The coast of Florida on the Gulf of Mexico has various attractive
places, reached by a convenient railway system. Homosassa is a popular
resort about fifty miles southwestward from Ocala. A short distance in
the interior is the locality where the Seminoles surprised and
massacred Major Dade and his men in December, 1835, only three
soldiers escaping alive to tell the horrid tale. The operations
against these Indians were then mainly conducted from the military
post of Tampa, and thither were taken for deportation the portions of
the tribe that were afterwards captured, or who surrendered under the
treaty. When Ferdinand de Soto entered this magnificent harbor on his
voyage of discovery and gold hunting, he called it Espiritu Sancto
Bay. It is from six to fifteen miles wide, and stretches nearly forty
miles into the land, being dotted with islands, its waters swarming
with sea-fowl, turtles and fish, deer abounding in the interior and on
some of the islands, and there being abundant anchorage for the
largest vessels. This is the great Florida harbor and the chief winter
resort on the western coast. It was the main port of rendezvous and
embarkation for the American forces in the Spanish War of 1898. The
head of the harbor divides into Old Tampa and Hillsborough Bays, and
on the latter and at the mouth of Hillsborough River is the city,
numbering about twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The great hotels
are surrounded by groves with orange and lemon trees abounding, and
everything is invoked that can add to the tourist attractions. The
special industry of the resident population is cigar-making. Port
Tampa is out upon the Peninsula between the two bays, several miles
below the city, and a long railway trestle leads from the shore for a
mile to deep water. Upon the outer end of this long wharf is Tampa
Inn, built on a mass of piles, much like some of the constructions in
Venice. The guests can almost catch fish out of the bedroom windows,
and while eating breakfast can watch the pelican go fishing in the
neighboring waters, for this queer-looking bird, with the duck and
gull, is everywhere seen in these attractive regions. An outer line of
keys defends Tampa harbor from the storms of the Gulf. There are many
popular resorts on the islands and shores of Tampa Bay, and regular
lines of steamers are run to the West India ports, Mobile and New
Orleans. All the surroundings are attractive, and a pleased visitor
writes of the place: "Conditions hereabouts exhilarate the men; a
perpetual sun and ocean breeze are balm to the invalid and an
inspiration to a robust health. The landscape affords uncommon
diversion, and the sea its royal sport with rod and gaff."
Farther down the coast is Charlotte Harbor, also deeply indented and
sheltered from the sea by various outlying islands. It is eight to ten
miles long and extends twenty-five miles into the land, having
valuable oyster-beds and fisheries, and its port is Punta Gorda. Below
this is the projecting shore of Punta Rassa, where the outlet of Lake
Okeechobee, the Caloosahatchie River, flows to the sea, having the
military post of Fort Myers, another popular resort, a short distance
inland, upon its bank. The Gulf Coast now trends to the southeast,
with various bays, in one of which, with Cape Romano as the guarding
headland, is the archipelago of "the ten thousand islands," while
below is Cape Sable, the southwestern extremity of Florida. To the
southward, distant from the shore, are the long line of Florida Keys,
the name coming from the Spanish word _cayo_, an island. This
remarkable coral formation marks the northern limit of the Gulf
Stream, where it flows swiftly out to round the extremity of the
Peninsula and begin its northern course through the Atlantic Ocean.
Although well lighted and charted, the Straits of Florida along these
reefs are dangerous to navigate and need special pilots. Nowhere
rising more than eight to twelve feet above the sea, the Keys thus
low-lying are luxuriantly covered with tropical vegetation. From the
Dry Tortugas at the west, around to Sand's Key at the entrance to
Biscayne Bay, off the Atlantic Coast, about two hundred miles, is a
continuous reef of coral, upon the whole extent of which the little
builder is still industriously working. The reef is occasionally
broken by channels of varying depth, and within the outer line are
many habitable islands. The whole space inside this reef is slowly
filling up, just as all the Keys are also slowly growing through
accretions from floating substances becoming entangled in the myriad
roots of the mangroves. The present Florida Reef is a good example of
the way in which a large part of the Peninsula was formed. No less
than seven old coral reefs have been found to exist south of Lake
Okeechobee, and the present one at the very edge of the deep water of
the Gulf Stream is probably the last that can be formed, as the little
coral-builder cannot live at a greater depth than sixty feet. The Gulf
Stream current is so swift and deep along the outer reef that there is
no longer a foundation on which to build.
The Gulf Stream is the best known of all the great ocean currents. The
northeast and southeast trade-winds, constantly blowing, drive a great
mass of water from the Atlantic Ocean into the Caribbean Sea, and
westward through the passages between the Windward Islands, which is
contracted by the converging shores of the Yucatan Peninsula and the
Island of Cuba, so that it pours between them into the Gulf of Mexico,
raising its surface considerably above the level of the Atlantic.
These currents then move towards the Florida Peninsula, and pass
around the Florida Reef and out into the Atlantic. It is estimated by
the Coast Survey that the hourly flow of the Gulf Stream past the
reef is nearly ninety thousand million tons of water, the speed at the
surface of the axis of the stream being over three and one-half miles
an hour. To conceive what the immensity of this flow means, it is
stated that if a single hour's flow of water were evaporated, the salt
thus produced would require to carry it one hundred times the number
of ocean-going vessels now afloat. The Gulf Stream water is of high
temperature, great clearness and a deep blue color; and when it meets
the greener waters of the Atlantic to the northward, the line of
distinction is often very well defined. At the exit to the Atlantic
below Jupiter Inlet the stream is forty-eight miles wide to Little
Bahama Bank, and its depth over four hundred fathoms.
There are numerous harbors of refuge among the Florida Keys, and that
at Key West is the best. This is a coral island seven miles long and
one to two miles broad, but nowhere elevated more than eleven feet
above the sea. Its name, by a free translation, comes from the
original Spanish name of _Cayo Hueso_, or the Bone Island, given
because the early mariners found human bones upon it. Here are twenty
thousand people, mostly Cubans and settlers from the Bahamas, the
chief industry being cigar-making, while catching fish and turtles and
gathering sponges also give much employment. There are no springs on
the island, and the inhabitants are dependent on rain or distillation
for water. The air is pure and the climate healthy, the trees and
shrubbery, with the residences embowered in perennial flowers, giving
the city a picturesque appearance. Key West has a good harbor, and as
it commands the gateway to and from the Gulf near the western
extremity of the Florida coral reef, it is strongly defended, the
prominent work being Fort Taylor, constructed on an artificial island
within the main harbor entrance. The little Sand Key, seven miles to
the southwest, is the southernmost point of the United States. Forty
miles to the westward is the group of ten small, low and barren
islands known as the Dry Tortugas, from the Spanish _tortuga_, a
tortoise. Upon the farthest one, Loggerhead Key, stands the great
guiding light for the Florida Reef, of which this is the western
extremity, the tower rising one hundred and fifty feet. Fort Jefferson
is on Garden Key, where there is a harbor, and in it were confined
various political prisoners during the Civil War, among them some who
were concerned in the conspiracy to assassinate President Lincoln.
Here, with the encircling waters of the Gulf all around us, terminates
this visit to the Sunny South. As we have progressed, the gradual
blending of the temperate into the torrid zone, with the changing
vegetation, has reminded of Bayard Taylor's words:
"There, in the wondering airs of the Tropics,
Shivers the Aspen, still dreaming of cold:
There stretches the Oak from the loftiest ledges,
His arms to the far-away lands of his brothers,
And the Pine tree looks down on his rival, the Palm."
And as the journey down the Florida Peninsula has displayed some of
the most magnificent winter resorts of the American Riviera, with
their wealth of tropical foliage, fruits and flowers, and their
seductive and balmy climate, this too has reminded of Cardinal
Damiani's glimpse of the "Joys of Heaven":
"Stormy winter, burning summer, rage within these regions never,
But perpetual bloom of roses and unfading spring forever;
Lilies gleam, the crocus glows, and dropping balms their scents
deliver."
Along this famous peninsula the sea rolls with ceaseless beat upon
some of the most gorgeous beaches of the American coast. To the
glories of tropical vegetation and the charms of the climate, Florida
thus adds the magnificence of its unrivalled marine environment.
Everywhere upon these pleasant coasts--
"The bridegroom, Sea,
Is toying with his wedded bride,--the Shore.
He decorates her shining brow with shells,
And then retires to see how fine she looks,
Then, proud, runs up to kiss her."