xiv WILLIAM BARTRAM'S WANDERINGS 187 



indigo or sugar-cane, and going into winter quarters as 

 each year passed. He seldom wrote even when there 

 was a chance of sending letters, and his friends gave him 

 up for lost among the hostile Indians, but his gentle ways 

 and inoffensive spirit carried him everywhere unharmed, 

 whilst the hunter in him knew how to subsist in the lonely 

 wilds. He came back at last to Pennsylvania in January 

 1778, finding his father dead, and the American provinces 

 in the throes of war. 



Fothergill, it is to be feared, reaped little of the benefit 

 which he hoped for from his young friend's journeys during 

 the first year or two, for although the bills drawn by 

 Bartram were duly paid, very little in the way of plants 

 or seeds reached England ; and after this the war inter- 

 rupted their coming. An account of his travels was 

 published by Bartram in 1791 ' it was well received, 

 being reprinted in England twice, earning the warm 

 encomium of Coleridge, and it was afterwards translated 

 into French. The book is pleasant reading the artless 

 account of an unhurried wanderer through field and 

 forest, who made friends with every flower and tree, every 

 bird and insect, and whose heart was one with nature 

 herself. A few extracts, with omissions for his style 

 is redundant will here be given. 



This world, as a glorious apartment of the boundless 

 palace of the Creator, is furnished with an infinite variety of 

 animated scenes, inexpressibly beautiful and pleasing, equally 

 free to the inspection and enjoyment of all his creatures. 

 The great Author has impartially distributed his favours to 

 his creatures, so that the attributes of each one may mani- 

 fest the divine and inimitable workmanship. The pompous 

 Palms of Florida and the glorious Magnolia strike us with 

 the sense of dignity and magnificence ; the expansive um- 

 brageous Live Oak with awful veneration ; the Carica papaya 

 with the harmony of beauty and grace ; the Lilium superbum 

 represents pride and vanity ; Kalmia latifolia and Azalea 

 coccinea, mirth and gaiety ; the Illicium floridanum and the 

 Convallaria majalis of the Cherokees, charm with their beauty 

 and fragrance. Yet they are not to be compared for usefulness 

 with the nutritious Triticum ; for clothing with the Linum, or 

 for medicinal virtues with the Papaver. 



