The Lily and the Totem; or, The Huguenots in Florida Read online

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  THE

  LILY AND THE TOTEM,

  OR,

  THE HUGUENOTS IN FLORIDA.

  A SERIES OF SKETCHES, PICTURESQUE AND HISTORICAL, OF THE COLONIES OF COLIGNI, IN NORTH AMERICA.

  1562-1570.

  BY THE AUTHOR OF "THE YEMASSEE," "LIFE OF MARION," "LIFE OF BAYARD" ETC.

  NEW YORK: BAKER AND SCRIBNER, 145 NASSAU STREET AND 36 PARK ROW.

  1850.

  Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1850, by

  W. GILMORE SIMMS, ESQ.

  In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York.

  C. W. BENEDICT, _Stereotyper_, 201 William st.

  EPISTLE DEDICATORY.

  TO THE HON. JAMES H. HAMMOND, OF SOUTH CAROLINA.

  MY DEAR HAMMOND:

  I very well know the deep interest which you take in all researcheswhich aim to develope the early history of our State and country, andsympathize with you very sincerely in that local feeling which delightsto trace, on your own grounds, and in your own neighborhood, thedoubtful progresses of French and Spaniard, in their wild passion foradventure or eager appetite for gold. I have no doubt that the clues arein your hands which shall hereafter conduct you along a portion of theroute pursued by that famous cavalier, Hernando de Soto; and I am almostsatisfied that the region of Silver Bluff was that distinguished in theadventures of the Spanish Adelantado, by the presence of that dusky butlovely princess of Cofachiqui, who welcomed him with so much favorand whom he treated with an ingratitude as unhandsome as unknightly.But I must not dwell on a subject go seductive; particularly, as Ientertain the hope, in some future labor, to weave her legend intoan appropriate, and I trust not unworthy history. For the present,inscribing these pages to you, as a memorial of a long and gratefulintimacy, and of inquiries and conjectures, musings and meditations,enjoyed together, which, it is my hope, have resulted no less profitablyto you than to myself, I propose briefly to give you the plan of thevolume in your hands.

  The design of the narrative which follows, contemplates, in nearly equaldegree, the picturesque and the historical. It belongs to a class ofwritings with which the world has been long since made familiar, througha collection of the greatest interest, the body of which continues toexpand, and which has been entitled the "Romance of History." This namewill justly apply to the present sketches, yet must not be construed tosignify any large or important departure, in the narrative, from theabsolute records of the Past. The romance here is not suffered tosupersede the history. On the contrary, the design of the writer hasbeen simply to supply the deficiencies of the record. Where the author,in this species of writing, has employed history, usually, as a mereloop, upon which to hang his lively fancies and audacious inventions,embodying in his narrative as small a portion of the chronicle aspossible, I have been content to reverse the process, making the fictionsimply tributary, and always subordinate to the fact. I have beenstudious to preserve all the vital details of the event, as embodied inthe record, and have only ventured my own "graffings" upon it in thoseportions of the history which exhibited a certain baldness in theirdetails, and seemed to demand the helping agency of art. In thusinterweaving the history with the fiction, I have been solicitous alwaysof those proprieties and of that _vraisemblance_, in the introductionof new details, which are essential to the chief characteristics of thehistory; seeking equally to preserve the general integrity of the recordfrom which I draw my materials, and of that art which aims to presentthem in a costume the most picturesque. My labor has been not to make,but to perfect, a history; not to invent facts, but to trace them outto seemingly inevitable results;--to take the premise and work out theproblem;--recognize the meagre record which affords simply a generaloutline; and endeavor, by a severe induction, to supply its details andprocesses. I have been at no such pains to disguise the chronicle,as will prevent the reader from separating,--should he desire to doso,--the _certain_ from the _conjectural_; and yet, I trust, that I havesucceeded in so linking the two together, as to prevent the lines ofjunction from obtruding themselves offensively upon his consciousness.Upon the successful prosecution of this object, apart from the nativeinterest which the subject itself possesses, depends all the merit ofthe performance. It is by raising the tone of the history, warming itwith the hues of fancy, and making it dramatic by the continued exerciseof art, rather than by any actual violation of its recorded facts, thatI have endeavored to awaken interest. To bring out such portions of theevent as demand elevation--to suppress those which are only cumbrous,and neither raise the imposing, nor relieve the unavoidable; and tosupply, from the _probable_, the apparent deficiencies of the _actual_,have been the chief processes in the art which I have employed. What iswholly fictitious will appear rather as episodical matter, than as apart of the narrative; and a brief historical summary, even in regardto the episode, shall occasionally be employed to determine, for thereader, upon how much, or how little, he may properly rely as history.

  The experiment of Coligny, in colonizing Florida, is one of thoseremarkable instances in the early settlement of this country, whichdeserve the particular attention of our people. Its wild and darkevents, its startling tragedies, its picturesque and exciting incidents,long since impressed themselves upon my imagination, as offeringsuitable materials for employment in romantic fiction. In thepreparation of the work which follows, I have rather yielded to therequisitions of publishers and the public, than followed the suggestionsof my own taste and judgment. Originally, I commenced the treatmentof this material, in the form of poetry; but the stimulus to akeen prosecution of the task was wanting: not so much, perhaps, inconsequence of my own diminished interest in the subject, as because ofthe indifference of readers; who, in all periods have determined theusual direction of the writer. Hereafter, I may prosecute the experimentupon this history in still another fashion. I do not regard this work asprecluding me from trying the malleability of its subject, and fromseeking to force it into a mould more grateful to the dictates of myimagination. In abandoning the design, however, of shaping it to theform of narrative poetry, I may, at least, submit to the reader suchportions of the verse as are already written. My purpose, as will beseen, by the fragmentary passages which follow (in the _Appendix_ at theclose of the volume) was to seize upon the strong points of the subject,and exhibit the whole progress of the action, in so many successivescenes; as in the plan adopted by Rogers in his "Columbus"--the onescene naturally forming the introduction to the other, and the whole, acomplete and single history. To these fragments let me refer you. Withthese, my original design found its limit; the spirit which had urged methus far, no longer quickening me with that impatient eagerness whichcan alone justify poetic labors. The plan is one which I am no longerlikely to pursue. It will no doubt have a place of safe-keeping andharborage in some one of Astolpho's mansions. It need not be deplored onearth. I shall be but too happy if those who read the performance whichfollows, shall forbear the wish that it had shared the same destiny. Toyou, at least, I venture to commen
d it with a very different hope.

  Very truly yours, as ever,

  THE AUTHOR.

  CHARLESTON, S. C., } _May 1, 1850_. }