Ingraham Expedition: March 29, Tuesday
Project Information
Ingraham Expedition: March 29, Tuesday
Original Source
Encoded texts are derived from three typescript accounts of the 1892 Everglades Exploration Expedition found in the James E. Ingraham Papers and the Chase Collection in the Special and Area Studies Collections Department of the University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries. Digital reproductions of the typescripts are available at:
Moses, W.R., Record of the Everglade Exploration Expedition
Church, A., A Dash Through the Everglades
Contents
- Front Matter
- March 12, Saturday
- March 13, Sunday
- March 14, Monday
- March 15, Tuesday
- March 16, Wednesday
- March 17, Thursday
- March 18, Friday
- March 19, Saturday
- March 20, Sunday
- March 21, Monday
- March 22, Tuesday
- March 23, Wednesday
- March 24, Thursday
- March 25, Friday
- March 26, Saturday
- March 27, Sunday
- March 28, Monday
- March 29, Tuesday
- March 30, Wednesday
- March 31, Thursday
- April 1, Friday
- April 2, Saturday
- April 3, Sunday
- April 4, Monday
- April 5, Tuesday
- April 6, Wednesday
- April 7, Thursday
- April 8, Friday
- April 9, Saturday
- April 10, Sunday
- April 11, Monday
- April 12, Tuesday
- April 13, Wednesday
- April 14, Thursday
- April 15, Friday
- April 16, Saturday
- Back Matter
Electronic Publication Details:
Text encoding by John R. Nemmers
Published by John R. Nemmers.
George A. Smathers Libraries, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida
2015
Licensed for use under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
These manuscripts are available from this site for education purposes only.
Encoding Principles
The three accounts of the 1892 Ingraham Everglades Exploration Expedition have been transcribed and are represented in Text Encoding Initiative (TEI) P5 XML encoding.
Line and page breaks have not been preserved in the encoded manuscripts.
Text: 
CAMP NO. 13, Tuesday, March 29th, 1892.
Left Camp No. 13 at 7 A.M. all except Mr. Ingraham who remained with the boats. Each carried a pack and walked about 1 1/2 miles through saw grass and bog. 14 men went back after the boats. We are endeavoring to reach the same island we saw yesterday and are within 1 3/8 miles of it with our packs, but the boats remain behind yet.
Mr. Baker just caught up with us who are ahead, having had a bad attack of [cramp]. This has been terrible strain on everybody. Locomotion is extremely difficult and slow. The bog is fearful and it sometimes seems as though it would be easier to stay in it than to go on. Both legs up to the waist frequently become imbedded in the same hole in the mud, and to extricate ones-self with from 30 to 50 lbs. weight on the back requires strength and time. Packing for any distance is impracticable. A man by himself, carrying nothing, would probably fail to reach the timber from this point. The boats are very necessary to enable one to pull himself out of the mud and even then the labor is most exhaustive.
No island visible except the one we are making for, - all saw grass and glades.
The two crippled men mentioned yesterday are better and walking today.
Lunched in the saw grass.
After an excessively arduous day's work all hands reached Island No. 29 Camp No. 14 about 5 P.M. Found it to be a white heron rookery. By Mr. Newman's direction we killed 15 of the nearly grown young that could not fly and Mr. Matthieux converted them into a dish much better than the average Florida chicken; or so it seemed to us.
Mr. Newman estimates we are 25 to 27 miles from Miami. We have but 5 or 6 days provisions on hand and our average being only about 3 miles a day from Shackleford and falling behind we are likely to be hungry before reaching Miami.
Some imagined they heard the roar of the ocean surf today. March 29th. Broke camp at 8:30 A.M. Our position is 30 miles S.E. of Ft. Shackelford, 2-1/2 miles north of our line. Saw grass portage 1-1/2 miles to dinner - grits and bacon. Very hard day; long saw grass portages to the island #29; arrived at island about 4:45 P.M., and went into camp on White Crane Rookery. Tried white crane squabs,- very good eating. Only 1100 feet today and very hard work. Next day we made for an island directly in our course about two miles off but the pulling was so heavy we decided to pack forward a part of our baggage and then go back for the boats. Mr. Sydney and I divided our bundles between us, but the bogs were so deep that after going a mile we were obliged to stop and rest; Mr. Newman then sent most of the men back to bring up the boats, which they succeeded in doing about one o'clock. We then decided to put all the baggage in the wooden boat, concentrate all our men on that, and try and break a way through the grass for the canvas boats. The island we camped on that night was a large rookery, and the Indians had recently killed a great many birds, as we could see their remains strewn all about. The quantity of half grown birds on this island suggested to Mr. Newman the advisability of having some of them for supper and in his efforts to secure a young crane, (equal to chicken) for his own repast got vigorously pecked on his nose, which the sun had rendered particularly tender, and as the result possibly carries the dimple to this day.
During the night two alligators, attracted by the provisions in one of the boats, came up to them, and had not Mr. Ingraham been sleeping in one of the canvas boats and frightened them off, we might have been left next morning with nothing to eat.
During that night we were also attacked by an army of red-bugs, and the next morning we were so thickly peppered with their "welps", so that our bodies seemed on fire.
Left Camp No. 13 at 7 A.M. all except Mr. Ingraham who remained with the boats. Each carried a pack and walked about 1 1/2 miles through saw grass and bog. 14 men went back after the boats. We are endeavoring to reach the same island we saw yesterday and are within 1 3/8 miles of it with our packs, but the boats remain behind yet.
Mr. Baker just caught up with us who are ahead, having had a bad attack of [cramp]. This has been terrible strain on everybody. Locomotion is extremely difficult and slow. The bog is fearful and it sometimes seems as though it would be easier to stay in it than to go on. Both legs up to the waist frequently become imbedded in the same hole in the mud, and to extricate ones-self with from 30 to 50 lbs. weight on the back requires strength and time. Packing for any distance is impracticable. A man by himself, carrying nothing, would probably fail to reach the timber from this point. The boats are very necessary to enable one to pull himself out of the mud and even then the labor is most exhaustive.
No island visible except the one we are making for, - all saw grass and glades.
The two crippled men mentioned yesterday are better and walking today.
Lunched in the saw grass.
After an excessively arduous day's work all hands reached Island No. 29 Camp No. 14 about 5 P.M. Found it to be a white heron rookery. By Mr. Newman's direction we killed 15 of the nearly grown young that could not fly and Mr. Matthieux converted them into a dish much better than the average Florida chicken; or so it seemed to us.
Mr. Newman estimates we are 25 to 27 miles from Miami. We have but 5 or 6 days provisions on hand and our average being only about 3 miles a day from Shackleford and falling behind we are likely to be hungry before reaching Miami.
Some imagined they heard the roar of the ocean surf today. March 29th. Broke camp at 8:30 A.M. Our position is 30 miles S.E. of Ft. Shackelford, 2-1/2 miles north of our line. Saw grass portage 1-1/2 miles to dinner - grits and bacon. Very hard day; long saw grass portages to the island #29; arrived at island about 4:45 P.M., and went into camp on White Crane Rookery. Tried white crane squabs,- very good eating. Only 1100 feet today and very hard work. Next day we made for an island directly in our course about two miles off but the pulling was so heavy we decided to pack forward a part of our baggage and then go back for the boats. Mr. Sydney and I divided our bundles between us, but the bogs were so deep that after going a mile we were obliged to stop and rest; Mr. Newman then sent most of the men back to bring up the boats, which they succeeded in doing about one o'clock. We then decided to put all the baggage in the wooden boat, concentrate all our men on that, and try and break a way through the grass for the canvas boats. The island we camped on that night was a large rookery, and the Indians had recently killed a great many birds, as we could see their remains strewn all about. The quantity of half grown birds on this island suggested to Mr. Newman the advisability of having some of them for supper and in his efforts to secure a young crane, (equal to chicken) for his own repast got vigorously pecked on his nose, which the sun had rendered particularly tender, and as the result possibly carries the dimple to this day.
During the night two alligators, attracted by the provisions in one of the boats, came up to them, and had not Mr. Ingraham been sleeping in one of the canvas boats and frightened them off, we might have been left next morning with nothing to eat.
During that night we were also attacked by an army of red-bugs, and the next morning we were so thickly peppered with their "welps", so that our bodies seemed on fire.
Text:
CAMP NO. 13, Tuesday, March 29th, 1892.
Left Camp No. 13 at 7 A.M. all except Mr. Ingraham who remained with the boats. Each carried a pack and walked about 1 1/2 miles through saw grass and bog. 14 men went back after the boats. We are endeavoring to reach the same island we saw yesterday and are within 1 3/8 miles of it with our packs, but the boats remain behind yet.
Mr. Baker just caught up with us who are ahead, having had a bad attack of [cramp]. This has been terrible strain on everybody. Locomotion is extremely difficult and slow. The bog is fearful and it sometimes seems as though it would be easier to stay in it than to go on. Both legs up to the waist frequently become imbedded in the same hole in the mud, and to extricate ones-self with from 30 to 50 lbs. weight on the back requires strength and time. Packing for any distance is impracticable. A man by himself, carrying nothing, would probably fail to reach the timber from this point. The boats are very necessary to enable one to pull himself out of the mud and even then the labor is most exhaustive.
No island visible except the one we are making for, - all saw grass and glades.
The two crippled men mentioned yesterday are better and walking today.
Lunched in the saw grass.
After an excessively arduous day's work all hands reached Island No. 29 Camp No. 14 about 5 P.M. Found it to be a white heron rookery. By Mr. Newman's direction we killed 15 of the nearly grown young that could not fly and Mr. Matthieux converted them into a dish much better than the average Florida chicken; or so it seemed to us.
Mr. Newman estimates we are 25 to 27 miles from Miami. We have but 5 or 6 days provisions on hand and our average being only about 3 miles a day from Shackleford and falling behind we are likely to be hungry before reaching Miami.
Some imagined they heard the roar of the ocean surf today. March 29th. Broke camp at 8:30 A.M. Our position is 30 miles S.E. of Ft. Shackelford, 2-1/2 miles north of our line. Saw grass portage 1-1/2 miles to dinner - grits and bacon. Very hard day; long saw grass portages to the island #29; arrived at island about 4:45 P.M., and went into camp on White Crane Rookery. Tried white crane squabs,- very good eating. Only 1100 feet today and very hard work. Next day we made for an island directly in our course about two miles off but the pulling was so heavy we decided to pack forward a part of our baggage and then go back for the boats. Mr. Sydney and I divided our bundles between us, but the bogs were so deep that after going a mile we were obliged to stop and rest; Mr. Newman then sent most of the men back to bring up the boats, which they succeeded in doing about one o'clock. We then decided to put all the baggage in the wooden boat, concentrate all our men on that, and try and break a way through the grass for the canvas boats. The island we camped on that night was a large rookery, and the Indians had recently killed a great many birds, as we could see their remains strewn all about. The quantity of half grown birds on this island suggested to Mr. Newman the advisability of having some of them for supper and in his efforts to secure a young crane, (equal to chicken) for his own repast got vigorously pecked on his nose, which the sun had rendered particularly tender, and as the result possibly carries the dimple to this day.
During the night two alligators, attracted by the provisions in one of the boats, came up to them, and had not Mr. Ingraham been sleeping in one of the canvas boats and frightened them off, we might have been left next morning with nothing to eat.
During that night we were also attacked by an army of red-bugs, and the next morning we were so thickly peppered with their "welps", so that our bodies seemed on fire.
Left Camp No. 13 at 7 A.M. all except Mr. Ingraham who remained with the boats. Each carried a pack and walked about 1 1/2 miles through saw grass and bog. 14 men went back after the boats. We are endeavoring to reach the same island we saw yesterday and are within 1 3/8 miles of it with our packs, but the boats remain behind yet.
Mr. Baker just caught up with us who are ahead, having had a bad attack of [cramp]. This has been terrible strain on everybody. Locomotion is extremely difficult and slow. The bog is fearful and it sometimes seems as though it would be easier to stay in it than to go on. Both legs up to the waist frequently become imbedded in the same hole in the mud, and to extricate ones-self with from 30 to 50 lbs. weight on the back requires strength and time. Packing for any distance is impracticable. A man by himself, carrying nothing, would probably fail to reach the timber from this point. The boats are very necessary to enable one to pull himself out of the mud and even then the labor is most exhaustive.
No island visible except the one we are making for, - all saw grass and glades.
The two crippled men mentioned yesterday are better and walking today.
Lunched in the saw grass.
After an excessively arduous day's work all hands reached Island No. 29 Camp No. 14 about 5 P.M. Found it to be a white heron rookery. By Mr. Newman's direction we killed 15 of the nearly grown young that could not fly and Mr. Matthieux converted them into a dish much better than the average Florida chicken; or so it seemed to us.
Mr. Newman estimates we are 25 to 27 miles from Miami. We have but 5 or 6 days provisions on hand and our average being only about 3 miles a day from Shackleford and falling behind we are likely to be hungry before reaching Miami.
Some imagined they heard the roar of the ocean surf today. March 29th. Broke camp at 8:30 A.M. Our position is 30 miles S.E. of Ft. Shackelford, 2-1/2 miles north of our line. Saw grass portage 1-1/2 miles to dinner - grits and bacon. Very hard day; long saw grass portages to the island #29; arrived at island about 4:45 P.M., and went into camp on White Crane Rookery. Tried white crane squabs,- very good eating. Only 1100 feet today and very hard work. Next day we made for an island directly in our course about two miles off but the pulling was so heavy we decided to pack forward a part of our baggage and then go back for the boats. Mr. Sydney and I divided our bundles between us, but the bogs were so deep that after going a mile we were obliged to stop and rest; Mr. Newman then sent most of the men back to bring up the boats, which they succeeded in doing about one o'clock. We then decided to put all the baggage in the wooden boat, concentrate all our men on that, and try and break a way through the grass for the canvas boats. The island we camped on that night was a large rookery, and the Indians had recently killed a great many birds, as we could see their remains strewn all about. The quantity of half grown birds on this island suggested to Mr. Newman the advisability of having some of them for supper and in his efforts to secure a young crane, (equal to chicken) for his own repast got vigorously pecked on his nose, which the sun had rendered particularly tender, and as the result possibly carries the dimple to this day.
During the night two alligators, attracted by the provisions in one of the boats, came up to them, and had not Mr. Ingraham been sleeping in one of the canvas boats and frightened them off, we might have been left next morning with nothing to eat.
During that night we were also attacked by an army of red-bugs, and the next morning we were so thickly peppered with their "welps", so that our bodies seemed on fire.
Text:
CAMP NO. 13, Tuesday, March 29th, 1892.
Left Camp No. 13 at 7 A.M. all except Mr. Ingraham who remained with the boats. Each carried a pack and walked about 1 1/2 miles through saw grass and bog. 14 men went back after the boats. We are endeavoring to reach the same island we saw yesterday and are within 1 3/8 miles of it with our packs, but the boats remain behind yet.
Mr. Baker just caught up with us who are ahead, having had a bad attack of [cramp]. This has been terrible strain on everybody. Locomotion is extremely difficult and slow. The bog is fearful and it sometimes seems as though it would be easier to stay in it than to go on. Both legs up to the waist frequently become imbedded in the same hole in the mud, and to extricate ones-self with from 30 to 50 lbs. weight on the back requires strength and time. Packing for any distance is impracticable. A man by himself, carrying nothing, would probably fail to reach the timber from this point. The boats are very necessary to enable one to pull himself out of the mud and even then the labor is most exhaustive.
No island visible except the one we are making for, - all saw grass and glades.
The two crippled men mentioned yesterday are better and walking today.
Lunched in the saw grass.
After an excessively arduous day's work all hands reached Island No. 29 Camp No. 14 about 5 P.M. Found it to be a white heron rookery. By Mr. Newman's direction we killed 15 of the nearly grown young that could not fly and Mr. Matthieux converted them into a dish much better than the average Florida chicken; or so it seemed to us.
Mr. Newman estimates we are 25 to 27 miles from Miami. We have but 5 or 6 days provisions on hand and our average being only about 3 miles a day from Shackleford and falling behind we are likely to be hungry before reaching Miami.
Some imagined they heard the roar of the ocean surf today. March 29th. Broke camp at 8:30 A.M. Our position is 30 miles S.E. of Ft. Shackelford, 2-1/2 miles north of our line. Saw grass portage 1-1/2 miles to dinner - grits and bacon. Very hard day; long saw grass portages to the island #29; arrived at island about 4:45 P.M., and went into camp on White Crane Rookery. Tried white crane squabs,- very good eating. Only 1100 feet today and very hard work. Next day we made for an island directly in our course about two miles off but the pulling was so heavy we decided to pack forward a part of our baggage and then go back for the boats. Mr. Sydney and I divided our bundles between us, but the bogs were so deep that after going a mile we were obliged to stop and rest; Mr. Newman then sent most of the men back to bring up the boats, which they succeeded in doing about one o'clock. We then decided to put all the baggage in the wooden boat, concentrate all our men on that, and try and break a way through the grass for the canvas boats. The island we camped on that night was a large rookery, and the Indians had recently killed a great many birds, as we could see their remains strewn all about. The quantity of half grown birds on this island suggested to Mr. Newman the advisability of having some of them for supper and in his efforts to secure a young crane, (equal to chicken) for his own repast got vigorously pecked on his nose, which the sun had rendered particularly tender, and as the result possibly carries the dimple to this day.
During the night two alligators, attracted by the provisions in one of the boats, came up to them, and had not Mr. Ingraham been sleeping in one of the canvas boats and frightened them off, we might have been left next morning with nothing to eat.
During that night we were also attacked by an army of red-bugs, and the next morning we were so thickly peppered with their "welps", so that our bodies seemed on fire.
Left Camp No. 13 at 7 A.M. all except Mr. Ingraham who remained with the boats. Each carried a pack and walked about 1 1/2 miles through saw grass and bog. 14 men went back after the boats. We are endeavoring to reach the same island we saw yesterday and are within 1 3/8 miles of it with our packs, but the boats remain behind yet.
Mr. Baker just caught up with us who are ahead, having had a bad attack of [cramp]. This has been terrible strain on everybody. Locomotion is extremely difficult and slow. The bog is fearful and it sometimes seems as though it would be easier to stay in it than to go on. Both legs up to the waist frequently become imbedded in the same hole in the mud, and to extricate ones-self with from 30 to 50 lbs. weight on the back requires strength and time. Packing for any distance is impracticable. A man by himself, carrying nothing, would probably fail to reach the timber from this point. The boats are very necessary to enable one to pull himself out of the mud and even then the labor is most exhaustive.
No island visible except the one we are making for, - all saw grass and glades.
The two crippled men mentioned yesterday are better and walking today.
Lunched in the saw grass.
After an excessively arduous day's work all hands reached Island No. 29 Camp No. 14 about 5 P.M. Found it to be a white heron rookery. By Mr. Newman's direction we killed 15 of the nearly grown young that could not fly and Mr. Matthieux converted them into a dish much better than the average Florida chicken; or so it seemed to us.
Mr. Newman estimates we are 25 to 27 miles from Miami. We have but 5 or 6 days provisions on hand and our average being only about 3 miles a day from Shackleford and falling behind we are likely to be hungry before reaching Miami.
Some imagined they heard the roar of the ocean surf today. March 29th. Broke camp at 8:30 A.M. Our position is 30 miles S.E. of Ft. Shackelford, 2-1/2 miles north of our line. Saw grass portage 1-1/2 miles to dinner - grits and bacon. Very hard day; long saw grass portages to the island #29; arrived at island about 4:45 P.M., and went into camp on White Crane Rookery. Tried white crane squabs,- very good eating. Only 1100 feet today and very hard work. Next day we made for an island directly in our course about two miles off but the pulling was so heavy we decided to pack forward a part of our baggage and then go back for the boats. Mr. Sydney and I divided our bundles between us, but the bogs were so deep that after going a mile we were obliged to stop and rest; Mr. Newman then sent most of the men back to bring up the boats, which they succeeded in doing about one o'clock. We then decided to put all the baggage in the wooden boat, concentrate all our men on that, and try and break a way through the grass for the canvas boats. The island we camped on that night was a large rookery, and the Indians had recently killed a great many birds, as we could see their remains strewn all about. The quantity of half grown birds on this island suggested to Mr. Newman the advisability of having some of them for supper and in his efforts to secure a young crane, (equal to chicken) for his own repast got vigorously pecked on his nose, which the sun had rendered particularly tender, and as the result possibly carries the dimple to this day.
During the night two alligators, attracted by the provisions in one of the boats, came up to them, and had not Mr. Ingraham been sleeping in one of the canvas boats and frightened them off, we might have been left next morning with nothing to eat.
During that night we were also attacked by an army of red-bugs, and the next morning we were so thickly peppered with their "welps", so that our bodies seemed on fire.
Textual Notes