(seq. 330)

East Florida

on the lower side. the Tree rises in Heighth near one hundred feet; has
two Barks, the outside grey, very coarse, and thick, and the inside a fine crimson
Colour. The Wood is very white, and spungy. This Tree is an ever green.
The fifth are the great and open Savannahs (:Meadows:), some twelve miles
across, on which grow bunch Grass, button Snake Root and the blessed Thistle.
They are covered for the greatest part of the year with Rain Water on account of
their rich Soil having scarce any Mixture of Sand, of course no Passage for
the Water to sink through; and their Beds are so level, that hardly any Water
can drain off, but intirely depends from the Sun's Exhaltation. Altho' I
have passed over them in a dry Season, when they had no Water, yet the Soil
was so loose and moist, that my Horse only with a slow and easy Gate could
transverse them, and yet every Step made three or four Inches deep Impression.
These Savannahs are spattered over, as it were with little Groves of twelve or
twenty Trees, some Pine, of the worst kind, some Cabbage and Maple Trees,
and are chiefly surrounded by Maple or Cypress Swamps, which seem to
extend themselves upon said Meadows; from which and the youth of the
Trees (which I observed all over the Country) convinced I have drawn the
Conclusion, that East Florida, especially its Southern Extent, is the last
in making of the whole North American Continent in His Majesty's
Possessionl wherefore no doubt that (as it will go on increasing its Forrests)
that the Land which is now covered with a sandy Soil will in time to
come receive a Stratum of yearly dropping Leaves, and Limbs, be shaded,
and consequently preserved against the Sun's Exhaltation; whence a Pu=
=trefaction will evice, an acid generated, and the Sand corroeded into a fine Marl;
this will make its Impression yearly deeper by degrees, as the Stratum will
increase to thicken itself with the deciduous Leaves & This is perhaps the
Reason that Providence has wisely prevented its Population to this day, in
order to give the necessary time to this part for making its Soil plantable.
8. The Experiments in the Culture, and Manufaturies, chiefly by Europeans,
unacquainted with the planting Business, yet willing, and endeavouring to do
their Best, was made with Vines, Coffee, Cotton, Sugar Canes, Ananas and
Indigol in all these Experiments, wiht their scant Knowledge, they however
have had some tollerable Success; but the Indigo has really been brought to
Perfection, equal to that made at Guatamala in New Spain, which is
estimated the best manufactured in the World; they have, in 1771, among a
few Planters, made upwards of 1200 Weight equal to the Quatalama Indigo (a)
The Experiments, which succeeded in this as well, as in the Provinces
of Georgia and South Carolina, were made by a few Europeans partly, but
chiefly

(a) two Inconveniences attend the Indigo Plant, viz: Drought and Caterpillers; the first
is without Remedy, but the last has been conquered by making a trench 3 feet wide round the infected part
of the Field, then by cutting down the Indigo within, the latter deprived them of the necessary shade gain the
scorching Sun, and the former prevented them from taking Refuge in the second part of the Field, thus the
Caterpillars perished. i advised to gather these Vermin, squeeze their Substance through a hair Sieve mix it