JOHN BARTRAM TO PETER COLLINSON. 



September 30, 1763. 



DEAR PETER I have now travelled near thirty years through 

 our provinces, and in some, twenty times in the same provinces, 

 and yet never, as I remember, once found one single species 

 in all after times, that I did not observe in my first journey 

 through the same province. But many times I found that 

 plant the first which neither I nor any person could find after, 

 which plants, I suppose, were destroyed by the cattle. . . . 

 The first time I crossed the Shenandoah I saw one or two 

 plants, or rather stalk and seed of the Meadia, on its bank. 

 I jumped off, got the seed, and brought it home, sent part to 

 thee, and part I sowed myself both which succeeded ; and 

 if I had not gone to that spot, perhaps it had been wholly lost 

 to the world. John Clayton asked me where I found it ; I 

 described the very spot to him, but neither he nor any person 

 from him could find it after. ! what a noble discovery I 

 could have made on the banks of the Ohio and Mississippi, if 

 I had gone down, and the Indians had been peaceably in- 

 clined, as I knew many plants that grew on its northern 

 branches. But we are at present all disappointed. 



I read lately, in our newspaper, of a noble and absolutely 

 necessary scheme that was proposed in England, if it was prac- 

 ticable ; that was, to search all the country of Canada and 

 Louisiana for all natural productions, convenient situations for 

 manufactories, and different soils, minerals and vegetables ; the 

 last of which I dare take upon myself, as I know more of the 

 North American plants than any others. But this would alarm 

 the Indians to the highest degree. All the discoverers would 

 be exposed to the greatest savage cruelty the gun, tomahawk, 

 torture, or revengeful, devouring jaws. Before this scheme can 

 be executed, the Indians must be subdued, or drove above a 

 thousand miles back. No treaty will make discovery safe. 

 Many years past, in our most peaceable times, far beyond the 

 mountains, as I was walking in a path with an Indian guide, 

 hired for two dollars, an Indian man met me and pulled off my 

 hat in a great passion, and chawed it all round I suppose to 

 show me that he would eat me if I came into that country again." 

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