74 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



sail in a handsome pleasure-boat, manned with four stout negro 

 slaves, to row in case of necessity " (p. 70) . In three days he 

 was at Cow- ford, " a public ferry over St. Johns," where he 

 bought " a neat little sailboat " for three guineas, and the next 

 morning he sailed up the river (pp. 72-73). Here he admired 

 the groves of live oaks, palms, laurel (magnolia grandiflora) , 

 and orange trees, but soon once more ran into a magnificent 

 storm, with " furious " winds and " tremendous " thunder and 

 lightning (p. 75). He skirted now the eastern and now the 

 western ("or Indian ") shore of the river, all the time noting 

 the landscape, the " plunging alligators," and the incredible 

 numbers of ephemera, small flying insects, " beautiful and deli- 

 cately formed little creatures." He passed Fort Picolata and 

 Charlotia, and arrived at the trading post where he stored his 

 chest of specimens and other objects. With this trading-post as 

 his headquarters he boldly set out to explore the Indian country 

 round about. In the middle of May he followed, in his little 

 vessel, a group of traders to Mount Royal, where the St. Johns 

 River widens into Lake George, and where his boat " at once 

 diminished to a nut-shell, on the swelling seas, and . . . must 

 appear to the surprised observer, as some acquatic animal " (pp. 

 101-102). At the next trading-post, up the river, he spent 

 several weeks, then, securing the services of an Indian, he 

 started out again, but the Indian soon became tired of rowing 

 and Bartram had to put him ashore. He sailed on alone, observ- 

 ing trees, promontories, and lagoons, and listening to the roar 

 of crocodiles with whom he engaged in a thrilling battle. He 

 turned into a '" little river " and into Long Lake, finally arriving 

 at a friend's plantation in New Smyrna, on the Musquito River. 

 Here he saw "' a vast fountain ... of hot mineral water, . . . 

 perfectly diaphonous " (p. 145). He then returned to his first 

 trading-post headquarters. From this post he accompanied a 

 trading company to the Seminole Indian town of Cuscowilla, 

 capital of the Alachua tribe, in north-central Florida. Exploring 

 the region, he came upon " the Great Sink," where crocodiles 

 were " so abundant, that, if permitted by them, [he] could walk 

 over any part of the bason . . . upon their heads, which slowly 

 float and turn about like knotty chuncks or logs of wood " 



