1 The plural term ‘Floridas’ is used throughout the text in order to take account of the varied geographies of ‘Florida’ during the colonial period. At different times during the sixteenth century, Europeans used derivations of ‘Florida’ to describe specific areas such as St Augustine, or broader geographic locales such as the entire present-day southeastern United States. Unless otherwise stated, ‘Floridas’ refers to the territory immediately south of the 32^o 28’ latitude surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, Mississippi River, and Gulf of Mexico.

2 ‘John Sparke's Report on Florida, 2 July, 1565’ in: Quinn, David B. ed., New American World: A Documentary History of North America to 16122 (New York 1979) 365–366Google Scholar. For analysis of colonist writings and their impact on European perceptions of the Americas see Calloway, Colin G., New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America (Baltimore 1997)Google Scholar; Cooke, James J., ‘France, The New World, and Colonial Expansion’ in: Galloway, Patricia K. ed., LaSalle and His Legacy: Frenchmen and Indians in the Lower Mississippi Valley (Jackson 1982) 81–92Google Scholar; Hand, Wayland D., ‘The Effect of the Discovery on Ethnological and Folklore Studies in Europe’ in: Chiappelli, Fredi ed., First Images of America: The Impact of the New World on the Old 1 (Berkeley 1976) 46–47Google Scholar; McAlister, Lyle N., Spain and Portugal in the New World, 1492–1700 (Minneapolis 1984).Google Scholar

3 Transnational approaches to North American history are examined in Thelen, David, ‘The Nation and Beyond: Transnational Perspectives on United States History’, Journal of American History 86 (1999) 965–976CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Adelman, Jeremy and Aron, Stephen, ‘From Borderlands to Borders: Empires, Nation-States, and the Peoples in Between in North American History’, American Historical Review 104 (1999) 814–842.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

4 Recent historical investigations dealing with ‘Race’ and its application to European-Indian encounters in colonial America include Brown, Kathleen M., ‘Native Americans and Early Modem Concepts of Race’ in: Daunton, Martin and Halpem, Rick eds, Empire and Others: British Encounters with Indigenous Peoples, 1600–1850 (Philadelphia 1999)Google Scholar; Chaplin, Joyce E., Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500–1676 (Cambridge, Mass. 2001)Google Scholar; Jackson, Robert H., Race, Caste, and Status: Indians in Colonial Spanish America (Albuquerque 1999)Google Scholar; Lestringant, Frank, The Discovery and Representation of the Cannibal from Columbus to Jules Verne, trans. Morris, Rosemary (Berkeley 1997)Google Scholar; Takaki, Ronald, ‘The Tempest in the Wilderness: The Racialization of Savagery’, Journal of American History 79 (1992) 892–912.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5 Most attempts to investigate racial distinctions in the colonial Floridas pertain exclusively to white-black relationships. See Colbum, David and Landers, Jane eds, The African American Heritage of Florida (Gainesville 1995)Google Scholar; Landers, Jane, ‘An Examination of Racial Conflict and Cooperation in Spanish St. Augustine: The Career of Jorge Biassou, Black Caudillo’, El Escribano (1988) 85–100Google Scholar. A broader analysis of race relations is available in Corbett, Theodore G., ‘Migration to a Spanish Imperial Frontier in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: St Augustine’, Hispanic American Historical Review 54 (1974) 414–430.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6 The most notable exceptions include Gannon, Michael G. ed., The New History of Florida (Gainesville 1996)Google Scholar; Gold, Robert L., Borderland Empires in Transition: The Triple Nation Transfer of Florida (Carbondale 1969)Google Scholar; Milanich, Jerald T., Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe (Gainesville 1981)Google Scholar. In addition, a variety of works dealing with broader subjects often include important information pertaining to the Floridas.

7 See Boyd, Mark F., Smith, Hale G., and Griffin, John W., Here They Once Stood: The Tragic End of the Apalachee Missions (Gainesville 1951)Google Scholar; Bushnell, Amy T., The King's Coffer: Proprietors of the Spanish Florida Treasury, 1565–1702 (Gainesville 1981)Google Scholar; Deagan, Kathleen, Spanish St. Augustine: The Archaeology of a Colonial Creole Community (New York 1983)Google Scholar; Fabel, Robin F.A., The Economy of British West Florida, 1763–1783 (Tuscaloosa 1988)Google Scholar; Gannon, Michael V., The Cross in the Sand: The Early Catholic Church in Florida, 1513–1870 (Gainesville 1965)Google Scholar; Lyon, Eugene, The Enterprise of Florida: Pedro Menéndez de Avilés and the Spanish Conquest of 1565–1568 (Gainesville 1976)Google Scholar; Wright, J. Leitch Jr, Florida in the American Revolution (Gainesville 1975).Google Scholar

8 See Hann, John H., Apalachee: The Land Between the Rivers (Gainesville 1988)Google Scholar; Johnson, Cecil, British West Florida, 1763–1783 (New York 1971)Google Scholar; Mowat, Charles L., East Florida as a British Province, 1763–1784 (Gainesville 1964).Google Scholar

9 For similar assessments see Patrick Riordan, ‘Seminole Genesis: Native Americans, African Americans, and Colonists on the Southern Frontier from Prehistory through the Colonial Era’ (PhD dissertation, Florida State University 1996) 3; Saunt, Claudio, A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733–1816 (Cambridge 1999) 3–5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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11 Gannon, Michael, ‘First European Contacts’ in: Gannon, Michael ed., The New History of Florida (Gainesville 1996) 17–21.Google Scholar

12 ‘Oviedo on Juan Ponce de León's Second Voyage, 1521’ in: Quinn, New American World 1, 247.

13 Milanich, Jerald T., Florida Indians and the Invasion from Europe (Gainesville 1995) 115–125.Google Scholar

14 Weber, David J., The Spanish Frontier in North America (New Haven 1992) 376.Google Scholar

15 ‘The Official Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando Soto, by Rodrigo Rangel, His Secretary: as Rendered by Gonzalo Fernandez de Oviedo, 1539–1541’ in: Quinn, New American World 2, 163.Google Scholar

16 ‘Relation that Alvar Núñez Cabeca de Vaca of What Befell the Armament in the Indies Whither Páinfilo de Narváez went for Governor from the Year 1527 to the Year 1536 When with Three Comrades he Returned and Came to Sevilla’ in: Ibid. 2, 23.

17 Ibid., 29.

18 Milanich, Florida Indians, 127–136.

19 de la Vega, Garcilaso, The Florida of the Inca: A History of the Adelantado, Hernando de Soto, Governor and Captain General of the Kingdom of Florida ]…[, trans, and ed. Vamer, John G. (Austin 1962) Book 2, Chapter 2, 234.Google Scholar

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22 For European attitudes to Native Americans and clothing see Matijasic, ‘Reflected Values’, 36–38; Weber, The Spanish Frontier, 314–315; Timothy J. Shannon, ‘Dressing for Success on the Mohawk Frontier: Hendrick, William Johnson, and the Indian Fashion’ in: Mancall and Merrell eds, American Encounters, 352–376.

23 ‘The Official Narrative of the Expedition’, 178.

24 Garcilaso, The Florida of the Inca, Book 2, Chapter 16, 119.

25 Ibid. Book 2, Chapter 20, 133.

26 Ibid. Book 2, Chapter 28, 163–164.

27 Gannon, ‘First European Contacts’, 20; ‘Antonio de Alaminos Guides Hernández de Cordoba's Fleet to Florida, 1517’ in: Quinn, New American World 1, 243.

28 ‘Herrera's Account of the Breakup of the Narváez Expedition, 1528’ in: Quinn, New American World 2, 11–13.

29 Bandelier, Fanny trans, and ed., The Journey of Alvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca and His Companions from Florida to the Pacific (New York 1905) 31–32Google Scholar; ‘Relation that Alvar Nunez Cabeca de Vaca Gave of What Befell the Armament’, 23.

30 Knight of Elvas, True Relation of the Hardships Suffered by Governor Fernando de Soto & Certain Portuguese Gentlemen During the Discovery of the Province of Florida 2, trans, and ed. James A. Robertson (Deland 1932) 258–259, 312–313.

31 For assessments on how Native American skin colour became identified as ‘Red’ during the colonial period see Forbes, Jack D., Africans and Native Americans: The Language of Race and the Evolution of Black Peoples (Chicago 1993) 239–264Google Scholar; Shoemaker, Nancy, ‘How Indians Got to be Red’, American Historical Review 102 (1997) 625–644.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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33 ‘The Official Narrative of the Expedition of Hernando Soto’, 160.

34 Lyon, Eugene, ‘Settlement and Survival’ in: Gannon, Michael ed., The New History of Florida (Gainesville 1996) 40–46Google Scholar. For detailed assessments of French colonisation in the Floridas see Lestringant, Frank, Le Huguenot et le sauvage: L’Amérique et la controverse coloniale, en France, au temps des Guerres de Religion (1555–1589) (Paris 1990)Google Scholar, and McGrath, John T., The French in Early Florida: In the Eye of the Hurricane (Gainesville 2000).Google Scholar

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37 ‘Copy of a Letter Coming from Florida, Sent to Rouen and then to M. D'Everon, Together with the Plan and Picture of the Fort Which the French Build There, 1564’ in: Bennett, Charles E., Laudonniere and Fort Caroline: History and Documents (Gainesville 1964) 67.Google Scholar

38 ‘Discours de l'histoire de la Floride, 1566’ in: Quinn, New American World 2,373.

39 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 27–28.

40 ‘Discours de l'histoire de la Floride, 1566’, 372–373.

41 ‘Copy of a Letter Coming from Florida’, 67.

42 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 8.

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48 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 7.

49 ‘Copy of a Letter Coming From Florida’, 67.

50 Laudonnière, Histoire Notable de la Floride, 105–106.

51 Lyon, ‘Settlement and Survival’, 43–59.

52 ‘Of the Reasons Furnished His Majesty by Pedro Menéndez for not Allowing Florida to Fall into the Hands of Lutherans or Other Foreigners, 1567’ in: Barrientos, Bartolomé, Pedro Menéndez de Avilés, Founder of Florida, trans. Kerrigan, Anthony (Gainesville 1965) 27–28.Google Scholar

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56 Hernando D'Escalante Fontaneda, Memoir of D'Escalante Fontaneda Respecting Florida, Written in Spain about the Year 1775, ed. David O. True, trans. Buckingham Smith (Coral Gables 1944) 11; ‘A Description of the Land of Florida; Its Fertility’ in: Barrientos, Pedro Menéndez de Auilés, 24.

57 ‘Gonzalo Solis de Meras on the Achievements of Menèndez de Avilés in Florida’ in: Quinn, New American World 2, 479.

58 ‘The Adelantado, Pedro Menéndez, Reports the Damages and Murders Caused by the Coast Indians of Florida, 1573–1574’ in: Connor, Jeannette T. trans, and ed., Colonial Records of Spanish Florida: Letters and Reports of Governors and Secular Persons (Deland 1925) 35–36Google Scholar; ‘Pedro Menèndez de Avilés Provides Detailed Plans for the Disposal of the Enslaved Florida Indians, 1573’ in: Quinn, New American World 2, 589–590.Google Scholar

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