Captain Kyd often came here, and stories of his buried treasures are still told among the inhabitants.

Now the island serves a double purpose; it is a place of resort for the Cubans, who come to rusticate and bathe, and it serves as a settlement for those free black inhabitants of Florida who chose to leave that country when it was given up to the United States.

One of these Floridanos accompanied us as our guide next day to the Banos de Santa Fe.
When we left the village we passed near the mangrove trees, which were growing not only near the water but in it, and like to spread their roots among the thick black slime which accumulates so fast in this country of rapid vegetable growth, and as rapid decomposition.

In Cuba, the mangoe is the abomination of the planters, for they supply the runaway slaves with food, upon which they have been known to subsist for months, whilst the mangroves give them shelter.

A little further inland we found the guava, a thick-spreading tree, with smooth green leaves.