Rufus King Sewall

“ The landscape is finer. The climate is more salubrious. Its attractions for those who wish to make their own labor their capital, from which they shall be enabled to draw a support for themselves and families, are great. The orange, pine-apple, and sugar lands of South Florida are worthy more attention from agriculturists, capitalists, and emigrants, than they have received; and the day is not far distant, when their rich resources will begin to be developed, and will excite interest.{47} ”

“ Augustine, seems peculiarly adapted to the improvement of patients with consumptive chronic affections of the lungs, asthma, spitting of blood, rheumatism, and dyspepsia. It is a fact worthy of remark, that though it is universally acknowledged the advanced stages of pulmonary consumption are often beyond the power of medical skill to produce restoration,{58} yet most of those who resort to a change of climate for cure, reject the advantages to be derived from the removal, until the disease shall have made such extensive ravages as to render hopeless every prospect of renovation. ”

“ In summer, the air is neither so hot nor as sultry as it is inland, where respiration is attended with a suffocating sensation. The atmosphere of the sea-coast is not so highly rarefied. The process of evaporation, which is perpetually going on,{53} tends to equalize temperature, and so to adapt the atmosphere to the action of the respiratory organs, that one breathes freely and easily. By the same process, the intensity of the heat is greatly abated. The afternoons and evenings are invariably cool and refreshing. ”

“ The taste of Protestant blood he had just sipped seemed but to quicken his appetite.
“Angry,” says Bancroft, “that any should have escaped, the Spaniards insulted the corpses of the dead with wanton barbarity;” and having celebrated mass, and reared a cross on the spot, and chosen for the site of a church the ground still smoking with the blood of a peaceful colony, Melendez went in pursuit of the shipwrecked fugitives, who were now the only survivors of the French Protestant settlement in East Florida. ”

“ It required but a single well directed stroke, and the Anglo-Saxon race and the hated Protestant faith would perish together.
We have glanced at the barbarous scenes with which Spain opened her schemes of colonization in North America. The same malign purposes and bigoted spirit moved all her subsequent counsels, and hung like a dark and portentous cloud over the future peace and prosperity of her border settlements.
In her efforts to make good her pretensions, a series of petty jealousies and strife between the English and Spanish races ensued. Distrust and jealousy were fostered. ”

“ The piazza, especially, awakens a sensation of peril, as one passes for the first time on horseback through the streets, particularly if he has been accustomed to the broad thoroughfares and elevated structures of a northern Anglo-American city. ”

“ The atmosphere exhilarates. On one’s energies and spirits, it acts as a stimulus, so that one does not suffer from lassitude here, as is usual at the north. The nights are refreshing in the hottest season. This remark is true, I believe, only of the atmosphere in the neighborhood of the sea, amid the coast climate. Indeed, the whole body of the atmosphere on the coast is more pure and healthful than in the interior ”

“ Thousands, in that mild and equable climate, might there live and labor, and enjoy a ripe old age, who must soon die, amid the vicissitudes of the climate in the north.
Admitting that the pine-apple, on account of risks in transportation and cost in getting to market, should be worth only about one-half the market price in the field,{48} yet an acre of thrifty, well cultivated pines will yield from $1500 to $2000 per annum. At five cents each, the product of an acre of pine-fruit would be $2000. ”

“ The most expeditious and economical route to Florida is that by which the traveler takes passage direct from New-York to Savannah, where he will be received by{69} the steamer, with his baggage, and brought into Florida and landed within eighteen miles of St. Augustine; the distance to which, from Savannah, is 218 miles.
The passage from Savannah, especially over the waters of the noble river of the St. John’s, is pleasant and instructive. The lover of nature—the curious stranger—may each be gratified. ”

“ Being driven from their original retreat on the island of Tortuga, the Bucaniers retired to the Keys. No doubt the inlets and islands of the southern peninsula of Florida attracted their bands. Not only the towns and settlements on the Spanish islands and on the Main became objects of plunder, but the commerce of every nation also.
It is not till within a few years, that the remnants of this desperate class of men, who have long infested the waters in the neighborhood of the West India islands, have been driven from their haunts, and hunted down, by the American Navy. ”

“ For the twenty years that Florida remained in possession of Great Britain, great improvements were made, flourishing settlements begun; and the prosperity which industry and skill insure began to show itself on every side. In 1784, the Floridas were retroceded to Spain. The Anglo-Saxon race forsook their fields and villages, and retired under the shield of British law and the Protestant faith. ”

“ She fans them with soft and fragrant breezes. She allures them into the open air, and charms them with the gorgeous magnificence of the nocturnal scene, in which every object, earth, sea, and sky, are made to glow in rich and pure effulgence. ”

“ There is, however, much to relieve the first unfavorable impressions of a stranger. Its comfortless appearance is the effect of first impressions, which of course are superficial, and often delusive. The blighted stocks of desolate orange groves—the tokens of decay—the obvious lack of industry and taste, and the consequent want of thrift—on a close inspection, are relieved by a constant succession of images of the past, illustrative of the character of Castilian mind in a heroic and barbarous age. Moreover, there is{12} a rapid transition in progress. ”

“ The males are less favored, both by nature and habit. They lack enterprise. Most of them are without education. Their canoes, fishing lines, and hunting guns, are their main sources of subsistence. The rising generation is, however, in a state of rapid transition. The spirit of American institutions, and the reflex influence of an association with Anglo-American society, are working an assimilating change in the whole social structure of the native population of this city ”

“ On the east coast of South Florida the lands are productive, and healthy in location. On the St. Lucie River and Sound, the banks are high shell bluff, and exceedingly fertile for high lands. Though north of the tropical latitude, yet the climate is so genial, that it nourishes with luxuriance, in the open air, most of the fruits of tropical climes. ”

“ On the coast of Florida, the average number of fair days, is about 250; while in the Northern States, the average number of fair days per annum, is about 120. Though climate is one of the most powerful remedial agents, and one, too, which in many cases will admit no substitute, yet much permanent advantage will not result, either from traveling or change of climate, unless the invalid adheres strictly to such regimen as his case may require. ”

“ These impart to the atmosphere healing power and medicinal virtue. The sea and the sun are laboratories of healthful energy and influence, which are projected into this atmosphere from natural resources, and which are taken into the system by the ordinary process of respiration. For these reasons, invalids have often experienced as great, if not greater benefit, from a summer residence here, than from a winter sojourn. Disease, taken in its incipient stages, may be eradicated, under the influence of the climate alone, aided by the “vis medicatrix naturæ.” ”

“ This excursion is both pleasant and useful; and should the resort to this watering place for health increase as it has been doing, there doubtless will be afforded greater facilities for more extended and healthful water excursions: such expeditions, whether for shell or fish, in this climate being healthful and pleasant. Ordinarily, exposure{65} does not induce colds, and may be taken without risk.
The moonlight walks, are truly delightful beyond description. Those who reside at the north, and have never beheld, can have no adequate conception of a moonlight scene on the coast of Florida. ”

“ The face of the country, skirting on the seaboard, from Cape Hatteras hither, is low, level, and sandy. This feature prevails southward to near Cape Florida; when the rock-bound shore, the rudiments of which begin with the coquina formation opposite the city, again is made the barrier against the encroachments of the sea, and continues until it is broken up among the keys of the Florida archipelago.
The country around the city, is a plain of sandy shell soil, termed “pine barren.” ”

“ Augustine peculiar advantages over any interior or more northern locality, and which are properties peculiarly favorable to a restoration of impaired health.
During the winter months, the extremes of temperature, though the transitions are somewhat more sudden, are nevertheless not so great here as in the interior. This peculiarity follows a law of climate, which, both north and south, causes it to be warmer in the neighborhood of the sea in winter, than in regions remote therefrom. It is also cooler in summer.
The east winds here are far different from the east winds at the north. ”

“ It can hardly be credible to an American citizen, that there is within the bounds of these United States a nook or corner so dark and blood-stained!
Melendez, for twelve years, presided over the destinies of this town, directing his attention mainly to the subjection, and conversion to papal superstitions, of the aboriginal inhabitants, aided by the Franciscans, an order of monks. Their missions were established throughout the interior. An ancient monkish retreat, occupying the present site of the United States Barracks, was the head-quarters of the order in this city. ”

“ Florida has the advantage over Italy, in having no mountain ranges covered during winter with snows; the cold blasts from the Apennines and the Jura mountains, rendering a large portion of Italy and southern France unfit for invalids unable to bear a sudden and great increase of temperature.”
Dr. Bernard Byrne thus writes of the climate of Florida (see the National Intelligencer of May 18th, 1843) :{51} “Taking it the year round, the climate of East Florida is much more agreeable than any other in the United States, or even than that of Italy. ”

“ It is no unusual thing for ladies to appear abroad on the public promenade, in their light, loose, flowing dresses, without shawl or bonnet, with denuded neck and arms, till near midnight, and not suffer the least risk or inconvenience. Nature, in silence, majesty, and beauty, invites her children to enjoy her moonlight luxuries. ”

“ MILITARY BURIAL GROUND, ST. AUGUSTINE E.F. white man shall not make me black! I will make the white man red with blood; and then blacken him in the sun and rain, where the wolf shall smell his bones, and the buzzard live upon his flesh!” [2] The extreme point of the peninsula, south, on which the city is located, is occupied with the outlines of an ancient breastwork, in a ruinous condition, and the United States Arsenal buildings. ”

“ Florida therefore merits the attention of physicians at the north; for here the pulmonary invalid may exchange for the inclement seasons of the north, or the deteriorated atmosphere of a room to which he may be confined, the mild, equable temperature, the soft, balmy breezes of an evergreen land.”
“For many years,” says Dr. Wardeman, “afflicted with phthisis, and compelled to pass the last seven winters in the West Indies and the southern parts of Florida, we have been necessarily placed in communication with numerous invalids similarly affected, many of whom were under our professional care ”

“ But there are other forms of disease, in which such a climate as that of East Florida is not unfrequently of decided advantage. To this class belongs asthma.
“In chronic disorders of the digestive organs, where no inflammation exists, or structural changes have supervened in viscera important to life, but the indication is merely to remove disease of a functional character, a winter’s residence promises great benefit; but exercise in the{55} open air, aided by a proper regimen, are indispensable adjuncts. ”

“ The Spaniards and Indians, stimulated by the bigoted and rapacious spirit of the mother country, perpetrated acts of wanton barbarity on the colonial settlements of Carolina and Georgia. Provoked to retaliation by these depredations, Governor Moore, A. D. 1702, projected an invasion of Florida, by the forces of South Carolina. In the month of September, with an army of twelve hundred men, he embarked on an expedition for the reduction of St. Augustine, which was esteemed the centre of the predatory operations against the English settlers. ”

“ Orange orchards, pine-apple fields, banana and cocoa-nut groves, are now in process of cultivation by settlers, many of whom are from the north, and have begun to clear their lands within the last few years.
Industry and perseverance are the chief investments of capital required, in order to reap ample remuneration. Northern men, with their own hands, are now thus engaged. ”

“ The Castle is a place of chief and universal attraction to the curious stranger. On approaching the main entrance, through the principal gateway, the first object of interest is a Spanish inscription, engraved on the solid rock immediately over head, and under the arms of Spain, and is as follows, viz.: [1] “Reynando en Espana{15} el son Don Fernando Sexto y Sierdo Governador y Capitan General di esta Plaza de San Augustine de Florida y su Provincia el Moriscal de Campo Dn. ”

“ The city affords comfortable, if not elegant homes, to the invalid sojourner, both in public houses and private families, through which he will have a more or less direct connection with the avenues to the Anglo-American society. ”