An Early Florida Adventure Story - (Florida Heritage Publications) by Fray Andrés de San Miguel (Paperback)

About the Book

This book makes available a rare eyewitness account of Florida's Spanish colonial period: the 1595 narrative of a teenager who journeyed from Spain to Mexico, Havana, and Florida, presenting an inside view of the sailing experience in the sixteenth century and insight into the ambitions, concerns, and religiosity of his fellow Spaniards.

Book Synopsis

A rare eyewitness account of a journey from Spain to the Americas during the Spanish colonial period

Among documents of Florida's Spanish colonial period, few eyewitness accounts exist. One of these, the 1595 narrative by Fray Andrés de San Miguel, expertly translated into English by John Hann, describes the two-year odyssey of a teenager from Spain across the Atlantic to Mexico, Havana, and Florida and finally back to Spain. The future friar's account of his experiences as a young sailor brings to life the fleets of Spain and reveals how his journeys would change his life forever. It also provides vivid information about the Indigenous people of the Georgia and Florida coast.

After Andrés's ship passed Cape Canaveral, it was battered by a four-day storm and separated from the fleet. The officers commandeered the only launch and escaped; the crew kept the ship afloat and improvised a box-like vessel in which 30 survivors reached shore near the mouth of the Altamaha River--more dead than alive for lack of food and water. The author offers detailed descriptions of the Guale Indians and of Mission San Pedro Mocama on Cumberland Island. He also provides vignettes of life in St. Augustine and, on his way to Havana, of encounters with South Florida Indians who came out to trade and with a gentlemanly English pirate. The adventure closes with Fray Andrés' return to Cadiz, Spain, where he witnessed the 1596 British siege and burning of that port.

Only seventeen years old at the time of the voyage, Fray Andrés presents a cold-eyed view of the sailing experience in the sixteenth century, trenchant observations of the behavior of the ship's officers and the circumstances of the survival of the crew, and insight into the ambitions, concerns, and religiosity of the Spaniards. The book includes Hann's translation of a brief introductory essay written by Fray Andrés' Mexican publisher, telling of the young man's entry into the Carmelites and his later life as a church architect, builder, and hydrographic expert involved in the drainage of the valley of Mexico City.

Review Quotes

"A remarkable translation of the events that transpired between 1593 and 1596. . . . Aside from being an enjoyable adventure story, [it] is an extraordinary piece of history that helps researchers understand life within the Spanish fleets and, to some extent, the culture of the Spanish bureaucracy."--Historical Archaeology

"Tells part of the larger story of the Spanish empire, from its early expansion in the Caribbean to the beginning of its decline in the late sixteenth century."--Hispanic American Historical Review

"An important contribution to the study of the Spanish in America. . . . [Hann's] contextual, historical, and linguistic notes are valuable."--Sixteenth Century Journal

"A valuable addition to the primary literature on the sixteenth-century Southeast. . . . A fascinating tale of adventure in early Spanish Florida."--Florida Historical Quarterly

About the Author

John H. Hann (1926-2009) was site historian at the San Luis Archaeological and Historic Site in Tallahassee. His many books include A History of the Timucuan Indians and Missions and Missions to the Calusa.