De Bry - "The murder of Pierre Gambié near Fort Caroline" - Florida - 1591

"The murder of Pierre Gambié near Fort Caroline"

Near present day Jacksonville, Florida

-Theodore De Bry (1528-1598)

-Plate 9.5 x 13 inches (23 x 33cm)

-Image 8.5 x 6 inches (22 x 15cm)

-1591 (This image is from the German 1st Edition of 1591)

-Very good condition. The page has been professionally restored and cleaned. Modern colour.

-Verso blank

This is an original plate from Part 2 "Brevis Narratio" of De Bry's famous set of "Grands Voyages". This part gives an account of the early expeditions of the French to Florida under Jean Ribaut (1562), Rene de Laudoniere (1564) and Dominique de Gourgues (1567). The account of the Laudonniere expedition was written by Jacques le Moyne (de Morgues), an artist who accompanied the expedition. He escaped massacre by the Spaniards at Fort Caroline and went to England, with the drawings he had made, where he died. After his death his manuscripts and drawings were sold by his widow to De Bry who published them in this volume. It is one of the earliest descriptions of Florida and the first to be clearly illustrated and to describe the local peoples.

This is plate 42 from the series, depicting the murder of Pierre Gambié near Fort Caroline. The text reads:

"There was a Frenchman called Pierre Gambié who married the daughter of one of the Indian chiefs. He had become wealthy by trading from his island (?Flemings Island) and one day he went by canoe with two Indians to Fort Caroline to meet some of his friends. He had with him some valuables and while he was bending over to make a fire near the village of Edelano he was clubbed to death. The Indians disappeared with the valuables and the crime remained undetected for some time. Some said the motive was theft but Laudonnière thought the Indian chief might have planned the murder for revenge as Gambié had taken commanded in his absence."