284 JOHN BARTRAM [1766. 



the best houses stand yet, several of which are much altered by the 

 English, who drive the chimney through the tops of the house 

 roofs, and the sun begins to shine through glass, where before its 

 light was admitted between the bannisters ; and where the well- 

 cultivated gardens were, it is now grown over with weeds, and is 

 the common pasture for cattle. Many of the Orange trees and 

 Figs, near or quite a foot in diameter, cut down or grubbed up for 

 firewood ; for the English don't make such use of the sour Oranges 

 as the Spaniards. Lemons, Limes, and Guavas, are chiefly taken 

 care of; but the two latter are most of them killed (especially the 

 branches) last winter. So were the Bananas. As for the Figs, 

 and Pomegranates, the English are not very fond of them. 



I saw two of the Opuntias, as thick as my middle, and six feet 

 high, much branched. They seemed to be nearly the same kind 

 with ours ; but I am apt to think the fruit the Spaniards ate so 

 much of, was the species of Huica [ Yucca ?], with terrible sharp 

 spines at the ends of their leaves, which some call Adam's 

 Needles, others, Palmetto Royal, and some Bananas, from their 

 fruit, which is sweet, with a little bitterness, and is the chief 

 fencing about Augustine, both against man and beast, and is fre- 

 quently planted on their sandy ditch-banks.* 



As for the Spanish improvements, I suppose formerly they had 

 made some, both considerable and extensive, there being the vestiges 

 of large roads to several distant parts of St. John's River, and 

 many miles beyond it.f But since the Creek Indians, by the help 

 of the English, turned their arms against the Spaniards, they have 

 been cooped up within their own fortifications, and could not till 

 any ground out of the reach of their cannon balls, neither could 

 they keep any cattle out of sight, or cut a stick without a guard. 

 The Indians in both these provinces profess a strict friendship, and 

 perhaps will keep to it, if the English don't give them just occa- 

 sion to break out. There are but very few Spaniards at Augus- 

 tine, I think but one of any account. There were four churches 



* There is some uncertainty as to the precise plant here intended, but the 

 reference seems to be to the Yucca gloriosa, L. Mr. Elliot describes the fruit as 

 a " capsule, oblong, glabrous, pulpy," yet I was not aware that any of the species 

 yielded an esculent pericarp. 



f For an interesting sketch and comparative view of the condition and appear- 

 ance of this region, half a century subsequent to the date of this letter, see the cor- 

 respondence of Dr. William Baldwin, who visited St. Augustine in the spring 

 of 1817. 



