“_Wednesday_ P.M.--Passed Aligator Light one o’clock; this will bring us to Key West about eight o’clock, and enable me to place this on _Mascotte_ without much to spare, and probably place us ashore at Galveston Sunday morning, and as you may not be in Darien Sunday, you will only receive the message at office on Monday A.M. Send to Mrs. Plant at Branford on arrival, so she may receive the information same day. Would like to have you make at least a synopsis of the daily notes to Mr. O’B., that you may send to him should he be absent. We are now well up with American Shoal Light; next we shall have Sombrero, and then Sand Key and Key West. We are likely to fall in with the _Mascotte_. “We are jogging along very pleasantly with wind well on the port quarter and temperature quite comfortable.” The following letter from Mr. Plant, published in the _Home Journal_, New York, March 15, 1893, speaks for itself. It shows its author to be at home on shipboard, and as much at his ease as in his own parlor; while carefully noting all points of interest and enjoying to the full all that was enjoyable. ON BOARD S. S. “HALIFAX,” SUNDAY, Feb. 26, ’93. “We sailed from Port Tampa on Thursday, February 16th, and after a delightfully smooth and pleasant trip arrived at Nassau, N. P., on Saturday morning. A number of our party were entertained by the Honorable Sir Ambrose Shea, governor of the island; others of us preferred to pass the few hours in riding and driving, seeing something of the beauties of the place. We returned to the steamer in the afternoon and got under way, passing out of the harbor through the “Hole in the Wall,” as it is called. We steamed down over the banks, passing along the eastern shore of the island, and leaving Cape Mayce on our starboard, until away over to port were seen the highlands of Hayti. “All the way from Port Tampa to Jamaica, the weather was simply delightful, and the sea as smooth as the waters of our Seneca Lake. We arrived at the wharf at Kingston at seven o’clock Tuesday morning. Our excursionists all went to the Myrtle Bank Hotel, where choice accommodations were provided. We received a call from the Consul-General of the United States, Mr. Dent, and also visits from other important people of the city of Kingston. In the afternoon we received an invitation, conveyed to the party through our conductor, Mr. A. E. Dick, a hotel man well known in New York, to attend a garden party given by Lady Blake at King’s House. Lady Blake is the wife of Sir Henry Blake, the governor of the island. We found a large crowd of people, a gracious welcome, exquisite music and bountiful refreshment. Only think of it--an out-of-door reception on the twenty-first day of February!