Several expeditions were now fitted out to explore and reduce the realms Of Florida. Brilliant, daring, and adven turous attempts they were, and give the time that hue of chivalry which almost makes us forget the crimes which marked it — crimes, magnified and distorted indeed by for eign writers, but still coolly and dispassionately examined crimes that-we must condemn? It was the last age Of the political freedom, Of the nicely-poised balance between the.