This volume centers in Jean Ribaut’s personal narrative of a transatlantic expedition in May 1562 from Dieppe to Florida and north along the coast to present Port Royal, South Carolina. Here Ribaut left a small detachment at a place he named Charlesfort and returned to the continent. His True Account of the Discoverye of Florida was published in London the following year. To this day it remains a classic sixteenth-century account of the territory and its Indian inhabitants, as well as a significant contemporary testimony of French Protestant efforts to challenge Catholic Spain’s domination of the New World.
David L. Dowd’s fifty-page introductory essay is the only portion of the book which has not been previously published. The essay is a fine contribution to historical literature, discussing the historiography of French Florida, indicating the earlier contribution of scholars on both sides of the Atlantic, and pointing out the evidence of archaeologists and anthropologists. Dr. Dowd’s scholarly survey of the field should stimulate further research and perhaps lead to publication of materials collected years ago by Jeanette Thurber Connor, an active member of the Florida State Historical Society in the 1920s.
The heart of the book is Ribaut’s report of the 1562 voyage, taken from a manuscript which H. P. Biggar found in the British Museum and published with notes in 1917. The contents further include a photogelatine reproduction of the 1563 edition printed by Thomas Hacket, and an essay on Jean Ribaut by Mrs. Connor. The three appendices refer to the LeMoyne sixteenth-century paintings of Florida scenes, the columns set up by Ribaut at Florida and South Carolina locations, and the site of Charlesfort. Comments on the last subject are by A. S. Salley, Jr. The volume is one of twelve in the Quadricentennial Edition of the Floridiana Facsimile and Reprint Series.
