Daniel G. Brinton
Notes on the Floridian Peninsula; its Literary History, Indian Tribes and Antiquities

TO THE

LOVERS AND CULTIVATORS

OF THE

HISTORY AND ARCHÆOLOGY OF OUR COUNTRY,

THIS WORK

IS RESPECTFULLY DEDICATED,

BY THE  AUTHOR.

PREFACE

The present little work is the partial result of odd hours spent in the study of the history, especially the ancient history—if by this term I may be allowed to mean all that pertains to the aborigines and first settlers—of the peninsula of Florida. In some instances, personal observations during a visit thither, undertaken for the purposes of health in the winter of 1856-57, have furnished original matter, and served to explain, modify, or confirm the statements of previous writers.

Aware of the isolated interest ever attached to merely local history, I have endeavored, as far as possible, by pointing out various analogies, and connecting detached facts, to impress upon it a character of general value to the archæologist and historian. Should the attempt have been successful, and should the book aid as an incentive to the rapidly increasing attention devoted to subjects of this nature, I shall feel myself amply repaid for the hours of toil, which have also ever been hours of pleasure, spent in its preparation.

Thornbury, Penna., April, 1859.

CHAPTER I.
LITERARY HISTORY

Introductory Remarks.—The Early Explorations.—The French Colonies.—The first Spanish Supremacy.—The English Supremacy.—The second Spanish Supremacy.—The Supremacy of the United States.—Maps and Charts.

In the study of special and local history, the inquirer finds his most laborious task is to learn how much his predecessors have achieved. It is principally to obviate this difficulty in so far as it relates to a very interesting, because first settled portion of our country, that I present the following treatise on the bibliographical history of East Florida. A few words are necessary to define its limits, and to explain the method chosen in collocating works.

In reference to the latter, the simple and natural plan of grouping into one section all works of whatever date, illustrating any one period, suggests itself as well adapted to the strongly marked history of Florida, however objectionable it might be in other cases. These periods are six in number, and consequently into six sections a bibliography naturally falls. The deeds of the early explorers, the settlement and subsequent destruction of the French, the two periods when Spain wielded the sovereign power, the intervening supremacy of England, and lastly, since it became attached to the United States, offer distinct fields of research, and are illustrated by different types of books. Such an arrangement differs not materially from a chronological adnumeration, and has many advantages of its own.

Greater difficulty has been experienced in fixing the proper limits of such an essay. East Florida itself has no defined boundaries. I have followed those laid down by the English in the Definitive Treaty of Peace of the 10th of February, 1763, when for the first time, East and West Florida were politically distinguished. The line of demarcation is here stated as “the Apalachicola or Chataouche river.” The Spaniards afterwards included all that region lying east of the Rio Perdido. I am aware that the bibliography of the Spanish settlement is incomplete, unless the many documents relating to Pensacola are included, but at present, this is not attempted. It has been deemed advisable to embrace not only those works specially devoted to this region, but also all others containing original matter appertaining thereto. Essays and reviews are mentioned only when of unusual excellence; and a number of exclusively political pamphlets of recent date have been designedly omitted.

As I have been obliged to confine my researches to the libraries of this country, it will be readily understood that a complete list can hardly be expected. Yet I do not think that many others of importance exist in Europe, even in manuscript; or if so, they have escaped the scrutiny of the laborious Gustav Haenel, whose Catalogi Librorum Manuscriptorum I have examined with special reference to this subject. It is proper to add that the critical remarks are founded on personal examination in all cases, except where the contrary is specified.

§ 1.—The Early Explorations. 1512-1562

No distinct account remains of the two voyages (1512, 1521,) of the first discoverer and namer of Florida, Juan Ponce de Leon. What few particulars we have concerning them are included in the general histories of Herrera, Gomara, Peter Martyr, and of lesser writers. However much the historian may regret this, it has had one advantage,—the romantic shadowing that hung over his aims and aspirations is undisturbed, and has given them as peculiar property to the poet and the novelist.

Of Pamphilo de Narvaez, on the contrary, a much inferior man, we have far more satisfactory relations. His Proclamation to the Indians¹ has been justly styled a curious monument of the spirit of the times. It was occasioned by a merciful(!) provision of the laws of the Indies forbidding war to be waged against the natives before they had been formally summoned to recognize the authority of the Pope and His Most Catholic Majesty. Should, however, the barbarians be so contumacious as to prefer their ancestral religion to that of their invaders, or their own chief to the Spanish king, then, says Narvaez, “With the aid of God and my own sword I shall march upon you; with all means and from all sides I shall war against you; I shall compel you to obey the Holy Church and his Majesty; I shall seize you, your wives and your children; I shall enslave you, shall sell you, or otherwise dispose of you as His Majesty may see fit; your property shall I take, and destroy, and every possible harm shall I work you as refractory subjects.” Thus did cruelty and avarice stalk abroad in the garb of religion, and an insatiable rapacity shield itself by the precepts of Christianity.

Among the officers appointed by the king to look after the royal interest in this expedition, holding the post of comptroller or factor (Tesorero), was a certain Alvar Nuñez, of the distinguished family of Cabeza de Vaca or the Cow’s Head; deriving their origin and unsonorous name from Martin Alhaja, a mountaineer of Castro Ferral, who, placing the bones of a cow’s head as a landmark, was instrumental in gaining for the Christians the decisive battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212), and was ennobled in consequence. When war, disease, and famine had reduced the force of Narvaez from three hundred to only half a dozen men, Alvar Nuñez was one of these, and after seven years wandering, replete with the wildest adventure, returned to Spain, there to receive the government of a fleet and the appointment of Adelantado to the unexplored regions around the Rio de la Plata. Years afterwards, when his rapacity and reckless tyranny had excited a mutiny among his soldiers and the animosity of his associates, or, as his defenders maintain, his success their envy and ill-will, he was arraigned before the council of the Indies in Spain. While the suit was pending, as a stroke of policy in order to exculpate his former life and set forth to the world his steadfast devotion to the interests of the king, in conjunction with his secretary Pedro Fernandez he wrote and published two works, one under his own supervision detailing his adventures in Florida,² the other his transactions in South America. Twenty-seven years had elapsed since the expedition of Narvaez, and probably of the few that escaped, he alone survived. When we consider this, and the end for which the book was written, what wonder that we find Alvar Nuñez always giving the best advice which Narvaez never follows, and always at hand though other men fail; nor, if we bear in mind the credulous spirit of the age and nation, is it marvellous that the astute statesman relates wondrous miracles, even to healing the sick and raising the dead, that he performed, proving that it was, as he himself says, “the visible hand of God” that protected him in his perilous roamings. Thus it happens that his work is “disfigured by bold exaggerations and the wildest fictions,” tasking even Spanish credulity to such an extent that Barcia prefaced his edition of it with an Examen Apologetico by the erudite Marquis of Sorito, who, marshalling together all miraculous deeds recorded, proves conclusively that Alvar Nuñez tells the truth as certainly as many venerable abbots and fathers of the Church. However much this detracts from its trustworthiness, it is invaluable for its ethnographical data, and as the only extant history of the expedition, the greatest miracle of all still remaining, that half a dozen unprotected men, ignorant of the languages of the natives and of their proper course, should have safely journeyed three thousand miles, from the bay of Apalache to Sonora in Mexico, through barbarous hordes continually engaged in internecine war. Of the many eventful lives that crowd the stormy opening of American history, I know of none more fraught with peril of every sort, none whose story is more absorbing, than that of Cabeza de Vaca.

The unfortunate termination of Narvaez’s undertaking had settled nothing. Tales of the fabulous wealth of Florida still found credence in Spain; and it was reserved for Hernando de Soto to disprove them at the cost of his life and fortune. There are extant five original documents pertaining to his expedition.

First of these in point of time is his commission from the emperor Charles V.³

The next is a letter written by himself to the Municipality of Santiago,⁴ dated July 9, 1539, describing his voyage and disembarkation. Besides its historical value, which is considerable as fixing definitely the time and manner of his landing, it has additional interest as the only known letter of De Soto; short as it is, it reveals much of the true character of the man. The hopes that glowed in his breast amid the glittering throng on the quay of San Lucar de Barrameda are as bright as ever: “Glory be to God,” he exclaims, “every thing occurs according to His will; He seems to take an especial care of our expedition, which lives in Him alone, and Him I thank a thousand times.” The accounts from the interior were in the highest degree encouraging: “So many things do they tell me of its size and importance,” he says, speaking of the village of Ocala, “that I dare not repeat them.” Blissful ignorance of the old cavalier, over which coming misfortune cast no presageful shadow!

The position that Alvar Nuñez occupied under Narvaez was filled in this expedition by Luis Hernandez de Biedma, and like Nuñez, he was lucky enough to be among the few survivors. In 1544, shortly after his return, he presented the king a brief account of his adventures.⁵ He dwells on no particulars, succinctly and intelligibly mentions their course and the principal provinces through which they passed, and throws in occasional notices of the natives. The whole has an air of honest truth, differs but little from the gentleman of Elvas except in omission, and where there is disagreement, Biedma is often more probable.

When the enthusiasm for the expedition was at its height, and the flower of Spanish chivalry was hieing to the little port of San Lucar of Barrameda, many Portuguese of good estate sought to enroll themselves beneath its banners. Among these, eight hidalgos sallied forth from the warlike little town of Elvas (Evora) in the province of Alemtejo. Fourteen years after the disastrous close of the undertaking, one of their number published anonymously in his native tongue the first printed account of it.⁶ Now which it was will probably ever remain an enigma. Because Alvaro Fernandes is mentioned last, he has been supposed the author,⁷ but unfortunately for this hypothesis, Alvaro was killed in Apalache.⁸ So likewise we have notices of the deaths of Andres de Vasconcelo and Men Roiz Pereira (Men Rodriguez); it is not likely to have been Juan Cordes from the very brief account of the march of Juan de Añasco, whom this hidalgo accompanied; so it lies between Fernando and Estevan Pegado, Benedict Fernandez, and Antonio Martinez Segurado. I find very slight reasons for ascribing it to either of these in preference, though the least can be objected to the latter. Owing to this uncertainty, it is usually referred to as the Portuguese Gentleman’s Narrative. Whoever he was, he has left us by all odds the best history of the expedition. Superior to Biedma in completeness, and to La Vega in accuracy, of a tolerably finished style and seasoned with a dash of fancy, it well repays perusal even by the general reader.

The next work that comes under our notice is in some respects the most remarkable in Spanish Historical Literature. When the eminent critic and historian Prescott awarded to Antonio de Solis the honor of being the first Spanish writer who treated history as an art, not a science, and first appreciated the indissoluble bond that should ever connect it to poetry and belles-lettres, he certainly overlooked the prior claims of Garcias Laso or Garcilasso de la Vega. Born in Cusco in the year 1539,⁹ claiming by his mother the regal blood of the Incas, and by his father that of the old Spanish nobility, he received a liberal education both in Peru and Spain. With a mind refined by retirement, an imagination attuned by a love of poetry and the drama, and with a vein of delicate humor, he was eminently qualified to enter into the spirit of an undertaking like De Soto’s. His Conquest of Florida¹⁰ is a true historical drama, whose catastrophe proves it a tragedy. He is said to lack the purity of Mariana, and not to equal De Solis in severely artistic arrangement; but in grace and fascination of style, in gorgeous and vivid picturing, and in originality of diction—for unlike his cotemporaries, La Vega modelled his ideas on no Procustean bed of classical authorship—he is superior to either. None can arise from the perusal of his work without agreeing with Southey, that it is “one of the most delightful in the Spanish language.” But when we descend to the matter of facts and figures, and critically compare this with the other narratives, we find the Inca always gives the highest number, always makes the array more imposing, the battle more furious, the victory more glorious, and the defeat more disastrous than either. We meet with fair and gentle princesses, with noble Indian braves, with mighty deeds of prowess, and tales of peril, strange and rare. Yet he strenuously avers his own accuracy, gives with care his authorities, and vindicates their veracity. What then were these? First and most important were his conversations with a noble Spaniard who had accompanied De Soto as a volunteer. His name does not appear, but so thorough was his information and so unquestioned his character, that when the Council Royal of the Indies wished to inquire about the expedition, they summoned him in preference to all others. What he related verbally, the Inca wrote down, and gradually moulded into a narrative form. This was already completed when two written memoirs fell into his hands. Both were short, inelegant, and obscure, the productions of two private soldiers, Alonso de Carmona and Juan Coles, and only served to settle with more accuracy a few particulars. Though the narrative published at Elvas had been out nearly half a century before La Vega’s work appeared, yet he had evidently never seen it; a piece of oversight less wonderful in the sixteenth century than in these index and catalogue days. They differ much, and although most historians prefer the less ambitious statements of the Portuguese, the Inca has not been left without defenders.

Chief among these, and very favorably known to American readers, is Theodore Irving.¹¹ When this writer was pursuing his studies at Madrid, he came across La Vega’s Historia. Intensely interested by the facts, and the happy diction in which they were set forth, he undertook a free translation; but subsequently meeting with the other narratives, modified his plan somewhat, aiming to retain the beauties of the one, without ignoring the more moderate versions of the others. In the preface and appendix to his History of Florida, he defends the veracity of the Inca, and exhibits throughout an evident leaning toward his ampler estimates. His composition is eminently chaste and pleasing, and La Vega may be considered fortunate in having obtained so congenial an admirer. Entering fully into the spirit of the age, thoroughly versed in the Spanish character and language, and with such able command of his native tongue, it is to be regretted that the duties of his position have prevented Mr. Irving from further labors in that field for which he has shown himself so well qualified.

Many attempts have been made to trace De Soto’s route. Those of Homans, Charlevoix, Guillaume de l’Isle and other early writers were foiled by their want of correct geographical knowledge.¹² Not till the present century was anything definite established. The naturalist Nuttall¹³ who had personally examined the regions along and west of the Mississippi, and Williams¹⁴ who had a similar topographical acquaintance with the peninsula of Florida, did much toward determining either extremity of his course, while the philological researches of Albert Gallatin on the Choktah confederacy¹⁵ threw much light on the intermediate portion. Dr. McCulloh,¹⁶ whose indefatigable labors in the field of American archæology deserve the highest praise, combined the labors of his predecessors and mapped out the march with much accuracy. Since the publication of his work, Dr. J. W. Monette,¹⁷ Col. Albert J. Pickett,¹⁸ Alexander Meek,¹⁹ Theodore Irving,²⁰ Charles Guyarre,²¹ L. A. Wilmer,²² and others have bestowed more or less attention to the question. A very excellent resumé of most of their labors, with an accompanying map, is given by Rye in his introduction to the Hackluyt Society’s edition of the Portuguese Gentleman’s Narrative, who also adds a tabular comparison of the statements of this and La Vega’s account.

From the failure of De Soto’s expedition to the settlement of the French at the mouth of the St. John’s, no very active measures were taken by the Spanish government in regard to Florida.

A vain attempt was made in 1549 by some zealous Dominicans to obtain a footing on the Gulf coast. A record of their voyage, written probably by Juan de Araña, captain of the vessel, is preserved;²³ it is a confused account, of little value.

The Compte-Rendu of Guido de las Bazares,²⁴ who explored Apalache Bay (Bahia de Miruelo) in 1559, to which is appended an epitome of the voyage of Angel de Villafañe to the coasts of South Carolina in 1561, and a letter from the viceroy of New Spain²⁵ relating to the voyage of Tristan de Arellano to Pensacola Bay (Santa Maria de Galve), are of value in verifying certain important dates in the geographical history of our country; and as they indicate, contrary to the assertion of a distinguished living historian,²⁶ that the Spaniards had not wholly forgotten that land, “the avenues to which death seemed to guard.”

Much more valuable than any of these is the memoir of Hernando D’Escalante Fontanedo.²⁷ This writer gives the following account of himself: born of Spanish parents in the town of Carthagena in 1538, at the age of thirteen he was sent to Spain to receive his education, but suffering shipwreck off the Florida coast, was spared and brought up among the natives, living with various tribes till his thirtieth year. He adds that in the same ship with him were Don Martin de Guzman, Hernando de Andino, deputy from Popayan, Alonso de Mesa, and Juan Otis de Zarate. Now at least one of these, the last mentioned, was never shipwrecked at any time on Florida, and in the very year of the alleged occurrence (1551) was appointed captain in a cavalry regiment in Peru, where he remained for a number of years;²⁸ nor do I know the slightest collateral authority for believing that either of the others suffered such a casuality. He asserts, moreover, that after his return to Spain he sought the post of interpreter under Aviles, then planning his attack on the Huguenots. But as this occurred in 1565, how could he have spent from his thirteenth to his thirtieth year, beginning with 1551, a prisoner among the Indians? In spite of these contradictions, there remains enough to make his memoir of great worth. He boasts that he could speak four Indian tongues, that there were only two with which he was not familiar, and calls attention to what has since been termed their “polysynthetic” structure. Thus he mentions that the phrase se-le-te-ga, go and see if any one is at the look-out, is compounded partially of tejihue, look-out; “but in speaking,” he observes, “the Floridians abridge their words more than we do.” Though he did not obtain the post of interpreter, he accompanied the expedition of Aviles, and takes credit to himself for having preserved it from the traitorous designs of his successful rival: “If I and a mulatto,” he says, “had not hindred him, all of us would have been killed. Pedro Menendez would not have died at Santander, but in Florida, where there is neither river nor bay unknown to me.” For this service they received no reward, and he complains: “As for us, we have not received any pay, and have returned with broken health; we have gained very little therefore in going to Florida, where we received no advancement.” Muñoz appended the following note to this memoir: “Excellent account, though of a man unaccustomed to writing, which is the cause of the numerous meaningless passages it contains.” Ternaux-Compans adds: “Without finding, as Muñoz, this account excellent, I thought it best to insert it here as containing valuable notices of the geography of Florida. It is often unintelligible; and notwithstanding all the pains I have taken in the translation, I must beg the indulgence of the reader.” The geographical notices are indeed valuable, particularly in locating the ancient Indian tribes. The style is crude and confused, but I find few passages so unintelligible as not to yield to a careful study and a comparison with cotemporary history. The memoir is addressed, “Tres puissant Seigneur,” and was probably intended to get its author a position. The date of writing is nowhere mentioned, but as it was not long after the death of Aviles (1574), we cannot be far wrong in laΔιονυσιαying it about 1580.

§ 2.—The French Colonies. 1562-1567

Several distinct events characterize this period of Floridian history. The explorations and settlements of the French, their extirpation by the Spaniards and the founding of St. Augustine, the retaliation of De Gourgues –, as they constitute separate subjects of investigation, so they may be assumed as nuclei around which to group extant documents. Compendiums of the whole by later writers form an additional class.

First in point of time is Jean Ribaut’s report to Admiral Coligny. This was never printed in the original, but by some chance fell into the hands of an Englishman, who published it less than ten months after its writer’s return.²⁹ “The style of this translation is awkward and crude, but the matter is valuable, embracing many particulars not to be found in any other account; and it possesses a peculiar interest as being all that is known to have come from the pen of Ribault.”³⁰

René Laudonniére, Ribaut’s companion and successor in command, a French gentleman of good education and of cultivated and easy composition, devotes the first of his three letters to this voyage. For the preservation of his writings we are indebted to the collector Basanier, whose volume of voyages will be noticed hereafter. The two narratives differ in no important particulars, and together convey a satisfactory amount of information.

The second letter of Laudonniére, this time chief in command, is the principal authority on the next expedition of the French to Florida. It is of great interest no less to the antiquarian than the historian, as the dealings of the colonists continually brought them in contact with the natives, and the position of Laudonniére gave him superior opportunities for studying their manners and customs. Many of his descriptions of their ceremonies are as minute and careful as could be desired, though while giving them he occasionally pauses to excuse himself for dealing with such trifles.

Besides this, there is a letter from a volunteer of Rouen to his father, without name or date.³¹ Interior evidence, however, shows it was written during the summer of 1564, and sent home by the return vessels which left Florida on the 28th July of that year. This was the earliest account of the French colony printed on the continent. Its contents relate to the incidents of the voyage, the manners of the “sauvages,” and the building of the fort, with which last the troops were busied at the time of writing.

This and Ribaut’s report made up the scanty knowledge of the colonies of Coligny to be found in Europe up to the ever memorable year 1565; memorable and infamous for the foulest crime wherewith fanaticism had yet stained the soil of the New World; memorable and glorious, for in that year the history of our civilization takes its birth with the first permanent settlement north of Mexico. Two nations and two religions came into conflict. Fortunately we are not without abundant statements on each side. Five eyewitnesses lived to tell the world the story of fiendish barbarity, or divine Nemesis, as they variously viewed it.

On the former side, the third and last letter of Laudonniére is a brief but interesting record. Simple, straightforward, it proves him a brave man and worthy Christian. He lays much blame on the useless delay of Ribaut, and attributes to it the loss of Florida.

Much more complete is the pleasing memoir of N. C. Challeux (Challus, Challusius.)³² He tells us in his dedicatory epistle that he was a native of Dieppe, a carpenter by trade, and over sixty years of age at the time of the expedition. In another passage he remarks, “Old man as I am, and all grey.”³³ He escaped with Laudonniére from Fort Caroline, and depicts the massacre and subsequent events with great truth and quaintness. He is somewhat of a poet, somewhat of a scholar, and not a little of a moralizer. At the beginning of the first edition are verses descriptive of his condition after his return, oppressed by poverty, bringing nought from his long rovings but “a beautiful white staff in his hand.” “The volume closes with another effusion of his muse, expressing the joy he felt at again beholding his beloved city of Dieppe.”³⁴ He is much given to diverging into prayers and pious reflections on the ups and downs of life, the value of contentment, and kindred subjects, seasoning his lucubrations with classical allusions.

When Laudonniére was making up the complement of his expedition he did not forget to include a cunning limner, so that the pencil might aid the pen in describing the marvels of the New World he was about to visit. This artist, a native of Dieppe, Jacques le Moyne de Morgues by name, escaped at the massacre by the Spanish, returned with Laudonniére, and with him left the ship when it touched the coast of England. Removing to London he there married, and supported himself by his profession. During the leisure hours of his after years he sketched from memory many scenes from his voyage, adding in his native language a brief description of each, aiding his recollection by the published narratives of Challeux and Laudonniére, duly acknowledging his indebtedness.³⁵ These paintings were familiar to Hackluyt, who gives it as one reason for translating the collection of Basanier, that the exploits of the French, “and diver other things of chiefest importance are lively drawn in colours at your no smal charges by the skillful painter James Morgues, sometime living in the Blackfryers in London.”³⁶ When the enterprising engraver De Bry came to London in 1587, intent on collecting materials for his great work the Peregrinationes, he was much interested in these sketches, and at the death of the artist, which occurred about this time, obtained them from his widow with their accompanying manuscripts. They are forty-three in number, principally designed to illustrate the life and manners of the natives, and, with a map, make up the second part of De Bry’s collection. Each one is accompanied by a brief, well-written explanation in Latin, and at the close a general narrative of the expedition; together, they form a valuable addition to our knowledge of the aboriginal tribes and the proceedings of the Huguenots on the Riviére Mai.

The Spanish accounts, though agreeing as regards the facts with those of their enemies, take a very different theoretical view. In them, Aviles is a model of Christian virtue and valor, somewhat stern now and then, it is true, but not more so than the Church permitted against such stiff necked heretics. The massacre of the Huguenots is excused with cogent reasoning; indeed, what need of any excuse for exterminating this nest of pestilent unbelievers? Could they be ignorant that they were breaking the laws of nations by settling on Spanish soil? The Council of the Indies argue the point and prove the infringement in a still extant document.³⁷ Did they imagine His Most Catholic Majesty would pass lightly by this taunt cast in the teeth of the devoutest nation of the world?

The best known witness on their side is Don Solis de Meras. His Memorial de todas las Jornadas y Sucesos del Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles, has never been published separately, but all the pertinent portions are given by Barcia in the Ensayo Cronologico para la Historia de la Florida, with a scrupulous fidelity (sin abreviar su contexto, ni mudar su estilo). It was apparently written for Aviles, from the archives of whose family it was obtained by Barcia. It is an interesting and important document, the work of a man not unaccustomed to using the pen.

Better than it, however, and entering more fully into the spirit of the undertaking, is the memoir of Lopez de Mendoza Grajales,³⁸ chaplain to the expedition, and a most zealous hater of heretics. He does not aim at elegance of style, for he is diffuse and obscure, nor yet at a careful historical statement, for he esteems lightly common facts, but he does strive to show how the special Providence of God watched over the enterprise, how divers wondrous miracles were at once proof and aid of the pious work, and how in sundry times and places God manifestly furthered the holy work of bloodshed. A useful portion of his memoir is that in which he describes the founding of St. Augustine, entering into the movements of the Spaniards with more detail than does the last-mentioned writer.

When the massacre of the 19th September, 1565, became known in Europe, “the French were wondrously exasperated at such cowardly treachery, such detestable cruelty.”³⁹ Still more bitterly were they aroused when they learned the inexcusable butchery of Ribaut and his men. These had been wrecked on the Floridian shore, and with difficulty escaped the waves only to fall into the hands of more fell destroyers on land. When this was heard at their homes, their “widows, little orphan children, and their friends, relatives and connections,” drew up and presented to Charles IXL., a petition,⁴⁰ generally known as the Epistola Supplicatoria, setting forth the facts of the case and demanding redress.

Though the weak and foolish monarch paid no marked attention to this, a man arose who must ever be classed among the heroes of history. This was Dominique de Gourgues, a high born Bourdelois, who, inspired with an unconquerable desire to wreak vengeance on the perpetrators of the bloody deed, sold his possessions, and by this and other means raised money sufficient to equip an expedition. His entire success is well known. Of its incidents, two, histories are extant, both by unknown hands, and both apparently written some time afterwards. It is even doubtful whether either writer was an eyewitness. Both, however, agree in all main facts.

The one first written and most complete lay a long time neglected in the Bibliotheque du Roi.⁴¹ Within the present century it has been twice published from the original manuscript. It commences with the discovery of America by Columbus; is well composed by an appreciative hand, and has a pleasant vein of philosophical comment running throughout. The details of the voyage are given in a careful and very satisfactory manner.

The other is found in Basanier, under the title “Le Quatrièsme Voyage des François en la Floride, sous le capitaine Gourgues, en l’an 1567;” and, except the Introduction, is the only portion of his volume not written by Laudonniére. By some it is considered merely an epitome of the former, but after a careful comparison I am more inclined to believe it writen by Basanier himself, from the floating accounts of his day or from some unknown relator. This seems also the opinion of his late editor.

The manuscript mentioned by Charlevoix as existing in his day in the family of De Gourgues, was either a copy of one of these or else a third of which we have no further knowledge.

Other works may moulder in Spanish libraries on this part of our narrative. We know that Barcia had access to certain letters and papers (Cartas y Papeles) of Aviles himself, which have never been published, and possessed the original manuscripts of the learned historiographer Pedro Hernandez del Pulgar, among which was a Historia de la Florida, containing an account of the French colonies written for Charles II. But it is not probable that these would add any notable increment to our knowledge.

The Latin tract of Levinus Apollonius,⁴² of extreme rarity, a copy of which I have never seen, is probably merely a translation of Challeux or Ribaut, as no other original account except the short letter sent to Rouen had been printed up to the date of its publication. This Apollonius, whose real name does not appear, was a German, born near Bruges, and died at the Canary Islands on his way to America. He is better known as the author of De Peruviæ Inventione, Libri V., Antwerpiæ, 1567,⁴³ a scarce work, not without merit. On the fly-leaf of the copy in the Yale College library is the following curious note:

“Struvius in Bibl. Antiq. hunc librum laudibus affert; et inter raros adnumerant David Clement, Bibl. Curieuse, Tom. I.; pag; 403, Jo. Vogt, Catal; libror; rarior; pag; 40, Freytag in Analec; Literar; pag; 31.”

Some hints of the life of Levinus may be found in his Epistola Nuncupatoria to this work, and there is a scanty article on him in the Biographie Universelle.

A work of somewhat similar title⁴⁴ was published in 1578 by Vignon at Geneva appended to Urbain Chauveton’s (Urbanus Calveton’s) Latin translation of Benzoni. It is hardly anything more than a translation of Challeux, whom indeed Chauveton professes to follow, with some details borrowed from André Thevet which the latter must have taken from the MSS. of Laudonniére. The first chapter and two paragraphs at the end are his own. In the former he says “he had been chiefly induced to add this short history to Benzoni’s work, in consequence of the Spaniards at the time perpetrating more atrocious acts of cruelty in the Netherlands than they had ever committed upon the savages.”

Items of interest are also found in the general histories of De Thou, (Thuanus,) a cotemporary, of L’Escarbot, of Charlevoix, and other writers.

In our own days, what the elegant pen of Theodore Irving has accomplished for the expedition of De Soto, has been done for the early settlements on the St. Johns by the talented author of the Life of Ribault.⁴⁵ He has no need of praise, whose unremitting industry and tireless endeavors to preserve the memory of their forefathers are so well known and justly esteemed by his countrymen as Jared Sparks. With what thoroughness and nice discrimination he prosecutes his researches can only be fully appreciated by him who has occasion to traverse the same ground. His work is one of those finished monographs that leave nothing to be desired either as respects style or facts in the field to which it is devoted—a field “the most remarkable in the early history of that part of America, now included in the United States and Canada, as well in regard to its objects as its incidents.” Appended to the volume is an “Account of the Books relating to the Attempts of the French to found a Colony in Florida.” The reader will have seen that this has been of service to me in preparing the analogous portion of this essay; and I have had the less hesitation in citing Mr. Sparks’ opinions, from a feeling of entire confidence in his judgment.

Before closing these two periods of bibliographical history, the labors of the collectors Basanier and Ternaux Compans, to whom we owe so much, should not pass unnoticed. The former is the editor of the letters of Laudonniére, three in number, describing the voyage of Ribaut, the building of Fort Caroline, and its destruction by the Spaniards, to which he adds an introduction on the manners and customs of the Indians, also by Laudonniére, and an account of the voyage of De Gourgues.⁴⁶ In this he was assisted by Hackluyt, who speaks of him as “my learned friend M. Martine Basanier of Paris,” and who translated and published his collection the year after its first appearance. Little is known of Basanier personally; mention is made by M. de Fétis in his Biographie des Musiciens of a certain Martin Basanier who lived about this time, and is probably identical. In the same year with his collection on Florida he published a translation of Antonio de Espejo’s History of the Discovery of New Mexico. The dedication of the “Histoire Notable” is to the “Illustrious and Virtuous Sir Walter Raleigh.” According to the custom of those days, it is introduced by Latin and French verses from the pens of J. Auratus (Jacques Doré?), Hackluyt, and Basanier himself. As a curious specimen of its kind I subjoin the anagram of the latter on Walter Raleigh:

“Walter Ralegh

La vertu l’ha à gré

En Walter cognoissant la vertu s’estre enclose,
J’ay combiné Ralegh, pour y voir quelle chose
Pourroit à si beau nom convenir à mon gré;
J’ay trouvé que c’estoit; la vertu l’ha à gré.”

The first edition is rare, and American historians are under great obligations to the Parisian publishers for producing a second, and for preserving the original text with such care.

The labors of Ternaux Compans throughout the entire domain of early American history, his assiduity in collecting and translating manuscripts, and in republishing rare tracts, are too well known and generally appreciated to need special comment. Among his volumes there is one devoted to Florida, containing eleven scarce or inedited articles, all of which are of essential importance to the historian.⁴⁷ These have been separately considered previously, in connection with the points of history they illustrate.

§ 3.—The First Spanish Supremacy. 1567-1763

After the final expulsion of the French, Spain held the ascendancy for nearly two hundred years. Her settlements extended to the south and west, the natives were generally tractable, and at one period the colony flourished; yet there is no more obscure portion of the history of the region now included in the United States. Except the Chronological Essay of Barcia, which extends over only a fraction of this period, the accounts are few in number, meagre in information, and in the majority of instances, quite inaccessible in this country.

The verbal depositions of Pedro Morales and Nicolas Bourguignon,⁴⁸ captives brought by Sir Francis Drake to London, from his attack on St. Augustine, (1586,) are among the earliest notices we possess. They were written out by Richard Hackluyt, and inserted in his collection as an appendix to Drake’s Voyage. Both are very brief, neither filling one of his folio pages; they speak of the Indian tribes in the vicinity, but in a confused and hardly intelligible manner. Nicolas Bourguignon was a Frenchman by birth, and had been a prisoner among the Spaniards for several years. He is the “Phipher,” mentioned in Drake’s account, who escaped from his guards and crossed over to the English, playing the while on his fife the march of the Prince of Orange, to show his nationality.

Towards the close of the century, several works were published in Spain, of which we know little but their titles. Thus, mention is made of a geographical description of the country (Descripcion y Calidades de la Florida) by Barrientes, Professor of the Latin language at the University of Salamanca, about 1580. It is probably nothing more than an extract from the Cosmographia, attributed by some to this writer. Also, about the same time, Augustin de Padilla Davila, a Dominican, and Bishop of St. Domingo, published an ecclesiastical history of the See of Mexico and the progress of the faith in Florida.⁴⁹ Very little, however, had been achieved that early in the peninsular and consequently his work would in this respect interest us but little. The reports of the proceedings of the Council of the Indies, doubtless contain more or less information in regard to Florida; Barcia refers especially to those published in 1596.⁵⁰

Early in the next century there appeared an account of the Franciscan missionaries who had perished in their attempts to convert the savages of Florida.⁵¹ The author, Geronimo de Ore, a native of Peru, and who had previously filled the post of Professor of Sacred Theology in Cusco, was, at the time of writing, commissary of Florida, and subsequently held a position in the Chilian Church, (deinde commissarius Floridæ, demum imperialis civitatis Chilensis regni antistes.)⁵² He was a man of deep erudition, and wrote various other works “very learned and curious,” (mui doctos y curiosos.⁵³)

Pursuing a chronological order, this brings us to the peculiarly interesting and valuable literature of the Floridian aboriginal tongues. Here, as in other parts of America, we owe their preservation mainly to the labors of missionaries.

As early as 1568, Padre Antonio Sedeño, who had been deputed to the province of Guale, now Amelia Island, between the mouths of the rivers St. Johns and St. Marys, drew up a grammar and catechism of the indigenous language.⁵⁴ It was probably a scion of the Muskohge family, but as no philologist ever examined Sedeño’s work—indeed, it is uncertain whether it was ever published—we are unprepared to speak decisively on this point.

The only works known to be in existence are those of Franceso de Pareja.⁵⁵ He was a native of the village of Auñon,⁵⁶ embraced the Franciscan theology, and was one of the twelve priests dispatched to Florida by the Royal Council of the Indies in 1592. He arrived there two years afterwards, devoted himself to converting the natives for a series of years, and about 1610 removed to the city of Mexico. Here he remained till the close of his life, in 1638, (January 25, 0. S.,) occupied in writing, publishing, and revising a grammar of the Timuquana language, prevalent around and to the north of St. Augustine, and devotional books for the use of the missionaries. They are several in number, but all of the utmost scarcity. I cannot learn of a single copy in the libraries of the United States, and even in Europe; Adelung, with all his extensive resources for consulting philological works, was obliged to depend altogether on the extracts of Hervas, who, in turn, confesses that he never saw but one, and that a minor production of Pareja. This is the more to be regretted, as any one in the slightest degree acquainted with American philology must be aware of the absolute dearth of all linguistic knowledge concerning the tribes among whom he resided. His grammar, therefore, is second to none in importance, and no more deserving labor could be pointed out than that of rendering it available for the purposes of modern research by a new edition.

A Doctrina Cristiana and a treatise on the administration of the Sacraments are said to have been written in the Tinqua language of Florida by Fray Gregorio Morrilla, and published “the first at Madrid, 1631, and afterwards reprinted at Mexico, 1635, and the second at Mexico, 1635.”⁵⁷ What nation this was, or where they resided is uncertain.

The manuscript dictionary and catechism of the Englishman Andrew Vito, “en Lengua de Mariland en la Florida,” mentioned in Barcia’s edition of Pinelo, and included by Ludewig among the works on the Timuquana tongue, evidently belonged to a language far to the north of this, probably to one spoken by a branch of the Lenni Lennapes.

Throughout the seventeenth century notices of the colony are very rare. Travellers the most persistent never visited it. One only, Francesco (François) Coreal, a native of Carthagena in South America, who spent his life in wandering from place to place in the New World, seems to have recollected its existence. He was at St. Augustine in 1669, and devotes the second chapter of his travels to the province.⁵⁸ It derives its value more from the lack of other accounts than from its own intrinsic merit. His geographical notions are not very clear at best, and they are hopelessly confounded by the interpolations of his ignorant editor. The authenticity of his production has been questioned, and even his own existence disputed, but no reasonable doubts of either can be entertained after a careful examination of his work.

Various attempts were made by the Spanish to obtain a more certain knowledge of the shores and islands of the Gulf of Mexico during this period. A record of those that took place between 1685 and 1693⁵⁹ is mentioned by Barcia, but whether it was ever published or not, does not appear.

About this time the Franciscan Juan Ferro Macuardo occupied the post of inspector (Visitador General) of the church in Florida under the direction of the bishop of Cuba. Apparently he found reason to be displeased with the conduct of certain of the clergy there, and with the general morality of the missions, and subsequently, in his memorial to the king,⁶⁰ handled without gloves these graceless members of the fraternity, telling truths unpleasant to a high degree. In consequence of these obnoxious passages, its sale was prohibited by the church on the ground that such revelations could result in no advantage.⁶¹ Whether this command was carried out or not,—and it is said to have been evaded—the work is rare in the extreme, not being so much as mentioned by the most comprehensive bibliographers. Its value is doubtless considerable, as fixing the extent of the Spanish settlements, at this, about the most flourishing period of the colony. The Respuesta which it provoked from the pen of Francisco de Ayeta, is equally scarce.

The next book that comes under our notice we owe to the misfortune of a shipwreck. On the “twenty-third of the seventh month,” 1696, a bark, bound from Jamaica to the flourishing colony of Philadelphia, was wrecked on the Floridian coast, near Santa Lucea, about 27° 8´, north latitude. The crew were treated cruelly by the natives and only saved their lives by pretending to be Spaniards. After various delays and much suffering they prevailed on their captors to conduct them to St. Augustine. Here Laureano de Torres, the governor, received them with much kindness, relieved their necessities, and furnished them with means to return home. Among the passengers was a certain Jonathan Dickinson a Quaker resident in Pennsylvania. On his arrival home, he published a narrative of his adventures,⁶² that attracted sufficient attention to be reprinted in the mother country and translated into German. It is in the form of a diary, introduced by a preface of ten pages filled with moral reflections on the beneficence of God and His ready help in time of peril. The style is cramped and uncouth, but the many facts it contains regarding the customs of the natives and the condition of the settlement give it value in the eyes of the historian and antiquarian. Among bibliopolists the first edition is highly prized as one of the earliest books from the Philadelphia press. The printer, Reinier Jansen, was “an apprentice or young man” of William Bradford, who, in 1688, published a little sheet almanac, the first printed matter in the province.⁶³ After his return the author resided in Philadelphia till his death, in 1722, holding at one time the office of Chief Justice of Pennsylvania. He must not be confounded with his better known cotemporary of the same name, staunch Presbyterian, and first president of the College of New Jersey, of much renown in the annals of his time for his fervent sermons and addresses.

The growing importance of the English colonies on the north, and the aggressive and irritable character of their settlers, gave rise at an early period of their existence to bitter feelings between them and their more southern neighbors, manifested by a series of attacks and reprisals on both sides, kept alive almost continually till the cession to England in 1763. So much did the Carolinians think themselves aggrieved, that as early as 1702, Colonel Moore, then governor of the province, made an impotent and ill-advised attempt to destroy St. Augustine; for which valorous undertaking his associates thought he deserved the fools-cap, rather than the laurel crown. An account of his Successes,⁶⁴ or more properly Misfortunes, published in England the same year; is of great rarity and has never come under my notice. Of his subsequent expedition, undertaken in the winter of 1703-4, for the purpose of wiping away the stigma incurred by his dastardly retreat, so-called, from St. Augustine, we have a partial account in a letter from his own pen to Sir Nathaniel Johnson, his successor in the gubernatorial post. It was published the next May in the Boston News, and has been reprinted by Carroll in his Historical Collections. The precise military force in Florida at this time may be learned from the instructions given to Don Josef de Zuñiga, Governor-General in 1703, preserved by Barcia.

Some years afterwards Captain T. Nairns, an Englishman, accompanied a band of Yemassees on a slave hunting expedition to the peninsula. He kept a journal and took draughts on the road, both of which were in the possession of Herman Moll,⁶⁵ but they were probably never published, nor does this distinguished geographer mention them in any of his writings on his favorite science.

Governor Oglethorpe renewed these hostile demonstrations with vigor. His policy, exciting as it did much odium from one party and some discussion in the mother country, gave occasion to the publication of several pamphlets. Those that more particularly refer to his expedition against the Spanish, are three in number,⁶⁶ and, together with his own letters to his patrons, the Duke of Newcastle and Earl of Oxford,⁶⁷ and those of Captain McIntosh, leader of the Highlanders, and for some time a captive in Spain, which are still preserved in manuscript in the Library of the Georgia Historical Society,⁶⁸ furnish abundant information on the English side of the question; while the correspondence of Manuel de Montiano, Captain-General of Florida, extending over the years 1737-40, a part of which has been published by Captain Sprague⁶⁹ and Mr. Fairbanks,⁷⁰ but the greater portion still remaining inedited in the archives of St. Augustine, offers a full exposition of the views of their opponents.

A very important document bearing on the relations between the rival Spanish and English colonies, is the Report of the Committee appointed by the Commons House of Assembly of Carolina, to examine into the cause of the failure of Oglethorpe’s expedition. In the Introduction⁷¹ are given a minute description of the town, castle and military condition of St. Augustine, and a full exposition of the troubles between the two colonies, from the earliest settlement of the English upon the coast. Coming from the highest source, it deserves entire confidence.

Besides these original authorities, the biographies of Governor Oglethorpe, by W. B. O. Peabody, in Sparks’ American Biography, by Thomas Spalding, in the publications of the Georgia Historical Society, and especially that by the Rev. T. M. Harris, are well worthy of comparison in this connection.

In the catalogue of those who have done signal service to American history by the careful collation of facts and publication of rare or inedited works, must ever be enrolled among the foremost Andres Gonzales Barcia. His three volumes of Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, are well known to every one at all versed in the founts of American history. His earliest work of any note, published many years before this, is entitled A Chronological Essay on the History of Florida.⁷² He here signs himself, by an anagram on his real name, Don Gabriel de Cardenas z Cano, and is often referred to by this assumed title. In accordance with Spanish usage, under the term Florida, he embraced all that part of the continent north of Mexico, and consequently but a comparatively small portion is concerned with the history of the peninsula. What there is, however, renders it the most complete, and in many cases, the only source of information. The account of the French colonies is minute, but naturally quite one-sided. He is “in all points an apologist for his countrymen, and an implacable enemy to the Heretics, the unfortunate Huguenots, who hoped to find an asylum from persecution in the forests of the New World.”⁷³ The Essay is arranged in the form of annals, divided into decades and years, (Decadas, Años,) and extends from 1512 to 1723, inclusive. Neither this nor any of his writings can boast of elegance of style. In some portions he is even obscure, and at best is not readable by any but the professed historian. Among writers in our own tongue, for indefatigability in inquiry, for assiduity in collecting facts and homeliness in presenting them, he may not inaptly be compared to John Strype, the persevering author of the Ecclesiastical Memorials.

His work was severely criticised at its appearance by Don Josef de Salazar, historiographer royal to Philip V, “a man of less depth of research and patient investigation than Barcia, but a more polished composer.” He was evidently actuated in part by a jealousy of his rival’s superior qualifications for his own post. The criticism repays perusal. None of Salazar’s works are of any standing, and like many another, he lives in history only by his abuse of a more capable man.

In the preface to his History of Florida, Mr. Williams informs us that he had in his possession “a rare and ancient manuscript in the Spanish language, in which the early history of Florida was condensed, with a regular succession of dates and events.” He adds, that the information here contained about the Catholic missions and the extent of the Spanish power had been “invaluable” to him. If this was an authentic manuscript, it probably dated from this period. Williams obtained it from Mr. Fria, an alderman of New York, and not understanding the language himself, had it translated. It is to be regretted that he has not imparted more of the “invaluable information” to his readers. The only passages which he quotes directly, induce me to believe that he was imposed upon by a forgery, or, if genuine, that the account was quite untrustworthy. Thus it spoke of a successful expedition for pearls to Lake Myaco, or Okee-chobee, which I need hardly say, is a body of fresh water, where the Mya margaratifera could not live. The extent of the Franciscan missions is grossly exaggerated, as I shall subsequently show. Rome at no time chartered a great religious province in Florida, whose principal house was at St. Augustine;⁷⁴ nor does Mr. Williams’ work exhibit any notable influx of previously unknown facts about the native tribes, though he says on this point, his manuscript was especially copious. On the whole, we need not bewail the loss, or lament the non-publication of this record.

The latest account of the Spanish colony during this period, is that by Captain Robinson, who visited the country in 1754. It is only a short letter, and is found appended to Roberts’ History of Florida.

In the language of the early geographers, however, this name had a far more extensive signification, and many books bear it on their title pages which have nothing to do with the peninsula. Thus an interesting tract in Peter Force’s collection entitled “A Relation of a Discovery lately made on the Coast of Florida,” is taken up altogether with the shores of South Carolina. The superficial and trifling book of Daniel Coxe, insignificant in everything but its title, proposes to describe the Province “by the Spaniards called Florida,” whereas the region now bearing this name, was the only portion of the country east of the Mississippi and south of the St. Lawrence not included in the extensive claim the work was written to defend. In the same category is Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands. This distinguished naturalist during his second voyage to America, (1722) spent three years in Carolina, “and in the adjacent parts, which the Spaniards call Florida, particularly that province lately honored with the name of Georgia.” How much time he spent in the peninsula, or whether he was there at all, does not appear.

§ 4.—The English Supremacy. 1763-1780

No sooner had England obtained possession of her new colony than a lively curiosity was evinced respecting its capabilities and prospects. To satisfy this, William Roberts, a professional writer, and author of several other works, compiled a natural and civil history of the country, which was published the year of the cession, under the supervision of Thomas Jefferys, geographer royal.⁷⁵ It ran through several editions, and though it has received much more praise than is its proper due, it certainly is a useful summary of the then extant knowledge of Florida, and contains some facts concerning the Indians not found in prior works. The natural history of the country is mentioned nowhere out of the title page; the only persons who paid any attention worth speaking of to this were the Bartrams, father and son. Their works come next under our notice.

John Bartram was born of a Quaker family in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1701. From his earliest youth he manifested that absorbing love for the natural sciences, especially botany, that in after years won for him from no less an authority than the immortal Linnæus, the praise of being “the greatest botanist in the New World.” He was also the first in point of time. Previously all investigations had been prosecuted by foreigners in a vague and local manner. Bartram went far deeper than this. On the pleasant banks of the Schuylkill, near Philadelphia, he constructed the first botanic garden that ever graced the soil of the New World; here to collect the native flora, he esteemed no journey too long or too dangerous. After the cession, he was appointed “Botanist to His Majesty for both the Floridas,” and though already numbering over three-score years, he hastened to visit that land whose name boded so well for his beloved science. Accompanied only by his equally enthusiastic son William, he ascended the St. Johns in an open boat as far as Lake George, daily noting down the curiosities of the vegetable kingdom, and most of the time keeping a thermometrical record. On his return, he sent his journal to his friends in England under whose supervision, though contrary to his own desire, it was published.⁷⁶ It makes a thin quarto, divided into two parts paged separately. The first is a general description of the country, apparently a reprint of an essay by the editor, Dr. Stork, a botanist likewise, and member of the Royal Society, who had visited Florida. The second part is Bartram’s diary, enriched with elaborate botanical notes and an Introduction by the editor. It is merely the daily jottings of a traveller and could never have been revised; but the matter is valuable both to the naturalist and antiquary.

The younger Bartram could never efface from his memory the quiet beauty and boundless floral wealth of the far south. About ten years afterwards therefore, when Dr. Fothergill and other patrons had furnished him the means to prosecute botanical researches throughout the Southern States, he extended his journey to Florida. He made three trips in the peninsula, one up the St. Johns as far as Long Lake, a second from “the lower trading house,” where Palatka now stands, across the savannas of Alachua to the Suwannee, and another up the St. Johns, this time ascending no further than Lake George. The work he left is in many respects remarkable;⁷⁷ “it is written” said Coleridge “in the spirit of the old travellers.” A genuine love of nature pervades it, a deep religious feeling breathes through it, and an artless and impassioned eloquence graces his descriptions of natural scenery, rendering them eminently vivid and happy. With all these beauties, he is often turgid and verbose, his transitions from the sublime to the common-place jar on a cultivated ear, and he is too apt to scorn anything less than a superlative. Hence his representations are exaggerated, and though they may hold true to him who sees unutterable beauties in the humblest flower, to the majority they seem the extravaganzas of fancy. He is generally reliable, however, in regard to single facts, and as he was a quick and keen observer of every remarkable object about him, his work takes a most important position among our authorities, and from the amount of information it conveys respecting the aborigines, is indispensable to the library of every Indianologist.

A very interesting natural history of the country is that written by Bernard Romans.⁷⁸ This author, in his capacity of engineer in the British service, lived a number of years in the territory, traversing it in various directions, observing and noting with care both its natural features and the manners and customs of the native tribes. On the latter he is quite copious and is one of our standard authors. His style is discursive and original though occasionally bombastic, and many of his opinions are peculiar and bold. Extensive quotations from him are inserted by the American translator in the Appendix to Volney’s View of the United States. He wrote various other works, bearing principally on the war of independence. A point of interest to the bookworm in his History is that the personal pronoun I, is printed throughout as a small letter.

A work on a contested land title, privately printed in London for the parties interested about the middle of this period,⁷⁹ might possess some little interest from the accompanying plan, but in other respects is probably valueless. There is a manuscript work by John Gerard Williams de Brahm, preserved in the library of Harvard College, which “contains some particulars of interest relative to Florida at the period of the English occupation.”⁸⁰ Extracts from it are given by Mr. Fairbanks, descriptive of the condition of St. Augustine from 1763 to 1771, and of the English in the province. This De Brahm was a government surveyor, and spent a number of years on the eastern coasts of the United States while a British province.

Among the many schemes set in motion for peopling the colony, that of Lord Rolls who proposed to transport to the banks of the St. Johns the cypriennes and degraded femmes du pave of London,⁸¹ and that of Dr. Turnbull, are especially worthy of comment. The latter collected a colony from various parts of the Levant,—from Greece, from Southern Italy, and from the Minorcan Archipelago—and established his head quarters at New Smyrna. The heartless cruelty with which he treated these poor people, their birth-place and their fate, as well as the fact that from them most of the present inhabitants of St. Augustine receive their language, their character, and the general name of Minorcans, have from time to time attracted attention to their history. Besides notices in general works on Florida, Major Amos Stoddard in a work on Louisiana⁸² sketches the colony’s rise and progress, but he is an inaccurate historian and impeachable authority. It is the only portion of his chapter on the Floridas of any value. In 1827, an article upon them was published in France by Mr. Mease,⁸³ which I have not consulted, and a specimen of their dialect, the Mahonese, as it existed in 1843, in the Fromajardis or Easter Song, has been preserved by Bryant, and is a curious relic.⁸⁴

§ 5.—The Second Spanish Supremacy. 1780-1821

During this period few books were published on Florida and none whatever in the land of the regainers of the territory. The first traveller who has left an account of his visit thither is Johann David Schöpf,⁸⁵ a German physician who had come to America in 1777, attached to one of the Hessian regiments in the British service. At the close of the war he spent two years (1783-4) in travelling over the United States previous to returning home, a few weeks of which, in March, 1784, he passed in St. Augustine. He did not penetrate inland, and his observations are confined to a description of the town, its harbor and inhabitants, and some notices of the botany of the vicinity—for it was to natural history and especially medical botany that Schöpf devoted most of his attention during his travels. The difficulties of Spain with the United States in regard to boundaries gave occasion for some publications in the latter country. As early as 1797, the President addressed a message to Congress “relative to the proceedings of the Commissioner for running the Boundary Line between the United States and East and West Florida,” which contains a resumé of what had been done up to that date.

Andrew Ellicott, Commissioner in behalf of the United States, was employed five years in determining these and other boundaries between the possessions of our government and those of His Catholic Majesty. He published the results partially in the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, and more fully several years afterwards in a separate volume.⁸⁶ They are merely the hasty notes of a surveyor, thrown together in the form of a diary, without attempt at digestion or connection; but he was an acute and careful observer, and his renseignements on the topography of East Florida are well worth consulting. Among the notable passages is a vivid description of the remarkable meteoric shower of November 12, 1799, which he encountered off the south-western coast of Florida, and from which, conjoined with the observations of Humboldt at Cumana, and others, the periodicity of this phænomenon was determined by Palmer, of New Haven.

A geographical account of Florida is said to have appeared at Philadelphia about this time, from the pen of John Mellish,⁸⁷ but unless it forms merely a part of the general geography of that author, I have been able to find nothing of the kind in the libraries of that city.

The article on Florida in the important work on America of Antonio de Alcedo,⁸⁸ derives some importance from the list of Spanish governors it contains, which, however, is not very perfect; but otherwise is of little service.

Serious difficulties between the Seminole Indians⁸⁹ and the whites of Georgia, occurred at an early date in this period arising from attempts of the latter to recapture fugitive slaves. These finally resulted in the first Seminole war, and attracted the attention of the general government. The action taken in respect to it may be found in the Ex. Doc. No. 119, 2d Session, XVth Congress, which contains “the official correspondence between the War Department and General Jackson; also that between General Jackson and General Gaines, together with the orders of each, as well as the correspondence between the Secretary of the Navy and Commodore Patterson, and the orders of the latter officer to Sailing-Master Loomis, and the final report of Sailing-Master Loomis and General Clinch;”⁹⁰ also in two messages of the President during 1818, on the Seminole war, one of which contains the documents relative to Arbuthnot and Ambruster, the Cherokees, Chocktaws, &c., and in the speeches of the Hon. Robert Poindexter, and others. Dr. Monette and Mr. Giddings, in their historical works, have also examined this subject at some length.

Two accounts of the fillibustering expeditions that resulted in the forcible possession of Amelia Island by Captain MacGregor, have been preserved; one, “the better of the two,” by an anonymous writer.⁹¹ They are both rare, and neither have come under my inspection.

An important addition to our knowledge of East Florida during this period, is contained in the entertaining Letters of Dr. William Baldwin.⁹² This gentleman, a surgeon in the United States Navy, and a devoted lover of botany, compelled to seek safety from a pulmonary complaint by taking refuge in a warm climate during the winter months, passed portions of several years, commencing with 1811, in East Florida and on the confines of Georgia, occupying himself in studying the floral wealth of those regions. He recorded his observations in a series of letters to Dr. Muhlenberg of Lancaster, and to the subsequent editor of his Remains, Dr. William Darlington, of West Chester, Pa., well known from his works on the local and historical botany of our country, and whom I have already had occasion to advert to as the editor of the elder Bartram’s Correspondence. While those to the former have no interest but to the professed botanist, his letters to the latter are not less rich in information regarding the condition of the country and its inhabitants, than they are entertaining from the agreeable epistolary style in which they are composed, and the thanks of the historian as well as the naturalist are due to their editor for rescuing them from oblivion. It was the expectation of Dr. Baldwin to give these observations a connected form and publish them under the subjoined title,⁹³ but the duties of his position and his untimely death prevented him from accomplishing this design. As far as completed, comprising eight letters, twenty pages in all, this work is appended to the Reliquiæ.

The cession of Florida to the United States, naturally excited considerable attention, both in England and our own country, manifested by the appearance of several pamphlets, the titles of two of the most noteworthy of which are given below.⁹⁴

Numerous manuscripts pertaining to the history of the colony are said to have been carried away by the Catholic clergy at the time of the cession, many of which were deposited in the convents of Havana, and probably might still be recovered.

§ 6.—The Supremacy of the United States. 1821-1858

No sooner had the United States obtained possession of this important addition to her territory, than emigrants, both from the old countries and from the more northern States, prepared to flock thither to test its yet untried capabilities. Information concerning it was eagerly demanded and readily supplied. In the very year of the cession appeared two volumes, each having for its object the elucidation of its geography and topography, its history, natural and civil.

One of these we owe to William Darby,⁹⁵ an engineer of Maryland, not unknown in our literary annals as a general geographer. It is but a compilation, hastily constructed from a mass of previously known facts, to satisfy the ephemeral curiosity of a hungry public. As far as is known of his life, the author never so much as set foot in the country whose natural history he proposes to give, and he will err widely who hopes to find in it that which the pretentious title-page bids him expect.

A much superior work is that of James Grant Forbes.⁹⁶ This gentleman was a resident of the territory, and had ample opportunities for acquiring a pretty thorough knowledge of its later history, both from personal experience and from unpublished documents. He is consequently good authority for facts occurring during the British and later Spanish administrations. Though at the time of publication the subject of considerable praise, his work has since been denounced, though with great injustice, as “a wretched compilation from old works.”⁹⁷

The next year a little book appeared anonymously at Charleston.⁹⁸ The writer, apparently a physician, had travelled through Alachua county, and ascended the St. Johns as far as Volusia. It consists of a general description of the country, a diary of the journey through Alachua, and an account of the Seminole Indians with a vocabulary of their language. Some of his observations are not without value.

The next work in chronological order was written by Charles Vignoles, a “civil and topographical engineer,” and subsequently public translator at St. Augustine. In the Introduction he remarks, “The following observations on the Floridas have been collected during a residence in the country; in which period several extensive journeys were made with a view of obtaining materials for the construction of a new map, and for the purpose now brought forward.” He notices the history, topography, and agriculture, the climate and soil of the territory, gives a sketch of the Keys, some account of the Indians, and is quite full on Land Titles, then a very important topic, and adds to the whole a useful Appendix of Documents relative to the Cession.⁹⁹ Vignoles is a dry and uninteresting composer, with no skill in writing, and his observations were rather intended as a commentary on his map than as an independent work.

Energetic attempts were shortly made to induce immigration. Hopes were entertained that a colony of industrious Swiss might be persuaded to settle near Tallahassie, where it was supposed silk culture and vine growing could be successfully prosecuted. When General Lafayette visited this country he brought with him a series of inquiries, propounded by an intelligent citizen of Berne, relative to the capabilities and prospects of the land. They were handed over to Mr. McComb of that vicinity. His answers¹⁰⁰ are tinged by a warm fancy, and would lead us to believe that in middle Florida had at last been found the veritable Arcadia. Though for their purpose well suited enough, for positive statistics it would be preferable to seek in other quarters.

In 1826, there was an Institute of Agriculture, Antiquities, and Science organized at Tallahassie. At the first (and, as far as I am aware, also the last) public meeting of this comprehensive society, Colonel Gadsden was appointed to deliver the opening address.¹⁰¹ This was afterwards printed and favorably noticed by some of the leading journals. Apparently, however, it contained little at all interesting either to the antiquarian or scientific man, but was principally taken up with showing the prospect of a rapid agricultural developement throughout the country.

Neither were general internal improvements slighted. A project was set on foot to avoid the dangerous navigation round the Florida Keys by direct transportation across the neck of the peninsula—a design that has ever been the darling hobby of ambitious Floridians since they became members of our confederacy, and which at length seems destined to be fulfilled. Now railroads, in that day canals were to be the means. As early as 1828, General Bernard, who had been dispatched for the purpose, had completed two levellings for canal routes, had sketched an accurate map on an extended scale, and had laid before the general government a report embracing a topographical and hydrographical description of the territory, the result of his surveys, with remarks on the inland navigation of the coast from Tampa to the head of the delta of the Mississippi, and the possible and actual improvements therein.¹⁰² Notwithstanding these magnificent preparations, it is unnecessary to add, the canal is still unborn.

One great drawback to the progress of the territory was the uncertainty of Land Titles. During the Spanish administration nearly the whole had been parcelled out and conferred in grants by the king. Old claims, dating back to the British regime, added to the confusion. Many of both had been sold and resold to both Spanish and American citizens. In the Appendix to Vignoles, and in Williams’ View of West Florida, many pages are devoted to this weighty and very intricate subject. Some of these claims were of enormous extent. Such was that of Mr. Hackley, which embraced the whole Gulf coast of the peninsula and reached many miles inland. This tract had been a grant of His Catholic Majesty to the Duke of Alagon, and it was an express stipulation on the part of the United States, acceded to by the king, that it should be annulled. But meanwhile the Duke had sold out to Mr. Hackley and others, who claimed that the king could not legally dispossess American citizens. A pamphlet was published¹⁰³ containing all the documents relating to the question, and the elaborate opinions of several leading lawyers, all but one in favor of Mr. Hackley. After a protracted suit, the Gordian knot was finally severed by an ex post facto decree of His Majesty, that a crown grant to a subject was in any case inalienable, least of all to a foreigner.

The work of Col. John Lee Williams just mentioned,¹⁰⁴ though ostensibly devoted to West Florida takes a wider sweep than the title page denotes. Its author went to Florida in 1820, and was one of the commissioners appointed to locate the seat of government. While busied with this, he was struck with the marked deficiency of all the then published maps of the country, “and for my own satisfaction,” he adds, “I made a minute survey of the coast from St. Andrew’s Bay to the Suwannee, as well as the interior of the country in which Tallahassie is situated.” A letter from Judge Brackenridge, alcalde of St. Augustine, principally consisting of quotations from Roberts, is all that touches on antiquities. Except this, and some accounts of the early operations of the Americans in obtaining possession, and the statements concerning Land Titles, the book is taken up with discussions of proposed internal improvements of very local and ephemeral interest.

All the details of any value that it contains he subsequently incorporated in his Civil and Natural History of the Territory,¹⁰⁵ published ten years later. Most of the intervening time he spent in arduous personal researches; to quote his own words, “I have traversed the country in various directions, and have coasted the whole peninsula from Pensacola to St. Mary’s, examining with minute attention the various Keys or Islets on the margin of the coast. I have ascended many of the rivers, explored the lagoons and bays, traced the ancient improvements, scattered ruins, and its natural productions by land and by water.” Hence the chief value of the work is as a gazetteer. The civil history is a mere compilation, collected without criticism, and arranged without judgment; an entire ignorance of other languages, and the paucity of materials in our own, incapacitated Williams from achieving anything more. Nor can he claim to be much of a naturalist, for the frequent typographical errors in the botanical names proclaim him largely debtor to others in this department. His style is eminently dry and difficult to labor through, and must ever confine the History to the shelf as a work of reference, and to the closet of the painful student. Yet with all its faults—and they are neither few nor slight—this is the most complete work ever published concerning the territory of Florida; it is the fruit of years of laborious investigation, of absorbing devotion to one object, often of keen mental and bodily suffering, and will ever remain a witness to the energy and zeal of its writer.

As little is recorded about this author pioneer, I may perhaps be excused for turning aside to recall a few personal recollections. It had long been my desire to visit and converse with him about the early days of the state, and with this object, on the 9th of November, 1856, I stopped at the little town of Picolati, near which he lived. A sad surprise awaited me; he had died on the 7th of the month and had been buried the day before my arrival. I walked through the woods to his house. It was a rotten, ruinous, frame tenement on the banks of the St. Johns, about half a mile below the town, fronted by a row of noble live oaks and surrounded by the forest. Here the old man—he was over eighty at the time of his death—had lived for twenty years almost entirely alone, and much of the time in abject poverty. A trader happened to be with him during his last illness, who told me some incidents of his history. His mind retained its vigor to the last, and within a week of his death he was actively employed in various literary avocations, among which was the preparation of an improved edition of his History, which he had very nearly completed. At the very moment the paralytic stroke, from which he died, seized him, he had the pen in his hand writing a novel, the scene of which was laid in China! His disposition was uncommonly aimable and engaging, and so much was he beloved by the Indians, that throughout the horrible atrocities of the Seminole war, when all the planters had fled or been butchered, when neither sex nor age was a protection, when Picolati was burned and St. Augustine threatened, he continued to live unharmed in his old house, though a companion was shot dead on the threshold. What the savage respected and loved, the civilized man thought weakness and despised; this very goodness of heart made him the object of innumerable petty impositions from the low whites, his neighbors. In the words of my informant, “he was too good for the people of these parts.” During his lonely old age he solaced himself with botany and horticulture, priding himself on keeping the best garden in the vicinity. “Come, and I will show you his grave,” said the trader, and added with a touch of feeling I hardly expected, “he left no directions about it, so I made it in the spot he used to love the best of all.” He took me to the south-eastern corner of the neat garden plot. A heap of fresh earth with rough, round, pine sticks at head and foot, marked the spot. It was a solemn and impressive moment. The lengthening shadows of the forest crept over us, the wind moaned in the pines and whistled drearily through the sere grass, and the ripples of the river broke monotonously on the shore. All trace of the grave will soon be obliterated, the very spot forgotten, and the garden lie a waste, but the results of his long and toilsome life “in books recorded” will live when the marbles and monumental brasses of many of his cotemporaries shall be no more.

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1

Sommation à faire aux Habitants des Contrees et Provinces qui s’étendent depuis la Riviére des Palmes et le cap de la Floride. Extrait du livre des copies des Provinces de la Floride, Seville Chambre du Commerce, 1527. It is the first piece in Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil des Pièces sur la Floride.

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2

Naufragios de Alvar Nuñez Cabeza de Vaca en la Florida, Valladolid, 1555; republished by Barcia, in the Historiadores Primitivos de las Indias Occidentales, Tomo II., Madrid, 1749; translated by Ramusio, Viaggi, Tom. III., Venetia, 1556, from which Purchas made his abbreviated translation, Vol. IV., London, 1624; translated entire, with valuable notes and maps by Buckingham Smith, Washington, 1851. French translation by Ternaux-Compans, Paris, 1837.

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3

Asiento y capitulacion hecho por el capitan Hernando de Soto, con el Emperador Carlos V., para la Conquista y Poblacion de la Provincia de la Florida, y encomienda de la Gobernacion de la Isla de Cuba, 1537. Printed in 1844, in the preface to the Portuguese Gentleman’s Narrative, by the Lisbon Academy of Sciences, from the manuscript in the Hydrographical Bureau of Madrid.

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4

Lettre écrite par l’Adelantade Soto, au Corps Municipal de la Ville de Santiago, de l’Isle de Cuba. In Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil des Pieces sur la Floride.

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5

Relation de ce que arriva pendant le Voyage du Capitaine Soto, et Details sur la Nature des pays qu’il parcourut, par Luis Hernandez de Biedma; first printed in Ternaux-Compan’s Recueil; Eng. trans. by Rye, appended to the Hackluyt Society’s edition of the Portuguese Gentleman’s Narrative, London, 1852.

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6

Relacão Verdadeira dos Trabalhos q̄ ho Gouernador dō Fernādo d’ Souto y certos Fidalgos Portugueses passarom no d’ scobrimēto da provincia da Frolida. Agora nouamēte feita per hū Fidalgo Deluas, 8vo., Evora, 1557; reprinted, 8vo., Lisboa, 1844, by the Academia Real das Sciencias, with a valuable preface. It was “contracted” by Purchas, vol. IV., London, 1624; translated entire by Hackluyt, under the title, “Virginia richly valued by the Description of Florida, her next Neighbor,” published both separately and in his Collections, vol. V., and subsequently by Peter Force, Washington, 1846, and by the Hackluyt Society, with a valuable introduction by J. T. Rye, London, 1852; another “very inferior” translation from the French, London, 1686. French trans. by M. D. C. (M. de Citri de la Guette), 12mo., Paris, 1685, and again in two parts, 1707-9. Dutch trans. in Van der Aa’s Collection, 8vo., 1706, with “schoone kopere Platen,” and a map.

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7

Buckingham Smith, Translation of Cabeza de Vaca, p. 126.

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8

Herrera, Dec. VII., cap. x., p. 16.

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9

Ticknor, in his History of Spanish Literature, says 1540; the Biographie Universelle, 1530; errors that may be corrected from the Inca’a own words: “Yo nasci el año mil y quinientes y treinta y nueve.” Commentarios Reales, Parte Segunda, Lib. II., cap. xxv.

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10

La Florida del Inca; Historia del Adelantado Hernando de Soto, Governador y Capitan General del Reino de la Florida, y de otros Heroicos Caballeros, Españoles y Indios; 4to, Lisbona, 1605; folio, Madrid, 1723; 12mo., Madrid, 1803. French trans. by St. Pierre Richelet, Paris, 1670, and 1709; Leyde, 1731; La Haye, 1735; by J. Badouin, Amsterdam, 1737. German trans. from the French, by H. S. Meier, Zelle, 1753; Nordhausen, 1785. Fray Pedro Abiles in the Censura to the second Spanish edition, speaks of a garbled Dutch translation or imitation, under the title (I retain his curious orthography), Der West Indis che Spiegel Durch Athanasium Inga, Peruan von Cusco, T. Amsterdam, by Broer Jansen, 1624.

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11

The Conquest of Florida by Hernando de Soto, 2 vols. 8vo., Philadelphia, 1835; revised edition, 1 vol., 8vo., New York, 1851, with a map of De Soto’s route.

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12

Charlevoix’ scheme may be found in his Histoire de la Nouvelle France; De l’Isle’s in the fifth volume of the Voyages au Nord, and in his Atlas Nouveau; Homans’ is quoted by Warden in the Chronologie Historique de l’Amerique; all in the first half of the eighteenth century.

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13

Travels into the Arkansa Territory, in 1819, Phila., 1821.

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14

Natural and Civil History of Florida.

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15

Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, vol. II.

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16

Antiquarian Researches.

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17

History of the Discovery and Settlement of the Valley of the Mississippi, New York, 1846, vol. I.

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18

History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, vol. I.

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19

Southern Monthly Magazine and Review for Jan., 1839.

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20

History of the Conquest of Florida.

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21

History of Louisiana.

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22

Life, Travels, and Adventures of Ferdinand de Soto, 8vo., Philadelphia, 1858; an excellent popular compend.—Mr. Schoolcraft, in the third volume of the History of the Indian Tribes, has described from personal examination the country in the vicinity of the Ozark mountains, with reference to the westernmost portion of De Soto’s route.

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23

Relation de la Floride pour l’ Illustrissime Seigneur, Vice Roi de la Nouvelle Espagne, apporté par Frére Gregorio de Beteta; in Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil.

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24

Compte Rendu par Guido de las Bazares, du voyage qu’il fait pour découvrir les ports et les baies qui sont sur la côte de la Floride; in Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil.

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25

Lettre du vice-roi de la Nouvelle Espagne, Don Luis de Velasco, à sa Sacrée Majesté, Catholique et Royale, sur les affaires de la Floride. De Mexico, le 24 Septembre, 1559; in Ternanx-Compans’ Recueil.

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26

Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. I, p. 60.

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27

Memoire sur la Floride, ses Côtes et ses Habitants, qu’ aucun de ceux qui l’ont visité ont su d’écrire; in Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil.

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28

Herrera, Dec. VIII., lib. IX., cap. xviii.

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29

The whole and true Discoverye of Terra Florida, (Englished, The Flourishing Land) conteyning as well the wonderful straunge Natures and Manners of the People, with the merveylous Commodities and Treasures of the Country; as also the pleasant Portes and Havens and Wayes thereunto, never found out before the last year, 1562. Written in French, by Captain Ribauld, the fyrst that whollye discovered the same, and now newly set forthe in Englishe, the xxx. of May, 1563. Reprinted by Hackluyt, in his small black letter volume of 1583, but not in the folio collection.

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30

Jared Sparks, Life of Jean Ribault, American Biography, vol. VII., p. 147.

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31

Coppie d’vne Lettre venant de la Floride, envoyée à Rouen, et depuis au Seigneur d’Eueron, ensemble le Plan et Portraict du Fort que les François y out faict. Paris, 1565; reprint, without the “Plan et Portraict,” in Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil.

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32

Histoire Memorable du dernier Voyage aux Indes, Lieu appellée la Floride, fait par le capitaine Jean Ribaut et entrepris par comandement du Roi en l’an 1565, Lyons, 1566; another edition at Dieppe the same year, with the title “Discours de l’Histoire de la Floride,” &c. Sparks says, “At least three editions were published the same year.” Ternaux-Compans republished the Lyons edition in his Recueil, which differs somewhat from that of Dieppe.

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33

“Pour vieillard que je suis et tout gris;” Sparks, mistaking the last word for gros, rather ludicrously translates this, “Old man as he was and very corpulent.”—Life of Jean Ribault, p. 148.

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34

Sparks, ibid., p. 149.

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35

Brevis Narratio eorum quæ in Floridâ Americæ Provinciâ, Gallis acciderunt, secundâ in illam Navigatione, Duce Renato de Laudonniere Classis præfecto: Anno MDLXIIII., Francofurti ad Mœnum, 1591.

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36

Epistle Dedicatorie, Vol. III., p. 364.

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37

This seems to have escaped the notice of Mr. Sparks. It is in Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil des Pièces sur la Floride, appended to the Compte-Rendu of Guido de las Bazares, without a distinct title.

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38

Memoire de l’heureux résultat et du bon Voyage que Dieu notre Seigneur a bien voulu accorder à la flotte qui partit de la Ville de Cadiz pour se rendre à la Côte et dans la Province de la Floride, et dont était général l’illustre Seigneur Pedro Menendez de Aviles; in Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil.

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39

“Les François furent merveilleusement oultrez d’une silasche trahison, et d’une si detestable cruaulté. La Reprinse de la Floride; Ternaux-Compans” Recueil, p. 306.

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40

Une Requête au Roi, faite en forme de Complainte par les Femmes Veufues, petits Enfans Orphelins, et autres leurs Amies, Parents et Alliez, de ceux qui out été cruellement envahis par les Espagnoles en la France Antharctiques dite la Floride, Mai 22, 1566: it is printed “in one of the editions of Challeux Discours, and also at the end of Chauveton’s French translation of Benzoni, Geneva, 1579. There are two Latin translations, one by Chauveton appended to his Brevis Historia, and also to the sixth part of De Bry; the other by an unknown hand contained in the second part. These are free translations, but they accord in the essential points.” Jared Sparks, Appendix to Life of Ribaut, American Biography, vol. VII., pp. 153-4.

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41

La Reprinse de la Floride par le capitaine Gourgues; Revue Retrospective, seconde série, Tome II.; Ternaux-Compans’ Recueil. The latter was not aware of the prior publication in the Revue.

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42

De Navigatione Gallorum in Terram Floridam, deque clade an. 1565 ab Hispanis acceptâ. Antwerpiæ, 1568, 8vo. Barcia erroneously adds a second edition of 1583.

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43

Rich (Bibliotheca Americana) incorrectly states 1565.

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44

De Gallorum Expeditione in Floridam et clade ab-Hispanis non minus iniusté quam immaniter ipsis illata, Anno MDLXV. Brevis Historia; Calveton, Novæ Novi Orbis Historiæ, Genevæ, 1578; De Bry, Peregrinationes, Pars VI.; French trans. in Chauveton’s French trans. of Benzoni, 1579. For the notice of this work I am principally indebted to Sparks.

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45

Life of John Ribault, comprising an account of the first Attempts of the French to found a Colony in North America, Boston, 1845; in Vol. VII. of Sparks’ American Biography.

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46

L’Histoire Notable de la Floride située es Indes Occidentales; Contenant les troys Voyages faits en icelle par certains Capitaines et Pilotes François, descrits par le Capitaine Laudonniére, qui y a commandé l’espace d’un an troys moys; à laquelle a esté adjousté un quatriesme voyage par le Capitaine Gourgues. Mise en lumière par M. Basanier, Gentil-homme François Mathematicien. Paris, 1586, 8vo., 124 pp; reprinted Paris, 1853, with an Avertissement. Eng. trans. London, 4to, 1586, by R. H. (Richard Hackluyt,) who included it in his folio of 1600, reprinted in 1812.

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47

Voyages, Relations, et Memoires Originaux pour servir à l’Histoire de l’Amerique; seconde série; Recueil des Pieces sur la Floride, Paris, 1841.

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48

The Relation of Pedro Morales, a Spanyard which Sir Francis Drake brought from St. Augustines in Florida, where he remayned sixe yeeres, touching the state of those partes, taken from his mouth by Richard Hackluyt, 1586.

The relation of Nicholas Bourgoignon, aliâs Holy, whom Sir Francis Drake brought from St. Augustine, also in Florida, where he had remayned sixe yeeres, in mine and Master Heriot’s hearing. Voyages, Vol. III., pp. 432-33.

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49

Varia Historia de la Nueva España y la Florida; Madrid, 1596; Valladolid, 1634.

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50

Cedulas y Provisiones Reales de las Indias; Varios Informes y Consultos de differentes Ministros sobre las Cosas de la Florida; 4to Madrid, 1596.

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51

Relacion de los Martires que ha avido en la Florida; 4to, (Madrid?) 1604.

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52

Nicolas Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, Tom. II., p. 43, and Compare “Garcilasso, Commentarios Reales, Parte II., lib. VII.”

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53

Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, p. 181.

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54

“En breve tiempo hizó (Padre Antonio Sedeño) Arte para aprenderla, y Catecismo para enseñar la Doctrina Cristiana à los Indios.” Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, p. 138. His labors have escaped the notice of Ludewig in his Literature of American Aboriginal Languages. Though they are the first labors, before him the French on the St. Lawrence had obtained lists of words in the native tongue which still remain, and Laudonniére, on the first voyage of Ribaut, (1562,) says of the Indians near the Savannah river, “cognoissans l’affection que j’avois de sçavoir leur langage, ils m’ invitoient après à leur demander quelque chose. Tellement que mettant par escrit les termes et locutions indiennes, je pouvois entendre la plus grande part de leur discours.” Hist. Notable de la Floride, p. 29. Unfortunately, however, he did not think these worthy of publication.

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55

Confessionario en Lengua Castellana y Timuquana. Impreso con licencia en Mexico, en la Emprenta de la viuda de Diego Lopez Daualos; Año de 1613, 12mo., 238 leaves. Nicolas Antonio says 1612, 8vo., but this is probably a mistake.

Grammatica de la Lengua Timuquana, 8vo., Mexico, 1614; not mentioned by Ludewig.

Catecismo y Examen para los que comulgan, 8vo., Mexico, 1614; reprinted “en la imprenta de Juan Ruyz,” 8vo., 1627.

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56

Ludewig says Toledo; Torquemada calls him “Natural de Castro-Urdiales,” but Nicolas Antonio says expressly, “Franciscus de Pareja, Auñonensis (Toletanæ dioecesis Auñon oppidum est).” Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, Tom. I., p. 456. Besides this writer, see for particulars of the life of Pareja, Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, Lib. XIX., cap. xx, p. 350, and Barcia, Ensayo Cronologico, pp. 167, 195, 203.

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57

Ludewig, Literature of American Aboriginal Languages, p. 242.

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58

Voiages aux Indes Occidentales; traduits de l’Espagnol; Amsterdam, 1722. Dutch trans. the same year. Another edition under the title, Recueil de Voyages dans l’Amerique Meridionale, Paris, 1738, which Brunet does not notice.

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59

Relacion de los Viages que los Españoles han hecho a las Costas del Seno Mexicano y la Florida desde el año de 1685 hasta el de 1693, con una nueva Descripcion de sus Costas.

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60

Memorial en Derecho al Rei sobre la Visita à la Florida y otras Cosas, folio, Madrid, 1690.

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61

“Solo sirven de dar Escandalo al Vulgar en los Excesos impatados à unos y otros Individuos,” Barcia, Ensayo Chronologico, p. 300.

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62

God’s Protecting Providence Man’s Surest Help and Defence, In the times of the greatest difficulty and most Imminent danger, Evidenced in the Remarkable Deliverance of divers Persons from the devouring Waves of the Sea, amongst which they suffered Shipwrack, And also from the more cruelly devouring jawes of the inhumane Cannibals of Florida. Faithfully related by one of the Persons concerned therein. Philadelphia, 1699, 1701, and a fourth edition, 1751. London, 1700. German trans. Erstaunliche Geschichte des Schiffbruches den einige Personen im Meerbusen von Florida erlitten, Frankfort, 1784, and perhaps another edition at Leipzic.

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63

Thomas, History of Printing in America, vol. II. p. 25.

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64

The Successes of the English in America, by the March of Colonel Moore, Governor of South Carolina, and his taking the Spanish Town of St. Augustine near the Gulph of Florida. And by our English Fleete sayling up the River Darian, and marching to the Gold Mines of Santa Cruz de Cana, near Santa Maria. London, 1702; reprinted in an account of the South Sea Trade, London, 1711. Bib. Primor. Amer.

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65

See the note on his New Map of the North Parts of America, London, 1720, headed “Explanation of an Expedition in Florida Neck by Thirty Three Iamasee Indians, Accompany’d by Capt. T. Nairn.”

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66

A voyage to Georgia, begun in the year 1735, by Francis Moore; London, 1741; reprinted in the Collection of the Georgia Historical Society, Vol. I.

An Impartial Account of the Expedition against St. Augustine under the command of General Oglethorpe; 8vo., London, 1742. (Rich.)

Journal of an Expedition to the Gates of St. Augustine in Florida, conducted by General Oglethorpe. By G. L. Campbell; 8vo., London, 1744. (Watts.)

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67

They are in the Rev. George White’s Historical Collections of Georgia, pp. 462, sqq., and in Harris’s Memorials of Oglethorpe.

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68

An extract may be found in Fairbank’s History and Antiquities of St. Augustine.

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69

History of the Florida War. Ch. viii.

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70

History of St. Augustine. Ch. xiv.

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71

Statements made in the Introduction to a Report on General Oglethorpe’s Expedition to St. Augustine. In B. R. Carroll’s Hist. Colls. of South Carolina, Vol. II., New York, 1836. Various papers in the State Paper Office, London, mentioned in the valuable list in the first volume of the Colls. of the S. Car. Hist. Soc. (Charleston, 1857) which further illustrate this portion of Floridian history, I have, for obvious reasons, omitted to recapitulate here.

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72

Ensayo Cronologico para la Historia General de la Florida, fol. Madrid, 1723.

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73

Jared Sparks, Life of Ribaut, p. 155.

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74

Nat. and Civil Hist. of Fla., p. 175.

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75

An Account of the First Discovery and Natural History of Florida, with a Particular Detail of the several Expeditions made on that Coast. Collected from the best Authorities by William Roberts. Together with a Geographical Description of that Country, by Thomas Jefferys. 4to, London, 1763, pp. 102.

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76

A description of East Florida. A Journal upon a Journey from St. Augustine up the River St. Johns as far as the Lakes. 4to., London, 1766; 1769; and a third edition whose date I do not know. Numerous letters interchanged between John Bartram and Peter Collinson relative to this botanical examination of Florida, embracing some facts not found in his Journal, are preserved in the very interesting and valuable Memorials of John Bartram and Humphrey Marshall, by Dr. Wm. Darlington, p. 268, sqq. (8vo. Phila., 1849.)

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77

Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, and the Cherokee Country, Phila., 1791; 1794. London, 1792. Dublin, 1793. French trans. by P. V. Benoist, Voyage dans les Parties Sud de l’Amerique, Septentrionale, Paris, 1801; 1807.

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78

A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida. New York printed: sold by R. Aitken, Bookseller, opposite the London Coffee-House, Front Street, 1776.

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79

The case of Mr. John Gordon with respect to the Title to certain Lands in East Florida, &c. With an Appendix and Plan. 4to, pp. 76, London, 1772. (Rich.)

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80

Fairbanks, Hist. and Antiqs. of St. Augustine, p. 164, seq.

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81

He did not meet with that success which attended a similar experiment in Canada, so amusingly described by Baron de La Hontan. For some particulars of interest consult Bartram, Travels, p. 94, seq., Vignoles, Obs. on the Floridas, p. 73.

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82

Sketches, Historical and Descriptive, of Louisiana, vol. I, 8vo., Ch. II. Philadelphia, 1812.

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83

Notice sur le Colonie Greque établie à New Smyrna (Floride) dans l’année, 1768. Societe de Geographie, T. VII., p. 31. (Koner.)

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84

G. R. Fairbanks, Hist. and Antiqs. of St. Augustine, Ch. XVIII. See also for other particulars, Bartram, Travels, p. 144, and note, Vignoles, Obs. on the Floridas, p. 72, J. D. Schöpf, Reise– nach, Ost-Florida, B. II., s. 363, 367, seq., who knew Turnbull personally and defends him.

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85

Reise durch einige der mitlern und südlichen Vereinigten Nordamerikanischen Staaten nach Ost-Florida und der Bahama-Inseln. 2 Th., 8vo., Erlangen, 1788.

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86

The Journal of an Expedition during the years 1796-1800, for determining the Boundaries between the United States and the Possessions of his Catholic Majesty in America, 4to., Philadelphia, 1814.

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87

A Description of East and West Florida and the Bahama Islands, 1 Vol. 8vo. Philadelphia, 1813. (Bib. Univ. des Voyages.)

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88

Geographical and Historical Dictionary of America and the West Indies; translated, with valuable additions, by G. R. Thompson, 5 vols., 4to, London, 1812.

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89

An account of this tribe by Major C. Swan, who visited them in 1791, has been published by Schoolcraft in the fifth volume of the Hist. and Statistics of the Indian Tribes.

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90

Giddings, Exiles of Florida, p. 39, note.

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91

Narrative of a Voyage to the Spanish Main by the ship Two Friends, the Occupation of Amelia Island by McGregor, Sketches of the Province of East Florida, and Anecdotes of the Manners of the Seminole Indians, 8vo., London, 1819.

Memoir of Gregor McGregor, comprising – a Narrative of the Expedition to Amelia Island. By M. Rafter. 8vo., Stockdale, 1820. (Rich.)

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92

Reliquiæ Baldwinianæ; Selections from the Correspondence of the late Wm. Baldwin, M. D., compiled by Wm. Darlington, M. D. 12mo. Phila., 1843.

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93

Notices of East Florida, and the Sea Coast of the State of Georgia; in a series of Letters to a Friend in Pennsylvania. With an Appendix, containing a Register of the Weather, and a Calendarium Floræ. The friend here referred to was Dr. Wm. Darlington. The materials for the Calendarium are preserved in the letters to Dr. Muhlenberg.

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94

J. L. Rattenbury. Remarks on the Cession of Florida to the United States of America, and on the necessity of acquiring the Island of Cuba by Great Britain. Second edition, with considerable additions, printed exclusively in the Pamphleteer. London, 1819.

Memoir upon the Negotiations between Spain and the United States, which led to the Treaty of 1819; with a Statistical Notice of Florida, 8vo., Washington, 1821.

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95

A Memoir of the Geography, and Natural and Civil History of East Florida, 8vo., Philadelphia, 1821.

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96

Sketches of the History and Topography of Florida, 8vo., New York, 1821.

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97

Compare the North Am. Review, Vol. XIII., p. 98, with the same journal, Vol. XXVI., p. 482. (Rich.)

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98

Notices of East Florida, with an Account of the Seminole Nation of Indians. By a recent Traveller in the Province. Printed for the Author. 8vo. Charleston, 1822. pp. 105.

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99

Observations on the Floridas. 8vo. New York, 1823. pp. 197.

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100

Answers of David B. McComb, Esq., with an accompanying Letter of General Lafayette. 8vo. Tallahassie, 1827. See the North Am. Review, Vol. XXVI., p. 478.

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101

Oration delivered by Colonel James Gadsden to the Florida Institute of Agriculture, Antiquities and Science, at its first Public Anniversary, Thursday, Jan. 4th, 1827. See the North Am. Review, Vol. XXV., p. 219.

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102

Message of the President in relation to the Survey of a Route for a Canal between the Gulf of Mexico and the Atlantic Ocean; with the Report of the Board of Internal Improvement on the same, with a general map annexed, February 28, 1829. A flowery article of ten pages may be found on this in the Southern Review, Vol. VI., p. 410.

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103

Titles and Legal Opinions on Lands in East Florida belonging to Richard S. Hackley, 8vo., Fayetteville, (N. Car.,) 1826, pp. 71. See the North American Review, Vol. XXIII., p. 432. Hackley’s grant is laid down on Williams’ Map.

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104

A View of West Florida, embracing its Topography, Geography, &c., with an Appendix treating of its Antiquities, Land Titles, and Canals, and containing a Chart of the Coast, a Plan of Pensacola, and the Entrance of the Harbor. 8vo. Phila., 1827, pp. 178.

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105

The Territory of Florida; or Sketches of the Topography, Civil and Natural History of the Country, the Climate and the Indian Tribes, from the First Discovery to the Present Time. 8vo. New York, 1837.

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