Deo. 23, 1887.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



42B 



source I had found near Fort Drum at the northern boun- 

 dary of Alpatiokee Flats, and had jumped across, but now 

 widening to two miles in extent. Conversing with a 

 stranger on board, about three o'clock of the second day, 

 and inquiring for Jacksonville time, he displayed an 

 old-fashioned silver movable-cased watch, remarking, 

 if was the best time-keeper on board, though a relic of 

 his grandfather's day. Telling him I could match it 

 as a time-keeper, I felt in my pants watch pocket 

 for a silver-edged lepine watch that I had owned for 

 more than thirty years, and which, then an old watch, 

 was given to me by a watch repairer to replace one I had 

 left with him to repair, but, through careless exposure at 

 his window had, during his temporary absence from the 

 room, been grabbed by a sneak thief with half a dozen 

 others on the same rock, and successfully secured. But 

 161 the pocket was empty. I recalled changing my 

 double-time lever watcli the second morning before at 

 St. Augustine from my money belt, where I had securely 

 carried it through all my swamp experiences, to my vest 

 watch pocket, and putting the old lepine without a chain 

 into my pants pocket. A little reflection convinced me 

 that it had slipped out while gathering specimens in the 

 suburbs of St. Augustine. So soon, therefore, as I arrived 

 at Jacksonville, I "wrote the postmaster at St. Augustine, 

 explain ing my loss and requesting him to send his clerk 

 to certain points in the lagoon I designated, offering him 

 a reward of live dollars if he should be successful in find- 

 ing it and would send it to my home address in Massachu- 

 setts by mail, carelessly neglecting to mention the num- 

 bers on the case and the works of the watch for identi- 

 fication, though I had them with me in my pocket book, 

 and also at my home. On arriving at my home a month 

 later, almost immediately my wife handed me a letter 

 from the postmaster for explanation. He sent his clerk 

 as requested, but he found nothing. During the evening, 

 however, he overheard a negro man say his son had 

 found a watch that day in the moat of the castle, and 

 obtained his consent to give it to him if I would send on 

 the numbers of my lost wa tch and the live dollars reward 

 if the numbers 1 should send indentified it. Remember- 

 ing my tramp through the moat I hesitated ( not to send 

 the money with the numbers, and in due time received 

 my watch in good order. 



At Jackson ville I disabused the minds of those who had 

 told me when I started up the St. John's, that after a 

 residence of years in Florida they had concluded that 

 Lake Okechobee was a myth, and advised them to look 

 out for the report of the exploring party who had circum- 

 navigated it. Shipping home my collection of beasts, 

 birds, reptiles, fishes, etc., by the shortest route, I made 

 a detour from Jacksonville to the southwest and north- 

 east sections of Georgia between which I had spent the 

 years from '38 to '42 as teacher. The little frontier village 

 of '38 in the Lower Creek Indian country of hardly more 

 than forty log houses, where, at the age of 19, 1 made my 

 debut as principal of a school in which I had pupils in a, 

 b, c, as well as in advanced Latin and Greek, sending 

 two of the latter class to college at the end of my first 

 year of instruction, had become a municipality of 5,000 

 inhabitants. The Creeks had, after hard fighting, been 

 removed west of the Mississippi within five years of my 

 location in the hamlet, and, with the exception of a few 

 individuals, the character of the people partook of the 

 worst elements of a frontier settlement. Seventy miles 

 distant from any stage route, my only way of reaching 

 it at that time was by an old negro and his mule cart, 

 making the journey in two days and camping at the foot 

 of a pine tree at night. My mail came once a week on 

 horseback, the original star route I imagine, and all the 

 appointments pertaining to civilization were of the most 

 primitive stamp, such as New England had outgrown a 

 hundred years before. 



A conch shell blown at the Court House in the center of 

 the village square, for it was the shire hamlet of the 

 county, notified me on the morning of my first Sunday 

 that a strolling Methodist preacher would hold services 

 in the Court House at 11 o'clock. Repairing from my 

 room just outside the village to the place of worship, I 

 passed in the open square two faro tables where peripate- 

 tic professional gamblers were fleecing a much larger 

 gathering than I found inside the Court House. The 

 preacher had his own Bible and hymn book and led all 

 the services, giving out each hymn line by line, and 

 starting the tune himself at each break. During the first 

 prayer I heard just outside a sudden out-burst. of loud 

 talking mingled with fearful oaths, which made me open 

 my eyes, but seeing neither minister nor worshippers in 

 the least disturbed, I composed myself and concluded 

 there was no disrespect intended for us. Before the ser- 

 mon was half through the outside rabble had matured a 

 plan for a horse-race, which was kept up with the usual 

 accompaniment of swearing and disputing till long after 

 our services were ended. Longer experience in the com- 

 munity taught me that the occasional religious services 

 enjoyed by a moiety of the citizens was not objected to 

 by the gamblers and horse-racers, so long as they were 

 not interfered with in their mode of enjoying the Sabbath. 

 Inquiring for some of my old pupils of thirty-six years 

 before, I found the war had spared a few, but not one of 

 half a dozen or more that I met recognized me, so 

 changed was I from an almost beardless youth of nine- 

 teen to an old man of fifty-five. 



In northeast Georgia, where for nearly a year I was 

 both instructor and colleague of an aged minister in 1841, 

 I was equally unrecognized by all who had known me in 

 either capacity. It was in this region that I attained my 

 majority and "cast my first vote, on which was the name 

 of Alexander H. Stephens, in his first candidacy for 

 Congress. The intimacy we formed during the year I 

 dwelt in his vicinity was never broken, but renewed 

 from time to time, as circumstances brought us together — 

 the last time but a few months before his decease in 1882. 



Desirous of visiting the site of my last school-house in 

 Georgia I left the cars at a station within seven miles of 

 it, and borrowing a horse from one of my old pupils, now 

 a lawyer of middle age, I essayed to find it. My route 

 required me to cross the same stream twice. At the first 

 crossing I forded the stream by gathering my limbs cross- 

 wise upon the pommel of the saddle, but found the sec- 

 ond, by my recollection of its bed, more than swimming 

 to my horse, with too swift a current to think of stem- 

 ming, and so turned aside for the night to stop with the 

 father of my pupil, who with his wife occupied the same 

 plantation of 3,800 acres I used to visit in '4L True 

 Southern hospitality welcomed me as of yore, though de- 

 spoiled of everything but the naked land by the exig- 



encies of the war. Talking over the situation with the 

 old gentleman he related the following war incidents: 



One morning one of his many negroes accosted him, 

 "Massa, we's all free." "Ah, how so?" "Massa Lincoln 

 says so." Surprised at the statement, and knowing the 

 blacks always had information of important movements 

 at me North, sometimes days in advance of the whites, 

 the master mounted his horse and galloped to town, six 

 miles, to learn that no one there knew what the state- 

 ment meant. In the afternoon news came by the mail 

 from Augusta of Lincoln's proclamation freeing the 

 slaves, and the master galloped back to his plantation to 

 inform his negroes that Massa Lincoln's saying so had 

 nothing to do with their freedom, as they were all under 

 Jefferson Davis, and ordered them to their work as usual. 

 Two years subsequently the master was again surprised 

 by the same old negro saying one morning, "Massa, now 

 we's free for sartin." "Ah, how's that?" "Lee's surren- 

 dered Richmond, and Jeff Davis has fled !" Again gal- 

 loping to town, no such news had reached there, but at 

 10 o'clock the mail confirmed it, and galloping back, the 

 master blew the conch shell, that brought all his negroes 

 in a trice from the most distant parts of the plantation 

 into his yard, when he said to the scores before him, from 

 the very spot on the piazza where we were sitting: "It's 

 a fact, Lee's surrendered; you are all free, and now you 

 must look out for your dinner. This last announce- 

 ment to poor dependents that had never in their 

 lives, from the youngest conscious child to the gray- 

 haired old men' and women, ever had a thought about 

 providing their dinner, the regular cook of the plan- 

 tation dealing out their rations at the appointed time 

 each day all prepared, so took them aback that not a 

 shout was heard or the wag of a tongue, but on the con- 

 trary, their very countenances of jet black grew pale 

 with consternation. After leaving them to their reflec- 

 tions for half an hour, the master blow the conch shell 

 again and told them he had been anticipating this result, 

 so giv ing them a dinner, he related the following plan as 

 the best thing for him and them — he being left with 

 nothing but his land, stock and farming implements, as 

 Confederate money would at once be worthless. The 

 oldest married negro could first choose twenty acres of 

 land in any part of his thirty-eight hundred, and move 

 his cabin on to it and make a home for himself; then the 

 next oldest married man, and so on, and then the un- 

 married could make their choice. He woidd also let 

 each have a mule and a plough, and the use of his gin 

 house and cotton press, and for his own support they 

 shotdd pay him a certain per cent, of what they got for 

 their crop; or every one could quit the plantation and 

 look out for himself. With the exception of one young 

 unmarried man, all accepted his offer and moved their 

 dozen or more cabins on to the land of their choice, and 

 at the time of his narrating the circumstances to me, ten 

 years afterward, every family was on the place of their 

 first choosing, with hardly an exception, and everything 

 had gone prosperously with him, and for his own sake he 

 would not have slavery restored for all his plantation. A 

 second visit, eight years afterward, to the same plantation 

 produced the same testimony from the considerate and 

 humane old master. 



Expressing my approbation of a beautiful peacock 

 strutting in the yard, the generous old wife said to me, 

 "Catch it and 'mount it for your museum at Brown 

 University, as a present from me." In five minutes its 

 life was forfeited to the interests of science. 



Having promised a gratuitous lecture in the village in 

 the evening, I mounted my horse after dinner to return, 

 a young man accompanying me a mile to the creek I had 

 forded tlie day before, but the rain during the night had 

 swollen it to swimming and also overflowed its banks on 

 either side for more than 100ft. Observing on the right 

 a high staked fence, extending within 20ft. of the other 

 side, with the top rail just above the rushing stream with 

 overhanging branches, I gave my horse to the young 

 man to take back to its owner at his convenience, and 

 mounting the fence, with the incumbrance of the pea- 

 cock with its 5ft. tail and 15lbs. weight, and a tall silk 

 hat, I walked the sharp edge of the rail by the aid of the 

 slender overhead branches, thanks to the acrobatic prac- 

 tice of my youth, till I reached the end of the fence, when, 

 tossing the fowl as far toward the shore as I could, and hold- 

 ing my watch and purse above my head, I followed, land- 

 ing in water only waist deep, instead of neck deep, as I 

 feared. My companion on the opposite side, seeing me 

 safe across, swung his hat and shouted, "A Yankee for 

 anything and forever!" Replacing my watch and shoul- 

 dering my bird, I plodded the five miles to the village, 

 arriving just in time to change my wet underclothes for 

 dry, but for the want of another suit of outer garments 

 was obliged to lecture in wet pants. My neighbors and 

 pupils of a generation before were, however, well pleased 

 to hear the voice of their old friend and teacher. 



Learning that an old college-mate was residing in the 

 vicinity of Toccoa Falls in northern Georgia, I made a 

 detour of 200 miles by rail to call upon him. These falls 

 are of wonderful beauty, and with the present railroad 

 facilities, are attracting hundreds of visitors annually. 



From Toccoa, Georgia, to Charlotte county, Virginia, I 

 accomplished by rail what took me by stage through the 

 same towns in December, 1841, from Monday noon of 

 continuous travel, night and day, with the exception of 

 Sunday, to Thursday noon of the week following. I was 

 the only through passenger, and usually at night the 

 only one, so that my trunk was taken inside the stage 

 for fear of robbers, and filling the place between the 

 seats, made me a more comfortable couch. The rivers 

 were all crossed by ferries, and one night, the lights of 

 the stage having gone out, the new driver missed the 

 path leading to the ferry, and found out his mistake 

 when a sudden wheeling around of the horses upset the 

 stage within twenty feet of the bank, waking me out of 

 a sound sleep. Relighting the uninjured lamp by 

 matches furnished by myself, we surveyed our sur- 

 roundings, and loosening the jaded horses, shouted for 

 help. Soon the negro ferryman on the opposite side 

 replied, and coming to the proper landing several rods 

 up stream, soon righted matters for us. At another 

 ferry the rope broke when nearly across, but as it was 

 in the daytime, we soon caught by the overhanging 

 branches and pulled ourselves up stream to the right 

 landing place. 



The cars leaving me in Virginia five miles from the 

 nearest of my old school-mates of 1832, I engaged a horse 

 for two days' riding. When brought for me to mount, 

 the bridle had no two parts alike, one stirrup was of wood 



suspended by a rope and the other of iron suspended by 

 leather, and the horse himself was evidently a remnant 

 of the cavalry of ten years previous, or more probably of 

 the artilleiw or an ambulance corps. To my remonstrance, 

 I was told it was the best in the neighborhood, a most 

 painful contrast to the blooded animals, with gorgeous 

 trappings, i used to ride on the fox hunts forty-two years 

 before in the same region. Arrived at the door of the resi- 

 dence of my school-mate, she herself appeared, so un- 

 changed in all the intervening time I could not help grasp- 

 ing her hand with a school-boy's familiarity, and tighten- 

 ing my grasp the more she tried to escape from it, while I 

 was parleying for a recognition, from her. At length, 

 propriety suggested my rudeness, as she evidently began 

 to be alarmed, and letting go my hold, I asked her the 

 leading question, whether she could not recall events 

 of forty-two years previous. "Oh, dear, am I so old," 

 was her only answer, with a quick, "but who are 

 you?" "I am the little Yankee boy of the log school- 

 house on your father's plantation;" and then she herself 

 seized both my hands involuntarily and it was my turn 

 to leave the unclasping to her. The next moment tears 

 came to her eyes, with the sad exclamation, "Oh, that 

 you should find us all in such changed circumstances 

 from what you knew us in our childhood and would have 

 known us up to the war. That hack of a horse you just 

 rode up on and its rigging is a fair sample of how the 

 war left us — my husband, a physician, and our two sons 

 returning from the ranks on the surrender of Lee with 

 not a cent between us all except twenty-five dollars I had 

 contrived to secure to myself and which my husband 

 took to Petersburg to purchase me a calico dress, the first 

 of any kind I had purchased in all the four years. In 

 yonder shed is our carriage that, for the want of suitable 

 horses and harness, has not been harnessed since the war, 

 and every luxury of the kind forborne, with no prospect 

 of the times being any better in my day." Such and 

 much more was the sad tale I listened to during the three 

 hours I stopped, before proceeding ten miles further to 

 the residence of her twin sister, and two miles further to 

 the residence of her brother, near the paternal mansion, 

 where during their youth every luxury abounded as well 

 as at their several homes, till the exigencies of war made 

 Virginia the greatest sufferer of all the seceding States. 



Spending only one day and night between the three 

 families, I returned to the station and hastened on to 

 Washington, to find, to my great disappointment, that I 

 had not after all my effort seemed a Wurdemann heron. 

 Subsequent study of the species, however, proves my 

 specimen not to be the long-known blue heron, but a 

 variety now lately determined to be the Ardea wardi or 

 Florida blue heron. 



Leaving Washington after spending one night, I reached 

 my home on the evening of the last day of April, in a 

 snowstorm that had been unintermitting during the day. 



The following extract from a detailed report of the New 

 Orleans Times-Democrat Exploring Expedition through 

 the Florida Everglades in 1884 will make a fitting close to 

 our narrative. 



"When wo reached W bite Water Bay we had accomplished all 

 we promised to do, and more than any man or men ever were ahle 

 to do before. We are the first party of white men who ever pene- 

 trated the Northern Glades, and the first who ever started from 

 the southern shore of Lake Okeechobee and came out at the Gulf 

 of Mexico through Shark's River, without diverging a mile to the 

 east or west from their due south course. 



"in conclusion I sum up my observations of the Everglades in 

 a few word s: 



"It is a vast marsh, interspersed with thousands of islands 

 small in extent, and with few exceptions completely inundated, 

 even at the time we explored them, which was during a very dry 

 season. On the islands that were out of water there was hut a 

 few inches of soil covering the rooks. In my opinion, their drain- 

 age is utterly impracticable, and, even if it were practicable, the 

 reward for such an undertaking would be lands that could he 

 utilized for no other purpose than as a grazing ground for stock. 

 They are nothing more nor less than a vast and useless marsh, 

 and such they will remain for all time to come, in all probability. 



"It would not be possible to build, or maintain if built, a tele- 

 graph line along the route traversed by us, which statement is 

 made in reply to numerous inquiries as to the feasibility of such 

 an enterprise. A. P. Williams." 



I have designedly omitted in the foregoing narrative 

 scientific names of specimens and specific descriptions, 

 intending it only as an account of the adventures of a 

 naturalist collector in the Everglades. J. W. P. Jenks. 



Brown University, Providence, R. I. 



As a supplement to the foregoing narration, I may 

 state that recent information gathered during a late visit 

 to the region, almost convinces me that Mr, J.'s unex- 

 pected visit to our camp on Sunday was in pursuance of 

 a plot between him and a neighbor for some evil purpose, 

 which was frustrated by that "neighbor failing to find our 

 camp, so deeply hidden as it was from the usual trails of 

 the cattle rangers. My informers claim that after we 

 left the State dark hints from some of the outlaws gave 

 color to then- regret that so good a prize had escaped 

 them. Personally, I can but hope that their better class 

 of neighbors did them an injustice by drawing any such 

 inference after our departure, though subsequent events 

 akin to the murder of Mr. Lang do not perhaps warrant 

 a conclusion as to their innocent intentions toward us. 



As to the trial of the murderers of Mr. Lang, personal 

 witnesses of it assured me in my late visit that the ac- 

 count quoted in the narrative from the Boston paper is 

 substantially correct, and that the "spiritualism" dodge 

 of the cunning lawyer seemed a verdict of manslaughter 

 only, against the clearest weight of evidence in favor of 

 murder in the first degree. Tom's fate was to be punished 

 so repeatedly in the Penitentiary that, at length, his 

 powerfully robust frame succumbed to the lash and two or 

 three years only sufficed to put him in his grave. His 

 companion in the murder of Mr. Lang was shot by the 

 prison guard while attempting to escape after some years 

 of imprisonment. Mr. J. was arrested at his own table 

 by a ruse of the sheriff and his posse, who were dining 

 with him as pretended cattle-buyers. But escaping from 

 jail before his trial, and removing with his family into 

 regions still more remote, he was at last, through one 

 who had been a Pinkerton detective, and who had been 

 for two months playing the part of a cowboy and "hail 

 fellow well met" with him and his neighbors, decoyed 

 into an ambush through the pretense of the detective's 

 wishing to trade horses with Mm. Though none but the 

 detective was in sight while the negotiation was going 

 on, suddenly Mr. J. became suspicious, and mounting his 

 horse fled, while the posse in ambush fired, but only 

 wounding him, though instantly killing his horse, which 

 fell so quickly that his rider pitched headlong into the 

 low fork of twin trees, and by the time the posse reached 

 him he was dead with a broken neck, J, W. P. J. 



