Petals Plucked from Sunny ClimesBrooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
History
Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes
Brooks, A. M. (Abbie M.)
Cuba -- Description and travel; Florida -- Description and travel; Florida -- History
Travelers, in leaving Savannah for Florida, can go outside by sea, or
the inland route, many preferring the latter on account of avoiding
sea-sickness, the passage being made between sounds, inlets, and
islands, before Fernandina is reached. The inland steamers are
first-class in every respect, and the long marsh-grass contains many of
those colossal lizards called alligators. They crawl about fearlessly
in their hiding-places, while the swamp blackbird whistles very sweetly
for us as we pass along so quietly most of the time that we are not
exactly certain of any movement, but ten miles an hour is the _pro rata_
of speed.
We are now close to St. Simon's Island, where General Oglethorpe
commenced another settlement in 1736, called Frederica. On this
equable-tempered island they laid out a town, built a fort with four
bastions to protect their palmetto cabins, which, as the historian
describes them, appeared like a camp with bowers, "being covered with
leaves of a pleasing color." Natural paths and arbors were found here by
the English, as if formed by the hand of art, with the ripe grapes
hanging in festoons of a royal purple hue. The settlements made by
Oglethorpe in this portion of the country were the first formed in the
true spirit of improvement and colonization.
With him came the great founder of Methodism in America, Wesley, who
planted his standard on this island, and mentions their object in the
following manner: "It is not to gain riches and honor, but to live
wholly to the glory of God, as we have come in the serene hour of peace,
when the floods of controversy have subsided, to sow the gospel seeds."
John Bartram visited St. Simon's Island in 1744, and makes the following
record of his repast with a friend: "Our rural table was spread under
the shadow of oaks, palms, and sweet-bays, fanned by the lively,
salubrious breezes, wafted from the spicy groves. Our music was the
responsive love-lays of the painted nonpareil and the alert, gay
mocking-bird, while the brilliant humming-bird darted through the
flowery groves, suspended in air, drinking nectar from the blooms of the
yellow jasmine, lonicera, andromeda, and azalea."
As we approach Fernandina we are nearing historic ground--Dungenness,
once a most charming and attractive place, located near the southern
extremity of Cumberland Island, the former home of Nathanael Greene, of
revolutionary fame, where his last days were spent peacefully, of which
pleasant period he thus speaks: "The mocking-birds that sing around me
morning and evening, the mild and balmy atmosphere, with the exercise
which I find in my garden culture." This locality seemed to have
constituted a happy close to his eventful career.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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