As for Hobe Inlet, Romans says it was shut for many years before 1769. "Our people have been encamped on the same spot where now the water allows egress and regress to such craft as the above mentioned schooner." The mouth of the St. Lucie is described by Romans as "a wide kind of bay" 3/4 mile wide and stretching eight miles up the river. At that point the stream divides into two branches, one coming from the south. The principal branch flows from the north and gives "not less than seven feet water for 24 miles." St. Lucie is the largest river south of the St. Johns and flows into the same bay as the long sound called Indian River. Modern dredging keeps a wide inlet at St. Lucie open at all times.

Williams says the St. Lucie "enters Indian River near the south end with a broad, bold stream which appears more like an arm of the bay than a river." He also indicates that the inlet from the ocean was not always open. "The waters of this stream have, within a few years past, forced a passage through the coast at a place marked on the charts as The Gap. Probably this is not the first time the channel has been opened. The bar was not sounded by me. It appeared shoal."

"In the winter of 1832-33 this inlet was carefully examined," continues Williams. "Recent storms had made great changes in the islands of the coast. A full mile had been cut off from the island on the north side of St. Lucie Inlet, and the channel had deepened to eight feet on the bar."

"St. Lucie has been considered a branch (of Indian River) until lately, when it forced a passage through the beach and thus cut off three miles of Indian River, to the south, where it is connected with Jupiter Narrows.

"These narrows are a labyrinth of narrow and crooked channels that connect the south end of Indian Lagoon with Hobe Sound. The tide passes swiftly through them. They are separated by a vast number of mangrove islands. These narrows extend about eight miles."

Williams describes Jupiter Creek as "a sluggish stream which enters the southwest end of Hobe Sound" along with two smaller streams. "Jupiter Inlet has opened and closed three times within 70 years."

The topographical map of 1846 calls St. Lucie Inlet "Gilbert's Bar," and at Jupiter Inlet notes, "Closed 1810, reopened 1843." Romans and Williams each recorded "remarkable" geographical features of the area.

Outcropping of "blue stones" were said

by Romans to be "the first rocks that lie high out of the water along the American beach." Parcels of this stone still mark the entrance to both St. Lucie and Jupiter bays, "all of which, particularly the northernmost ones, are excellent landmarks for the seamen going southwards." Williams noted "Black Rock" on his map at St. Lucie Inlet.

The rock formations described by Romans and Williams are of the cream-white coquina limestone typical of the Florida coast. In constant moisture it weathers blue-black with mildew.

Fresh water was available not only from the rivers but also for "wells" on the beach. These erupted through the sand at several places between the two inlets and attracted many bears.

THE BLEACH YARD

Other significant landmarks were the high sand dunes a few miles north of each inlet on the edge of their sounds. Romans describes the largest one as the Bleach Yard "full of white spots," and "the first of note from the Neversinks in the Jerseys." It was called Las Ropa Tendida by the Spanish because the white spots resembled "clothes stretched out to dry."

The 86-foot sand dune, a relic of the last ice age when it stood on the ocean shore, is now called Hobe Mountain in Dickinson State Park. Romans mistakenly places it north of St. Lucie Inlet where another dune, once known as Mt. Elizabeth, is located on the campus of Florida Institute of Technology.

In discussing the "narrow slip of beach" between Indian River Inlet and Hobe Inlet, Romans notes the type of flotsam. "On the beach are always great numbers of pieces of Spanish cedar, originally cut on the windward rivers of Cuba, and are by land floods drove into the Bahama channel and Gulf stream, whence the frequent east winds force them upon soundings, and so on this beach. Very few pieces are found either north or south of this island."

Whatever the source of driftwood, the frequency with which it is cast onto this relatively short stretch of shore demonstrates a natural eddy conducive to helping ships escape the Gulf stream.

Joe Crankshaw, a Ft. Pierce journalist who has researched Florida east coast history extensively, suggests that St. Lucie and Jupiter rivers in Ponce's time might have shared a common inlet six miles south of the present St. Lucie Inlet. He points out that St. Lucie Inlet was closed in 1813, and the