STUDIES OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN 61 



cai Society, to whose attention Squier had brought the existence 

 of this work, instructed him to obtain Dr. Morton's assent to 

 its publication in the transactions of the Society. Squier him- 

 self admitted to having obtained from this manuscript " several 

 interesting facts," which he embodied in his Ancient Monu- 

 ments of the Mississippi Valley and in his Aboriginal Monu- 

 ments of the State of New York, both published by the Smith- 

 sonian Institution. His opinion of Bartram's scientific value is 

 high. " Bartram," he writes, " is chiefly remembered as a 

 naturalist and his reputation has hitherto rested upon his labors 

 as a botanist. It is conceded, however, that he was a close accu- 

 rate, and conscientious observer in other departments; and the 

 following pages may consequently be regarded ... as a valu- 

 able contribution to our . . . stock of archaeological and eth- 

 nological materials." " It is this work of Bartram's to which 

 Swanton referred in his article on Bartram's theory of the 

 mound builders." 



There is no material difference between these answers on the 

 Creek and Cherokee Indians and the chapters devoted to the 

 Indians in the Travels. In both Bartram is generally cautious 

 in his statements and modest in his claims of exact knowledge. 

 His letter to Barton, transmitting his answers to, presumably, 

 the latter' s queries, is characteristic: 



Thus you have, 

 Sir, 



My observations and conjectures on these matters, with all the 

 truth and accuracy that my slender abilities will admit of, and without 

 reserve. If they should not answer your wishes and expectations, I 

 desire you will ascribe it to my misapprehension of the queries or lack 

 of knowledge, etc., etc.^^ 



In the Travels, however, Bartram is much more discursive 

 and subjective than in these answers, in which he was pinned 

 down to specific questions and which he wrote at a time when 

 his eyesight was failing him and he suJEf ered great pain.^° Hence 

 the purely scientific value of his observations among the Indians 

 is more apparent in the Answers than in the Travels, and yet 



" Ibid., 5. " Vide supra. " Op cit., p. 9. '" Ibid., p. 9- 



