.

a a ssapeainataneeness albeit i —— ee

a

 

382 Norro Caroiina Troops, 1861-65.

tives abroad, which he proposed to take in our steam ee
by way of Florida. This launch was forty feet long an
could steam about ten miles an hour. Our chief engineer,
Mr. Lockhart, and his first assistant, Mr. Carroll, and one
of John Morgan’s men, an escaped prisoner, accompanied =
We parted with our friends, some of whom tried to dissua .
us from what they termed a foolhardy undertaking, by whic
they said, we were certain to lose our lives. We hoped
reach the Florida coast in two days, instead of which we
were more than a month on the way.

The first night out from Nassau, one of the cylinder heads
broke, and when morning dawned we got out -our oars and
laboriously toiled until evening to reach the island of re
Turtle Cay, inhabited entirely by negroes, none of whom
could aid us in repairing the damage to our engine. Mr.
Lockhart fell desperately sick with internal inflammation,
and I took the part of nurse for two weeks. The situation
was most depressing. Upon Lockhart’s recovery, we de
cided to abandon the launch, and a small schooner used for
sponging at the islands was purchased for the voyage to Flor-
ida. Captain Wark, a Bahama pilot, and two negro —
were employed to sail her, and they were to be rewarded wit
the vessel if they landed us safely. Our food consisted of
fish which we caught with hook and line over the side, fried
bacon and hardtack.

There was room for only three of us to lie down, so we ar-
ranged watches accordingly. Our morning ablutions were
simple. We washed our faces in the green sea, which ue
only sixteen inches from the deck of the vessel I woul
not now cross the Cape Fear in such a craft, and I look back
in wonder and thankfulness that our lives were spared
through the dangers of that expedition. We had fine weather
for ten days at sea, otherwise our frail craft would never
have seen the land again. At last we sighted the tall, white

lighthouse on Cape Carnavoral, off which a mile distant we
anchored and proceeded two at a time in our cockle shell of

a dingy to land in the surf. I was much interested at the
sight of cormorants fishing in a circle off the Cape. These
creatures assembled there by thousands, and, forming a huge

Secretion te mien acta it ai Papa beanie ie wt

BiockapEe Runnina. 3883

circle on the water about a mile in circumference, gradually
narrowed the inside space by swimming towards the center,
driving the fish before them and filling their peculiar and
spacious pouches under their bills until they were too heavily
laden to fly. I waited on board until the last passage to the
beach. The others had landed in safety, although with wet
skins. Before leaving the schooner, Captain Wark warned
me against standing up in the small boat while in the break-
ers, which would inevitably capsize it. This precaution
would have been heeded but for a school of ravenous sharks
which met us on the way and seized the two oars, breaking
them like pipe stems in their ugly mouths. The negro boy
who was with me in the boat became panic-stricken and stood
up against my warning as we entered the surf on Pbig roller.
We were instantly thrown high in the air, the boat came
down with a crash and I found myself on the bottom clawing
the sand until I emerged upon dry land. The others rushed
in and saved the darkey and the boat, upon which he managed
to return to the schooner. With a wave of the hand, Captain °
Wark hoisted sail and left us helpless on the beach. We
tramped to the lighthouse about a mile away and found it
dismantled and deserted. From its lantern gallery, sixty
feet high, we surveyed the Cape upon which there was no
human habitation. We then set out to walk across the Cape
and reached an old landing on the estuary of St. John’s river,
which we afterwards learned was called the Bay of Biscay be-
cause of its exposed position and rough sea. Here we found
a rough batteau hewn from a cypress log, and in it our entire
party of five persons crossed that dangerous sea, fourteen
miles, to the main land. I never in all my life had seen so
many alligators ; within a cable’s length of our boat I counted
forty-five large ones. In paddling our canoe we earefully
avoided them, but several of these ugly creatures rose within
a few feet of our boat. We were thankful to get on shore
again and we shaped our course at once to walk toward Ocala,
one hundred and seventy-five miles distant. The spring had
been unusually dry and we suffered much during the first two
days from lack of drinking water. We were armed with
sheath knives and pistols strapped to our waists. The former