14 
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF 
About the period of their final embarkation, the Uni¬ 
ted States had declared war against Great Britain ; the 
seas swarmed with privateers, and to try their firmness 
still more severely, a tempestuous voyage ensued, ter¬ 
minating in a tremendous storm, by which their vessel 
was dismasted, and a horrible suspense for a time hung 
over their destiny. 
A journal kept on this voyage manifests, however, 
the fervent and patriotic feeling which cheered the 
heart, and buoyed up the hopes of Mr. Schweinitz, in 
the near prospect of extensive usefulness in the land of 
his nativity. 
The immediate scene of his duties was the establish¬ 
ment at Salem, Stokes county, North Carolina, where 
amidst the secular and ecclesiastical duties of his office, 
he found time to prosecute the study of botany, in a do¬ 
minion, scientifically speaking, all his own. The first 
fruits of this labour were given to the world in 1818 , 
through the commentaries of the Society of Naturalists 
at Leipsic, under the editorial care of his learned friend 
Dr. D. F. Schwaegrichen, and is entitled u Synopsis 
Fungorum Carolina Superioris.” In the same year 
his duties required him to attend a meeting of his reli¬ 
gious brethren at Herrnhut. On his way thither, he 
visited England, France and Holland, where he esta¬ 
blished correspondencies which were afterwards of great 
service, when, on his return, he began the formation of 
a regular herbarium. 
In 1821 Mr. Schweinitz published, at Raleigh, N. C. 
a pamphlet containing a description of seventy-eight 
