JOHN BARTRAM AND WILLIAM BARTRAM. 35 



William Stork, published in England. It is evident from this 

 production that the botanist was not a ready writer. His ob- 

 servations are minute and sagacious, and his language is 

 simple, but his sentences are loosely strung out, and the record 

 is the barest statement of facts. His Journal to the Five 

 Nations, however, is much more readable. 



William seems to have been much taken with Florida, and 

 accordingly his father helped to establish him as an indigo- 

 planter on the St. John's River. After about a year of disas- 

 trous experience he returned to his father's home and went to 

 work on a farm in the vicinity. Collinson had been watching 

 for an opening for William in England, but so far nothing had 

 come of it. The next year he writes that the Duchess of Port- 

 land, a " great virtuoso in shells and all marine productions," 

 had just dined at his house, and, having seen William's draw- 

 ings, " she desires to bestow twenty guineas on his perform- 

 ances for a trial" The kind of objects she wants drawn are 

 told. The same month, July 18, 1768, Collinson writes to 

 William that he had also secured an order from Dr. Fothergill 

 for drawings of shells, turtles, terrapin, etc. This was prob- 

 ably the last letter of Collinson to the Bartrams, as he died on 

 the nth of the following month. During his long friendship 

 with John Bartram the two men had never met. 



William now began to send drawings and descriptions to 

 Dr. Fothergill from time to time. In 1772 he began explora- 

 tions in the Floridas, Carolina, and Georgia, the expense of 

 which for nearly five years was borne by Dr. Fothergill, and to 

 him William's collections and drawings were turned over. 

 William made many contributions to the natural history of the 

 country through which he travelled, and in 1791 published his 

 Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and 

 West Florida, together with an account of the Creek, Cherokee, 

 Choctaw, and other tribes of Indians which he visited. His 

 opinion of the red men is much more favourable than that of 

 his father. The volume contains many engravings of plants 

 and birds from the author's own drawings. Of this book Cole- 

 ridge said : " The latest book of travels I know written in the 

 spirit of the old travellers is Bartram's account of his tour in 

 the Floridas. It is a work of high merit every way." 



Among the influential friends of the elder Bartram was 

 Benjamin Franklin. While in England Franklin writes to him 



