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Principal Navigations
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General SummaryThe narratives of the voyages of Elizabethan mariners form England’s true prose epic; and in Richard Hakluyt she found, not her Homer, indeed, but the man who did most to preserve the records of these voyages for succeeding times. His fame mainly rests on The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of the English Nation, a large work in three volumes, of which a second edition was published in 1596–1600. As the title indicates, it is a compilation of the various accounts of the adventurous journeys made by English seamen in the Old World and the New, chiefly during the sixteenth century. Had not Hakluyt formed his collection, doubtless many of the narratives in it would have been lost. The book is a treasure-house of material for the history of geographical discovery and colonization. It also contains many interesting descriptions of aboriginal peoples.
Historical SummaryHaving disposed of his slaves and loaded his vessels with hides and other West Indian products, Hawkins started on the return voyage. In the Caribbean the current carried him far to the leeward, compelling him to double the western point of Cuba and sail past the shores of Florida. He visited the French settlement in Florida, and thence proceeded northward to Newfoundland, and so, with the prevailing westerly winds, to England. This was the pioneer voyage made by Englishmen along the coast of what is now the United States.
225. The Natives of Florida1
Their houses are not many together, for in one house a hundred of them lodge. A house is made much like a great barn, and in strength not inferior to ours, for they have stanchions and rafters of whole trees, and are covered with palmito leaves. . . . In the midst of each house is a hearth, where they make great fires all night; and they sleep upon certain pieces of wood hewn in for the bowing of their backs, and another piece made high for their heads. In their houses they remain only at night, and in the day they frequent the fields, where they prepare their food. . . . There is one thing to be marveled at, for the making of their fire, and not only they, but the negroes also do the same. Their fire is made only by two sticks, rubbing them one against another; and this they may do in any place they come, where they find sticks sufficient for the purpose.
In their apparel the men use only deer skins . . . which are painted, some yellow and red, some black and russet, and every man according to his own taste. They do not omit to paint their bodies also with curious knots, or antique work, as every man in his own fancy deviseth. To make this painting continue the better, they prick their flesh with a thorn, and dent in the same, whereby the painting may have better hold. . . . In their wars they use bows and arrows, whereof their bows are made of a kind of yew, but blacker than ours. . . . Their arrows are also of a great length, but yet of reeds, like those of other Indians; but varying in two points, both in length and also for nocks and feathers, whereby they shoot very steady. The heads of the same are vipers’ teeth, bones of fish, and flint stones. Points of knives, which they obtained from the Frenchmen, they broke and used in their arrowheads. . . . The women for their apparel also use painted skins, but most of them wear gowns of moss, somewhat longer than our moss. These they sew together artificially, and make in the form of a surplice.
1 Hakluyt, , vol. x, pp. 51–53.
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Chicago: "The Natives of Florida," Principal Navigations in Readings in Early European History, ed. Webster, Hutton (Boston: Ginn and Company, 1926), Original Sources, accessed April 25, 2024, http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=GMLXN8QAFDTA4TX.
MLA: . "The Natives of Florida." Principal Navigations, Vol. x, in Readings in Early European History, edited by Webster, Hutton, Boston, Ginn and Company, 1926, Original Sources. 25 Apr. 2024. http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=GMLXN8QAFDTA4TX.
Harvard: , 'The Natives of Florida' in Principal Navigations. cited in 1926, Readings in Early European History, ed. , Ginn and Company, Boston. Original Sources, retrieved 25 April 2024, from http://originalsources.com/Document.aspx?DocID=GMLXN8QAFDTA4TX.
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