by Jules Verne
CHAPTER XI.
FLORIDA AND TEXAS.
One question yet remained to be decided: it was necessary to choosea favourable spot for the experiment. According to the advice of theObservatory of Cambridge, the gun must be fired perpendicularly to theplane of the horizon, that is to say, towards the zenith. Now the moondoes not traverse the zenith, except in places situated between 0 deg.and 28 deg. of latitude. It became, then, necessary to determine exactlythat spot on the globe where the immense Columbiad should be cast.
On the 20th of October, at a general meeting of the Gun Club, Barbicaneproduced a magnificent map of the United States. "Gentlemen," said he,in opening the discussion, "I presume that we are all agreed that thisexperiment cannot and ought not to be tried anywhere but within thelimits of the soil of the Union. Now, by good fortune, certain frontiersof the United States extend downwards as far as the 28th parallel of thenorth latitude. If you will cast your eye over this map, you will seethat we have at our disposal the whole of the southern portion of Texasand Florida."
It was finally agreed, then, that the Columbiad must be cast on the soilof either Texas or Florida. The result, however, of this decision was tocreate a rivalry entirely without precedent between the different townsof these two states.
The 28th parallel, on reaching the American coast, traverses the peninsulaof Florida, dividing it into two nearly equal portions. Then, plunginginto the Gulf of Mexico, it subtends the arc formed by the coast ofAlabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; then skirting Texas, off which itcuts an angle, it continues its course over Mexico, crosses the Sonora,Old California, and loses itself in the Pacific Ocean. It was, therefore,only those portions of Texas and Florida which were situated below thisparallel which came within the prescribed conditions of latitude.
Florida, in its southern part, reckons no cities of importance; it issimply studded with forts raised against the roving Indians. One solitarytown, Tampa Town, was able to put in a claim in favour of its situation.
In Texas, on the contrary, the towns are much more numerous and important.Corpus Christi, in the county of Nuaces, and all the cities situated onthe Rio Bravo, Laredo, Comalites, San Ignacio on the Web, Rio Grande Cityon the Starr, Edinburgh in the Hidalgo, Santa Rita, Elpanda, Brownsvillein the Cameron, formed an imposing league against the pretensions ofFlorida. So, scarcely was the decision known, when the Texan and Floridandeputies arrived at Baltimore in an incredibly short space of time. Fromthat very moment President Barbicane and the influential members of theGun Club were besieged day and night by formidable claims. If seven citiesof Greece contended for the honour of having given birth to Homer, herewere two entire states threatening to come to blows about the questionof a cannon.
The rival parties promenaded the streets with arms in their hands; and atevery occasion of their meeting a collision was to be apprehended whichmight have been attended with disastrous results. Happily the prudenceand address of President Barbicane averted the danger. These personaldemonstrations found a division in the newspapers of the differentstates. The _New York Herald_ and the _Tribune_ supported Texas, whilethe _Times_ and the _American Review_ espoused the cause of the FloridanDeputies. The members of the Gun Club could not decide to which to givethe preference.
Texas produced its array of twenty-six counties; Florida replied thattwelve counties were better than twenty-six in a country only one-sixthpart of the size.
Texas plumed itself upon its 330,000 natives; Florida with a far smallerterritory, boasted of being much more densely populated with 56,000.
The Texians, through the columns of the _Herald_, claimed that some regardshould be had to a state which grew the best cotton in all America,produced the best green oak for the service of the navy, and containedthe finest oil, besides iron mines, in which the yield was fifty percent. of pure metal.
To this the _American Review_ replied that the soil of Florida, althoughnot equally rich, afforded the best conditions for the moulding andcasting of the Columbiad, consisting as it did of sand and argillaceousearth.
"That may be all very well," replied the Texians; "but you must firstget to this country. Now the communications with Florida are difficult,while the coast of Texas offers the bay of Galveston, which possessesa circumference of fourteen leagues, and is capable of containing thenavies of the entire world!"
"A pretty notion truly," replied the papers in the interest of Florida,"that of Galveston Bay _below the 29th parallel!_ Have _we_ not got thebay of Espiritu Santo, opening precisely upon _the_ 28_th degree_, andby which ships can reach Tampa Town by direct route?"
"A fine bay! half choked with sand!" "Choked yourselves!" returned theothers.
Thus the war went on for several days, when Florida endeavoured to drawher adversary away on to fresh ground; and one morning the _Times_ hintedthat, the enterprise being essentially American, it ought not to beattempted upon other than purely American territory.
To these words Texas retorted, "American! are we not as much so as you?Were not Texas and Florida both incorporated into the Union in 1845?"
Illustration: IT BECAME NECESSARY TO KEEP AN EYE UPON THE DEPUTIES.
"Undoubtedly," replied the _Times_; "but we have belonged to the Americansever since 1820."
"Yes!" returned the _Tribune_; "after having been Spaniards or Englishfor 200 years, you were sold to the United States for five milliondollars!"
"Well! and why need we blush for that? Was not Louisiana bought fromNapoleon in 1803 at the price of sixteen million dollars?"
"Scandalous!" roared the Texan deputies. "A wretched little strip ofcountry like Florida to dare to compare itself to Texas, who, in placeof selling herself, asserted her own independence, drove out the Mexicansin March 2, 1836, and declared herself a federal republic after thevictory gained by Samuel Houston, on the banks of the San Jacinto, overthe troops of Santa Anna!--a country, in fine, which voluntarily annexeditself to the United States of America!"
"Yes; because it was afraid of the Mexicans!" replied Florida.
"Afraid!" From this moment the state of things became intolerable. Asanguinary encounter seemed daily imminent between the two parties inthe streets of Baltimore. It became necessary to keep an eye upon thedeputies.
President Barbicane knew not which way to look. Notes, documents,letters full of menaces showered down upon his house. Which side oughthe to take? As regarded the appropriation of the soil, the facility ofcommunication, the rapidity of transport, the claims of both states wereevenly balanced. As for political prepossessions, they had nothing to dowith the question.
This dead block had existed for some little time, when Barbicane resolvedto get rid of it at once. He called a meeting of his colleagues, andlaid before them a proposition which, it will be seen, was profoundlysagacious.
"On carefully considering," he said, "what is going on now between Floridaand Texas, it is clear that the same difficulties will recur with allthe towns of the favoured state. The rivalry will descend from state tocity, and so on downwards. Now Texas possesses _eleven_ towns within theprescribed conditions, which will further dispute the honour and createus new enemies, while Florida has only _one._ I go in, therefore, forFlorida and Tampa Town."
This decision, on being made known, utterly crushed the Texan deputies.Seized with an indescribable fury, they addressed threatening letters tothe different members of the Gun Club by name. The magistrates had butone course to take, and they took it. They chartered a special train,forced the Texians into it whether they would or no; and they quittedthe city with a speed of thirty miles an hour.
Quickly, however, as they were despatched, they found time to hurl onelast and bitter sarcasm at their adversaries.
Alluding to the extent of Florida, a mere peninsula confined betweentwo seas, they pretended that it could never sustain the shock of thedischarge, and that it would "bust up" at the very first shot.
"Very well, let it bust up!" replied the Floridans, with a brevity worthyof the days of ancient Spart
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