The whole settlement consists of a square field surrounded by little houses, each with its roof of palm leaves and indispensable verandah.
Here the Cubans come to stay for months, bathing, smoking cigarettes, flirting, gossiping, playing cards, and strumming guitars; and they seemed to be all agreed on one point, that it was a delightful existence.

We left them to their tranquil enjoyments, and rode back to Nueva Gerona.
Next morning we borrowed a gun from the engineer of the steamboat, and I bought some powder and shot at a shop where they kept two young alligators under the counter for the children to play with.

The creeks and lagoons of the island are full of them, and the negroes told us that in a certain lake not far off there lived no less a personage than "the crocodile king"-- "_el rey de los crocodilos_;" but we had no time to pay his majesty a visit.

Two of the Floridan negroes rowed us up the river.

Even at some distance from the mouth, sting-rays and jelly-fish were floating about.