245 



April 4. 



This day we passed the Caymana islands ; but 

 owing to our having always either a contrary wind, 

 or no wind at all, it was not till the 12th that Cuba 

 w^as visible, nor till the 14th that we reached Cape 

 Florida. 



April 15. 



At noon this day we found ourselves once more 

 sailing on the Atlantic, and bade farewell to the 

 Gulf of Florida without having heard any news of 

 the dreaded Commodore Mitchell. The narrow 

 and dangerous part of this Gulf is about two hun- 

 dred miles in length, and fifty in breadth, bordered 

 on one side by the coast of Florida, and on the other, 

 first by Cuba, and then by the Bahama Islands, of 

 which the Manilla reef forms the extremity, and 

 which reef also terminates the Gulf. But on both 

 sides of these two hundred miles, at the distance 

 of about four or five miles from the main land, 

 there extends a reef which renders the navigation 

 extremely dangerous. The reef is broken at inter- 

 vals by large inlets ; and the sudden and violent 

 squalls of wind to which the Gulf is subject, so 

 frequently drive vessels into these perilous open- 

 ings, that it is worth the while of many of the 

 poorer inhabitants of Florida to establish their 

 habitations within the reef, and devote themselves 

 and their small vessels entirely to the occupation 



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