the Saint John River, twenty miles off.

As many of those who read my journal may be unacquainted with Florida,
they may like to have a short description of the country. First, as to
how it came to be called Florida. It was so named, it is said, by the
Spaniard, Ponce de Leon, the first European who landed on its shores on
Palm Sunday, 1513, either in honour of the day--Pasqua Florida--or
because, being struck by the number and beauty of the flowers which
covered the ground, he denominated it Terra Florida, or the Flowery
Land. In shape it somewhat resembles a boot. The northern portion,
joined to Georgia, is about three hundred miles from east to west; while
the rest of the peninsula, which may be likened to the leg, extending
from the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico, is about one hundred miles
across. On both shores are numerous islands and sand-banks. There are
neither mountains nor hills even, the greater part of the country rising
but a few feet above the level of the sea. It contains, however, a
great many lakes and a few rivers. The largest of the latter--the Saint
John River--rises far away in the south, frequently expanding during the
early part of its course into broad lakes, and in some places closely
approaching the Atlantic coast. The southern point of Florida reaches
to within twenty-five degrees of the equator, so that the vegetation is
of a tropical character. Alligators swarm in the streams and pools;
flowering shrubs of rare beauty clothe the banks of every river; and
birds innumerable inhabit the forests, lakes, islets sand-banks, and
sea-coast.

At the time I speak of there were several forts, with small garrisons,
scattered here and there, and a few huts and stores in their
neighbourhood; but the white settlers generally were located on the
Atlantic coast or on the banks of the Saint John; while over the rest of
the country the Seminoles, a detached tribe of the Creeks, who inhabited
Georgia, roamed at large.

"A short time ago," observed the judge, "the State of Georgia resolved
to compel the Cherokees, the most civilised and most powerful of the
Indian tribes, to abandon their territories, and remove to the western
side of the Mississippi. Though they had written laws and an
established government, the legislature of Georgia refused to allow them
the rights of citizens, and passed a law, declaring `that no Indian, or
descendant of an Indian, residing within the Creek or Cherokee natio