-r •- 



THE AMEEICAK BIS0:N"S. 



93 



River. The journey here described commenced at Charleston. He travelled 

 near the coast till he reached the Santee Riverj and then ascended that river 

 as far, apparently, as Columbia, then turning northeastward, he kept in the 

 highlands, crossing the sources of the Cape Fear, and thence eastward to the 

 "Pamticough" River and the English settlements. In his preface he says: 

 "Having spent most of my Time, during my eight Years Abode in Carolina^ 

 in travelling ; I not only survey'd the Sea-Coast, and those Parts which are 

 ah^eady inhabited by the Christians, but likewise view'd a spatious Tract of 

 Land lying betwixt the Inhabitants and the Ledges of Mountains, from 

 whence our noblest Rivers have their Rise, running towards the Ocean, where 



r 



they water as pleasant a Country as any in Em^ope ; the Discovery of which 

 being never yet made publick, I have, in the following Sheets, given you a 

 faithful Account thereof, wherein I have laid down every thing with Impai-- 

 tiality and Truth." But in the narrative of his travels he makes no further 

 allusion to the buffalo, and does not appear to have found the Indians in pos- 

 session of either its skins or meat. He speaks, however, of the various kinds 



r 



of game he daily met with, and especially of the abundance of turkeys. In 

 his chapter on the "Natural History of Carolina," concerning which he saj's, 

 "I have been very exact, and for Method's Sake ranged each Species under its 

 distinct and proper Head," he again speaks of the buffalo, as follows: "The 

 Buffalo is a wild Beast of America^ which has a Bunch on his Back, as the 

 Cattle of St. Lawrence are said to have. He seldom appears 

 English Inhabitants, his chief Haunt being in the Land of 

 is, for the most part, a plain Country ; yet I have known some killed on the 

 hilly Part of Cape Fair River, they passing the Ledges of vast Mountains 

 from the said Mesdadppi^ before they can come near us." * 



From Lawson's eight years' residence, and extensive travels in the Caro- 

 linas, about the year 1700, and from his mentioning only the instance of its 

 capture by the Indians above cited, it was evidently not at that time numer- 

 ous in the Carolinas.f A few years after the publication of Lawson's work, 

 this same region was visited by John Brickell, who passed through nearly 

 the same districts as those traversed by Lawson. Brickell wrote, concerning 



■ L 



Clarendon River, which, is very beautiful and has good land about it," etc. (p. 343). He also says : " The 

 Toteras are neighboring Indians to the Saponas, and live Westward in the Mountains " (p. 343). 



* History of Carolina, p. 115. , 



t Yet in the history of Long's Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River (Vol II, p. 26), it is stated 

 that "from Lawson we find that great plenty of buffaloes, elkes &c. existed near Cape Fear river and its 

 tributaries ! " 



amongst the 





n 



''I 



r\ 



£ I 



'A 



\\ 



'- 



