Travels on the St. Johns River by John Bartram

Author:John Bartram
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Florida
Published: 2017-06-23T04:00:00+00:00

William Bartram, “Great Yellow Bream calld Old Wife” (aka Warmouth, Lepomis gulosus), watercolor sent to John Fothergill in 1774. By permission of the Natural History Museum, London.

THE Orange grove, is but narrow, betwixt the river banks and ancient Indian fields, where there are evident traces of the habitations of the ancients, surrounded with groves of Live Oak, Laurel Magnolia, Zanthoxilon, Liquidamber, and others.46

HOW harmonious and soothing is this native sylvan music now at still evening! inexpressibly tender are the responsive cooings of the innocent dove, in the fragrant Zanthoxilon groves, and the variable and tuneful warblings of the nonparel; with the more sprightly and elevated strains of the blue linnet and golden icterus; this is indeed harmony even amidst the incessant croaking of the frogs; the shades of silent night are made more chearful, with the shrill voice of the whip-poor-will47 and active mock-bird.

My situation high and airy, a brisk and cool breeze steadily and incessantly passing over the clear waters of the lake, and fluttering over me through the surrounding groves, wings its way to the moon-light savannas, while I repose on my sweet and healthy couch of the soft Tillandsi ulnea-adscites, and the latter gloomy and still hours of night passed rapidly away as it were in a moment; I arose, strengthen[155]ed and chearful, in the morning. Having some repairs to make in the tackle of my vessel, I paid my first attention to them; which being accomplished, my curiosity prompted me to penetrate the grove and view the illumined plains.

WHAT a beautiful display of vegetation is here before me! seemingly unlimited in extent and variety; how the dew-drops twinkle and play upon the sight, trembling on the tips of the lucid, green savanna, sparkling as the gem that flames on the turban of the Eastern prince; see the pearly tears rolling off the buds of the expanding Granadilla;48 behold the azure fields of cerulean Ixea! what can equal the rich golden flowers of the Cana lutea, which ornament the banks of yon serpentine rivulet, meandering over the meadows; the almost endless varieties of the gay Phlox, that enamel the swelling green banks, associated with the purple Verbena corymbosa, Viola, pearly Gnaphalium, and silvery Perdicium; how fantastical looks the libertine Clitoria, mantling the shrubs, on the vistas skirting the groves. My morning excursion finished, I returned to the camp, breakfasted, then went on board my boat, and gently descended the noble river and passed by several openings of extensive plains and meadows, environing the East Lake, charming beyond compare; at evening I came to at a good harbour, under the high banks of the river, and rested during the night, amidst the fragrant groves, exposed to the constant breezes from the river: here I made ample collections of specimens and growing roots of curious vegetables, which kept me fully employed the greatest part of the day, and in the evening arrived at a charming spot on the East [156] bank, which I had marked on my ascent up

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