Everglades - Origin of The Word

Origin of The Word

The first written record of the Everglades was on Spanish maps made by cartographers who had not seen the land. They named the unknown area between the Gulf and Atlantic coasts of Florida Laguna del EspĂ­ritu Santo ("Lake of the Holy Spirit"). The area appeared on maps for decades without being explored. Writer John Grant Forbes stated in 1811, "The Indians represent as impenetrable; and the surveyors, wreckers, and coasters, had not the means of exploring beyond the borders of the sea coast, and the mouths of rivers".

British surveyor John Gerard de Brahm, who mapped the coast of Florida in 1773, called the area "River Glades". Both Marjory Stoneman Douglas and linguist Wallace McMullen suggest that cartographers substituted "Ever" for "River". The name "Everglades" first appeared on a map in 1823, although it was also spelled as "Ever Glades" as late as 1851. The Seminoles call it Pa-hay-okee, meaning "Grassy Water", and the region was labeled "Pa-hai-okee" on an American military map in 1839, although it appeared as "Ever Glades" throughout the Second Seminole War.

Read more about this topic:  Everglades

Famous quotes containing the words origin of the, origin of, origin and/or word:

    The real, then, is that which, sooner or later, information and reasoning would finally result in, and which is therefore independent of the vagaries of me and you. Thus, the very origin of the conception of reality shows that this conception essentially involves the notion of a COMMUNITY, without definite limits, and capable of a definite increase of knowledge.
    Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)

    The essence of morality is a questioning about morality; and the decisive move of human life is to use ceaselessly all light to look for the origin of the opposition between good and evil.
    Georges Bataille (1897–1962)

    In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

    Hardly had the glow been kindled by some good deed on your part or by some little triumph over your rivals or by a word of praise from your parents or mentors when it would begin to cool and fade leaving you in a very short time as chill and dim as before.
    Samuel Beckett (1906–1989)