Petals Plucked from Sunny Climes

her stars

with pur

chest music

Eden's hues

g love, so fr

is breath th

an hear, afterward filling up the interstices from their imaginations. We look to the old Spaniards for information, but, alas! they

t of youth or the vapor of strong drink. Daily we are more impressed with the fact how treacherous are the links which connect the chain of traditio

alm, where youth and beauty held perpetual sway, and mounta

e waters which our Huguenots had previously dignified with the title, "River of Dolphins," to the present time, imagination has been on the alert to penetrat

that they were immortal, with their steel-covered bodies and bonnets, which flashed like meteors in the sunlight, whi

with Spain, the Spanish retiring so hastily they left fourteen brass cannon, besides a mahogany chest containing two thousand pounds in the castle. During 1665, Davis, the buccaneer, captured t

took possession, when we find this graphic account,

kind to the north, on which side they have double walls six or eight feet asunder, forming a kind of gallery, which answers for cellars and pantries. Before most of the entrances were arbors of vines, producing plenty and very good grapes. No house has any chimney for a fire-place; the Spaniards made use of stone urns, filled them with coals, le

of this ancient pavement, but for the most part it has been ground into dust under the wheels of the carts and carriages introduced by the new inhabitants. The old houses are built of a kind of stone which is seemingly a pure concretion of small shells, which overhang the streets with their wooden balconies; and the gardens between the houses are fenced on the side of the street with high walls of stone. Peeping over these walls you see branches of the pomegranate and of the orange-tree now fr

ountry, lived here, and paraded the streets in true Scottish style, dressed in the Highland costume. His home was with Mr. Archibald Lundy, then a merchant of St. Augustine. He was present at the taking of Fort Moosa, under command of General Oglethorpe

the governor's palace, where the exercising of a right was declared which had banished the Huguenots fr

es Collector. They were sealed in eleven strong boxes, for the purpose of being s

Augustine and Mandarin. He organized the first Presbyterian Church in the State, located at M

air." It was, indeed, a forest of sturdy orange-trees, whose rich foliage of deep green, variegated with golden fruit, in which the buildings of the city were embowered, and whose fragrance filled the body of the surrounding atmosphere so as to attract the attention of those passing by i

sed by a cold, heartless invader from the North, King Frost, which made them a brief visit, and froze the trees to the ground. From an income of more than sev

tery-a pilgrim shrine for those wanting relics to visit, where many times large drafts are drawn upon the bank of their credulity, which look genuine if not honored with credence, or added to the store-house of useful information. Here we see more objects tottering upon the verge of existence and nonentity than at any other point in the State. The most venerable houses are buil

ed the adventurer to leave his home, and the pampered sons of power to pass the dangers of the deep. It is here, as in no other place, that two forms of civilization find a foothold-the Spanish dwellings of over a

formerly resorted to St. Augustine during the months of July, August, and September, that they might avoid malaria from the marshes. The fresh sea-breeze which comes out every morning they call

The chloride of sodium, compounded in the laboratory of the great saline aquarium and respired without effort, is

a military post, being the Government head-quarters, th

ied as their origin-having descended from the Spanish, Italians, Corsicans, Arabs, and French, possessing the peculiar traits of these nationalities. The carnivals, posy balls, and many other amusements in which they formerly indulged, have now in

echoed through the same town for more than three centuries! It indicates that the Lenten season is now over, and the young men are anxious to participate in feasting. Although it is customary, they are not always invited to partake of a bountiful collation after their song is finished, but are prepared to do so when the opportunity presents itself. The extreme poverty of the old citizens now renders it impossible for them to conform to the customs of palmier days

ld, ripen and die, with as little effort toward great designs or grand projects as the sweet potato in the hill. Many of them live seventy or eighty years, are born an

re surrounded is in no way conducive to great physical exertion. The inhabitants follow hunting and fishing, besides cultivating their gardens, while some of them have cow-pens for their cattle, and land outside the city, which they till. They are a quiet, frugal people, retiring in their manners, and simple in their ways-the very opposite in every respect of the grasping, bustling, overreaching

in the Court of Spain before the days of Ferdinand and Isabella. It has the terseness of th

with an object, well or ill defined-the student to look, the historian to gather dates and make records, while the restless spirit that roves everywhere is here in search of something new or wonderful for his eyes to rest on a brief period of time. At this place there is an unchanging serenity of sky, a clear and harmonious blending of two colors-white and blue-with a soft shading, and the line of distinction lightly drawn. Long level stretches of sandy country lie before us on the beach, covered by the canopy of heaven, and lighted by the luminary of day. The Matanzas Riv

Jews of old, is given in the ceremonials of the ritualistic law. Their new coquina convent is pleasant, and the display of fine laces, made by their busy fingers, incomparable. The little chapel within the convent is very neat, containing a statue of their patron, St. Joseph, watching over it. Th

ible, ideal substance somewhere; for this reason images were introduced to address their supplications. It is now the pomp of pontifical splendor, and not the stren

host of past memories rise before us on every side as we walk its narrow streets, overshadowed by mid-air balconies! Here are the old palace-grounds, where the Dons from Spain paraded their troops, and exhibited them, with burnished armor and crimson sas

ong the most ancient of which is the Escribanio, now called St. Mary's Convent, west of the cathedral. It was built for and occupied as El Escribanio, or business department of the governor. It was built of coquina and concrete, with a tile floor, much of the material used being brought from Cuba, and of the most durable quality. All business connect

Also, that the groans of unhappy nuns who had died here from too much abstinence had been heard echoing through the arches at unseasonable hours, when spiritual visitants are supposed to be moving ar

into requisition, with which a dime or a dollar can be turned from a visitor's pocket. It is then the dear old folks from a colder clime come to sit and sun themselves on the s

ge stick and an alligator are the aspiration of the lads-the latter being a marvel to Northern visitors. When a genuine, live alligator

ike elevating him somewhere among the shining orbs, from which point he would not soon return-to the hotel bills. "Four dollars a day, sir; if no baggage, in advance." The

llen carcass, to the amusement of some, and the annoyance of many more. There i

nes with a simple hook, and others with elaborate reels and silver hooks, amusing themselves; while the old Spaniards bask in the sunsh

le now elegant carriages, with liveried drivers, roll around the

e is a little more refined than that to which they have been accustomed; but the most astonishing thing of all is the mysterious manner with which the natives come in possession of your name, the facts connected with your movem

heir coat of feathers and the epidermis, looking at you from out glass windows, through glass eyes; screech-owl tails and wings; pink and white curlew-feathers; saws from sword-fish of fabulous length; sharks' heads; sea-beans, supposed to have grown on Anastasia Island, but drifted from the West Indies; and

cares, where these home-made articles were produced-what thoughts were woven by the light-hearted workers-wha

hats, together with the excrescent growths from the tall cypress-trees. Each countryman's cart has a marsh-hen, bl

it is all nothing. Everybody has to make a support in some way-as the little boy replied to the Northerner who asked h

relate things that occurred long anterior to the current of their existence, with the same unbroken connection of circumstances as though they were among the events of yester

uld not fill a page in history, or supply material for a romance. An incident occasionally takes place, which

ves look upon that class of persons as a kind of interlopers, who want to suck the swe

of a summer sun, and praising every thing they see. If they have any doubt in regard to what they hear, let them lock it in secret, and keep silent

in any of the small settlements with which Florida is filled, or in the larger towns either, if they wish to be fanned by the breath of popular favor. Always take the spirit of volatile indifference with you, to waft you thro