bridge, and over the stone door-way we see the Spanish
coat-of-arms, and under it an inscription stating that the fort was
built during the reign of King Ferdinand VI of Spain, with the names and
titles of the dons who superintended the work. It took sixty years to
build the fort, and nearly all the work was done by Indians who were
captured and made slaves for the purpose. Passing through the solemn
entrance, we come to an open square surrounded by the buildings and
walls of the fort, which, in all, cover about an acre of ground. On the
right is an inclined plane which serves as a stairway to reach the
ramparts where the cannon were placed. The _terre-plein_, or wide, flat
surface of the ramparts, makes a fine walk around the four sides of the
fort from which we can have views of land and sea. At each corner was a
watch-tower, three of which remain; and into these one can mount, and
through the narrow slits of windows get a view of what is going on
outside without being seen himself. At one end of the fort is the old
Spanish chapel, and all around the square are the rooms that used to be
occupied by the officers and the soldiers. Into the chapel the condemned
prisoners used to be taken to hear their last mass before being marched
up to the north rampart and shot.

Down in the foundations of the fort are dungeons into which no ray of
sunlight can enter. After the fort came into the possession of our
government, a human skeleton was found in one of the dungeons, chained
to a staple in the wall; and in another dungeon, without door or window
and completely walled up, there were discovered two iron cages which had
hung from the walls, each containing a human skeleton. The supports of
one of the cages had rusted away, and it had fallen down, but the other
was still in its place. A great many romantic stories were told about
these skeletons, and by some persons it was supposed that they were the
remains of certain heirs to the Spanish throne whose existence it was
desirable utterly to blot out. One of the skeletons was that of a woman
or girl. The cages and skeletons have been removed, but we can go into
the dungeons if we take a lantern. Anything darker or blacker than these
underground cells cannot be imagined. I have seen dungeons in Europe,
but none of them were so hopelessly awful as these.

In another part of the fort is a cell in which Osceola, the celebrated
Indian chief, was once imprisoned, in company with another