An Early Florida Adventure Story

Florida Heritage Publications

by John H. Hann (Translator)

Among documents of Florida's Spanish colonial period, few eyewitness accounts exist. One of these, the 1595 narrative by Fray Andres de San Miguel, expertly translated by John Hann, describes the two-year odyssey of a teenager from Spain across the Atlantic to Mexico, Havana, and Florida and finally back to Spain. The future friar's account of his experiences as a young sailor brings to life the fleets of the Golden Age of Spain and reveals how those adventures would change his life forever.

After Andres's ship passed Cape Canaveral, it was battered by a four-day storm and separated from the fleet. The officers commandeered the only launch and escaped; the crew kept the ship afloat and improvised a box-like vessel in which 30 survivors reached shore near the mouth of the Altamaha River. The author offers detailed descriptions of the Guale Indians and of Mission San Pedro Mocama on Cumberland Island. He also provides vignettes of life in St. Augustine and, on his way to Havana, of encounters with South Florida Indians. The adventure closes with Fray Andres' return to Cadiz, where he witnessed the 1596 British siege and burning of that port.

Only seventeen years old at the time of the voyage, Fray Andres presents a cold-eyed view of the sailing experience in the 16th century, trenchant observations on the behavior of the ship's officers and the circumstances of the survival of the crew, and insight into the ambitions, concerns, and religiosity of the Spaniards. The book includes Hann's translation of a brief introductory essay written by Fray Andres' Mexican publisher, telling of the young man's entry into the Carmelites and the accomplishments of his later life as a church architect,builder, and hydrographic expert involved in the drainage of the valley of Mexico City.

128 pages, Hardcover

First published January 30, 2001

Reviews

[Chaz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another of the castaway accounts that became a new genre in the 16 century. Reading some of these I realize that by the time Defoe writes Robinson Crusoe, the genre is so well-known, well-read, acknowledged as a legitimate genre, that the latter can be used as an extended allegory. By the 18 century, marooned sailors become hackneyed literary devices for use in both metaphorical/philosophical works and adventure stories.

Fray Andres comes across as an intelligent and compassionate young man--though written by the same later in his life while he was living in Mexico City as a Franciscan. As a side note of interest, I should mention that Fray Andres was a skilled engineer that helped fix the botched first attempts to dredge out the lagoons around Mexico City. By the 17 Century, Mexico City city becomes the most populated city in the Americas--A cultural and political hub of inestimable value.