1766.1 T0 JOHN BARTRAM. 283 



don't see a cornfield. Nay, I may go two or three miles further, 

 and not see it ; for our country is an evergreen country, all 

 grass for hay, but no dairies. Our fields feed cattle for the 

 slaughter, and afford pasturage for sheep that suckle lambs. All 

 the winter at Christmas I see the lambkins play in the open 

 fields all around me, and hear their tender bleatings, which is 

 pastoral and rural. 



JOHN BARTRAM TO P. COLLINSON. 



August 26th, 1766. 



Dear Peter : 



I wrote to thee last week by the brig Elizabeth, Captain Golley ; 

 the day after which I received thy kind letter, the last date of 

 which was June the 6th. Am glad to hear thy acceptance of my 

 bill for <150. 5s. 8d., and that from Augustine ; and shall be 

 pleased with the acceptance of another from Augustine and Charles- 

 ton, and to know how our accounts stand. But I am afraid all 

 will be thrown away upon him [William]. He is so whimsical, 

 and so unhappy, as not to take any of his friends' advice. Mr. 



De Br wanted him to go with him to draw draughts for him, 



in his survey of Florida ; but Billy would not, though by that 

 journey he would have had the finest opportunity of seeing the 

 country and its productions. 



I have forgot what part of my journal I sent thee from Augus- 

 tine, except the Thermometrical observations. I allow that these 

 flowering trees thee mentions, in Carolina, are very fine, most of 

 which grow in Georgia and Florida ; but then there grow, in both 

 these last places, many more curious evergreen trees and shrubs, 

 which, if not so beautiful in flowers, come fully up with those, and 

 perhaps surpass them in beauty of fruit, and sweet scent, as may 

 be observed by my specimens gathered on the banks of St. John's 

 River. 



I am obliged to thee for sending the specimens to the King, and 

 also thy advice about the Queen. I sent, last spring, the seeds I 

 collected in East Florida. 



Augustine, now, is in a very ruinous condition to what it was 

 when the Spaniards lived there. The soldiers have pulled down 

 above half the town, for the sake of the timber, to burn. Most of 



