Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1878-01-18
CORRESPONDENCE.
SOUTH FLORIDA LETTER.
DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY.


ing an all-Observing eye open unto what
surrounded me, feel somewhat more able
to describe the country, and discuss what
it affords in the way of inducements tC
immigration, invalids, everybody, and the
whole world at large.
1t is prevalent opinion up north-in.
deed everywhere, and with everybody who
has not been hsre-that this portion OF
Florida is nothing but one huge morass,
marsh or swamp; that it is perfect home
of brutes. reptiles and insect life; that
every acre Of ground shelters bears ready
to grOwl, panthers prepared to spring, ALI
gators anxions to chaw, moccasins and rat
tlesnAkes ever on the qui viUe for all COM
ers, mosquitoes harmoniously awaiting in
hordes, sandfies, scorpions, and in fact
every brute, beast, animal, reptile and
insect that is embraced in tropical and
semi-tropical natural history.
Mankind is ever prone to allow imagina-
ton and report to I'LL the vacancy that
must exist between the theory and the fact,
and the aforementioned opinion is simply
that false filing.
First, Twill give you an idea of the his
tory of this country, and it viii prove that
its beauties and benefits have been appre-
ciated in ages past, although comparatively
unknown to the masses to-day.
Florida is recorded as having been dis
covered in 1897 by Sebastian Cabot, five
years after the first voyage of Columbus,
and the description given to the world by
him of this newly discovered country, ex-
cited considerable interest. His account
was written in most glowing terms and
praises, and full of snch language as only
the most decided enthusiast would dare to
write to-day.
In 1912, Ponce de Leon sought its foun-
tains Of eternal youth, and although not
successful in finding the rejuVsnating
waters, returned such accounts as to make
Florida much coveted possession. Nj
merous Spanish expeditions came to con-
quor her, and in 1889
HERNANDo DE SOTO
with his thousand mail-clad followers,
landed on her shores, where we are now
stopping, Tampa Bay, known then as San
Espiritu.
Imbued with the idea that the precious
metal, gold, could be found on this penin-
sula, and buoyed with the success of his
compatriots. Pizarro and Cortez, in Peru,
he traversed this then vast and unexplored
country, inhabited by barbarous and hos
tile savages. His career, and that of his
expedition, terminated beyond the north
ward confines of the State, on a westward
route to the Mississippi. The failure to
find gold cooled the ardor of the Spaniards
in their wishes to possess Florida. and II
was left to some French Huguenots to
make the first permanent settlement in the
State. This was done in the sixteenth
century, and their location was at the
mouth of the St. Johns river. But,
Spanish influences caused the massacre of
this exiled band, and they were barber
ously murdered as heretics and foreigners.
In the same century, in 1865, Menendez,
Spanish Governor, founded the town of
St. Augustine, on the Atlantic shore Of
the peninsula, and this place, for antiquity,
claims priority over every other place in
the United States, and is conceded such.
From this time Florida became a petty
COLONY OF SPAIN,
and during the continental wars in Europe
attention was often directed here. In
1713 and up to 1884, Florida was British
possession. 1t was during this period that
Turnbull, an Englishman, planted colony
Of Minorcans at New Smyrna, but as the
State receded TO Spain, this colony was
broken up.
In 1919, Spain csded Florida to the
United States, and in 1921, formal posses
sion was taken by the latter.
During the three centuries of Spanish
possession a few small settlements were
made along its coast, the principal Que
being Pensacola. When the Spanish power
waned in Europe, no efforts were made in
her colonies here to civilizs the aborigines
of this State, and those of Georgia and
Alabama, and the savage inhabitants of
the two latter States poured into Florida
as refugees, and they were so numerous as
to preponderate, and to attach the name of
Seminole (meaning refugee or runaway to
the whole of the Florida Indians. When
Florida was ceded to the United States,
there were only about six hundred whites
in the whole territory.
1t is highly probable that the Spaniards
made some efforts to establish settlement
in the extreme southern part of the penin-
sula as being nearest and most accessible
to Cuba. And there are strong probabili-
ties that they projected and undertook to
drain Lake Okeechobee, as various COM
pleted sections of canal from the Lake to
the Caloosahatchie river are still to be seen.
In relation to this there is iegand that
they had apenal establishment on an island
in the lake, and that it was with convict
labor that this effort to drain the lake was
made.
In 1916, Florida was admitted into the
Union, and thence on her political history
has been that of the other States, and par
ticularly those of the South. From her
cession. to the United States to within two
years of her secession, Florida was the
theater Of almost continuous hostilities be-
tween the General Government and the
Seminole Indians. The latter were easily
driven into the peninsula, but here, with
Spartan courage and Roman frmness, they
resisted alternate coercion and persuasion
TO 60 west, and feeble remnant still re-
mains, evinclng the instructive love of
country even in the savage breast. The
presence of so large a tribe Of Indians,
together with their frequent and protracted
hostilities, retarded the settlement Of the
peninsula for nearly forty years. Since
the war, the State has attracted consider
able attention on account of the mildness
of its winter climate, and fruit-growing.
But, so far, the eastern part, because of
its greater accessibility, has been the only
portion much visited or settled. The aOhOLe
State is generally judged in both soil and
climate By What the tourist experiences and
sees 1IOug the ST. ,Joh1's. and thus he fails