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leaving my wife in New Orleans, I took the train to Mobile. At Mobile I took the boat that brought me here. We disembarked at the Lafayette Street bridge. I was then 27 years of age.
"I had expected to see a flourishing city, but my expectations were too high, for what I saw before me almost brought me to tears. There was nothing; what one may truthfully say, nothing. Franklin was a long sandy street. There were very few houses, and these were far apart with tall pine trees surrounding them. The Hillsborough County Court House was a small wooden building. Some men were just beginning to work on the foundation of the Tampa Bay Hotel.
"Ybor City was not connected to Tampa as it is today. There was a wilderness between the two cities, and a distance of mroe than one mile between the two places. All of Ybor City was not worth one cent to me. In different places of Ybor City a tall species of grass grew, proper of swampy places. This grass grew from 5 to 6 feet high. I was completely disillusioned with what I saw. There was a stagnant water hoelweer the society of the Centro Espanol (Spanish Club) is today located. A small wooden bridge spanned this pond. I remember that I was afraid to cross that bridge, and especially so at night, because of the alligators that lived there. They would often crawl into the bridge and bask there in the sun all day long.

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