The Population, Of Course, Increases With
The Commerce Of The Country, And Every Vessel That Sails From Our Ports To
The Gulf of Mexico, or comes from the Gulf to the North, every addition to
the intercourse of the Atlantic
Ports with Mobile, New Orleans, the West
Indies, or Central America, adds to their chances of gain. These people
neither plant nor sow; their isle is a low barren spot, surrounded by a
beach of white sand, formed of disintegrated porous limestone, and a
covering of the same sand, spread thinly over the rock, forms its soil.
"It is a scandal," said the pilot, "that this coast is not better lighted.
A few light-houses would make its navigation much safer, and they would be
built, if Florida had any man in Congress to represent the matter properly
to the government. I have long been familiar with this coast - sixty times,
at least, I have made the voyage from Charleston to Havana, and I am sure
that there is no such dangerous navigation on the coast of the United
States. In going to Havana, or to New Orleans, or to other ports on the
gulf, commanders of vessels try to avoid the current of the gulf-stream
which would carry them to the north, and they, therefore, shave the
Florida coast, and keep near the reefs which you see yonder. They often
strike the reefs inadvertently, or are driven against them by storms. In
returning northward the navigation is safer; we give a good offing to the
reefs and strike out into the gulf-stream, the current of which carries us
in the direction of our voyage."
A little before nine o'clock we had entered the little harbor of Key West,
and were moored in its still waters.
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