THE MONTHLY ANTHOLOGY, FOR OCTOBER, 1810. BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE OF ANDRE MICHAUX. (Continued from page 93.) THE following autumn Michaux determined to visit Spanish Florida; and having obtained a passport from Don Lespadez, the governour, he went to St. Augustine, where he arrived in February, 1788, with his son and a faithful negro. The governour, to whom he announced himself as a botanist travelling for instruction, would not permit him to penetrate into the interiour parts of the country, till he had submitted to a long examination; but afterwards observing on the direction of some letters to Charleston, that Michaux was styled the king's botanist, he treated him with great respect, and offered him an escort, an offer which we may easily suppose made no alteration in our traveller's plans. He remained at St. Augustine till the 12th of March, to explore the environs and obtain information respecting the interiour of the country, which is at present totally uninhabited; and having hired a native of Minorca as his guide, he proceeded to the mouth of the Tomakow, where he bought one of the canoes used by the inhabitants in navigating rivers. These canoes, made of a single tree of the deciduous cypress (cupressus disticha) hollowed out, are twenty-two feet in length, but scarcely three feet in breadth, and only two and a half in depth, being so narrow as only to admit one person on a seat. Michaux, his son, his negro, and their guide, were all seated in this long boat, and left a large space in the middle to deposit their plants. They rowed by turns, ascended the river, and explored the bays. Michaux attentively observed the banks, and whenever he perceived an interesting spot, moored the canoe, landed and botanized for a considerable distance. He was in a climate totally different from those through which he had travelled in the preceding years. Here oranges grow almost spontaneously, and the sugar cane had been for several seasons under cultivation. He however met with many difficulties. The bays were frequently so shallow that they were obliged to roll their canoes on the trunks of trees, and transport their baggage by hand. His only food was fish and wild oranges: these oranges are not sweet, but he never felt any inconvenience from eating them. Having entered the river St. John, in five days he reached the lake St. George, where another small river empties itself, which he ascended, though not without being frequently obliged to roll his canoe. This river, which is very deep, and contains abundance of fish, presents a singular phenomenon; the waters are of a detestable taste and a sulphureous colour, and yet so limpid, that the smallest branches are perceptible at the bottom. It takes its rise in a pond which contains several water spouts from fifteen to eighteen inches in height. He found on the banks a species of the starry anise, with a yellow flower as fragrant as the Chinese, and possessing the same virtues. This excursion occupied five weeks; he says in his notes that he found it very pleasant and easy, because, having no horses, he had no fears of losing any of his collections. This trait shows how little he thought of fatigue. On taking leave of the governour, he gave him a box of seeds for the garden at Madrid: he preferred going to Savannah through the bays, notwithstanding the danger of being attacked by the Creek Indians, who were then at war with the Anglo-Americans; and from Savannah he proceeded by water to Charleston. The anise arrived in a flourishing condition; and this new species, preferable to that found near Pensacola, was soon propagated in the environs. Michaux thought that, cultivated on a large scale in South Carolina, it might be sent to France and sold for not exceeding 18 (Fr.) shillings a pound. Returned to his garden, he enriched it with new plantations, and sent considerable packages to France. He had established a correspondence in every place through which he had passed. He sent the inhabitants European seeds and vegetables in exchange for the plants of the country, which he had He usu pointed out to them the proper season to remove, ally travelled from April to October, leaving, during his absence, two gardeners and a negro (whom he had instructed) to cultivate his garden and gather the seeds. In the winter he made shorter excursions to bring home the young trees that he had noted in different places during the summer. Though the temperature of the Bahama Islands differs so much from that of Europe as to prevent our naturalizing their productions among us, yet the desire of forming a complete North American Flora, from the tropick to Hudson's Bay, induced Michaux to visit them. He arrived in New Providence the 26th of February, 1789, and was very well received by the governour of the colony, to whom he gave some seeds for Sir Joseph Banks. He collected in these islands 860 feet of trees and shrubs, and persuaded the governour to introduce the culture of the vine and the date, to which the nature of the soil appeared favourable. He promised to send him some young date trees; and no doubt he kept his word. He also sent some to St. Augustine, where they had long been in possession of a female date tree forty feet in height, but which being alone, had never yielded any fruit. On his return to Charleston the first day of May, 1789, Michaux heard of the disorders which agitated France; he found considerable difficulty in obtaining funds for his expenses, and fearing to be recalled, he hastened to explore some of the highest mountains in South Carolina. He sat off on the 30th of May, and proceeded to Morgantown, a village situated a hundred leagues from the coast, where he hired a guide and advanced into the forests. He was several days' journey from any habitation, when his guide was dangerously wounded in attempting to kill a bear. Michaux remarks on this head, that it is essential in these solitudes to have two guides, as a thousand accidents may befal one, and it would be impossible for an European to find his way. It is impossible to follow the course of torrents interrupted by cascades, and bordered with precipices and rocks undermined by the water, which crumbling beneath the feet, may involve the passenger in their fall if he ascends a mountain, as far as the eye can reach, he only discerns the summits of similar mountains, and in the intervals vast tracts of land covered with rhododendrum, kalmia, and azalea, with large trees rising here and there from the midst of them. These woods are often impenetrable; the In dians alone can find their way through them, and it is inconceivable to an European how they can direct themselves in these immense desarts. This expedition, which Michaux made in company with his son was shortened in consequence of a quarrel between the Indians and the inhabitants of Virginia, which endangered the life of an European; he therefore returned to New York, from thence proceeded to Philadelphia, and from thence to Charleston, where he arrived after an absence of five months and a half. War being declared between France and England, his correspondence with Europe was interrupted for two years. He employed this time in naturalizing several Asiatick trees in his garden, raised from seeds procured by the captains of American vessels in the China trade, and in introducing the culture of useful plants among the inhabitants. Having discovered in his excursions a quantity of ginseng (panax quinquefolium L.) he taught them in what manner and at what season to gather this valuable plant, that it may have the same virtues it possesses in China. At length he communicated his observations to the agricultural society at Charleston, and this society admitted him a member. His resources were now nearly exhausted, and he was afraid of being obliged to leave America. He had long been occupied in a project extremely important to science, that of determining which is the native spot of the North American trees, in what latitude they begin to grow, where they be come rare and dwindling, and where they entirely disappear; in short, to what height they are found on the mountains, and in what soil they flourish best. He considered the native country of a tree to be that in which it grows the most abundantly, and acquires the greatest height and size; thus he judged the tulip tree to be originally from Kentucky, because it grows there in vast forests, and in moist and clayey soils, not subject to inundations, is commonly 120 feet in height, and seven or eight feet in diameter. Where the land rises and falls, and in soils of a different kind, these trees become less common and less flourishing. It was with the view of thus ascertaining the botanical topography of North America, that Michaux had visited Florida; but beginning at the tropick, it was necessary to proceed to Hudson's Bay. He employed his last resources for the exe cution of this project; he applied to several merchants who placed an entire confidence in him, received from them all the money that he wanted, and gave them bills of exchange upon his agents in Paris. This expedition was the longest and most laborious he had yet undertaken, but it promised to be the most useful. After having made arrangements at Charleston for the care of his plants during his absence, he set off on the 18th of April, 1792, passed through New York, where he likewise gave orders respecting the cultivation of his garden, and proceeded by land to Quebeck, where he arrived on the 10th of June. At Quebeck he acquired information respecting the shores of Hudson's Bay; he furnished himself with provisions and articles to exchange, and ascending the river St. Lawrence, he arrived at Tadoussac, a miserable village situated at the mouth of the river Saquency, fifty leagues from Quebeck. It is a mart where the Indians come to carry on the fur trade; there he bought two bark canoes. The Indians make these canoes of the bark of the birch, called by Ayton Betula papyrifera. For this purpose, they choose in the spring the largest and smoothest birches; they make two circular incisions round the trunk, four or five feet apart, and one longitudinally on each side. The bark peels off very easily when the tree is full of sap. The ribs of the canoes are of thin laths of white cedar (cupressus thuyoïdes ;) they sew the pieces of bark together with an awl, and the fibrous roots of the white pine (abies alba) which they boil in order to separate it, and cover the seams with the resin of the balm of Gilead (abies balsamea.) The canoes weigh about fifty pounds; they will hold four men and their baggage, and are very durable. When the Indians go upon distant chases, their wives accompany them and carry the canoe from one stream to another. Michaux took three Indians and a *metis with him, and embarked upon the Chicoutoum, designing to follow its course as far as the lake St. John. This river is very rapid, sometimes wide and sometimes narrow; enormous rocks interrupt its course, and the country being very mountainous, it often falls in cascades. Travellers in these places are obliged *Offspring of an Indian and European, or vice versa. ED. |