Description: This compilation of historical documents includes letters, reports, and accounts written by Europeans during the colonization of Southwest Florida, offering insights into Spanish contact with the Calusa.
Brief description: William H. Marquardt is curator emeritus of south Florida archaeology and ethnography at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
Review Quotes:
"Contributes significantly to the scant ethnohistorical and historical literature on this complex fisher-hunter-gatherer chiefdom of southwest Florida."--American Antiquity
"By compiling in one volume numerous translated documents, . . . John Hann has produced another valuable research tool for students of Florida history. Spanning some 200 years, these documents vividly portray three brief abortive efforts to bring the Calusa under the sway of the Spanish church."--Florida Historical Quarterly
"Will be of interest to students of Spanish missionary activity, especially during the seventeenth century, and to ethnohistorians."--Hispanic American Historical Review
"A valuable contribution not only to Native American and early Florida history, but also to a better understanding of the Spanish missionary effort in the future United States."--Mississippi Quarterly