Man in the Everglades: 2000 Years of Human History in the Everglades National Park. [Second, revised...

North Carolina Office of Archives and History

Man in the Everglades: 2000 Years of Human History in the Everglades National Park. [Second,revised edition; Copeland Studies in Florida History, No. 3] by Charlton W. TebeauReview by: Charles W. ArnadeThe North Carolina Historical Review, Vol. 45, No. 4 (October, 1968), pp. 421-422Published by: North Carolina Office of Archives and HistoryStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23518095 .

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Book Reviews 421

as editors Jonathan Daniels and William Polk. Still, the Wolfe fan would do well to read first—after the novels—Elizabeth Nowell's The Letters

of Thomas Wolfe. On the other hand, all Wolfe scholars will welcome

these letters, "warts and all."

North Carolina State University

Guy Owen

Man in the Everglades: 2000 Years of Human History in the Everglades National Park. By Charlton W. Tebeau. (Coral Gables: University of Miami Press [Second, revised edition; Copeland Studies in Florida History, No. 3], 1968. Illustrations, bibliography, index. Pp. 192. Cloth, $4.95; paper, $2.95.)

Professor Charlton W. Tebeau is well known in Florida for his long tenure as chairman of the University of Miami History Department and his many Florida history publications, plus his professional multi

activities. While truly a scholar his common sense and academic prac

ticality make his writing of wide appeal. It must be said that this book on the Everglades is a thoroughly revised edition of a previous work

published in 1964 under the title They Lived in the Park: The Story of Man in the Everglades National Park. It is also necessary to state that

this Tebeau book, as well as the previous edition, is not a duplication of

the excellent work by Marjorie Stoneman Douglas. Tebeau's book is

narrower in its geographical scope but deeper in its history and also has

more personal accounts. There is no doubt that Man in the Everglades is a good and exciting regional history as created by the research and

pen of its author.

The organization of the book is sensible. The first chapter gives a view

of the region followed by a historical sequence. The next chapters de

scribe key geographical parts of the park but historical factors are in

cluded, especially the stories of individual pioneers. Finally, chapter 8 [printed erroneously as 18 in the table of contents] entitled "The

Park—Idea to Realization" provides the reader with the basic informa

tion as how, why, and when the Everglades National Park was establish

ed. This is certainly a fine chapter. Tebeau has over the years tracked all over the Everglades Park and

therefore has not only looked at documents in the library but searched

for the human element. He says that "A few representative stories of

those people who made lasting impressions upon visitors and of others

who by cnance or design left some records of their lives are included

here [in this book]."

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422 The North Carolina Historical Review

Charlton Tebeau not only has written a delightful historical book but

he is also the undisputed historian of the Everglades and the man who

has resurrected the past of South Florida.

University of South Florida

Charles W. Arnade

William Augustus Bowles: Director General of the Creek Nation. By J. Leitch

Wright, Jr. (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1968. Frontispiece, preface notes, bibliography, index. Pp. viii, 211. $6.95.)

William Augustus Bowles, one of the shadowy figures of southern

history, lived only forty-two years, but during that time he attracted the

attention of England, Spain, and the United States. His Maryland

family was Loyalist in the American Revolution, and in 1777 at the age of fourteen he became an ensign in a Maryland Loyalist regiment. In

1778 this regiment was sent to reinforce the garrison at Pensacola, where

Bowles suddenly resigned his commission and joined a party of Lower

Creeks. He took two Indian wives, a Cherokee and a Creek, and he com

peted with the Creek halfbreed Alexander McGillivray for the role of

spokesman of the Creeks.

After an absence of two years Bowles rejoined his regiment and was

with it in Pensacola when the fort was taken by Spanish troops. After

the Revolution ended he went to the Bahamas, determined to wrest con

trol of the Indian trade from Panton, Leslie and Company, which held a

Spanish monopoly. He became embroiled in the contest for control of

the southern tribes as the self-appointed representative of Britain, but

the British expedition he hoped for never came.

During the Nootka Sound controversy, 1789-1790, Britain and Spain

verged on war, and Bowles' future looked bright. In 1790 he took Creek

and Cherokee chiefs to London. There Bowles' portrait was painted, the

press followed the activities of the chieftains enthusiastically, and

"Cherokee fricassee" became a popular dish. But without French sup

port Spain was forced to yield without a fight, and British officials were no longer interested in Bowles and his Indians.

He then tried to induce Spain to open Florida ports for the Indian

trade, but in vain. Next he tried to create an independent state of Mus

kogee which he would place under British protection, but in this he was

opposed by McGillivray as well as Panton and Leslie, who offered a re

ward for his capture. He retaliated by seizing the Panton, Leslie ware

house at St. Marks and distributing the trade goods to the Indians.

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