The description of the West Indies in generall, but chiefly
and particularly of Florida
.
THAT part of the earth which at this day we call the fourth
part of the world, or America
, or rather the West India,
was unknowen unto our ancestours by reason of the great
distance thereof. In like maner all the
Westerne Islands
and fortunate Isles were not discovered but by those of
our age. Howbeit there have bin some which have said
that they were discoverd in the time of Augustus Caesar,
and that Virgil hath made mention thereof in the sixt
booke of his Æneidos, when he saith, There is a land
beyond the starres, and the course of the yeere and of the
Sunne, where Atlas the Porter of heaven sustaineth the
pole upon his shoulders: neverthelesse it is easie to judge
that hee meaneth not to speake of this land, whereof no
man is found to have written before his time, neither yet
above a thousand yeeres after. Christopher Colon did
first light upon this land in the yeere 1592. And five
yeeres after Americus went thither by the commandement
of the king of Castile
, and gave unto it his own name,
whereupon afterward it was called America
. This man
was very well scene in the Arte of Navigation and in
Astronomie: whereby hee discovered in his time many
lands unknowen unto the ancient Geographers. This Countrey is named by some, the land of Bresill, and the
lande of Parots. It stretcheth it selfe, according unto
Postell, from the one Pole to the other, saving at the
streight of Magelan, whereunto it reacheth 53. degrees
beyond the Equator. I will divide it for the better understanding into three principall parts. That which is
toward the Pole Arcticke on the North is called new
France, because that in the yeere 1524. John Verrazzano
a Florentine was sent by King Francis the first, and by
Madam the Regent his mother unto these newe Regions,
where he went on land, and discovered all the coast which
is from the Tropicke of Cancer, to wit, from the eight
and twentieth unto the fiftieth degree, and father unto the
North. Hee planted in this Countrey the Ensignes and
Armes of the king of France: so that the Spaniardes
themselves which were there afterwarde, have named this
Countrey Terra Francesca. The same then extendeth
itselfe in Latitude from the 25. degree unto the 54. toward
the North: and in Longitude from 210. unto 330. The
Easterne part thereof is called by the late writers The land
of Norumbega, which beginneth at the Bay of Gama,
which separateth it from the
Isle of Canada, whither
Jaques Carthier sayled the yeere 1535. About the which
there are many Ilands, among which is that which is
named Terra de Labrador stretching towarde Groenland
.
In the Westerne part there are many knowen Countreys,
as the Regions of Quivira, Civola, Astatlan, and Terlichichimici. The Southerne part is called Florida
,
because it was discovered on Palme-sunday, which the
Spaniardes call Pascha Florida. The Northerne part is
altogether unknowen.
The second part of all America
is called newe Spaine.
It extendeth from the Tropicke of Cancer in twentie three
degrees and a halfe, unto the ninth degree. In the same
is situated the Citie of Themistitan, and it hath many
Regions, and many Ilandes adjoyned unto it, which are
called the Antilles
, whereof the most famous and renoumed
are Hispaniola and Isabella, with an infinite number of
others. All this land, together with the Bay of Mexico,
and all the Ilands aforesayd, have not in Longitude past
seventie degrees, to wit, from the two hundreth and
fortie, unto three hundreth and ten: it is also long and
narrowe as Italic. The third part of America
is called
Peru
, it is very great, and extendeth it selfe in Latitude
from the tenth degree unto the three and fiftieth beyond
the Equator, to wit, as I have sayde before, unto the
streight of Magelan. It is made in fashion like to an
egge, and is very well knowen upon all sides. The part
where it is largest hath threescore degrees, and from
thence it waxeth narrower and narrower toward both the
endes. In one part of this lande Villegagnon planted
right under the Tropicke of Capricorne, and he called it
France Antarctick, because it draweth toward the pole
Antarctick, as our France doeth toward the Arctick.
New France is almost as great as all our Europe
.
Howbeit the most knowen and inhabited part thereof
is Florida
, whither many Frenchmen have made divers
voyages at sundry times, insomuch that nowe it is the
best knowen Countrey which is in all this part of newe
France. The Cape thereof is as it were a long head of
lande stretching out into the Sea an hundred leagues,
and runneth directly towarde the South: it hath right
over against it five and twentie leagues distant the
Isle
of Cuba otherwise called Isabella, toward the East the
Isles of Bahama and Lucaya, and toward the West the
Bay of Mexico. The Countrey is flat, and divided with
divers rivers, and therefore moyst, and is sandie towards
the Sea shore. There groweth in those partes great
quantitie of Pinetrees, which have no kernels in the
apples which they beare. Their woods are full of Oakes,
Walnuttrees, blacke Cherrietrees, Mulberry trees, Lentiskes, and Chestnut trees, which are more wilde then
those in France. There is great store of Cedars,
Cypresses, Bayes, Palme trees, Hollies, and wilde Vines,
which climbe up along the trees and beare good Grapes.
There is there a kinde of Medlers, the fruite whereof is
better then that of France, and bigger. There are also
Plumtrees, which beare very faire fruite, but such as is
not very good. There are Raspasses, and a little berrie
which we call among us Blues, which are very good to
eate. There growe in that Countrey a kinde of Rootes
which they call in their language Hasez, whereof in
necessitie they make bread. There is also there the tree
called Esquine, which is very good against the Pockes and
other contagious diseases. The Beastes best knowen in
this Countrey are Stagges, Hindes, Goates, Deere,
Leopards, Ounces, Luserns, divers sortes of Wolves,
wilde Dogs, Hares, Cunnies, and a certaine kinde of beast
that differeth little from the Lyon of Africa. The foules
are Turkeycocks, Partridges, Parrots, Pigions, Ringdoves, Turtles, Blackbirdes, Crowes, Tarcels, Faulcons,
Laynerds, Herons, Cranes, Storkes, wilde Geese, Malards,
Cormorants Hernshawes, white, red, blacke and gray,
and an infinite sort of all wilde foule. There is such
abundance of Crocodiles, that oftentimes in swimming
men are assayled by them; of Serpents there are many
sorts. There is found among the Savages good quantitie
of Gold and Silver, which is gotten out of the shippes
that are lost upon the coast, as I have understood by the
Savages themselves. They use traffique thereof one with
another. And that which maketh me the rather beleeve
it, is, that on the coast towarde the Cape, where commonly the shippes are cast away, there is more store of
Silver then toward the North. Neverthelesse they say,
that in the Mountaines of Appalatcy there are Mines of
Copper, which I thinke to be Golde. There is also in
this Countrey great store of graynes and herbes, whereof
might be made excellent good dyes and paintings of all
kind of colours. And in trueth the Indians which take
pleasure in painting of their skins, know very well how
to use the same. The men are of an Olive colour, of
great stature, faire, without any deformitie, and well proportioned. They cover their privities with the skinne of
a Stagge well dressed. The most part of them have their
bodies, armes, and thighes painted with very faire
devises: the painting whereof can never bee taken away,
becase the same is pricked into their flesh. Their haire
is very blacke and reacheth even downe to their hips,
howbeit they trusse it up after a fashion that becommeth
them very well. They are great dissemblers and traitours,
valiant of their persons & fight very well. They have
none other weapons but their bowes and arrowes. They
make the string of their bow of a gut of a Stag, or of
a Stags skin, which they know how to dresse as well as
any man in France, and with as different sorts of colours.
They head their arrowes with the teeth of fishes and stone,
which they worke very finely and handsomly. They
exercise their yong men to runne well, and they make a
game among themselves, which he winneth that hath the
longest breath. They also exercise themselves much in
shooting. They play at the ball in this maner: they set
up a tree in the middest of a place which is eight or nine
fathom high, in the top whereof there is set a square mat
made of reedes or Bulrushes, which whosoever hitteth in
playing thereat, winneth the game. They take great
pleasure in hunting and fishing. The kings of the
Countrey make great warre one against the other, which
is not executed but by surprise, and they kill all the men
they can take: afterward they cut of their heads to have
their haire, which returning home they carry away, to
make thereof their triumph when they come to their
houses. They save the women and children and nourish
them and keepe them alwayes with them. Being returned
home from the warre, they assemble all their subjects,
and for joy three days and three nights they make good
cheare, they daunce & sing, likewise they make the most
ancient women of the Countrey to dance, holding the
haires of their enemies in their hands: and in dauncing
they sing praises to the Sunne, ascribing unto him the
honour of the victory. They have no knowledge of God,
nor of any religion, saving of that which they see, as the
Sunne and the Moone. They have their Priests to whom
they give great credit, because they are great magicians,
great soothsayers, and callers upon divels. These Priests
serve them in stead of Physitions and Chirurgions. They
carry alwayes about them a bag full of herbes and drugs
to cure the sicke diseased which for the most part are
sick of the pocks, for they love women & maidens
exceedingly, which they call the daughters of the Sunne :
and some of them are Sodomites. They marry, and
every one hath his wife, and it is lawfull for the King to
have two or three: yet none but the first is honoured and
acknowledged for Queene: and none but the children of
the first wife inherite the goods and authoritie of the
father. The women doe all the businesse at home. They
keepe not house with them after they know they be with
child. And they eate not of that which they touch as
long as they have their flowers. There are in all this
Countrey many Hermaphrodites, which take all the
greatest paine, and beare the victuals when they goe to
warre. They paint their faces much, and sticke their
haire full of feathers or downe, that they may seeme more
terrible. The victuals which they carry with them, are of
bread, of hony, and of meale made of Maiz parched in the
fire, which they keepe without being marred a long while.
They carry also sometimes fish, which they cause to be
dressed in the smoke. In necessitie they eat a thousand
rifraffes, even to the swallowing downe of coales, and
putting sand into the pottage that they make with this
meale. When they goe to warre, their King marcheth
first, with a clubbe in the one hand, and his bowe in the
other, with his quiver full of arrowes. All his men follow
him, which have likewise their bowes and arrowes.
While they fight, they make great cries and exclamations.
They take no enterprise in hand, but first they assemble
oftentimes their Councell together, and they take very
good advisement before they growe to a resolution. They
meete together every morning in a great common house,
whither their King repaireth, and setteth him downe upon
a seate which is higher then the seates of the other: where
all of them one after another come and salute him: and
the most ancient begin their salutations, lifting up both
their handes twise as high as their face, saying, ha, he,
ya, and the rest answer ha, ha. Assoone as they have
done their salutation, every man sitteth him downe upon
the seates which are round about in the house. If there
be any thing to intreate of, the King calleth the Jawas,
that is to say, their Priestes, and the most ancient men,
and asketh them their advise. Afterward he commaundeth
Cassine
to be brewed, which is a drinke made of the
leaves of a certaine tree: They drinke this Cassine
very
hotte: he drinketh first, then he causeth to be given
thereof to all of them one after another in the same boule,
which holdeth well a quart measure of Paris
. They make
so great account of this drinke, that no man may taste
thereof in this assembly, unlesse hee hath made proofe of
his valure in the warre. Moreover this drinke hath such a
vertue, that assoone as they have drunke it, they become
all in a sweate, which sweate being past, it taketh away
hunger and thirst for foure and twenty houres after.
When a King dyeth, they burie him very solemnly, and
upon his grave they set the cuppe wherein he was woont
to drinke: and round about the sayde grave they sticke
many arrowes, and weepe and fast three dayes together
without ceassing. All the kings which were his friends
make the like mourning: and in token of the love which
they bare him, they cut of more then the one halfe of
their haire, as well men as women. During the space of
sixe Moones (so they reckon their moneths) there are
certaine women appoynted which bewaile the death of this
King, crying with a loude voyce thrise a day, to wit, in
the Morning, at Noone, and at Evening. All the goods
of this King are put into his house, and afterward they
set it on fire, so that nothing is ever more after to be
seene. The like is done with the goods of the Priestes,
and besides they burie the bodies of the Priests in their
houses, and then they set them on fire. They sowe their
Maiz twise a yere, to wit, in March and in June, and all
in one and the same soyle. The sayd Maiz from the time
that it is sowed untill the time that it be ready to be
gathered, is but three moneths on the ground. The other
6. moneths they let the earth rest. They have also faire
Pumpions, & very good Beanes. They never dung their
land, onely when they would sowe, they set the weedes
on fire, which grewe up the 6. moneths, and burne them
all. They dig their ground with an instrument of wood
which is fashioned like a broad mattocke, wherewith they
digge their Vines in France, they put two graines; of Maiz
together. When the land is to be sowed, the King commaundeth one of his men to assemble his subjects every
day to labour, during which labour the King causeth store
of that drinke to be made for them, whereof we have
spoken. At the time when the Maiz is gathered, it is all
carried into a common house, where it is distributed to
every man according to his qualitie. They sowe no more
but that which they thinke will serve their turnes for sixe
moneths, & that very scarcely. For during the Winter
they retire themselves for three or foure moneths in the
yeere into the woods, where they make little cotages of
Palme boughes for their retraite, and live there of Maste,
of Fish which they take, of Oisters, of Stagges, of
Turkeycockes, and other beasts which they take. They
eate all their meate broyled on the coales, and dressed in
the smoake, which in their language they call Boucaned.
They eate willingly the flesh of the Crocodile: and in
deede it is faire and white: and were it not that it
savoureth too much like Muske we would oftentimes have
eaten thereof. They have a custome among them, that
when they finde themselves sicke, where they feele the
paine, whereas we cause ourselves to be let blood, their
Physitions sucke them untill they make the blood follow.
The women are likewise of good proportion and tall,
and of the same colour that the men be of, painted as the
men be: Howbeit when they are borne, they be not so
much of an Olive colour, and are farre whiter. For the
chiefe cause that maketh them to be of this colour proceedes of annointings of oyle which they use among them:
and they doe it for a certaine ceremonie which I could not
learne, and because of the Sunne which shineth hote upon
their bodies. The agilitie of the women is so great, that
they can swimme over the great Rivers bearing their
children upon one of their armes. They climbe up also
very nimbly upon the highest trees in the Countrey.
Beholde in briefe the description of the Countrey, with
the nature and customes of the Inhabitants: which I was
very willing to write, before I entred any further into the
discourse of my historic, to the end that the Readers
might be the better prepared to understand that, which I
meane hereafter to entreate of.
