channel of the Hillsboro' River comes in from the south, half a mile
wide, with ten or twelve feet of water. On the west side the bay is a
low island with a creek between it and the mainland. On this mainland
is a shell bluff, twelve feet high, on which stands the hotel--a long
two-story building, with a piazza in front and out-buildings behind.
In the front yard are young orange, olive and fig trees, with two
splendid oleanders fifteen feet high, one on each side the door.
Another tropical plant, seen at the North in greenhouses, but here
growing ten feet high in the open air, is the American aloe or
century-plant. This house will accommodate twenty-five boarders, but
it was not full at the time; so we obtained rooms. It is one of the
most comfortable places in Florida, with a well-kept table, provided
with fish, oysters, turtle and game. New Smyrna is about thirty miles
from Enterprise, on the St. John's River: to this place there are
three or four steamers weekly from Jacksonville.

A hunting-party was organized to go the next day to Turnbull's Swamp,
which lies a few miles west of Loud's, and contains deer, turkeys and
ducks, with bears and panthers for those who desire that kind of
game. The party consisted of Captain Morris and Roberts of our yacht;
Colonel Vincent and two of the Englishmen from the Victoria, with
Weldon the pilot, and a tall Ohio hunter named Halliday, who lived in
the woods near Loud's. He took three fox-hounds, and Morris brought
his deer-hounds ashore. They took with them a mule and cart, with a
tent and blankets, intending to stay in the swamp over night. Captain
Herbert and I preferred to go a-fishing, and we hired a man to get
bait and take us to the ground in his boat. Doctor White went off by
himself to shoot birds for his collection.

About eight A.M. we anglers sailed out of the creek, and stood across