SKETCH OF JOHN AND WILLIAM BARTRAM. 835 



own expeditions had been very short during the hostilities. The 

 late war had shown the colonists what atrocities the savages were 

 capable of, and the prevailing feelings toward the red men had 

 become dread and hatred. " Many years past in our most peace- 

 able times," writes Bartram, " far beyond the mountains, as I was 

 walking in a path with an Indian guide, hired for two dollars, an 

 Indian man met me and pulled off my hat in a great passion, and 

 chawed it all round — I suppose to show me that they would eat 

 me if I came in that country again." In two other letters he says 

 that the only way to make peace with the Indians " is to bang 

 them stoutly." The question arises whether the combative dis- 

 position of the botanist thus revealed might not have been one 

 of the reasons for his exclusion from the Society of Friends. 



In 1764 Bartram sends to England his Journal to Carolina and 

 New River. In this year, one Young, of Pennsylvania, managed 

 to gain the favor of the new king, George III, by sending him 

 some American plants, and obtained sudden preferment. It was 

 said that all the plants had been sent to England before — many 

 of them by Bartram, The friends of our botanist, feeling that he 

 was much more deserving of such favor, urged him to send some 

 specimens to the king, which he does through Collinson, desiring 

 that he may be given a commission for botanical exploration in 

 the Floridas. April 9, 1765, Collinson writes, " My repeated solici- 

 tations have not been in vain," and reports that the king has 

 appointed Bartram his botanist for the Floridas, with a salary 

 of fifty pounds a year. This appointment continued till the 

 death of the botanist, twelve years after. Bartram accordingly 

 made an expedition in the South the next fall. He was then 

 sixty-six years old ; and, although his eagerness for exploring 

 was undiminished, he felt the need of a companion on this trip, 

 and got William to go with him, the latter closing out his not 

 very successful business at Cape Fear in order to do so. In his 

 sketch of his father, William states that he had been ordered to 

 search for the sources of the river San Juan (St. John's), and that 

 he ascended the river its whole length, nearly four hundred miles, 

 by one bank, and descended by the other. He explored and made 

 a survey of both the main stream and its branches and connected 

 lakes, and made a draught showing widths, depths, and distances. 

 He also noted the lay of the land, quality of the soil, the vege- 

 table and animal productions, etc. His report was approved by 

 the governor of the province, and was sent to the Board of Trade 

 and Plantations in England, by which it was ordered published 

 " for the benefit of the new colony." Bartram collected a fine lot 

 of plants, fossils, and other curiosities on this trip, which were 

 forwarded to the king, who was reported to be much pleased 

 with them. His journal is still extant, in a volume with an Ac- 



