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COVER Jacques le Moyne de Morgues accompanied the Jean Ribaut expedition to Florida in 1564 as official artist. Théodore de Bry engraved le Moyne’s maps and drawings for his Grands Voyages. The Historical Volume LXXI, Number 2 October 1992 The Florida Historical Quarterly (ISSN 0015-4113) is published quarterly by the Florida Historical Society, University of South Florida, 4202 E. Fowler Avenue, Tampa, FL 33620, and is printed by E. O. Painter Printing Co., DeLeon Springs, FL. Second-class postage paid at Tampa, FL, and at additional mailing office. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to the Florida Historical Quarterly, P. O. Box 290197, Tampa, FL 33687. Copyright 1992 by the Florida Historical Society, Tampa, Florida. THE FLORIDA HISTORICAL QUARTERLY Samuel Proctor, Editor Mark I. Greenberg, Editorial Assistant EDITORIAL ADVISORY BOARD David R. Colburn University of Florida Herbert J. Doherty University of Florida Michael V. Gannon University of Florida John K. Mahon University of Florida (Emeritus) Joe M. Richardson Florida State University Jerrell H. Shofner University of Central Florida Charlton W. Tebeau University of Miami (Emeritus) Correspondence concerning contributions, books for review, and all editorial matters should be addressed to the Editor, Florida Historical Quarterly, Box 14045, University Station, Gainesville, Florida 32604-2045. The Quarterly is interested in articles and documents pertaining to the history of Florida. Sources, style, footnote form, original- ity of material and interpretation, clarity of thought, and in- terest of readers are considered. All copy, including footnotes, should be double-spaced. Footnotes are to be numbered con- secutively in the text and assembled at the end of the article. Particular attention should be given to following the footnote style of the Quarterly. The author should submit an original and retain a copy for security. Authors are asked to submit articles in IBM WordPerfect 5.0 or 5.1, or ASCII; please include both a hardcopy and a diskette. The Florida Historical Society and the Editor of the Florida Historical Quarterly accept no responsi- bility for statements made or opinions held by authors. The Quarterly reviews books dealing with all aspects of Florida history. Books to be reviewed should be sent to the Editor to- gether with price and information on how they may be ordered. Table of Contents RECONSTRUCTION AND ANALYSIS OF THE 1513 DISCOVERY VOYAGE OF JUAN PONCE DE LEÓN Douglas T. Peck 133 THE SEARCH FOR THE SEVEN CITIES AND EARLY AMERICAN EXPLORATION George E. Buker 155 BEYOND THE MARTYRS OF FLORIDA: THE VERSATILE CAREER OF LUIS GERÓNIMO DE ORÉ Noble David Cook 169 POLITICAL LEADERSHIP AMONG THE NATIVES OF SPANISH FLORIDA John H. Hann 188 B OOK REVIEWS ..................................... 209 B OOK NOTES ...................................... 246 HISTORY NEWS ..................................... 255 ANNUAL MEETING ...................................... 260 BOOK REVIEWS AMERICA’S ANCIENT CITY, SPANISH ST. AUGUSTINE, 1565-1763, edited with an introduction by Kathleen A. Deagan reviewed by Susan R. Parker JACKSONVILLE: RIVERPORT-SEAPORT, by George E. Buker reviewed by James B. Crooks SEMINOLE ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SURVEY, PHASE I: NORTH- ERN BIG CYPRESS, by Robert Carr and Patsy West reviewed by John W. Griffin SHIPWRECK AND ADVENTURES OF MONSIEUR PIERRE VIAUD, translated and edited by Robin F. A. Fabel reviewed by Light Townsend Cummins INSEPARABLE LOYALTY: A BIOGRAPHY OF WILLIAM BULL, by Geraldine M. Meroney reviewed by Phinizy Spalding THE PAPERS OF HENRY LAURENS, VOLUME ELEVEN: JANUARY 5, 1776- NOVEMBER 1, 1777, edited by David R. Chesnutt and C. James Taylor THE PAPERS OF HENRY LAURENS, VOLUME TWELVE: NOVEMBER 1, 1777- MARCH 15, 1778, edited by David R. Chesnutt and C. James Taylor reviewed by Daniel L. Schafer LETTERS OF DELEGATES TO CONGRESS, 1774-1789, VOLUME 18: SEPTEMBER 1, 1781- JULY 31, 1782, edited by Paul H. Smith, Gerald W. Gawalt, and Ronald M. Gephart reviewed by Robert M. Calhoun GEORGIA LAND SURVEYING: HISTORY AND LAW, by Farris W. Cadle reviewed by Darrett B. Rutman CELIA: A SLAVE, by Melton A. McLaurin reviewed by Jane W. Squires WHEN I CAN READ MY TITLE CLEAR: LITERACY, SLAVERY, AND RELIGION IN THE ANTEBELLUM SOUTH, by Janey Duitsman Cornelius reviewed by Joe M. Richardson THE LAST CITADEL: PETERSBURG, VIRGINIA, JUNE 1864-APRIL 1865, by Noah Andre Trudeau reviewed by James I. Robertson, Jr. BURNSIDE, by William Marvel reviewed by Craig L. Symonds BRAXTON BRAGG AND CONFEDERATE DEFEAT, VOLUME 1, by Grady McWhiney BRAXTON BRAGG AND CONFEDERATE DEFEAT, VOLUME 2, by Judith Lee Hallock reviewed by Michael C. C. Adams CAHABA PRISON AND THE SULTANA DISASTER, by William O. Bryant reviewed by Arch Fredric Blakey THE PAPERS OF ANDREW JOHNSON, VOLUME 9, SEPTEMBER 1865-JANUARY 1866, edited by Paul H. Bergeron reviewed by Richard N. Current THE FACTS OF RECONSTRUCTION: ESSAYS IN HONOR OF JOHN HOPE FRANKLIN, edited by Eric Anderson and Alfred A. Moss, Jr. reviewed by Jerrell H. Shofner VICTORIAN AMERICA: TRANSFORMATIONS IN EVERYDAY LIFE, 1876-1915, by Thomas J. Schlereth reviewed by David W. Curl A NEW DEAL FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE, by Roger Biles reviewed by Bennett H. Wall ORGANIZED LABOR IN THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY SOUTH, edited by Robert H. Zieger reviewed by E. H. Beardsley WHAT MADE THE SOUTH DIFFERENT?, edited by Kees Gispen reviewed by Leonard Dinnerstein ESSAYS ON SUNBELT CITIES AND RECENT URBAN AMERICA, edited by Robert B. Fairbanks and Kathleen Underwood reviewed by Jeffrey S. Adler THE ISLANDS AND THE SEA: FIVE CENTURIES OF NATURE WRITING FROM THE CARIBBEAN, edited by John A. Murray reviewed by Robert Blount This special Columbus Quincentenary issue of the Florida His- torical Quarterly is dedicated to Hector C. Borghetty, of Clearwa- ter, Florida, who provided the financial support for its publica- tion. Mr. Borghetty, a retired chemical engineer, is a native of Wellington, New Zealand. In his travels, he has followed the sea and land routes of the early Spanish explorers. Mr. Borghetty is historian at Safety Harbor Museum and is an active member of the Florida Historical Society. RECONSTRUCTION AND ANALYSIS OF THE 1513 DISCOVERY VOYAGE OF JUAN PONCE DE LEON by DOUGLAS T. PECK HE long and eventful discovery voyage of Juan Ponce de T León, the Spanish conquistador and explorer, has not re- ceived the amount of in-depth study and analysis that this histor- ically significant voyage so richly deserves. Perhaps a reason for this can be found in the fact that sixteenth-century (and later) historians, in dwelling on the fact that the largely apocryphal purpose of the voyage was to find a fountain of youth, perverted the factual reporting of the real purpose of the voyage and its several significant discoveries. This distorted version continues in many contemporary history books because of the proclivity of writers simply to paraphrase previous authors. To avoid this I have examined original source documents wherever possible for information and data untainted by unsubstantiated conjec- ture and fiction. This study documents and answers four primary questions: (1) Which island did Ponce de León visit and identify as Guana- hani, the landfall of Columbus? (2) Where on the coast of Florida did Ponce de León first land? (3) Where is the Florida west coast harbor—discovered, explored, and charted by Ponce de León—that was used as a landing and departure point by later Spanish explorers? (4) Sailing southwesterly from the Tor- tugas, what land did Ponce de León sight and briefly explore? The answers to these questions can be found by a reconstruc- tion of the track of Ponce de León’s voyage to determine where he made landfall on his several discoveries. This study docu- ments such a reconstruction. A sailing vessel was used as a re- search test vehicle to determine the track of those segments of the voyage where the problem was one of open ocean navigation from a known departure point. The remainder of the track along the shore was determined primarily by viewing and con- Douglas T. Peck, of Bradenton, Florida, is a historian of the Spanish period of exploration and discovery in America. [133] 134 F LORIDA H ISTORICAL Q UARTERLY firming the log’s description of the geographical landforms en- countered. The only extant source giving details of Ponce de León’s voyage is Antonio de Herrera’s Historia General de los hechos de los Castellanos en las Islasi tierra firme del Mar Oceano, published around 1601. Philip II appointed Herrera as Spain’s official historiographer of the Indies in 1592. His position gave Herrera access to both official and secret archives, and soon after Ponce de León’s voyage, he must have summarized and paraphrased from the explorer’s original holograph log or a copy that has since disappeared. Used were three English translations of Herrera’s chapter on Ponce de León’s voyage by Florence P. Spofford, L. D. Scisco, and James E. Kelley, Jr.1 The Kelley work includes the English translation adjacent to the Spanish text. The latter is from the original 1601 publication and contains copious footnotes ex- plaining possible differences in interpretation of sixteenth-cen- tury word definitions. Some scholars question the validity of using the navigation data in Herrera’s account obtained directly from the original log. Herrera summarized and abridged Ponce de León’s log in the same manner that Las Casas summarized and abridged Col- umbus’s log. Both were done from the original holograph docu- ment or a scribe’s copy. Unfortunately, Herrera added numer- ous comments that were based on knowledge obtained after 1513, and were missing from the original log. Thus some schol- ars believe that Herrera authored the entire account and that the navigational data are his and not extracted from the log. These additions by Herrera are easily identified, however, and when they are removed the original log entries of compass head- ings, times, distances, descriptions of landfalls, latitudes, iden- tification of known islands with Indian names, sea conditions, and weather-all of which are elements of a navigator’s log- come through with clarity.

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