i9o THE SEMINOLES OF FLORIDA
plated-by the authorities of the Spanish government,
is an established historical fact and as late as 1840,
during the Seminole War, a canal was found large
enough to float a large craft. This piece of engi-
neering work is credited to the Spaniards, but owing
to the treacherous straits of Florida's coast, interior
navigation was abandoned and the Spaniards and
the Frenchman left the country to the intrepid and
enterprising Indian, whose knowledge of the water
world of the Glades was then, as is now, superior
to his white engineering brother; for the Indian
knows every foot of this interminable morass and
travels through these uncharted waters in his "dug-
out" canoe, with no compass but the stars overhead,
as he is guided by the whispering winds brought him
from the Great Spirit.

 CROSSING THE EVERGLADES BY AEROPLANE
 A recent experience told by an aviator belong-
ing to one of Uncle Sam's flying squadrons and au-
thorized by the War Department at Washington,
graphically pictures a modern view of the Ever-
glades, and illustrates, too, that the same hospitality
extended by the Red Man to the bewildered Span-
iards, as they landed on these wild and unexplored
shores four centuries ago, may be found in the heart
of the jungle and marsh wilderness of the Seminole
camps today.
 The airmen were attempting to "cross the
Everglades" in order to make a shorter flight