Spain and the Native Americans of Florida
The region that the Spaniards called Florida included, in addition to Florida
itself, the Carolinas, Georgia, and Alabama. Spanish Franciscans and other missionaries
became acquainted with the various indigenous peoples in this region, which
included the Timucua, Calusa, and Apalachee. Francisco de Pareja, a Franciscan
friar who worked for many years in Georgia and at the mission in St. Augustine,
compiled and published catechisms in and linguistic studies of the Timucua language
with the objective of introducing the indigenous population to Spanish culture
and the Catholic faith. By 1675, the Spanish had organized the Florida territory
into four mission provinces. Throughout the territory, the Indians cultivated
beans, corn, and other crops, which they supplemented with fishing and hunting.
[128 words]
Citation
La historia general delas Indias [General History of the Indies]. [Seville]
1535. Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Library of Congress. Rare Book and
Special Collections
Caption
Along with Peter Martyr Anglerius [b. at Arona, near Anghiera, on Lake Maggiore
in Italy, 2 February, 1457; d. at Granada in October, 1526] and Bartolomé de
Las Casas [Born at Seville, probably in 1474; d. at Madrid, 1566], Gonzalo Fernández
de Oviedo y Valdés [1478-1557] was one of the first European "chroniclers
of the Indies." In 1514, he sailed on the first of many journeys to the
Americas, where for over thirty years he compiled detailed ethnographic descriptions
of products and goods, peoples and customs.
Citation
Illustration of a Hammock found in La Historia general delas Indias...[General
History of the Indies], Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, 1535. Library
of Congress. Rare Book and Special Collections Division
Caption
Oviedo introduced Europe to an enormous variety of previously unheard of American
exotica, including the pineapple, the canoe, smoking tobacco, the manatee, and
the hammock.
Citation
[Village of Secotan] In, Americae pars decima [America. Part 10], Theodor de
Bry, Openheim, 1619. Library of Congress. Rare Book and Special Collections
Division.
Caption
This engraving, based on a drawing made by John White in the 1580s, shows the
Algonquian people of Secotan living in permanent villages near North Carolina’s
Outer Banks.
Citation
[Florida Indians planting seeds of beans or maize] In [America. Part 2.], Theodor
de Bry, Francoforti ad Moenvm, 1591. Library of Congress. Rare Book and Special
Collections Division
Caption
This engraving by Theodor de Bry is based on a 1564 watercolor by the French
artist Jacques Le Moyne. It depicts Timucua men cultivating a field and Timucua
women planting.