34 PIONEERS OF SCIENCE IN AMERICA. 



I suppose to show me that they would eat me if I came in that 

 country again." In two other letters he declares that the only 

 way to make peace with the Indians "is to bang them stoutly." 

 The question arises whether the combative disposition of the 

 botanist thus revealed might not have been one of the reasons 

 for his exclusion from the Society of Friends. 



In 1764 Bartram sends to England his Journal to Carolina 

 and New River. In this year, one Young, of Pennsylvania, 

 managed to gain the favour of the new king, George III, by 

 sending him some American plants, and obtained sudden pre- 

 ferment. It was said that all the plants had been sent to 

 England before many of them by Bartram. The friends of 

 our botanist, feeling that he was much more deserving of such 

 favour, urged him to send some specimens to the king, which 

 he does through Collinson, desiring that he may be given a 

 commission for botanical exploration in the Floridas. April 9, 

 1765, Collinson writes, " My repeated solicitations have not 

 been in vain," and reports that the king has appointed Bartram 

 his botanist for the Floridas, with a salary of fifty pounds a 

 year. This appointment continued till the death of the 

 botanist, twelve years after. Bartram accordingly made an 

 expedition in the South the next fall. He was then sixty-six 

 years old ; and, although his eagerness for exploring was un- 

 diminished, he felt the need of a companion on this trip, and got 

 William tc go with him, the latter closing out his not very suc- 

 cessful business at Cape Fear in order to do so. In his sketch 

 of his father, William states that he had been ordered to search 

 for the sources of the river San Juan (St. John's), and that he 

 ascended the river its whole length, nearly four hundred miles, 

 by one bank, and descended by the other. He explored and 

 made a survey of both the main stream and its branches and 

 connected lakes, and made a draught showing widths, depths, 

 and distances. He also noted the lay of the land, quality of 

 the soil, the vegetable and animal productions, etc. His report 

 was approved by the governor of the province, and was sent 

 to the Board of Trade and Plantations in England, by which it 

 was ordered published "for the benefit of the new colony." 

 Bartram collected a fine lot of plants, fossils, and other objects 

 of interest on this trip, which were forwarded to the king, who 

 was reported to be much pleased with them. His journal is 

 still extant, in a volume with an Account of East Florida, by 



