From a drawing by Henry W. Elliott.
Manatee. (Trichechus latirostris.)
Voices of the Night
Just then a bull alligator in the bayou back of the beach emitted a terrible roar, followed by the discordant cries of all sorts of waterfowl; and, as it happened, some large animal, a horse or cow, or perhaps a deer, fled at our approach and crashed through the scrub. Altogether the various sounds were somewhat appalling, and calculated to alarm and distress a more courageous person. At last we reached the pass, and my boat, with its white canvas roof glaring in the light of the full moon, broke on the gaze of the astonished darkey through the trees, and as it moved this way and that, responsive to a slight breeze, it seemed an uncanny thing to the thoroughly frightened man as he moaned:
Spooks and Devils
"O Lawd; O Lawd; dar's a spook! De debble will sho' cotch me. I wish I was back in ole Kaintuck. Oh, doctah, I sho' am 'fraid to go back to-night. I sho' saw de debble's eye shinin' in de bresh, and heard de splash of his tail in de watah, all de way down. Please, sah, let me stay in de camp till de mawnin'."
I saw that he was really terrified, and that it would never do to let him attempt to return to Naples alone that night. Accordingly we hobbled the mules, and I made him a bed in the boat, where he soon was snoring and making as loud and uncouth noises as any "debble" was capable of. In the morning I gave him a good breakfast and started him home with the mules, the happiest coon in Florida.
Florida Up to Date
I have not been in Florida since the winter of 1896–7, but even then it had greatly changed from the old Florida I knew as far back as 1878. At the present day my old cruising and camping grounds near Rockledge, Lake Worth and Miami are famous winter resorts, with large and commodious hotels whose luxurious appointments and service are unsurpassed in the world.
Both the Atlantic and Gulf coasts, as well as the interior of the State, are now well-populated by Northern people, mostly engaged in raising sub-tropical fruits and early vegetables. Marshy lands, once the resort of innumerable water-fowl, have been drained and cultivated. The pine forests and flat woods where once the cowboy reigned supreme, and where the deer and wild turkey roamed at will, have been decimated or destroyed by sawmills and turpentine stills. The rookeries of the cypress swamps and wooded keys have been laid waste by the plume hunter, so that the flamingo, pink curlew and egret are now but empty sounding names.