FLORIDA
116
FLORIDA
ing part of the northern boundary; St. John's, 300
miles long, navigable tor 200 miles; Indian River,
properly a salt-water lagoon or sound, forming part of
the East Coast Canal. The Caloosahatchee, Peace,
Manatee, Withlacoochee, Suwannee, Ocilla, Ocklocko-
nee, Apalachicola, Choctawhatchee, Yellow River,
Escambia, and Perdido empty into the Gulf. The
Kissimmee enters Lake Okeechobee. Characteristic
of the State are its immense mineral springs: Silver,
Wakulla, Chipola, Green Cove, and White Springs are
the principal. The remarkably mild and agreeable
climate of Florida makes it a favourite winter resort.
The average annual temperature ranges from 68° at
Pensacola to 70° at Key West; extremes of heat or
cold are rarely experienced; the annual rainfall is
about 60 inches.
Resources. — Agriculture. — Diversity of product, rather than abundance of yield, is noticeable. Be- sides semi-tropical productions, all varieties common in higher latitudes, except a few cereals, may be prof- itably cultivated in Florida. The soil, exclusive of the impartially distributed fertile hammock lands, i. e. limited areas enriched by decomposed vegetable de- posit, is excessively sandy and rather poor in qual- ity, yet surprisingly responsive to cultivation. Even where the soil is not especially prolific the warm, humid climate stimulates a rapid and vigorous plant growth. In 1905 31,233 farms were operated by whites, 14,231 by negroes, 20 by others; farm acreage, 4,758,874; 1,621,362 acres being improved. Value of farms, 851,464,124; operating expenses, $3,914,296; prod- ucts, $40,131,814; field crops, $13,632,641; fruit crops, $5,423,390; live stock, $14,731,521. Crops in order of value: cotton, 282,078 acres, 80,485 bales, value $4,749,'351; corn, 455,274 acres, 4,888,958 bushels, value $3,315,965; peanuts, sweet potatoes, tomatoes, beans, white potatoes, tobacco, celery, hay, watermelons, oats, lettuce, cabbage, cucumbers. The most valuable fruit crop was the orange: 1,768,944 bearing trees, producing 2,961,195 boxes, value $3,- 353,609; followed in order of value by pineapples, grapefruit, strawberries, and peaches. Live stock in- cluded 36,131 horses, 19,331 mules, 69 asses, 1,010,454 cattle, 604,742 swine, 115,324 sheep, 33,150 goats.
Commerce and Industries. — The report for the last statistical year shows a remarkable mcrease in com- mercial and industrial activities; 1906 manufacturing establishments, capital $42,157,080, paid $18,048,599 to 52,345 wage-earners; value of manufactured pro- ducts, $53,506,154. The leading industries and value of annual output are: cigarmaking, about $15,000,000 (returns incomplete); lumber, $15,210,916; naval stores, $10,196,327 ; phosphate, $6,601,000. The value of exports (overland being about as much more, not included) was $62,655,559 for 1906, cigarL' comprising one-third this amount, the remainder being almost equally divided between lumber, naval stores, and phosphate ; the value of imports was $6, 654, .546. The fisheries of the west coast and sponge industry of the Keys are important, giving employment to 6000 men and yielding an annual product valued at $1,500,000. The total assessed valuation of taxable property in the State was (1904) $111,333,735; State debt, $601,567. On 1 March, 1908, eighteen railroads, with a total mileage of 4104, main track 2948, miles, were in operation.
History. — The landing of Ponce de Leon on the shores of Florida probably on the Sunday after Easter, 3 April, 1513, is the first positively authenticated in- stance of the presence of Europeans on the mainland of the United States. This expedition, which popular narrative invests with romantic glamour, was under- taken according to the royal patent of authorization " to discover and people the island of Bimini ". Ponce named the land Florida in honour of the Easter fes- tival, set up a stone cross with an inscription, and im- pressed with the hostile character of the natives,
returned after six months' exploration to Porto Rico.
His attempt to establish a colony in 1521 was doomed
to speedy failure. The voyages of Miruelo (1516),
Cordova "(1517), Pineda (1519), Ayll('>n (1.520), and
Gomez (1524) accomplished little beyond establishing
the fact that Florida was not an island but part of a
vast continent. The disastrous outcome of the ex-
peditions of Pdnfilo Narvaez (1527-28), of Hernando de
Soto (1.538-43), and of Tristan de Luna (1559-61) are
well-known episodes in the early history of America.
On the failure of Ribault's French colony, founded at
Port Royal (1562), Ren6 de Laudonniere planted the
new settlement of Fort Caroline at the mouth of St.
John's River (1564). Pedro Menendez de Avil^s, the
foremost naval commander of his day, learning that
Ribault had left France with reinforcements and sup-
plies for the new colony, set out to intercept him and
banish for ever French Huguenots from the land that
belonged by right of discovery to Catholic Spain.
Menendez never undertook an enterprise and failed.
He readied the harbour of St. Augustine 28 August,
1565, naming it for the saint of the day. The found-
ing of the oldest city in the United States merits a
brief description. After devoting a week to recon-
noitring, Menendez entered the harbour on 6 Septem-
ber. 'Three companies of soldiers were sent ashore
under two captains, to select a site and begin a fort.
On 8 September Menendez landed, and amid the
booming of artillery and the blast of trumpets the
standard of Castile and Leon was unfurled. The
chaplain. Father Lopez de Mendoza, carrying a cross
and followed by the troops, proceeded to meet the
general who advanced to the cross, which he kissed on
bended knee as did those of his staff. The solemn
Mass of Our Lady's Nativity was then offered on a
spot which was ever afterward called Nombre de Dios.
On 20 Sept. Fort Caroline was taken by surprise, only
women and children being spared. The merciless
slaughter of Ribault and his shipwrecked companions
by Menendez a few days subsequently is an indelible
stain on a singularly noble record. 'The story, so as-
siduously copied by successive historiographers, that
Avil6s hanged some of his prisoners on trees and at-
tached the inscription A'o por franceses sino par Lute-
ranos, is an apocryphal embellishment (see Spanish
Settlements, II, 178). Two years later De Gourgues
retaliated by slaughtering the Spanish garrison at
Fort Caroline.
The history of Florida during the first Spanish ad- ministration "(1565-1763) centres round St. Augustine, and is rather of religious than political importance. English buccaneers under Drake in 1586 and again under Davis in 1665 plundered and sacked the town. Distrust and hostility usually prevailed between the Spanish colonies and their northern English neigh- bours. Governor Moore of South Carolina made an unsuccessful attempt in 1702 to capture St. Augustine, and in 1704 laid waste the country of the civilized Apalachee. Governor Oglethorpe of Georgia invaded Florida in 1740, besieging St. Augustine with a large force but was repulsed by the Spanish Governor Mon- teano and forced to retreat. Spain ceded Florida to England in 1763. During the English period great efforts were made to populate the country and develop its resources, but religion suffered irreparably. During the second Spanish occupation (1783-1821) some un- important military operations took place in West Florida under General Andrew Jackson in 1814 and 1818. In consequence of the treaty of 1819, the Americans took possession of Florida in 1821. In 1822 Florida became a territory of the LTnited States, William P. Duval being appointed first governor. The following year Tallahassee was selected as the new capital. 'Fhe refusal of the warlike Seminoles to re- pair to reservations resulted in the long, costly, and discreditable Indian War (1835-42), which came to an end in the capture by treachery of Osceola.
