186 FOTHERGILL'S BOTANIC GARDEN CHAP. 



But young Bartram's disposition was that of a rover 

 rather than of a steady worker. He loved plants like 

 his father, who had trained him to be an excellent field 

 naturalist, but his gentle, modest and contemplative 

 disposition was not allied with robustness of body or 

 perseverance. In 1772 he wrote to Fothergill, proposing 

 to make a botanical journey into East and West Florida, 

 a country then little explored by naturalists, and the 

 hinder parts occupied only by Indians. Fothergill agreed 

 to the plan, and committed the matter to Dr. Chalmers, 

 a physician of high standing at Charlestown, who showed 

 Bartram every attention and kindness, supplying him 

 with money on Fothergill's account, and making arrange- 

 ments for his journey. He was to receive from Fothergill 

 up to 50 sterling per annum for two years certain, 

 besides expenses of packing, etc. For this he was to 

 collect and send all the curious plants and seeds and other 

 natural productions that he could find, and to draw birds, 

 reptiles, insects and plants on the spot at a further 

 payment. 



Well equipped, W. Bartram set forth in April 1773, 

 and went southward, exploring the coastlands of Carolina 

 and Georgia, and thence into Florida, where he ascended 

 the St. John's River to Lake George : afterwards he 

 crossed westward to Apalachee Bay, and returning spent 

 a long time in Lower Georgia. Years passed by, and in 

 the spring of 1776 he penetrated into the country of 

 the Cherokee Indians, ascending the Seneca River, and 

 crossing the mountains to the Tennessee : finding it 

 unsafe to go further he turned, and traversed the lands 

 of the Musco-gulges or Creeks, and the Chactaws, through 

 what is now Alabama, as far as Mobile and Lake Pon- 

 chartrain. He visited many of the Indian settlements 

 and recorded observations of their ways and manners. 

 The journey was an adventurous one, Bartram finding 

 his way, mostly alone, either on foot, or on horseback, or 

 in a small boat, among the far wildernesses and rivers of 

 the south ; fraternising with the red men, or welcomed 

 here and there by some lonely settler, whose negroes grew 



