328 JOHN BARTRAM TO [1743. 



mould in the box, I doubt the vegetative life will be destroyed 

 before they are planted, which I would have performed in this 

 manner ; after a spot of ground is dug, or ploughed, then hoe or 

 plough a furrow two inches deep ; then drop the nuts therein 

 about six inches asunder, and cover them with earth. Next sum- 

 mer, they may grow six, eight, or ten inches high ; then, the 

 spring following they may be taken up, and planted in a row for a 

 hedge, about five feet distance ; and when they are grown as thick 

 as one's arm, they may be plashed in the beginning of March, just 

 before the sap interposes between the bark and the wood. Pray, 

 is your river frozen so as to hinder boats to pass to and fro ? 

 Our rivers are very open this winter ; and, in my garden, the 

 Mezereon, Groundsel, Black Hellebore, Henbit, Esula, and Vero- 

 nica, are in flower, and many others in bud ; but we had a sharp 

 time the beginning of November. * * 



June the 26th, 1743. 



Friend Golden : 



I have lately received orders from London to travel, to gather 

 the seeds of the Balm of Gilead, and other species of evergreens. 

 The Duke of Norfolk hath subscribed twenty guineas, the Duke of 

 Richmond and two other gentlemen fifteen more ; besides, our 

 proprietor hath sent me orders to procure some curiosities for 

 him. 



I am now providing for a journey up Susquehanna, with our in- 

 terpreter, in order to introduce a peaceable understanding between 

 the Virginians and the Five Nations. We suppose the meeting 

 will be in the Onondaga's country, not far from your Fort Oswego. 

 We are to set out in a week or two. If thee would please to be so 

 kind as to write to the Captain of your Fort, or the Minister in 

 the Mohawk's country, in my favour, it might do me a kindness in 

 a strange land, if I should return home that way, and through 

 Albany, which I can't yet know. 



Neither do I know whether we shall ride any farther up Susque- 

 hanna, than the great Western Branch (which runs towards Alle- 

 ghany), where one of their chiefs lives, whom we are to take with 

 us to the treaty ; and according to his advice we are to proceed, 

 either on horseback, or by water, up the river as far as navigable ; 

 thence by land to the Onondaga's River. This journey, I hope, if 



