Account of the Martyrs in the Provinces of La Florida

Book excerpt: Few English-speaking readers are familiar with the life or the writings of the sixteenth-century Franciscan chronicler Luis Jerónimo de Oré, particularly his neglected Relación, about the early Spanish presence in territories now part of the United States. His account of La Florida—an area that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries included present-day Florida as well as territory north to Virginia and west into Kansas—reflects the desire of the Spanish Crown and various religious orders to explore and to establish a presence in the region. This edition of Luis Jerónimo de Oré’s work presents readers with a new introduction and an annotated translation that place the text in the broader context of international politics. The narrative develops our understanding of the early Spanish presence in the continental United States while documenting frontier life and the contacts with Native Americans in the South and along the Eastern Seaboard.