150 
BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 
attention of all good citizens of the United States. In this interest we commend the words of Hon. 
T. T. Wright, who says : 
"The water farms of the United States, oceans, lakes, and rivers, are neglected and but half 
developed. Let us turn on them the search-light of science to reveal their treasures and possibilities, 
and thereby increase openings for new fields of labor and a larger supply of food for mankind.” 
Trusting that this Congress will receive the consideration it deserves, and that its deliberations 
may prove beneficial to the citizens of the United States and the world at large, 
W. D. Bloxham, 
Governor of Florida. 
Mr. Gillett then addressed the meeting, welcoming the delegates in behalf of the 
city of Tampa, after which he introduced Governor Bloxham, who spoke as follows: 
The assembling of this Fishery Congress is the result of the suggestion of Col. T. T. Wright, one 
of the most progressive intellects of the South. His presentation of the possibilities of such a meeting 
was the prompting cause of my issuing the call, and he organized the movement so well executed by 
Tampa’s board of trade and Dr. H. M. Smith of the United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. 
Tampa’s representative will bid you welcome to this city ; and I have been requested to welcome you 
not only to this progressive and prosperous city, but to Florida. I take pleasure in performing the 
task, feeling that in doing so I but voice the sentiments of our entire people. 
I welcome you to a State whose history is the most romantic in the annals of America. When 
familiar with the raiment with which nature has clothed her — the richest that a tropical luxuriance 
could furnish so captivating a figure — with her limpid streams glistening like sheens of silver under 
a semitropical sun; with deep-bedded rocks reflecting with a dazzling brilliancy God’s great orb of 
light, and penciled fringings of the richest foliage adding a halo to their unsurpassed beauty, 
can we wonder that fable’s persuasive tongue invested her with treasures surpassing the famed 
El Dorado? Are we surprised that imagination’s “weird sisters” pictured her waters as holding by 
divine right the most precious of Hygeia’s elixir to restore honorable but tottering infirmities to 
the freshness and vigor of robust manhood, and that the hope of this famed fabled physical regen- 
eration should have served as an irresistible stimulant to Spain’s lion-hearted cavalier, Ponce de Leon ? 
You meet here upon historic ground, where the footprints of some of Spain’s greatest cavaliers 
and America’s noblest captains can be traced. While it is not my intention to recur to their heroic 
deeds, or to offer you a cup filled with the ambrosia of ancient story, yet there is one romance, based 
upon historic fact, associated with this very spot, that I feel you will kindly indulge should a brief 
reference thereto be made. 
Wherever the history of America is read, there the story of Pocahontas is known. The romance 
is most captivating, and some of Virginia’s most honored sons trace back a lineage to this daughter of 
the forest. But the historic fact that a similar scene was enacted on this very spot, three-quarters 
of a century before the name of Pocahontas was ever lisped by English lips, is unknown even to many 
Floridians. 
It was here, in 1528, twelve years before De Soto landed upon Tampa’s Bay, that Juan Ortez, a 
Spanish youth of eighteen, having been captured at Clearwater, was brought before Hirrihugua, the 
stern Indian chief, in whose breast was rankling a vengeance born of ill treatment of his mother by 
the followers of the ill-fated Narvaez. Ortez was young and fair, but the cruel chief had given 
orders, and here was erected a gridiron of poles, faggots were prepared, and young Ortez was bound 
and stretched to meet the demands for a human sacrifice. The torch was being applied, the crackling 
flames began to gather strength for a human holocaust, when the stern chief’s daughter threw herself 
at her father’s feet and interposed in Ortez’s behalf. Her beauty rivaled that of the historic dame 
“whose heavenly charms kept Troy and Greece ten years in arms.” The soft language of her soul 
flowed from her never-silent eyes as she looked up through her tears of sympathy, imploring the life 
of the young .Spaniard. Those tears, the ever-ready weapon of a woman’" weakness, touched the 
heart of even the savage chief, and Ortez was for a time spared. 
But the demon of evil in a few months again took possession of Hirrihugua, and his daughter 
saw that even her entreaties would he unavailing. She was betrothed to Mucoso, the young chief of 
a neighboring tribe. Their love had been plighted — that God-given love that rules the savage 
breast as — 
“It rules the court, the camp, the grove, 
And men below, and saints above.” 
