PROEM.

This book is a translation of the original Portuguese Relaçam verdadeïra dos trabalhos q ho gouernador do Fernado de souto e certos fidalgos portugueses passarom no descubrimeto da prouincia da Frolida. Agora novamete feita per hu fidalgo Deluas, printed at Evora in the year 1557, copies of which are very rare. Two translations into English have been published at London: the earlier, made by Richard Hakluyt, was first printed in 1609, with the title, "Virginia richly valued, by the description of the mainland of Florida, her next neighbor;" the later was printed in 1686, one year after the first edition in French was issued, of which it is a translation. The book was also printed in Dutch in 1706.

The author of the Relacam is unknown. At the time of making the original publication, as appears from the printer's notice, he was yet living. No doubt, he was one of the eight Portuguese gentleman, spoken of in the text, who went from Elvas to join Soto at Sevilla, three of whom lost their lives in Florida. In the order they are mentioned, it is perhaps worth the remark, as possibly indicating the writer, that two named Fernandez are place last; first Benito, who was drowned near Achese, then Alvaro, a survivor.

The narrative, as an early record of the country, and condition of the inhabitants, merits attention and study. The facts are stated with clearness and evident care. It is likewise an outward picture of affairs as they stood in the camp, or appeared from the marquee of the Adelantado. Some hints of their inner working, up to the time of death of Soto, may be learned from the Historia General y Natural de las Indias. Documents of the age, now published, attest the exactness of many statements, and time simply has unveiled the truthfulness of others.

The digression, giving a history of Ortiz among the Indians from whom he fled, probably the Calosa, a people living about the Capes of Florida a the earliest day,—to the country of Outina, as appears from some trace of the language of the people among whom the Spaniards landed, speaking the Timuqua tongue—is a happy union of incidents in native life, customs, and superstition.

The speeches of the Indians, however clothed in words, are after the manner of Indian thought, as they were probably rendered into Spanish by the ability of the Andaluz, long a captive among them. In more simple language, the ideas would have been brought nigher to nature.

That this account, fraught with instructive incident, has come to us untouched from the hand that wrote it, is matter for gratulation; since in two chronicles we have to lament over ruins that mark as many narratives to have existed, possessing a scope and interest not inferior to the present one. The production of Rodrigo Rangel, the private secretary of the Adelantado, afforded the material for the chapters, now incomplete, of Oviedo; and an account, composed by a captain who remained in America,—for which pictures in colours of the battle-scenes with the Indians of Florida were at one time in the cabinet of Philip II.—was the source whence Herrera drew supplies; while the dry and brief itinerary of Biedma has escaped to us undisturbed in the same official repository—the Council of the Indians. The Florida of the Ynca, on the same subject, belongs less to history than to romance.

To avoid confusion and error as to persons, the names of the Spaniards are given in the translation spelled in their own language, such as Soto and Afiasco, instead of Souto and Dambusco. On the other hand, the reader is entitled to find the variety in the orthography of Indian proper names preserved in their irregularity, for observation and the benefit of criticism.

From the book