Every Florida Book Project

The Earliest Written Works about Florida

Thomas Hallock, a professor of English, Literature & Cultural Studies at the University of South Florida, has compiled all the earliest written accounts of Florida at earlyforidalit.net.

Hallock has included written works ranging from 1513-1843 of any kind and length. Most works are available to read on the site. Below is a list of links to those works, in the order that they appear on the site.

Early Visions / 1513-1606

Anonymous, Have You Not Hard of Floryda?
Nathaniel Baxter, Sir Philip Sidneys Ourania
Juan de Castellanos, Elegía a la Muerte de Juan Ponce de Leon
Antonio de Herrera y Tordesillas, from Historia general de los hechos de los Castellanos en las islas y tierra firme del Mar Oceano
Peter Martyr d’Anghiera, Decades
André Thevet, The New found worlde, or Antarctike

Explorers-Invaders / 1528-1575

Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca

Bartolomé de las Casas, Brevisima relación de la destrucción de las Indias

De Soto Chronicles:

Fidalgo de Elvas (Gentleman of Elvas), Relaçam Verdadeira
El Inca Garcilaso de la Vega, La Florida (Book 2:1, ch. 1-6)
Rodrigo Ranjel, Account [of] De Soto, from Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés, Historia general y natural de las Indias [under construction]
Luys Hernández de Biedma, Relación de la Isla de Florida [under construction]

Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda, Memoir

French-St. Augustine / 1561-1612

Anonymous, Request to the King … by the widows, little orphans, friends [and] relations of those that have been cruelly invaded by the Spaniards
Nicolas Le Challeux, Who wants to go to Florida [Octet]? and Discours
Bartolomé de Flores, La Felice Victoria / Listen!
John Sparke, The Voyage Made by M. John Hawkins
René Goulaine de Laudonniere, L’Histoire notable de la Florida
Marc Lescarbot, Les Muses de la Nouvelle France
Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Letter to King Philip II [under construction]
Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, Narrative
Jean Ribault, The Whole and True Discoverye of Terra Florida
Robert Seall, A Commendation of The Adventurus Viage of The Wurthy Captain M. Thomas Stutely … Towards the Land Called Terra Florida

Encounters / 1597-1743

Jonathan Dickinson, God’s Protecting Providence
Alonso Gregorio de Escobedo, La Florida
Luis Geronimo de Ore, Martyrs of Florida
Don Patricio Hinachuba, Petition to the King
Edward Kimber, Relation or Journal of a Late Expedition [to] St. Augustine
Juan de Paiva, Ball Game Manuscript
Francisco Pareja, Confessionario
“Sheelah,” Description of a Great Sea-Storm

Colony-Colonia / 1763-1800

John Bartram, Diary
William Bartram:

William Gerard De Brahm, Report of the General Survey in the Southern District of North America and The Atlantic Pilot

Bernardo de Galvez:

Briton Hammon, Narrative of the Uncommon Suffering
Thomas Hutchins, Topographical Description of Louisiana and West Florida
Elizabeth Digby Pilot, Autobiography
Bernard Romans, A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida
William Stork, Description of East-Florida

Romance-Captivities-Removals / 1801-1843

Anonymous, from Slave Songs of the United States
Sarah Allen, Narrative of a Shipwreck
Eunice Barber, Narrative of the Tragical Death of Mr. Darius Barber and His Seven Children
Francois-René de Chateaubriand, Atala
Mary Godfrey, An Authentic Narrative of the Seminole War
John Howison, “The Florida Pirate”
Nathan S. Jarvis, An Army Surgeon’s Notes on Frontier Service
William Gilmore Simms, Donna Florida
Mary Smith, An Affecting Narrative of the Captivity and Sufferings of Mrs. Mary Smith
Selected Authors, Seminole War Poetry

Josephine, “Osceola”
Anonymous, “OSEOLA”
H., “To the memory of Lieutenant John W. S. McNeil, of the United States Army, who fell in an engagement with the Seminole Indians, near St. Augustine, Florida, September 10, 1837.”
Walt Whitman, “Osceola”

The Earliest Written Works about Florida

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