The De Soto Chronicles Vol 1 & 2: The Expedition of Hernando de Soto to North America in 1539-1543

ANDRE DE BURGOS TO THE PRUDENT READER

ANDRE DE BURGOS TO THE PRUDENT READER. Aristotle says that all or the most of men are always prone and inclined to see and hear new things, especially when those things pertain to very distant and remote countries. Those things, he says, furnish diversion to delicate and subtile minds, and re-animate dull minds; and this gives them a natural desire to see and to hear, and, if possible, to take part in them. ':. This desire is for two reasons greater among the Lusitanians than among other nations: the first, because they are a warlike people and of very subtile minds; the second, because they are by nature great navigators, and have discovered more land, with wider sailing, than all the other nations of the world. And as it appeared to me that I do some little service to those who might read this book, I resolved to publish it, taking courage inasmuch as it was written by a Portuguese and in his own language; and likewise because Portuguese citizens of the city of Elvas aided in the discovery, as the narrative itself makes mention.t I believe beyond doubt that he has written truthfully, and that he has not recounted fables or fictitious things; for one must believe that the author, not having any interest in so doing, would not swerve from the truth. Besides this, he asserts that all that is here written passed before him. Should the language, by chance, not appear to you very polished, lay not the fault on me, for I did not write it but only published it. May God have you in His keeping. In these footnotes and in my updates of Robertson's notes (found at the end of the Elvas account), where sixteenth-century Portuguese spelling differed from modern spelling, I have used the modern spelling so that an interested reader may find the words in a modern Portuguese dictionary. - JH ':'In the Portuguese text, the words for "if possible" (se passivel fasse) are placed within parentheses and include a verb, which Robertson deleted along with the parentheses. A strictly literal rendering of the Portuguese would be "if it should be possible." tIn the Portuguese text, the words for "as the narrative itself makes mention" were enclosed in parentheses. RELATION OF WHAT THE ADELANTADO OF FLORIDA, DON HERNANDO DE SOTO, SUFFERED IN CONQUERING IT: IN WHICH IS SET FORTH WHO HE WAS, AND SOME OF THOSE WHO WENT WITH HIM; SOME OF THE PECULIARITIES AND DIVERSITIES OF THE COUNTRY, AND ALL THEY SAW THEREIN; AND OF WHAT BEFELL THEM. [The Discovery of Florida] ...