After leaving Augusta, they enjoyed a day and a half of leisurely travel, during which Bartram exclaimed repeatedly about the size of the trees and stopped to measure the circumference of some of the larger specimens. He found one black oak that measured thirty-one feet, and insisted on sketching the entire tree, estimating the height of the first limbs and the extent of the leafed area. When they arrived in Wrightsborough, the seventy-year-old Joseph Maddock welcomed the famous botanist enthusiastically. Kindred and Mavis were standing by Bartram’s side and instantly detected the warmth of this reunion of two men whose families had been quite closely related both in Pennsylvania and in North Carolina. Bartram expressed his pride in the Quaker settlement and asked Maddock to give him a report on its progress.

“We have a total of about forty thousand acres, lying mostly along the borders of the 1763 ceded area. There are already two hundred and eight families involved, most of them Quakers. Now, almost exactly ten years later, treaty terms will open another one to one and a half million acres to the colony, including a large area to the north and west. I have to admit that some of the settlers have already moved into Indian territory. This may precipitate some conflicts in the future, but so far we have gotten along well with the natives. We treat them right, and trade with them has continued to grow, even though we Friends have done everything possible to keep our exchanges on a current basis and not permit any appreciable debts to accumulate.”

Kindred did not speak, although he knew that this was not true of some Quaker merchants who cheated the Indians. He had already shared this conflicting information with Bartram and decided that perhaps Maddock was speaking only of what was decided in the Quaker meetings.

Bartram congratulated the Quaker leader and asked, “Do you know any of the Indians personally, and can you communicate with them?”

“Yes, of course. Since we established the town of Wrightsborough, some of the clan leaders have been coming here to trade, and these particular ones have learned enough English words, along with signs, to conduct business. I have to admit that not many of us have bothered to learn their dialects, which to me seem almost incomprehensible. I understand that thy young friend Kindred is one of the few exceptions, having become quite fluent in the language of the Creeks.”

They turned to Kindred, who replied, “Yes, I have a young Creek friend with whom I have spent a lot of time. We have shared some language lessons and are now able to converse quite easily in either English or the Muskogean dialect of the Creeks. We’ve both learned some of the Cherokee words, which, as you know, are derived from the Iroquois.”