ed. He had heard of the breaking up of the Confederacy, but
not of the capture of Mr. Davis, and was evidently skeptical of our
story as to being wreckers, and connected us in some way with the losing
party, either as persons of note or a party escaping with treasure.
However, O'Toole baffled all his queries, and was proof against both
blandishments and threats. He learned what he had expected, that they
were looking for the return of a schooner; hence the smoke signal, and
the anxiety to detain us as long as possible. It was only when he saw us
leaving, after waiting over two hours, that the major permitted him to
make a few purchases and rejoin us.

Night, coming on, found us inside of Key Biscayne, the beginning of the
system of innumerable keys, or small islands, extending from this point
to the Tortugas, nearly two hundred miles east and west, at the
extremity of the peninsula. Of coral formation, as soon as it is built
up to the surface of the water it crumbles under the action of the sea
and sun. Sea-fowl rest upon it, dropping the seed of some marine plants,
or the hard mangrove is washed ashore on it, and its all-embracing roots
soon spread in every direction; so are formed these keys. Darkness and
shoal water warned us to anchor. We passed an unhappy night fighting
mosquitos. As the sun rose, we saw to the eastward a schooner of thirty
or forty tons standing down toward us with a light wind; no doubt it was
one from the fort sent in pursuit. Up anchor, up sail, out sweeps, and
we headed down Biscayne Bay, a shoal sheet of water between the reefs
and mainland. The wind rose with the sun, and, being to windward, the
schooner had the benefit of it first, and was fast overhauling us. The
water was shoaling, which I was not sorry to see, for our draft must
have been from two to three feet less than that of our pursuer, and we
recognized that our best chance of escape was by drawing him into shoal
water, while keeping afloat ourselves. By the color and break of the
water I saw that we were approaching a part of the bay where the shoals
appeared to extend nearly across, with narrow channels between them like
the furrows in a plowed field, with occasional openings from one channel
into another. Some of the shoals were just awash, others bare. Ahead was
a reef on which there appeared but very little water. I could see no
opening into the channel beyond. To attempt to haul by the wind on
either tack would bring us in a f