Through the cultivated lands, mapped out like a painter's palette, ran a crystal stream, from which the rice fields were watered by intersecting rivulets, looking like silver threads in a tissue. Orange groves margined its course, running sinuously through the settlement. In places it was lost to sight, only to re-appear with some new feature of beauty. Here and there it exhibited cascades and slight waterfalls that danced in the sunlight, sending up showers of prismatic spray. There were islets upon which grew reeds, sedges, and canes, surmounted by groups of caricas, and laurel-magnolias, the exogenous trees overtopped by the tall, feathery palm. In its waters wild fowl disported themselves, scattering showers of luminous spray as they flapped their wings in delight. Birds of rare plumage darted hither and thither along its banks, enlivening the groves with their jocund notes. Far beyond, the swamp forest formed a dark, dreary back-ground, which, by contrast, enhanced the cheerfulness of the scene. Looking seaward, the prospect was no less resplendent of beauty. The water, dashing and fretting against the rocky quays, glanced back in mist and foam. Snow-white gulls hurried along the horizon, their wings cutting sharply against an azure sky, while along the silvery beach, tall, blue herons, brown cranes, and scarlet flamingoes, stood in rows, their forms reflected in the pellucid element. Such were the surroundings of the settlement on Tampa Bay. The village itself nestled beneath the hills already mentioned, and comprised a church, some half-dozen stores, with a number of substantial dwellings, whilst a rude wharf, and several schooners moored near by, gave tokens of intercourse with other places. It was a morning in May, in Florida, as elsewhere, the sweetest month in the year. Borne upon the balmy atmosphere was the hum of bees and the melody of birds, mingled with the voices of young girls and men engaged in the labour of their farms and fields. The lowing of cattle could be heard in the distant grazing grounds, while the tillers of the soil were seen at work upon their respective plantations. There was one who looked upon this cheerful scene without seeming to partake of its cheerfulness. Standing upon the top of the hill was a man of tall, gaunt figure, with a face somewhat austere in its expression. His strongly lined features, with a firm expression about the mouth, marked him for a man of no common mould. He appeared to be about sixty. As his keen grey eyes wandered over the fields below, there was a cold, determined light in them which betrayed no pleasant train of thought. It spoke of covetous ambition. Behind him, upon the hill top, of table shape, were poles standing up out of the earth. Around them the sward was trampled, and the scorched grass, worn in many directions into paths, signified that at no distant period the place had been inhabited.