~ 840 ISLES OF SUMMER. 
_ ers to interfere with their trade. They pay sometimes to pilota 
vessel, and pilot her ashore—then they come in for salvage.’ 
. See,” said he “she has no cargo aboard, and her boat is on her 
“davits ready to be launched. You can’t keep any account of 
- goods taken from a wreck, and, running into Jupiter inlet, it is 
an easy matter to secure the plunder. Depend on’t, them fellows 
are“wide awake and watching for business. Their vessel shows 
no name and can’t be reported.” 
An old resident of Nassau informed us that formerly tore 
were persons doing business in that city, who were well known. 
-to be in collusion with certain ship owners who desired io sell 
their vessel property and cargoes to the insurance companies. 
When one of these men visited New York, very soon afterwards 
New York vessels would be wrecked in the Bahama waters. The 
masters of vessels purposely wrecked their vessels, an arrange- 
-ment having been previously made with the wreckers, and a cer- 
-tain-division of the salvage money agreed upon. It is believed 
and hoped that such cases do not often now occur. 
--Having no communication with the silent man at the whéel 
-who held in his hands our lives upon the sea, we seldom knéw 
-precisely where we were, while we ‘‘ floated like bubbles onward.” 
Our steamer’s prow still persistently pointed to the south, and 
we skirted the eastern shore of the Peninsula of Florida, in ‘what 
is-called “‘the Florida Gulf.” A long sand beach gave to the 
blue sea afringe of snowy whiteness. Beyond this, and between | 
it-and the sky, Southern Florida was sandwitched. A low, nar- 
row, monotonous belt of green was all that we could see of ‘the 
wet, wooded and flowery land, with its luscious fruits, beautiful 
birds and loathsome reptiles. As we approached the latitude 
of St. Augustine, our course was so far to the east that ‘the 
shining shore” was with more difficulty discerned. We almost 
envied the few long-sighted passengers who secmed to see and 
