During the eight months Madam Joe resided with the family of Colonel Belknap, she frequently saw the wily chief, Billy Bowlegs, and other noted Seminoles, for whom, to use her own words, she "cooked many a meal." Close confinement caused a recurrence of her old disease--liver complaint--and she reluctantly left the hospitable house of Colonel Belknap for her homestead on Terraceia, where by constant out-door exercise, she soon regained her usual health. Even at the present day, Madam Joe's universal panacea is "the grubbing-hoe and elbow-grease." She practices what she preaches, and unlike the medical profession, takes her own medicine. Soon after the return of Madam Joe and family to Terraceia, Mr. Nichols concluded to go to New Orleans. During that year--1846--the yellow fever nearly depopulated the city, and Mr. Nichols was probably one of its victims, as he has never been heard from by his friends since he left Terraceia. In the fall of 1846, one of the severest gales that ever visited this section of the country passed over Tampa, Terraceia, Palmetto and Manatee. Madam Joe's house was blown down and all her furniture destroyed. The hen-house was the only structure that survived the storm. The fowls were dispossessed of their domicile, and the family occupied it until another house was built. In 1848, a government official visited this part of Florida to examine proofs of claimants to land under the Armed Occupation and Homestead Acts. On examining Madam Joe's papers, it was discovered that two permits had been issued for the same number. This error could only be rectified at the General Land Office in Washington. It was deemed advisable by Madam Joe and her husband to return to Tampa and remain there until the mistake in relation to their homestead could be rectified. Mr. Joe hired a man to assist him in building a house at Tampa, and they went up the Hillsborough River to cut logs and make shingles for the structure. In the month of September the logs for the house were formed into a raft and the shingles placed on it. Everything being in readiness for a start, a furious gale set in, which destroyed the raft and scattered the logs and shingles for miles along the banks of the river. Having gathered the logs and shingles together and rafted them down to Tampa, Mr. Joe visited his family at Terraceia, where he learned that during the late storm his wife, child and niece had taken refuge in the house of a friend on another part of the island. He returned to Tampa, and his family followed soon after. When Madam Joe arrived, she did not admire the location her husband had selected for the house. The frame was taken down and erected on a lot on the town-side of the river, and was soon occupied by the family. The property is still owned by Madam Joe.