EPISODES 333 



SPRING GARDEN 



Having heard many wonderful accounts of a certain 

 spring near the sources of the St. John's River in 

 East Florida, I resolved to visit it, in order to judge for 

 myself. On the 6th of January, 1832, I left the planta- 

 tion of my friend John Bulow, accompanied by an ami- 

 able and accomplished Scotch gentleman, an engineer 

 employed by the planters of those districts in erecting 

 their sugar-house establishments. We were mounted on 

 horses of the Indian breed, remarkable for their activity 

 and strength, and were provided with guns and some pro- 

 visions. The weather was pleasant, but not so our way, 

 for no sooner had we left the "King's Road," which had 

 been cut by the Spanish government for a goodly dis- 

 tance, than we entered a thicket of scrubby oaks, suc- 

 ceeded by a still denser mass of low palmettoes, which 

 extended about three miles, and among the roots of which 

 our nags had great difficulty in making good their footing. 

 After this we entered the pine barrens, so extensively 

 distributed in this portion of the Floridas. The sand 

 seemed to be all sand and nothing but sand, and the pal- 

 mettoes at times so covered the narrow Indian trail which 

 we followed, that it required all the instinct or sagacity 

 of ourselves and our horses to keep it. It seemed to us 

 as if we were approaching the end of the world. The 

 country was perfectly flat, and, so far as we could survey 

 it, presented the same wild and scraggy aspect. My com- 

 panion, who had travelled there before, assured me that, 

 at particular seasons of the year, he had crossed the bar- 

 rens when they were covered with water fully knee-deep, 

 when, according to his expression, they " looked most 

 awful ; " and I readily believed him, as we now and then 

 passed through' muddy pools, which reached the saddle- 

 girths of our horses. Here and there large tracts covered 



