A 17th century LETTER OF GABRIEL DIAZ VARA 



CALDERON, BISHOP OF CUBA, DESCRIBING THE 



INDIANS AND INDIAN MISSIONS OF FLORIDA 



Transcribed and Translated by 



LUCY L. WENHOLD 



Salem CoUcjc. Winston-Salon, N . C. 



IXTRODUCTION BY JOHN K. SWANTON 



The original of the letter descrihed herein is in the Archive General 

 de Indias at Seville, Spain. Photocopies are owned by the Florida 

 State Historical Society and the North Carolina State Historical Com- 

 mission, but, in view of its special interest for Floridians. it is hardly 

 less than miraculous that it should have been brought to the attention 

 of scholars through the latter. For this outcome we are especially 

 indebted to Dr. Lucy L. Wenhold, of Salem College, Winston-Salem, 

 N. C, who chanced upon it while examining and transcribing some of 

 the documents of the Commission. From time to time Dr. Wenhold 

 had been kind enough to refer to me such translations as she thought 

 might interest the Bureau of American Ethnology in its work, and this 

 letter happened to be among them. 



In the invaluable " List of Documents in Spanish Archives re- 

 lating to the History of the United States, which have been Printed or 

 of which Transcripts are Preserved in American Libraries ", compiled 

 by Dr. James A. Robertson, are cited copies of two other letters by 

 Bishop Calderon, both dated June 8, 1675, and preserved in the Buck- 

 ingham Smith Collection of the New York State Historical Society. 

 They were written at Havana, one addressed to Juan de Mendoza 

 Escalante, and the other to the Conde de Medellin, of the Council of the 

 Indies. The original of the former is in the Biblioteca Nacional at 

 Madrid, and of the latter in the Archive General de Indias, Audiencia 

 de Santo Domingo. A third letter written at Havana August 14, 1674, 

 in a hand different from the Bishop's own or that of the accompany- 

 ing memoir, is of more interest to us because it refers to the visit to 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 95, No. 16 



