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[The following sketch of the history of Andre Michaux's career is condensed from the memoir prepared by Professor Charles S. Sargent, of Brookline, Massachusetts, as an introduction to the journal published by the American Philosophical Society at Philadelphia.]
The younger Michaux, in the year 1824, presented to the American Philosophical Society the the manuscript diary kept by his father during his travels in America. The first parts had been unfortunately lost in the wreck of the vessel in which Michaux returned to France from America, and no record is preserved of his travels in this country from the time of his arrival in New York in October, 1785, until his first visit to South Carolina in 1787.
The first notice of the journal which appeared in this country is found in a paper, by Professor Asa Gray, entitled "Notes of a Botancial Excursion to the Mountains of North Carolina," published in the American Journal of Science, in 1841 This brief extract, together with a more detailed accoun of those parts of Michaux's document which relate to Canada, published in 1863, by the Abbe Ovide Brunet, directed the attention of botanists to this record of the travels of one of the most interesting and picturesque figures in the annals of botanical discovery in America, and for many years the feeling has existed among them that the journal which furnishes an important chapter in the history of the development of American botany should be published. The American Philosophical Society having shared in these views, a copy of the manuscript has been placed in my hands for publication. It is now printed as Michaux wrote it, by the light of his lonely camp-fires, during brief moments snatched from short hours of repose, in the midst of hardships and often surrounded with dangers. The character of the man appears in this record of his daily life, and any attempt to correct or extend his words would destroy their individuality and diminish the historical value of his diary.
The journal is something more than a mere diary of travel and botanical discovery. The information which it contains in regard to various plants first detected by Michaux is valuable even now, and his remarks upon the condition and the remote settlements which he visited in the course of his wanderings are interesting and often amusing. They record the impressions of a man of unusual intelligence-a traveler in many lands, who had learned by long practice to use his eyes to good advantage, and to write down only what he saw.
He was the first botanist who ever traveled extensively in this country, although it must not be forgotten that John and William Bartram, his predecessors by several years in the same field, did much to prepare the way for his wider and more detailed explorations. The first connected and systematic work upon the flora of North America was based upon his collections, and bears the impresss of his name, while it was by his efforts many American plants were first made known in the gardens of Europe.
Michaux was born at Salory. in the neighborhood of Versailles, on March 7, 1746, early became interested in the cultivation and study of plants. He left Paris, in 1782, for Aleppo and Bagdad. and, after traveling extensively and mastering the Persian language he returned to Paris early in 1785, bring with him a valuable herbarium and a 1arge collection of seeds.
At this time the French government was anxious to introduce into the royal plantations the most valuable trees of eastern North America, and Michaux was selected for undertaking. He was instructed to explore the territory of the United States, to gather seeds of trees, shrubs and other plants, and to establish a nursery near New York for their reception, and afterwards to send them to France, where they were to be planted in the Park of Rambouillet. He was directed also to send game birds from America, with a view to their introduction into the plantations of American trees.
Michaux, accompanied by his son, then fifteen years old, arrived in New York in October, 1785. Here, during two years, he made his principal residence, established a nursery, of which all trace has now disappeared and making a number of short botanical journeys into New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland. The fruits of these preliminary explorations, including twelve boxes of seeds, five thousand seedling trees, and a number of live partridges, were sent to Paris at the end of the first year.
Michaux's first visit to South Carolina was made in September, 1786. He found Charleston a more suitable place for his nurseries, and made that city his headquarters during the rest of his stay in America. Michaux' s journeys in this country after his establishment in Charleston covered the territory of North America from Hudson's Bay to Indian River, in Florida, and from the Bahama Islands the banks of the Mississippi River.
In 1788 he was called upon by the minister of the French Republic, lately arrived New York, to proceed to Kentucky, to some business growing out of the relations be tween France and Spain with regard to the transfer of Louisiana. This political journey, and a second one made into the far West, occupied long intervals of Michaux's time, covering a period of about seven years, at the end of which he returned finally to Charleston in the spring of 1796. His nurseries were in a most flourishing condition; they were stocked with the rarest American plants collected during years of labor and hardship and with many of those plants of the old world which Michaux was first to introduce in the United States. The tallow tree (Stillingia sebifera), now often cultivated and somewhat naturalized in the southern states, beautiful albizzia Julibrissin, were planted in the United States by him. He taught the settlers in the Alleghany Mountains the value of the ginseng, and showed them how to prepare it for the Chinese market--a service which gained for him a mei ship in the exclusive Agricultural Society Charleston.
His movements for several years had been impeded and the success of his journeys interferred with by the lack of financial support from the French government, and Michaux found, on his return to South Carolina, that his resources were entirely exhausted. An obscure botanical traveler, almost forgotten it a distant land, had little hope of recognition from Paris during the closing years of th last century, and it was now evident that I could depend no longer on support and assistance from France. He determined, therefore, rather than sell the trees which he longed see flourishing on French soil, to return to Paris.
Michaux sailed from Charleston on 13th of August, 1796. The voyage was tempestuous; and on the 18th of September the vessel was wrecked on the coast of Holland where the crew and passengers, worn out by exposure and fatigue, would have perished but for the assistance of the inhabitants of tI- little village of Egmont. Michaux fastened himself to a piece of plank, and was finally washed ashore unconscious, and more dead than alive. His baggage was lost; but his precious packages of plants which were stored in the hold of the vessel, were saved, though saturated with salt water. He remained in Egmont for several weeks to regain his strength and to dry and rearrange his plants, and did not reach Paris until January. He was received with great distinction and kindness by the botanists of the Museum, but a bitter disappointment awaited him. An insignificant number only of the six thousand trees which he had sent to France during the eleven years he had passed in America remained alive. The storms of the Revolution and of the Empire had swept through the nurseries of Rambouillet, and Michaux's American trees were destroyed or hopelessly scattered.
This was the greatest disappointment of his life, but he was not discouraged. His longings were to return to America, but the French government would not supply the necessary means, and on the 18th of October, 1800, he sailed with Baudin on his voyage of discovery to New Holland; and on the 19th of February, the following year, the expedition reached the Isle of France. Here, after a stay of six months, in which Michaux made his first acquaintance with the vegetation of the real tropics, he left the party for the purpose of exploring the island of Madagascar, which seemed to offer a more useful field than New Holland for his labors.
He landed on the east coast, and at once set about laying out a garden, in which he hoped to establish, provisionally, the plants he intended to bring back from his journeys in the interior. Impatient of the delays caused by the indolence of the natives, he had employed to prepare the ground, Michaux, in spite of the warnings of persons familiar with the danger of exposure and over-exertion under a tropical sun, insisted upon working himself day after day. He was soon prostrated with fever, but his vigorous constitution and indomitable will enabled him to resist the at- tack, and his health being partly restored at the end of four months, he was ready to start for the mountains. His preparations were all made, but on the eve of his departure, late in November 1802, he was attacked again with fever and died suddenly. He was only fifty-six years old, still in the prime of life, and possessed all of his powers when his useful career was thus suddenly brought to an end.
1794
[The Journal of Andre' Michaux from the time he passed Charlotte, on his way to the mountains of Western North Carolina, until he returned to Charleston, from which point he had started.]
July 22.-Passed through Charlotte in Mecklenburg. Red Clay soil; quartz rocks; clear waters formerly: the waters have the color of dead leaves or dry tobacco. Vegetation, red-oaks, black-oaks, and white-oaks, etc. Actea spicata. . . . Slept six miles from Tuck-a-Segee ford.
July 23.-Passed through Ben Smith, twenty miles from Charlotte. Two or three miles before arriving there saw the Magnolia tomentoso-glauca fol. cordatis longiorib. Slept six miles from B. Smith.
July 24.-Passed through Lincoln and dined with Reinhart. Calamus aromaticus. Slept at the old shoemaker's.
July 25.-Came to Henry Watner, now Robertson.
July 26.-Arrived at Morganton, Burke Court-House, thirty miles from Robertson. Frutex Cal ycantha facies, etc.
July 27.-Stayed at Morganton on account of the rain and swollen creeks, which could not be passed except by swimming.
July 28.-Remained at Morganton.
July 29.-Left Morganton, and slept at John Rutherford's, near whose house I went over a bridge across Muddy Creek.
July 30.-Came back into the usual road which leads to Turkey Cove, and arrived at the house of a man named Ainsworth.
July 31 -Herborized on the Linville mountains, southeast at Ainsworth's residence; and on the rocks and mountains denuded of trees collected a little shrub (Leiophyllum buxifolium).
August 1 -Herborized on mountains of very rich soil, situated to the northeast. Measured a tulip-tree twenty-three French feet in circumference.
August 2.-Herborized toward the mountains to the northward.
August 3 ,-Herborized among Cyperoides and other aquatic plants.
August 4.-Prepared for the journey to the Black Mountain.
August 5.-Deferred the journey on account of the lack of provisions.
August 6.-Set out and reached the place called Crab-tree.
August 7.-Herborized on the mountains in the vicinity of Crab-tree.
August 8.-Herborized.
August 9.-Continued my herborizations.
August 10.-Arrived at the foot of Black Mountain.
August 11.-Arrived on the side of Black Mountain. (Among the plants collected he names "fox-grapes, fruit good to eat.")
August 12.-Returned from the mountain.
August 13.-Arrived at the house of Mr. Ainsworth.
August 14.-A thick fog made it difficult to explore the high mountains. Herborized the valleys.
August 15.-Rain.
August 16.-Journeyed toward the Yellow Mountain and Roun (Roan) Mountain. Reached Towe (Toe) River, Bright's Settlement. The principal inhabitants of this place are Davinport, Wiseman. Collected herbs Azalea coccinea, lutea, flava, alba, and rosea; all these varieties of the Azalea nudifiora found in this region.
August 17.-Agreed with a hunter (Davinport) to go to the mountains.
August 18.-Herborized and described several plants.
August 19.-Started to go toward the high mountains.
August 20.-Herborized in the mountains.
August 21.-Reached the summit of (Roan) Mountain; found in abunda small shrub with boxwood-like leaves I formerly designated as Leiophullum folium, but the capsule of which has three and opens at the top.*
[It is strange that Michaux did not mention the abundanceof this shrub growing on the bare rocks of Grandfather Mountain.]
August 22.-Reached the summit of the Yellow Mountain.
August 23.-Returned to Davinport's house.
August 24.-Put my collections in order.
August 25.-Rain.
August 26. Started for Grandfather Mountain, the most elevated of all those which form the chain of the Alleghanies and the Appalachians.
August 27.-Reached the foot of the highest mountain.
August 28.-Climbed as far as the rocks.
August 29.-Continued my herborizations.
August 30.-Climbed to the summit of the highest mountain of all North America, and, with my companion and guide, sang the Marseillaise Hymn, and cried, "Long live America and the French Republic! long live Liberty! etc." Le 30 Monte au sommet de la plus haute montagne de toute l'Am. Sept. et avec mon compagnon Guide, chante' l'hymne des Marseillais et Crie' Vive l'Ame'rique et Ia Re'pubh'q. Fran~aise, Vive la Liberte', etc., etc.
August 31.-Rain all day. Staid in camp.
September 1,-Came back to the house of my guide Davinport.
September 2.- Rain. Herborized.
September 3.-Arranged my collections.
September 4.-The same work.
September 5.-Started for Table Mount.
September 6.-Visited the cliffs of the mountain Hock-bill (Hawk-bill) and of Table Mountain. These mountains are very barren, and the new shrub (Leiophyllum) is the only rare plant found there. It is there in abundance. Slept at a distance of six at Park's.
September 7. Started for Burke Court House or Morganton. Slept at the house of General MacDowal. Saw near his house Spirea tomentosa in abundance. From Burke to John Wagely's house, about twelve miles. From John Wagely's to Thomas Young's _____. From Thomas Young's to Davinport's, eight miles.
September 8.-Arrived at Burke Court--House or Morganton. Visited Colonel Avery and stayed at his house.
September 9.Started in the evening from Morganton; slept three miles distant from it. Met an inhabitant of Stateborough, Mr. Atkinson, who invited me to his house.
September 10.-Reached Robertson, thirty miles from Morganton.
September 11. Slept at Reinhart's, Lincoln Court-House, fifteen miles from Robertson.
September 12.-Started for Yadkin River and Salisbury. Slept at Catawba Springs eighteen miles from Lincoln.
September 13.-Went to Betty's Ford or the Catawba River, twenty miles from Lincoln. Slept at a farm eight miles before coming to Salisbury, where the three roads from Philadelphia, from Charleston, and from Kentucky meet.
September 14.-Passed through Salisbury, a town of better appearance than the other towns of North Carolina. Fifty miles from Lincoln to Salisbury. Continued my way to Fayetteville; crossed Yadkin River and slept fourteen miles from Salisbury.
September 15.-Passed several creeks and low, but very stony hills.
September 16.-Part of the road very stony. Saw the Magnol. acuminata florib. luteis; Collinsonia tuberosa. Came then upon sandy ground. Slept at the house of Martin, store-keeper.
September 17.-Continued my way across the sand-hills.
September 18.-Reached a place six miles from Fayeteville. Lost my two horses.
September 19 and 20.-Employed these two days in searching for my horses.
September 21.-Found one of the two and...
September 22.-Arrived again at Fayetteville, formerly Cross Creek. The river Cape Fear flows past that town. Saw in my herborizations swamps which surround the Cupressus disticha, thyoides, often together.
September 23.-Started from Fayetteville after having had the satisfaction to read the news, arrived the evening before, from Philadelphia, concerning the glorious victories of the Republic. Slept at the house of old (?) MacCay, fifteen miles from Fayetteville on the road from Salisbury.
September 24.-Took the road from Charleston on the left and passed Drowned Creek at MacLawchland bridge. But the more direct route from Fayetteville to Charleston is by way of Widow Campbell Bridge, forty (?) miles from Fayetteville. From Widow Campbell Bridge to ( Swamp, ten miles from the line that separates North Carolina and South Carolina.
September 25.-Passed through Gum Swamp and slept eight miles from Fayetteville. Saw the Cupressus thyoides and pressus disticha in several swamps. Saw the Andromeda Wilmingt. in abundance in swamps. Liquid-ambar pere grin um, etc. Two miles from Gum Swamp we reach South Carolina.
September 26.-Passed through Long Bluff, a small hamlet, two miles south river Big Pedee, seventy-four miles from Fayetteville.
September 27.-Passed through Black Swamp, twenty-two miles from Long Bluff Col. Benton, twelve miles from L. Bluff. Black Creek, ten miles from L. Bl. Jeffe Creek, ten miles fro L. Bl. September 28.-Passed Lynch's Creek forty miles from L. Bl.
September 29.-Passed Black River, thirty miles from Lynch Creek. A certain Lorry keeps the ferry of Black River.
September 30.-Arrived at Maurice Ferry, on the Santee River, fifteen miles from Black River, and twenty miles from Monck's Corner. The passage of the ferry was dangerous, and I was obliged to go to Lenew Ferry. It is twenty-five miles from Maurice Ferry to Lenew or Lenew's Ferry.
October 1.-Left Lenew's Ferry and passed through Strawberry's Ferry, twenty-five miles from Lenew's Ferry, and twenty-eight miles from Charleston. Reached the dwelling-house near Ten M. House.
October 2. Left for Charleston.