An Expedition to Indian River.
Page 292.
A few years ago a company was formed, having for its purpose the deepening of the upper St. Johns as far as Lake Washington, about forty miles south of the point where the Wetumpka lay, and cutting a canal across to Indian River, not more than eight miles. No progress, however, seems to have been made in the enterprise.
We found three cat-rigged boats at Titusville, which we had no difficulty in procuring. The ladies would not allow us to leave them at the settlement, though Cornwood intimated that we might have a rough time of it. Mr. Garbrook, Cornwood, and myself served as skippers, and we were all thoroughly acquainted with the business. The boats were about the size of the Lakebird, in which I had voyaged in the roughest weather of Lake St. Clair; and as we had only four persons in each boat, we were not crowded. I had Colonel Shepard, Mr. and Miss Tiffany in the boat with me.
Our first business was to obtain a supply of bait, which was easily procured with our landing-nets, and consisted of small mullet and other little fish, which had to be kept alive. The ladies were in excellent spirits, and even Mrs. Shepard, who had been an invalid for years, entered fully into the spirit of the occasion. When I first met this lady in Portland, she was hardly able to move without assistance; but latterly she seemed to need no aid from any one. She had taken part in all our frolics and excursions, and her appetite was equal to that of any person in the party. But no one could be sick in such a delicious climate as this was, for we spent all our time in the open air.
Our fishing was to be done mainly by trolling, and as soon as we had our bait, Colonel Shepard had a mullet on one of his approved squids. We had a six-knot breeze, and I had to attend to the tiller. The bait was hardly in the water before the Colonel began to tug at his line. I saw a large fish break in the water, a hundred feet from the boat, and "cut up" in the most extraordinary manner. The New Yorker labored diligently for some time, and I luffed up the boat in order to lessen his labors; but before he got the fish near enough to enable us to see what he was, the patent gear snapped, and away went the fish.
I had provided Mr. Tiffany with a line from Lake Superior, and he had a fish on before the Colonel had finished his labors with the first one. This line was strong enough to hold anything in the water, and the English gentleman, with my assistance, pulled in a redfish, or spotted bass, which weighed fourteen pounds. I rigged a line for Miss Margie, and she soon brought into the boat without help, which she would not allow any one to give, a sea-trout, similar to the squeteague or weakfish, but not the same thing. In the other boats they were having the same luck.
Towards night we began to pull in red snappers from six to twelve pounds in weight. They were perfect beauties, vermilion on the back, the color gradually changing to pink on the belly. The Colonel was all worn out with his exertions, and he was glad to exchange his line for the tiller of the boat, and I took a hand in the exciting sport. But we were catching more than we could use, and we landed at a settlement called Eau Gallie just before dark, where we were glad to pass the night.
We stayed two days longer in this delightful region. Every time we went out fishing we averaged a hundred weight of fish to each line. We sent five hundred weight across to the Wetumpka, on board of which we had tons of ice, to be packed for future use. The Colonel was sorry to leave such magnificent fishing, and Owen declared that he would spend all the winters of the rest of his life in the southern part of Florida.
On Thursday morning we harnessed up our mule teams, and started across the land for the river. At the end of the week we were to finish our trip in Florida; but we were to give two or three days to hunting in the vicinity of the point where the steamer lay. On our way back through the forest we saw game in abundance. On our arrival the mules were picketed in the woods, for we did not like the music of their stamping on the planks of the forward deck. We reached the boat an hour before dinner-time, and Gopher had red snapper and spotted bass in a variety of styles for the meal. In the afternoon the gentlemen took to the woods with their sporting gear, but I remained to escort the ladies and protect them from rattlesnakes and moccasins, which they seemed to fear every time they set foot on shore. But we did not see a snake of any kind during the whole time we were on the waters of the upper St. Johns. At three o'clock I had the mules harnessed to one of the wagons, and drove the ladies several miles into the forest; they were delighted with the excursion.