Hugh Willoughby’s Across the Everglades

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Hugh Willoughby’s Across the Everglades

Despite the overall opinion of our class, I enjoyed Hugh Willoughby’s Across the Everglades. The short history he provided and the description of his journey through mangroves and saw grass was both enlightening and entertaining. He offered insight into the historical part of Florida that we, in 2004, will never know of by first hand experience. Willoughby’s journal was also the perfect handbook for an Everglades class canoe trip. From the intricate metaphors he weaves into his facts to the influence of opinion behind those facts, Willoughby’s work captures the minds of his readers.

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of Willoughby’s writing is that so much change has occurred in the past hundred years. His setting, though the very Everglades we travel through today, is an Everglades where saw grass was ten feet tall, and trails were no where to be found. His Florida, though located exactly where he left it, now has too many hotels, tourists, and residents to count. The change that has taken place in Florida was one that Willoughby foreshadowed, and one that we would not be able to fully comprehend without the writings of people like Willoughby. He captured the moment on paper for the future to see and gave us a means of comparison. He wrote about change in Florida over the course of a year since his previous visit. He mentioned that a big hotel and bustling tourists destroyed the picturesque and that Florida’s “wilderness has been rudely marred by the hand of civilization” (62). I wonder what he would say today. The mere two thousand individuals he wrote about was a number no where near to the number of people who have since marred Florida. Like Willoughby, I regret change. An...

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...of our canoes and drag them across the Everglades. (Though I did get out of the canoe for the fun of it) We just canoed and were able to enjoy ourselves because of people like Willoughby who made the journey before us. I am certain that many who did not like Willoughby before their canoe trip at least admired him after. After one day of canoeing, my arms ached, by knees were bruised, and my face was tan. Willoughby canoed a lot longer than a day and through much harsher conditions.

I enjoyed reading Willoughby’s Across the Everglades, and I enjoyed actually experiencing the Everglades even more. I can not wait to go canoeing again, dodging spider webs by ducking in the canoe, and fighting mangroves that refuse to let us through. I can not wait to sit back, relax, and enjoy laughing with everyone else in the poetic romance that is found… Across the Everglades.

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