The old fort of St. Mark, now called Fort Marion, a foolish change of name, is a noble work, frowning over the Matanzas, which flows between St. Augustine and the island of St. Anastasia, and it is worth making a long journey to see.  No record remains of its original construction, but it is supposed to have been erected about a hundred and fifty years since, and the shell-rock of which it is built is dark with time.  We saw where it had been struck with cannon-balls, which, instead of splitting the rock, became imbedded and clogged among the loosened fragments of shell.  This rock is, therefore, one of the best materials for a fortification in the world.  We were taken into the ancient prisons of the fort—­dungeons, one of which was dimly lighted by a grated window, and another entirely without light; and by the flame of a torch we were shown the half-obliterated inscriptions scrawled on the walls long ago by prisoners.  But in another corner of the fort, we were taken to look at two secret cells, which were discovered a few years since, in consequence of the sinking of the earth over a narrow apartment between them.  These cells are deep under ground, vaulted overhead, and without windows.  In one of them a wooden machine was found, which some supposed might have been a rack, and in the other a quantity of human bones.  The doors of these cells had been walled up and concealed with stucco, before the fort passed into the hands of the Americans.

“If the Inquisition,” said the gentleman who accompanied us, “was established in Florida, as it was in the other American colonies of Spain, these were its secret chambers.”

Yesterday was Palm Sunday, and in the morning I attended the services in the Catholic church.  One of the ceremonies was that of pronouncing the benediction over a large pile of leaves of the cabbage-palm, or palmetto, gathered in the woods.  After the blessing had been pronounced, the priest called upon the congregation to come and receive them.  The men came forward first, in the order of their age, and then the women; and as the congregation consisted mostly of the descendants of Minorcans, Greeks, and Spaniards, I had a good opportunity of observing their personal appearance.  The younger portion of the congregation had, in general, expressive countenances.  Their forms, it appeared to me, were generally slighter than those of our people; and if the cheeks of the young women were dark, they had regular features and brilliant eyes, and finely formed hands.  There is spirit, also, in this class, for one of them has since been pointed out to me in the streets, as having drawn a dirk upon a young officer who presumed upon some improper freedoms of behavior.