12 PREFATORY. 



centuries and a half, the population at no one period 

 was ever considerable, while the feeble settlements were 

 widely scattered and confined to eligible points upon 

 the lower St. John and the seaboard. The interior was 

 occupied by the Seminole Indians, and the negroes 

 whom they held as slaves, while the innermost jungles 

 wherein they dwelt were almost impenetrable, as events 

 proved, even to the well-appointed armies of the United 

 States, which, forty years ago, were delegated to hunt 

 them out. When, finally, the great body of the Indians 

 were induced to migrate to the West, some spirit of 

 curiosity or adventure, or hope incited by vague state 

 ments of the fertility, fecundity, and tropical luxuri 

 ance of the interior, prompted a few to attempt settle 

 ments there ; but their advance was invariably barred 

 by a cordon of swamp, lagoon, and jungle, that swarmed 

 with repulsive reptiles and noxious insects, making 

 occupation not only unbearable, but dangerous. Never 

 theless, the desire that by nature becomes insatiate when 

 unsatisfied, the incentive to explore where mysteries 

 hide, has been burning continually, and attempts have 

 been periodically repeated to explore the unknown pen 

 etralia. Occasionally some survivor of the Seminole 

 war would recall for eager listeners some shadowy 

 reminiscences of a great interior lake, beside whose 

 limpid shores military outposts were planted after assid 

 uous toil through the morass that intervened, and dilate 

 upon the luxuriant farms that were found where the Red 

 men once inhabited.* These statements gave color to 

 traditional rumors, and stimulated the desire of those 



* Lake Okeechobee was frequently visited by officers of the 

 regular army engaged in the several campaigns against the Semi- 

 noles in that section. The gallant Captain Uruland, of the Fourth 



