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own head, wiih his own family, or in his own 

 hands on his own lands, is not fitted for a pioneer 

 in any newsetlienient, and especially in the soulh- 

 ern extremity of Tropical Florida. But snch arc 

 the attractions of even a desert wilderness with a 

 tropical climate under our Iree government, that 

 even my children now can appreciate the great 

 trouble of my trequenl dreams at Campeacliy. 

 The great atlliction of these perverse imaginations 

 consisted in their whirling me from the Gulf of 

 Mexico over the Peninsula of Florida, and hi 

 tinaily dashing me down amid the snow and ice 

 of the Peninsula of Michigan ! And even now 

 the greatest annoyance of my troubled dreams 

 always consists in their malicious transportation of 

 my shuddering frame to the liosly regions of the 

 northern slates. How many years have 1 fruit- 

 lessly labored to convince the American peo|)le 

 that the most slandered section of their immense 

 domains is the most desirable district in the union 

 lor the physical enjoyments of the human race. 

 Would the Seminole savages cling so pertina- 

 ciously to the slandered everglades of South 

 Florida were they not in reality the most desira- 

 ble district in the United States for the physical 

 subsistence of the poorest people ? Superadd in- 

 telligent management to physical labor in this 

 productive climate, and an earthly paradise on the 

 poorest lands may soon be created by the poorest 

 hands. During my travels in the Northern States, 

 in August, 1838, I visited the costly garden and 

 costly hot house of the reputed possessor of 

 millions of dollars. The extravagant expenditure 

 of ostentatious wealth was exhiLiited even in the 

 sashes of varnished mahogany and the panes of 

 plate glass which surrounded his magnificent col- 

 lection of tropical jjlants. Very natural, however, 

 was my incidental remark, that the poorest man 

 in 'J'ropical Florida could easily collect a much 

 finer exhibition of tropical plants around his hum- 

 ble habitation. Indeed you will readily conceive 

 that the garden of Eden itself must have been lo- 

 cated in a tropical country. Did you ever dream 

 of any frost or ice among the bowers and flowers ot 

 the first garden, of the young world 7 How long 

 would any naked couple remain alive in any gar- 

 den of Virginia'? I'he fig leaves which Ibrmed 

 the first clothing of Adam and Eve, were not they 

 the gigantic leaves of the fig banana, now grow- 

 ing on this coral rock of Indian Key? And 

 whence came the thread to stitch these leaves 

 together, unless from the pe/;o/es which compose 

 the stalk of the same banana ? When these first 

 poor people of the young earth were driven out 

 of the first garden into the universal wiklerness of 

 the eastern world, they become the pioneer 

 squatters on public lands. Yet remark and re- 

 member, there was not then any vegetable mould, 

 there could not be any rich black soil, on any 

 surface of the recent earth : yet vegetation flou- 

 rished ; and these pioneer squatters of the human 

 race found sufiicient subsistence in the desert wil- 

 derness of the eastern heinisphere. I allude to 

 these primitive facts, in this primitive style, because 

 all emigrants to Tropical Florida must be pioneer 

 squatters on public lands. The first squatters ol 

 the United States were the pioneer settlers at 

 Jamestown and at Plymouth ; and degenerate 

 must be the descendants of those pioneer s(juatters, 

 if they dread the minor privations and minor dan- 

 gers of pioneer squatters near Cape Sable and 



near Cape Florida. As truth is mighty and must 

 prevail, I have no doubt that in a liivv years Tro- 

 pical Florida will be densely crowded with poor 

 propagators of perennial plants. All that is re- 

 quisite to attract emigrants in shoals is to make 

 them eflectually acquainted with the irrefutable 

 realities of the superlative delightlulness of the 

 tropical atmosphere, and the superlative produc- 

 tiveness of the calcareous earth of South Florida. 

 Yet, such is the Ibrce of the national prejudices of 

 national ifrnorance, that I have been compelled, 

 through the senator and representative of South 

 Florida, to suggest to the le<rislative council of the 

 territory, the urgent expediency of their official 

 corroboration of the irrefutable reality of the su- 

 perlative healthiness of the delightful climate of 

 Tropical Florida !! ! Yet, after all, the first set- 

 tiers of South Florida will likely he composed of 

 the most intelligent men over Ibrty years of age, 

 who have much travelled experience of the United 

 States and of other extensive portions of the world. 

 An emigrant Irom the Atlantic states, after five 

 years' residence in the North Western States, three 

 years' residence in the South Western Stales, two 

 years in Texas and one year in Cuba, will much 

 more likely become a contented permanent settler 

 in the desert wilderness of Tropical Florida, than 

 any other person with less personal experience. 

 Such a settler will be sustained, like the ancient 

 Israelites in the sandy desert, by confident faith 

 in his future enjoyment of the fig and the vine, 

 the milk and the honey of the promised land. 

 Like the Christian of all ages, he knows that he 

 must pass through the shadows of tears to emerge 

 into the lights ol'joys ; that he must travel through 

 a narrow, rugged path, to reach the broad blooming 

 garden of Eden. You will hence readily conceive 

 that very lew native inhabitants of our Atlantic 

 states can possess the requisite qualifications to 

 render themselves happy in Tropical Florida. 

 He or she who would not cheerlLilly reside in the 

 original wilderness of Virginia, for the virtues of 

 a medicinal spring alone, cannot cheerfully reside 

 in the desert wilderness of South Florida for the 

 virtues of its tropical weather alone. Indeed I 

 would advise South Florida to be avoided by every 

 person who cannot cheerfully abstain fi-om the use 

 of tea, coffee, chocolate and sugar, until he can 

 produce them with his own haniJs! ! ! Yet there 

 are philosophical minds in the travelled bodies of 

 some actual residents of the Atlantic states, which 

 can appreciate the enjoyments of even a desert 

 wilderness with a tropical climate under a free 

 government. They know that even the primitive 

 earths of any tropical district abound with vegeta- 

 ble wealth and beauty. They know that in a 

 tropical climate the most valuable vegetables are 

 spontaneous productions of the most arid soils; 

 and \ha\. water alone is the only essential auxiliary 

 to the most luxuriant vegetation of the most pre- 

 cious plants of the whole world 1 You know that 

 the whole vegetation of inlant creation was the 

 natural generation oCuniversal iirigation ! ! When 

 "the Lord God planted a garden eastward in 

 Eden," and when out of the primitive " ground" 

 he thus " made" to grow every tree that is pleas- 

 ant to the sight and good for food, he also made 

 a river to water the garden, in which he put the 

 man " to dress it, and to keep it," by easy irriga- 

 tion ! Indeed, wherever th.e ancient country of 

 Eden may now be placed by modern travellers, 



