Depots.– The Central Railroad depot is in the southwestern part of the city, corner of Liberty and E. Broad Streets. The railroad from Charleston has its terminus here. The Atlantic and Gulf Railroad is in the south-eastern part of the city, corner of Liberty and E. Broad Streets.
Savannah is situated in Chatham county, Ga., on a bluff, about forty feet high, seven miles above the mouth of the river of the same name, on its right bank. Its present population is estimated at 40,000.
The city was founded by Gov. James Oglethorpe, in 1733. It played a conspicuous part during the Revolution. With characteristic loyalty to the cause of freedom the Council of Safety passed a resolution in 1776 to burn the town rather than have it fall into the hands of the British. Nevertheless, two years afterwards the royal troops obtained possession of it by a strategic movement. In the autumn of 1779 the American forces under General Lincoln, and the distinguished Polish patriot, Count Casimir Pulaski, with their French allies under Count d’Estaing, made a desperate but fruitless attempt to regain it by assault. Both the foreign noblemen were wounded in a night assault on the works. Count Pulaski mortally. The spot where he fell is where the Central Railroad depot now stands.
The chief objects of interest are the monuments. The *finest is to the memory of Pulaski. It is in Chipewa square, and is a handsome shaft of marble, surmounted by a statue of Liberty, and supported on a base of granite. Its height is 55 feet; its date of erection 1853.
An older and plainer monument, some fifty feet high, without inscription, stands in Johnson square. It was erected in 1829, and is known as the Greene and Pulaski monument.
The city is beautifully laid out, diversified with numerous small squares, with wide and shady streets. Broad Street and Bay Street have each four rows of those popular southern shade trees known as the Pride of India, or China trees (Melia Azedarach).
A praiseworthy energy has supplied the city with excellent water from public water works; and, in Forsyth Park, at the head of Bull Street, is a fountain of quite elaborate workmanship.
Some of the public buildings are well worth visiting. The Georgia Historical Society has an excellent edifice, on Bryan Street, with a library of 7,500 volumes, among which are said to be a number of valuable manuscripts.
The *Museum, on the northeast corner of Bull and Taylor streets, contains a number of local curiosities.
The Custom House is a handsome fire-proof structure of Quincy granite.
The Exchange building, now used as the Mayor’s office, etc., offers, from its top, the best view of the city.
Excursions.– Several days can be passed extremely pleasantly in short excursions from the city. One of the most interesting of these will be to
*Bonaventure Cemetery.– This is situated 3 miles from the city, on the Warsaw river. A stately grove of live oaks, draped in the sombre weeds by the Spanish moss, cast an appropriate air of pensiveness around this resting place of past generations. A cab holding four persons to this locality costs $8.00.
Thunderbolt, a small town, (two hotels), 4½ miles south-east of the city, on a creek of the same name, is worth visiting, chiefly for the beautiful drive which leads to it. Cab fare for the trip, $8.00.
White Bluff, on the Vernon river, 10 miles from the city has two unpretending hotels, and is a favorite resort of the citizens on account of the excellent shell road which connects it with the city. Cab fare for the trip, $10.00.
Bethesda Orphan House, also 10 miles distant, is erected on the site chosen by the Rev. Mr. Whitfield, very early in the history of the colony. Selina, the pious Countess of Huntington, took a deep interest in its welfare as long as she lived, and it is pleasant to think that now it is established on a permanent footing.
Jasper Spring, 2 miles from the city, is pointed out as the spot where the bold Sergeant Jasper, with one assistant, during the revolutionary war, surprised and captured eight Britishers, and forced them to release a prisoner. The thoughtless guard had stacked arms and proceeded to the spring to drink, when the shrewd Sergeant who, anticipating this very move, was hidden in the bushes near by, rushed forward, seized the muskets, and brought the enemy to instant terms.
6. SAVANNAH TO JACKSONVILLE
The tourist has the choice of three routes for this part of his journey. He can take a sea steamer, and passing out the Savannah river, see no more land until the low shores at the mouth of the St. John River come in sight. Or he can choose one of several small steamboats which ply in the narrow channels between the sea-islands and the main, touching at Brunswick, Darien, St. Catharine, Fernandina, etc., (fare $10.00). Or lastly he has the option of the railroad, which will carry him through to Jacksonville in twelve hours and a half, in a first class sleeping car.
The channel along the coast lies through extensive salt marshes, intersected by numerous brackish creeks and lagoons. The boats are small, or they could not thread the mazes of this net-work of narrow water-courses. The sea-islands, famous all over the world for their long-staple cotton, have a sandy, thin soil, rising in hillocks and covered with a growth of live-oak, water-oak, bay, gum and pine. Between the islands and the main land the grassy marshes extend for several miles. In the distance the western horizon is hedged by a low wall of short-leaved pine. The sea islands are moderately healthy, but the main land is wet, flat and sterile, and its few inhabitants are exposed to the most malignant forms of malarial fever and pneumonia.
On St. Catharine island is the plantation formerly owned by Mr. Pierce Butler, and the scene of Mrs. Francis Kemble Butler’s well-known work, “Life on a Georgia Plantation.” On Cumberland island, the most southern of the sea-islands belonging to Georgia, is the Dungerness estate, 6000 acres in extent, once owned by Gen. Nat. Greene, of Revolutionary fame, and recently bought by Senator Sprague, of Rhode Island, for $10 per acre. With proper cultivation it would yield magnificent crops of sea-island cotton.
Fernandina on Amelia Island, the terminus of the Fernandina and Cedar Keys Railroad, is a town of growing importance (pop. about 2,000; hotels, Virginia House, containing the telegraph office; the Whitfield House, both $3.00 per day; newspaper, the Island City Weekly.) This is one of the old Spanish settlements, and the traces of the indigo fields are still visible over a great part of the island. Fernandina-Oldtown is about a mile north of the present site.
The sub-tropical vegetation is quite marked on the island. Magnificent oleanders, large live oaks, and dense growths of myrtle and palmettos conceal the rather unpromising soil. The olive has been cultivated with success, and there is no reason why a large supply of the best table oil should not be produced here.
A low shell mound covers the beach at Fernandina, and in the interior of the island are several large Indian burial mounds. Several earthworks thrown up during the late war overlook the town and harbor. Fernandina harbor is one of the best in the South Atlantic Coast, landlocked and safe. Its depth is 6½ fathoms, and the water on the bar at low tide is 14 feet. The tide rises from 6 to 7 feet. In spite of what seems its more convenient situation, Fernandina does not seem destined to be a rival of Jacksonville.
PART II.
FLORIDA
1. HISTORICAL
Long before Columbus saw
“the dashing,
Silver-flashing,
Surges of San Salvador,”
a rumor was abroad among the natives of the Bahamas, of Cuba, and even of Yucatan and Honduras, that in a land to the north was a fountain of water, whose crystal waves restored health to the sick, and youth to the aged. Many of the credulous islanders, forsaking their homes, ventured in their frail canoes on the currents of the Gulf, and never returning, were supposed to be detained by the delights of that land of perennial youth.
This ancient fame still clings to the peninsula. The tide of wanderers in search of the healing and rejuvenating waters still sets thitherward, and, with better fate than of yore, many an one now returns