Gaters, Skeeters And Malary

A young man on the eve of his departure for Florida in the 1880's would be met with something like the following from his elders: "Well, ye prob'ly won't git back. Them there bad men'll kill ye, er the 'gators'll eat ye, er the skeeters'll give ye malary an' that'll kill ye." Undaunted, and lured by the vast realm of unexplored territory to the south of him, Ellis Connel May struck out with the same resolve that had prompted his forefathers to pioneer the West a century before. He was twenty-fou