“------ of shell or fin,
And exquisitest name.”

Clams are dug up on the pure sands along the beach, where the fishermen drag their boats ashore, and wherever the salt water dashes, there is an oyster, if he can find aught upon which to anchor his habitation.  Along the edge of the marshes, next to the water, you see a row—­a wall I should rather say—­of oysters, apparently sprouting one out of another, as high as the tide flows.  They are called here, though I do not know why, ratoon oysters.  The abundance of fish solves the problem which has puzzled many, how the Minorcan population of St. Augustine live, now that their orange-trees, upon which they formerly depended, are unproductive.

In the steamboat were two or three persons who had visited Florida with a view of purchasing land.  Now that the Indian war is ended, colonization has revived, and people are thronging into the country to take advantage of the law which assigns a hundred and sixty acres to every actual settler.  In another year, the influx of population will probably be still greater, though the confusion and uncertainty which exists in regard to the title of the lands, will somewhat obstruct the settlement of the country.  Before the Spanish government ceded it to the United States, they made numerous grants to individuals, intended to cover all the best land of the territory.  Many of the lands granted have never been surveyed, and their situation and limits are very uncertain.  The settler, therefore, if he is not very careful, may find his farm overlaid by an old Spanish claim.

I have said that the war is ended.  Although the Seminole chief, Sam Jones, and about seventy of his people remain, the country is in profound peace from one end to the other, and you may traverse the parts most distant from the white settlements without the least danger or molestation from the Indians.  “How is it,” I asked one day of a gentleman who had long resided in St. Augustine, “that, after what has happened, you can think it safe to let these people remain?”

“It is perfectly safe,” he answered.  “Sam Jones professes, and I believe truly, to have had less to do with the murders which have been committed than the other chiefs, though it is certain that Dr. Perrine, whose death we so much lament, was shot at Indian Key by his men.  Besides, he has a quarrel with one of the Seminole chiefs, whose relative he has killed, and if he were to follow them to their new country, he would certainly be put to death.  It is his interest, therefore, to propitiate the favor of the whites by the most unexceptionable behavior, for his life depends upon being allowed to remain.