xvi INTRODUCTION. 



assistance of Colonel J. Pkingle, we went on board the re- 

 venue cutter the " Marion," commanded by Robert Day, 

 Esq., to whose friendly attention I am greatly indebted for the 

 success which I met with in my pursuits, during his cruize 

 along the dangerous coast of East Florida, and amongst the 

 islets that every where rise from the surface of the ocean, like 

 gigantic water-lilies. At Indian Key, the Deputy-Collector, 

 Mr Thruston, aflPorded me important aid ; and at Key West 

 I enjoyed the hospitaUty of Major Glassel, his officers, and 

 their families, as well as of my friend Dr Benjamin Strobel, 

 and other inhabitants of that singular island, to all of whom I 

 now sincerely offer my best thanks for the pleasure which their 

 society afforded me, and the acquisitions which their ever ready 

 assistance enabled me to make. 



Having examined every part of the coast which it was the 

 duty of the commander of the Marion to approach, we returned 

 to Charleston with our numerous prizes, and shortly afterwards 

 I bent my course eastward, anxious to keep pace with the birds 

 during their migrations. With the assistance of my friend 

 Bachman, 1 now procured for my assistant Mr Ward, a 

 situation of ease and competence, in the Museum of the Natural 

 History Society of Charleston, and Mr Lehman returned to 

 his home. At Philadelphia I was joined by my family, and 

 once more together we proceeded towards Boston. That dreadful 

 scourge the cholera was devastating the land, and spreading 

 terror around its course. We left Philadelphia under its chas- 

 tising hand, and arrived at New York, where it was raging, 

 while a heavy storm that suddenly burst over our heads threw 

 an additional gloom over the devoted city, already bereft of a 



