John Bartram - Travels on the St. Johns River

Travels on the St. Johns River

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA

Florida A&M University, Tallahassee

Florida Atlantic University, Boca Raton

Florida Gulf Coast University, Ft. Myers

Florida International University, Miami

Florida State University, Tallahassee

New College of Florida, Sarasota

University of Central Florida, Orlando

University of Florida, Gainesville

University of North Florida, Jacksonville

University of South Florida, Tampa

University of West Florida, Pensacola

Travels on the St. Johns River

John Bartram and William Bartram

EDITED BY
THOMAS HALLOCK AND RICHARD FRANZ

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA

Gainesville / Tallahassee / Tampa / Boca Raton
Pensacola / Orlando / Miami / Jacksonville / Ft. Myers / Sarasota

COPYRIGHT 2017 BY THOMAS HALLOCK AND RICHARD FRANZ

All rights reserved

Maps created by Dean Campbell

Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper

This book may be available in an electronic edition.

222120191817654321

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Bartram, John, 16991777, author. | Bartram, William, 17391823,
author. | Hallock, Thomas, editor. | Franz, Richard, (professor) editor.

Title: Travels on the St. Johns River / John Bartram and William Bartram ;
edited by Thomas Hallock and Richard Franz.

Description: Gainesville : University Press of Florida, 2017. | Includes
bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2016035944 | ISBN 9780813062259 (cloth)

Subjects: LCSH: FloridaDescription and travel. | Saint Johns River
(Fla.)Description and travel. | Saint Johns River Valley
(Fla.)Description and travel. | Bartram, John,
16991777Correspondence. | Bartram, John, 16991777TravelFlorida. |
Bartram, William, 17391823TravelFlorida. | Natural historyFlorida.

Classification: LCC F314 .B29 2016 | DDC 917.5904/64dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016035944

The University Press of Florida is the scholarly publishing agency for the
State University System of Florida, comprising Florida A&M University,
Florida Atlantic University, Florida Gulf Coast University, Florida
International University, Florida State University, New College of Florida,
University of Central Florida, University of Florida, University of North
Florida, University of South Florida, and University of West Florida.

UNIVERSITY PRESS OF FLORIDA

15 Northwest 15th Street

Gainesville, FL 32611-2079

http://upress.ufl.edu

Contents

BILL BELLEVILLE

THOMAS HALLOCK

JOHN BARTRAM

WILLIAM BARTRAM

RICHARD FRANZ

Illustrations

Figures

Maps

Foreword

No other continental state can match our Florida peninsula when it comes to the biological diversity of plants and animals that exist here.

When botanist John Bartram and his son William explored this new territory on behalf of the British government in 1765, they were entering a landscape that was virtually unknown, one that was closer to the subtropics in many ways. Earlier correspondents had reported on Florida, including Jean Ribault (1562) and Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda (held captive by the Calusas from 1549 to 1566). But their explorations were not driven by the sensibilities that motivated the Bartrams.

Both Bartrams wrote about their exploration here and, in doing so, helped provide the world with the first intimate look at La Florida of the late 1700s. Those observations generally were woven into broader stories of the American southeast. Certainly their descriptions also benefited from the fact that instead of using the far more convoluted Latin descriptions, the Bartrams were among the first to use the efficient taxonomy newly introduced by Linnaeus (via Systema Naturae) that categorized natural organisms as genus and species.

The artist and naturalist son, Billy, traveled with his father as far as they could up the St. Johns River as it was the most readily available avenue into the soggy terrain of this predredged peninsula. They were effectively exploring a subtropical appendage to an otherwise temperate land mass. In a biogeographical sense, La Florida was really more of an island than the rest of what was soon to become America.

John recorded his observations in his diary while Billy did the same in the more extensive Travels (1791), which covered North and South Carolina and Georgia in addition to East and West Florida. Naturalist Helen G. Cruickshank excerpted Billys narratives describing this region with Bartram in Florida in 1986. And personal lettersmost previously unpublishedcontinued to define this strange foreign place. But the larger role the Grand and Noble San Juan specifically played in the Bartrams experiences hasuntil nowgone virtually unexamined inside of one cover.

When researching a book about the St. Johns (River of Lakes) in 1999, I became intimately aware of the rivers history and diversity. I also marveled at the extent of natural lands and wildlife that still remained in the basin and made every attempt I could to experience this for myself. The great irony is thatdespite the tremendous loss of natural lands in Floridaalmost one-third of our land and water is protected in public ownership (compared with an average of 1617 percent in other states.)

While I benefited from the knowledge of very savvy scientists and escorts in my own travels, my true guidespiritually and ecologicallywas Billy Bartram. Indeed, there are few times that I still visit the springs, swamps, and shores of that river today without feeling Bartrams presence. This is an explorer, an artist, and an adventurer who described himself as a philosophical pilgrim. He was also the first American to devote his entire life to experiencing and communicatingin art and wordsour environment. And long before more modern naturalists began to understand the deeper spiritual manifestations of nature, Bartrams own Quaker spirituality served him well in that regard some 250 years ago.

The benefit the editors have provided with this insightful book about the St. Johns can be considered a gift they have hand-delivered from the Bartrams. Its a gift enhanced with the inclusion of some of the archival drawings of the plants and animals the Bartrams saw, as well as an indexed explanation of the specifics of many of their observations. In a sublime way, Travels on the St. Johns River also balances the ravages of our modern era with the transcendence that can still be experienced in the historic landscape that remains in the river basin.

Certainly this title could not be made available to us at a more appropriate time. Floridas natural areas are under siege as never before. In a recent report, even the Florida realtors state that property values are now being suppressed by almost $1 billion a year due to the decline in surface water quality. Our springsonce described by William as the enchanting and amazing crystal fountains holding the blue ether of another worldare losing flow and smothering with an increase of algae-stimulating nutrients. Springs specialist Dr. Bob Knight reported that Silver Springsonce the largest spring in the entire worldwill stop flowing in 15 years if current trends continue.