Now available! While you can find this title for free in PDF form, there is nothing like holding a book in your hands! In addition, this reprint of this historical memoir of South Florida (specifically Indian River County), includes current notes on places Perry mentions in his account.

An excerpt:

Our little craft all ready to set sail, and the Captain concluding to remain here till morning, let us have a word about Smyrna and its situation.

    Like Enterprise, the citizens of this place are composed of the members of one family, and the town of one house—the residence of Mr. Sheldon. The situation is a beautiful one, on a high bluff on Musquetoe River, in the midst of a large orange-grove of spontaneous growth, whose every twig bows low under its heavy load of the ripe golden fruit. Musqueto river is simply an inlet or arm from the ocean, running parallel with the coast; the ridge of land dividing them in many places is not more than a stone’s throw in width and about forty miles in length.    Some two or three hundred yards from the house of Mr. Sheldon, on the bank of the river, are the remains of what is termed the T— castle. If I have been correctly informed by those who ought to know, the history of those remains is about as follows: Many years ago, before this part of Florida was known except to the savages, a man named T—-by some means or other got hold of a cargo of creoles on the island of Cuba, whom he landed at this spot, and endeavored to make slaves of them. He succeeded in inducing them to remain by exaggerated accounts of the blood-thirsty propensities of the Indians, whom he represented as cannibals of the worst character, then roaming like hyenas over every part of the country. By some quibble with the Spanish government, he obtained a large grant of land, which he designed to improve and cultivate with his enslaved creoles. His first work was to erect a house of sufficient strength to defy the storms of Indian warfare. There being nothing left now but the ruins of the house, we cannot of course give the entire plan, but it was a large building, perhaps two hundred feet front and seventy or eighty in width, and three stories high, built of brick and cokena rock.”

NOTE FROM PUBLISHER: John D. Sheldon rebuilt Turnbull’s ‘castle’ in 1854 into a 40-room hotel.

The author regales his readers with stories of near escapes from alligators, panthers, bobcats, bees, and of course, mosquitos. You will enjoy Perry’s sense of humor as he traverses pioneer Florida terrain in a time when every man was constantly looking over their shoulders for an Indian attack.


You can purchase the hardcover copy of the account here.