1767.] TO WILLIAM BARTRAM. 289 



good father's old friend. I am glad to see amongst so many disap- 

 pointments, which give me concern, the spirit of ingenuity is not 



country ; after which, he settled on the River St. Johns, in that region, and com- 

 menced the cultivation of indigo, but soon abandoned this business in consequence 

 of bad health, and returned about the year 1767 to his father's residence. In 

 1772, at the request of Doctor Fothergill, of London, he embarked for Chaides- 

 ton, South Carolina, in order to examine the natural productions of the Floridas, 

 and the western parts of Carolina and Georgia, chiefly in the vegetable kingdom. 

 In this employment he was engaged nearly five years, and made numerous con- 

 tributions to the Natural History of the country through which he travelled. 

 His collections and drawings were forwarded to Doctor Fotheegill, who defrayed 

 the expenses of the expedition ; and in the year 1791, he published an account of 

 his travels and discoveries, in one volume, small 8vo, with an account of the 

 manners and customs of the Creeks, Seminoles, and other tribes of Indians. 

 This work, though shockingly disfigured by typographical errors, soon acquired 

 extensive popularity, and is still frequently consulted. 



After his return from his travels, William Bartram devoted himself to Science ; 

 and in 1782, was elected Professor of Botany in the University of Pennsylvania, 

 which post he declined, in consequence of the state of his health. In 1786, he 

 was elected a member of the American Philosophical Society ; and he was also 

 a member of several other learned Societies in Europe and America. We are in- 

 debted to him for the knowledge of many curious and beautiful plants peculiar to 

 North America, and for the most complete and correct list of American Birds, 

 prior to the work of Wilson, who was greatly assisted (and, in fact, was in- 

 duced to undertake that splendid production, the American Ornithology), by the 

 co-operation and encouragement afforded by William Barteam. 



The Botanic Garden, established by his father, was inherited by his brother 

 John, and has descended to John's only surviving child, Anne, the wife of Colonel 

 Robert Carr ; but William Bartram was taken into partnership by his brother 

 John for many years, and subsequently volunteered his assistance until the death 

 of John, in 1812. After that, he resided at the garden, in the family of Colonel 

 Care. Although so often exhorted to matrimony by his venerable and judicious 

 friend, Petee Collinson, William Baeteam was never married. He was a very 

 ingenious mechanic, and fond of using tools ; but his greatest delight was in 

 drawing and painting. In this employment, he laboured much for others. The 

 late Professor Baeton in the preface to his Elements of Botany (published in 

 1803), speaks of services rendered as follows : " The greater number of the 

 plates by which the work is illustrated, have been engraven from the original 

 drawings of Mr. William Bartram, of Kingsessing, in the vicinity of Phila- 

 delphia. While I thus publicly return my thanks to this ingenious naturalist, for 

 his kind liberality in enriching my work, I sincerely rejoice to have an opportu- 

 nity of declaring, how much of my happiness in the study of Natural History has 

 been owing to my acquaintance with him ; how often I have availed myself of his 

 knowledge in the investigation of the natural productions of our native country ; 

 how sincerely I have loved him for the happiest union of moral integrity with 

 original genius, and unaspiring science, for which he is eminently distinguished. 

 ' Sero in ccelum redeat.' " 



In his latter years, William Bartram found a pleasing intellectual resource in 

 the contemplation of the vegetable beauties around him, and was particularly 



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