THE AMERICAN BISOXS. 99 



been a creation of the excited imagination of the much terrified French- 

 man, having no more real foundation than the accounts of other strange 

 creatures found in the narratives of numerous other early explorers of 

 America, — a supposition borne out by the general character of De Chal- 

 leux's account of that night's experiences. 



In the detailed account by M. Rene Laudonniere of Ribaut's attempt to 

 plant a colony on the St. John's River in Florida, however, no mention of 

 this incident reported by the carpenter is mentioned. Laudonniere says 

 the only game found was deer, leopards, bears, etc., while in his " descrip- 

 tion of the West Indies in generall, but chiefly and particularly of Flori- 

 da," as translated by Hakluyt,* he says, "The Beastes best known in this 

 Countrey are Stagges, Hindes, Goates, Deere, Leopards, Ounces, Luserns, 

 divers sortes of Wolves, wilde Dogs, Hares, Cunnies, and a certain kinde of 

 beast that differeth little from the Lyon of Africa." t No allusion is made to 

 the existence of any animal like a buffalo in Laudonniere's whole narrative 

 of the fortunes of the French in Florida during the period embracing the 

 founding and abandonment of Fort Caroline, covering a, period of five years 

 and quite extended explorations along the St. John's River. 



Professor Wyman also quotes Buckingham Smith as saying, in a note to 

 his (Smith's) translation of the '•Memoir of Fontaneda respecting Florida" 

 (p. 49), "The bison appears to have ranged in considerable numbers through 

 Middle Florida a hundred and fifty years ago. It was considered in 1718 

 that the Spanish garrison at Fort San Marco, on a failure of stores, might 

 subsist on the meat of the buffalo." The text in Fontaneda's Memoir (writ- 

 ten about 1575), to which this note refers, contains the following : " The 

 men of Abalachi go naked, and the women have waistbands of the straw 

 that grows from the trees, which is like wool, of which I have given some 

 account before ; they eat deer, wolves, ivoolly cattle, and many other animals." % 

 Smith in his commentary on this passage cites Barcia as authority for mak- 

 ing this passage a reference to the buffalo. But I find nothing in Barcia 

 that seems to refer to the occurrence of the buffalo within the region 

 embraced by the present boundaries of Florida. 



Professor Wyman further cites Stow ("p. 19") as saying, "The buffalo is 

 ibund in the savannahs, or natural meadows of the interior parts," but as no 

 title is given of Stow's work I have been unable to find it in order to ascer- 



* Voyages, etc., Vol. Ill, pp. 3G8-384. 



t Ibid., p 3C9. 



% Smith's Fontaneda, p. 27. 



