The verbal depositions of Pedro Morales and Nicolas Bourguignon,[48] captives brought by Sir Francis Drake to London, from his attack on St. Augustine, (1586,) are among the earliest notices we possess. They were written out by Richard Hackluyt, and inserted in his collection as an appendix to Drake’s Voyage. Both are very brief, neither filling one of his folio pages; they speak of the Indian tribes in the vicinity, but in a confused and hardly intelligible manner. Nicolas Bourguignon was a Frenchman by birth, and had been a prisoner among the Spaniards for several years. He is the “Phipher,” mentioned in Drake’s account, who escaped from his guards and crossed over to the English, playing the while on his fife the march of the Prince of Orange, to show his nationality. Towards the close of the century, several works were published in Spain, of which we know little but their titles. Thus, mention is made of a geographical description of the country (_Descripcion y Calidades de la Florida_) by Barrientes, Professor of the Latin language at the University of Salamanca, about 1580. It is probably nothing more than an extract from the _Cosmographia_, attributed by some to this writer. Also, about the same time, Augustin de Padilla Davila, a Dominican, and Bishop of St. Domingo, published an ecclesiastical history of the See of Mexico and the progress of the faith in Florida.[49] Very little, however, had been achieved that early in the peninsular and consequently his work would in this respect interest us but little. The reports of the proceedings of the Council of the Indies, doubtless contain more or less information in regard to Florida; Barcia refers especially to those published in 1596.[50] Early in the next century there appeared an account of the Franciscan missionaries who had perished in their attempts to convert the savages of Florida.[51] The author, Geronimo de Ore, a native of Peru, and who had previously filled the post of Professor of Sacred Theology in Cusco, was, at the time of writing, commissary of Florida, and subsequently held a position in the Chilian Church, (deinde commissarius Floridæ, demum imperialis civitatis Chilensis regni antistes.)[52] He was a man of deep erudition, and wrote various other works “very learned and curious,” (mui doctos y curiosos.[53]) Pursuing a chronological order, this brings us to the peculiarly interesting and valuable literature of the Floridian aboriginal tongues. Here, as in other parts of America, we owe their preservation mainly to the labors of missionaries.