season. Whenever the breeze left us the heat was almost suffocating;
there was no escape for it. If we landed, and sought any shade, the
mosquitos would drive us at once to the glare of the sun. When sleeping
on shore, the best protection was to bury ourselves in the sand, with
cap drawn down over the head (my buckskin gauntlets proved invaluable);
if in the boat, to wrap the sail or tarpaulin around us. Besides this
plague, sand-flies, gnats, swamp-flies, ants, and other insects
abounded. The little black ant is especially bold and warlike. If, in
making our beds in the sand, we disturbed one of their hives, they would
rally in thousands to the attack, and the only safety was in a hasty
shake and change of residence. Passing Indian River inlet, the river
broadens, and there is a thirty-mile straight-away course to Gilbert's
Bar, or Old Inlet, now closed; then begin the Jupiter Narrows, where the
channel is crooked, narrow, and often almost closed by the dense growth
of mangroves, juniper, saw-grass, etc., making a jungle that only a
water-snake could penetrate. Several times we lost our reckoning, and
had to retreat and take a fresh start; an entire day was lost in these
everglades, which extend across the entire peninsula. Finally, by good
luck, we stumbled on a short "haulover" to the sea, and determined at
once to take advantage of it, and to run our boat across and launch her
in the Atlantic. A short half-mile over the sand-dunes, and we were
clear of the swamps and marshes of Indian River, and were reveling in
the Atlantic, free, at least for a time, from mosquitos, which had
punctured and bled us for the last three weeks.

[Illustration: SAND AS A DEFENSE AGAINST MOSQUITOS.]

On Sunday, June 4, we passed Jupiter Inlet, with nothing in sight. The
lighthouse had been destroyed the first year of the war. From this point
we had determined to cross Florida Channel to the Bahamas, about eighty
miles; but the wind was ahead, and we could do nothing but work slowly
to the southward, waiting for a slant. It was of course a desperate
venture to cross this distance in a small open boat, which even a
moderate sea would swamp. Our provisions now became a very serious
question. As I have said, we had lost all the meal, and the sweet
potatoes, our next main-stay, were sufficient only for two days more. We
had but little more ammunition than was necessary for our revolvers, and
these we might be called upon to use at any time.