Frank Lestringant Le Théâtre de la Floride. Autour de la Brève narration des événements qui arrivèrent aux Français en Floride, province d’Amérique, de de Morgues (1591), pups, 2017.

This work is about the short-lived French Protestant attempt at settling a colony in in 1562–1565, which took place after Villegagnon’s ill-fated attempt in Brazil (1555–1559). As and René de Laudonnière’s en- terprise threatened Spanish interests in the area, most notably the flota, the fledgling settlement was brutally rooted out by Menéndez de Avilés, at the cost of between 500 and 1000 killed, not to mention those captured and forced into slavery. But even before the Spanish attack conditions had been difficult for the colonists, ranging from hurricanes to the lack of natural resources. This book appears to be plural and versatile, as it is a collection centered on two pièces de résistance, Brève narration des événements qui arrivèrent aux Français en Floride and Portraits des Indiens habitant la province de Floride, with forty-two drawings, captions and commentaries by Jacques Le Moyne de Morgues, which were originally published posthumously in 1591 in Frankfurt by Théodore de Bry in the second volume of his Grands Voyages. Each of these deals with a scene of life in Florida, and comes with a new translation from the original Latin by Michèle and Jean-Claude Ternaux, as well as an enlightening commentary by Lestringant. Dominique de Gourgues’ narration of his 1568 ex- pedition against the Spaniards to exact revenge on them comes as a welcome complement. Numerous high-quality iconographic documents, such as maps, intersperse the first part, which is devoted to Lestringant’s essay. Moreover, Latinists will rejoice to find two of the primary sources – by Le Moyne and De Gourgues – in their original Latin in the appendixes, a truly scholarly ap- proach. Far from being a series of juxtaposed fragments, the additional texts and documents throw light on one another. The various components taken together succeed in providing an exhaustive and interesting view of Florida as seen by 16th-century Protestant Frenchmen. Lestringant chose to call this volume théâtre, thus drawing the reader’s attention to the notion of entertainment – etymologically, “to show”, “to display” – as well as instruction. Let us remember that théâtre may also refer to map-making – as in Abraham Ortelius’ Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, for instance (1570). Le Moyne was a painter, an illustrator and a cartographer, and it is in this lat- ter capacity that he had joined the expedition. It is unclear whether he actually brought back drawings from Florida after surviving the massacre, but he prob- ably managed to save at least some of his sketches and in addition had his own

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi 10.1163/18770703-00803003

264 book reviews memories of the place to turn to. However, as an engraver, De Bry also played a part in the production of the 42 illustrations, but it is unclear to what extent he did so. The captions below the pictures are generally attributed to Le Moyne. Interestingly, the two men knew each other: Le Moyne personally met De Bry in London, after seeking refuge there. The pictures describe the arrival of the French colonists and also run the gamut of “Indian” activities, from warfare to daily activities to leisurely pur- suits. The readers are provided with a full picture of life in Florida in the . The first seven illustrations are clearly cartographic in inspiration and adopt the standpoint of the colonist from his ship. Scenes of Indian life are repre- sented on shore. Many accurate details – ship rigging, for instance – are to be seen, in part thanks to the care the artist took in his work, and in part thanks to the excellent quality of the reproduction. The following illustration (8) opens up the second French expedition to Florida, and ill. n. 9 and 10 show the loca- tion and the plan of the new fort. Then the artist focuses on Timucuan life, first of all on warfare – the New World is not a Garden of Eden: Chief ’s ceremonies before going to war (11), King Outina consulting the oracle (12), the same waging war successfully thanks to French help (13), Outina going to war (14), Outina’s men dealing with their enemies’ corpses (15), and the rites and trophies after their victory (16). Then Timucuan daily life takes over themati- cally, first through the evocation of the aftermath of battle: hermaphrodites as helpers (17), widowed women imploring the king’s help (18), widows’ ceremo- nies (19); then through more peaceful or leisurely pursuits such as the curing of the sick (20), agriculture – sowing and cultivating (21), transporting crops to the public granary (22), transporting game, fish and other victuals (23), smok- ing game and fish on an out-of-scale boucan (24), deer hunting (25), crocodile hunting (26); and Floridians going to the islands as a pastime (27), an Edenic vision, as Lestringant puts it. Political and communal life is then described: the preparation of a banquet (28), the deliberations (29), the Indian fortress (30), which brings back the theme of warfare: ill. 31 is about the way of setting fire to an enemy stronghold – flaming arrows are being used –, ill. 32 deals with the punishment inflicted on negligent sentries, and ill. 33 is about declaring war. Rites and customs are then evoked, from the male first-borns being sac- rificed to the king to the consecration of a deer’s hide to the sun: the French’s reactions range from utter horror in one case to benign approval in the other, thus emphasising one of the core elements in the drawings, the relationship between French settlers and Native Americans. Sport is the theme in ill. n. 36, whereas the following three describe the interaction between king and queen. “State” funerals in n. 40 and gold-panning in 41 also exemplify some aspects of Timucuan life. N. 42 strikes a more somber note, unusually showing violence against a Frenchman.

journal of early american history 8 (2018) 259-265