76 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



a fever. Before he was fully recovered he sailed from Mobile 

 for Pensacola, Capital of Western Florida, where he was hos- 

 pitably received by the governor. He returned to Mobile and 

 found himself very ill. Yet the very next day he sailed west 

 for the Pearl River, where he remained seriously ill for a con- 

 siderable time. As soon as he felt able to travel he moved on 

 westward as far as the Mississippi, on the banks of which " he 

 stood for a time as it were fascinated by the magnificence of the 

 great sire of rivers " {Travels, p.427) . He arrived at Manchack, 

 Louisiana, and from there visited Baton Rouge and was especi- 

 ally attracted by the numerous indigo, cotton, and rice planta- 

 tions in the neighborhood. On August 27, 1777,^ he set off for 

 Point Coupe [Pointe Coupee], "a flourishing French settle- 

 ment on the Spanish shore of the Mississippi." On November 

 13th, he sailed east again, twice ran aground, but managed to 

 reach Mobile. On the 27th he left by boat for Taensa and from 

 there by horse for Savannah. There he stopped long enough to 

 revisit several districts in Georgia and the east borders of 

 Florida. On one of these short side-trips he observed a flower- 

 ing shrub " of the first order for beauty and fragrance of 

 blossoms," which he named Franklinia Alatamaha, in honor of 

 his father's friend Benjamin Franklin {Travels, p. 467). He 

 returned to Charleston, thence to Cape Fear, North Carolina; 

 Alexandria, Virginia; Georgetown, Maryland; Lancaster and 

 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 



It will be observed from this itinerary that Bartram is quite 

 specific in naming the places he visited, the conveyances by 

 which he traveled, and under what circumstances he observed 

 the phenomena and objects he describes. The detailed charac- 

 ter of his account deserves special emphasis. In spite of the 

 strongly imaginative nature of his descriptions he always re- 

 mains the practical explorer. Purely imaginative writers — poets, 

 novelists, literati — when they turn traveler, are eager to record 

 their impressions of the important sights they have seen; they 

 concentrate on the " literary " material their travels have un- 

 earthed ; the little practical details escape them. Bartram, how- 



' The first edition prints the year as "1787," which is again an obvious 

 misprint, this time not repeated by the later editions. 



