GREEN COVE SPRINGS AND GOVERNOR'S CREEK.
By the time we had finished our supper, the steamer was in sight of
Green Cove Springs. Magnolia was abreast of us, and we had passed
Hibernia; but nothing was in sight from either place except the hotels,
where winter boarders from the North are domiciled, and at the former a
few cottages. There were plenty of "crackers," or natives, in the
country; but they did not appear to live on the banks of the river. The
ladies were seated in the pilot-house, observing the scenery, which by
this time had become a little monotonous, though the scene was always
delightful, for we had only the varying breadth of the river, and the
forest. Occasionally we saw a few old red cedars, whose fantastic forms
excited attention for a time, with their trunks divided like an
inverted V, near the surface of the water. The bluffs, when there were
any, were covered with blackberry vines, all in blossom, so that they
looked like snow banks in the distance.
"You must get up early in the morning, ladies, and take a bath in the
warm water of the spring," suggested Mr. Cornwood as we approached the
village, which had quite a number of houses, compared with any other
place we had seen since we left Jacksonville.
Mrs. Shepard had heard of the spring, and was desirous of trying its
waters. As we approached, we discovered a small steam-yacht anchored
off an old wharf, nearly in front of the Union Hotel. It was a very
pretty craft, very broad for her length, and evidently did not draw
more than two feet of water, or perhaps three. Before we came up with
her Cornwood had rung the speed-bell, and we were moving very slowly.
He rang the gong when we were abreast of the yacht, and then gave two
strokes of the bell to back her.
"Let go the anchor!" he shouted to the deckhands forward, for as the
passengers were to remain on board all night, I thought it was better
to be off in the stream than at the wharf.
The Sylvania brought up to her cable about half-way between the end of
the long pier, where the steamers made their landings, and the little
steam-yacht. It was almost dark when we anchored, and I could not
obtain a very good view of the village. In the evening our musicians
were called for. Then the absence of Griffin Leeds was regretted, as he
played the violin; but Cobbington declared that he had played that
instrument for years before he left home: only he had no fiddle.
Fortunately, Landy Perkins, who played the violoncello, and was
learning to play the violin, had one, and our orchestra was complete.
It was a beautiful, mild, and soft evening, and our party stayed on
deck until eleven o'clock. I arranged an anchor-watch, so that two of
the ship's company should be on deck all the time, one forward and the
other aft, day and night. They were to allow no one to come on board,
unless by permission of the captain or mate; and Washburn and I had
agreed that one of us should remain on board all the time. Our
passengers did not care to have strangers staring at them, and no one
was willing that Griffin Leeds should put his feet on the deck of the
Sylvania again.
Early in the morning the boats were dropped into the water, and put in
proper condition for use. At six in the morning the steward called the
passengers, as required by them, and a little later we landed them at
some steps on the pier, near the shore, so that they had not far to
walk. Mr. Cornwood and I remained on shore to assist the party. At the
head of the wharf we found a store, a billiard-hall and a bar-room, and
other evidences of civilization. A street on the right led to the Union
Hotel and the Riverside Cottages, and one on the left to Orange
Cottage, the two latter being large boarding-houses, which we found
were occupied by people from the North.
Following the street from the wharf, we came to the Clarendon Hotel,
the most pretentious establishment in the place. At the office of this
house Cornwood obtained tickets for the baths. The spring and the
bathing-houses are inclosed in a park, ornamented with live-oaks. We
descended to the spring, around which a platform is built. The spring
was similar to that we had seen at Orange Park, though there were no
clouds of sand rising from the bottom of it. Though the water was
eighteen feet deep, we could see to the bottom of the tunnel-shaped
hole from which it issued. Its temperature was 76°, and it had a very
strong odor of sulphur.
We all drank a dipper each of the water, which was perfectly transparent,
and I thought it was not "bad to take" as a medicine. There is a bath
for ladies, and another for gentlemen. Ours was a swimming-bath, about
sixty feet long; and I must say that the water was perfectly delightful.
I was told that the place was bad for consumptives, but the water was
excellent for rheumatism, dyspepsia, and kidney complaints; but as I
had none of them, I know nothing at all about its virtues. Colonel
Shepard declared that he felt like a new man after the bath, and even
the invalid Mrs. Shepard was as frisky as a young lamb. The bath was
certainly a great luxury to all of us. We took a walk about the place,
and found the village was very much like the rural part of Jacksonville.
The gardens were crowded with orange-trees, and the mocking-birds filled
the air with their melody.
In walking over to Orange Cottage we had to cross a bridge, about
fifteen feet above the water, which was a stream flowing from the
spring. It was the clearest water I had ever seen, and I have gazed
into the crystal tide of Lake Superior, which has a great reputation
for its purity. A boat was floating on the surface, and I saw great
catfish swimming lazily out of the pool. Back of the village was the
forest of pine, magnolia, and live-oak. We walked far enough to see the
homes of some of the crackers, which were rude and primitive.
After breakfast we landed again, and followed "St. David's Path" to
Magnolia. It was through the woods, on the bank of the river. "St.
David," though he was not the original champion of Wales, had a very
fine residence near the entrance to the wood. I believe he was
canonized for the ink he made. Near the house we found some magnolia
leaves that were nearly a foot long. The blue sand in the path was as
hard as a rock, and it was strange that anything would grow in it.
The proprietor of Orange Park resented the idea, when some one called
the soil nothing but blue sand; and taking up a handful of it, he
rubbed it between his palms. The skin was considerably stained by the
operation, which could not have been the case if the earth had been
simply house-sand, as it is called in the North. We all knew that the
finest oranges, bananas, lemons, sugar-cane, as well as strawberries
and garden vegetables, grew out of it.
At the bridge which crosses Governor's Creek, on the other side of
which is the Magnolia House, we found the boats, which had been ordered
to be here. We all embarked, and ascended the creek. Our course was
through water-weeds and tiger-lilies; but we soon came to clear water.
An old mill stood by the shore.
"There is a friend of yours, Captain Garningham," said Cornwood, as he
pointed to a log, one end of which was submerged in the creek.
On the log, coiled up, with his head in the middle and resting on one
of the folds of his body, was a moccasin snake just like the one I had
seen in the attic room of Captain Boomsby's house.
"Mercy!" exclaimed Miss Margie. "It is a snake! Let us get away from
here!"
"Don't be alarmed, Miss Tiffany," interposed the guide. "He is fast
asleep."
"But he may wake, and bite some of us," insisted Miss Margie.
"If he wakes, the first thing he will do will be to run away. It is a
moccasin, and his bite is poisonous; but he can't bite in the water."
Cornwood picked up a boat-hook, but the snake was just out of his
reach. The men backed the boat a little, and the guide just touched the
tail of the reptile. This woke him, and without waiting to bid adieu to
the party, he scurried up the log, and disappeared in the trees on the
bank of the stream. Miss Margie was greatly relieved when he was gone.
The oarsmen gave way again, but had not taken three strokes before one
of them tipped over an alligator in the water. He was a little fellow,
and made off with all his might, to the great amusement of the party.
The men had not taken half a dozen strokes more, before another
alligator was turned over by an oar. This was a larger one than the
other, and his head was lifted entirely out of the water. At the same
moment Cornwood, who was standing in the bow of the boat, aimed a
revolver at him, and fired.
Miss Margie gave a little scream at the report of the pistol. The ball
had evidently done its work, for the reptile was floundering on the top
of the water, instead of running away, as the other one had done. The
guide fired again; and after a little more struggling, the alligator
lay still on the top of the water.
"We will tow him ashore and let you look at him, if you wish," said the
guide.
"No, I thank you; not on my account," added Miss Margie.
"I should really like to see him," said Miss Edith.
"Then you shall see him," replied Owen.
But there was no shore in the vicinity to tow him to; and the guide
suggested that he should be allowed to remain, while we followed the
other boat to the head of boat navigation on the creek, which was only
a short distance farther. The shore was under water, and the trees grew
out of it. The guide said this was a specimen of a portion of the
Ocklawaha, on a small scale. But we soon came to higher banks, which
were covered with a fragrant blossom called the "swamp pink" in some
parts of the North. The air was loaded with its perfume, and the young
ladies were in ecstasies over the sweetness of the blossoms, and the
beautiful appearance of the banks of the stream. Beyond this we found
the shore covered with another blossom, the swamp blueberry. The bushes
lined the shore, and were so covered with blossoms that they seemed to
be all there was of them. The young ladies wanted to gather some, and
the men filled every available place in the boat with these and the
swamp pinks.
On our return we picked up the alligator, making a line fast to him,
and towing him down to the bridge. We made a landing under the bluff,
and hauled the reptile out of the water. He was about five feet long.
Buck pried his mouth open, so that the ladies could see his teeth.
Cornwood asked Miss Margie if she did not want a piece of him for her
supper, declaring that he had eaten a portion of the tail, which he
considered very good. The English maiden preferred beef and mutton.
We did not want the alligator, and we left him where he was. Cornwood
said some native would take possession of him, and in two or three
months his teeth would be for sale in the stores at Jacksonville. We
were on board in time for dinner at one, the hour at which it had been
ordered. In the afternoon I received a visit from the gentleman who was
sailing the little steam-yacht near us. He was a New Yorker, spending
the winter in Florida, and had his wife and daughter on board. I
introduced him to our party, and showed him all over the Sylvania.