CHAPTER VI.
"Before us visions come
Of slave-ships on Virginia's coast,
Of mothers in their childless home,
Like Rachel, sorrowing o'er the lost;
The slave-gang scourged upon its way.
The bloodhound and his human prey."--WHITTIER.
Florida produces oranges, peaches, plums, a species of cocoa-nut, and
musk and water-melons in abundance. The more open portions of the
country are dotted over with clumps of gnarled pines, of a very resinous
nature, white and red oak, hiccory, cedar, and cypress, and is in
general scantily clad with thin grass, fit only for deer to browse upon.
The dreary sameness of the interior of this desolate country is
distressing to the traveller; and the journey from one settlement to
another, through pine-forests, seems almost interminable.
One morning, a short time prior to my intended departure for
Tallahassee, I was roused before daybreak by a rifle-shot, which was
instantly followed by the cry of "Guard, turn out!" and much hubbub. As
this was no unusual occurrence, from the constant apprehension we were
in of an attack by the Indians on the stockade, and as it had several
times occurred before during my stay, I resolved to lie and listen
awhile before I rose.
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