TRAVELS IN 
26 
chanting fpot, nor even any road or pathway to k ; 
yet they fay that they frequently meet with certain 
figns of its being inhabited, as the building of ca- 
noes, footfceps of men, &c. They tell another 
flory concerning the inhabitants of this fequeilered 
country, which feems probable enough, which is, 
that they are the poilerity of a fugitive remnant of 
the ancient Yamafes, who efcaped maffacre after a 
bloody and decifive condicl between them and the 
Creek nation (who, it is certain, conquered, and 
nearly exterminated, that once powerful people), 
and here found an afylum, remote and fecure from 
the fury of their proud conquerors. It is, however, 
certain that there is a vail lake, or drowned fwarnp, 
well known, and often vifited both by white and In- 
dian hunters, and on its environs the mod valuable 
hunting grounds in Florida, well worth contending 
for, by thofe powers whofe territories border upon 
it. Fkom this great fource of rivers *, St. Mary 
arifes, and meanders through a vafl: plain and pine 
foreft, near an hundred and fifty miles to the ocean, 
with which it communicates, between the points of 
Amelia and Talbert^ iflands ; the waters flow deep 
and gently down from its fource to the fea. 
Having made my obfervations on the vegetable 
produ&ions of this part of the country, and ob- 
tained fpecimens and feeds of feme curious trees 
and ihrubs (which were the principal objects of this 
excurfion) I returned by the fame road to the Ala- 
tamaha, and arrived fafe again at the feat of my 
good friend, L. M c Intofn, Efq. where I tarried a 
few days to reft and refreih myfelf, and to wait for 
* Source of rivers. It is (aid, that St. Idle, St. Mary, and the beautiful 
river Little St. Juan, which difeharges its waters into the bay of Apalachi, at 
St. Mark’s, take their rife from this fwamp. 
my 
