Neither ought we to pass by in silence the Floridian notes of the “Hon. Miss Amelia M. Murray,”[114] who, it will be recollected, a few years since took a contemptuous glance at our country from Maine to Louisiana, weighed it in the balance of her judgment, and pronounced it wanting in most of the elements of civilization. She went on a week’s scout into Florida, found the charges exorbitant, the government wretchedly conducted, and the people boors; was deeply disappointed with St. Augustine and harbor because an island shut out the view of the ocean, and at Silver Spring found nothing more worthy of her pen than the anti-slavery remark of an inn-keeper,—who has himself assured me that she entirely misconstrues even that.
Two works devoted to the Ancient City, as its inhabitants delight to style it, have been published. One of these is a pleasant little hand-book, issued some ten years since by the Rev. Mr. Sewall, Episcopalian minister there.[115] He prepared it “to meet the wants of those who may desire to learn something of the place in view of a sojourn, or who may have already come hither in search of health,” and it is well calculated for this purpose. A view of the town from the harbor, (sold also separately,) and sketches of the most remarkable buildings increase its usefulness. A curious incident connected with this book is worth relating for the light it throws on the character of the so-called Minorcans of St. Augustine. In one part Mr. Sewall had inserted a passage somewhat depreciatory of this class. When the edition arrived and this became generally known, they formed a mob, surrounded the store where it was deposited, and could only be restrained from destroying the whole by a promise that the obnoxious leaf should be cut from every volume in the package. This was done, and the copy I purchased there accordingly lacks the thirty-eighth and thirty-ninth pages. An action on their part that calls to mind the ancient saw, “’Tis the tight shoe that pinches.”
Another and later work that enters into the subject more at length, has recently appeared from the competent pen of G. R. Fairbanks,[116] a resident of the spot, and a close student of the chronicles of the old colony. The rise and progress of the settlements both French and Spanish are given in detail and with general accuracy, and though his account of the former is not so finished nor so thoroughly digested as that of Sparks, consisting of little more than extracts linked together, we have no other work in our language so full on the doings of the subjects of His Catholic Majesty in Florida, and the gradual growth of the Ancient City. It thus fills up a long standing hiatus in our popular historical literature.
Numerous articles on Florida have appeared in various American periodicals, but so few of any value that as a class they do not merit attention. Most of them are flighty descriptions of scenery, second-hand morsels of history, and empty political disquisitions. Some of the best I have referred to in connection with the points they illustrate, while the Index of Mr. Poole, a work invaluable to American scholars, obviates the necessity of a more extended reference.
Those that have appeared in the serials of Europe, on the other hand, as they mostly contain original matter, so they must not be passed over so lightly.
Though not strictly included among them, the article on Florida prepared by Mr. Warden for that portion of L’Art de Verifier les Dates called Historical Chronology of America, will come under our notice here. In a compendium parading such a pretentious title as this we have a right to expect at least an average accuracy, but this portion bears on its face obvious marks of haste, negligence, and a culpable lack of criticism, and is redeemed by nothing but a few excerpts from rare books.
Little attention has ever been paid to the natural history of the country, least of all by Americans. The best observer of late years has been M. de Castelnau, who, sent out by the Academie des Sciences to collect and observe in this department, spent in Middle Florida one of the seven years he passed in America. While the Seminole war was raging, and a mutual slaughter giving over the peninsula once more to its pristine wilderness, in the gloomy hammocks of the Suwannee and throughout the lofty forests that stretch between this river and the Apalachicola, this naturalist was pursuing his peaceful avocation undisturbed by the discord around him. In April, 1842, after his return, he submitted to the Academy a memoir on this portion of his investigations.[117] It is divided into three sections, the first a geographical description, the second treating of the climate, hygienic condition, geology, and agriculture, while the third is devoted to anthropology, as exhibited here in its three phases, the red, the white, and the black man. In one passage,[118] speaking of the history of the country, this author remarks that M. Lakanal “has, during his long sojourn at Mobile, just on the confines of Florida, collected numerous documents relative to the latter country; but the important labors of our venerable colleague have not yet been published.” As far as I can learn, these doubtless valuable additions to our history are still inedited.
The subjoined list of some other articles published in Europe is extracted from Dr. W. Koner’s excellent catalogue.[119]
1832. De Mobile, Excursion dans l’Alabama et les Florides. Revue des Deux Mondes, T. I., p. 128.
1835. Beitrage zur Näheren Kenntniss von Florida. Anal. der Erdkunde, B. XII., s. 336.