30 



F A R JM E R S R E G I S T E R 



But, sir, you know lliat all my hopes of happi- 

 ness lor time and eternity are staked on (he sincer- 

 ity of my convictions that South Florida enjoys 

 the most healthy climate and soil in the United 

 States; and that all useful jjlants ol" the tropics 

 may be profitably domesticated in Tropical Flo- 

 rida. 



It should however, he very evident to the whole 

 people of the United States, that neither isolated 

 individuals nor distant companies, can ever use 

 any etl'ective means to introducR and to propagate 

 valuable plants in Tropical Florida so long as go- 

 vernmental obstacles to individual industry in this 

 desert district are not governmentally removed ; I 

 therefore anticipated the indispensable necessity of 

 endeavoring to enlist the agricultural influence of 

 the southern states, by obtaining the new act of 

 incorporation lor the Tropical Plant Company of 

 Florida, approved February 8th, 133S. I had 

 however, strong reasons to expect the indirect re- 

 moval of one governmental obstacle to individual 

 introduction of tropical plants, by the probable es- 

 tablishment of one port of entry near the natural 

 central rendevous of the wrecking vessels on this 

 reef; where a port of entry shoulil have been long 

 since established for the benefit of shipwrecked 

 persons and property alone, which have hitherto 

 been governmentally debarred from the free exer- 

 cise of their natural and moral rights to seek the 

 nearest and most convenient spot for sali^ty. This 

 reasonable expectation, of course, constituted an 

 additional motive for the nearly central location 

 of the preparatory nursery for tropical plants on 

 Lower Matacumba the '8th Jatuiary 1S39 ; but 

 the long repealed claims of justice and humanity 

 were again defeated the last session of congress 

 through the unjust and cruel powers of the single 

 monopolizing port of entry for all South Florida ; 

 first established and pertinaciously retained by ex- 

 perienced speculators at the remote and inconve- 

 nient island of Key West. This great govern- 

 jnental obstacle to the indiviilual introduction of 

 tropical plants is greatly augmented by the great 

 local obstacles, resulting from the deplorable fact 

 that the only and the whole population successful- 

 ly created by that governmental tnonopoly, be- 

 came necessarily a strongly anti-agricultural pop- 

 ulation, both from their only occupation and their 

 only location. According to Bowditch, Key 

 West is 24° 29' north latitude, and 81° 55' west 

 longitude, and Cape Sable is 25° 1' north latitude 

 and 81° 9' west longitude ; that is, this only port 

 of entry is to the leeward 32 miles south and 46 

 miles west of the most south-western extremity of 

 the peninsula. With this exclusively wrecking 

 population at that remote speculating location, it is 

 very evident that the resident governmental offi- 

 cers must necessarily have strong interests and 

 great powers to perpetuate the governmental mo- 

 nopoly of the whole business of the whole reef; 

 that transient governmental officers of the navy 

 and revenue service are mo>t likely to be most 

 influenced by the words and feelings of the resi- 

 dent governmental officers ; and that the conse- 

 quent abuses of the powers of either class cannot 

 be prevented by the fear of public opinion, and 

 cannot be punished by the force of civil law. It 

 is hence very natural that the public officers, pri- 

 vate proprietors, and all the dependent population 

 of Key West, should constitute a formidable host 

 of organized enemies to every mercantile im- 



provement of every other island nearer to the na- 

 tural centre of the only business of the reef, to 

 every agricultural industry in every portion of 

 South Florida a[)proximaling to the same centre ; 

 in short, to every person, place and enterprise 

 which has any tendency to diminish their hitherto 

 absolutely despotical monopoly of the whole busi- 

 ness of all South Florida, by indicating the indis- 

 pensable necessity of an adtlitional port of entry. 

 But the easternmost jiopulation at Indian Key ia 

 in 24"^ 4S' north latitude and 80° 55' west longi- 

 tude, or 19 miles north, and 60 miles east of Key 

 West ; while it is but 13 miles south and 1 1 miles 

 east of Cape Sable, and the preparatory nursery 

 for tropical plants is on Lower Matacumba, only 

 one mile west of Indian Key. 



The most experienced men of the world will 

 hence be least stirprised at the natural effect, that 

 since the 8th of Januaiy last, I have not been able 

 to obtain for the preparatory nursery a single 

 plant, from even Cuba, through the only port of 

 Key West. The most intelligent agriculturists 

 can best calculate the vast damages of a single 

 year's delay in the geometrical multiplication of 

 the first desirable plants in even the wintry zone, 

 and can hence best imagine the incalculable da- 

 mages of the same delay ia the progress of a pre- 

 paratory nursery of valuable plants in Tropica! 

 Florida. 



But on the 8lh January 1840, one year of fruit- 

 less exertions will have elapsed ; and it is very 

 evident that the preparatory nursery for tropical 

 plants cannot ever be filled with the useful plants 

 ol' even the Bahama Islands, until an additional 

 port of entry shall admit the direct importation of 

 living plants at the only proper season of the sum- 

 mer rains. 



But it is notorious that in the congress of the 

 United Sates there exists a powerful anti-south- 

 ern influence against every measure adapted to 

 promote the settlement and cultivation of the ter- 

 ritory of Florida, and consequently against every 

 means of removing any governmental obstacle to 

 the introduction and propagation of tropical plants 

 in Tropical Florida. 



As then, the only population in all South Flori- 

 da is an exclusively anti-agricultural population; 

 and as there does exist in congress a strong anti- 

 southern influence against all agricultural improve- 

 ment of South Florida, it is evident ih.at next ses- 

 sion no measure will be adopted to remove any 

 obstacle to agricultural industry in South Florida 

 unless effected by the powerful counter influence 

 of the enlighted agriculturists of all the southern 

 and south-western states. The first essential 

 measure then, is the eflieclive excitation of con- 

 gress to withdraw great governmental wronsrs, by 

 the immediate opening of ports of entry in South 

 Florida, at the most suitable sites to diminish most 

 the governmental obstacles hitherto grievously 

 interposed to the natural salvage of wrecked per- 

 sons and properties along the reef, and simulta- 

 neously to the natural settlement and cultivation 

 of the main land of Tropical Florida. 

 Very respectfully, 



Your obedient servant. 

 Henry Perrine. 



P. S. — fs it not deplorably (rue, that all my la- 

 bors for Tropical Florida have merely been the 

 isolated efforts of a single agriculfurist in a desert 



