Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 40.djvu/857

Rh own expeditions had been very short during the hostilities. The late war had shown the colonists what atrocities the savages were capable of, and the prevailing feelings toward the red men had become dread and hatred. "Many years past in our most peaceable times," writes Bartram, "far beyond the mountains, as I was walking in a path with an Indian guide, hired for two dollars, an Indian man met me and pulled off my hat in a great passion, and chawed it all round—I suppose to show me that they would eat me if I came in that country again." In two other letters he says that the only way to make peace with the Indians "is to bang them stoutly." The question arises whether the combative disposition of the botanist thus revealed might not have been one of the reasons for his exclusion from the Society of Friends.

In 1764 Bartram sends to England his Journal to Carolina and New River. In this year, one Young, of Pennsylvania, managed to gain the favor of the new king, George III, by sending him some American plants, and obtained sudden preferment. It was said that all the plants had been sent to England before—many of them by Bartram, The friends of our botanist, feeling that he was much more deserving of such favor, urged him to send some specimens to the king, which he does through Collinson, desiring that he may be given a commission for botanical exploration in the Floridas. April 9, 1765, Collinson writes, "My repeated solicitations have not been in vain," and reports that the king has appointed Bartram his botanist for the Floridas, with a salary of fifty pounds a year. This appointment continued till the death of the botanist, twelve years after. Bartram accordingly made an expedition in the South the next fall. He was then sixty-six years old; and, although his eagerness for exploring was undiminished, he felt the need of a companion on this trip, and got William to go with him, the latter closing out his not very successful business at Cape Fear in order to do so. In his sketch of his father, William states that he had been ordered to search for the sources of the river San Juan (St. John's), and that he ascended the river its whole length, nearly four hundred miles, by one bank, and descended by the other. He explored and made a survey of both the main stream and its branches and connected lakes, and made a draught showing widths, depths, and distances. He also noted the lay of the land, quality of the soil, the vegetable and animal productions, etc. His report was approved by the governor of the province, and was sent to the Board of Trade and Plantations in England, by which it was ordered published "for the benefit of the new colony." Bartram collected a fine lot of plants, fossils, and other curiosities on this trip, which were forwarded to the king, who was reported to be much pleased with them. His journal is still extant, in a volume with an