Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images available at The Internet Archive) [Illustration: FOUNDING OF ST. AUGUSTINE BY PEDRO MELENDEZ, SEPTEMBER 8, 1565.] PETALS PLUCKED FROM SUNNY CLIMES. BY SILVIA SUNSHINE. With Illustrations. NASHVILLE, TENN.: SOUTHERN METHODIST PUBLISHING HOUSE. PRINTED FOR THE AUTHOR. 1880. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1879, by THE AUTHOR, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. [Illustration: text decoration] INTRODUCTORY NOTE. This book contains a brief account of the early settlement of Florida, and some of its Indian conflicts, together with many amusing incidents connected with its present history; also a new illustration, prepared expressly for this work--the whole being a collection of travels, and what is to be seen in various portions of Florida, Key West, and Cuba; with a Gazetteer and Florida Guide-book attached, designed for the use of tourists and settlers. [Illustration: text decoration] [Illustration: text decoration] [Illustration: text decoration] PREFACE. Writing, like other employments, furnishes a reward to those who are fond of it--elevates the mind to a higher and happier state of enjoyment than merely grasping for earthly treasure, a desire to discover something beautiful in our surroundings, a nobility of character in mankind, a grandeur in all God's works. My travels, both in Florida and Cuba, when not suffering from sickness, were an uninterrupted source of pleasure and entertainment, made thus by the smiles of friendship, intercourse among kind-hearted people, combined with the luscious fruits and delightful scenery by which I was almost constantly surrounded. In arranging the historical portion of this work, I have endeavored to sift conflicting events, at all times retaining those which were the most tangible, and rejecting many which have been received by superficial observers as consistent truths. I shall feel amply rewarded if any sad, sensitive heart, wounded in life's struggles, is cheered even for awhile in perusing these pages, or the consumptive invalid entertained with a pleasanter potion than his cod-liver and gloomy forebodings of future ill. [Illustration: text decoration] [Illustration: text decoration] CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.....17