[962] Barcia, p. 308. The Magdalena may be the Apalachicola, on which in the last century Spanish maps laid down Echete; cf. Leroz, Geographia de la America (1758).
[963] The manuscript is in the Hydrographic Bureau at Madrid. The Lisbon Academy printed it in their (1844) edition of the Elvas narrative. Cf. Smith’s Soto, pp. 266-272; Historical Magazine, v. 42; Documentos inéditos, xxii. 534. [It is dated April 20, 1537. In the following August Cabeza de Vaca reached Spain, to find that Soto had already secured the government of Florida; and was thence turned to seek the government of La Plata. It was probably before the tidings of Narvaez’ expedition reached Spain that Soto wrote the letter regarding a grant he wished in Peru, which country he had left on the outbreak of the civil broils. This letter was communicated to the Historical Magazine (July, 1858, vol. ii. pp. 193-223) by Buckingham Smith, with a fac-simile of the signature, given on an earlier page (ante, p. 253).—Ed.]
[964] [Rich in 1832 (no. 34) cited a copy at £31 10s., which at that time he believed to be unique, and the identical one referred to by Pinelo as being in the library of the Duque de Sessa. There is a copy in the Grenville Collection, British Museum, and another is in the Lenox Library (B. Smith’s Letter of De Soto, p. 66). It was reprinted at Lisbon in 1844 by the Royal Academy at Lisbon (Murphy, no. 1,004; Carter-Brown, vol. i. no. 596). Sparks says of it: “There is much show of exactness in regard to dates; but the account was evidently drawn up for the most part from memory, being vague in its descriptions and indefinite as to localities, distances, and other points.” Field says it ranks second only to the Relation of Cabeza de Vaca as an early authority on the Indians of this region. There was a French edition by Citri de la Guette in 1685, which is supposed to have afforded a text for the English translation of 1686 entitled A Relation of the Conquest of Florida by the Spaniards (see Field’s Indian Bibliography, nos. 325, 340). These editions are in Harvard College Library. Cf. Sabin, Dictionary, vi. 488, 491, 492; Stevens, Historical Collections, i. 844; Field, Indian Bibliography, no. 1,274; Carter-Brown, vol. iii. nos. 1,324, 1,329; Arana, Bibliografía de obras anónimas (Santiago de Chile, 1882), no. 200. The Gentleman of Elvas is supposed by some to be Alvaro Fernandez; but it is a matter of much doubt (cf. Brinton’s Floridian Peninsula, p. 20). There is a Dutch version in Gottfried and Vander Aa’s Zee-und Landreizen (1727), vol. vii. (Carter-Brown, iii. 117).—Ed.]
[965] [Carter-Brown, vol. ii. no. 86; Murphy, no. 1,118. Rich (no. 110) priced it in 1832 at £2 2s.—Ed.]
[966] Field, Indian Bibliography, no. 1,338.
[967] [It is also in Vander Aa’s Versameling (Leyden, 1706). The Relaçam of the Gentleman of Elvas has, with the text of Garcilasso de la Vega and other of the accredited narratives of that day, contributed to the fiction which, being published under the sober title of Histoire naturelle et morale des Iles Antilles (Rotterdam, 1658), passed for a long time as unimpeached history. The names of César de Rochefort and Louis de Poincy are connected with it as successive signers of the introductory matter. There were other editions of it in 1665, 1667, and 1681, with a title-edition in 1716. An English version, entitled History of the Caribby Islands, was printed in London in 1666. Cf. Duyckinck, Cyclopædia of American Literature, supplement, p. 12; Leclerc, nos. 1,332-1,335, 2,134-2,137.—Ed.]
[968] [A copy of the original Spanish manuscript is in the Lenox Library.—Ed.]
[969] Recueil des pièces sur la Floride.
[970] In the volume already cited, including Hakluyt’s version of the Elvas narrative. It is abridged in French’s Historical Collections of Louisiana, apparently from the same source.
[971] Pages 47-64. Irving describes it as “the confused statement of an illiterate soldier.” Cf. Documentos inéditos, iii. 414.