IV 



IN FORT MYERS WATERS 



The reader may not have forgotten that we had arrived at 

 Punta Gorda (see page 9) and found refuge on board a 

 steamer, the St. Lucie; nor that Mrs. Rowland Ward was 

 appointed note -taker in ordinary to the expedition. The 

 following entries from her Diary will be, therefore, a resump- 

 tion of the narrative which was broken off in order to discourse 

 upon the fish of which we were sure to hear everlasting talk 

 wherever we went ; and I make no apology for using them, 

 because they will indicate very fairly what lady visitors to 

 Florida would be likely to experience. And here beginneth 

 the Diary. 



Tuesday, 6th April. — Awake at 5.30 a.m., and up and about by 

 seven, when the steamer left Punta Gorda ; not many passengers 

 on board, but among them an elderly gentleman, a Mr. Plant, the 

 owner of the well-known Plant railroads and steamers in this part 



