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.
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 evadedthe 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 Oglethorpes 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 rivals superior qualifications for his own post. The criticism repays perusal. None of Salazars 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 Forces 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 Catesbys 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 Bartrams 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.