Old periodicals: Among Florida Alligators

Image from a steel plate called "On the coast of Florida" illustrating the text - Public Domain.
Image from a steel plate called "On the coast of Florida" illustrating the chronicle - Public Domain. 

This is an old sketch of the Everglades region published in 1901. It's in Volume 1 of With the World's Great Travellers, a book edited by Charles Morris and Oliver H. G. Leigh. The author of the short chronicle was S. C. Clarke. 

This tale of an expedition to Lake Okeechobee recounts the killing of a panther. 

Morris and I fired, and the panther sprang from the tree among the dogs, which all piled on him at once. There was a confused mass of fur rolling on the ground, snarling, and snapping, for half a minute; then the panther broke loose, and was making off, when Weldon put half a dozen buckshot in his head,

They also shot various alligators on the shores of Lake Okeechobee. 

In the mean time we had commenced hostilities against the alligators, which were here very large, bold, and numerous. They lay basking in the sun upon the beach in front of our camp, some of them fifteen feet long, and it became necessary to drive them away, lest they should devour our dogs, or even our mules,

Alligators are still large in Florida - check some of our photos.

Looks like the party made camp near the spot of the Battle of Lake Okeechobee - a place we visited once. 

We made our camp in a grove near the lake, almost on the spot where Taylor fought his battle in 1838. As soon as this was done the pilots went in search of a tree to make canoes.

There was an error in his citing of the year of this battle. It happened on December 25,1837. He missed by a few days. These errors are common in old texts - there was not internet to double check. Now is easier. LOL. 

Read the story here.

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