24 HOME LIFE IN FLORIDA. 



CHAPTER II. 



A BACKWARD GLANCE. 



The question is frequently asked, " How is it, if Florida 

 is so desirable a country as a home, a fruit orchard and 

 vegetable garden, that people have been so long in finding 

 it out ? Why was it not thickly settled long years ago ?" 

 And the query is natural enough if one has not paid much 

 attention to the records of Florida's history ; but when one 

 pauses to look backward into those strangely romantic 

 pages, the wonder ceases. Not one amidst all the various 

 units that go to make uj^ the noble sum total of our United 

 States can boast of a story so full of marked events and 

 tragic romance that savors of the olden times as can the 

 beautiful "Land of Flowers," which, even from the first 

 moment of its discovery, seemed to be set apart from the 

 rest of the continent to undergo an experience all its own. 

 The very fashion of that discovery was out of the ordi- 

 nary track of common events. 



Dating from the ever memorable year 1492, when the 

 immortal Columbus revealed the existence of another con- 

 tinent to the astonished denizens of the "Old World," 

 each year had witnessed the departure from the shores of 

 the latter of one or more expeditions fitted out for the 

 double purpose of discovery and conquest. But though 

 the several voyagers had sailed all along the eastern shores 

 of the new continent, from the Carolinas northward, and 

 had landed here and there, exploring the country, its riv- 

 ers and harbors, yet none had set foot on the Florida coast, 

 although one or two had sailed within sight of its eastern 

 shores. No good harbor for their ships ofiering, however, 

 they passed it by unheeding. Somehow, as we have inti- 



