Hon. David Yulee, President And One-Third
Owner Of The A. G. & W. I. T. C. Railroad, Which
Connects The
Atlantic coast at Fernandina with
the Gulf coast at Cedar Keys, offered me the
free use of his long railroad,
For any purpose of
exploration, &c., while his son, Mr. C.
Wickliffe Yulee, exerted himself to remove all
impediments to delay.
These gentlemen, being native Floridians,
have done much towards encouraging all
legitimate exploration of the peninsula, and have
also done something towards putting a check on
the outrageous impositions practised on northern
agricultural emigrants to Florida, by encouraging
the organization of a railroad land-company,
which offers a forty-acre homestead for fifty
dollars, to be selected out of nearly six hundred
thousand acres of land along their highway
across the state. A man of comparatively
small means can now try the experiment of
making a home in the mild climate of Florida,
and if he afterwards abandons the enterprise
there will have been but a small investment of
capital, and consequently little loss.
The turpentine distillery of Dutton was situated
in a heavy forest of lofty pines. Major C. K.
Dutton furnished a team of mules to haul the
Maria Theresa to the St. Mary's River, the
morning after my arrival by rail at Dutton
Station. The warm sunshine shot aslant the tall
pines as the teamster followed a faintly
developed trail towards the swamps. Before noon the
flashing waters of the stream were discernible,
and a little later, with paddle in hand, I was
urging the canoe towards the Atlantic coast.
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