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 EpistolaSupplicatoria, 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 lan 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 Chauvetons (Urbanus Calvetons) 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 Benzonis 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 LEscarbot, 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 devoteda 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 Espejos 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:
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 Drakes 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 Drakes 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 Sedeños workindeed, it is uncertain whether it was ever publishedwe 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 Barcias 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.