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Timucuan Indians Defending Their Village Against Crocodiles: An Elaboration on the Image from De Bry's Grand Voyages
The image from De Bry's Grand Voyages is a striking and evocative visual account of the struggles and tenacity of the Timucuan Indians, a native tribe of northeastern Florida. This engraving, rendered with meticulous detail, tells a vivid story of the tribe's daily battles and the perils they faced in their environment.
Amidst the verdant landscape of northeastern Florida, De Bry's Grand Voyages presents a gripping tableau that showcases the life-and-death struggle of the Timucuan Indians against the formidable crocodiles.
The scene shows a hut at the top left, deliberately constructed with cracks and holes, standing close to a river. This hut serves as a strategic watchpoint. Inside, a vigilant watchman stands guard. His task is pivotal: to detect the approach of crocodiles, creatures that, when hungry, emerge from the waterways and islands in search of prey.
The urgency in the scene escalates with this roar. The watchman, sensing the impending danger, swiftly calls upon a group of defenders. These ten or twelve warriors, equipped with long wooden logs, display a remarkable blend of courage and strategy. They move in tandem towards the crocodile, a massive beast with a gaping maw ready to snatch any approaching threat. Yet the warriors, with adept precision, insert the slender end of their log deep into the creature's open mouth. The log, with its rough bark and uneven structure, is lodged so firmly that the crocodile cannot free itself.
As the drama unfolds, another group of Indians flips the now incapacitated crocodile onto its back, revealing its softer underbelly. With sharp spears and pegs, they pierce through the skin, neutralizing the threat. Their tactic avoids the crocodile's back, a fortress of impenetrable scales, especially noticeable in older specimens.
De Bry's depiction is more than a mere hunt; it's a testament to the Timucuan Indians' ingenuity, resilience, and communal spirit. The crocodiles, a persistent threat, force the tribe to remain ever watchful, day and night, mirroring the constant vigilance societies maintain against their fiercest adversaries. The image is a powerful allegory of survival, strategy, and the eternal human spirit to overcome nature's challenges.
The Latin text translates as follows:
Crocodiles wage war in this manner: they create a hut full of cracks and holes near a river, in which a watchman, who can spot and hear Crocodiles from afar, resides. Driven by hunger, they crawl out of rivers and islands in search of prey. When they don't find any, they let out such a terrifying roar that it can be heard over half a mile away. Then the watchman calls guards prepared for this: ten or twelve of them, seizing a long tree, proceed towards this massive creature (with its gaping mouth, if it could grab any of them approaching) and with utmost agility they drive the thinner part of the tree as deeply as possible into its mouth, so that due to its unevenness and the roughness of the bark, it cannot be removed. Turning the crocodile onto its back, they strike and open its belly, which is softer, with spears and pegs; for the back, being covered with hard scales, is impenetrable, especially if the crocodile is old. This is the method the Indians use to hunt Crocodiles, by which they are so bothered that they are forced to keep watch both day and night, just as we do against our most bitter enemies.
Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) was a prominent Flemish engraver and publisher best known for his engravings of the New World. Born in Liege, de Bry hailed from the portion of Flanders then controlled by Spain. The de Brys were a family of jewelers and engravers, and young Theodor was trained in those artisanal trades.
As a Lutheran, however, his life and livelihood were threatened when the Spanish Inquisition cracked down on non-Catholics. De Bry was banished and his goods seized in 1570. He fled to Strasbourg, where he studied under the Huguenot engraver Etienne Delaune. He also traveled to Antwerp, London, and Frankfurt, where he settled with his family.
In 1590, de Bry began to publish his Les Grands Voyages, which would eventually stretch to thirty volumes released by de Bry and his two sons. The volumes contained not only important engraved images of the New World, the first many had seen of the geographic novelties, but also several important maps. He also published a collection focused on India Orientalis. Les Grands Voyages was published in German, Latin, French, and English, extending de Bry’s fame and his view of the New World.
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