1607-1675 21 Howard Kleinberg Fonds July 8, 1992
Louis De Vorsey Jr.
Department of History
University of Georgia
355 Kings Road
Athens, GA 30606
Dear Mr. De Vorsey,
When I queried Dr. Joe Fitzgerald about the de Brahm and Romans maps
of southeast Florida, he suggested I write to you. I am writing a
book on the history of Miami Beach and am in need of some buttress
ing when it comes to the early charts of the area.
Dr. Fitzgerald, like me, is of the opinion that until de Brahm,
there were no detailed maps of the Biscayne Bay region. Would you
agree? Also, in the Romans map -- or at least in the facsimile edi
tion -- Boca Rattones on the Miami Beach side and Boca Ratones as
the Miami River -- are spelled differently. Do you have any idea of
whether the facsimile map was accurate in the two spellings; did
Romans misspell Ratones as Rattones, or did the people who created
the facsimile map?
In reading numerous versions, I also find de Brahm spelled as De
Brahm, as in De Vorsey. In your introduction to The Atlantic Pilot,
you spelled it De Brahm. Other than as the first word of a sentence,
shouldn 't we be spelling it de Brahm?
In a 1975 article written about early Biscayne Bay for Tequesta, the
journal of the Historical Society of Southern Florida, the late
Roland Chardon of Louisiana State University referred to de Brahm
changing the name of Boca Ratones to White Inlet in 1765 yet the
chart included in the facsimile Atlantic Pilot shows it as Boca
Ratones. Was Chardon referring to another map drawn by de Brahm, one
that wasn 't included in the facsimile edition?
Sincerely,
Howard Kleinberg