St. Simons Island, Ga. [RGS]
Tuesday, June 9, 1863

My Dearest Annie,

We arrived at the southern point of this island at six this morning. I went ashore to report to Colonel [James] Montgomery, and was ordered to proceed with my regiment to a place called “Pike’s Bluff,” on the inner coast of the island, and encamp. We came up here in another steamer, the “Sentinel,” as the “De Molay” is too large for the inner waters,—and took possession to-day of a plantation formerly owned by Mr. Gould. We have a very nice camping-ground for the regiment, and I have my quarters in “the house”; very pleasantly situated, and surrounded by fine large trees. The island is beautiful, as far as I have seen it. You would be enchanted with the scenery here; the foliage is wonderfully thick, and the trees covered with hanging moss, making beautiful avenues wherever there is a road or path; it is more like the tropics than anything I have seen. Mr. Butler King’s plantation, where I first went ashore, must have been a beautiful place, and well kept. It is entirely neglected now, of course; and as the growth is very rapid, two years’ neglect almost covers all traces of former care.

June 12th—If I could have gone on describing to you the beauties of this region, who knows but I might have made a fine addition to the literature of our age? But since I wrote the above, I have been looking at something very different.

On Wednesday, a steamboat appeared off our wharf, and Colonel Montgomery hailed me from the deck with, “How soon can you get ready to start on an expedition?” I said, “In half an hour,” and it was not long before we were on board with eight companies, leaving two for camp-guard.

We steamed down by his camp, where two other steamers with five companies from his regiment, and two sections of Rhode Island artillery, joined us. A little below there we ran aground, and had to wait until midnight for flood-tide, when we got away once more.

At 8 A.M., we were at the mouth of the Altamaha River, and immediately made for Darien. We wound in and out through the creeks, twisting and turning continually, often heading in directly the opposite direction from that which we intended to go, and often running aground, thereby losing much time. Besides our three vessels, we were followed by the gunboat “Paul Jones.”

On the way up, Montgomery threw several shells among the plantation buildings, in what seemed to me a very brutal way; for he didn’t know how many women and children there might be.

About noon we came in sight of Darien, a beautiful little town. Our artillery peppered it a little, as we came up, and then our three boats made fast to the wharves, and we landed the troops. The town was deserted, with the exception of two white women and two negroes.

Montgomery ordered all the furniture and movable property to be taken on board the boats. This occupied some time; and after the town was pretty thoroughly disembowelled, he said to me, “I shall burn this town.” He speaks always in a very low tone, and has quite a sweet smile when addressing you. I told him, “I did not want the responsibility of it,” and he was only too happy to take it all on his shoulders; so the pretty little place was burnt to the ground, and not a shed remains standing; Montgomery firing the last buildings with his own hand. One of my companies assisted in it, because he ordered them out, and I had to obey. You must bear in mind, that not a shot had been fired at us from this place, and that there were evidently very few men left in it. All the inhabitants (principally women and children) had fled on our approach, and were no doubt watching the scene from a distance. Some of our grape-shot tore the skirt of one of the women whom I saw. Montgomery told her that her house and property should be spared; but it went down with the rest.

The reasons he gave me for destroying Darien were, that the Southerners must be made to feel that this was a real war, and that they were to be swept away by the hand of God, like the Jews of old. In theory it may seem all right to some, but when it comes to being made the instrument of the Lord’s vengeance, I myself don’t like it. Then he says, “We are outlawed, and therefore not bound by the rules of regular warfare” but that makes it none the less revolting to wreak our vengeance on the innocent and defenceless.

By the time we had finished this dirty piece of business, it was too dark to go far down the narrow river, where our boat sometimes touched both banks at once; so we lay at anchor until daylight, occasionally dropping a shell at a stray house. The “Paul Jones” fired a few guns as well as we.

I reached camp  at about 2 P.M. to-day, after as abominable a job as I ever had a share in.

Russell Duncan, Blue-Eyed Child of Fortune: The Civil War Letters of Colonel Robert Gould Shaw (Georgia: The University of Georgia Press, 1992), pp. 341-345.

from wikipedia:

Robert Gould Shaw (October 10, 1837 – July 18, 1863) was an American officer in the Union Army during the American Civil War. Born into a prominent Boston abolitionist family, he accepted command of the first all-black regiment (the 54th Massachusetts) in the Northeast. Supporting the promised equal treatment for his troops, he encouraged the men to refuse their pay until it was equal to that of white troops’ wage.

He led his regiment at the Second Battle of Fort Wagner in July 1863. They attacked a beachhead near Charleston, South Carolina, and Shaw was shot and killed while leading his men to the parapet of the Confederate-held fort. Although the regiment was overwhelmed by firing from the defenses and driven back, suffering many casualties, Shaw’s leadership and the regiment became legendary. They inspired  thousands more African Americans to enlist for the Union helping to turn the tide of the war to its ultimate victory…

…..Two sons of Frederick Douglass, Lewis and Charles Douglass, were with the 54th regiment at the time of the attack. Lewis was wounded shortly after Shaw fell, and retreated with the rest when the force withdrew.^[38]

Following the battle, commanding Confederate General Johnson Hagood returned the bodies of the other Union officers who had died, but left Shaw’s where it was, for burial in a mass grave with the black soldiers. Hagood told a captured Union surgeon that “Had he [Shaw] been in command of white troops …” he would have returned Shaw’s body, as was customary for officers, instead of burying it with the fallen black soldiers.^[39]

Although the gesture was intended as an insult by Hagood, Shaw’s friends and family believed it was an honor for him to be buried with his soldiers. Efforts had been made to recover Shaw’s body (which had been stripped and robbed prior to burial). His father publicly proclaimed that he was proud to know that his son had been buried with his troops, befitting his role as a soldier and a crusader for emancipation.^[40]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Gould_Shaw

Roger Durham

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1570035725/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o04_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

This is the fascinating story of a blockade run aboard the Canadian  S/V “Standard”.  Her 1862 voyage was from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Sapelo Sound, Georgia, and up the inland passage to the North Newport River, where her cargo of clothes, medicine and ammunition were off-loaded near Colonel’s Island at Melon Bluff. The much needed goods were then transported to, and eventually sold in Savannah.  The Brigantine was then scuttled in the river by her crew, as their escape was made impossible by the pursuit of the Union blockade steamers “Wamsutta” and the “Potomska”.  Author Roger Durham pieces the story together from different sources , most notably the very descriptive diary of James Dickson with his  accounts of the offshore perils, and observations of the wartime coastal conditons at Blackbeard and St Catherines Islands. The local home guard fired on the “Potomska” and  “Wamsutta”, as they descended the river at half moon bluff, mortally wounding two Union seamen. They were buried on Doboy Island. 

Picking up where  the Fort Caroline Narratives  left off.

An archaeologists account of the discovery of the mission site Santa Catalina de Guale, its excavation and the artifacts they found there. Including several interesting photos.

AN EARLY FLORIDA ADVENTURE STORY

This one is a hair raising account of a 1595 shipwreck written by a Spaniard, Fray Andres de San Miguel.  He was bound for Spain aboard the ship “Our Lady of Mercy”, out of Havana. It foundered in the Gulf Stream with a broken rudder.  The remaining crew fashioned a makeshift lifeboat and drifted for several days until washing  ashore on probably either Little St Simons Island or Wolf Island. They were rescued by some local Guale Indians, who gave them maize cakes, acorn cakes and some water and a smoldering log. Then they were taken to Asao  (an indian settlement located on or very near the Fort King George site in modern- day Darien) , then  later on to San Pedro ( on Cumberland Island ) and eventually on  to St Augustine, Havana and Spain. There is a lot of original material here about the indians he encountered on the way back home , and on life in early St Augustine.  An eyebrow raising note:  Frey Andres mentions that he was shown the ruins of Ft .Caroline, then called Mateo, from the river, (probably  the St Marys or Cumberland river) as they were leaving San Pedro . San Pedro must have been very close to what is now the Dungeness ruins.

Father Ore’ was born in Peru but visited St Augustine and surrounding mission territory a few years after the Guale rebellion of 1597 (Juanillo’s revolt) His account was published in Spain around 1617. It is a brief  history of Spanish, English and the Catholic Church’s involvement in Spanish Florida up to that point. He recounts early explorations before the arrival of Pedro Menendez , the founder  of St Augustine, and subsequent explorations, settlements and missions along the coast as far north as the Chesapeake (Jacan ), as well as rebellions by the indians and the martyrdom of some of the religious.

A more in depth study of the  Spanish colonial support system Mainly concerned with Spanish Florida, From translated documents,  the author examines the relationships between the various native groups with St Augustine, and with the Catholic church.

Murder and Martyrdom is the story the deaths of five  Franciscan friars and the capture and ransom of another in Guale territory. The  Friars were clubbed to death  at the Guale Mission on  St .Catherines ‘Island,  and  at Tolomato,  located up around  Harris   Neck,   at  Tupiqui,  farther  inland  near Pine Harbor,  and  at  Asao,  near  modern-day  Darien.  The  book  is  full  of  information,  supported  with  maps  charts,  and translated  Spanish  documents.   

The Struggle for the Georgia Coast  is  the fruit of a long effort  by  Archaeologist  John Worth.  During  the  dispute  between  the English and Spanish  over  the  territory  between  Santa Elena (Parris  Island)  and  St  Augustine,  the  Englishman  James Edward Oglethorpe began colonizing and fortifying the coast,. The Spanish  King  Philip  V  ordered  governor Montiano,  in St  Augustine,  to gather  documentary  proof of  Spain’s  rightful  claim to  the  territory.  The  result  was a large  package  of  documents that  were   pulled  from  the  archives  at  St Augustine,  and  sent  to  Spain,  where  it all  languished  for a couple  of  centuries.  This is a  trove  of  information ,   which  included  royal  cedulas ,   maps,  tables,  census, registrys  and  correspondence.  John  Worth  translated  it  and puts  it all into  perspective. A more general introduction to the Spanish mission system within the ambit of St Augustine, along with descriptions of some of the  archaeologist’s and history scholar’s projects and  techniques. Many illustrations included.  According to Milanich, “Wally’s Leg”,  a creek that branches off the Macay river near the Frederica  river junction, is simply an English spelling of “Guale”.

Shot in the right front leg by a musket, this dog must have suffered greatly before succumbing to infection and being buried in a small grave in an indian village on the northern end of St Simons Island.

X-rays of the dogs legs reveal the damage done by the musket ball. Archaeologists believe  the dog was killed  by crew members of Pedro de Quejo, who was in the vicinity in advance of the 1526 Lucas Vasquez de Allyon expedition.- Jerald T. Milanich

Pedro de Quejo was an early Spanish explorer, trader and slaver in these parts, around the same time as Ponce de Leon’s voyages.  He was commissioned by Lucas Vasquez de Allyon to help find a suitable spot for a colony,  In 1526 Allyon left the Dominican Republic with six ships and about 600 men, women, friars, and cattle. They settled somewhere in this area, though the exact site hasn’t been positively identified.The colony didn’t last but a few months. Some scholars theorize that the colony, called San Miguel de Gualdape, was on Sapelo Island.

The above photos are from Jerald T Milanich’s book Laboring in the Fields of the Lord

“Excavations at  the Taylor Mound, a late Savannah phase burial mound, on St Simons Island Georgia, resulted in the discovery of several intrusive burials containing material of European origin. These artifacts produced specific 16th century dates and represent what are among the earliest historic remains recovered from coastal Georgia.

The Taylor mound (9GN-55), is located on northeastern St Simons island, Georgia, on a tract of land known as Lawrence plantation … the site is situated on  sloping ground at the head of a shallow fresh water slough which drains into the salt marsh about 150 m to the southeast. The areas to the north, west and south, of the mound have been under cultivation for a considerable period of time and are currently in pasture. The mound itself

There is now a revised edition of the 2014 book, covering the French Hugenot experience in Florida. The new material  recounts the events following the discovery of more evidence off the beach at Cape Canavarel.

Global Marine Exploration is a salvage company based in Tampa.In 2014-15 they received permits from the State of Florida to survey the area with a magnetometer, but weren’t allowed to recover any artifacts. They found anomalies and dusted off a layer of silt, revealing obvious signs of wreckage; cannonballs, ballast stones, encrusted iron bits and pieces, and several cannon. Most notably, they found a marble monument that exactly matched the description of those that Jean Ribault brought to the new world in the latter 1500’s, which were used as survey markers to formally establish new territorial claims by France.

In accordance with the State permit agreement, the artifacts were covered back up with a layer of sand that will, to some degree, protect them until their legal ownership can be sorted out. The archaeological value of these wreck sites is significant.

All of the Fort Caroline narratives relate how most of the French fleet was driven ashore somewhere to the south of the fort- most likely the stretch between Daytona and Canavarel. Some three hundred sailors were then massacred on the beach by the Spanish. Jean Ribault was beheaded, and the skin of his face along with his red beard was sent back to King Philip of Spain.

There is also a growing body of hard evidence of a French presence from Canavarel northward to Matanzas Inlet. We may never know exactly where the massacress occurred, but findings have accumulated through the years; mainly French coins, belt buckles and forged tools. The site of the improvised French fort, made from the salvaged shipwrecks as a temporary defense, may well be covered forever by a rocket launching pad.

I have added this book “One Hundred Giants” to the Reading List posted earlier. Many resources are listed there of first hand accounts of the whole saga. Other interesting tidbits and anecdotes can be found at the links below.

http://signumops.com/productcatalog.html

French Castaways at Old Cape Canavarel

U.S. Steamer Florida
St Simons Island Ga April 21st, 1862

My Dearest Wife:
We left Port Royal early on the morning of the 17th and arrived off the entrance of St Simons
Sound about 4 P.M. same day not having a pilot and not being sufficiently acquainted with the passage over the bar. I did not venture in until the morning of the 18th when I steamed in and anchored in one of the most delightful places on the whole coast of Georgia in mid channel halfway between Jekyl Island on the South, and the beautiful lovely and productive island of St Simons on the North, and about half a mile from each. I found the Alabama Commander Lanier at anchor here and the Potomska Watmough further up on the inland passage, commanding the approaches to Darien, Doboy and Northern end of St Simons island. My anchorage /2/ commands the approaches to Brunswick, which is between thirteen & fourteen miles off. Capt. Lanier has been ordered to take my place off Charleston and the gun-boat Wamsutta. Lieut. Comm. [Alexander Alderman] Semmes has been ordered to this division. Now I have given you all our Naval information, and have so much to say & write about my new location that I find some difficulty in knowing how or where to begin. In the first place I must tell you that this sound is less then a mile wide, and the Rebels had built one of the most formidable and substantial bomb proof casematis fort on Jekyl island covered with rail road iron to mount five guns, I ever heard of. It had complete command of the entrance to the Harbour, and could have sunk any number of our vessels without receiving any injury itself. Their men, guns and ammunition were completely and entirely protected and the man who built that Fort certainly deserved to have his talent applied to a better /3/ purpose and in a much better cause. I learn his name was Hazlehurst. I am employed in breaking out and piling up the rail road iron having now from 150 to 200 tons ready for transhipment, and in a day or two when all prepared shall blow the fort up. I have an officer and thirty men on shore there now making all the arrangements. Jekyl island I take it is more a grazing then a producing island. I have over 150 head of cattle and some ten or fifteen horses. I kill three of the former every Wednesday to supply our own and colonys wants, and the horses I intend to remove over to St. Simons island for the purpose of establishing a small company of cavalry as pickets to scour the island…

Full text here

More on Colonel George Hall Hazlehurst here

A view of the Back River, from Doboy Island

William Butterworth ran away from his home in England in the early 1800’s. Making his way to Liverpool, he then hopped on a slave ship to Africa. After several stops and adventures he wound up the Georgia coast aboard a timber ship, the Neptune , that had anchored in Sapelo Sound to take on a cargo of cedar shingles and barrel staves. Due to the ships draft, the wood was barged out to the ship from Darien and the Atamaha River. This is an excerpt, taken from his memoir, with an account of being stranded after a wreck on Doboy Sound with a load of shingles bound for the anchored ship.

pp. 205-211:

…At length, after many a clumsy fall, and suffering also from the boughs of trees, which frequently lashed our faces, in recovering their natural positions after being pushed aside, we were agreeably surprised by the smell of burning wood, and soon saw a very fine white smoke, gently ascending amongst the dark foliage of the trees.

Never did the voluptuous epicure view with half as much pleasure the diversified productions of the most sumptuous festive board,as we the circling smoke emitted from the humble hut of a negro, situated at the extremity of the plot of cultivated land. We rapped at the door gently, for fear of alarming the inmates; but, notwithstanding our precaution,they were terrified, not being accustomed to nocturnal visitants.

” Hoo dare ?” asked a voice within, as we rapt a second time, much louder than the first. Intending to excite commiseration, we began to narrate our sufferings, which must have seemed unconnected, from his frequent interruptions, desiring us to leave them to enjoy the repose that nature required, to fit them for the toil of another day. We were all talkers; he desiring us to go about our business, we striving to awaken sympathy; instead of which, we, for a long time, only awoke suspicion by our untimely visit, and disturbed his wife and two children by our noise.

Had we sailed in any other employ, we perhaps might have talked till daylight, without removing his scruples or exciting pity. But when he heard that we belonged to the Neptune, and that Captain Dale had sailed with us from Charlestown, and was then at Darien^ he said he knew Captain Dale, and that he was going to feed some pigs for him, for the use of the ship.

The door was immediately opened, and he invited us in. His wife and two children, whom we had disturbed, arose, and bade us good cheer. She soon set about preparing for us some hominy, which is Indian corn, grossly ground, and boiled to a stiff consistence; when sufficiently boiled, it was poured into a calabash, covered with molasses, and set before us in a simple but frank manner. She entreated us to partake freely; at the same tune, in a short grace, imploring the benediction of heaven upon it.

A second invitation was unnecessary to men, who had nothing on their stomachs except water, of which I had drunk from three to four pints, during the time that the friendly hostess was preparing the hominy, my two companions drank a most immoderate quantity. Charles, the black, in whose hut we were now going to enjoy a large calabash of homony, left us for a short time; he, kind soul, wishing to make us more comfortable than the extent of his resources would allow, ran to another hut, the only one besides his own on the Island. The object of his visit was to procure for us something better than he himself could set before us, as he expressed it; though few things, if any, could agree better with the stomach, after five days fasting, than the nourishing dish prepared for us by the mother of the two chubby-faced children, who innocently laughed, as they gazed with astonishment on the three Bochrah men, who had disturbed them in their sleep.

We gulped the hommony down with the greatest eagerness; and as Dutch John, in attempting to keep pace with me burnt his tongue and palate, the contortions of his masculine features tickled their juvenile fancies, and amused them wonderfully. If ever attention was paid to the proverb, ”Let your meat stop your mouth,” it was during the time that we were empty-ing the calabash of hommony, in the hut of the hospitable black family, which we afterwards found was in Hird’s Island, the property of George and Sandy Bailey, of Black Island; for, although our communicative hostess informed us that there was only another family on the Island, told us the name thereof, as just noticed, together with the names of the gentlemen in whose possession the Island was, and also that her husband and the other black man were stationed thereon, to take care of the stock, not a syllable was uttered by any of us, except the yaw of the Dutchman, in answer to our benefactress, who very feelingly inquired if he had scalded him-self, as he shook his head, under pain, from the boil-ing hominy.

Before we had finished our grateful repast, Charles, and the man to whose house he had been, returned, bringing with them a quantity of flour, made from Indian corn, desiring Charles’s wife to make it into cakes. Both the men were advanced in years, and both expressed regret at not having it in their power to make us more comfortable; lamenting that their stock of racoon bacon was exhausted, to which, they assured us, we should have been as welcome as their own families. It is a luxury with the negroes, and is made by smoke-drying the flesh of the racoon,after its thickly-furred skin is taken off, which is sold to the store-keepers. I never tasted any of this sort of bacon, though I have heard it extolled, and have frequently eaten of the animal, when boiled like a rabbit, and found it no contemptible dish….

…When we had finished the hommony, and thanked the two men for their goodwill in wishing they had something better to give us, we all three laid down on some planks to rest our weary limbs. While we slept, the good black woman was busied in making cakes, which she baked on a hoe, for want of a bake-stone ; from which circumstance they are called hoe-cakes, being very commonly baked thus amongst the negroes.

With full stomachs and grateful minds, we arose from the planks, as the first rays of return-ing light gleamed across the mud floor of the benevolent Charles, whose equally generous wife pro-posed, that whenever we wished to depart, he should set us on our way, and assist us to carry our keg to his spring, as she called it, where we should get a quantity of fresh water. Undissembled gratitude was the only return we could make to these worthy people, which was feelingly tendered them, and as feelingly accepted.

We had not yet received the extent of their in-tended favours; that pleasure was most judiciously reserved for their two children to confer, thereby teaching them practical beneficence. And it was a most gratifying sight, to see the good housewife place a large hoe-cake under the arms of her smiling offspring, leading them by the hands to us, and then desiring them to imitate God, in doing good. The children drew their hands out of those of their mother, and taking the cakes from under their arms held them to us, for our acceptance. We took them,and, as well as sailors knew how, implored of heaven for them its protection and guidance through life.

Charles’s friend, his wife, and her two children came out of the hut, as I took up the keg, all wishing us a safe arrival at the Neptune. Refreshed and gratified, we bade them farewell; and, with Charles for our guide, soon arrived at his spring, in the wood, through which lay our way. Its discovery would have puzzled any one, except a mischievous boy bent on finding a bird’s nest, whose prying curiosity nothing can escape. It was not like the springs of modern romance, bubbling up in silvery streams, nor musically meandering along flower enamelled banks. It was scarcely visible, when pointed out, being nearly grown over with weeds, and almost full of dead leaves. In fact, it was more a reservoir than a spring. A barrel, with numerous perforations through its sides, was sunk in the ground, into which the water drained, filtering through the dead leaves. A large cocoa nut shell served as a bucket; weighted at the bottom with a stone, it readily sunk, pressing down in its descent the overspreading leaves, which resumed their situation on the cocoa nut shell being drawn up by a string, to which it was appended. A benevolent disposition prompted him to favour us with about two gallons out of his little stock; we thanked him, shook him by the hand in a rough English manner,and one of us taking his wife’s present of hoe-cakes, the other two by turns carrying the keg, containing his present of fresh water, we bade him farewell…

Von Reck’s Voyage to Georgia in 1736 was edited by Kristian Hvidt, who wrote this:

“In 1976 a Danish scholar, searching through heaps of manuscripts in the Royal Library at Copenhagen, found an old sketchbook, lost and forgotten for two hundred years, with some fifty beautiful drawings of colonial Georgia. The drawings belonged to, and were presumably made by a twenty five year old German colonist, Philip Georg Friedrich von Reck, who came with the Salzburgers to Georgia in 1736. When he died in the 1790’s the drawings were given to the King of Denmark, in whose library they remained unknown for two centuries…von Reck kept a vivid diary and made detailed pictures of what he saw in Georgia- plants, animals, Indians, houses, boats, settlements and scenes of work and play…”

These two sketches are of some of the first dwellings built by settlers on St Simons, at Frederica.

The supreme commander of the Yuchi indian nation, whose name is Kipahalgwa.
(1) The topknot on his head is slightly painted with red color
(2) The face is painted in this way with the black signs on the temple, the breast and neck burned
(3) A bunch of soft feathers drawn through the ear, from which a pearl is hanging
(4) A shirt
(5) Leggings
(6) Shoes

Note:Von Reck didn’t know the word “tattoo,” first introduced in Europe by Captain Cook in the 1770’s, so he used the word “gebrannt,” burned.

“The flying squirrel is almost like a mouse and has two white skins under its belly that it spreads out when it wishes to fly fly from one tree to another” The Salzburgers caught the squirrels and made them into a good soup.

Tha Cardinal or Redbird,
richmondena cardinalis (Linn), is shown at right. the Bluebird, Sialia sialis (Linn.), is shown below. “Zishagzaien” is the Yuchi word for “Wajo” the Creek word for flying squirrel. “Zozassi” is Yuchi and “Fu-zag-ta” Creek for Redbird. “Jo-wei-ka is Creek for Bluebird.

another excerpt: “On the seacoast here there are many pelicans.
The Pelican is almost as large as a goose, its feathers are white mixed with dark grey, and it beak is two inches wide and seventeen inches long. It throat and breast have a bare soft skin that is also very artfully mixed with bright and dark grey colors, and it has a big sack or crop under its neck in which it collects oysters and mussels and keeps them there until they open, whereupon it spits them out and picks out their meat. People shoot the Pelican for its sack, from which they make a good tobacco pouch, because it can hold a pound of tobacco. Its feet are like goose feet. It sits very sadly, as though it were sleeping. It holds is head straight, and the end of its beak rests on its breast. It flies very heavily and slowly and lives entirely on fish. it is a fable to say that it opens its breast in order to give blood to its young. The young pelicans are considered good to eat, yet they taste very fishy.”