ON THE EAST COAST OF FLORIDA. 57 



East Coast Railway steamer "Santa Lucia," now of the steamer 

 "City of Key West," and probably is a "chestnut," but I have 

 never seen it in print, and presume it is not copyrighted. 



While on the river during winter of 1895, I heard several 

 times that a great many Pompanos had jumped on to the "Santa 

 Lucia " just at the entrance to Jupiter Narrows opposite Gilbert's Bar. 

 I have known the place very well, as the steamers almost every trip 

 would ground there, from a few minutes to hours, and have a hard 

 time floundering around trying to get off. And I had seen many 

 Pompano jumping in the inside channel almost every time I was there. 



I, naturally, after hearing the stories several times, began to be 

 suspicious that they might possibly be true, although the number had 

 grown from twenty or thirty on some trips, up to seventy-nine. I 

 concluded to ask Capt. Bravo about it. Later, I was at the Royal 

 Poinciana for a couple of months. At that time the bridge across 

 Lake Worth had not been built, so the "Santa Lucia" had been 

 brought down and was used as a ferry for passengers and freight from 

 West Palm Beach to the Royal Poinciana. As this employed but a 

 part of the day, the boat made excursion trips during the forenoon 

 and afternoon to Pitts Island, north, and Lantana, south. 



A party of a dozen or so of St. Louis people, including my 

 daughter and myself, took the Lantana trip one afternoon. As we 

 were all out in front on the cabin deck, and Capt. Bravo among us, 

 I thought it a good time to ask him as to the truth of the Jupiter 

 Narrows Pompano stories, which I did, in the presence of our party 

 and other passengers. The captain immediately replied that the 

 stories were true, and said : "You will believe anything Mr. Flagler 

 will say, won't you?" We all replied, "Yes, of course we will." 

 Then he went on as follows : "Uncle Henry was on the boat a while 

 ago, and as we approached Gilbert's Bar from the north asked if these 

 stories about Pompano were true, and I told him I would convince 

 him. Night was coming on, so I had our large ice box, with some 

 ice in it, placed right in the gangway aft, right near the opening, and 

 just before we got to the Narrows put a lantern on each end of the 

 box. We got into the Narrows just about dark, and the Pompanos 

 began to jump into the box onto the ice, and never stopped until 

 they filled it heaping full. We did not get aground that night, as we 

 usually did. Now, if you don't believe me, ask Uncle Henry." I 

 will leave the story with the reader, simply saying that, as far as I 



