48 
ernment. Much Loi information was thus withdrawn. St.. 
Augustine in the east and Pensacola i in the west, with some few 
subsidiary plantations, were all the settlements that came into our 
possession. ‘The rest was nearly an unoccupied waste. Evena 
knowledge of the St. John’s, the grand artery of the country, 
had nearly passed away ; so much so, that at the commencement 
of the present campaign (1837-8) the form, extent, and depth of 
its upper waters were unascertained. 
The war which has lately been carried on Br the Florida 
Indians has opened the country generally to observation, and its 
character will hereafter be better, if not well understood. Our 
troops have traversed it in almost every direction ; nearly all parts 
have been explored, excepting the interior of the lower parts of the 
peninsula south of the Okachobee Lake. From the 26th degree 
of latitude northward, the geography may be laid down with gen- 
eral accuracy. Indeed, United States maps of this character are 
already in the hands of some of our officers, which will no doubt 
soon be lithographed. 
The river St. John’s was early entered into both by the French 
and the Spaniards, the rise and fall of whose establishments there 
form an interesting and sanguinary portion of history. At the 
present time (1838) there is scarcely a dwelling occupied on either 
of its banks fifty miles above its mouth, though many evidences 
of former occupancy, such as falling buildings, or fields bearing 
the marks of having been cultivated, are seen some hundred miles 
higher up. Many of these farms or plantations were abandoned 
by the Spaniards at the change of jurisdiction; others were the 
work of Americans at alater date. But all had shared a common 
fate at the opening of the present contest. The Indians burnt 
all the buildings and plundered and massacred all the inhabitants 
that were not defended by a garrison, and desolation is now seen, 
where, a few months since, were sugar fields, cotton fields, orange: 
groves, and many other proofs of a thriving population. 
This river (St. John’s) is in most respects of a remarkable char- 
acter. It is unlike most if not all-of the rivers in North America, 
having little current at any point of its course, and passing through 
a country, from its very source, so level in its surface, as scarcely: 
to warrant the expectation of any stream at all. At low. stages 
of the water there is no visible current even in the upper parts 
of the river, though at high stages it is visible, having perhaps @ 
pon East Florida. 
