162 PETER COLLINSON AND JOHN BARTRAM CH. 



distribution for them which will presently be alluded to. 

 Communication was slow and uncertain in those days : 

 letters, carried by the same ships as the goods, took two 

 or three months sometimes more, seldom less to cross 

 the ocean. In one season ships lay in the English Channel 

 becalmed for nearly two months ; some, again, were cap- 

 tured by the French or Spaniards. 1 Postage was heavy 

 and paid by the recipient, hence you often refrained from 

 writing to spare your friend : Bartram complains that 

 he was charged half-a-crown for a letter through New 

 York. Collinson tells him to wrap his letters in dry 

 tobacco leaves that they may escape insects on the 

 passage. Woeful are the former's lamentations, time 

 and again, when he finds nests of rats ensconced in a box 

 of precious plants, which had afforded fine food for their 

 offspring. A box of living plants in earth was to be 

 stowed under the captain's bed, and thus kept out of 

 the light and warm ; this answered very well. 



Collinson and his friends supplied Bartram with funds, 

 about 21 per year, increasing afterwards to about 100, 

 equivalent to nearly twice these sums in colonial currency, 

 besides extra funds for his expeditions. Bartram drew 

 bills against a running account with Collinson, but some- 

 times the latter sent him " a strong cask " full of half- 

 pence, as was then the custom, 10 or 20 worth at a 

 tune. He sent out, too, many botanical and other books 

 and gifts, including a pocket compass for his wanderings, 

 " with a dial to it to know the hour of the day." Very 

 acceptable were the presents of clothing : a suit for 

 himself, " drugget coat, black waistcoat and shagg 

 breeches " (" also Barclay's Apology to refresh thy 

 inward man "), and a calico gown for his wife, garments 

 which met their taste so precisely that Bartram humor- 

 ously ascribed it to a mystic sympathy between them. 

 His garden, too, was enriched with the best vegetable 



1 " If I could know that [the goods] fell into the hands of men of learning 

 and curiosity I should be more easy. Though they are what is commonly 

 called our enemies, yet, if they make proper use of what I have laboured for, 

 let them enjoy it with the blessing of God." J. Bartram, 1745 ; W. Darlington, 

 Memorials of John Bartram and Humphry Marshall, Phila., 1849, p. 353. 



