FLORIDA AND THE WEST INDIES 73 



sombrero at a "quarter" (is. ^d.), which came 

 between me and sunstroke more than once during 

 the next fortnight. Such a hat is light and port- 

 able, and can be worn flat on the head or tied round 

 the ears after a fashion that used in my schooldays 

 to be known as " Dolly Varden." 



The most abiding memory of my short stay in 

 this city was the conversation of a silver-haired old 

 gentleman, next to whom I found myself seated in 

 a lounge chair in the verandah of the Windsor 

 after lunch, a cavalier of the old type, one who 

 had fought in the War of Secession, of course, on 

 the losing side. He had, in fact, been at Shiloh 

 that fatal afternoon when Johnston died in the 

 rush on the " Hornet's Nest." This interesting 

 veteran had apparently lost all rancour, bowing his 

 head to the inevitable, as well he might do after 

 five-and-forty years had healed his wounds of mind 

 and body. Drinking my coffee and pulling at a 

 damp cigar, I listened with rare enjoyment to his 

 passionless reminiscence, and realised the Crusad- 

 ing zeal with which the Confederates must have 

 fought for their homes against Lincoln's invaders, 

 who, in addition to good Americans, included in 

 their ranks the riffraff of Europe. That many of 

 them, as he told me, swallowed their pride and 

 went to Washington in order that their beloved 

 South should not go unrepresented in the councils 

 of the nation was to their credit, for to rub 

 shoulders with carpet-baggers was, to these proud 

 Southerners, galling beyond words. This is not 

 the place, and this, also, not the pen, to discuss the 

 vital principle of that long and bloody war, slavery, 

 and not, as some allege, the political independence 



