CHAPTER XXL 



Eighth Florida Episode: The Turtlers of Florida. 



j] HE Tortugas are a group of islands lying aboul 

 eighty miles from Key West, and the 'ast of 

 those that seem to defend the peninsula of the 

 Floridas. They consist of five or six extremely low un- 

 inhabitable banks, formed of shelly sand, and are resort- 

 ed to principally by that class of men called wreckers 

 and turners. Between these islands are deep channels, 

 which, although extremely intricate, are well known to 

 those adventurers, as well as to the commanders of the 

 revenue cutters whose duties call them to that danger- 

 ous coast. The great coral reef or wall lies about eight 

 miles from these inhospitable isles, in the direction of the 

 Gulf, and on it many an ignorant or careless navigator 

 has suffered shipwreck. The whole ground around them 

 is densely covered with corals, sea-fans, and other pro- 

 ductions of the deep, amid which crawl innumerable tes- 

 taceous animals ; while shoals of curious and beautiful 

 fishes fill the limpid waters above them. Turtles of dif- 

 ferent species resort to these banks, to deposit their eggs 

 in the burning sand, and clouds of sea-fowl arrive every 

 spring for the same purpose. These are followed by per- 

 sons called ' eggers,' who, when their cargoes are com- 

 pleted, sail to distant markets to exchange their ill-gotten 

 ware for a portion of that gold on the acquisition of 

 which all men seem bent. 



" The Marion having occasion to visit the Tortugas, I 

 gladly embraced the opportunity of seeing those cele- 



