48 Remarks upon East Florida. 



ernment. Much local information was thus withdrawn. St. 

 Augustine in the east and Pensacola in the west, with some few 

 subsidiary plantations, were all the settlements that came into our 

 possession. The rest was nearly an unoccupied waste. Even a 

 knowledge of the St. John's, the grand artery of the country, 

 had nearly passed away ; so much so, that at the commencement 

 of the present campaign (1837-8) the form, extent, and depth of 

 its upper waters were unascertained. 



The war which has lately been carried on with the Florida 

 Indians has opened the country generally to observation, and its 

 character will hereafter be better, if not well understood. Our 

 troops have traversed it in almost every direction ; nearly all parts 

 have been explored, excepting the interior of the lower parts of the 

 peninsula south of the Okachobee Lake. From the 26th degree 

 of latitude northward, the geography may be laid down with gen- 

 eral accuracy. Indeed, United States maps of this character are 

 already in the hands of some of our officers, which will no doubt 

 soon be lithographed. 



The river St. John's was early entered into both by the French 

 and the Spaniards, the rise and fall of whose establishments there 

 form an interesting and sanguinary portion of history. At the 

 present time (1838) there is scarcely a dwelling occupied on either 

 of its banks fifty miles above its mouth, though many evidences 

 of former occupancy, such as falling buildings, or fields bearing 

 the marks of having been cultivated, are seen some hundred miles 

 higher up. Many of these farms or plantations were abandoned 

 by the Spaniards at the change of jurisdiction ; others were the 

 work of Americans at a later date. But all had shared a common 

 fate at the opening of the present contest. The Indians burnt 

 all the buildings and plundered and massacred all the inhabitants 

 that were not defended by a garrison, and desolation is now seen, 

 where, a few months since, were sugar fields, cotton fields, orange 

 groves, and maiiy other proofs of a thriving population. 



This river (St. John's) is in most respects of a remarkable char- 

 acter. It is unlike most if not all of the rivers in North America, 

 having little current at any point of its course, and passing through 

 a country, from its very source, so level in its surface, as scarcely 

 to warrant the expectation of any stream at all. At low stages 

 of the water there is no visible current even in the upper parts 

 of the river, though at high stages it is visible, having perhaps a 



