Having, in this journey, met with extraordinary success, not only in the enjoyment of an uninterrupted state of good health, and escaping ill accidents, incident to such excursions, through uninhabited wildernesses, and an Indian frontier, but also in making a very extensive collection of new discoveries of natural productions; on the recollection of so many and great favours and blessings, I now, with a high sense of gratitude, presume to offer up my sincere thanks to the Almighty, the Creator and Preserver.
[10] 1. Live Oak. 2. Della leaved Water Oak. 3. Willow-leaved Oak. 4. Great Black Oak. 5. Narrow-leaved Wintergreen Oak. 6. Swamp White Oak. 7. White Oak. 8. Spanish Oak. 9. Red Oak.
[11] Gigantic Black Oak. Querc. tinctoria; the bark of this species of oak is found to afford a valuable yellow dye. This tree is known by the name of Black Oak in Pennsylvania, New-Jersey, New-York, and New England.
[12] The Chicasaw plumb I think must be excepted, for though certainly a native of America, yet I never saw it wild in the forests, but always in old deserted Indian plantations: I suppose it to have been brought from the S. W. beyond the Missisippi, by the Chicasaws.
[13] Called Nondo in Virginia: by the Creek and Cherokee traders, White Root.
[14] This creature is called, in Pennsylvania and the northern States, Panther; but in Carolina and the southern States, is called Tyger; they are very strong, much larger than any dog, of a yellowish brown, or clay colour, having a very long tail; they are a mischievous animal, and prey on calves, young colts, &c.
CHAPTER V.
Having completed my Hortus Siccus, and made up my collections of seeds and growing roots, the fruits of my late western tour, and sent them to Charleston, to be forwarded to Europe, I spent the remaining part of this season in botanical excursions to the low countries, between Carolina and East Florida, and collected seeds, roots, and specimens, making drawings of such curious subjects as could not be preserved in their native state of excellence.
During this recess from the high road of my travels, having obtained the use of a neat light cypress canoe, at Broughton Island, a plantation, the property of the Hon. Henry Laurens, esq. I stored myself with necessaries for the voyage, and resolved upon a trip up the Alatamaha.
I ascended this beautiful river, on whose fruitful banks the generous and true sons of liberty securely dwell, fifty miles above the white settlements.