In the Wilds of Florida: A Tale of Warfare and Hunting

tower.The water was perfectly smooth; she was thus able to get up close to thebase. Captain Crump himself was seated in the stern. He hailed, toknow what had happened. A few words explained this. The difficulty wasto get into the boat. Should we open the door, the water, which was ofconsiderable height outside, would rush in and wet us all through, if itdid not drown us. There was, fortunately, a long rope in the boat. Bymeans of the straps to our knapsacks, our handkerchiefs, and some piecesof string which we mustered among us, we formed a line of sufficientlength to lower down and haul up the rope. The end of this we securedto an iron hinge, to which a shutter had once been fixed.

  Dixie, as the only sailor amongst us, offered to go first. He veryquickly descended into the boat. We followed in succession; when thecaptain, standing up, cut the rope above his head.

  "Now, lads, let's make the best of our way back," he said; "the tidewill soon be falling, and I have no fancy to be stranded and have tofight a battle with Indians, or, what would be worse, find that they hadmade their way on board the schooner during our absence."

  We, of course, were equally anxious to get away from the dangerousneighbourhood; and pulling the boat out through the slight surf whichbroke on the shore, we were soon clear of the land.

  On hearing our account, our worthy skipper congratulated us on ourescape, and blamed himself for having allowed us to go on shore.

  "I ought to have warned you not to go so far, for the Indians hereaboutsare always ready to attack white men, if they can find them unpreparedfor resistance; and they have already cut off several settlers andhunters, whom they took by surprise," he observed.

  It was nearly morning by the time we reached the schooner, and as therewas a light wind off shore, the captain immediately got under weigh. Wewere then glad enough to wrap ourselves in our blankets, and lie down onthe deck to obtain the rest we so much needed.

  CHAPTER SIX.

  THE CRUISE CONTINUED--AMONG THE ISLETS--TURTLES--HARPOONING--A BEAUTIFULSUBJECT FOR STUDY--LEJOILLIE OBTAINS A SUPPLY OF CURIOSITIES--ADANGEROUS ROUTE--TIM'S ADVICE--CAUGHT IN A GALE--THE SCHOONER COMES TOGRIEF--RESOLVE TO CROSS THE COUNTRY--VOYAGE UP THE RIVER--MONSTER FISH--THE CANOE LEAKS--WE LAND AND CAMP--SILAS MUNCH--APPEARANCE OF THESTREAM--AN ALLIGATOR ISLAND--GOOD SHOOTING--AN UNPLEASANT CONCERT--ENCOUNTER WITH A BEAR--A CURIOUS CRY--LEJOILLIE SECURES A PRIZE--THEVOYAGE FINISHED--FRIENDLY COUNSEL--"JUPITER," OUR GUIDE--WE PART WITHOUR PILOT.

  I cannot stop to describe the many adventures we met with on our voyage,or the curious scenes we witnessed. We were now sailing among thatgroup of islands at the southern extremity of Florida, inside theill-famed Florida reef, on which so many stout ships have been castaway. The inhabitants were mostly ruffianly characters, who lived bythe plunder they obtained from the vessels wrecked on their shores. Weput into a small bay in one of the largest of these islands, calledCayolargo. Though it is composed of coral rock, there are numerousspaces covered with dark-red soil, from which the inhabitants raisepineapples in vast numbers, as well as lemons, oranges, limes, bananas,mangoes, guavas, tomatoes, alligator pears, peppers, and evensugar-canes; but as there was no near market for their produce, theydepended more on the booty obtained from wrecks than on the produce ofthe soil. As, however, they were all well known to our skipper, who hadconstant dealings with them, they received us in a friendly way.

  We afterwards passed numerous inhabited keys, among which was a groupcalled by the Spaniards Los Martires, or The Martyrs, from the number ofseamen wrecked on them who have lost their lives. In the shallow wateramong the keys we fell in with several boats manned by whites andnegroes engaged in fishing for sponges. Some waded out from the rocks,having a long pole with a scythe-like knife at the end of it, with whichthe sponges were cut off from the rocks. Others sat in the boats, usinga bucket with a glass bottom, which, being sunk a few inches below thesurface, enabled them to peer down into the water to a depth of nearlythree fathoms. The sponges were then cut off with the knife I have justdescribed. In deep water, divers were employed; but of course the riskwas great, as they were liable to attacks from sharks and other monstersof the deep.

  We fell in with a countless variety of animal life in enormousquantities as we sailed along within the reef. The most curious werethe beautiful paper-nautili, which swim with their long arms extended ina straight line, their bodies contrasting with their fragile shells,being remarkably ugly, and appearing as if scarcely connected with them.Porpoises rolled along in large shoals, numerous sharks showed theirdark triangular fins above the water, and turtles of several speciesfloated on the surface; while ospreys and other sea-birds flew above ourheads, darting down ever and anon to pick up a luckless fish which camewithin their ken. As the breeze fell light, our skipper determined toobtain a supply of turtle to feed us and his crew, and to dispose of atthe first port we might touch at. He had been a turtle-hunter from hisyouth, and knew their ways, he told us, as well as any man. There arefour different species--namely, the green turtle, the hawks-bill turtle,the loggerhead turtle, and the trunk turtle. The first is that whichmakes its appearance at aldermanic feasts. It deposits its eggs twice ayear, in May and June. Its first deposit, in which it lays about twohundred and forty eggs, is the largest. The flesh of the hawks-billturtle is not considered equal to that of the green turtle, but itsshell is of great value as an article of commerce. It also lays eggstwice a year, in July and August; generally three hundred at a time.The loggerhead lays three sets of eggs, each averaging one hundred andseventy. The trunk turtle is frequently of enormous size, with a pouchlike a pelican's; the shell is soft, and the flesh is almost of theconsistency of butter. It is the least valuable, having no shell, andthe flesh being seldom eaten. They all lay their eggs much in the sameway. On nearing the shore on a moonlit night, the turtle raises herhead above the water to ascertain that no enemy is near, and if shethinks all safe, she emits a loud hissing sound to drive away any whichmay be concealed from her sight. Landing, she slowly crawls over thebeach, raising her head, until she has found a suitable place fordepositing her eggs. She then at once forms a hollow in the sand byshovelling it out from beneath her, first by her hind flippers, thenwith her fore ones, until a hollow has been dug nearly two feet inlength. This operation she performs in about nine minutes. Havingdeposited her eggs in regular layers, which occupies about twentyminutes, she scrapes the sand over them, and then smooths the surface,so that any one passing would not discover that any creature had beenthere. This task accomplished, she rapidly retreats to the water,leaving the eggs to be hatched by the heat of the sun. On some parts ofthe shore, within the space of a mile, hundreds of turtles deposit theireggs. Each time they form a new hole, generally near the first. Theyoung, when hatched, are scarcely larger than a dollar. Havingscratched their way through the sand, they at once run towards thewater, though a large number are picked up on their passage by birds andthe numerous other enemies of their race. All turtles have beaks; butthe loggerhead has the most powerful set of jaws, which enables it tocrush the shells of mollusca of large size with as much ease as a mancan crack a nut. Turtles swim through the water, in spite of theirshape, at great speed, with the same ease apparently as a bird fliesthrough the air; and we saw numbers of them, as we stood on the deck ofthe schooner, darting about in search of their prey.

  "How will you ever get hold of these fellows?" asked Carlos, as theskipper was preparing to shove off in the boat, armed with his harpoon.

  "You shall see," he answered.

  Tim and I took the oars, Carlos steered, and Lejoillie, note-book inhand, was ready to jot down his remarks.

  Scarcely a minute had elapsed after leaving the side of the vessel, whenthe skipper told us to pull in the direction he pointed, while he stoodin the bows of the boat, holding a single-pronged harpoon in his hand.He had seen a turtle floating just below the surface. Almost the nextinstant the weapon darted with tremendous force from his hand. To theharpoon a line had been attached, which had been carefully coiled awayin the
bows. This quickly ran out until the huge loggerhead turtlewhich had been struck reached the bottom, when we hauled taut the lineand belayed it. We now sat quietly waiting until the turtle should becompelled to rise to the surface to breathe. About twenty minutespassed, when, as it came up, the skipper hurled another weapon into itsbody. Now began the tug of war. The turtle went rushing backwards andforwards, sometimes sinking, sometimes rising, the skipper taking careto keep the line over the bows, for had it slipped to the side, weshould have been capsized in a moment so tremendous were the jerks thecreature gave.

  For nearly an hour the struggle continued, until the turtle gave in,when, passing a rope round one of its flippers to prevent its sinking,we towed it alongside the schooner. The turtle, however, was not dead.As we hoisted it on board, by means of the windlass and a couple oftackles fastened to a rope secured round its flippers, its huge jaws,large enough to bite a man