LIVING HISTORY
18
RICK CRARY
This life-size scene at the Florida Museum of Natural History shows how the
coastal Indians of Florida built their huts on shell heaps known as middens.
Spanish soldiers arrived. There were less than a dozen, but
that was enough for safe escort out of the area.
The rescue must have seemed like a happy ending, but the
worst was yet to come. Unfortunately, the soldiers had little
food to share, and it was “more dust and dead weevils than
bread.” Worse yet, they brought nothing of substance with
which to cover all the naked travelers, and November had
arrived with winds and nighttime frost. It was the cold that
did the killing. One by one they fell by the side on a 10-day
Mourne\ uS tKe Seninsula. 7Ke\ Saddled at Àrst and tKen
they marched and walked, and some of them crawled as far
as they could.
If Dickinson had really written the book with Barrow in
mind, he certainly wouldn’t have left him to fend for himself.
Of course, the author was much more concerned with seeing
his wife and baby survive. Barrow just couldn’t keep up. He
fell farther and farther behind until he was out of sight.
7Ke 'icNinsons Ànall\ arriYed at a small 6SanisK outSost
about two day’s distance from St. Augustine. The day had
been frigid and the night grew colder with frost. It seemed
unlikely that Barrow could still be alive, but he arrived well
after dark, his bloody feet leaving marks in the sand.
FINAL DAYS
Barrow lived to see St. Augustine, where its famous fortress,
Castillo de San Marcos, had been completed the year
before. As a Protestant evangelist in an era of religious hostility,
he was surprised how wonderfully the Spanish Roman >>
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