have been good and liberal, and would you now repay 
their kindness by robbing them? As a friend, I beg yoiL 
to consider this matter seriously; you have Considered it 
from your point of view, now look at it from the other 
side." 
He stopped speaking, and for a moment there was 
silence in the room. The interpreter, who> had been stand- 
ing in the doorway between the two rooms, softly stole 
out, a scared and trembling Frenchman. Long John stood 
grimly beside the cannon ; his heart was beating furiously, 
and there was a choking sensation in his throat; he felt 
dizzy and faint, as he waited to hear the dreaded signal 
to fire the piece. 
Old Kah-moos was the first to break the silence. "Out 
FLORIDA COWBOYS. 
of consideration to Power & Bro., fellows, I move that 
we overlook this matter and go home; giving fair warning, 
however, to those present and absent that we will not 
overlook another offense of the kind." 
The others quickly agreed to this, and the keg again 
went the rounds, pipes were lit, conversation became 
general. As the crowd arose to< depart, Healy asked 
them to step into the trade room and look behind the 
counter; they did so, and what they saw there caused 
them to look very solemn and thoughtful. They hadn't 
a word to say as they passed out and prepared tx> ride 
and drive away. Finally, however, Kah-moos burst out : 
"Johnny, old man, if we had refused to drop the matter, 
would that old cannon really have mowed us down, or 
was that a bluff you was runnin' in .on us?*' 
"Ask Long John," he replied. 
"I was just waitin' to hear him ; say the word," said 
John, "and then I was to touch her off." 
Kah-moos dug the spurs into his horse, and away the 
party went. And that was the end of the Is-pit-si 
cavalry. , ; - O'-muk-e-tai. 
Florida Water Ways in Summer. 
Up North River. 
St. Augustine, Florida, June 21. — The ordinary tourist 
thinks of Florida summertime as likely to be too hot for 
endurance, and this because he finds March so lovely and 
warm, and thinks to himself and says to everybody he 
meets, "If it is so warm in March, how hot must it be in 
June?" So figuring out the future by this rule of three, 
he hies himself home to frost and mud and all things dis- 
agreeable, instead of remaining through the balmy months 
of spring and early summer, to find the cool sea breeze 
AFTER CRABS. 
temper the air to a most delightful, freshness, and to 
make sailing and bathing one long delight. 
In any of these days take a sailboat, with tent and 
camping outfit, simple or elaborate as you may choose. 
You can be perfectly comfortable with the most simple, 
or you can luxuriate in the most elaborate. Your colored 
skipper will be both captain, mate, crew and cook, all in 
one; and you can sail away any fine morning certain of a 
good time, only to be measured by ones temperament and 
desires, for there will be no limit to opportunity. After 
carefully going over the cargo to see that nothing of 
camp equipage or of provisions or cooking utensils or 
tackle have been left behind, following more or less 
closely Hallock s list as to provisions Uook up the old 
book), if you sail up North River, you will leave the 
FOREST AND . STREAM. 
wharf with all sail spread, and soon the city and Fort 
Marion are left behind. Passing Grass Island as you turn 
into North River from the Matanzas, you leave at your 
right a reminder of the olden days in the battery on 
North Beach, from which Oglethorpe bombarded the fort 
in 1740. From this point, if you have been careful to time 
your trip with a favoring tide, it is all plain sailing, and 
passing Burton's Island you get a glimpse of the site of 
Fort Moosa, the outpost of old St. Augustine, from 
whence the alarm of an expected attack was sent to the 
garrison at the fort. On the other side of the river runs 
the long, narrow peninsula of the North Beach. 
The result of the effort through legislation for the pro- 
tection of birds of plumage is already apparent in the 
number of the great blue herons and the white egrets that 
rise from the marsh as we go sailing by, while many re- 
main standing along the edge at their usual occupation of 
fish catching, refusing to be disturbed. Overhead the 
osprey sails back from his trip to the ocean with his din- 
ner of fish in his talons. These birds must have a nice 
sense of taste, otherwise why should they fly across a 
river wriggling with fish, and fly sometimes for miles to 
reach the ocean before swooping down upon their prey? 
They may be real epicures, and disdain the sometimes 
muddy flavor of fish caught outside the sea. 
So it may be a couple of hours have passed and we 
have sailed by the old plantation known as "Casa Cola," 
which, being translated, means the end house, as marking 
in the old time the limit of settlement, and at Sanchez 
Point come to where the river divides into two branches, 
one retaining the name North River, and the other 
Guano Creek, running nearly parallel to each other for 
many miles. 
In the beautiful woods that cover a large extent of this 
territory may still be found some of the olive trees that 
flourished here when this, too, was a plantation of the 
olden time. 
Two miles further sailing along the river, here heavily 
wooded to the water's edge with live and water oaks and 
cedar, with here and there a tall pine lifting its head 
high above its neighbors, we come to Shell Bluff, the 
house of Mr. Sabbate, sometimes occupied, then for long 
CAMP WEBB. 
months vacant. The house stands on the summit of a 
shell heap, one of those ancient dwelling places of which 
there are so many all along the Florida coast, and which 
may have been the dwelling place of men five thousand 
years ago. 
The landscape has little changed since then, and stand- 
ing now on its summit you look to the westward over the 
river and over the marsh beyond to the pine forest 
stretching itself away mile after mile. At the edge of 
the river, just opposite to where you are standing, is the 
house of the old hunter, Jim Ponce, whom I have seen 
cantering through the woods with the hounds in full cry 
after a deer, and his double-barreled muzzleloading gun 
at full cock lying across his saddle in front of him. He 
never touched the gun until his reckless pace brought him 
within shooting distance of the deer, and then apparently 
one motion stopped his. horse and brought the gun to his 
shoulder, generally with fatal effect so far as the deer 
was concerned. 
After our short and pleasant call on the folks at the 
Shell Bluff, still having ten miles to go, and anxious to 
keep on the rising tide, we sail away for the head of the 
river, where we expect to camp. We are quite careful 
now, as our skipper is not familiar with this upper part 
of the river, and banks which are often in the middle of 
the broad river are to be avoided. Of course, on a rising 
tide it is not so serious a matter as to run on one with 
a falling tide. But then there is more or less delay in 
any event, so a careful lookout is kept from the bow, and 
nothing more serious happens than the occasional touch- 
ing bottom by the centerboard, which gives timely warn- 
ing, and also tells the way out. As we sail away from 
Sabbate's, Piney Island looms in the distance five miles 
away, and we know we must sail around it, for it is really 
a peninsula. With a broad river and a tide still rising, 
we have little trouble in keeping clear of sandbanks. We 
make good time to and around Piney Island, and then 
some miles ahead see the thicket known as Cook's Ham- 
mock, and know that a few miles beyond that is the site 
for the camp. 
With a good broad water almost to. the head of this 
arm of the sea known as a river, we pitch our camp as 
evening shadows fall, and with plenty of wood for both 
fire and light, cook our evening meal. In such a camp 
and by such a fire, as nowhere else, can all the luxurious 
repast known as "hog and hominy" with coffee, be thor- 
oughly appreciated. 
Here* with deep water coming up so near that bathing, 
fishing, and Crabbing and oyster gathering are. all well 
within the effort of even the most pronounced idler, the 
days of the Camp pass, with excursions through wood 
paths and along old but little worn roads to the site of 
Fort Diego of the early days of Florida's settlement, and 
to Indian mounds, the remains of a far earlier habitation. 
A punt with a pole gave us the opportunity to explore 
the river to its very head, and on this excursion we had 
the opportunity not often given of securing the picture of 
SABBATE S COTTAGE ON THE OLD SHELL BLUFF. 
a herd of cattle being driven across the river by a number 
of cattlemen. 
We were poling the punt up the headwaters of the river 
beyond the camp toward the bridge, when through the 
w;oods we saw an occasional horseman, and knew by the 
pistol-like cracking of the bullwhips that a round-up was 
close at hand. And sure enough, we soon heard the 
shouting, mingled with the cracking of the whips, as the 
cattle came out of the woods 'and plunged into the river, 
with the nine horsemen in rear and on either flank to 
keep them going, for in the deepest part of the river they 
had to swim. While we poled so as to aid the horsemen, 
we took several snap shots', one of which is shown with 
a group of the cattle and the horsemen in the distance. 
After the cattle and horsemen had crossed the river, 
we poled on and passed under the bridge with but a 
scant space above us, although we bent close to the rail 
of the boat, and we poled on until we reached the very 
head of the river, the interlacing branches barring our 
further progress. 
On our return to camp, the first exciting incident of 
the trip occurred, when Harry, as we approached the 
shore, in attempting to haul the boat to land by grasping 
an overhanging branch, and the twig giving way, sud- ' 
denly disappeared in fifteen feet of water, leaving a hat 
floating as a reminder of his going down. He, however, 
reappeared; none the worse for a dipping, and was soon 
ashore with the rest of us. 
Mr. S., to whom we are indebted for most of the pic- 
tures which illustrate this article, is an accomplished 
amateur in photography, and also an adept in making 
things comfortable about the camp, having been a camper- 
cut since boyhood; and this leads to just one word of 
moralizing. Let no one go on a camping trip who does 
OUR YACHT AT CAMP LANDING. 
not love it, or to whom it may possibly become a bore. 
Such a one inevitably affects the whole camp. But when 
everybody, skippers and all, are thoroughly in love with 
the life while it lasts, then for recreation, in its full sense 
and significance, there is nothing that can compare with 
it. It is well to take some literature with you, but it is 
hardly ever opened, as one finds little time for reading. 
And so the days went by, until one morning found us 
with tent struck and put away on board, a hearty break- 
fast eaten, the smouldering embers of the camp-fire care- 
fully extinguished, and the tide just at top of the flood, 
the sail was hoisted, and with a favoring tide we started 
on our homeward voyage. The wind was light but fair, 
and we gaily floated along with our westerly breeze grow- 
ing lighter and lighter, until we reached the neighborhood 
