kipper was unsuccessful with his grains. We baited with
land-crabs, which abound in the mangrove swamps. Frequently within a
quarter of an hour we caught red-fish, dark-fleshed jack, and black and
white banded sheep's-heads, in numbers sufficient to feed all on board.
Indeed, we agreed that no one need starve in Florida, if only provided
with guns and ammunition, hooks, lines, and harpoons.

At length Jupiter Inlet was reached. It is narrow, and very shallow,
and is occasionally closed by a strong easterly gale. We were now once
more in the open sea, steering southward for Key Biscayne, at the north
end of a line of keys or islets which sweep round the whole southern
coast of Florida. Our skipper kept a sharp look-out for wrecks, numbers
of which occur on this dangerous coast. His object was, he said, to
assist the crews, and to take possession of the cargoes. There were, he
told us, a number of vessels so employed--cutters and schooners
constantly cruising about in search of wrecks. Their skippers were
honest men; but there were others--"beach-combers," he called them--who
not only plundered shipwrecked crews, but endeavoured to allure to their
destruction, by means of false lights, any vessels approaching the
coast. Many a stout ship has thus been lost, their crews miserably
perishing.

Although our skipper spoke with just indignation of such a mode of
proceeding, he had no objection whatever, when a ship was on shore, to
get out of her all the booty he could obtain. We passed the skeletons
of several wrecks; but they had long before been visited by the
ever-vigilant wreckers, and everything of value on board carried away.

Lejoillie had a great desire to visit the Everglades--a large tract
extending over the greater part of the southern end of Florida. It
consists of a vast plain of coarse saw-grass; above which, here and
there, rise well-wooded and fertile islands, composed of coral rock of a
crescent form, which they assumed when first forced up, by some
convulsion of nature, above the surface of the ocean. The plain is
swampy; and down it narrow channels exist, which drain the water in a
great measure towards the west.

As our skipper wished to obtain some cocoa-nuts which grew abundantly on
the shore, and proposed to employ the time of our absence in catching
turtle, he consented to bring up for a few hours; advising us to keep a
sharp look-out for Indians, and to avoid them, as they would certainl