Tales From Key West

By John Serving

Historical fiction about Key West covering the years from late 1500's to the present. Take a trip through time about many of the aspects of life in Key West and the Keys. Experience the adventure of pirates, wreckers, and travel the railroad to Key West. Sail through the Keys. Experience Key West like never before. Read 12 different short stories from different times. Meet some of the interesting characters who live in Key West. Travel through the Keys and venture about the city of Key West. Experience the various jobs that people do in the Keys and no where else. See life through the eyes of those who experienced the laid back life style that is Key West. Each story is unique to the characters who live it. Share the hardships and the joys of living in Key West. Get the real experience of being in Key West.

• Language: English
• Publisher: John Serving
• Release date: Nov 15, 2014
• ISBN: 9781311007025

John Serving

Born in one place, lived in many places, grew up in Key West.

Book preview

Tales From Key West

By John Serving

Copyright 2014 John Serving

Smashwords Edition

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Table of Contents

Rakke hvlwe-tvlofv

Pirates Find Cayo Hueso

Wrecking An Honest Trade

Rum Running

Fishing with Hemingway

Shrimping for Aircraft

A Sunny Day in a Boat

Burning Hemingway's House

A Trip to Miami

Sammy the Shark

Dry Tortugas Run

The Cement Boat

Rakke hvlwe-tvlofv

Maquine is the mekko (king) of the Calusa. He is a very proud leader and rules with little forgiveness when wronged. He has a high opinion of himself and all Calusa. He considers the Calusa the Great Spirits' chosen people. The Calusa themselves are great in number. They occupy most of the southwest Florida during this time. He has led his people in war against the other tribes in the area and conquered most but not all. The Tequesta to the east have not come under his reign and he intends to make them subservient. He gathers his warriors and gives a speech.

Brothers we are a great tribe and there is none greater. We must rise to the level where all who see us respect us and honor our presence. Where ever we go, the land is ours. Whatever we see belongs to us. When we go to a place, that place is ours. Right now some people do not agree with us and we must make war to show them the way. I ask all my brethren to join me in the righteousness of our calling. To go and conquer those who oppose us. The Tequesta think that they are our equal or better. They do not respect us. We must go and make them see our way. They are not willing now but we will make them believe in our ways or they must die. We must gather our resources and march to the morning sun and take what rightfully belongs to us. If we hear it, it talks to us. If we touch it, it is in our grasp. If we see it, it is ours. Do you understand my desires? Do you understand my dreams? Do you understand my words. Will you follow me into battle?

There is a great cheer in the crowd and they start chanting, Maquine, Maquine, Maquine, Maquine. The warriors are aroused and ready to follow him to glorious battle.

Maquine continues, Warriors gather you war clubs, your spears, your tomahawks, your knives, your bows, and let us begin our quest.

Again a cheer comes from the crowd.

Go tell your families we leave on a great trip to gain glory and wealth for our people. We leave on the morning rise of the sun.

The next day one-hundred-thirty warriors gather in the main court. With them are the younger men who want to be warriors but do not have the experience or skills to go to battle. They will be portaging the supplies needed for this trip. They are the mules. The group starts out from the village and goes toward the rising sun to make way to the great waters that they know separates them from their foe, the Tequesta. They are crossing to the far shore which will put them much closer to the Attona village. This is the main settlement of the Tequesta. There are several days of walking through the thick brush and forest to get to the shores of the waters. There they proceed to cut down the largest trees and fashion canoes for crossing the waters. After two weeks they make enough canoes for most of the group to cross. The rest are sent the long way around the waters to be able to attack from another direction. They are given a weeks head start to make the trip and then the main body will set out onto the waters to start the attack.

The Tequesta are not unprepared for this war. They have spies and lookouts and are keeping track of the Calusa's movements. They are not as great tribe as the Calusa and know they are outnumbered. They have the advantage of home ground but can not match the strength of the Calusa. Their strategy is to break up into small groups, disperse in many directions and cause the Calusa to have to do the same. They hope the Great Spirit will give their plan the advantage and they will be able to outmaneuver the Calusa. Then lead them to where their strength is. They have been informed that there is a group of warriors coming from above around the great water. They send a group of warriors to meet this attacking force. The first battle they have with the Calusa is against those who have traveled around the great water. They are spotted making a camp for the night and the Tequesta move their forces to meet them. They do not know another much larger group is coming across the waters.

Ogmugy is the leader of the brave warriors who go to meet the invading Calusa. He is leading the group who manage to sneak up on the Calusa's camp early in the morning before sunrise. He splits his group of twenty men into two attack parties and they rush in together from opposite sides. They are out numbered by the Calusa but Ogmugy and his party are ready. They have attacked with the advantage of surprise. The Calusa are not ready for them. During the battle they kill or injure many of the Calusa. Although they have won the skirmish and defeated the Calusa many of the brave Tequesta warriors are killed or injured. The remnants of the Calusa have fled. Ogmugy has seven strong braves left and six others are injured, the rest have been killed. He leaves three of his men to take care of the injured and returns to Attona to get help for them. He thinks this is a great victory and wonders why there are not more warriors from the great Calusa tribe. He knows they are a big nation. He will soon find out the answer.

On his return to the main village he announces his victory and there is great celebration. He sends people to go back and help the wounded return and to carry back the dead for a ceremonial burial. There is peace for three more days. On the fourth day one of the scouts reports a large body of Calusa have landed on shore of the great water and are marching toward the village. They are only one days march away. Ogmugy gathers a war council to try and make a plan on how to defend his village. They decide to send messengers out to the regional villages to ask for warriors to come to their aid. If the other tribes do not help they will be the next target of the Calusa. His lookouts determine there are more than a hundred Calusa heading their way. This is a desperate time for the Tequesta by the end of the day twenty more warriors arrived. This put the total number of warriors to about fifty. Ogmugy knows the lay of the land and guesses that the Calusa will attack from the direction of the sunset through the forest. He will use this to his advantage. He splits his men into three groups. One group will face the attacking warriors head on. The other two groups will hide in the forest to either side of the attack and then rush in from behind to surprise to attacking force.

When Maquine arrives on the shore on the other side of the great water he has his warriors rest for a day after the long paddle. He sends his scouts out to find the exact location of the big village of the Tequesta of which they locate one days march from where they are. They report that the Tequesta know they are coming because they are fortifying the village against an attack. The village is on a small lake and surrounded by forest. The scouts report there might be up to fifty warriors to fight with. The scouts cannot find out what happened to the other party who had gone around the great water. Maquine decides he can not wait for those who do not exist and chooses to attack the village head on because he has superior forces. He splits his warriors into two groups. He directs one group to the south and the main body will attack from the way of the setting sun. In the early morning his main group moves in. The smaller second group position themselves to the south of the main body a little ways back. When the main group starts the attack one of the parties of Tequesta attacks the smaller group from the woods. The Calusa warriors are taken by surprise from behind and are promptly subdued but not without much loss to the Tequesta. Although the Tequesta defeat these attackers those who are left have fled back into the woods. A runner tells Maquine that his forces have been attacked from behind and are retreating. Maquine sends more braves over to join with the small party of braves that fled. They now greatly outnumbered those Tequesta that are left. The Tequesta must retreat from the battle field. They will have to circle around to get back in the battle. Maquine then proceeds to attack the main village. The village warriors put up a brave defense and Ogmugy uses his forces from the other side to attack out of the woods to the rear of the Calusa. This is not enough. The Calusa charge in and kill most of the men on the fortified part of the village. Maquine's warriors who are sent to help the other force have returned and now Ogmugy's forces have the Calusa in front of them and behind them. He sees he cannot help any more and escapes east to get out of the onslaught. Maquine's warriors overrun the village and destroy everything. This is a very bloody day.

Guimio is a member of the Mayaimi tribe who have lived in peace with the Tequesta tribe. The tribe trades with the Tequesta and is generally on good terms. There is news of the Calusa coming to make war on the Tequesta and he knows the Mayaimi will be next. He has a talk with some of his fellow tribe members and realize they will not be able to stop the Calusa and do not want to become slaves to their ways. He talks with the elders who suggests he should take some of the tribe members and head south to resettle in the islands far to the south and keep the tribal heritage alive. There are tales of such a place. There is a island with fresh water, trees and animals. Surrounded by all the ocean life you could want. It is called Rakke hvlwe-tvlofv (big heaven).

He leaves with eight other people, four warriors and four women. They take what supplies they can carry. They head from the village in three canoes and go down the coast heading south to the rumored sea of islands. They know of this place from people who have traveled down there. The tales are of many islands with land enough to make homes and the sea is bountiful there. In two weeks travel down the coast they arrive at the first of the islands. This is what we call Miami Beach today. This is not far enough, they have been told the islands are surrounded by great bodies of water on two sides of them. They continued south until they arrived at the islands of Key Largo. Here they set up camp for a few months. There are other people living on the islands who are not so friendly. They decide to move on. They continue down the Keys. They pass many small islands but can still see more islands in the distance. They continue until they come to a large expanse of open water. Perhaps this is the promised land. At first they stop here but the island is low and there is no fresh water. It is actually Boot Key at the end of Marathon Key with seven more miles of open water until there are more Keys. They send out a scouting canoe which reports that there are more islands further on. They then continue on until they reach the last big island. At first they travel past this island to explore for more islands but find no more that will be habitable. They return to the last island and set up camp. Now they are so far away that they are not able to communicate with the main tribe or anyone else. They proceed to build homes from the available trees and live off the sea. They collect water from the rain and dig wells to try and get water from the ground. Life is somewhat easy because they have the ability to get what they need to eat from the sea. On land they grow gardens of gourds, papaya, and greens. All of which they have brought seeds from the homeland. There is a small area of land that is high above the sea and has soil which grows their gardens. They rarely ever see anyone, only an occasional canoe offshore and a couple of times does anyone stop at the island. They are alone. They believe this is Rakke hvlwe-tvlofv. They do not know how things have gone in the north. Whether their tribe survived the wars or if the wars are over. It is not a secrete they live on this last island. They can only hope for peace and quiet. They have truly found their little piece of heaven.

After the battle of the Attona village, Maquine is feeling triumphant and relishes in the glory of victory. He and his men rampage through the village. They take the men for slaves to work on building more canals back in their land. They force the women to be at their pleasure and all are marched back to their villages. Maquine has the Tequesta warriors tortured to find out the names of those who have escaped. He wants revenge for the bloody battle he had to fight. He only finds out that some have escaped. The anger is now burned into him to seek out those who opposed him and to destroy them.

Ogmugy with ten of his warriors and three of the women of the village manage to escape and survive the onslaught of the Calusa. They proceed to go to the coast and stop there to build boats to gets them further away from the wrath of the Calusa. A few weeks pass but they eventually make the canoes they need and head south. They hope they can get far enough away to no longer be bothered by the crazy man of the Calusa. When they travel south they encounter other tribes, mostly small bands, who they tell the news of the slaughter. They are often told to keep traveling because the people do not want to associate with the ones who fought the Calusa. This is not a good time for Ogmugy and his crew. The group gets down to what is now called Key Biscayne and tries to settle there. They spend almost a year there but cannot stay hidden as so many other tribes are in the area. They pack up and move on. They continues to head south and follow the coast until he starts heading toward the setting sun. Ogmugy has heard of the far islands and hopes they will offer shelter. Because he has stayed close to the mainland he is traveling inside the Keys. His group is in the protected waters of the bays but there is no reasonable islands to stay until they get down into Florida Bay. When they pass some of the upper Keys they note the colors of the Calusa and do not stop. When they reach to large open section past Marathon they travel to the outside of the Keys and follow the Keys down. Eventually they come to the last big island and find the Mayaimi tribe. They approach slowly and show no signs of hostility. Guimio and three of his warriors come to the beach where Ogmugy has landed. They approach carefully and try to display that they are not afraid of these invaders.

Ogmugy says, We come here in peace. We are looking for refuge from the tyranny from the Calusa. We want to be friends and help you. Will you help us?

Guimio thinks about this. He too has come here to get away. He feels these people are no threat.

He replies, We have always been friends of the Tequesta people. You are welcome to come to our small abode and help us make this a better place to live. There is plenty for all and together we can build a better world for our people and our children. How long have you been fleeing and what happened in the great country?

I have no good news. We the Tequesta people were badly beaten by a much superior force. We are the few left who managed to escape. We have been heading down to this point for many, many, moons and we do not know what has happened to the people we left behind. Maquine of the Calusa is a madman. He is slaughtering those who oppose him and stealing the wealth of all he conquers. We do not know how far he has come. This is our last chance to make a life in our own way. We shall discuss any differences we might have and hopefully we can over come these and agree to rules which will make all of us much better off.

This meeting sets up a peaceful environment for these people. They flourish on the island. They worked together and build a small village and work hard to make their life meaningful. The sea is bountiful and they are experts at fishing and gathering sustenance from the sea. They do well and their little population grows to thirty people including women and children. Rarely does anyone venture by the island and only twice does anyone actually stop and talk with them. They are a group of the upper island people who are looking for more fishing grounds. Though they are friendly they