Missions to the Calusa

William H. Marquardt, John H. Hann

• Publisher: University Press of Florida
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9780813080758, 9780813010755
• eBook ISBN: 9780813073477
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: North American History
• Index: Social Sciences

A compilation of historical documents written by Europeans during the colonization of southwest Florida

When Europeans arrived in southwest Florida in the early sixteenth century, they encountered a complex and powerful society. The Calusa have posed an enigma to many anthropologists and historians. This work provides missing information on the ethnography of the Calusa, a society that inhabited the area of Florida now known as Charlotte, Lee, and Collier counties. This compilation of historical documents includes many reports never before translated into English, including letters from Pedro Menéndez, reports from King Charles II and governors, bishops, and soldiers, and eyewitness testimony from priests and laypersons about mission efforts from the sixteenth through the eighteenth centuries.

John Hann introduces Spanish contact with the Calusa from the early seventeenth century, focusing particularly on the ill-fated Franciscan attempt in 1697 to convert the Calusa to Christianity. His voluminous documentation for this effort is particularly valuable for its description of the role played by the Crown in instigating the mission despite little enthusiasm from religious authorities.

A volume in the Florida Museum of Natural History: Ripley P. Bullen Series

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Translator’s Preface by John H. Hann
• Map
• Introduction by William H. Marquardt
• Part I. Calusa in the Late Seventeenth Century
• Part II. Calusa in the Late Sixteenth Century
• Part III. Calusa in the Early Eighteenth Century
• References
• Index
• Ripley P. Bullen Series