1763.1 PETER COLLINSON. 255 



must be subdued or drove above a thousand miles back. No treaty 

 will make discovery safe. Many years past, in our most peaceable 

 times, far beyond our 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. 



I admire thee should not know the Congaree and Wateree, see- 

 ing they are in all the late maps of South Carolina ; both being 

 branches of the great Santee River. 



October the 23d, 1763. 



Dear Peter : 



Last night I received thy kind letter of August the 4th, 1763. 

 The ulcer in my right leg is finely healed up, but I have a much 

 worse one in my left, occasioned by a cut to, or into, my shin bone, 

 which is now much exasperated by travelling two journeys, one to 

 Little Egg Harbour, the other to Great, with my John, to show 

 him the very spot where grew a pretty Ornithogalum, I saw grow- 

 ing three years past ; but now not one is to be found. 



I have been the subject of many misfortunes all my lifetime, but 

 as many have had worse, and many better than I, so I praise our 

 God in leading me about the middle way. 



If I had known the "White double Daffodil had been such a ' 

 rarity with thee, I could have sent thee large quantities thirty 

 years ago. Our first settlers brought them with them, and they 

 multiply so that thousands are thrown away. 



* * I am heartily glad that young Lord Petre is possessed 

 of the botanical taste of his father. I wish he may resemble him 

 in virtue. I have intended to inquire after him and his mother in 

 every late letter. The Pear raised from her seed hath borne a 

 number of the finest relished fruit. I think a better is not in the 

 world.* 



* * The most probable and only method to establish a last- 

 ing peace with the barbarous Indians, is to bang them stoutly, 

 and make them sensible that we are men, whom they for many 

 years despised as women. Until then, it is only throwing away 

 men, blood and treasure, to make peace with them. They will not 



* This tree, known as " Lady Petre's Pear tree," is still (1848) nourishing at 

 the Bartram Garden, standing close by the house. 



