Linda Florida! fair land of flowers!
Thus hailed thee the bold Spanish adventurer, as standing upon the prow
of his caravel, he first caught sight of thy shores.
It was upon the Sunday of Palms--the festival of the flowers--and the
devout Castilian beheld in thee a fit emblem of the day. Under the
influence of a pious thought, he gave thee its name, and well deservedst
thou the proud appellation.
That was three hundred years ago. Three full cycles have rolled past,
since the hour of thy baptismal ceremony; but the title becomes thee as
ever. Thy floral bloom is as bright at this hour as when Leon landed
upon thy shores--ay, bright as when the breath of God first called thee
into being.
Thy forests are still virgin and inviolate; verdant thy savannas; thy
groves as fragrant as ever--those perfumed groves of aniseed and orange,
of myrtle and magnolia. Still sparkles upon thy plains the cerulean
ixia; still gleam in thy waters the golden nymphae; above thy swamps yet
tower the colossal cypress, the gigantic cedar, the gum, and the
bay-tree; still over thy gentle slopes of silvery sand wave long-leaved
pines, mingling their acetalous foliage with the frondage of the palm.
Strange anomaly of vegetation; the tree of the north, and the tree of
the south--the types of the frigid and torrid--in this thy mild mid
region, standing side by side, and blending their branches together!
Linda Florida! who can behold thee without peculiar emotion? without
conviction that thou art a favoured land? Gazing upon thee, one ceases
to wonder at the faith--the wild faith of the early adventurers--that
from thy bosom gushed forth the fountain of youth, the waters of eternal
life!
No wonder the sweet fancy found favour and credence; no wonder so
delightful an idea had its crowds of devotees. Thousands came from
afar, to find rejuvenescence by bathing in thy crystal streams--
thousands sought it, with far more eagerness than the white metal of
Mexico, or the yellow gold of Peru; in the search thousands grew older
instead of younger, or perished in pursuit of the vain illusion; but who
could wonder?
Even at this hour, one can scarcely think it an illusion; and in that
age of romance, it was still easier of belief. A new world had been
discovered, why not a new theory of life? Men looked upon a land where
the leaves never fell, and the flowers never faded. The bloom was
eternal--eternal the music of the birds. There was no winter--no signs
of death or decay. Natural, then, the fancy, and easy the faith, that
in such fair land man too might be immortal.
The delusion has long since died away, but not the beauty that gave
birth to it. Thou, Florida, art still the same--still art thou
emphatically the land of flowers. Thy groves are as green, thy skies as
bright, thy waters as diaphanous as ever. There is no change in the
loveliness of thy aspect.
And yet I observe a change. The scene is the same, but not the
characters! Where are they of that red race who were born of thee, and
nurtured on thy bosom? I see them not. In thy fields, I behold white
and black, but not red--European and African, but not Indian--not one of
that ancient people who were once thine own. Where are they?
Gone! all gone! No longer tread they thy flowery paths--no longer are
thy crystal streams cleft by the keels of their canoes--no more upon thy
spicy gale is borne the sound of their voices--the twang of their
bowstrings is heard no more amid the trees of thy forest: they have
parted from thee far and for ever.
But not willing went they away--for who could leave thee with a willing
heart? No, fair Florida; thy red children were true to thee, and parted
only in sore unwillingness. Long did they cling to the loved scenes of
their youth; long continued they the conflict of despair, that has made
them famous for ever. Whole armies, and many a hard straggle, it cost
the pale-face to dispossess them; and then they went not willingly--they
were torn from thy bosom like wolf-cubs from their dam, and forced to a
far western land. Sad their hearts, and slow their steps, as they faced
toward the setting sun. Silent or weeping, they moved onward. In all
that band, there was not one voluntary exile.
No wonder they disliked to leave thee. I can well comprehend the
poignancy of their grief. I too have enjoyed the sweets of thy flowery
land, and parted from thee with like reluctance. I have walked under
the shadows of thy majestic forests, and bathed my body in thy limpid
streams--not with the hope of rejuvenescence, but the certainty of
health and joy. Oft have I made my couch under the canopy of thy
spreading palms and magnolias, or stretched myself along the greensward
of thy savannas; and, with eyes bent upon the blue ether of thy heavens,
have listened to my heart repeating the words of the eastern poet:
"Oh! if there can be an Elysium on earth,
It is this--it is this!"