Page:The Cambridge History of American Literature, v1.djvu/222

196 he and his twin-sister taking fifth place in the succession of children. He grew up with the Garden, accompanied his father on collecting tours, travelled himself, and published his Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges, or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws, as well as “the most complete and correct list of American birds prior to the work of Alexander Wilson"; he lived in Philadelphia, unmarried, a student of science, caring for the Garden until his death in 1823. A professorship was offered him in 1782 by the University of Pennsylvania, but failing health led him to decline it. His manuscript work on the Indians was published by the American Ethnological Society in 1853,

The Travels reveal the enthusiasm of a man still young, with an eye that nothing escapes, not without poetical imagination or philosophical vision, and with a deep reverence for the Creative Spirit which he feels in all about him. The volume is divided into four Parts. In the first, the Introduction, he recounts the voyage by packet from Philadelphia to Savannah, whence he proceeds to the "Alatamaha" River. The second describes East Florida, and the ascent of St. John's River in a small canoe. On reaching Lake George, "which is a dilatation of the River St. Juan," his vessel "at once diminished to a nutshell on the swelling seas." The Indian whom he engaged to assist him on the upper river becoming weary, Bartram continues on alone, to encamp at an orange grove, to battle with alligators, and to observe “a large sulphureous fountain.” Descending again, he is robbed by a wolf, and so, after sundry adventures, arrives at the lower trading-house. He then "proceeds on a journey to Cuscowilla," where he meets with a friendly reception from the "Siminoles," and from there goes to view the "great bason" or sink, whose subterranean waters swarm with fish. In Part III, having returned to Charleston, he sets out for the Cherokee territories and the "Chactaw" country, going as far as Mobile, from which, turning back, he accompanies a band of traders to visit the Creeks. Again in the company of traders, he sets off for Georgia; from Augusta he revisits Savannah, whence he makes a "short excursion in the South of Georgia," adding to his collection, and gathering seeds of "two new and very curious shrubs." At Charleston