ies took possession of the
pilot-house, and the rest of the party were seated under the awning on
the forecastle. These places afforded a view of both sides of the
river, and of the long prospect ahead.

"Tocoi," said the pilot, pointing to the left. "This is the place where
passengers are landed who go to St. Augustine. A railroad, fifteen
miles in length, takes travellers the rest of the way."

We could see nothing but a few sheds, and Tocoi itself was of no
consequence. The river was just about what we had seen all the way up
from Jacksonville. At ten o'clock we ran up to the wharf at Pilatka.
This is a thriving town of from fifteen hundred to two thousand
inhabitants, and, like every other place on the river, is a resort for
invalids from the North. After dinner the party landed and explored the
town, which is not very different from any other Florida towns we had
seen. It had pleasant houses, surrounded with orange gardens.

I directed Washburn to anchor the Sylvania at some distance from the
wharf in the river, partly to keep out of the way of steamers arriving,
and partly to make sure that Griffin Leeds did not get on board of her.
I had seen nothing of him, though I fancied he was in Green Cove
Springs while we were there.

The next day was Sunday; all our passengers, and some of the ship's
company, went to church. On Monday morning we sailed for Welaka,
twenty-five miles farther up the river. It is opposite the mouth of the
Ocklawaha River. The St. Johns was only one-third of a mile wide at
this point, and began to look more like a stream and less like a lake.
Colonel Shepard had chartered a small steamer for our trip up the
Ocklawaha and the upper St. Johns. On Saturday afternoon, Washburn,
with Ben Bowman and Dyer Perkins, had started for Jacksonville to bring
the Wetumpka, for that was the name of the craft, up to this point.

She was a nearly new vessel, which the owners had built for an extra
boat, but the scarcity of engineers had prevented them from putting her
on the route at that time, though they had a couple on their way from a
northern city. Steamboat business was exceedingly brisk at this time of
the year on the upper rivers, and the owners of the line had several
boats running on them. The Colonel had obtained the Wetumpka only by
agreeing to run her himself, and by paying a large price for her, quite
as much as she could have made after paying her expenses, if she had
gone on the line.

I