American antiquarian and historian, born on Cumberland Island, GA, on the 31st of October 1810, and after graduating at Harvard Law School returned to a family estate in Florida, and was elected a member of the territorial legislature. From 1850 to 1852 he was secretary of legation in Mexico, and during his residence there made researches in Mexican history and antiquities and Indian philology. Being appointed secretary at Madrid in 1855, he there continued his philological researches in the Spanish libraries and archives, and also made a special study of the colonial history of Florida and Louisiana, thus rendering valuable services to the historians Bancroft, Sparks and Parkman. Returning to Florida in 1859, he became a judge, and subsequently served several terms in the state senate. As an editor he produced translations of the Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca (1851); Letter of Hernando de Soto and Memoir of Hernando de Escalante Fontaneda (1854). He also translated The Career of Hernando de Soto in the Conquest of Florida (1864); and in addition wrote numerous articles for magazines on the early history of Florida. A part of Mr. Smith’s library was purchased after his death by the New York Historical Society. He died in New York on the 5th of January 1871.
