Letter from Audubon. 41 1 



tated waters. We took up our line of march in a poor plight, be- 

 lieve me. The Poles, on laying down their arms, could not have 

 felt more done up than we did at this moment. Pretty walking 

 along the sea side beach of Florida in the month of December ! 

 with the wind at northeast, and we going in its very teeth, 

 through sand, that sent our feet back six inches at every step 

 of two feet that we made. Well, through this sand we all waded, 

 for many a long mile, picking up, here and there, a shell that is 

 no where else to be found, until we reached the landing place 

 of J. J. Bulow. Now, my heart, cheer up once more, for the 

 sake of my most kind host— troubled with rheumatic pains as 

 he is. I assure you, I was glad to see him nearing his own com- 

 fortable roof; and as we saw the large house opening to view, 

 across his immense plantation, I anticipated a good dinner with 

 as much pleasure as I ever experienced. 



All hands returned alive : refreshments and good care have 

 made us all well again, unless it be the stiffness occasioned in 

 my left leg, by nearly six weeks of daily wading through swamps 

 and salt marshes, or scrambling through the vilest thickets of 

 scrubby live oaks and palmitoes, that appear to have been cre- 

 ated for no purpose but to punish us for our sins ; thickets that 

 can only be matched in the cantos of your favourite Dante. 



To give you an account of the little I have seen of East Flo- 

 rida, would fill a volume, and therefore I will not attempt it just 

 now : but I will draw a slight sketch of a part of it. 



The land, if land it can be called, is generally so very sandy 

 that nothing can be raised upon it. The swamps are the only 

 spots that afford a fair chance for cultivation : the swamps, then, 

 are positively the only places where plantations are to be found. 

 These plantations are even few in number : along the coast from 

 St. Augustine to Cape Car7iaveral, there are about a dozen. These, 

 with the exception of two or three, are yet young plantations. 

 General Hernandez', J. J. Bulow's, and Mr. Durham's are the 

 strongest, and perhaps the best. Sugar cane will prosper, and 

 doubtless do well ; but the labour necessary to produce a good 

 crop, is great ! great ! ! great ! ! ! Between the swamps of which 

 I now speak, and which are found along the margin laying west 

 of the sea inlet, that divides tJie main land from the Atlantic, to 

 the river St. John of the interior of the peninsula, nothing exists 

 but barren pine lands of poor timber, and immense savannas, 



