24 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



about the future of America or parts of America. Thus he did 

 not " hesitate to pronounce " his opinion that Augusta would 

 '" very soon become the metropolis of Georgia," ^^ and that 

 " the great and beautiful Alachua Savanna " would " at some 

 future day be one of the most populous and delightful seats 

 on earth." ^^ 



In all extant descriptions of William Bartram he is pictured 

 as a kind, gentle Quaker, with his father's indefatigable curi- 

 osity and zeal in the cause of natural science. In both the 

 element of personal ambition was completely subordinated to 

 their interest in science. They were looked upon by their con- 

 temporaries and they looked upon themselves as pioneers 

 laboring in a worthy cause. Early in his career, in 1745, John 

 Bartram could write in regard to a shipment of plants he had 

 sent to England and which was intercepted by the French or 

 the Spanish: " 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 blessings of God." ^^ William, being more 

 analytically-minded, sometimes felt it necessary to defend the 

 study of natural science and his own preoccupation with it. In 

 the midst of a discussion on the migration of birds, he reminds 

 himself that "There may perhaps be some persons who con- 

 sider this enquiry not to be productive of any real benefit to 

 mankind, and pronounce such attention to natural history merely 

 speculative, and only fit to amuse and entertain the idle virtuoso ; 

 however the ancients thought otherwise, for with them, the 

 knowledge of the passage of birds was the study of their priests 

 and philosophers, and was considered a matter of real and 

 indispensable use to the state. . . . " ®* 



Two descriptions of William Bartram by visitors to the Garden 

 deserve reproduction here. One is by the Reverend Manasseh 

 Cutler, a prominent New England botanist; the other is by 

 William Dunlap, painter and playwright, who in the company 

 of Charles Brockden Brown called on Bartram. The Reverend 



""■Travels, 317. ^"^ Memorials, p. 353. 



^"Ibid., 251. ^''Travels, 284-5. 



