186 WILLIAM BARTRAM 



That this is an adaptation of Bartram's story of the aged warrior 

 he saw at Mucclasse town is more than probable. " One morn- 

 ing," says Bartram of this "very aged man," 



after his attendants had led him to the council fire, before seating him- 

 self, he addressed himself to the people after this manner — 



'You yet love; what can I do now to merit your regard? nothing; 

 I am good for nothing ; I cannot see to shoot the buck or hunt up the 

 sturdy bear ; I know I am but a burden to you ; I have lived long enough ; 

 now let my spirit go; I want to see the warriors of my youth in the 

 country of spirits ; (bareing his breast) here is the hatchet, take it and 

 strike ' (p. 500) . 



Bartram's influence on Mrs. Hemans is not always so direct as 

 in " The Isle of Founts " and " The Aged Indian." In a note 

 to a line in " Modern Greece ": 



And isles of flowers, bright-floating o'er the tide 



(stanza XV, 1. 3), 

 she quotes ^^ Chateaubriand's 



La grace est toujours unie a la magnificence dans les scenes de la 

 nature: et tandis que le courant du milieu entraine vers la mer les 

 cadavres des pins et de chenes, on voit sur les deux courant lateraux, 

 remonter, le long des rivages des iles flottantes de Pistia et de Nenuphar, 

 dont les roses jaunes s'elevent comme de petits papillons.-^ 



In both her line and her source we recognize, of course, Bar- 

 tram's Pistia stratiotes, that " very singular aquatic plant " which 

 " associates in . . . floating islands " and which, we saw, vividly 

 impressed Wordsworth. But whether coming through Chateau- 

 briand or directly from the Travels there is more of Bartram 

 than the floating island in this poem. Her exiled Greeks find 

 themselves in unmistakably Bartram's Florida. 



There, by some lake, whose blue expansive breast 



Bright from afar, an inland ocean, gleams, 



Girt with vast solitudes, profusely dress'd 



In tints . . . 



Or where some flood from pine-clad mountain pours 



Its might of waters, glittering in their foam, 



^'Ibid., II, 212. 



^^ Atala. See Bingham's translation (Stanford University reprint), p. 14. 



