The Sun.
London, England, 1835-10-29 00:00:00

THE CONQUEST OF FLORIDA,

BY HERNANDO DE SOTO,
-Written under the Superintendance of Washington Irving, Esq.
BY EIS NEPHEW, THEODORE ntr.tria, ESQ.
In 2 Vols. London : Edward Churton, Holles-street.
In suppressing the convents throughout Spain, it is
to be hoped that the Constitutional Government will
take measures for the effectual preservation of all the
old manuscripts of which they have been for centuries
the secure and only depositaries. Literature—histo-
rical, ethical, biographical, and imaginative—will receive
rich and multifarious accessions, when the conventional
archives corne to be rummaged and made public ; un-
less, perchance, the Government entrust to some mili-
tary Vandal the duty of effecting the dislodgment of
the holy fathers. The records of many a noble family
—the minute details of many a bloody fray—the black
and bitter confessions of many a hoary penitent who,
in youth, had been distinguished at the Courts of
Kings—the wafflings of many a wounded spirit—and
the hour-numbered annals of many a year, parturient
of momentous change in the Government of mankind,
exist in those cloisters which are henceforth destined
to be the abode of a secular generation, whose
toils, cares, and avocations will not suffer them

to have a retrospective, or a prospective, being.
Alike dead to the influences borrowed from the
memory of the past, and the hopes of the fu-
ture, the successors •of th'e monks must not be ex-
pected to preserve what they cannot prize ; and there-
fore, unless the Government stretch forth a protecting
hand, Spain will lose more In national literature than
she will gain in public wealth, by those measures of
ecclesiastical reform so necessary to the religious eman-
cipation of the people.
The " Conquest of Florida," by Theodore Irving,
is little more than a free translation of one of the thou-
sands of manuscripts which are to be met with in the
larger Spanish convents. According to Mr. Southey,
who expresses the opinion in his Chronicles of the
Cid Rodrigo Diaz de Bivar, the original is one of the
most delightful works in the Spanish language. As a
record of facts—a journal of actual occurrences, in
which the events of every year are carefully and scrupu-
lously noted—we can believe it to be one of the most
delightful works to be found in any language with
which the learned world is yet acquainted. We have
no knowledge whatever of the original ; but allowing
Mr. Irving all the judgment which can possibly
fall to the share of so young a man, we must
be permitted to observe, that he could not have
condensed a work of this kind, without losing a
large share of those blossoms which luxuriate
so profusely in the pages of the venerable, Inca Gar-
cilaso de la Vega. Still in its present form, Mr. Irving's
work on the Conquest of Florida is an hundred times
more interesting than any narrative of the same kind
that has ever fallen under our notice. The only pro-
duction resembling it in any way is the celebrated
" Araucana" of Ercilla—an almost contemporary work,
the latter having appeared entire in 1590. Hernando
De Soto seems to have appreciated the personal cou-
rage, the love of independence, and the stern virtues
cherished among the savage tribes, almost as highly as
the chivalrous poet : while the prose narrative has the
advantage of being less broken in upon by long epi-
sodes, many of which have no connection with the
leading subject of the poem.
The follo.wing extract includes the only episode in
the work. We have selected it for its completeness,
rather than for any peculiar interest which it awakens.
There is not a chapter in the two volumes, of which
the details are not equally striking :
" Shortly after Pamphilo de Narvaez had quitted the
village of Hirrihigua on his disastrous march into the inte-
rior, a small vessel of his fleet which was in quest of him,
put into the bay of Espiritu Santo. Anchoring before the
town, they saw a few Indians on the shore, who made signs
for them to land, pointing to a letter at the end of a cleft
reed, stuck into the ground. The Spaniards supposing—
and probably with justice—that it was a letter of instruc-
tion left by Narvaez, giving information of his movements
and destination, made signs for the Indians to bring it to
them. The latter, however, refused, but getting into a
canoe came on board, four of them offering to remain as
hostages for such Spaniards as chose to go on shore for the
letter. Four Spaniards immediately stepped into the canoe.
The moment they landed, a multitude of savages rushed
out of the village and surrounded them ; at the same time
the hostages on board plunged into the sea, and swam to