Notes on the Floridian Peninsula; Its Literary History, Indian Tribes and AntiquitiesBrinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
History
Notes on the Floridian Peninsula; Its Literary History, Indian Tribes and Antiquities
Brinton, Daniel G. (Daniel Garrison)
Florida -- Antiquities; Florida -- History; Florida -- History -- Bibliography; Indians of North America -- Florida
Much more complete is the pleasing memoir of N. C. Challeux (Challus,
Challusius.)[32] He tells us in his dedicatory epistle that he was a
native of Dieppe, a carpenter by trade, and over sixty years of age at
the time of the expedition. In another passage he remarks, “Old man as
I am, and all grey.”[33] He escaped with Laudonniére from Fort Caroline,
and depicts the massacre and subsequent events with great truth and
quaintness. He is somewhat of a poet, somewhat of a scholar, and not a
little of a moralizer. At the beginning of the first edition are verses
descriptive of his condition after his return, oppressed by poverty,
bringing nought from his long rovings but “a beautiful white staff in
his hand.” “The volume closes with another effusion of his muse,
expressing the joy he felt at again beholding his beloved city of
Dieppe.”[34] He is much given to diverging into prayers and pious
reflections on the ups and downs of life, the value of contentment, and
kindred subjects, seasoning his lucubrations with classical allusions.
When Laudonniére was making up the complement of his expedition he did
not forget to include a cunning limner, so that the pencil might aid the
pen in describing the marvels of the New World he was about to visit.
This artist, a native of Dieppe, Jacques le Moyne de Morgues by name,
escaped at the massacre by the Spanish, returned with Laudonniére, and
with him left the ship when it touched the coast of England. Removing to
London he there married, and supported himself by his profession. During
the leisure hours of his after years he sketched from memory many scenes
from his voyage, adding in his native language a brief description of
each, aiding his recollection by the published narratives of Challeux
and Laudonniére, duly acknowledging his indebtedness.[35] These
paintings were familiar to Hackluyt, who gives it as one reason for
translating the collection of Basanier, that the exploits of the French,
“and diver other things of chiefest importance are lively drawn in
colours at your no smal charges by the skillful painter James Morgues,
sometime living in the Blackfryers in London.”[36] When the enterprising
engraver De Bry came to London in 1587, intent on collecting materials
for his great work the _Peregrinationes_, he was much interested in
these sketches, and at the death of the artist, which occurred about
this time, obtained them from his widow with their accompanying
manuscripts. They are forty-three in number, principally designed to
illustrate the life and manners of the natives, and, with a map, make up
the second part of De Bry’s collection. Each one is accompanied by a
brief, well-written explanation in Latin, and at the close a general
narrative of the expedition; together, they form a valuable addition to
our knowledge of the aboriginal tribes and the proceedings of the
Huguenots on the Riviére Mai.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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