1766.1 T0 JOHN BARTRAM. 439 



renders it unnecessary, as it would be unedifying, for me to trouble 

 you with my few general observations ; but I hope you will not 

 think me quite impertinent, if I detain you to say a word or two 

 touching the particular situation and circumstances of that poor 

 young man ; and the less so, when you know that it is done partly 

 at his request. 



His situation on the river is the least agreeable of all the places 

 that I have seen, on a low sheet of sandy pine barren, verging on 

 the swamp, which before his door is very narrow, in a bight or 

 cove of the river, so shoal, and covered with umbrellas, that the 

 common current is lost and the water almost stagnated, exceedingly 

 foul, and absolutely stank, when stirred up by our oars, on both 

 days of my landing there, though, at the same times, the river was 

 said to be rather high, and the stream running down strong, 

 beyond the cove. This, I should think, must make the place 

 always unhealthy, as well as troublesome to come at, by water 

 carriage, especially in dry seasons. 



The swamp and adjoining marsh which I walked into, will, 

 without doubt, produce good rice, when properly cleared and culti- 

 vated ; but both seem to be narrow, and will require more strength 

 to put them in tolerable order, than Mr. Bartram is at present 

 possessed of, to make any progress above daily bread, and that of 

 a coarse kind, too. 



There is some Cypress, which, if he had a little more strength, 

 he might soon convert into shingles and ready money. 



The Pine land (I am sorry to differ in opinion with you) is very 

 ordinary ; indeed, I saw none good in the whole country ; but that 

 piece of his may justly be ranked in an inferior class, even there. 



At my first visit, your son showed me the growth of some peas, 

 beans, corn, and yams, planted only four days before, in the sand 

 on the swamp-edge, which then looked very flourishing : but when 

 I called three weeks after, although there had been much rain in 

 the mean time, the progress was barely perceptible ; a remark that 

 we both concurred in. 



I found that he had, according to my advice, continued to clear 

 the swamp, and in that time cut clown part of an acre of trees ; 

 but that sort of work goes on very heavily, for want of strong 

 hands. He assured me that he had but two, among the six 

 neo-roes that you gave him, that could handle an axe tolerably ; 



