Notes on the Floridian Peninsula; its Literary History, Indian Tribes and Antiquities. Brinton Daniel Garrison
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
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.
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.
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
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.
Buckingham Smith, Translation of Cabeza de Vaca, p. 126.
Herrera, Dec. VII., cap. x., p. 16.
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.
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),
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.
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.
Travels into the Arkansa Territory, in 1819, Phila., 1821.
Natural and Civil History of Florida.
Transactions of the American Antiquarian Society, vol. II.
Antiquarian Researches.