and appear as though of twice 

 that age. They very seldom live to be over sixty years of age, and the greater number do not 

 reach their fiftieth year. Nearly every married couple has a large family of from four to twelve 

 children. Their dwellings are unusually good, being in most cases houses that were built for meu 

 of wealth, when Appalachicola was in its prime; they are not kept up in their former good 

 condition, yet make very comfortable habitations; and there being a small garden attached, are 

 supplied with vegetables and fruits at little expense or trouble. Orange trees thrive well here, and 

 nearly every yard has some of them. 



