TARPON FISHING IN THE GULF OF MEXICO 499 



American. He has lost all hope, and has almost forgotten the 

 old country. Probably he marries some girl of humble origin 

 there, settles down to a life of ' plume hunting ' (shooting rare 

 birds for their feathers), button-wood cutting, or some other 

 precarious and arduous existence. 



By way of experiment, I brought home one of these young 

 Florida Englishmen, who was never able to earn more than a 

 bare pittance during his five years there. He obtained active 

 employment here immediately on his arrival, and is now on a 

 fair way to a competency. His employer describes him as 

 ' one of the hardest-working lads he has ever met.' 



Many young Britons in these far-away settlements are com- 

 pletely forgotten by those at home. Some of them have not re- 

 ceived an English letter, or seen an English newspaper, for years. 

 The particular youth I have in my mind was an orphan, whose 

 guardian had neglected him ; and it was strange to find that 

 the boy had at one time occupied a leading position at one of 

 our great public schools. His four or five years of semi-savage 

 life caused him to completely forget for a time his spelling and 

 writing. 



This has nothing to do with fishing, but it is curious to note 

 that in the famous Tichborne trial a great point was made of the 

 fact that ' the claimant,' as Orton was called, had completely for- 

 gotten his French in his wild life in Australia. I found that 

 numbers of these young Englishmen of good birth, breeding, and 

 education had become uncouth and ignorant, and the monotonous 

 and semi-barbarous existence had the curious effect of almost 

 destroying their memory of home things. It is impossible to 

 imagine the isolated existence they lead. In the northern part 

 of Florida, though the English do not appear to flourish, they 

 have, at any rate, decent surroundings. There I met with a re- 

 tired colonel in the army who was driving a milkcart, while his 

 wife an extremely refined woman, who had been accustomed 



