eleven o'clock
It was a crooked stream , but the pilot ran from one side to the other , talking to me all the time with the utmost indifference . I observed him for a couple of hours , until I was entirely satisfied that he knew what he was about , and then joined the party astern . It was seldom that a steamer disturbed the waters of Black Creek , never in these days , except when a party of curious excursionists desired to explore the lonely region . The Gazelle made about eight knots an hour , and at eleven o'clock we were fast to a dilapidated pier at the ruined town of Middleburg . It lay about half-way between the St. Johns and the Atlantic , Gulf and West India Company 's Railroad , extending from Fernandina to Cedar Keys , on the Gulf of Mexico , intended as part of a quick route to Havana . The building of this railroad , by diverting from it the trade and transportation of a considerable region of country , had utterly ruined Middleburg , and it was as lone and deserted as Pompeii under the ashes of Vesuvius . Hardly a family was to be found in its abandoned houses .