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CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
Cornell University Library 
 E 133.V55M97 
 
 .Y,9y?.9e 9* Verrazzano : 
 
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 3 1924 028 728 065 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of tiiis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028728065 
 
THE 
 
 VOYAGE OF VERRAZZANO : 
 
 A CHAPTER IN THE 
 
 Early History of Maritime Discovery 
 
 AMERICA. 
 
 BY HENRY 0. MURPHY. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 1875. 
 
TO THE 
 
 BUCKIJS'GHAM SMITH, 
 
 ST. AUGUSTINE, 
 
 FLORIDA. 
 
The following pages, intended to show the claim of dis- 
 covery in America by Verrazzano to be without any real 
 foundation, belong to a work, in hand, upon the earliest 
 explorations of the coast which have led to the settle- 
 ment of the United States by Europeans. They are 
 now printed separately, with some additions and neces- 
 sary changes, in consequence of the recent production of 
 the map of Hieronimo de Verrazano, which professes to 
 represent this discovery, and is therefore supposed to 
 afford some proof of its authenticity ; in which view it has 
 been the subject of a learned and elaborate memoir by J. 
 Carson Brevoort Esq. 
 
 Certain important documents in relation to Verrazzano, 
 procured from the archives of Spain and Portugal by the 
 late Buckingham Smith, on a visit to those countries a 
 year or two before his death, are appended. They were 
 intended to accompany a second edition of his Inquiry, a 
 purpose which has been interrupted by his decease. They 
 were entrusted by him to the care of his friend, George 
 H. Moore Esq., of New York, who has placed them at our 
 disposal on the present occasion. 
 
 The fragmentary and distorted form in which the letter 
 ascribed to Verrazzano, appeared in the collection of 
 Eamusio, and was thence universally admitted into history, 
 rendered it necessary that the letter should be here given 
 complete, according to its original meaning. It is, therefore , 
 annexed in the English translation of Dr. Cogswell, which 
 though not entirely unexceptionable is, for all purposes, 
 sufficiently accurate. The original Italian text can, how- 
 ever, be consulted in the Collections of the New York 
 Historical Society, accompanying his translation, and also 
 
VI VEEEAZZANO. 
 
 in the ArcMvio Storico Italiano, in whicli it is represented 
 by the editor to be more correctly copied from the manu- 
 script, and amended in its language where it seemed cor- 
 rupt ; but such corrections are few and unimportant. In 
 all cases in which the letter is now made the subject of 
 critical examination, the passages referred to are given, for 
 obvious reasons, according to the reading of the Floren- 
 tine editor. 
 
 "We are indebted to the American Geographical Society 
 of New York for the use of its photographs of the Ver- 
 razano map, and to Mr. Brevoort for a copy of the cosmogra- 
 phy of Alfonse, from which the chart of JSTorumbega has 
 been taken. And our thanks are due to Dr. J. Grilmary 
 Shea of New York, for valuable assistance ; and to Dr. E. 
 E. Straznicky of the Astor Library, Mons. C. Maunoir of 
 the Societe de Geographic of Paris, Dr. J. Hammond 
 Trumbull of Hartford, Hon. John R. Bartlett of Provi- 
 dence, and James Lenox Esq. of New York, for various 
 favors kindly rendered during the progress of our re- 
 searches. 
 
 Brooklyn, Sept. 1875. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. The Discovery Attributed to Verrazzano, . . 1-9 
 11. The Verrazzano Letter not Genuine, . . . 10-24 
 
 III. The Letter untrue. I. No Voyage or Discovery made 
 
 for the King of France, as it states, . . 25-44 
 
 IV. II. Misrepresentations in regard to the Geography 
 
 of the Coast. The Chesapeake. The Island of 
 Louise. Massachusetts Bay, .... 45-56 
 
 V. III. Cape Breton and the Southerly Coast of New- 
 foundland, here claimed to have been discovered, 
 were known previously. Perversion of the Text 
 of the Letter by Kamusio, .... 57-69 
 
 VI. IV. The Description of the People and Productions 
 of the Land not made from the Personal Observation 
 of the Writer of the Letter. What distinctively be- 
 longed to the Natives is unnoticed, and what is 
 originally mentioned of them is untrue. Further 
 important Alterations of the Text by Eamusio, . 69-83 
 
 VII. The Extrinsic Evidence in Support of the Claim. I. 
 
 Discourse of the French Sea Captain of Dieppe, . 84-90 
 
 VIII. II. The Verrazano Map. It is not an Authoritative 
 Exposition of the Verrazzano Discovery. Its Origin 
 and Date in its present Form. The Letter of Anni- 
 bal Caro. The Map presented to Henry VIII. 
 Voyages of Verrazzano. The Globe of Euphrosy- 
 nus Ulpius, 91-115 
 
vnr 
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 IX. The Letter to the King founded on the Discoveries of 
 
 Est^van Gomez. The History of Gomeia and his 
 
 Voyage. The Publication of his Discoveries in 
 
 Spain and Italy before the Verrazzano claim. The 
 
 Voyage described in the Letter traced to Ribero's 
 
 Map of the Discoveries of Gomez, . . 116-133 
 
 X. The Career of Verrazzano. An Adventurous Life and 
 
 Ignominious Death. Conclusion, . 134-151 
 
 Appendix, 
 Index. 
 
 154-186 
 187-197 
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 The Caravel, 
 
 Arms of the Dauphin, afterwards Henry II, 
 Cape Henry and Entrance into the Chesapeake, 
 Birch-Bark Canoe, ..... 
 
 9 
 44 
 56 
 83 
 
 MAPS. 
 
 Facing page 
 
 87 
 
 Chart from the Cosmography of Jean Alfonse, 
 
 Map of Hieronomo de Verrazano, of the alleged Discovery 
 
 and adjacent Countries, only, .... 91 
 Map from the Globe of Ulpius, of the same, . . . 1 14 
 Map of Diego Ribero, showing the Exploration of Gomez 
 
 and the alleged Track of Verrazzano, . . 129 
 
 Map of Verrazano entire, at the End of the Volume, 
 
THE 
 
 VOYAGE OF VERRAZZAI^O: 
 
 A CHAPTER IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF MARITIME 
 DISCOVERY IN- AMERICA. 
 
 The Discovert Attributed to Yerrazzano. 
 
 The discovery of the greater portion of the Atlantic 
 coast of North . America, embracing all of the United 
 States north of Cape Roman in South Carolina, and of 
 the northern British provinces as far at least as Cape 
 Breton, by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine, in 
 the service of the king of Prance, has received until 
 quite recently the assent^of all the geographers and 
 higtorians who have taken occasion to treat of the 
 . subject. This acknowledgment, for more than three 
 hundred years, which would seem to preclude all ques- 
 tion in regard to its authenticity at this late day, has, 
 however, been due more to the peculiar circumstanced 
 of its publication than to any evidence of its truth. 
 The only account of it which exists, is contained in ar 
 letter purporting to have been written by the disco- 
 verer himself, ^and is not corroborated by the testimony 
 of any other person, or sustained by any documentary 
 proof, fi was not published to the world until it 
 1 . 
 
A VERRAZZANO. 
 
 appeared for the first time in Italy, the birth place of 
 the navigator, more than thirty years after the trans- 
 actions to which it relates are alleged to have taken 
 place ; and it has not," up to the present time, received 
 any confirmation in the history of France, whose sove- 
 reign, it is averted, sent forth the expedition, and to 
 whose crown the right of the discovery accordingly 
 attached. Yet it is not difiicult to comprehend how 
 the story, appealing to the patriotic sym^thies of 
 Ramusio, was inconsiderately adopted by him, and in- 
 serted in his famous collection of voyages, and thus 
 receiving his sanction, was not unwillingly accepted, 
 upon his authority, by the French nation, whose glory 
 it advanced, without possibly its having any real 
 foundation. And as there never was any colonization 
 or attempt at possession of the country in consequence 
 of the alleged discovery, or any assertion of title under 
 it, except in a single instance of a comparatively 
 modern date, and with no important bearing, it is no 
 less easy to understand, how thus adopted and pro- 
 mulgated by the only coui^ries interested in the ques- 
 tion, the claim was admitted by other nations withgut 
 challenge or dispute, and has thus become incorpo- 
 rated into modern history without investigation. 
 
 Although the claim has never been regarded of any 
 practical importance in the settlement of the country,- it 
 has nevertheless possessed an historical and geograph- 
 ical interest in connection with the origin and pro- 
 gress of maritime discovery on this continent. Our 
 own writers assuming its validity, without investiga- 
 tion, have been content to trace, if possible, the route of 
 Verrazzano and point out the places he expired, seek- 
 
THE VOYAGE. 3 
 
 ing- merely to reconcile the account with the actual 
 condition and situation of the country. Their ex- 
 planations, though sometimes plausible, are often con- 
 tradictory, and not unfrequently absurd. Led into 
 an examination of its merits with impressions in its 
 favor, we have nevertheless been compelled to adopt 
 the conclusion of a late American writer, that it is 
 iltterly fictitious.^ The grounds upon which our con- 
 viction rests we propose now to state. Some docu- 
 ments will be introduced, for the first time here brought 
 to light, wiiich will serve further to elucidate the ques- 
 tion, and show the career and ultimate fate of Ver- 
 razzano. 
 
 The letter, in which the pretension is advanced, pro- 
 fesses tor be addressed by Verrazzano to the king of 
 France, at that time Francis I, from Dieppe, in Nor- 
 mandy, the 8th of July (0. S.), 1524, on his return to 
 that port from a voyage, undertaken by order of the 
 king, for the purpose of finding new countries ; and to 
 give an account. of the discoveries which he had-accorc^ 
 ingly made. He first reminds his majesty that, after 
 starting with four ships, originally composing the expe- 
 dition, he was compelled by storms, encountered on the 
 northern coasts, to put into Brittany in distress, with 
 the loss of two of them ; and that after repairing there 
 the others, called the Normanda and Delfina {Datjb- 
 pMne), he made a cruize with thisy?ee^ of war, as t||ey 
 are styled, along the coast of Spain. He finally pro- 
 ceeded on the voyage of discovery with the Pauphine 
 
 ' An Ivjqvbiry into (he Auihentidiy of Documents concerning a Discovery in 
 North America clavmed to ham ieen made by Yerraizano. Bead before thg 
 New York Historical Society, Tuesday, October Mi, 1864 By BucMngham 
 New York, 1864. pp. 31, and a map. 
 
4 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 alone, setting sail from a desolate rock near the island 
 of Madeira, on the 17th of January, 1524, with fifty 
 men, and provisions for eight months, besides the 
 necessary munitions of war. This voyage, therefore, 
 is to be regarded, according to the representations 
 here made, to have been begun with the sailing of 
 the four ships, from Dieppe, in the preceding year.^ 
 On leaving Madeira they pursued a westerly course 
 for eight hundred leagues and then, inclining a little 
 to the north, ran four hundred leagues more, when on 
 the 7th of March^ they fell upon a " country never 
 before seen by any one either in ancient or modern 
 times." It seemed very low and stretched to the. south, 
 in which direction they sailed along it for the purpose 
 of finding a harbor wherein their ship might ride in 
 safety ; but discovering none in a distance of fifty 
 
 • ' Some -writers have regarded this introductory as referring to two voy- 
 ages or cruizes, one with the four ships before the disaster, and the other 
 with the Dauphine afterwards. But it seems clear from their being de- 
 scribed as assailed by tempests in the north, which compelled them to run 
 Into Brittany for safety, that they were not far distant from Dieppe when 
 the storms overtook them ; and must have been either on their way out or 
 qp their return to that port. If they were on their return from a voyage to 
 America, as Charlevoix infers (Fastes Ohronologiques, 1523-4), or simply 
 from a cruize, as Mr. Brevoort supposes, they would, after making their 
 repairs, have proceeded home to Dieppe, instead of making a second 
 voyage. They must, therefore, be regarded as on their way from Dieppe. 
 The idea of a voyage having been performed before the storms, seems to 
 be due to an alteration which Ramusio made in this portion of the letter, 
 by introducing the word " success," as of the four ships. Charlevoix ex- 
 pressly refers to Ramusio as his authority and Mr. Brevoort makes a 
 pal%)hrase from the Carli and Ramusio versions combined. (Ifoies on the 
 Verrazano Map in Journal of the Am. Oeog. Society of New York, vol. 
 IV, pp. 172-3.) 
 
 " There is some ambiguity in the account, as to the time when they first 
 saw land. The letter reads as follows : " On the 17th of last January we 
 set sail from a desolate rock near the island of Madeira, and sailing west- 
 ward, in twenty-five days we ran eight hundred leagues. On the 24th of 
 February, we encountered as violent a hurricane as any ship ever weath- 
 ered. Pursuing our voyage toward the west, a little northwardly, in 
 twenty-four days more, having run four hundred leagues, we reached a new 
 
THE VOYAGE. 
 
 leagues, they retraced their course, and ran to the 
 north with no bettfer success. They therefore drew 
 in with the land and sent a boat ashore, and had their 
 first communication with the inhabitants, who regarded 
 them with wonder. These people are described as 
 going naked, except around their loins, and as being 
 hlach. The land, rising somewhat from the shore, was 
 covered with thick forests, which sent forth the sweetest 
 fragrance to a great distance. They supposed it ad- 
 joined the Orient, and for that reason was not devoid 
 of medicinal and aromatic drugs and gold ; and being 
 m latitude 34^ N., was possessed of a pure, salubrious 
 and healthy climate. They sailed thence westerly for 
 a short distance and then' northerly, when at the end 
 of fifty leagues they arrived before a land of great forests, 
 where they landed and found luxuriant vines entwin- 
 ing the trees and producing sweet and lusckms grapes 
 of which they ate, tasting not unlike their own ; and 
 from whence they carried off a boy about eight years 
 old, for the purpose of taking him to Prance. Coast- 
 ing thence northeasterly for one hundred' leagues^ sail- 
 ing only in the day time and not making any harbor 
 in the whole of that distance, they came to a pleasant 
 situation among steep hills, from whence a large river 
 ran into the sea. Leaving, in consequence of a rising 
 
 country," &c. If the Jtwenty-four days be calculatefl from the 24th of 
 February, the landfall would have taken place on the 20th of March ; but 
 if reckoned from the first twenty -five days run, it would have been on the 
 7th of that month. Ramusio changes the distajice first sailed from 800 to 
 500 leagues ; the day when they encountered the storm from the 24th to the 
 20th of Februafy ; and the twenty-four days last run to toenty-five; mak- 
 ing the landfall occur on the 17th or 10th of March according to the mode 
 of calculating the days last run. As it is stated, afterwards, that they en- 
 countered a gale while at anclwr on the coast, early in March, the 7th of 
 that month must be taken as the^me of the landfall. 
 
b VEREAZZANO. 
 
 storm, this river, into which they had entered for a 
 short distance with their boat, and where they saw many 
 of the natives in their -ccwioes, they sailed directly east 
 for eighty leagues, when they discovered an island of 
 triangular shape, about ten leagues from the main 
 land, equal in size to the island of Rhodes. This island 
 they named after the mother of the king of France. 
 Without landing wpon it, they proceeded to a harbor 
 fifteen leagues beyond, at the entrance of a large bay, 
 twelve leagues hroad, where they came to anchor and 
 remained for fifteen days. They encountered here a 
 people with whom they formed a great friendship, dif- 
 ferent in appearance from the natives whom they first 
 saw, — these having a white complexion. The men 
 were tall and well formed, and the women graceful 
 and possessed of pleasing manners. There were two 
 kings among them, who were attended in state by 
 their gentlemen, and a queen who had, her waiting 
 maids. This country was situated in latitude 41° 40' 
 N, in the parallel of Rome ; and was very fertile and 
 abounded with game. They left it on the 6th of May, 
 and sailed one hundred and fifty leagues, constantly 
 in sight of the la/nd which stretcheB. to the east. In 
 this long distance they made no landing, but proceeded 
 fifty leagues further along the land, which inclined 
 more to the north, when they went ashore and found 
 a people exceedingly barbarous and hostile. Leaving 
 them and continuing their course northeasterly for 
 fifty leagues fv/rthsr, they discovered within that dis- 
 tance thirtjfc-two islands. And finally, alter having 
 sailed between east and north one hundred and fifty 
 leagues rrwre, they reached the fiftieth.degree of north 
 latitude, where the Pq^tugudSe had commenced their 
 
THE yOTAGE. 7 
 
 discoveries towards the Arctic circle; when finding 
 their provisions nearly exhausted, they took in wood 
 and water and returned to Prance, having coasted, it 
 is stated, along an unknown country for seven Tvwrtdred 
 leagues. In conclusion, it is added, they had found it 
 inhabited by a people without religion, but easily to be 
 persuaded, and imitating with fervor the acts of Christ- 
 ian worship performed by the discoverers. 
 
 The description of the voyage is followed by what 
 the writer calls a cosmography, in which is shown the 
 distance they had sailed from the time they left the 
 desert rocks at Madeira, and the probable size of 
 the new world as . compared with the old, with the 
 relative area of land and water on the whole globe. 
 There is nothing striking or important in this supple- 
 ment, except that it emphasizes and enforces the state- 
 ments of the former part of the letter in regard to the 
 landfall, fixes the exact point of their departure from 
 the coast for home again at 50° N. latitude, and gives 
 seven hundred leagues as the extent of the discorvery. 
 The length of a longitudinal degree along the parallel 
 of thirty-four, in which it is reiterated they first made 
 land, and between which and the parallel of thirty- 
 two they had sailed from the Desertas, is calculated 
 and found to be fifty-two miles, and the whole number 
 of degrees which they had traversed across the ocean 
 between those parallels, being twelve hundred leagues, 
 or forty-eight hundred miles, is by simple division 
 tnade ninety-two. The object of this calculation is 
 not apparent, and strikes the reader as if it were a 
 feeble imitation of the manner in which 'Amerigo 
 Vespucci illustrates his letters. A statement is made. 
 
8 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 that they took the sun's altitude from day to day, and 
 noted the observations, together with the rise and fall 
 of the tide, in a little book, which was " communicated 
 to his majesty, in the hope of promoting science." 
 It is also mentioned that they had no lunar eclipses, 
 by means of which they could have ascertained the 
 longitude during the voyage. This fact is shown by 
 the tables of Regiomontanus, which had been pub- 
 lished long before -the alleged voyage, and were open 
 to the world. The statement of it here, therefore, 
 does not, as has been supposed, furnish any evidence 
 in support of the narrative, by reason of its originality. 
 Such is the account, in brief, which the letter gives 
 of the origin, nature and extent of the alleged disco- 
 very ; and as it assumes to be the production of the 
 navigator himself, and is the only source of informa- 
 tion on the subject, it suggests all the questions which 
 arise in this inquiry. These relate both tot^e genuine- 
 ness of the letter, and the truth of its statements ; and 
 accordingly bring under consideration the circum- 
 stances under which that instrument was made known 
 and has received credit ; the alleged promotion of the 
 voyage by the king of Prance ; and the results claimed 
 to have been accomplished therel^. It will be made 
 to appear upon this examination, that the letter, ac- 
 cording to the evidence upon which its existence is 
 predicated, could not have been written by Verraz- 
 zano ; that the instrumentality of the king of France, 
 in any such expedition of discovery as therein de- 
 scribed, is unsupported by the history of that country, 
 and is inconsistent with the acknowledged ac£s. of 
 Francis and his successors, and therefore incredible ; 
 
THE VOYAGE. y 
 
 and that its description of the coast and some of 
 the physical characteristics of the people and of the 
 country are essentially false, and prove that the writer 
 could not have made them from his own personal 
 knowledge and experience, as pretended. And, in 
 conclusion, it will be shown that its apparent know- 
 ledge of the direction and extent of the coast was 
 derived from the exploration of Estevan Gomez, a Por- 
 tuguese pilot in the service of the king of Spain, and 
 that Verrazzano, at the time of his pretended discovery, 
 was actually engaged in a corsairial expedition, sailing 
 under the French flag, in a different part of the ocean. 
 
 The Caeavel. 
 
10 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 II.' 
 
 The Vbkrazzano Letter not Genuine. 
 
 No proof that tlie letter ascribed to Verrazzano, was 
 written by him, has ever been produced. The letter 
 itself has never been exhibited, or referred to in any 
 authentic document, or mentioned by any contemporary 
 or later historian as being in existence, and although 
 it falls within the era of modem history, not a single 
 fact which it professes to describe relating to the fitting 
 out of the expedition, the voyage, or the discovery, 
 is corroborated by other testimony, whereby its genu- 
 ineness might even be inferred. The only evidence in 
 regard to it, relates to two copies, as they purport to 
 be, both in the Italian language, one of them coming 
 to us printed and the other in manuscript, but neither 
 of them traceable to the alleged original. They are 
 bo^ of them of uncertain date. The printed copy ap- 
 pears in the work of Ramusio, first published in 1556, 
 when Verrazzano and Francis I, the parties to it, were 
 both dead, and a generation of men had almost passed 
 away since the events which it announced had, ac- 
 cording to its authority, taken place, and probably no 
 one connected with the government of France at that 
 time could have survived to gainsay the story, were 
 it untrue.^ Ramusio does not state when or how he 
 
 1 Verrazzano died in 1537 ; Louise, the mother of Francis I in Septem- 
 ber, 1532 ; and Francis himself in March, 1547. 
 
THE LETTER NOT GENUINE. 11 
 
 obtained what he published. In the preface to the 
 volume in which it is printed, dated three years before, 
 he merely speaks of the narrative incidentally, but in 
 a discourse preceding it, he obscurely alludes to the 
 place where he folind it, remarking that it was the 
 only letter of Verrazzano that he had " been able to 
 have, because the others had got astray in the troubles 
 of the unfortunate city of Florence." The origin of the 
 manuscripwersion is equally involved in mystery. It 
 forms part of a codex which contains also a copy of 
 a letter purporting to have been written by Fernando 
 Carli, from Lyons to his father in Florence, on the 4th 
 of August, 1524, giving an account of the arrival of 
 Verrazzano at Dieppe, and inclosing a copy of his let- 
 ter to the King. The epistles of Carli and Verrazzano 
 are thus connected together in the manuscript in fact, 
 and by reference in that of Carli, making the copy of 
 the Verrazzano letter a part of Carli's, and so to relate 
 to the same date. But as the Carli letter in the manu- 
 script is itself only a copy, there is nothing to show 
 when that was really written ; nor is it stated when 
 the manuscript itself was made. All that is positively 
 known in regard to the latter is, that it was mentioned 
 in 1768, as being then in existence in the Strozzi Hbrary 
 in Florence. When it came into that collection does 
 not appear, but as that library was not founded until 
 1627, its history cannot be traced before that year.^ 
 Its chirography, however, in the opinion of some com- 
 petent persons who have examined it, indicates that 
 it was written in the middle of the sixteenth century. 
 
 ' Iter Italicvm von D. Friedrieh Blume. Band n, 81. Halle, 1837. 
 
12 VEEEAZZANO. 
 
 There is, therefore, nothing in the history or character 
 of the publication in Ramusio or the manuscript, to 
 show that the letter emanated from Yerrazzano. 
 Neither of them is traceable to him ; neither of them 
 was printed at a time when its publication, without 
 contradiction, might be regarded as an admission or 
 acknowledgment by the world of a genuine original ; 
 and neither of them is found to have existed early 
 ^ of such an 
 
 original by reason of their giving the earliest account 
 of the coasts and country claimed to have been dis- 
 covered. On the contrary, these two documents of 
 themselves, when their nature and origin are rightly 
 understood, serve to prove that the Verrazzano letter 
 is not a genuine production. For this purpose it will 
 be necessary to state more fully their history and 
 character. 
 
 The existence of the copy which, in consequence of 
 its connection in the same manuscript with that of the 
 CarU letter, may be designated as the Carli version, is 
 first mentioned in an eulogy or life of Verrazzano in 
 the series of portraits of illustrious Tuscans, printed 
 in Florence in 1767-8, as existing in the Strozzi 
 library.^ The author calls attention to the fact, that 
 it contains a part of the letter which is omitte^ by 
 Ramusio. In another eulogy of the navigator, by a 
 different hand, G. P. (Pelli), put forth by the same 
 printer in the following year, the writer, referring to 
 the publication of thp letter of Ramusio, states that an 
 addition to it, describing the distances to the places 
 
 ' Berie di BitraiU d' Uomini Ilhistn Toaeani con gli dogj istorici dei mede- 
 simi. Vol. secondo. Firenze, 1768. 
 
THE LETTER NOT aENUINE. .13 
 
 where Verrazzano had been, was inserted in writing 
 in a copy of the work of Ramusio, in the possession 
 at that time of the Verrazzano family ia Florence. 
 These references were intended to show the existence 
 of. the cosmography, which Tiraboschi afterwards 
 mentions, giving, however, the first named eulogy as 
 his authority. No portion of the Carli copy appeared 
 in print until 1841, when through the instrumentality 
 of Mr. Greene, the American consul at Rome, it was 
 printed in the collections of the New York Historical 
 Society, accompanied by a translation into English by 
 the late Dr. Cogswell. It was subsequently printed in 
 the Archivio Storico Italiano at Florence, in 1853, 
 with some immaterial corrections, and a preliminary 
 discourse on Verrazzano, by M. ArcangeH. From an 
 inspection of the codex in the library, where it then 
 existed in Florence, M. Arcangeli supposes the manu- 
 script was written in the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury. This identical copy was, therefore, probably in 
 existence when Ramusio published his work. Upon 
 comparing the letter as given by Ramusio with the 
 manuscript, the former, besides wanting the cosmo- 
 graphy, is found to differ from the latter almost entirely 
 in language, and very materially in substance, though 
 agreeing with it in its elementary character and pur- 
 pose. The two, therefore, cannot be copies of the 
 same original. Either they are different versions from 
 some other language, or one of them must be a recom- 
 position of the other in the language in which they 
 now are found. In regard to their being both tr|(ns- 
 lated from the French, the only other language in 
 which the letter can be supposed to have been written 
 
14 . VEERAZZANTO. 
 
 besides the native tongue of Verrazzano, although it 
 is indeed most reasonable to suppose that such a letter, 
 addressed to the king of France, on the results of an 
 expedition of the crown, by an officer in his service, 
 would have been written in that language, it is, never- 
 theless, highly improbable that any letter could, in 
 this instance, have been so addressed to the King, 
 and two different translations made from it into 
 Italian, one by Carli in Lyons in 1524, and the other 
 by Ramusio in Venice twenty-nine years afterwards, 
 and yet no copy of it in French, or any memorial of 
 its existence in that language be known. This ex- 
 planation must therefore be abandoned. If on the 
 other hand, one of these copies was so rendered from 
 the French, or from an original in either form in 
 which it appears in Italian, whether by Verrazzano 
 or not, the other must have been rewritten from it. 
 It is evidjent, however, that the Carli version could 
 not have been derived from that contained in Eamusio, 
 because.it contains an entire part consisting of several 
 pages, embracing the cosmographical explanations of 
 the voyage, not found in the latter. As we are restricted 
 to these two copies as the sole authority for the letter, 
 and are, therefore, governed in any conclusion on this 
 subject by what they teach, it must be determined 
 that the letter in Ramusio is a version of that contained 
 in the Carli manuscript. This suggestion is not new. 
 It was made by Mr. Greene in his monograph on 
 Verrazzano, without his following it to the conclusion to 
 wljjch it inevitably leads. If the version in Jlamusio. 
 be a recomposition of the Carli copy, an important step 
 is gained towards determining the origin of the Verraz- 
 
THE LETTER NOT GENUINE. 15 
 
 zano letter, as in that case the inquiry is brought down 
 to the consideration of the authenticity of the Carli 
 letter, of which it forms a part. But before proceeding 
 to that question, the reasons assigned by Mr. Greene, 
 and some incidental facts stated by him in connection 
 with them, should be given. He says : 
 
 " The Strozzi Library is no longer in existence ; but the raanut 
 scripts of that collection passed into the hands jfof the Tuscan 
 government, and were divid(|d between the Magliabechian and 
 Laurentian libraries of Florence. The historical documents were 
 deposited in the former. Among them was the cosmographieal nar- 
 ration of Verrazzano mentioned by Tiraboschi, and which Mr. 
 Bancroft expresses a desire to see copied for the Historical Society 
 of New York. It is contained in a volume of Miscellanies, marked 
 " Class XIII. Cod. 89. Verrazj'' and forms the concluding portion 
 of the letter to Francis the First, which is copied at length in the 
 same volume. It is written in the common running hand of the 
 sixteenth century {carrattere corstvo), tolerably distinct, but badly 
 pointed. The whole volume, which is composed of miscellaneous 
 pieces, chiefly relating to contemporary history, is evidently the work 
 of the same hand. 
 
 " Upon collating this manuscript with that part of the letter which 
 was published by Kamusio, we were struck with thi differences in 
 language which run through every paragraph of the two texts. In 
 substance there is no important difference,! except in one instance, 
 where, by an evident blunder of the transcriber, hianchisdmo is 
 put for hranzino. ^here is something so peculiar in the style of this 
 letter, as it reads in the manuscript of the Magliabechian, that it is 
 impossible to account for its variations from Kamusio, except by 
 supposing that this editor worked the whole piece over anew, cor- 
 recting the errors of language upon his own authority.^ These 
 
 • In this statement Mr. Greene was mistaken, as will be manifested in a 
 comparison of the two texts hereafter given, in which the difference of 
 language will also appear. 
 
 ^ Mr. Greene adds in a note to this passage :" He did so also with the trans- 
 lation of Marco Polo. See Apostolo Zeno, Annot. alia Bib. Ital. del Fon- 
 tanini, torn. II, p. 300; ed. di Parma. 1804" There is another instance 
 mentioned by Amoretti, in the preface to his translation of Pigafetta's jour- 
 nal of Magellan's voyage, and that was with Fabre's translation of the 
 copy of the journal given by Pigafetta, to the mother of Francis I. Pre- 
 mier wyage autour du monde. xxxii. (Jansen, Paris I'an rx.) 
 
16 VERRAZZANO, 
 
 errors indeed are numerous, and the wbole exhibits a strange mix- 
 ture of Latinisms i and absolute barbarisms with pure Tuscan words 
 and phrases. The general cast of it, however, is simple and not 
 unpleasing. The obscurity of many of the sentences is, in a §p:eat 
 measure, owing to false pointing. 
 
 " The cosmographioal description forms the last three pages of 
 the letter. It was doubtless intentionally omitted by Kamusio, though 
 it would be difScult to say why. Some of the readings are appa- 
 Mntly corrupt ; nor, ignorant as we are of nautical science, was it 
 in our power to correct them. There are also some slight mistakes, 
 which must be attributed to the tran|^riber. 
 
 " A letter which follows that of Verrazzano, gives, as it seems to 
 us, a sufficient explanation of the origin of this manuscript. It 
 was written by a young Florentine, named Fernando Carli, and is 
 addressed from Lyons to his father in Florence. It mentions the 
 arrival of Verrazzano at Dieppe, and contains several circumstances 
 about him, which throw a new though still a feeble light upon parts 
 of his histojfy, hitherto wholly unknown. It is by the discovery 
 of this letter, that we have been enabled to form a sketch of him, 
 somewhat more complete than any which has ever yet been given. 
 
 " The history of both manuscripts is probably as follows : Oarli 
 wrote to his father, thinking, as he himself tells it, that the news of 
 Verrazzano's return would give great satisfaction to many of their 
 friends in Florence. He added at the same time, and this also we 
 learn from his%wn words, a copy of Verrazzano's letter to the king. 
 Both his letter and his copy of Verrazzano's were intended to be 
 shown to his Florentine acquaintances. Copies, as is usual in such 
 cases, were taken of them ; and to us it Seems evident that from some 
 one of these the copy in the Magliabechian manuscript was derived. 
 The appearance of this last, which was prepared for some individual 
 fond of collecting miscellaneous documents, if not by him, is a suffi- 
 cient eorrobrfration of our statement." 2 
 
 .^opting the Carli copy as the primitive form of 
 the Verrazzano letter, and the Carli letter as the 
 original means by which it has been communicated to 
 
 ' An instance of these Latinisms is the signature " Janus Verrazzanus," 
 affixed to the letter. 
 
 ^ Sistorical Studies : by George Washington Greene, New York, 1850 ; 
 p. 333. Life and Voyages of Veiramino (by the same), in the Mrth Ameri- 
 can Semew for October, 1837. (Vol. 45, p. 306). 
 
THE LETTER NOT GENUINE. 17 
 
 the world, the inquiry is resolved into the authenticity 
 of the Carli letter. There are sufficient reasons to 
 denounce this letter as a pure invention ; and in order 
 to present those reasons more clearly, we here give a 
 translation of it in full : 
 
 Letter of Fernando Garli to his Father, i 
 
 In the name of God. , 
 
 t 4 August, jlp24. 
 
 Honorable Father : . 
 
 Considering that when I was in the armada in Barbary at Garbich 
 the news were advised you daily from the illustrious Sig. Don Hugo 
 de Moncada, Captain General of the Csesarean Majesty in those 
 barbarous parts, [of what] happened in contending with the Moors 
 of that island ; by which it appears you caused pleasure to many of 
 our patrons and friends and congratulated yourselves on the victory 
 achieved : so there being here news recently of the arrival of Captain 
 Giovanni da Verrazzano, our Florentine, at the port of Dieppefin 
 Normandy, with his ship, the Dauphiny,with which he sailed from the 
 Canary islands the end of last January, to go in search of new lands 
 for this most serene crown of France, in which he displayed very 
 nobletand great courage in undertaking such an unknown voyage 
 with only one ship, which was a caravel of hardly — tons, with only 
 fifty men, with the intention, if possible, of discovering Cathay, taking 
 a course through other climates than those the Portuguese use in 
 reaching it by the way of Calicut, but going towards the northwest 
 and north, entirely believing that, although Ptolemy, Aristotle and 
 other cosmographers affirm that no land is to be found towards such 
 climates, he would find it there nevertheless. And so God has 
 vouchsafed him as he distinctly describes in a letter of his to this 
 S. M. ; of which, in-this, there is a copy. And for want of provi- 
 sions, after many months spent in navigating, he asserts he was 
 forced to return from that hemisphere into this, and having been 
 
 ' ' The letter of Carli was first published in 1844, with the discourse of 
 Mr. Grreene on Verrazzano, in the Saggiatore (i, 357), a Roman journal 
 of history, the fine arts and philology. (M. Arcangeli, Diseorso sopra 
 Giovanni da Verrazzano, p. 35, in AroMmo Storico ItaMano. Appendice 
 torn. K.) It will be found in our appendix, according to the reprint in the 
 latter work. 
 
 3 
 
18 VEKRAZZANO. 
 
 seven months on the voyage, to show a very great and rapid passage, 
 and to have achieved a wonderful and most extraordinary feat 
 according to those who understand the seamanship of the world. Of 
 which at the commencement of his said voyage there was an unfa- 
 vorable opinion formed, and many thought there would be no more 
 news either of him or of his vessel, but that he might be lost on 
 that side of Norway, in consequence of the great ice which is in 
 that northern ocean ; but the Great Grod, as the Moor said, in oilier 
 to give us every day proofs of his infinite power and »how us how 
 admirable is this worldly machine, has displosed to him a breadth of 
 land, a^ou will perceive, of such extent that accordingito good rea- 
 sons, and the degrees of latitude and longitude, he alleges and shows 
 it greater than Europe, Africa and a part of Asia ; ergo mundus 
 novus : and this exclusive of what the Spaniards have discovered in 
 several years in the west ; as it is hardly a year since Fernando 
 Magellan returned, who discovered a great country with one ship out 
 of the five sent on the discovery. From whenSe he brought spices 
 much more excellent than the usual ; and of his other ships no news 
 has transpired for five years. They are supposed to be lost. What 
 thi^ our captain has brought he does not state in this letter, except 
 a very young man taken from those countries; but it is supposed he 
 has brought a sample of gold which they do npt value in those parts, 
 and of drugs and other aromatic liquors for the purpose of confer- 
 ring here with several merchants after he shall have been in the 
 presence of the Most Serene Majesty. And at this hour he ought 
 to be there, and from choice to come here shortly, as he is much de- 
 sired in order to converse with him ; the more so that he will find 
 here the Majesty, the King, our Lord, who is expected here in three 
 or four days. And we hope that S. M. will entrust him again with 
 half a dozen good vessels and that he will return to the voyage. 
 And if our Francisco Carli be returned from Cairo, advise him to 
 go, at a venture, on the said voyage with him ; and I believe they 
 were acquainted at Cairo where he has been several years ; and not 
 only in Egypt and Syria, but almost through all the known world, 
 and thence by reason of his merit is esteemed another Amerigo 
 Vespucci, another Fernando Magellan and even more ; and we hope 
 that being provided with other good ships and vessels, well built and 
 properly victualled, he may discover some profitable traffic and mat- 
 ter ; and will, our Lord God granting him life, do honor to our 
 country, in acquiring immortal fame and memory. And Alderotto 
 Brunelleschi who started with him .and by chance turning back was 
 not willing to accompany him further, will, when he hears of this 
 
THE LETTER NOT GENUINE. 19 
 
 be discontented. .Nothing else now occurs to me, as I have advised 
 you by others of what is necessary. I commend myself constantly 
 to you, praying you to impart this to our friends, not forgetting 
 Pierfrancfesco Dagaghiano who in consequence of being an experi- 
 enced person will take much pleasure in it, and commend me to him. 
 Likewise to Kustiehi, who will not be displeased, if he delight, as 
 usual, in learning matters of cosmography. God guard you from all 
 evil. Your son. 
 
 Fernando Carli, in Lyons. 
 
 This letter bears date only twenty-seven days after 
 that of the Verrazzano letter, which is declared to 
 _ be inclosed. To discover its fraudulent nature and the 
 imposition it seeks to practise, it is only necessary to 
 bear this fact in mind, with its pretended origin, in 
 connection with the warlike condition of France and 
 the personal movements of the king, immediately 
 preceding and during the interval between the dates 
 of the two letters. It purports to have been written' ' 
 by Fernando Carli to his father in Florence. Carli 
 is not an uncommon Italian name and probably fe- 
 isted in Florence at that time, but who this Fernando 
 was, has never transpired. He gives in this letter all 
 there is of his biography, which is short. He had 
 formerly been in the service of the emperor, Charles V, 
 under Moncada, in the fleet sent against the Moors 
 in Barbary, and was then in Lyons, where, it might 
 be inferred, from a reference to its merchants, that he 
 was engaged in some mercantile pursuit ; but the 
 reason of his presence there is really unaccounted for. 
 It is not pretended that he held any official position 
 under the king of France. The name of his father, 
 by means of which his lineage might be traced, is 
 not mentioned, but Francisccr Carli is named as of the 
 same family, but without designating his relationship. 
 
20 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 Whether a myth or a reality, Fernando seems to have 
 been an obscure person, at the best ; not known to 
 the political or literary hjstory of the period, and not 
 professing to occupy any position, by which he might 
 be supposed to have any facility or advantage for 
 obtaining official information or the news of the day, 
 over the other inhabitants of Lyons and of France. 
 He is made to say that he writes this letter for the 
 particular purpose of communicating to his father 
 and their friends in Florence, the news, which had 
 reached Lyons, of the arrival of Verrazzano from his 
 wonderful and successful voyage of discovery, and that 
 he had advised his parent of all other matters touching 
 his own interests, by another conveyance. It might 
 be supposed and indeed reasonably expected in a letter 
 thus expressly devoted to Verrazzano, that some cir- 
 cumstance, personal or otherwise, connected with the 
 n^igator or the voyage, or some incident of his dis- 
 covery, besides what was contained in the enclosed let- 
 ter, such as must have reached Lyons, with the news 
 of the return of the expedition, would have been men- 
 tioned, especially, as it would all have been interesting 
 to Florentines. But nothing of the kind is related. 
 Nothing appears in the letter in regard to the expedi- 
 tion that is not found in the Verrazzano letter.* 
 "What is stated in reference to the previous life of 
 Verrazzano, must have been as well known to Carli's 
 father as to himself, if it were true, and is therefore 
 
 'Mr. Greene, in hia life of Verrazzano, remarks tliatit appears from 
 Carli's letter, that the Indian boy whom Verrazzano is stated to have car- 
 ried away, arrived safely in France ; but that is not so. What is said in 
 that letter is, that Verrazzano does not mention in his letter what he had 
 brought home, except this boy. 
 
THE LETTER NOT GE'nUINE. 21 
 
 unnecessarily introduced, and the same may be said 
 of the facts stated in regard to Brunelleschi's starting 
 on the voyage with Verrazzano and afterwards turning 
 back. The particular description of Dagaghiano and 
 Rustichi, both of Florence, the one as a man of expe- 
 rience and the other as a sudent of cosmography, was 
 equally superfluous in speaking of them to his father. 
 These portions of the letter look like flimsy artifices 
 to give the main story the appearance of truth. They 
 may or may not have been true, and it is not incon- 
 sistent with an intention to deceive in regard to the 
 voyage that they should have been either the one or 
 the other. A single allusion, however, is made to the 
 critical condition of affairs in France and the stirring 
 scenes which were being enacted on either side of the 
 city of Xiyons at the moment the letter bears date. It 
 is the mention of the expected (arrival of the king at 
 Lyons within three or four days. It is not stated for 
 what purpose he was coming, but the fact was that 
 . Francis had taken the field in person to repel the 
 Spanish invasion in the south of France, and was then 
 on his way to that portion of his kingdom, by way of 
 Lyons, where he arrived a few days afterwards. The 
 reference to this march of the king fixes beyond all 
 question the date of the letter, as really intended for , 
 the 4th of August, 1524. » 
 
 The movements of Francis at this crisis become 
 important in view of the possibility of the publication 
 in any form of the Verrazzano letter at Lyons, at the 
 last mentioned date, or of the possession of a copy of it 
 there as claimed by Carli in his letter. The army of 
 the emperor, under PeScara and Bourbon, crossed the 
 
22 "VEERAZZANO. 
 
 Alps and entered Provence early in July, and before 
 the date of the Verrazzano letter.^ The intention to 
 do so was known by Francis some time previously. 
 He wrote on the 28tli of June from Amboise, near 
 Tours, to the Proven§aux that he would march imme- 
 diately to their relief;^ and on the 2d of July he 
 announced in a letter to his parliament : " I am going 
 to Lyons to prevent the enemy from entering the 
 kingdom, and I can assure you that Charles de Bour- 
 bon is not yet in France." * He had left his residence 
 at Blois and his capital, and was thus actually engaged 
 in collecting his forces together, on the 8th of July, 
 when the Verrazzano letter is dated. He did not 
 reach Lyons until after the 4th of August, as is cor- 
 rectly stated in the Carli letter.* 
 
 The author of the Carli letter, whether the person 
 he pretends to have been or not, asserts that news of 
 the arrival of Verrazzano at Dieppe on his return from 
 his voyage of discovery had reached Lyons, and that 
 the navigator himself was expected soon to be in that 
 city for the purpose of conferring with its merchants 
 on the subject of the new countries which he had dis- 
 covered, and had described in a letter to the king, a 
 copy of which letter was enclosed. He thus explicitly 
 , declares not only that news of the discovery had 
 greached Lyons, but that the letter to the king was 
 known to the merchants at that place, and that a copy 
 
 ' Letter of Bourbon. Byer's Europe, 443. 
 
 ' Sismondi, xvi, 316, 317. 
 
 ' Gaillard, Histoire de Francois Premier, torn, ni, 173 (Paris, 1769). 
 
 * Letter of Moncada in Doo. ined. patra la Hist, de -Elspana, torn, xxrv, 
 403, and Letters of Pace to Wolsey in State Papers of the reign of Henry 
 nil, vol. IV, Part I, 589, 606. , 
 
THE LETTER. NOT GENUINE. 23 
 
 of it was then actually in his possession and sent with 
 his own. The result of the expedition was, therefore, 
 notorious, and the letter, had attained general publicity 
 at Lyons, without the presence there of either Francis 
 or Verrazzano. 
 
 This statement must be false. Granting that such 
 a letter, as is ascribed to Verrazzano, had been written, 
 it was impossible that this obscure young man at 
 Lyons, hundreds of miles from Dieppe, Paris and 
 Blois, away from the king and court and from Verraz- 
 zano, not only at a great distance from them all, but 
 at the point to which the king was hastening, and 
 had not reached, on his way to the scene of war in the 
 southern portion of his kingdom, could have come 
 into the possession of this document in less than a 
 month after it purports to have been written for the 
 king in a port far in the north, on the coast of Nor- 
 mandy. It obviously could not have been delivered 
 to him personally by Verrazzano, who had not been 
 at Lyons, nor could it have been transmitted to him 
 by the navigator, who had not yet presented himself 
 before the king, and could have had no authority to 
 communicate it to any person. It was an official* 
 report, addressed to the king, and intended for his 
 eye alone, until the monarch himself chose to make 
 it public. It related to an enterprise of the crown, 
 and eminently concerned its interests and prerogatives, 
 in the magnitude and importance of the new countries ; 
 and could not have been sent by Verraz?|.no, without 
 permission, to a private person, and especially a for- 
 eigner, without subjecting himself to ihe charge of 
 disloyalty, if not of treason, which there is no other 
 
24 VEREAZZANO, 
 
 evidence to sustain. On the other hand it could not 
 have been delivered by the king to this Carli. It is 
 not probable, even if such a letter could have come 
 into the hands of Francis, absent from his capital in 
 the midst of warlike preparations, engaged in forming 
 his army and en route for the scene of the invasion, 
 that he could have given it any consideration. But if 
 he had received it and considered its import, there was 
 no oflBcial or other relation between him and Carli, or 
 any motive for him to send it forward in advance 
 of his coming to Lyons, to this young and obscure 
 alien. There was no possibility, therefore, of Carli 
 obtaining possession of a private copy of the letter 
 through Verrazzano or the king. 
 
 The only way open to him, under the most favorable 
 circumstances, would have been through some pub- 
 licity, by proclamation or printing, by order of the 
 king ; in which case, it would have been given for the . 
 benefit of all his subjects. It is impossible that it 
 could have been seen and copied by this young for- 
 eigner alone and in the city of Lyons, and that no 
 other copies would have been preserved in all France. 
 The idea of a publication is thus forbidden. 
 
 No alternative remains except to pronounce the 
 whole story a fabrication. The Carli letter is untrue. 
 It did not inclose any letter of Verrazzano of the 
 character pretended. And as it is the only authority 
 for the existence of any such letter, that falls with it. 
 
NO DISCOVERY MADE FOR FRANCIS I. '25 
 
 III. 
 
 -Thb Letter untrue. I. I^o Votagei or Discovert made 
 FOR the King of France, as it states* 
 
 All the circumstances relating to the existence of 
 the "Verrazzano letter thus prove that it was not the 
 production of Verrazzano at the time and place it 
 purports to have been written by him. We pass now 
 to the question of its authenticity, embracing the 
 consideration of its own statements and the external 
 evidence which exists upon the subject. 
 
 The" letter professes to give the origin and results of 
 the voyage ; that is, the agency of the king of France 
 in sending forth the expedition, and the discoveries 
 actually accomplished by it. In both respects it is 
 essentially untrue. It commences by declaring that 
 Verrazzano sailed under the orders and on behalf of 
 the king of France, for the purpose of finding new 
 countries, and that the account then presented was a 
 degcription of the discoveries made in pursuance of 
 such instructions. That no such voyage or discoveries 
 were made fi)r that monarch is clearly deducible from 
 the history of France. Neither the- letter, nor any 
 document, chronicle, memoir, or history of any kind, 
 public or private, printed or in manuscript, belonging 
 to that period, or the reign of Francis I, who then bore 
 the crown, mentioning or in any manner referring to 
 4 
 
26 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 it, or to the voyage and discovery, has ever been found 
 in France ; and neither Francis himself, nor any of 
 his successors, ever acknowledged or in any manner 
 recognized such discovery, or asserted jmder it any 
 right to the possession of the country ; but, on the 
 contrary, both he and they ignored it, in undertaking 
 colonization in that region by virtue of other disco- 
 veries made under their authority, or with their 
 permission, by their subjects. 
 
 I. That no evidence of the Verrazzano discovery 
 ever existed in France, is not only necessarily pre- 
 sumed from the circumstance that none has ever been 
 produced, but is inferentially established by the fact 
 that all the French writers and historians, who have 
 had occasion to consider the subject, have derived 
 their information in regard to it from the Italian 
 so-called copies of the letter, and until recently from 
 that in Ramusio alone. No allusion to the discovery, 
 by any of them, occurs until several years after the 
 work of Ramusio was published, when for the first 
 time it is mentioned in the account written by Ribault, 
 in 1563, of his voyage to Florida and attempted colo- 
 nization at Port Royal in South Carolina, in the 
 previous year.' .Ribault speaks of it very briefly, in 
 connection with the discoveries of Sebastian Cabot alud 
 others, as having no practical results, and states that 
 he had derived his information in regard to it, from 
 what Verrazzano had written, thus clearly referring to 
 the letter. He adds that Verrazzano made another 
 voyage to America afterwards, "where at last he died." 
 As Ramusio is the only authority known for the lat- 
 ter statement, it is evident that Ribault must have had 
 
NO DISCOVERY MADE FOR FRANCIS I. '27 
 
 his work before him, and consequently his version of 
 the letter, when he prepared this account.^ In the 
 relation written by Laudoniere in 1566, but not printed 
 until 1586, of all three of the expeditions sent out from 
 France, for the colonization of the French protestants, 
 mention is again made of the discoveries of Verrazzano. 
 Laudoniere gives no authority, but speaks of thein in 
 terms which show that he made his compend from the 
 discourse of the French captain«of Dieppe, published 
 by Ramusio in the same volume, in connection with 
 the Verrazzano letter. He says that Verrazzano " was 
 sent by King Francis the First and Madame the 
 Regent, his mother, into these new countries." In 
 thus associating the queen mother with the king in 
 the prosecution of the enterprise Laudoniere com- 
 mits the same mistake as is made in the discourse 
 in that respect. Louise did not become regent until 
 after the return of Verrazzano is stated to have taken 
 place, and after both his letter and that of Carli are 
 represented to have been written.^ In adopting this 
 • error it is plain that Laudoniere must have taken it 
 
 ' The original narrative of Ribault, in French, has never appeared in 
 print. It was probably suppressed at the time for political reasons, as the 
 colony was intended for the benefit of the protestants of France. It was, 
 however, translated immediately into English and printed in 1563, under 
 the following title: " The- wliole and true discoverye of Terra Florida &c 
 never found out before the last year, 1563. Written in French by Captain 
 Eibault &c and now newly set forthe inEnglishe the XXX of May, 1563. 
 Prynted at London, by Rowland Hall, for Thomas Hacket." This trans- 
 lation was reprinted by Hakluyt in his first work, BimrB Voyages, in 1583 ; 
 but was omitted by him in his larger collections, and the account by 
 Laudoniere, who accompanied Ribault, of that and the two subsequent 
 expeditions, substituted in its stead. 
 
 " The edict appointing Louise regent, was dated at Pignerol, the 17th of 
 October, 1534, when Francis was en route for Milan. Isambert, BecueU, &c. , 
 torn. XII, part i, p. 330. 
 
28 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 from tte work of Ramusio, as the discourse of the 
 French captain is found in no other place, and there- 
 fore used that work. He also speaks of the discovered 
 country being called Francesca, as raentioned in the 
 discourse.^ 
 
 The Verrazzano dipcovery is referred to, for the first 
 time, in any work printed in France, in 1570, in a 
 small folio volume called the Universal Mistmy of the 
 World, by Francois 4e Belleforest, a compiler of no 
 great authority. In describing Canada, he charac^ 
 terizes the natives as cannibals* and in proof of the 
 charge repeats the story, which is found in Bamusio 
 only, of Verrazzano having been killed, roasted and 
 eaten by them, and then proceeds with a- short account 
 of the country and its inhabitants, derived, as he 
 states, from what Verrazzano had written to King 
 Francis.^ He does not mention where he obtained 
 this account, but his reference to the manner in which 
 Verrazzano came to his death, shows that he had con- 
 sulted the volume of Bamusio. Five years later the 
 same writer gave to the world an enlarged edition of 
 his work, with the title of The Universal Cosmography 
 of the World, in three ponderous folios, in which 
 he recites, more at length, the contents of the Verraz- 
 zano letter, also without mentioning where he had 
 found it, but disclosing nevertheless that it was in 
 Bamusio, by his following the variations of that 
 version, particularly in regard to the complexion of 
 the natives represented to have been first seen, as they 
 
 ^'Basamer, L'Eistoirenoiailede la Floride. (Paris, 1586), fol. 1 - 3. Hak- 
 luyt, III, p. 805. Bamusio, in, fol. 433. (Ed. 1556.) 
 
 'I/Sistoire Unwerselle du Monde. Par Frangois de BeUeforest. (Paris 
 1570, fol. 853-4.) 
 
NO DISCOVERT MADE FOR FRANCIS I. 29 
 
 ■will be hereafter explained.^ This publication of 
 Belleforest is the more importarit, because it is from 
 the abstract of the Verrazzano letter contained in it, 
 that Lesearbot, thirty-four years afterwards, took his 
 account of the voyage and discovery, word for word, 
 without acknowledgment,^ The latter writer has ac- 
 cordingly 'been cited by subsequent authors as an 
 Original authority on the subject, among. others by 
 Bergeron,^ and the commissioners of the king «of 
 France, in the controversy with his Britannic majesty 
 
 ' La OosmographU UniverseUe de tout le Mande, torn, n, part ii, 3175 - 9. 
 (Paris, 1575.) 
 
 ' Eist. de la NoumVs Prance, p. 27, et seq. (ed. 1609). In a subsequent 
 portion of his histciry (p. 344) Lesearbot again refers incidentally to Ver. 
 razzano in connection with Jacques Cartier, to whom he attributes a pre- 
 posterous statement, acknowledging the Verrazzano discovery. He states 
 that in 1533 Cartier made known to Chabot, then admiral of France, his 
 willingness " to discover countries, as the Spanish had done, in the West 
 Indies, and as, nine years before, Jean Verrazzano (had done) under the 
 authority of King Francis I, which Verrazzano, being prevented by death, 
 had not conducted any colony into the lands he had discovered, and had 
 only remarked the coast from about ihethvrtieth degree of theTerre-neuve, 
 which at the present day they call Florida, as far as \ht fortieth. For the 
 purpose of continuing his design, he offered his services, if it were the plea- 
 sure of the king, to furnish him with the necessary means. The lord 
 admiral having approved these words, represented then to his majesty, 
 &c." Lesearbot gives no authority for this statement, made by him 
 seventy-five years after the voyage of Cartier. It is absurd on its face and 
 is contradicted by existing records of that voyage. No authority has ever 
 confined the Verrazzano discovery within the limits here mentioned. Car- 
 tier is represented as saying to the admiral that in order to complete Ver- 
 razzano's design of carrying colonists to the country discovered by him, 
 that is, within those limits, he would go himself, if the king would accept 
 his services. The documents recently published from the archives of St. 
 Malo, show that the voyage of Cartier proposed by Cartier, was for the 
 purpose of passing through the straits of Belle Isle, in latitude 53°, far 
 north of the northern limit of the Verrazzano discovery, according to 
 either version of the letter, and not with a design of planting a colony, or 
 going to any part of the Verrazzano explorations, much less to a point 
 south of the fortieth degree. (Ram6, Documents inSdiis mr Jacques Cartier 
 et le Camada, p» 3, Tross, Paris, 1865.) Besides, neither in the commissions 
 to Cartier, nor in any of the accSunts of his voyages, is there the slightest 
 allusion to Verrazzano. 
 
 " Traiete des Navigations, p. 103, § 15. 
 
30 VEEEAZZANO. 
 
 in relation to the limits of. Acadia;^ but, as this pla- 
 giarism proves, without reason. Ch,arlevoix, with a 
 proper discrimination, refers directly to Ramusio as the 
 §ole source from whence the account of the discovery 
 is derived, as do the French writers who have men- 
 tioned it since his time, except JM. Margry, who, in 
 his recent work on the subject of French voyages, 
 quotes from the Carli version. It is thus seen that 
 no»other authority is given by the French historians 
 than one or other of the Italian versions.^ It must, 
 therefore, be regarded as confessed by them, that no 
 
 ' Memoirs des GommUaaries du Boi, &c., i, 29. 
 
 "Andre Thevet, who published a work with the title of Gosmographie 
 UrmeraeUe, in two volumes, large folio, in rivalry apparently with BeUe- 
 forest, and in the same year, 1575, is referred to sometimes as an authority 
 on this subject. Speaking of the cruel disposition of the people of Canada, 
 he mentions in illustration of it, the fate at their hands of some colonists 
 whom Verrazzano took to that country. The fact is thus related by him 
 in connection with this voyage, for which he gives no authority or indica- 
 tion of any. " Jean Verazze, a Florentine, left Dieppe, the seventeenth of ' 
 March, one thousand five hundred and twenty-four, by command of King 
 Francis, and coasted the whole of Florida as far as the thirty-fourth degree 
 of latitude, and the three hundredth of longitude, and explored all this 
 , coast, and placed there a number of people to cultivate it, who in the end 
 were all killed and massacred by this barbarous people " (fol. 1002 B.). 
 This statement seems to justify what the President De Thou, the contempo- 
 rary of Thevet, says of him, that he composed his books by putting " the 
 uncertain for the certain, and the false for the true, with an astonishing 
 assurance." {Hiat: CTwb., tom. n, 651, Lond., 1734.) Thevet had published 
 before this, in 1557, another book, called Lea Bingularitez de la France 
 Antarctique, autrement nomme^ Amsrique, in which he describes all the 
 countries of America as far north as Labrador, and says that he ran up the 
 coast to that region on his way home from Brazil, where he went in 1555, 
 with Villegagnon. In this earlier work he makes no mention of Verraz- 
 zano ; but does say that Jacques Cartier told him that he (Cartier) had 
 made the voyage to America twice (fol. 148-9). It is thus evident that 
 Thevet had not heard of Verrazzano in 1557, or he would necessarily have 
 mentioned him, as he had the subject distinctly before him ; and if he is to 
 be believed in regard to his intimacy with Cartier, with whom he says he 
 spent five months at his house in St. Malo (Cos. Univ., fol. 1014, B.), and 
 fi-om whom he received much information, it is quite as clear that •Cartier 
 knew nothing of the "Verrazzano discovery, or he would have mentioned 
 it to Thevet. 
 
NO DISCOVERY MADE FOE FRANCIS I.' 31 
 
 original authority for the discovery has ever existed in 
 France. 
 
 t 
 
 If any voyage had taken place, such as this is 
 alleged to have heen, it is morally impossible, in the 
 state of learning and art at that time in France, and 
 with the interest which must necessarily have attached 
 to the discovery, that no notice should have been taken 
 of it in any of the chronicles or histories of the 
 country, and that the memory of it should not have 
 been preserved in some of the productions of its press. 
 According to the letter itself, it was one of the grand- 
 est achievements in the annals of discovery, and 
 promised the most important results to France. It 
 was an enterprise of her king, which had been success- 
 fully accomplished. There had been discovered a 
 heathen land, nearly three thousand miles in extent, 
 before unknown to the civilized world, and, therefore, 
 open to subjugation and settlement ; healthy, populous, 
 fertile and apparently rich in gold and aromatics, and, 
 therefore, an acquisition as great and valuable as any 
 discovery made by the Spaniards or Portuguese, except 
 that of Columbus. Silence and indifference in regard 
 to such an event were impossible. Printing introduced 
 long previously into the principal cities in France, 
 had early in this reign reached its highest state of 
 perfection, as the works issued from the presses of 
 Henri Estienne and others attest. In 1521 twenty- 
 four persons practiced the art in Paris alone .^ The- 
 discoveries in the new world by other nations excited 
 as much attention in France as they did in the other 
 countries of .Europe. The letters of Columbus and 
 
 ' Didot in Harrisse BiJ. Am. Vet., 189. 
 
32 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 Vespucci, describing their voyages and the countries 
 they had found, w^e no sooner published abroad than 
 they were translated into French and printed in Paris. 
 From 1515 to 1529 several editions of the Italian 
 collection of voyages, known as the Roed novarnente 
 ritrovati, containing accounts of the discoveries of 
 Columbus, Cortereal, Cabral and Vespucci in America, 
 and in 1532 the Decades of Peter Martyr, were trans' 
 lated and published in Paris, in the French language. 
 Cartier's account of his voyage in 1535-6, under- 
 taken by order of Francis, in which he discovered 
 Canada, was printed ift the same city in 1545, during 
 the reign of that monarch. These publications 
 abundantly prove the interest which was taken in 
 France in the discoveries in the new world, and the 
 disposition and efforts of the printers in the country 
 at that time to supply the people with information on 
 the subject ; and also, that the policy of the crown 
 allowed publicity to be given to its own maritime 
 enterprises. Of the enlightened interest on th6 part 
 of the crown in the new discoveries, a memorable 
 instance is recorded, having a direct and important 
 bearing upon this question. A few months only after 
 the alleged return of Verrazzano, and at the darkest hour • 
 in the reign of Francis, when he was a captive of the 
 emperor in Spain, Pigafetta, who had accompanied the 
 expedition of Magellan and kept a journal of the 
 voyage, presented himself at the court of France. 
 Louise was then exercising the powers and prerogatives 
 of her son, and guarding his interests and honor with 
 maternal zeal. Pigafetta came to offer her a copy of 
 the manuscript which he had prepared, and which 
 
NO DISCOVERT MADE FQE FRANCIS I. 33 
 
 told of the discovery of the newly discovered route 
 to the Moluccas and Gathay . It was written in Italian ; 
 and the queen mother, caused it to be translated into 
 Erench by Antoine Fabre", and printed by Simon de 
 Colines, the successor of Estienne. The book bears 
 no date, but bibliographers assign it that of 1525, the 
 year of the regency. Certain it is, it was printed in 
 Paris during the life of Francis, as Colines, whose 
 imprint it bears, died before the king. Thus by the 
 instrumentality of the crown of France was the 
 account of the discovery of Magellan, written by one 
 who belonged to the expedition, first given to the 
 world. It is not probable that the queen mother, 
 exercising the regal power immediately after the 
 alleged return of Verrazzano, would have left entirely 
 unnoticed and unpublished an account of his discovery, 
 so interesting to the subjects of the king and so glori- 
 ous to France, and yet have caused to be put forth 
 within his realm in its stead, the history of a like 
 enterprise, redounding to the glory of the great rival 
 and enemy of her son.^ • 
 
 II. Conclusive as the silence of the history of ^l^ance 
 is against the assertion that the Verrazzano voyage 
 and discovery were made by direction of her king, the 
 life of Francis is a complete denial of it. He was 
 released from his captivity early in 1526, and lived and 
 
 ' The little book of Rgafetta, a copy of which, by the kindness of Mrs., _ 
 John Carter Brown, of Providence, is now in our hands, bears the title of 
 Lb wyages et TiweigaUon faict par les Mspaignols es Isles de Mol/uagues, Se. It 
 is fully described by M. Harrisse in his jBii. Vet. Am. The concluding 
 paragraph contains the statement that the manuscript was presented to the 
 queen regent. Ramusio (vol. i, 346), mentions the fact thSt it was given 
 by her to Fabre to be translated. The particulars are detailed by Amoretti. 
 Prima Yiaggio, Introd. xxxvn. Premier Voyage, jporv. 
 
34 VEEBAZZANO. 
 
 reigned over France for more than twenty years after- 
 wards, active . in promoting the greatness of his king- 
 dom ; encouraging science and art among his people, 
 and winning the title of father of letters ; awake to 
 whatever concerned his royal rights and prerogatives, 
 and maintaining them with might and vigor abroad 
 as well as at home ; and willing and able to obtain 
 and occupy new countries inhabited by the heathen. 
 That he was not insensible to the advantages to his 
 crown and uealm of colonies in America,, and not with- 
 out the ability and disposition to prosecute discoveries 
 there for the purpose of settlement, is proven by his 
 actually sending out the expeditions of Jacques Cartier 
 in 1534 and 1535 and Cartier and Roberval in 1541 - 2, 
 for the purpose of exploring and developing the region 
 beyond the gulf of St. Lawrence, through the icy way 
 of the straits of Belle Isle, in latitude 52° N. 
 
 Yet he never recognized by word or deed the voyage 
 or discovery of Verrazzano. If any one in France 
 could have known of them, surely it would have 
 been he who had sent forth the expedition. If Verraz- 
 zano .were dead, when Francis returned to his kingdom, 
 and the letter had miscarried and never come to his 
 hands, the knowledge of the discovery still would 
 have existed in the bosom of fifty living witnesses, 
 who composed the creW) according to the story ; and 
 through them the results of the voyage would have 
 been communicated to the king. But Verrazzano was 
 not dead at that time, but was alive, as will appear 
 hereafter, in 1527. There is good reason to believe 
 that he was well known then to the royal advisers. 
 One of the first acts of the king after his return from 
 
NO DISCOVERT MADE FOR FRANCIS I. 35 
 
 Spain was to create Phillipe Chabot, Sieur de Brion, 
 the admiral of France, whereby that nobleman became 
 invested on the 23d of March, 1526, with the charge 
 of the royal marine.^ A document has recently been 
 brought to light from among the manuscripts in the 
 Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, purporting to be an 
 agreement made by Chabot in his official capacity, with 
 Jean Ango, of Dieppe, an'd other persons, including 
 Jehan de Varesam, for a voyage to the Indies with two 
 vessels belonging to the king, and one to Ango, to be 
 conducted by Varesam, as master pilot, for the purpose 
 ostensibly of bringing back a cargo of spices.^ This 
 instrument has no date, but on its face belongs to 
 Chabot's administration of the admiralty, and must, 
 therefore, have been drawn up in the year 1526 or 
 that of Verrazzano's death, in 1527. If it be genuine, . 
 it proves not only that Verrazzano was alive in that 
 period, but was known to the admiral, and, conse- 
 quently, that any services which he had previously 
 rendered must have been in the possession of the 
 crown. In either caSte, however, whether Verrazzano 
 were dead or alive when Francis resumed his royal 
 functions, there is no reason why the discovery, if it 
 had ever taken place, should not have been known by 
 him. 
 
 In sending forth the expeditions of Jacques Cartier 
 and the joint expeditions of Cartier and Eoberval, 
 Francis not only showed his interest in the discovery 
 of new countries, but he acted in perfect ignorance of 
 the VerraZ2;ano discovery. If it were known to him, 
 
 •Pere Anselme, rv, 571. 
 
 ' M. Margry. NaMgations Frc^aiaes, p. 194. See Appendix. 
 
36 TERRAZZANO. 
 
 upon what rational theory would he have attempted 
 new voyages of discovery in a cold and inhospitable 
 region, on an uncertain search, instead of developing 
 what had been found for him? What could he 
 have expected to have accomplished by the new 
 expeditions that had not been already fully effected by 
 Verrazzano ? And," especially after the way td Canada 
 was found out by Cartier, what was there more invit- 
 ing in that unproductive quarter than was promised 
 in the temperate climate, fertile soil, and mineral 
 lands, which the Florentine had already discovered in 
 his name, that he should have sent Cartier and 
 Roberval to settle and conquer the newer land ? ' 
 
 With the failure of the expedition of Roberval, 
 Francis abandoned the attempt to discover new 
 countries, or plant colonies in America ; but his suc- 
 cessors, though much later, entered upon the colo- 
 nization of New France. They inherited his rights, 
 and while they acknowledged the discoveries of 
 Cartier they discredited those ascribed to Verrazzano. 
 Of the latter claim all of them" must have known. 
 The publication of Eamusio took place during the 
 reign of Henry II, who died in 1559 ; but he made no 
 
 I The letters issued to Koberval have been recently published, for the first 
 time, by M. Harrisse, from the archives of Prance, in his Notes pov/r ser- 
 mr a Vlmtoi/re de la NouvelU France, p. 344, et seq. (Paris, 1873.) They 
 are dated the 16th of February, 1540. Cartier's cprnmission for the same 
 service is dated in October, 1540. Charlevoix, misled probably by the 
 letters granted by Henry IV to the Marquis de la Eoche in 1598, in which 
 the letters to Roberval are partially recited, asserts that Roberval is styled 
 in them lord of Norumbega. The letters now published show that he was 
 in error ; and that France limited the authority of Roberval to the countries 
 west of the gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada and Ochelaga), so far as any 
 are named or described, and made no reference to Norumbega as a title of 
 Roberval or otherwise. As the year commenced at Easter the date of 
 Roberval's commission was in fact after that of Cartier. 
 
NO DISCOVERY MADE FOE FEANCIS I. 37 
 
 endeavor to plant colonies abroad. In 1577 and 1578, 
 the first commissions looking to possessions in America 
 north of Florida, were issued by Henry III, to the 
 Marquis de la Roche, authorizing settlements in the 
 . terres neufves and the adjacent countries newly dis- 
 covered, in the occupancy of barbarians, but nothing 
 was done under them. In 1598, another grant was 
 made to the same person by Henry IV, for the con- 
 quest of Canada, Hochelaga, Newfoundland, Labrador, 
 the country of the river St. Lawrence, Norumbega, 
 and other countries adjacent. This is the first docu- 
 ment emanating from the crown, containing any 
 mention of any part of the continent north of latitude 
 33° and south of Cape Breton. 
 
 Norumbega is the only country of those here enu- 
 merated which is included within those limits, and 
 that did not become known through Verrazzano.^ No 
 
 ' Norumbega embraced the I'egion of country extending from the land 
 of the Bretons to the Penobscot, of which it was regarded as the Indian 
 name. It was almost identical with what was subseq[uently called Acadia. 
 It had become known at an early period through the French fishermen 
 and traders in peltries, who obtained the name from the Indians and carried 
 it home to France. It is described by Jean Alfonse, the chief pilot of 
 Roberval, from an exploration which he made along the coast on the occa- 
 sion of Roberval's expedition to Canada, in 1543. (Hakluyt, m, 239 - 40. 
 MS. cosmography of A;lfonse, in Bib. Nat. of Paris, fol. 185.) Alfonse 
 states that he ran down the coast as far. as a bay which he did not pene- 
 trate, in latitude 43°, between Norumbega 'and Florida, showing that 
 Norumbega was considered as north of that parallel of latitude. He par- 
 ticularly describes it in the manuscript just cited, which Hakluyt had before 
 him, as the ruttier of Alfonse which he publishes is found in that manu- 
 script. It appears to have been written by Alfonse in 1544- 5, which was 
 shT)rtly after his return from Canada with Roberval. The name of No- 
 rumbega is found in the discourse of the captain of Dieppe, written in 
 1539, and printed in third Volume of Kamusio. This writer distinctly 
 states that the name was derived from the natives. The description of the 
 country and its inhabitants given by Alfonse, is important, as showing its 
 extent, and alluding to the trade there in peltries thus early. It is found 
 • in the cosmography in connection with the ruttier before mentioned (fol. 
 187 - 8), and is as follows ; • 
 
38 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 allusion is made, in these letters of de la Roche, to any- 
 previous exploration, although an erroneous recital, 
 
 " I say that the cape of S. 'Jehan, called Cape Breton and the cape of the 
 Franciscane, are northeast and southwest, and take a quarter of east and 
 west and there is in the route one hundred and forty leagues. And here 
 makes a cape called the cape of Nbroveregue. This said cape is at forty-flve 
 degrees of the height of the arctic pole. The said coast is all sandy land, 
 low without any mountain. And along this coast there are several islands 
 of sand and coast very dangerous, with banks and rocks'. The people of 
 this coast and of Cape Breton are bad people, powerful, great archers 
 and live on flsh and flesh. They speak, as it were, the same language as 
 those of Canada, and are a great nation. And those of Cape Breton go 
 and make war upon those of Newfoundland (Terre Neufm), where they 
 flsh. On no account would they save the life of a person when they cap- 
 ture him, if it be not a child or young girl, and are so cruel that if they find 
 a man wearing a beard, they cut his limbs oflf and carry them to their 
 wives and children, in order to be revenged in that matter. And there is 
 among them much peltry of all animals. Beyond the cape of NoToveregue 
 [Cape Sable] descends the river of the said Noroveregue which is 
 about twenty-flve leagues from the cape. The said river is more than forty 
 leagues broad at its mouth, and extends this width inward well thirty or 
 forty leagues, and is all full of islands which enter ten or twelve leases 
 into the sea, and it is very dangerous with rocks and reefs. The said river 
 is at forty-two degrees of the height of tHe arctic pole! Fifteen leagues 
 within this river is a city which is called J^orombergue, and there are in it 
 good people and tTiere is much peWry of all amrnah. The' people of the 
 city are clothed with peltry, wearing mantles of martin. I suspect the said 
 river enters into the river of Ochelaga, for it is salt more than forty league 
 inward, according to what is said by the people of the city. The people 
 use many words, which resemble Latin, and adore the sun ; and are hand- 
 some and large men. The land of Norobregue is tolerably high. On the 
 side on the west of the said city there are many rocks which run into the 
 sea well fifteen leagues ; and on the side towards the north there is a bay 
 in which there is a little island which is very subject to tempest and can- 
 not be inhabited." 
 
 Two sketches of the coast by Alfonse accompany this description, which 
 are here reproduced united in one. The map in Ramusio'(ni, fol. 424-5), 
 prepared by Gastaldi, shows the Terra de NurwmJbega, of the same extent 
 as here described, that is, from Cape Breton westerly to a river running 
 north from the Atlantic and connecting with the St. Lawrence or river of 
 Hochelaga. Gastaldi, or Gastaldo, published previously an edition of PUil- 
 emtfs Geography (ISmo., Venice, 1548), in wjiich (map 56), Norumbega 
 is similarly laid down, without the river running to" the St. Lawrence. 
 Norumbega was therefore a well defined district of country at that time. 
 
 The word was undoubtedly derived from the Indians, and is still in use 
 by those of the Penobscot, to denote certain portions of that river. The 
 missionary Vetromile, in . his History of th^ AbnaJcis (New York, 1866), * 
 
NO DISCOVERT MADE FOR FRANCIS I. 39 
 
 already alluded to, is made to a purpose of Francis I, 
 in his commission ^ to Koberval, to conquer the coun- 
 tries here indicated.^ De la Roche made a miserable 
 
 bbserves (pp. 48-9): "Nolumbega means a still-^ater- between falls, o'f 
 which there are several in that river. At different times, travelling in a 
 canoe along the Penobscot, I have heard the Indians calling those localities 
 
 That the country did not become known through Verrazzano is evident 
 from the letter, in which it is stated that he ran along the entire coast, from 
 the harbor in which they remained fifteen days, one hundred and fifty 
 leagues, easterly, that.is from Cape Cod to the island of Cape Breton, with- 
 out landing, and consequently without having any correspondence with the 
 natives, so as to have acquired the name. 
 
 When in particular Alfonse ran along the Atlantic coast is not mentioned, 
 though it is to be inferred that it was on the occasion of Roberval's expe- 
 dition. There is nothing stated, it is true, to preclude the possibility of its 
 having taken place on some other voyage previously. It could not have 
 been afterwards, as lihe cosmography describing it was written in 1544-5. 
 Some authors assert that Roberval despatched him towards Labrador with 
 a view of finding a passage to the East Indies, without mentioning his 
 exploration aJong Nova Scotia and New England. But Le Clerc, who 
 seems to have been the author of this statement (Premier Etdblissemeni de 
 la Foy dam la NcnmUe France, i, 12 - 13. Paris, 1691), and who is fol-' 
 lowed by Charlevoix, also alleges that on the occasion of his exploration 
 towards Labrador, he discovered the straits between it and Newfoundland, 
 in latitude 52°, now known as the straits of Belle Isle, which is not correct. 
 Jacques Cartier sailed through that passage in his first voyage to Canada, 
 in 153_4 Le Clerc either drew false inferences or relied upon false informa- 
 tion. He'probably derived his impression of the voyage to Labrador and 
 -.the discovery of the straits by Alfonse, from a cursory reading of the 
 cosmography of Alfonse, who describes these straits, but not as a dis- 
 covery of his own. 
 
 In the, printed work, called Le» voyages avaniureux du Oapitaine Jean 
 Al^honoe, Saintongeois, winch was first published in 1559, after the death 
 of Alfonse, it is expressly stated that the river of Norumbega, was dis- 
 covered by the Portuguese and Spaniards. Describing the great bank, he 
 says that it runs from Labrador, " au nordest et suroest, une partie a oest- 
 suroest, plus de huit cens lieues, et passe bien quatre vingts lieues de la 
 terre heufue, et de la terre des Bretons trente ou qnarante lieues. Et d'icy 
 va tout au long de la coste iusques a la riviere du Norembtrgue, qui est 
 nouveUement deseouverte par les Portugalois et Espagnols." p. 53. We 
 quote from an edition of the work not mentioned by the biblographers 
 (Brunet — Harrisse), printed at Eouen in 1602. This is almost a contem- 
 porary denial by a French author, whether Alfonse himself or a compiler, 
 as it would rather appear, from his cosmography, of the Verrazzano 
 discovery of this country. 
 ' Lescarbot (ed. 1609), 484. Harrisse, Notes de la Nouvelle France, p. 243. 
 
40 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 attempt to settle the island of Sable, a sand bank in 
 the ocean, two degrees south of Cape Breton, with 
 convicts taken from jails of France, but being repelled 
 by storm and tempest, after leaving that island, from 
 landing on the main coast, returned to France without 
 any further attempt to colonize the country, and 
 abandoning the poor malefactors on the island to a 
 terrible fate.^ There is therefore no acknowledgment, 
 in the history of this enterprise, of the pretended dis- 
 covery. The next act of the regal prerogative was a 
 grant to the Sieur de Monts, by the same monarch in 
 1603, authorizing him to take possession of the 
 country, coasts and confines of La Cadie, extending 
 from latitude 40° N. to 46° N., that is. Nova Scotia 
 and New England, the situation of which, it is alleged, 
 De Monts understood from his previous voyages to 
 the country.^ This document also is utterly silent as 
 to any particular discovery of the country ; but it dis- 
 tinctly affirms that the foundation of the claim to this 
 territory was the report of the captains of .vessels, 
 pilots, merchants and others, who had for a long time 
 frequented the country and trafficked with its inhabit- 
 ants. Accompanying these letters patent was ajicense 
 to De Monts to trade with the tiatives of the St. 
 Lawrence, and make settlements on" that river. It 
 was under these authorizations to De Monts exclu- 
 sively, that all the permanent settlements of the 
 
 • 
 
 * The story is told by Lescarbot (p. 38, ed. 1609), which he subsequently 
 embellished with some fabulous additions in relation. to a visit to the 
 island of Bable by Baron de Leri, in 1519 (Ed. 1611, p. 22), even before the 
 date of the Verrazzano letter. 
 
 ' Lescarbot (ed. 1609), 452 - 3. La Cadie, or Acadie, as it was for a long 
 time afterwards known, appears for the first time on any chart on the map 
 of Terra Nova, No. 56, in Gastaldi's Ptolemy, and is there called Lacadia. 
 
' NO DISCOVERT MADE FOR FRANCIS I. 41 
 
 French in Nova Scotia and Canada were 'effected, be- 
 yond which countries none were ever attempted by 
 them, within the limits of the Verrazzano discovery, 
 or. any rights asserted on behalf of the French crown. 
 
 It is thus evident that the history "of France and of 
 her kings is utterly void on the subject of this dis- 
 covery, without any legitimate cause, if it had ever 
 taken place ; and that the policy of the crown in re- 
 gard to colonization in America has ever been entirely 
 in repugnance to it. It is incredible, therefore, that 
 any such could ever have taken place for Francis, or 
 for France. 
 
 An important piece of testimony of an affirmative 
 character, however, still exists, showing that the 
 crown of France had no knowledge or appreciation of 
 this claim. It comes from France, and, as it were, 
 from Francis himself. It is to be found in the work 
 of a French cartographer, a large and elaborately exe- 
 cuted map of the world, which has been reproduced 
 by M. Jomard, in his Monuments of Qeography, under 
 the title of Mappemonde peinte sur parcheminpcir ordre 
 de Henry II, roi de France} M. D'Avezac assigns it 
 the date of 1542, which is five years before the death 
 of Francis and accession of Henry to the throne.*^ But 
 neither of these dates appears to be exactly correct ; 
 as upon that portion of the map representing Saguenay, 
 the person of Roberval is depicted and his name in- 
 
 ' Lea Monuments de la GSographie ou Beceuil cl^a/noiennea cartes, &c., enfae- 
 »mik de la grandeur des originavx. Par M. Jomard. No. xix. 
 
 2 Inveniaire ei classement raisonne des " Monuments de la QiograpMe" pub- 
 lies 'pwr M. Jomard de 1843 d 1862. {Commuhicatum de M. D'Avezac.) Ex- 
 trait du Bulletin de VAcademie des inscriptions et belles leitres. Siance du 30 
 Aout 1867, p. 7. VAnn^ GSographique. Sixieme annee (1667), pp. 543, 554. 
 6 
 
42 YEEEAZZANO. 
 
 scribed, evidently denoting his visit to that country, 
 which did not take place until June, IbiS} No in- 
 formation, could possibly have arrived in France, to 
 have enabled the maker of the map, to have indicated 
 this circumstance upon it before the latter part of 
 that year. On the othef hand the arms of both the 
 king and dauphin are repeatedly drawn in the deco- 
 rated border of the map, showing that it was made, if 
 not under the actual direction of Henry, at least while 
 he was in fact discharging the functions of admiral t)f 
 France, which he assumed after the disgrace of Chabot, 
 in 1540, and continued to exercise until the death of 
 Francis, in 1647. It therefore belongs to the period 
 of 1543-7 ; and thus comes to us apparently impressed 
 with an official character. It is the work of blh accom- 
 plished French geographer, during the reign of Francis, 
 and it, no doubt, represents not only the state of geo- 
 graphical knowledge in France at that time, but also all 
 the knowledge possessed by Francis of this coast. Mr. 
 Kohl expresses the opinion that it " is not only one of 
 the most brilliant, but also one of the most exact and 
 trustworthy pictures of the world which we have in 
 the first part of the sixteenth century. It gives 
 accurately all that was known of the world in 1543, 
 especially of the ocean, and the outlines of the coasts 
 of different countries." He adds, " the author of the 
 map must have been a well instructed, intelligent and 
 conscientious man. Where the coasts of a country are 
 not known to him, he so designates them. For his 
 representations of countries recently discovered and 
 
 ' Hakluyt, m, 342. 
 
NO DISCOVERY MADE FOR FRANCIS I. . 43 
 
 already known, he had before hun the best models and 
 originals."^ Yet notwithstanding the thorough know- 
 ledge of the subject displayed by this cartographer, his 
 French nationality, and the contemporariness of his 
 labors with the reign of Francis, " no evidence," as 
 Mr. K. further observes, " appears that the report or 
 chart of the French commander, Verrazzano, had been 
 used in constructing this chart." On the contrary, the 
 line of coast from Cape St. Iloman in South Carolina 
 to Cape Breton is copied from the Spanish map of 
 Ribero, with the Spanish names translated into French.^ 
 Many other names occur within the same distance, 
 which are found on other Spanish charts since that 
 time, and some which were probably taken from Spanish 
 charts not now known.^ Thus within the limits men- 
 tioned, embracing the exploration of Gomez no designa- 
 tion occurs connecting the coast with Verrazzano.* 
 From Cape Breton easterly and northerly along the 
 coast of Newfoundland the discoveries of the Normand 
 and Bretons and the Portuguese, and in the river and 
 
 ' Diaamery of Mainfi, 351-4. 
 
 "Thus R. del principe, R. del espirltu santo, B. de Santa Maria (the 
 Chesapeake) Playa, C. de S. Juan, R. de St. iago, 0. de Arenas (Cape Hen- 
 lopen), B. de S. Ohristoval (the Delaware), B. de 8. Antonio (the Hudson), 
 R. de buena Madre, S. Juan Baptista, Arcipelago de Estevan Gomez, 
 Montanas, and R. de la buelta, on the map of Ribero, become on the 
 French map, R. du Prince, R. du St. Esprit, B. de Sa. Marie, Les playnes, 
 0. St. Jean, St. Jacques, C. des' Sablons, G-. de St. Christofle, R. de St. 
 Anthoine, R. de bonne Mere, Baye de St. Jean . Baptiste, Arcipel de 
 Estienne Gomez, Les Montaignes and R. de Volte. 
 
 ' Of this class are the JR. de Canoes, R. S^che, Playne, Coste de Dieu, R. 
 d'Arbres, which, on the map xii, of the Mftnich Atlas, said to have been 
 taken from the map of the Spanish cosmographer, Alonzo de Santa Cruz, 
 are given, R. de Canoas, R. Seco, Terra liana, Costa de Diego, R. d 
 Arvoredos. 
 
 * The name of Avorobagra, on the west side of the great bay, is found 
 in place of C. de Muchas illas of the Ribero map. This is supposed to 
 have been intended for Norumbega. 
 
44 TEREAZZANO. 
 
 gulf of St. Lawrence, those of Jacques Cartier, are 
 shown by the names. The whole coast claimed by the 
 letter is thus assigned to other parties than Ver- 
 razzano. The logical maxim, expressio unius est exdusio 
 alterius, must here apply. The expression of the 
 Spanish discoveries, at least exclude those of Ver- 
 razzano; demonstrating almost to a moral certainty 
 that. the latter could never have been performed fgr 
 the king of France. The'author of this map, whether 
 executing it under official responsibility or upon his 
 own account, would not have ascribed, or dared to 
 ascribe, to a foreign nation, much less to a rival, the 
 glory which belonged to his own sovereign, then living, 
 whose protection he enjoyed. 
 
 AEMS OF THE DAtTPHIN, AFTERWARDS HENKT U. 
 From the Mappemonde published by M. Jomard. 
 
COAST GEOGEAPHT MISREPRESENTED. 45 
 
 IV. 
 
 II. MlSREPRHSBNTATIONS IN KE&ARD TO THE GEOGRAPHY OP 
 
 THE Coast. The Chesapeake. The Island op Louise. 
 Massachusetts Bay. 
 
 In pursuing its main object of making known the 
 discovery, the letter ventures upon certain statements 
 which are utterly inconsistent with an actual explora- 
 tion of the country. The general position and direc- 
 tion of the coast are given with sufficient correctness 
 to indicate the presence there of a navigator ; but 
 its geographical features are so meagrely and untruth- 
 fully represented, as to %prove that he could not have 
 been the writer. The same apparent inconsistency 
 exists as to the natural history of the country. Some 
 details are given in regard to the natives, which cor- 
 respond with their known characteristics, but others 
 are flagrantly false. The account is evidently the work 
 of a person who, with an imperfect outline of the coast, 
 by another hand, before him, undertook to describe its 
 hydrographical character at a venture, so far as he 
 deemed it prudent to 'say anything on the sjibject ; 
 and to give the natural history of the country, in the 
 same way, founded on other accounts of parts of the 
 new world. The actual falsity of the statements al- 
 luded to is, at all events, sufficient to justify the rejec- 
 tion of the whole story. So far as they relate to the 
 littoral, they 'are now to be considered. 
 
46 VERRAZZANO. ' • 
 
 • 
 
 .In general, the geography of the coast is very 
 indefinitely described. Of its latitudes, with the ex- 
 ception of the landfall and termination of the explora- 
 tion, which are fixed also by other means, and are 
 necessary to the ground work of the story, only a 
 single one is mentioned. The particular features of 
 the coast are for the most part unnoticed. Long 
 distances, embracing from two hundred to. six hundred 
 miles each, are passed over with little or no remark. 
 Islands, rivers, capes, bays, and other land or seamarks, 
 by which navigators usually describe their progress 
 along an unknown coast, are almost entirely unmen- 
 tioned. For a distance of over two thousand miles, 
 adopting the narrowest limits possible assigned to the 
 discovery, only one island, one river, and one bay are 
 attempted to be described, and not a single cape or 
 headland is referred to. No name is given to any of 
 them, or to any part of the coast, except the one island 
 which is named after the king's mother. It was the . 
 uniform practice of the Catholic navigators of that early 
 period, among whom, according to the import of the 
 letter, Verrazzano was one, to designate the places 
 discovered by them, by the names of the saints whose 
 feasts Were observed on the days they were discovered, 
 or of the festivals of the church celebrated on those 
 days ; so that, says Oviedo, it is possible to trace the 
 course of any such explorer along a new coast by 
 means of the church calendar. This custom was 
 not peculiar to the countrymen of that historian. It 
 was observed by the Portuguese and also by the French, 
 as the accounts of the voyages of Jacques Cartier attest. 
 But nothing of the kind appears here. 'These omis- 
 
COAST GEOGRAPHY MISREPKESENTED. 
 
 47 
 
 sions of the ordinary and accustomed practices of voy- 
 agers are suspicious, and of themselves sufficient to 
 destroy all confidence in the narrative. But to proceed 
 to what is actually stated in regard to the coast. 
 
 Taking the landfall to have occurred, as is distinctly 
 claimed, at latitude 34°, which is a few leagues north 
 of Cape Fear in North Carolina, and which is fixed 
 with certainty, for the purposes of the letter, at that 
 point hy the estimate of the distance they ran north- 
 erly along the coast before it took an easterly direction, 
 • the discovery must be" regarded as having commenced 
 somewhat south of Cape Roman in South Carolina, 
 being the point where the fifty leagues terminated 
 which they ran along the coast, in the first instance, 
 south of the landfall. It is declared tliat from thence, 
 for two hundred leagues, to the Hudson river, as it 
 will appear, there was not a single harbor in which 
 the Dauphine could ride in safety.* The size of this 
 craft is not mentioned, but it is said she carried only 
 fifty men, though manned as a corsair. Judging from 
 the size of the vessels used at that time on similar 
 expeditions, she was small. The two which composed 
 the first expedition of Jacques Cartier carried sixty 
 men and were each of about sixty tons burden. 
 The Carli letter, which must be assumed to express 
 the idea of the writer on the subject, describes her as 
 a caravel; which was a vessel of light draught adapted 
 to enter shallow rivers and harbors and to double un- 
 known capes where shoals might have formed, and 
 was therefore mufch used by the early navigators of the ' 
 
 ' A league, according to the Verrazzano letter, consisted of four miles ; 
 and a degree, of 15.625 leagues or 63i miles. 
 
48 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 new world.^ Columbus chose two caravels, out of the 
 three vessels with which he made his first voyage ; and 
 the third one, which was larger than either of the cara- 
 vels, was less than one hundred tons. The Dauphine is 
 therefore to be considered, from all the representations 
 in regard to her, of less than the latter capacity, and 
 as specially adapted to the kind of service in which 
 she is alleged to have been engaged. In running north 
 from their extreme southerly limit, they must have 
 passed the harbor of Georgetown in South Carolina, 
 and Beaufort in North Carolina, in either of which 
 the vessel could have entered, and in the latter, carry- 
 ing seventeen feet at low water and obtaining perfect 
 shelter from all winds.* But if they really had been 
 unable to find either of them, it is impossible that they 
 should not have discovered the Chesapeake, and 
 entered it, under the alleged circumstances of their 
 search. That it may be seen what exactly is the 
 statement of the letter in regard to this portion of the 
 coast, it is here given in its own terms. Having re- 
 presented the explorers as having reached a point 
 fifty leagues north of the landfall, which would have 
 carried them north of Hatteras, but still on the coast 
 of North Carolina, their movements over the next 
 four hundred miles north are disposed of in the follow- 
 ing summary manner: "After having remained here," 
 (that is, at or near Albemarle,) "three days riding at 
 anchor on the coast, as we could find no harbor, we 
 determined to depart and coast along the shore to the 
 
 1 Le Moyen Age etla Benaissance. Tome Second. Marine, par M A 
 Jal. fol. V. (Paris 1849.) 
 ' Blunt's American Coast PUot, p. 359 (19th edition.) 
 
COAST GEOGEAPHT MISREPRESENTED. 49 
 
 northeast, keeping sail on the vessel only hy day, and 
 coming to anchor by night. After proceeding one 
 hundred leagues we found a very pleasant situation 
 'among some steep hills, through which a very large river, 
 deep at its mouth, foroed its way to the sea." There can 
 be no mistake in regard to the portion of the coast 
 here intended. Upon leaving this river they found 
 that the coast stretched, it is stated, as will presently 
 appear, in an easterly direction. A stream coming 
 from the bills, its situation at the bend of the coast, 
 its latitude as fix^d by that of the port which, after 
 leaving it, they found in nearly the same parallel and 
 which is placed in 41° 40', all point distinctly to the 
 embouchure of the Hudson at the highlands of Nave- 
 sink as the termination of the hundred leagues. With- 
 in this distance the Chesapeake empties into the sea. 
 
 The explorers were not only in search of a harbor 
 for the purpose of recruiting, but they were seeking, 
 as the great end of the voyage, a passage to Cathay, 
 rendering, therefore, evgry opening in the coast an 
 object of peculiar interest and importance. They were 
 sailing with extreme caution and observation, in the 
 day-time only, and constantly in sight of land. The 
 bay of the Chesapeake is the most accessible and capa- 
 cious on the coast of the United States. It presents an 
 opening into ihe sea of twelve miles from cape to cape, 
 having a broad and deep channel through which the 
 largest ships of modern times, twenty times or more 
 the tonnage of the Dauphiny, may enter and find inside 
 of Cape Henry ample and safe anchorage/ That an 
 actual explorer could not have failed to have discovered 
 
 ' Blunt's American Ooaat Pilot, p. 340. 
 7 
 
50 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 this bay and found a secure harbor at that time, 
 shown by the account of the expedition, which tl 
 Adelantado, Pedro Menendez, of infanrous memor 
 despatched under the command of Pedro Menend 
 Marquez, for the survey of this coast in 1573 ; wh< 
 the means and facilities of navigators for exploratic 
 were not different from what existed at the date of tl 
 Verrazzano voyage. Menendez Marquez was the fir 
 to enter the Chesapeake after Gomez, who gave it tl 
 name of the bay of Santa Maria.^ 'Barcia thus sun 
 marizes the result of the expedition,, so far as it relate 
 to this bay. 
 
 " Pedro Menendez Marquez, governor of Florida for his uncle tl 
 Adelantado reduced many Indians to obedience and took possessic 
 of the provinces particularly iu the name of the king, in the pre 
 ence of Eodrigo de Carrion, notary of the government of Santa Elen 
 Afterwards, he, being a great seaman, inasmuch as he had former 
 bee'n admiral of the fleet, as Francisco Cano relates, Lib. 3, de 
 Histor. de, las Ordenes Militares, fol. 184, went, by order of tl 
 Adelantado, to explore the coast, which exploration commenced 
 the cape of the Martyrs, and the peninsula Tequesta [point 
 Florida], where the coast begins to run north and south, at the O)] 
 let of the Bahama channel, and extended along the coast to beyoi 
 the harbor and bay of Santa Maria, which is three leagues wide ai 
 which is entered towards the northwest; and within it are mai 
 rivers and harbors where, on both sides of it, they can anchor, i 
 the entrance, near the shore, on the south, there are from nine 
 thirteen fathoms of water, and on the north from five to seven. Tt 
 leagues outside, in the sea, the depth is the same, north and sout 
 but more sandy than inside. Going through the channel there a: 
 from nine to thirteen fathoms ; and in the harbor about fifteen, t( 
 and six fathoms were found in places where the lead was thrown 
 " The bay of Santa Maria is in thirty-seven degrees and'a half.^" 
 
 ' This name occurs on the map of Kibero on this part of the coai 
 which establishes its application by Gomez ,- but its position is evident 
 misplaced and carried too far south. 
 
 " Enmyo Ohronologieo, pp. 146, 8. 
 
COAST GEOGRAPHY MISREPRESENTED. 51 
 
 To ignore the existence of this great bay, the most 
 important hydrographicfil feature of our coast, as 
 Verrazzano, according to the letter, does, and to pre- 
 tend that no harbor could be found there, in which the 
 diminutive Dauphiny could lie, is, . under the circum- 
 stances under which this «xploration is alleged to 
 have been conducted, to admit that he was never on 
 that part of the coast. 
 
 Suddenly leaving the river of the hills, in conse- 
 quence of an approaching storm, they continued their 
 course directly east for a distance of ninety-five leagues, 
 passing in sight of the island and arriving finally at 
 the bay, which are the only ones described, and that 
 very briefly, in the whole voyage along the coast. 
 
 " Weighing anchor," reads the letter, " we sailed eighty leagues 
 towards the east, as the coast stretched in that direction, and always 
 in sight of it. At length we discovered an island of triangular 
 form, about ten leagues from tjie main land, in size about* equal to 
 the island of Ehodes, having many hills covered with trees and well 
 peopled, judging from the great number of fires which we saw all 
 around its shores ; we gave it the name of your majesty's illustrious 
 mother. We did not land there, as the weather was unfavorable, but 
 proceeded to another place, fifteen leagues distant from the island, 
 where we found a very excellent harbor. * * * This land is situated 
 in the parallel of Rome, being 41° 40' of north latitude. It looks 
 towards the south, on which side the harbor is half a league broad ; 
 afterwards, upon entering it between the east and the north it exT- 
 tends twelve leagues,^ and then enlarging itself it forms a very large 
 bay, twenty leagues in circumference, in which are five small islands 
 of great fertility and beauty, covered with large and lofty trees. 
 Among these islands any fleet, however large, might ride safely, 
 without fear of tempests or other dangers. Turning towards the 
 
 ' A slight correction of the translation of Dr. Cogswell, which is the one 
 we have adopted, here becomes necessary. It reads : " upon entering it 
 the extent between the east (misprinted coast), and nortli is twelve 
 leagues." The text is, " entraado in quelle infra oriente e settentrione 
 s'estende leghe XII." 
 
52 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 south, at the entrance of the harbor on both sides there are very 
 pleasant hills and many streams of clear water which flow down to 
 the sea. In the midst of the entrance, there is a rook of freestone, 
 formed by nature and suitable for the construction of any kind of 
 machine or bulwark for the defence of the harbor." 
 
 This island is a mere fancy ; none such exists any- 
 where upon this coast. The distance Which they thus 
 ran easterly, of eighty leagues, would have carried 
 them more than an hundred miles into the ocean 
 beyond Cape Cod. That distance, however, may be 
 regarded only as approximate, because they possessed 
 no means of determining longitude with accuracy, and 
 therefore this, like all statements in the letter, of 
 distances running east and west, is to be considered 
 an estimate only, formed from the circumstances at- 
 tending the sailing of the vessel, and liable to serious 
 error. But the island and bay were objects of actual 
 observE^tion, and are therefore to be regarded as they 
 are described. After leaving Long Island, which forms 
 the coast in an easterly direction for a little over an 
 hundred miles from the Hudson, only three islands 
 occur, except some insignificant ones and the group of 
 the Elizabeth islands all near the shore, in the entire 
 distance to the easterly shore of Cape Cod, when the 
 coast turns directly north. They are all three some- 
 what of a triangular shape, and in that respect are 
 equally entitled to consideration in connection with 
 the description of the island of Louise, but are all in^ 
 compatible with it in other particulars. Louise is 
 represented as being a very large island, equal in size 
 to the famous island of Rhodes, which has an area of 
 four hundred square miles, and as* being situated ten 
 leagues distant from the main land. The first of the 
 
COAST GEOGRAPHY MISREPRESENTED. 53 
 
 three islands met with, eastward of Long Island, is 
 Block island. It contains less than twenty square miles 
 of territory and lies only three leagues from the land; 
 and thus both by its smallness and position cannot be 
 taken as the island of Louise. It has, however, ' 
 been so regarded by some writers, because on the main 
 landj about five leagues distant, are found Narragan- 
 set bay and the harbor of Newport, which, it is im- 
 agined, bear some resemblance to the bay and harbor 
 ,, which the explorers entered fifteen leagues beyond the 
 island of Louise, and which cannot be elsewhere found. 
 But iNarraganset bay does not correspond in any 
 particular with the bay described in the letter, except 
 as to its southern exposure and its latitude, and as to 
 them it has no more claim to consideration than Buz- 
 zard's bay, three leagues further east, and in other 
 respects not so much. Newport harbor, several miles 
 inside of Narraganset bay, faces the north and west, 
 and not the south. The whole length of that bay, 
 including the harbor of Newport from the ocean to 
 Providence river, is less than five leagues, and its 
 greatest breadth not more than three. But the harbor 
 described in the letter first as extending twelve leagues 
 and then enlarging itself, formed a large bay of twenty 
 leagues in circumference. The two, it is clear, are essen- 
 tially unlike. The great rock rising out of the sea at the 
 entrance of the harbor, has no existence in this bay or 
 harbor. Narraganset bay, therefore, affords no support 
 to the idea that Block island, or any other, is the island 
 of Louise. Martha's Vineyard, the second of the three 
 islands before mentioned, is the largest of them, but it- 
 contains only one hundred and twenty square miles of 
 
54 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 land, and is within two leagues of the main land, 
 
 • 
 
 Nantucket, the last of the three, is less than half the 
 size of Martha's Vineyard, and is about thirty miles 
 from Cape Cod, the nearest part of the continent. From 
 ' neither of them is any harbor to be reached corre- 
 sponding with that mentioned in the letter. It is in- 
 controvertible, therefore, that there is neither island 
 nor bay on this coast answering the description. It is 
 not difficult to perceive that the island of Louise was 
 a mere invention and artifice on the part of the writer 
 to give consistency to the pretension that the voyage 
 originated with Francis. This island is the only one 
 of which particular mention is made in the whole ex- 
 ploration. Yet it was not visited or seen except, in 
 sailing by it, at a distance. Its pretended hills aiid 
 trees disclosed nothing of its character; and, under 
 such circumstances, its alleged dimensions were all that 
 could have entitled it to such particular notice and 
 made it worthy of so exalted a designation ; and to 
 those no island on this coast has any claim. 
 
 There is little room to doubt from the desaription 
 itself, and the fact will be confirmed by other evidence 
 hereafter, that the bay intended to be descri-bed was 
 the great bay of Massachusetts and Maine terminat- 
 ing in the bay of Fundy. It is represented as making 
 an offset in the coast of twelve leagues towards the 
 north, and then swelling into an enclosed bay beyond, 
 of twenty leagues in circumference, indicating those 
 bays, in their form. The distances, it is true, do not 
 conform to those belonging to that part of the coast ; 
 but it is to be borne in mind that they may have been 
 taken, according to the only view which can reconcile 
 
COAST GEOGRAPHY MISREPRESENTED. 55 
 
 the contradictions of the letter, from an imperfect de- 
 lineation of the coast by another hand. The identity 
 of the two is, however, proven, without recourse to 
 this explanation, by the description of the coast beyond, 
 which is givep as follows : 
 
 " Having supplied ourselves with every thing necessary, we de- 
 parted, on the sixthi of May, from this port [where they had re- 
 mained fifteen days] and sailed one hundred and fifty leagues, keep- 
 ing so near to the coast as never to lose it from owr sight; the nature 
 of the country appeared much the same as before, but the mountains 
 were a little higher and all in appearance rich in minerals. We did 
 not stop to land, as the weather was very favorable for pursuing our 
 voyage, and the country presented no variety. The shore stretched 
 to the east, and fifty leagues beyond more to the north, where we 
 found a more elevated country full of very thick woods of fir trees, 
 cypresses and the like, indicative of a oold climate. The people 
 were entirely difierent from the others we had seen, whom we had 
 found kind and gentle, but these were so rude and barbarous that 
 we were unable by any signs we could make to hold communication 
 with them." 
 
 This is all that is mentioned in regard to the entire 
 coast of New England and Nova Scotia, embracing a 
 distance of eight hundred miles according to this com- 
 putation, but in fact much more. It is here stated, 
 however, distinctly, that from the time of leaving the 
 harbor, near the island of Louise, they kept close to 
 the land, which ran in an easterly direction, and con- 
 stantly in sight of it, for one hundred and fifty leagues. 
 This they could not have done if that harbor 
 were on any part of the coast, west of Massachusetts 
 bay. If they sailed from Narraganset bay, or Buz- 
 zard's bay, or from any harbor on that coast, east of 
 Long Island, they would in the course of twenty 
 
 ' According to the ArcMvio Storieo Italiano, and not the fifth, as given 
 in N. T. Hist. Coll. 
 
56 VERKAZZANO. 
 
 leagues at the furthest, in an easterly direction, have 
 reached the easterly extremity of the peninsula of 
 Cape Cod, and keeping close to the shore would have 
 been forced for one hundred and fifty miles, in a north- 
 erly and west of north direction, and thence along the 
 coast of Maine northeasterly a further distance of one 
 hundred and fifty .miles, and been finally locked in the 
 bay of Fundy. It is only by running from Cape Sable 
 along the shores of Nova Scotia that this course and 
 distance, in sight of the land, can be reconciled with 
 the actual direction of the coast ; and this makes the 
 opening between Cape Cod and Cape Sable the large 
 bay intended in the letter. But this opening of eighty 
 leagues in width, could never have been seen by the 
 writer of it; and nothing could more conclusively 
 prove his ignorance of the coast, than his statements 
 that from the river among the hills, for the distance 
 of ninety-five leagues easterly to the harbor in 41°40' 
 N. and from thence for a further distance of one 
 hundred and fifty leagues, also easterly, the land was 
 always in sight. 
 
 CAPE HENET AND ENTRANCE INTO THE CHESAPEAKE. 
 Lighthonee, with lantern 189 feet above the sea, bearing W. N. W. Ji W., three 
 leagues distant. 
 
PHIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTHERN COAST. 57 
 
 V. 
 
 Ill, Cape BEBTOsr and the Southerly Coast of N"bw- 
 
 FOUNDLAND, HERE CLAIMED .TO HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED, 
 WERE KNOWN. PREVIOUSLY. PERVERSION OE THE TeXT OE 
 
 THE Letter by Ramusio. 
 
 By the two courses and distances last mentioned, 
 the explorers are brought first to the island of Ca^pe 
 Breton, and then to the cape of that name, where 
 the coast first takes a decided turn, from its easterly 
 direction, to the north, and forms the westerly side of 
 the strait leading into the gulf of St. Lawrence. This 
 cape, according to the letter, is distant easterly one 
 hundred and fifty, and fifty, leagues from the harbor 
 in the great bay, distances which, for reasons already 
 mentioned, are to be regarded as estimates only, but 
 which taken exactly would have carried them beyond 
 Cape Race in Newfoundland. They are to be con- 
 sidered, however, as properly limited to the turn of 
 the coast before mentioned, as that is a governing cir- 
 cumstance in the description. Beyond this point, 
 north, and east, the letter presents the claim to the 
 discovery in another aspect. Thus far it relates to 
 portions of the coast confessedly unknown before its 
 date. But from Cape Breton, in latitude 46° N. to 
 latitude 50° N. on the east side of Newfoundland, it 
 pretends to the discovery of parts, which were in 
 8 
 
58 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 fact already known ; and it makes this claiin under 
 circumstances- which prove it was so known by the 
 writer, if the letter were written as pretended. Having 
 described their attempts at intercourse with the natives 
 at Cape Breton, the narrative concludes the descrip- 
 tion of the coast with the following paragraph. 
 
 " Departing from thence, we kept along the coast, steering north- 
 east, and found the country more pleasant and open, free from woods, 
 and distant in the interior, we saw lofty mountains but none which 
 extended to the shore. Within fifty leagues we discovered thirty- 
 two islands, all near the main land, small and of pleasant appearance, 
 but high and so disposed as to afford excellent harbors and channels, 
 as we see in the Adriatic gulf, near Illyria and Dalmatia. We had 
 no intercourse with the people, but we judge that they were similar 
 in nature and usages to those we were last among. After sailing be- 
 tween east and north one hundred and fifty leagues more, and find- 
 ing our provisions and naval stores nearly exhausted, we took in 
 wood and water, and determined to return to France, having dis- 
 covered {avendo discoperto) VII,* that is, 700 leagues of unknown 
 lands." 
 
 The exact point at which they left the coast, and 
 to which their discovery is thus stated to have ex- 
 tended, is given in the cosmography which follows the 
 narrative, in these words : 
 
 " In the voyage which we have made by order of your majesty, in 
 addition to the 92 degrees we ran towards the west from our point 
 of departure (the Desertas) before we reached land in the latitude 
 of 34, we have to count 300 leagues which we ran northeastwardly, 
 and 400 nearly east along the coast before we reached the 50<A 
 parallel of north latitude, the point where we turned our course 
 from the shore towards home. Beyond this point the Portuguese had 
 already/ sailed as far as the Arctic Circle, without coming to the ter- 
 mination of the land." 
 
 ' "The MS. has erroneously and uselessly the repetition VII, that is, 700 
 leagues." Mie, by M. Arcangeli. It is evident that VII is mistakenly 
 rendered 503 in the transcription used by Dr. Cogswell. 
 
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTHERN COAST. 59 
 
 That this latitude must be taken as correctly deter- 
 mined follows from the representation of the letter, 
 that they took daily observations of the sun and made 
 a record of them, so that no material error could have 
 occurred and remained unrectified for over twenty- 
 four hours ; and from the presumption that they were 
 as capable of calculating the latitude as other navi- 
 gators of that period, sent on such purposes by royal 
 authority, like Jacques Cartier, whose observations, as 
 the accounts of his voyage to this region show, never 
 varied half a degree from the true latitude. The 
 fiftieth parallel strikes the easterly coast of Newfound- 
 land three degrees north of Cape Race, and to that 
 point the exploration of Verrazzano is therefore to be 
 regarded as claimed to have been made.^ 
 
 This intention is made positively certain by the re- 
 mark which follows the statement of the latitude, that 
 " beyond this point the Portuguese had already sailed 
 as far north as the Artie circle without coming to the 
 termination of the land." The exploration of the 
 Portuguese here referred to, and as far as which that of 
 Verrazzano is carried, was made by Gaspar Cortereal in 
 his second voyage, when according to the letter of 
 Pasqualigo the Venetian embassador, he sailed from 
 Lisbon on a course between west and northwest, and 
 struck a coast along which he ran from six to seven hun- 
 dred miles, "without finding the end."*. No other ex- 
 ploration along this coast by the Portuguese, tending to 
 
 ' Damiam de Goes, Ohroniea do felicissmw m Dom Emanuel parte i. 
 C. 66.(Fol., Lisboa,1566.) 
 
 ' Paesi novamente ritrovaU. Lib. sexto, cap. cxxxi. Venice, 1531. A 
 translation into English of Pasqualigo's letter, which is dated the 19th of 
 October, 1501, is given in the memoir of.Sebastian Cabot, p. 335-6. 
 
60 . VERRAZZANO. 
 
 the Arctic circle is known to have taken place before the 
 publication of the Verrazzano letter. The first voyage 
 of Cortereal, was, according to the description of the 
 people given by Damiam de Goes, among the Esqui- 
 maux, whether on the one side or the other of Davis 
 straits it is unnecessary here to inquire, as the Esqui- 
 maux are not found south of 50° N. latitude. The land 
 along which he ran in his second voyage, was, accord- 
 ing to the same historian, distinctly named after him 
 and his brother, who shared his fate in a subsequent 
 voyage. It is so called on several early printed maps 
 on which it is represented as identical with Newfoimd- 
 land. It appears first on a map of the world in the 
 Ptolemy of 1511 edited by Bernardus Sylvanusof Eboli, 
 and is there laid down as extending from latitude 50° 
 N. to 60° N. with the name of Corte Real or Court 
 Royal, latinized into Begalis Domus} The length of 
 the coast, corresponds with the description of Pasqua- 
 ligo, and its position with the latitude assigned by the 
 Verrazzano letter for their exploration. Its direction 
 is north and south. There can be no question there- 
 fore as to the pretension of the Verrazzano letter to 
 the discovery of the coast by him, actually as far north 
 as the fiftieth parallel. 
 
 That it is utterly unfounded, so far as regards that 
 portion of the coast lying east and north of Cape Bre- 
 ton, that is, from 46° N. latitude to 50° N., embrac- 
 ing a distance of five hundred miles according to 
 actual measurement, or eight hundred miles according 
 
 ' Clauclii PCholemaei Alexandrini liber geographiae, cum tabulis et urmer- 
 salifigura et cum additione locorum quae a. recentioribus reperia mnt dUigenti 
 cy,ra emendatus et impressus. (Fol., Venetiis, 1511.) 
 
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTHERN COAST. 61 
 
 to the letter, is proven by the fact, that it had all been 
 known and frequented by Portuguese and French fish- 
 ermen, for a period of twenty years preceding the 
 Verrazzano voyage. The Portuguese fisheries in New- 
 foundland must have commenced shortly after the 
 voyages of the brothers Cortereaes in 1501-2, as they 
 appear to have been carried on in 1506, from a decree 
 of the king of Portugal published at Leiria on the 14th 
 of October in that year, directing his officers to collect 
 tithes of fish which should be brought into his kingdom 
 from Terra Nova j^ and Portuguese charts belonging to 
 that period, still extant, show both the Portuguese and 
 French discoveries of this coast. On a map (No. 1, of 
 the Munich atlas,) of Pedro Reinel, a Portuguese pilot, 
 who entered the service of the king of Spain at the 
 time of fitting out Magellan's famous expedition. Terra 
 Nova, and the land of Cape Breton are correctly laid 
 doAyn, as regards latitude, though not by name. On 
 Terra Nova the name of C. Raso, (preserved in the 
 modern Cape Eace) is applied to its southeasterly 
 point, and other Portuguese names, several of which 
 also still remain, designating difierent points along the 
 easterly coast of Newfoundland, and a Portuguese ban- 
 ner, as an emblem of its discovery by that nation, are 
 found. Another Portuguese chart, belonging to the 
 period when the country between Florida and Terra 
 Nova was unknown (No. 4 of the same atlas) deline- 
 ates the land of Cape Breton, not then yet known to 
 be an island, in correct relation with the Bacalaos, 
 accompanied by a legend that it was discovered by 
 
 ' Memorias Eoonomicas da aeademia Real das Seieneias de Lisboa, torn. 
 Ill, 393. 
 
62 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 the Bretons.^ The French authorities are more ex- 
 plicit. The particular parts of this coast discovered 
 •by the Normands and Bretons with the time of their 
 discovery, and»by the Portuguese, are described in the 
 discourse of the French captain of Dieppe, which is 
 found in the collection of Ramusio. This writer states 
 that this land from Cape Breton to Cape Race was 
 discovered by the Bretons and Norniands in 1504, and 
 from Cape Race to Cape Bonavista, seventy leagues 
 north, by the Portuguese, and from thence to the 
 straits of Belle Isle by the Bretons and Normands; and 
 that the country was visited in 1508 by a vessel from 
 Dieppe,' commanded by Thomas Aubert, who brought 
 back to France some of the natives. This statement 
 in regard to the Indians is confirmed by an account 
 of them, which is given in a work, printed in Paris at 
 the time, establishing the fact of the actual presence 
 of the Normands in Newfoundland in that year, by 
 contemporaneous testimony of undoubted authority.^ 
 
 ' Atlas zur entdeckungsgescMchte Amerikas, Serausgegeben wn Fnedrieh 
 Kunstmann, EaH von Spruner, Qeorg M. Thomas. Zu den Mimvmenta 
 Saculariader K. B. AkademiederWissensehaften,28 Maeni,185Q. Murichen. 
 
 ' Eusebii Ohronioon, continued by Joannes Multivallis of Louvain, (Paris 
 1513) fol. 173. 
 
 We give liere, a translation of the interesting passage referred to in the 
 text, from this volume, which came from the celebrated press of Henri 
 Estienne. 
 
 " An Salutis, 1509. Seven savages vrere brought to Rouen with their 
 garments and weapons from the island they call Terra Nova. They are 
 of a dark complexion, have thick lips and wear marks on their faces ex- 
 tending along their jaws, from the ear to the middle of the chin like small 
 livid veins. Their hair is black and coarse like a horse's mane. They 
 have no beard, during their lives, or hairs of puberty. Nor have they hair 
 on any part of their persons, except the head and eye-brows. They wear 
 a girdle on which is a small skin to cover their naliedness. They form 
 their speech with their lips. No religion. TMir boat is of bark and a 
 man may carry it with one hand on his shoulders. Their weapons are 
 bows drawn with a string made of the intestines or sinews of animals and 
 
PRIOE KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTHERN COAST. 63 
 
 That the French and especially the Normands had 
 soon afterwards resorted to Newfoundland for the 
 purpose of taking fish, and were actually so engaged 
 there at the time of the Verrazzano voyage, is£vident 
 from the letter of John But, who commanded one of the 
 ships sent out on a voyage of discovery by Henry VIII 
 of England in 1527. That voyager states that, driven 
 from the north by the ice, he arrived at St. Johns in 
 Newfoundland on the third of August in that year, 
 and found there eleven Normand, one Breton and two 
 Portuguese vessels, " all a fishing."^ This was at a 
 single point on the coast, and in latitude 47° 30' N. ; 
 and so large a number of vessels there denotes a^growth 
 of many years, at that time, of those fisheries. 
 
 arrows pointed with stone or flsh-tione. Their food consists of roasted 
 flesh, their drink is water. Bread, wine and the use of money they have 
 none. They go about naked or dressed in the skins of bears, deer, seals 
 and similar animaK Their country is in the parallel of the seventh cli- 
 mate, more under the west than France is above the west." Plus sub 
 oceidente quoum OaMca regie supra oecidentem. By " west " here is meant the 
 meridional line, from which longitude was calculated at that time, through 
 the Island of Ferro, the most westerly of the Canary islands, and the idea 
 here intended to be conveyed is that the country of these Indians was 
 further on this side than France was on the other side, of that line. 
 
 This description, as well as the name. Terra Nova, indicates the region 
 of Newfoundland as the place from whence these Indians were taken. 
 According to the tables of Pierre d'Ailly the seventh climate commences at 
 47° 15' N. and extends to 50° 30' N. beginning where the longest day of 
 the year is 15 hours and 45 minutes long. (Imago MwnM, tables prefixed 
 to the first chapter.) This embraces the greater part of the southerly and 
 easterly coasts of Newfoundland. The practice of tattooing their faces in 
 lines across the jaws, as here described, was common to all the tribes of 
 this northern coast, the Nasquapees of Labrador, the red Indians of New- 
 foundland and the Micmacs of Cape Breton and Nova Bcotia. It was 
 from the use of red ochre for this purpose that the natives of Newfound- 
 land obtained their designation of red Indians. The MicmaCs used blue 
 and other colors ; hence it would appear from the circumstance of the 
 marks upon these Indians being livid (Umda) or blue, like veins, that they 
 belonged to the tribes of Cape Breton. (Hind's Labrador ir, 97-110. 
 Purchas, m. 1880-1. Denys. {Hist. nat. de VAmerique Sept. n, 387.) 
 
 ' Purchas, ni, 809. Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, pp. 108, 368, and the 
 authorities there cited. 
 
64 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 These facts not only prove that Newfoundland and 
 Cape Breton were well known in France and Portugal 
 before the Verrazzano voyage and therefore that he 
 did not discover them, but that he must have known 
 of them before, and that the letter is intentionally 
 false in that respect. It might perhaps be insisted 
 with some plausibility under other circumstances, that 
 he ran along the coast, believing that it was a new 
 land, and therefore made the representation of having 
 discovered it in good faith. But admitting that it was 
 even possible for him to have sailed along those shores 
 without encountering a single fishing craft which 
 would'have assured him that he was not in unknown 
 waters, it is impossible that he could have sailed from 
 Dieppe and returned to that port where, of all the 
 places in France or Europe, the knowledge of these 
 facts most existed, and where they were as familiar as 
 household words, and where they must have entered 
 into the .thoughts and hopes of many of its inhabit- 
 ants, without their being known to him ; and that he 
 could have written the letter from that same port, 
 claiming the discovery of the country for himself, with- 
 out intending a fraud. It was the port to which 
 Aubert belonged and where he landed the Indians he 
 brought from Newfoundland. It was the principal 
 port of Normandy from which the fishing vessels made 
 their annual voyages to that country. It was the port 
 from whence he manned and equipped his own fleet 
 of four ships, with crews which must have been largely 
 composed of Normand sailors who were familiar with 
 the navigation and the coast. And there was not a 
 citizen of Dieppe, probably, who had not an interest 
 
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OP THE NORTHERN COAST. 65 
 
 of some nature in one or more of the fishing vessels, 
 and could have told him what country it was that he 
 had explored. 
 
 It bears unequivocal testimony to the fictitious 
 character of this claim, that Ramusio thought it 
 necessary to interpolate in his version a passage repre- 
 senting the discovery of Verrazzano as terminating" 
 where the discoveries of the Bretons began, and to omit 
 the cosmography which states it was at the point 
 where those of the Portuguese towards the Arctic cir- 
 cle commenced. By this alteration the letter is made 
 to acknowledge the prior discoveries by the Bretons, 
 which are entirely excluded in the original version, and 
 to adopt the latitude of 50° N. for the Verrazzano limit 
 thus making the false statement, as to the extent of the 
 discovery, a mistake as it were of nautical observation. 
 The following parallel passages in two versions will 
 best explain the character and efiect of the alteration. 
 
 VERSION OP CARLI, VERSION OP RAMUSIO, 
 
 Narrative. Narrative. 
 
 Navicando infra '1 -subsolano ed Navigando fra levante & tra- 
 
 aquilone in spatio di leghe CL et montana per spatio di leghe 150, 
 
 de giSi avendo coQSumato tutte le pervenimo propinqui alia terra 
 
 nostre substantie navale e vettova- che per il passato trovorono i' 
 
 glie, avendo discopruto leghe DII Brettoni, quale sta in gradi 50 & 
 
 cive leghe 700, piii di nuova terra havedo horamai consumati tutti 
 
 fornendoci di acque et legue de- li nostri armeggi & vettovaglie, 
 
 liberammo di tornare in Francia, havendo scoperto leghe 700, & 
 
 ****** piu di nuova terra, fortinoci di 
 
 acque & legue, deliberammo 
 tornare in Francia. 
 
 Cosmography. Cosmography omitted. 
 
 In questa nostra navigatione 
 fatta per ordine di V. S. M., 
 oltre i gradi 92 che dal detto 
 9 
 
66 
 
 VEKRAZZANO. 
 
 meridiano verso lo oceidente della 
 prima terra trovamo gradi 34 
 navigando leghe 300 infra oriente 
 e settentrione leglie400, quasi alio 
 oriente continuo el lito della terta 
 siamo pervenuti per infino a gradi 
 50, lasciando la terra che piii 
 tempo fa troTorno li Lusitani, 
 ' quali seguirno piii al septentri- 
 one, pervenendo sino al circulo 
 artico e '1 fine lasciendo incognito. 
 
 Translation Narrative. 
 
 After Bailing between east and 
 north the distance of one hundred 
 and fifty leagues more and find- 
 ing our provisions and naval 
 stores nearly exhausted, we took 
 in wood and water, and deter- 
 mined to return to France hav- 
 ing discovered VII that is 700 
 leagues of unknown lands. 
 
 Translation Narrative. 
 
 Sayling northeast for the space 
 of 150 leagues we approached to 
 the lande that in times past was 
 discovered hy the Britons, which is 
 in fiftie degrees. Having now 
 spent all our provision and 
 victuals and having discovered 
 about 700 leaigues and more of 
 newe countries, and being fur- 
 nished with water and wood we 
 concluded to returne into Fraunce. 
 
 (Hakluyt. Divers voyages,') 
 
 Cotmography. 
 
 In the voyage which we made 
 •by order of your Majesty, in ad- 
 dition to the 92 degrees we ran 
 . towards the west from our point 
 of departure, before we reached 
 land in the latitude of 34, we 
 have to count 300 leagues which 
 we ran northeastwardly, and 400 
 nearly east along the coast before 
 we reached the bQth parallel of 
 north latitude, the point where we 
 turned our course from the shore 
 towards home. Beyond this point 
 the Portuguese had already sailed 
 
PRIOR KNOWLEDGE OF THE NORTHERN COAST. 67 
 
 as far north as the Arctic eivcle, 
 without comisiig to the termination 
 of the land. 
 
 (Cogswell. Coll. ofN. Y. Hist. 
 Spciety, Second series, I.) 
 
 Eamugio in omitting the cosmography and confin- 
 ing his version to the narrative would have left the 
 letter without any designation of the northerly limit 
 reached by Verrazzano, had he not transferred to the 
 narrative, the statement of the latitude attained, 
 namely, the fiftieth degree, from the cosmographical 
 part ; which was therefore properly done, though as 
 an editor he should have stated the fact. But he 
 transcended his duty entirely in asserting, in qualifica- 
 tion of the latitude, what does not appear in the letter, 
 that it was near where the Bretons had formerly made 
 discoveries, and omitting aU reference to the Portu- 
 guese. The Bretons are not mentioned or even alluded 
 to in either portion of the original letter. The effect 
 of this substitution therefore is to relieve the original 
 from making a false claim to the discovery north of 
 Cape Breton, by admitting the discoveries of the Bre- 
 tons, and making the alleged extent of the .Verrazzano 
 discovery, as already remarked, a mistake of nautical 
 • observation only. That it was deliberately made, 
 and for that purpose, is shown by his taking the desig- 
 nation of the latitude from the same sentence in the 
 cosmography as that in which the mention of the 
 Portuguese discoveries occurs, in qualification of the 
 latitude. 
 
 The motive which led Eamusio to make this altera- 
 tion is found in the discourse of the French captain of 
 Dieppe, in which it is stated that this part of the 
 
68 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 cpast was discovered by the Normands and Bretons 
 and the Portuguese, many years before the Verrazzano 
 voyage. Ramusio, as he informs us himself, trans- 
 lated that paper from the French into the Italian 
 and published it in the same volume, in conjunction 
 with the Verrazzano letter, which he remodelled. He 
 thus had the contents of both documents before him, 
 at the same time, and saw the contradiction between 
 them. They could not both be true. To reconcile 
 them, alterations were necessiary ; and this change was 
 made in the letter in order to make it conform to 
 the discourse. The fact of his making it, proves that 
 he regarded the letter as advancing an indefensible 
 claim. 
 
 It is also to be observed that in adopting the fiftieth 
 parallel as the extent of the discovery in the north, 
 Ramusio obtained the statement from the cosmography, 
 showing that he had that portion of the letter before 
 him; and confirming the conclusion, expressed in a 
 previous section, that his version was composed from 
 the Carli copy of the letter, in which alone the cos- 
 mography occurs. Whether this limit was so trans- 
 posed by him for a purpose or not, may be a question ; 
 but the origin of it cannot be disputed. 
 
ARTIFICIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 69 
 
 VI. 
 
 rv. The Description oe the People and Productions 
 . OF THE Land not made from the Personal Observa- 
 tion OF THE Writer of the Letter. What distinctively 
 belonged to the Natives is unnoticed^ and what is 
 originally mentioned of them is untrue, further 
 IMPORTANT Alterations of the Text by Eamusio. 
 
 We are brought now to the observations m refer- 
 ence to the people and productions of the country. 
 The communications which the explorers had with the 
 shore are not represented as having been numerous, 
 or their visits of long duration, the longest having 
 been 'one of three days, while they were riding at 
 anchor oflf the coast of North Carolina, and another 
 of fifteen, spent in replenishing the supplies for their 
 ship, in the harbor in the great bay of Massachusetts. 
 These opportunities were however, it seems, sufficient 
 to have enabled them to study the characteristics of 
 the natives and to determine the nature of the vegeta- 
 tion at those places; but the description given of both 
 is very general. Not a single person, sagamore or 
 warrior, or even the boy who was carried away to 
 Prance, iS designated by name, nor any object pecu- 
 liar to the region by its native appellation. Not an 
 Indian word, by which a locality or a tribe might be 
 traced, occurs in the whole narrative. Some familiar 
 details are mentioned of Indian manners and customs, 
 which give the account the appearance of truth, but 
 
70 ■ VEBRAZZANO. 
 
 there .is nothing in them which may not have been 
 deduced from known narratives of earlier voyages 
 to adjoining parts of America ; while much that was 
 peculiar to the country claimed to have been dis- 
 covered, and of a character to compel observation, is 
 omitted ; and some particulars stated which could not 
 have existed. 
 
 In its incidents of Indian life it recalls the experi- 
 ences of Columbus. When the great discoverer first 
 came to the island of Hispaniola it is related, " they 
 saw certaine men of the Islande who perceiving an 
 unknowen native comming toward them, flocked 
 together and ran into the thicke woodes, as it had bin 
 hares coursed with greyhoundes. Our men pursuing 
 them took only one woman, whom they brought to the 
 ships, where filling her with meate and wine, and appar- 
 relling her, they let her depart to her ccfmpanie." Also, 
 " their boates are made only of one tree made hollow 
 with a certain sharpe stone, for they have no yron, and 
 are very long and narrow." And again, " when our 
 men went to prayer, and kneeled on their knees, after 
 the manner of the Christians, they did the like also. And 
 after what manner soever they saw them pray to the 
 crosse, they followed them in all poyntes as well as 
 they could." ^ The Verrazzano letter tells us, in like 
 phrase, that when they laaded at the end of fifty 
 leagues from the landfall, " we found that the people 
 had fled to the woods for fear. By searching around we 
 discovered in the grass a very old woman and a young 
 girl of about eighteen or twenty, who had concealed 
 themselves for the same reason. We gave them a 
 
 ' Peter Martyr, Dec. I.I. in Eden. 
 
ARTIFICIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 71 
 
 part of our provisions, which they ' accepted with 
 delight, but the girl would not touch any." At the 
 same place, it is added, " we saw many of their boats 
 made of one tree, without the aid of stone or iron or 
 • other kind of metal." And to make the parallel com- 
 plete, the letter asserts of the natives, "they are very 
 easy to be persuaded and imitated us with earnestness 
 and fervor in all which they saw us do as Christians 
 in our acts of worship." While they were taking 
 in their supplies and interchanging civilities with the 
 Indians in the harbor of the great bay, the following 
 scene of royalty is described as having occurred. " One 
 of the two kings often came with his queen and many 
 gentlemen (gentili uomini) to see us for his amuse- 
 ment, but he always stopped at the distance of about 
 two hundred paces, and sent a boat to inform us of his 
 intended visit, saying they would come and see our 
 ship. This was done for safety, and as soon as they 
 had an answer from us, they came off and remained 
 awhile to look around ; but on hearing the annoying 
 cries of the sailors, the king sent the queen with her 
 maids [demizelle) in a very light boat to wait near an 
 island, a quarter of a league distant from us while he 
 remained a long time on board." This hyperbolical 
 description of the visit of the sachem of Cape Cod ac- 
 companied by the gentlemen of his household and of 
 his squaw queen with her maids of honor, has its pro- 
 totype in the visit paid to Bartholomew Columbus, 
 during the absence of his brother, the admiral, by 
 Bechechio the king or cacique of Xaragua and his 
 sister, the queen dowager, Anacoana, who are repre- 
 sented as going to the ship of the Adelantado in two 
 
72 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 canoes, " one for himself and certayne of his gentle- 
 men, another for Anacoana and her waiting women." 
 The astonishment which the natives manifested at the 
 appearance of the Dauphiny and her crew ; their ad- 
 miration of the simple toys and little bells which 
 were offered them by the strangers ; their practice of 
 painting their bodies, adorning themselves with the gay 
 plumage of birds, and habiting themselves with the 
 skins of animals, seem all analogized, in the same way, 
 from the accounts given by Peter Martyr of the in- 
 habitants of the islands discovered by Columbus, and of 
 the northern regions by Sebastian Cabot. These 
 traits of Indian life and character, therefore, not hav- 
 ing been peculiar to the natives of the country de- 
 scribed in the letter, and having been already men- 
 tioned in earlier accounts of the adjoining parts of 
 America, the description of them here furnishes no* 
 proof of originality or of the truth of the letter for 
 that reason. 
 
 On the other hand objects which historically belong 
 to the inhabitants of the places declared to have been 
 visited, and characterize them distinctly from those 
 previously discovered, and which were of such a marked 
 character as to have commanded attention, are not 
 mentioned at all. Of this class perhaps the most pro- 
 minent is the wampum, a commodity of such value and 
 use among them that, like gold among the Europeans, 
 it served the double purpose of money and personal 
 adornment. The' region of the harbor where the 
 voyagers spent, according td the letter, fifteen days in 
 familiar intercourse with the inhabitants, was its 
 greatest mart, from which it was spread among the 
 
ARTIFICIAL DESCRIPTIOlSr OF THE COUNTRY. 73 
 
 tribes, both north and east. Wood, describing the 
 Narragansets in 1634, says they " are the most curious 
 minters of the wampompeage and mowhakes which 
 they forme out of the inmost wreaths of periwinkle 
 shels. The northerne, easterne, and westeme Indians 
 fetch all their coyne from these southern mint-mastery. 
 From hence they have most of their curious pendants 
 and bracelets ; hence they have their great stone pipes 
 which will hold a quarter of an ounce of tobacco." 
 And in regard to their practice of ornamentation, he 
 remarks again : " although they be poore, yet is there 
 in them the sparkes of naturall pride which appeares in 
 their longing desire after many kinde of ornaments, 
 wearing pendants in their eares, ha formes of birds, 
 beasts and fishes, carved out of bone, shels, and stone, 
 with long bracelets of their curious wrought wam- 
 pompeage and mowhackees which they put about 
 their necks and loynes ; which they count a rai:e kinde 
 of decking." The same writer adds a description of 
 ah Indian king of this country in his attire, wjiich is 
 somewhat less fanciful than that in the letter. " A 
 sagamore with a humberd (humming-bird) in his eare 
 for a pendant, a blackhawke in his occiput for his 
 plume, mowhackees for his gold chaine, good store of 
 wa:rjpompeage begirting his loynes, his bow in his 
 hand, his quiver at his back, with six naked Indian 
 spatterlashes at his heeles for his guard, thinkes him- 
 selfe little ijiferiour to the great Cham." ^ Roger 
 Williams confirms this account of the importance of 
 the wampum among these- same Indians. " They 
 hang," he states " these strings of money about their 
 
 ' Mw Englamd Prospect, pp. 61, 65-6. 
 10 
 
74 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 necks and wrists, as also about the necks and wrists 
 of their wives and children. Machequoce, a girdle, 
 which they make curiously of one, two, three, four 
 and five inches thickness and more, of this money, 
 which sometimes to the value of tenpounds and more, 
 they weare about their middle, and a scarfe about 
 their shoulders and breasts. 
 
 The Indians prize not English gold, 
 
 Nor English, Indians shell : 
 Each in his place will' passe for ought, 
 
 What ere men buy or sell." ^ 
 
 Another important article in universal use among 
 the Indians of the main land, north and south, was 
 the tobacco pipe. . Tobacco was used by the natives 
 of the West India islands, made up in rolls or cigars ; 
 but by the Indians of the continent it was broken up, 
 carried in small bags attached to a girdle round the body, 
 and smoked through clay, stone or copper pipes, some- 
 times of very elaborate workmanship. Smoking the 
 pipe was of universal use among them, both on ordi- 
 nary and extraordinary occasions. It was a tender 
 of hospitality to strangers ; and a sign of peace and 
 friendship between the nations.^ When Captain Way- 
 mouth ran along the coast of the great bay of Massa- 
 chusetts, in 1605, he repeatedly encountered this cus-- 
 tom. On one occasion the natives came from the 
 shore in three canoes, and Rosier remarks of them : 
 " they came directly aboord us and brought us tobacco, 
 which we tooke with them in their pipe which was 
 
 ' Key into the Language of America, pp. 149-50. 
 
 " For a full and interesting account of the importance of the tobacco- 
 pipe among the Indians of North America, upon cited authorities, we 
 refer the reader to Antiquities of tJie Southern Indians. By Charles C. 
 Jones Jr., p. 383. (New York, 1873.) 
 
ARTIFICIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 75 
 
 made of earth very strong, but blacke and short, con- 
 taining a great quantity. ■ When we came at shoare 
 they all most kindely entertained us, taking us by the 
 hands, as they had observed we did to them aboord in 
 token of welcome, and brought us to sit downe by their 
 fire, where sat together thirteene of them. They 
 filled their tobacco pipe, which was then the short 
 claw of a lobster, which will hold ten of our pipes full 
 and we dranke of their excellent tobacco, as much as 
 we would with them." ^ No notice is taken of this 
 custom, either of tobacco or the pipe in the Verrazzano 
 letter. 
 
 The most remarkable omission of all is of the bark 
 canoe. This light and beautiful fabric was peculiar 
 to the Algonkin tribes. It was not found among the 
 southern Indians, much less in the West India islands. 
 Its buoyancy and the beauty of its form were such 
 as to render it an object of particular observation. 
 Though so light as to be capable of being borne on a 
 man's shoulders, it would sometimes carry nine men, 
 and ride with safety over the most stormy sea. It 
 was always from the first a great object of interest 
 with the discoverers of the northerly parts of the 
 coast, which they manifested by taking them back to 
 lEurope, as curiosities. ■ Aubert carried one of them to 
 Dieppe in 1508, and Captain Martin Fringe, who was 
 one of the first to visit the shores of Cape Cod, took 
 one, in 1603, thence to Bristol, which he thus de- 
 scribes, as if he saw no other kind. 
 
 '.'Their boats whereof we brought one to Bristoll, were in propor- 
 tion like a wherrie of the river of Thames, seventeene foot long and 
 
 ' Purchas, iv. 1663. 
 
76 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 foure foot broad, made of the barke of a bircb tree, farre exceeding 
 in bignesse those of England : it was sowed together with strong and 
 tough oziers or twigs, and the seames covered over with rozen or 
 turpentine little inferiour in sweetnesse to frankincense, as we made 
 triall by burning a little thereof on the coales at sundry times after 
 our comming home : it was also open like a wherrie, and sharpe at 
 both ends, saving that the beake was a little bending roundly upward. 
 And though it carried nine men standing upright, yet it weighed 
 not at the most, above sixtie pounds in weight, a thing almost in- 
 credible in regard of the largeness and capacitie thereof. Their oares 
 were flat at the end like an oven peele, made of ash or maple, very light 
 and strong, about two yards long wherewith they row very swiftly."! 
 
 The silence of the letter in regard to this species of 
 the canoe is the more remarkable, as it is in connec- 
 tion with the natives of the harbor where they spent 
 fifteen days, that mention is made in it a second time 
 of the manner of jnaking their boats out of single logs, 
 as if it were a subject of importance, and worthy of re- 
 mark. The inference is most strongly to be drawn 
 therefore, from this circumstance, that the writer knew 
 nothing about the bark canoe, or the people who usied 
 them. 
 
 The absence of all allusion to any of the peculiar 
 attributes, especially of the essential character just de- 
 scribed, of the natives of the great bay leads to the 
 conclusion that the whole account is a fabrication. 
 But this end is absolutely reached by the positive 
 statement of a radical difference in complexion be- 
 tween the tribes, which they found in the country. 
 
 The people whom they saw on their first landing, 
 and who are stated to have been for the most part 
 naked, are described as being black in color, and not 
 very different from Ethiopians, {di colore neri non 
 
 ' Purchas, iv. 1655. 
 
ARTIFICIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 77 
 
 molto dagli Etiqpi disformi) and of medium stature, 
 well formed of body and acute of mind. The latter 
 observation would imply that the voyagers had mixed 
 with these natives very considerably in order to have 
 been able to speak so positively in regard to their 
 mental faculties, and therefore could not have been 
 mistaken as to their complexion for want of opportu- 
 nity to discover it. The precise place where they first 
 •landed and saw these black people is not mentioned 
 further than that the country where they lived was 
 situated in the thirty-fourth degree of latitude. From 
 this place they proceeded further along the coast north- 
 wardly, and again coming to anchor attempted to go 
 ashore in a boat without success, when one of them, a 
 young sailor, attempted to swim to the land, but was 
 thrown, by the violence of the waves, insensible on 
 the beach. Upon recovering he found himself sur- 
 rounded by natives who were black like the others. 
 That there is no mistake in the design of the writer 
 to represent these people as really black, like negroes, 
 is made evident by his account of the complexion of 
 those he found in the harbor of the great bay in lati- 
 tude 41° 40', who are described as essentially dijfferent 
 and the finest looking tribe they had seen, being "of a 
 very white complexion, some inclining more to white, 
 and others to a yellow color" (di colore bianchissimo ; 
 alcuni pendanopiiji in hianchezza, altri in colore flavo). 
 The difierence between the inhabitants of the two sec- 
 tions of country, in respect to color, is thus drawn in 
 actual contrast. 
 
 This is unfounded in fact. No black aborigines 
 have ever been found within the entire limits of North 
 
78 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 America, except in California where some are said to 
 exist. The Indians of the Atlantic coast were uni- 
 formly of a tawny or yellowish brown color, made 
 more conspicuous by age and exposure and being 
 almost white in infancy. The first voyagers and 
 early European settlers universally concur in assign-^ 
 ing them this complexion. Keference need here be 
 to such testimony only as relates to the two parts of 
 the country where the distinction is pretended to 
 have existed.- The earliest mention of the inhabitants 
 of the more southerly portion is when the vessels of 
 Ayllon and Matienzo carried off sixty of the Indians 
 from the neighborhood of the Santee, called the Jor- 
 dan, in 1521, and took them to St. Domingo. One of 
 them went to Spain with Ayllon. They are described 
 by Peter Martyr, from sight, as semifuscos uti nostri 
 sunt agricolae sole adusti aestivo, half brown, like our 
 husbandmen, burnt by the summer sun.^ Barlowe, in 
 his account of the first expedition of Kaleigh, which 
 entered Pamlico sound, within the region now under 
 consideration, describes the Indians whom he found 
 there as of a " colour yellowish."^ Captain John Smith, 
 speaking of those of the Chesapeake, remarks, that 
 they " are of a color brown when they are of age, but 
 they are born white." ^ On the other hand the natives 
 of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in latitude 41° 40' 
 are described by the first explorers of that region in 
 substantially the same terms. Brereton, who accom- 
 panied Gosnold in his first voyage to the Elisabeth 
 
 ' Dec. VII, 3. 
 
 " Hakluyt, in. 248. 
 
 " Smith, Map of Virgina, 1612, p. 19. 
 
AKTIFICIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 79 
 
 islands and the main land opposite, in 1602, mentions 
 the natives there, as being of a complexion or color 
 much like a dark olive." ^ Martin Fringe who visited 
 Martha's Vineyard the next year and constructed 
 there a barricade where the " people of the country 
 came sometimes, ten, twentie, fortie or three score, and 
 at one time one hundre(J and twentie at once," says, 
 " these people are inclined to a swart, tawnie or ches- 
 nut colour, not by nature but accidentally." ^ And 
 iloger Williams, partaking 'of the same idea as Fringe, 
 that the swarthy color was accidental, testifies, alnciost 
 in the same language a;S Captain Smith, that the Nar- 
 ragansets and others within a region of two hundred 
 miles of them, were " tawnie by the sunne and their 
 annoyntings, yet they were born white." ^ Thus the 
 authorities flatly contradict the statement of black 
 Indians existing in North Carolina, and a difference 
 of color between the people of the two sections claimed 
 to have been visited in this voyage. 
 
 Of an equally absurd and preposterous character 
 is the statement made in reference to the condition 
 in which the plants and vegetation were found. The 
 grape particularly is mentioned in a manner whiph 
 proves, beyond question, that the writer could not 
 have been in the country.- The dates which are 
 given for the exploration are positive ; and are con- 
 clusive in this respect. The Dauphiny is represented 
 as having left Madeira on the 17th of January, and 
 arrived on the coast on the 7th of March, that is. 
 
 ■ Purchas, rv. 1653. 
 
 " Ibid, IV. 1655. 
 
 ' Roger Williams's Key, 52. 
 
80 VEREAZZANO, 
 
 the 17th of that month, new stjle.^ They left the 
 harbor of the great bay, where they had remained for 
 fifteen days on the 6 th of May, which makes their 
 arrival there to have been on the 21st of April, or 
 first of May, N. S. They were thus during the nionths 
 of March and April, engaged in coasting from the land- 
 fall to the great bay in latitude 41° 40', during which 
 period the observations relating to the intermediate 
 country, consequently, must have been made. They 
 left the coast, finally, in latitude 50° N., for the put- 
 pose of returning to France, in time to reach, there 
 and have the letter written announcing their arrival 
 at Dieppe on the 8 th of July, and therefore it must 
 have been some time in June, at the latest ; so that 
 very little if any portion of the summer season was 
 passed upon the coast of America. . 
 
 In describing the country which they reached at 
 the end of the fifty leagues north of the landfall, that 
 is, near the boundary between North Carolina and 
 Virgina, where they discovered the old woman and 
 girl concealed in the grass and found the land gene- 
 rally, " abounding in forests filled with various kinds 
 of trees but not "of such fragrance " as those where they 
 first landed, the writer gives a particular description 
 of the condition in which they found the vines and 
 flowers. 
 
 " We saw," he says, " many vines there growing naturally, which 
 run upon, and entwine about the trees, as they do in Lombardy, and 
 which if the husbandmen were to have under a perfect system of 
 cultivation, would without doubt produce the best wines, because 
 tasting (beendo, literally, drinking or sucking) the fruit many times, 
 we perceived it was sweet and pleasant, not different from ours. 
 
 ' See ante, page 4, note. 
 
ARTIFICIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COUNTRY. 81 
 
 • t 
 
 They are heM in estimation by them because wherever they grow 
 
 they remove the small trees around them in order that the fruit may 
 be able to germinate. We found wild roses, violets, lilies and 
 many species of plants and odoriferous flowers, different from ours.i 
 
 » 
 
 The flavor and vinous qualities of the grapes are 
 .thus particularly mentioned as having been proven 
 several times by eating the ripe and luscious fruit, and 
 in language peculiarly expressive of the fact. Accord- 
 ing to the dates before given, this must have occurred 
 early in the month of April, as the scene is laid upon 
 the coast of North Carolina. There is no native vine 
 which ever flowers in this country, north of latitude 
 thirty-four, before the month of May, and none that 
 ripens its fruit before July, which is the month as- 
 signed by Lawson for the ripening of the summer fox 
 grape in the swamps and moist lands of North Caro- 
 lina, — the earliest of all the grapes in that region.^ 
 North of latitude 41° no grape matures until the latter 
 part of August. As the explorers are made to have 
 left the shores of Newfoundland for home in June, at 
 farthest, they were at no time on any part of the coast, 
 in season to have been able to see or taste the ripe or 
 unripe fruit of the vine. The representation of the 
 letter in this respect depending both upon the sight 
 and the taste, must, like that of the contrasted appear- 
 ance of the natives, be regarded as deliberately made ; 
 
 ' " Vedemmo in quella molte vite della natura prodotte, quali alzando si 
 avvoltano agli alberi cgme nella Cisalpina Gallia costumano ; le quali se 
 dagli agricultori avessino el perfetto ordine di cultura, senza dubbio pro- 
 durrebbono ottim'l viui, perche piii volte 11 frutto di quello beendo, veggi- 
 endo suave e dolce, non dal nostro diflferente sono da lore tenuti in ex- 
 timatione ; impero che per tutto dove nascono, levano gli arbusculi oircu- 
 stanti ad causa 11 frutto possa gierminare. Trovamo rose silvestre et 
 vivuole, gigll et molte sorte di erbe e fiori odoriferi da nostri diflferenti." 
 
 " New Voyage to Carolina, p. 603. 
 11 
 
82 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 and consequently, the two as establishing the falsity 
 of the description in those particulars, and thus involv- 
 ing the integrity and truth of the whole. 
 
 The liberty which Ramusio took with these passages 
 in his version of the letter, demands notice, and adds 
 his testimony again to the absurdity of the account.* 
 He doubtless knew, from the numerous descriptions 
 which had been published, of the uniformity of the 
 physical characteristics of the American Indians ; and 
 he certainly knew of it as regarded the natives of this 
 coast, as is proven by his publication of Oviedo's ac- 
 count of the voyage of Gomez, made there in 1525, in 
 which they are described, in the same volume with 
 the Verrazzano letter.^ His own experience, as to the 
 climate of Venice, taught him also that grapes coul4 
 not have ripened in the latitude and at the time of 
 year assigned for that purpose. He had therefore 
 abundant reason to question the correctness of the 
 letter in both particulars. As in the case of the 
 representation of the extent of the discovery, before 
 mentioned, he did not hesitate to make them conform 
 more to the truth. He amended the original in regard 
 to the complexion of the natives represented as those 
 first seen, by inserting in place of the words, applied 
 to them, of " black and not much different from Ethi- 
 opians," the phrase, " brownish and not much unlike 
 the Saracens" (herrettmP & non molto dalli Saracini 
 differenti) by which they are likened to those Arabs 
 whose complexion, " yellow, bordering on brown," is 
 
 ' Tom. ra. fol. 52, (ed. 1556). 
 
 ' Berrettini is derived from beretta, the Turkish fez, a red cap, designat- 
 ing also the scarlet cap of the cardinals in the church of Rome. 
 
AKTIFICIAL DESCRIPTION OF THE COTTNTRT. 83 
 
 of a similar cast ; ^ and in regard to the grapes, by- 
 substituting instead of, " tasting the fruit many times 
 T^e perceived it was sweet and pleasant," the passage, 
 " having often seen the fruit thereof dried, which was 
 sweet and pleasant," (havedo' veduto piu volte il frutto 
 di quelle secco, che era suaue & dolce,) by which he ap- 
 parently obviates the objection, -but in fact only aggra- 
 vates it, by asserting what has never yet been heard 
 of, among the Indians of this coast, the preservation 
 of the grape by drying or otherwise. 
 
 It is evident that whatever may have been the 
 motives of Ramusio in making these repeated alter- 
 ations of the statements in the letter, they not only 
 show his own sense of their necessity, but they have 
 had the effect to keep from the world the real charac- 
 ter of this narrative in essential particulars, until its 
 exposure now, by the production of the Carli version. 
 
 ' Pritchard, Natural History of Man, p. 137 (3d edition). 
 
 BIECH BARK CANOE. 
 Still used by the Indiana on the Penobscot. 
 
84 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 VII. 
 
 The Extrinsic Evidence in Support of the Claim. I. 
 Discourse of the French Sba-Captain of Dieppe. 
 
 The extrinsic evidence which is urged in support of 
 the claim to the discovery by Verrazzano is not of 
 great amount. It is certain, however, that if the 
 letter upon which the claim is founded, be spurious 
 and fictitious, as for the reasons assigned, it is con- 
 sidered to be, any extraneous evidence, must either 
 partake of the same character, or have originated in 
 some misconception or error. What exists upon the 
 subject consists principally of two pieces, which have 
 only recently been regarded of any importance for this 
 purpose, and in connection with which the others may 
 be considered. 
 
 One of them is an anonymous paper entitled in full, 
 "Discourse of a great sea-captain, a Frenchman of 
 the town of Dieppe, as to the voyages made to the 
 new land of the West Indies, called New France, from 
 the 40° to the 47° under the Arctic pole, and concern- 
 ing the land of BrazU, Guinea, the island of St. Law- 
 rence and that of Sumatra: " the other is a map of the 
 world, bearing the name of Hieronimo de Verrazano. 
 
 The discourse of the French captain does not, any 
 more than the letter of Verrazzano, exist in the ori- 
 ginal ; nor has any copy of it ever been produced, ex- 
 cept in a printed translation by Ramusio in the same 
 
DISCOURSE of' the DIEPPE CAPTAIN. 85 
 
 volume, as that in whicti his version of that letter 
 appears, and immediately following it. Kamusio states 
 that it was written in 1539, as may be inferred from 
 the letter itself in its present form, and that he had 
 translated it from the French, grieving much that he 
 did not know the name of the author, because not giv- 
 ing it he seemed to do wrong to the memory of so val- 
 iant and noble a gentleman. It is evident, however, 
 upon comparmg the description, which it gives, of a 
 voyage made from Dieppe to Sumatra, with the ori- 
 ginal journal, first brought to light and published a 
 few years ago, of such a voyage made by Jean 
 Parmentier in 1529, that this discourse was written by 
 some one of the persons engaged in that expedition.^ 
 Its authenticity, in general, may therefore not be ques- 
 . tioned. But as the original has never been produced 
 and it is only known through this version of Ramusio, 
 experience in regard to his practice as a compiler, of 
 altering texts according to his judgment of their de- 
 fects and errors, proves that we have by no means a 
 reliable copy for our guidance. In fact, as given by 
 Eamusib, its recognition of the Verrazzano discovery is 
 only by way of parenthesis, and in such antagonism 
 to the context, as to render it quite certain that this 
 portion of it is by another hand. 
 
 1 Voyages et dScouvertes des rumigateurs Normands. Par L. Bstancelin, p. 
 341. (Paris 1833.) M. Bstancelin supposes that Pierre Mauclere tlie astropo- 
 mer of one of the ships composing thB expedition of Parmentier, was the , 
 author of this discourse (p. 45, note). But M. D' Avezac attributes it to 
 Pierre Grignon, who also accompanied Parmentier, and who besides being 
 the editor of a collection of poems by Parmentier, after his death, evinced 
 his knowledge of nautical matters by writing a dissertation on the varia- 
 tion of the needle. Introdxietion to the Brief Eecit of Jacques Cartier, p. 
 vn. (Tross, Paris, 1863.) Brunet, mb Parmentier. Margry, Les fiaviga- 
 tmra Fran^aidea, p. 199. 
 
86 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 The writer, after explaining the nature of latitude 
 and longitude, and taking the meridian of no varia- 
 tion running through the eastern extremity of the 
 Cape de Verde islands as the basis of his observations 
 of longitude, proceeds to a description of Terra Nova; 
 so much of which as is pertinent is here abstracted. 
 
 " The Terra Nova, the nearest cape of which is called the Cape 
 de Kas, is situated west of our diametrical or meridional line where- 
 on is fixed the first point of longitude according to the wue meridian 
 of the compass ; and the said Cape de Kas is in west longitude 40° 
 and 47 of North latitude. The Terra Nova extends towards the 
 Arctic pole from 40° to 60, and from Cape de Eas going towards 
 ■ the pole, the coast almost always runs from south to north, and con- 
 tains in all 350 leagues, and from said Cape de Kas to the cape of 
 the Brettons, the coast runs east and west, for an hundred leagues, 
 and the cape of the Brettons is in 47° west longitude and 46 north 
 latitude. To go from Dieppe to the Terra Nova, the course is almost 
 all east and west, and there are from Dieppe to said Cape de Kas 
 760 leagues. 
 
 " Between Cape de Kas and cape of the Brettons dwell an austere 
 and cruel people with whom you cannot treat or converse. They 
 are large of person, clad in skins of seals and other wild animals 
 tied together, and are marked with certain lines, made with fire, fin 
 the face and as it were striped with color between black and red, 
 (tra il nero & berrettino) and in many respects as to face sftid neck, 
 are like those of our Barbary, the hair long like women, which they 
 gather up on top of the head as we do with a horse's tail. Their 
 arrows are bows with which they shoot very dexterously, and their 
 arrows are pointed with black stones and fish bones. * * *. * 
 
 " This land was discovered 35 years ago, that is, the part that runs 
 east and west, by the Brettons and Normands, for which reason the 
 land is called the Cape of the Brettons. The other part that runs 
 north and south was discovered by the Portuguese from Cape de Kas 
 to Cape Buona-vista, which contains about 70 leagues, and the rest 
 was discovered as far as the gulf of the Castles, and further on by 
 said Brettons and Normands, and it is about 33 years since a ship 
 from Honfleur of which Jean Denys (Griovanni Dionisio) was captain 
 and Camart (Camarto) of Kouen, was pilot, first went there, and in 
 the year 1508, a Dieppe vessel, called the Pensee, which was owned 
 by Jean Ango, father of Monsignor, the captain and Viscount of 
 
DISCOUESE OF THE DIEPPE CAPTAIN. 87 
 
 Dieppe went thither, the mastei; or the captain of said ship being 
 Thomas Anbert, and he was the first who brought hither people of 
 the said country. * 
 
 " Following beyond the cape of the Brettons there is a land con- 
 tiguous to the said cape, the coast whereof extends west by south- 
 west as far as the land of Florida and it runs full 500 leagues, (which 
 coast was discovered fifteen years ago, hy Messer Giovanni da Ver- 
 razzano, in the name of King Francis, and Madame the regent,) and 
 this land is called by many la Fraricese, and likewise by the Portu- 
 guese themselves and its tnd towards Florida is at 78° west longi- 
 tude and 30° north latitude. The inhabitants of this land are tract- 
 able peoples, friendly and pleasant. The land is most abundant in 
 all fruit. There grow oranges, almonds, wild grapes and many other 
 kinds of odoriferous trees. The land is called by its people Nurum- 
 bega, and between this land and that of Brazil is a great gulf which 
 extends westwardly to 92°- west longitude, which is more than a 
 quarter of the circuit of the globe ; and in the gulf are the islands 
 and West Indies discovered by the Spaniards." i 
 
 This account emphatically contradicts the Verraz- 
 zano letter which claims the discovery of the coast 
 from Cape Breton in 46° N. as far east and north as 
 50° N. latitude, embracing a distance of two hundred 
 leagues, both according to the letter and the discourse. 
 It distinctly affirms this long stretch of coast to have 
 been discovered long before the Verrazzano voyage by 
 the Portuguese and the Bretons and Normands, assign- 
 ing to the Portuguese and French specific portions of it. 
 This is in perfect harmony with the truth as established 
 by the authorities to which occasion has already been 
 had to refer. This account therefore unequivocally 
 repudiates the Verrazzano claim to the discovery of 
 that part of the country, and thus derogates from the 
 pretensions of the letter instead of supporting them. 
 
 The letter contains a distinct and specific claim for 
 the discovery of the coast as far north as 50° N. The 
 
 1 Ramusio, m. fol. 433-4 (ed. 1556). 
 
88 VEEBAZZANO. 
 
 writer of the discourse, if he. had any knowledge on the 
 subject^ must have known of ,the extent of this claim. 
 In attributing to others the discovery of that large 
 portion of the coast, east and north of Cape Breton, he 
 must have considered the claim to that extent as. un- 
 founded. It is difficult therefore to account for his 
 admitting its validity as regards the country south of 
 Cape Breton as he apparently does ; as it is a manifest 
 inconsistency to reject so important a part as false, 
 and affirm the rest of it to be true, when the whole 
 depends upon the same evidence. 
 
 Another circumstance to be remarked is, that the 
 description, which follows, of the country said to have 
 been discovered by Verrazzano, has not the slightest 
 reference to the account given in the letter, but is evi- 
 dently derived from other sources of discovery. Two 
 names are attributed to it, Francese and Nv/rwmbega, 
 both of which owe their designation to other voyagers. 
 Francese, or French land, appears for the first time in 
 any publication, on two maps hereafter mentioned, 
 printed in 1540, under the Latin form of Francisca. It 
 is called in the manuscript cosmography and charts of 
 Jean Alfonse, terre de la Franciscane. An earlier 
 map by Baptista Agnese, described by Mr. Kohl, indi- 
 cates that the name owes its origin, as will hereafter be 
 pointed out, to the voyages of the French fishermen 
 to the shores of Nova Scotia and New England.^ 
 Nurumbega, as the writer himself states, is an Indian 
 name, which could not have been taken from the Ver- 
 razzano account, as that does not mention a single Indian 
 word of any kind. The statement of the productions 
 
 ' DUcgvery of Maine, p. 302, chart xrv. 
 
DISCOURSE OF T-HE DIEPPE CAPTAIN. 89 
 
 of the country includes oranges, which do not belong 
 to any portion of the continent claimed to have been 
 visited by Verrazzano, and plainly indicates an entirely 
 different ■authority for that portion of the coast. It 
 is therefore equally unaccountable why the author of 
 the discourse should have acknowledged the discovery 
 by Verrazzano and, at the same time, have passed over 
 altogether the description in the letter, and sought his 
 information in regard to the country elsewhere, when 
 he had there such ample details, especially in connec- 
 tion with the great bay. 
 
 The solution of the whole difficulty is to be found 
 in the fact that the clause relating to Verrazzano was 
 not the work of the author of the discourse, but of an- 
 other person. It is- not difficult to understand how 
 and by whom this interpolation came to be made. 
 Ramusio had both the letter and the discourse in 
 his hands at the same time, for the purpose of pre- 
 paring them for publication, recomposing the one, as 
 has already been .shown, and translating the other 
 from the French into the Italian, as he himself states. 
 In the execution of the former of these tasks, he took 
 the liberty of altering the letter, as has been proven, 
 by substituting the phrase of, tlie land discovered hy 
 the Bretons, for that of, the country explored hy the 
 Byrtuguese, as the northern limit of the voyage of 
 Verrazzano ; thereby removing the objectioli, to which 
 the letter was obnoxious, of entirely ignoring the dis- 
 coveries of the Bretons, which were distinctly asserted 
 in the discourse. In order to conform to the Verraz- 
 zano letter, as it was thus modified, it was necessary 
 to insert this clause in the discourse, which would else 
 12 
 
90 VEKRAZZANO. 
 
 appear to contradict the letter entirely. The two 
 alterations, however necessary they were to preserve 
 some consistency between the two documents, are, 
 nevertheless, both alike repugnant to the original 
 letter. 
 
 This discourse fails, therefore, as an authority in 
 favor of the Verrazzano discovery, or even of the exist- 
 ence of a claim in its behalf; the statement which it •, 
 contains in relation to Verrazzano, originating with . 
 Ramusio adding nothing to the case.^ 
 
 > The writer gives, however, some details in relation to the Indians and 
 the fisheries along the easteriy coast of Newfoundland, illustrative of cer- 
 tain points which have arisen in the course of this enquiry. Continuing his 
 remarks, as given in the text, in regard to the Indians inhabiting the south- 
 erly coast between Cape Race and Cape Breton, he states : " there are many 
 stags and deer, and birds like geese and Tnargaux. On the coast there is much 
 good fishery of cod, which fish are taken by the French and Bretons, oiHy 
 beca/me flwaeofihe country do not take tJiem. In the coast running north 
 and south, from Cape de Ras to the entrance of the Castles, [straits of 
 Belle-Isle] there are great gulfs and rivers, and numerous islands, many 
 of them large ; and this country is thinly inhabited, except the afore- 
 said coast, and the people are smaller ; and there is great fishery of cod as 
 on the other coast. There has not been seen there either village,, or town, 
 or castle, except a great enclosure of wood, which was seen in the gulf of 
 the Castles ; and the aforesaid people dwell in little cabins and huts, covered 
 with the bark of trees, which they make to live in during the time of the 
 fisheries, which commences in spring and lasts all the summer. Their fishery 
 is of seal, and porpoises which, with certain seafowl called margaux, they 
 take in the islands and dry ; and of the grease of said fish they make oil, 
 and when the time of their fishejy is ended, winter coming on, they depart 
 with their fish, and go away, in little boats made of the bark of trees, called 
 buU, into other countries, which are perhaps warmer, but we know not 
 where." 
 
THE VEREAZANO MAP. 91 
 
 VIII. 
 
 n. The -Vbrrazano Map. It is not an AtJthoritativb 
 
 Exposition op the Vberazzano Discovery. Its Origin 
 
 • AND Date in its present Form. The -Letter of An- 
 
 NiBAL Caro. The Map presented to Henry VIII. 
 
 * Voyages of Verraz^ano. The Globe of Euphrosynus 
 
 ¥. Ulpius. . 
 
 Themapof Hieronimo deVerrazano, recently brought 
 to particular notice,^ is a planisphere on a roll of parch- 
 ment eight feet and a half long and of corresponding 
 width, formerly belonging to Cardinal Stefano Borgia, 
 in whose museum, in the college of the Propaganda in 
 the Vatican, it is now preserved. It has no date, 
 though, from a legend upon it referring to the Verraz- 
 zano discovery, it may be inferred that the year 1529 
 is intended to be understood as the time when it was 
 constructed. No pateographical description of it, how- 
 ever, has yet been published, from which the period 
 of its construction might be determined, or the con- 
 gruity of its parts verified. It may, however, in order 
 to*disencumber the question, be admitted to be the map 
 mentioned by Annibal Caro in 1 537, in a letter to which 
 occasion will hereafter be had to refer, and that its 
 author was the brother of the navigator, though of 
 both these facts satisfactory proof is wanting.^ 
 
 ' Journal of the American Geogrwphieai Society of New York. 1873 Vol . 
 IV. Notes on the Verramrw map. By James Carson Brevoort. 
 
 ' This map was either unknown to Ramusio and Gastaldi or discredited 
 by them. Ramusio in his preface, after mentioning to Fracastor that he 
 
92 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 No entirely legible copy of this map has yet been 
 made public. Two photographs, both much reduced 
 from the original, have been made for the American 
 Geographical ^ciety, from the larger of which, so 
 much as relates to the present purpose, has been care- 
 fully reproduced here on the same scale. It i& to be 
 regretted that the names along the coast, and the 
 legends relating to the Verrazzano exploration, are not 
 photographed distinctly, though the legends and a few 
 names have been supplied by means of a pen. But al- 
 though a knowledge of all the names is necessary for 
 a thorough understanding of this map, these photo- 
 graphs, nevertheless, affording a trife transcript of it in 
 other respects, enable us to determine that, it is of no 
 authority as to the alleged discovery itself.* 
 
 It will be found, in the first place, to contravene 
 the Verrazzano letter as to the limits of the discovery, 
 both north and south, and to indicate merely an 
 attempt to reconcile that discovery generally with the 
 
 placed the relation of Verrazzano and Jacques Cartlerin that volnpne, adds, 
 that inasr&uch as Fracastor had exhorted him to make, in imitation of 
 Ptolemy, four or five maps of as much as was known up to that time of 
 tte part of the world recently discovered, he could not disobey his com- 
 mands, and had therefore arranged to have them made by the Piedmontese 
 cosmographer, Griacomo de Gastaldi. They are accordingly to be found 
 in the same volume with the letter of Verrazzano. One of them is a map 
 of New France extending somewhat south of Norumbega, but no features 
 of the Verrazano map are to be traced upon it: and no other map of the 
 country is given. Fol. 424-5. 
 
 ' This map was first brought to public notice by M. Thomassey, in a 
 memoir entitled, Les Papea Oeographes et la Gosmographie du Vatican, 
 which was published in the JVouvelles Annales des Voyages. Nouvelle serie, 
 tome XXXV. Annee 1853. Tome Troisieme. Paris. We are indebted 
 to this memoir for the explanation on our copy of the map of the scale of 
 distances, which is illegible on the photographs. According to this explana- 
 tion there should be nine points in the narrower, and nineteen in the wider 
 spaces. These being two and a half leagues apart, give twenty-five leagues 
 for the smaller and fifty leagues for the larger spaces', making three hun- 
 dred and fifty leagues for the whole scale. 
 
THE VERRAZANO MAP. 93 
 
 discoveries of the Spaniards, Bretons and Portuguese, 
 as shown on the maps of the period to which it relates. 
 
 The coast of North America is laid down contin- 
 uously from the gulf of Mexico to Davis straits, in lati- 
 tude 60° N. Beginning at the point of Florida, which 
 is placed w latitude 33 J ° N., more than eight degrees 
 north of its true position, it runs northerly along the 
 Atlantic, trending slightly to the west, to a bay or river, 
 in latitude 38° N. On this part of the country, called 
 Terra Florida, the arms of Spain are represented, 
 denoting its discovery by the Spaniards : and the whole 
 of its coast for a distance of eighty or ninety leagues, 
 is entirely devoid of names. 
 
 From 38° N. that is, from the land of Florida as 
 here shown, the coast continues in a northerly direc- 
 tion thirty or forty leagues further, to a point between 
 40° and 41° N. when, turning northeasterly, it runs 
 with slight variationSj^n a general course of east north 
 east, for six hundred and fifty leagues to Cape Breton 
 placed in latitude 51 J N., five and a half degrees north 
 of it true position. Along this part of the coast more 
 than sixty names of places occur at intervals sufii- 
 ciently regular to denote one continuous exploration. 
 They are for the most part undistinguishable on the 
 photographs, but nine of them, at the beginning, are 
 made legible by hand, the first two of which commenc- 
 ing at latitude 38°, are Diepp'a and lAvorno. The others, 
 proceeding north, are Pumta de Galami, Palamsina, 
 Pdaraflor, Gomana, Santiago, C. d' Olimpe, and Olimpe, 
 indicating a nomenclature different from that used on 
 any other known map of this region. At a distance 
 of three hundred leagues from Dieppa, and in latitude 
 46° iV., is a large triangular island, designated by the 
 
94 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 name of Luisia. Hence to Cape Breton'the names are 
 illegibly photographed. Along this coast, at three 
 points, namely, in latitude 42° ; opposite the island of 
 Luisia, in latitude 46 ; and in latitude 50°, standards 
 are displayed, the nationality of which cannot be distin- 
 guished, but which no doubt were intended for those 
 of Trance, inasmuch as over them occurs the name of 
 Naua Gallia sive lucatanet in large, commanding letters, 
 with the Verrazzano legend, before referred to under- 
 neath it, in these words : ' Verrazana seu Qallia nova 
 quale discopri 5 anni fa Giovanni di Verrazano Jwrerir 
 tino per ordine et camandamele del Chrysthanissimo Be 
 di Francia; that is, Verrazzana or New Gaul wTiich 
 Giovanni di Verrazzano, a Florentine, discovered five 
 years' ago by order and command of the most Christian 
 king of France.^ 
 
 Over Cape Breton is a representation of the shield 
 of Brittany, denoted by its ermTnes, in token of the 
 discovery of that country by the Bretons, which is 
 separated by a bay or gulf from Terra Nova sive Le 
 Molue, the latter term being evidently, intended for. 
 Bacalao (codfish, Fr. morue), the received name of 
 Newfoundland. The southerly coast of Terra Nova for 
 an hundred leagues, and its easterly coast running to 
 the north, arb delineated, with the Portuguese name of 
 G. Rasa and the island of Baccalaos barely legible. The 
 coast runs north from C. Raso to G. 'Formoso in lati- 
 tude 60° where it meets the straits which separate it 
 
 ' The names Verrazzana and Verrazzano in this legend are written on 
 the photo.graph by hand, with a double s, though M. Thomassey uses 
 only the single s, which is adopted on our copy. It would be a singular 
 circumstance, leading to some speculation, if they should really be spelt 
 with the two z's on the original. Hieronitno, if he were the brother of 
 Giovanni, would hardly have written his own name, as it is inscribed on the 
 map, with one z, and that of his brother with two, in the same document. 
 
THE VERRAZANO MAP. 95 
 
 from Terra Laboratoris, the country discovered by Gas- 
 par Cortereal on his first voyage, but here attributed 
 to the English, and being in fact Greenland.^ 
 
 It is obvious that the^discoveries of Verrazzano are 
 thus intended to embrace the coast from latitude 38° 
 N. to Cape Breton, that is, between the points desig- 
 nated bjf the armorial designations of Spain and Btit- 
 tany, and not beyond either, as that would make the 
 map contradict itself. That they begin at the parallel 
 38 is shown by the names of Pieppa and Livorno, 
 (Leghorn), which commemorate the port to which the 
 expedition of Verrazzano belonged, and the country in 
 which he himself was born. These names cannot be 
 associated with any other alleged expedition. They 
 are given on the map which contains the legend de- 
 claring the country generally to have been discovered 
 by him ; and are not found on any other. There can 
 be no doubt, therefore, that they are meant to indicate 
 the beginning of his exploration in the south. 
 
 That his discoveries are represented as extending 
 in the north to Cape Breton is proven by the continua- 
 tion of the names to that point, showing an explora- 
 tion by some voyager along that entire coast, and by 
 the absence of any designation of its discovery by any 
 other nation than the French ; while the distance from 
 Djeppa to Cape Breton is laid down as seven hundred 
 leagues, the same as claimed for this exploration. 
 
 But in restricting his discoveries to latitude 38° N. 
 
 ' Mr. Brevoort giv-es other names as legible on the e*terly coast of 
 Terra Nova, which we have not been able to distinguish, namely : c. de 
 spera, iUa de san tuis, monte de trigo, and ilia dos aves. Mr. B, reads 
 lucATANBT, and M. Margry Yucatanet, where our engraver has Iuca- 
 TAOTA, for the general name of the country. The word in either form is 
 apochryphal, as Yucatan is designated in its proper place, though as an 
 island; but which form is correct cannot be determined from the 
 photograph. 
 
96. . VEREAZZANO. 
 
 on the south, this map ' essentially departs from the 
 claim set up in the letter ascribed to Verrazzano which 
 carries them to fifty leagues south of 34° ; and on the 
 other hand, in limiting them^in the north, to the land 
 discovered by the Bretons, it conforms to its Portu- 
 guese authorities, upon which, as will be seen, it was 
 founded, but, in so doing, contradicts the letter which 
 extends them to the point where the Portuguese com- 
 menced their explorations to the Arctic circle, which 
 this map itself shows were on the east «ide of Terra 
 Nova. Verrazzano the navigator, therefore, could not 
 have been, the author of the letter and also the author- 
 ity for the map. 
 
 That this map did not proceed from him is also 
 proven by the representation upon it of a great ocean, 
 called Mare Occidentale, which is laid down between 
 the parallels within which these discoveries are con- 
 fined. It lies on the west side of the continent but 
 approaches so near the Atlantic, in latitiide 41° N., 
 that is, in the vicinity of New York, that according to 
 a legend describing it, the two oceans are there only 
 six miles apart, and can be seen .from each other; 
 This isthmus occurs several hundred miles north of 
 Dieppa, and therefore at a point absolutely fixed with- 
 in the limits of the Verrazzano discoveries, and where 
 the navigator must have sailed, according to both the 
 letter and the map, whether the latitudes on the map 
 be correctly described or not. This western sea is thus 
 made by i1* position a part of the discoveries of Verraz- 
 zano, and is declared by the legend to have been actually 
 seen; and as he was the discoverer, it must be intended 
 to have been seen by him. As, however, there is no such 
 sea in reality, Verrazzano could never have seen itj and 
 
THE VEREAZANO MAP. 97 
 
 therefore, he could not have so represented ; or if he 
 did, then the whole story must for that reason alone 
 be discredited. There is no escape from this dilemma. 
 Verrazzano could not have been deceived and have 
 mistaken some other sheet of water for this great sea, 
 and so represented it on any chart, or communicated 
 it in any other way to the maker of this map ; for he 
 makes no mention of the circumstance in his letter to the 
 king to whom he would have been prompt to report so 
 important a fact ; as it would have proved the accom- 
 plishment of the object of his voyage, — the discovery 
 of a passage through this region to Cathay, or if not a 
 passage, at least a way, which could have been made 
 available for reaching the land of spices and aromatics, 
 by reason of its low grade, evident by one sea being 
 seen from the other, aiid its short distance. 
 
 The unauthentic character of this map, and^ the man- 
 ner in which its representation of the Verrazzano dis- 
 coveries was produced, distinctly appear in its method 
 of construction. Cape Breton and Terra Nova are repre- 
 sented as they are laid down on the charts of Pedro 
 Reinel and the anonymous cartographer, — reproduced 
 on the first and fourth sheets of the Munich atlas 
 and unquestionably belonging to the period anterior to 
 the discovery of the continuity of the land from Florida 
 • to Cape Breton. They bear the names which are 
 found on those maps, importing their discovery thus 
 early by the Bretons and Portuguese. In the south, 
 the designation of Florida as a Spanish discovery, with 
 its southerly coast running along the parallel of thirty- 
 three and a half of north latitude, eight degrees north 
 of its actual position, ns precisely the same as it is 
 13' 
 
98 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 shown on the anonymous Portuguese chart just men- 
 tioned. These representations of the country, in the 
 north and the south, were thus adopted as the basis 
 of this map. But as there were not seven hundred 
 leagues of coast between latitude 38° and Cape Bre- 
 ton, which is the distance it indicates as having been 
 explored by Verrazzano, that extent could be obtained 
 only, either by changing the latitude of Florida or 
 Cape Breton, or prolonging the coast longitudinally, 
 or both. The latitude of the northerly limit of Florida 
 having been preserved for the commencement of the 
 discoveries, Cape Breton had therefore to be changed 
 and was accordingly carried five degrees and a half 
 further north and placed in latitude 51 i instead of 46, 
 and by consequence the whole line of coast was thrown 
 several degrees in that direction, as is proven by the 
 position of the island of Louise, which thus falls in 
 46° N. instead of 41°, the latitude assigned to it in the 
 letter. Nothing could more conclusively show the 
 factitious origin of this delineation and its worthless- 
 ness as an exposition of the Verrazzano discovery. 
 
 Some importance, however, attaches to this map in 
 its assisting us to fix approximately the time of the 
 fabrication of the Verrazzano letter. If it were con- 
 structed in 1529, as some would infer, with the portions 
 relating to the discovery upon it, then it is the earliest 
 recognition of the claim to this discovery yet produced, 
 irrespective of the letter. But it is by no means certain 
 that it was originally made in that year. Nothing 
 appears on the map itself giving that date in terms ; 
 but it is left to be inferred exclusively from the lan- 
 guage of the legend, which st&te§ that the discovery 
 
THE VERRAZANO MAP. '99 
 
 was made five years ago, without any indication, either 
 in the legend itself or elsewhere on the map, to what 
 time that period relates ; and leaving the discovery, 
 therefore, to be ascertained from extraneous sources. 
 K the discovery be assumed to have been made in 1524, 
 then indeed the map, according to the legend, would 
 have been constructed in 1529. But no person, unac- 
 quainted with the letter, can determine from this in- 
 scription, or any other part of the map, the date either 
 of the discovery or map; and this precise difficulty 
 Euphrosynus Ulpius apparently encountered in at- 
 tempting to fix the time of the discovery for his globe, 
 as will hereafter be seen. "Why the time of the dis- 
 covery should have been left in such an ambiguous state, 
 compatibly with fair intentions, it is difficult to under- 
 stand. The year itself could and should, in the 
 absence of any date on the map, have been stated 
 directly in the legend, without compelling a resort to 
 other authorities. It is not unusual, it is true, for 
 valuable maps and charts of this period to be left with- 
 out the dates of their construction upon them; but 
 when, as in this case, a date is called for, there seems 
 to be no reason why it should not have been given. 
 This circumstance creates the suspicion that the legend 
 did not belong to the map originally, but was added 
 afterwards, as it now appears on the copy in the Vati- 
 can ; or if it were upon it then, that it was intended to 
 mislead and conceal the true date of the map. But 
 whatever may be the secret of its origin, this legend 
 furnishes no positive evidence as to the time when the 
 map was made, or pretended to have been made ; and 
 we are left to find its date, if possible, by other means. 
 
100 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 A fact which indicates that this map could not 
 have existed as late as 1536, in the form in which it is 
 now presented, if it existed then at all, is that the 
 western sea is delineated upon a map of the world, made 
 in that year, by Baptista Agnese, an Italian cosmo- 
 grapher, without any reference to the Verrazzano dis- 
 coveries, under circumstances which would have led 
 him to have recognized them if he knew of them, 
 and which would have required him to have done so if 
 this map were his authority. This sea is laid down 
 by Agnese in the same manner as it is shown on the 
 Verrazano map, approaching the Atlantic, from the 
 north, along a narrow isthmus terminating at latitude 
 40°, with the coast turning abruptly to the west; the 
 ocean being thus represented open thence from the isth- 
 mus to Cathay. A track of French navigation, not a 
 single voyage, expressed by the words : el viages d e 
 France, is designated upon it, leading from the north of 
 France to this isthmus, referring obviously to the voy- 
 ages of the fishermen of Brittany and Normandy, to 
 the coasts of Nova Scotia and New England. No allu- 
 sion is made to the voyage of Verrazzano, or to the dis- 
 coveries^attributed to him by the Verrazano map. The 
 Atlantic coast on the contrary, is plainly delineated 
 after the Spanish map of Ribero, as is shown by the 
 form, peculiar to that map, of the coast, at latitude 40°, 
 returning to the west. It is apparent, therefore, that 
 the two maps of Agnese and Verrazano, both represent- 
 ing the western sea in the same form, must have been 
 derived from a common source, or else one was taken 
 from the other ; and that the map of Agnese could not, 
 in either case, have been derived from a map showing 
 
THE VERRAZANO MAP. 101 
 
 the Verrazzano discovery, and must consequently have 
 been anterior to the Verrazano map in its present 
 form. 
 
 It militates against the authenticity of the Verra- 
 zano map and the early date which it would have in- 
 ferred for itself, that there is not a single known map 
 or chart, either published or unpublished, before the 
 great map of Mercator in 1569, that refers to the 
 Verrazzano discoveries, or recognizes this map in any 
 respect before that of Michael Lok, published by 
 Hakluyt, in 1582 ; or any before Lok, that applies the 
 name of the sea of Verrazano to the western sea. The 
 unauthenticated and until recently unnoticed globe 
 of Euphrosynus Ulpius, purporting to have been con- 
 structed in 1542, of which we will speak presently, is 
 the only evidence yet presented of the existence of the 
 Verrazano map, as it now appears, beyond the map 
 itself. The whole theory of the early influence of the 
 Verrazzano discovery, or of the Verrazano map, upon 
 the cartography of the period to which they relate, 
 and its consequently proving their authenticity, as 
 advanced by some learned writers, is therefore incor- 
 rect and is founded in a misconception of fac^ 
 
 This mistake relates to a map which is found in 
 several editions of the geography of Ptolemy printed at 
 Basle, supposed to represent the western sea shortly 
 after the Verrazzano discovery, and consequently as 
 derived from that source. Mr. Kohl,^ in a chapter 
 specially devoted to the consideration of charts from 
 Verrazzano, reproduces one (No. xv. a) which he 
 
 ' We are indebted entirely to Mr. KoM for onr knowledge of the map of 
 Agnese, which he produces, on a reduced scale, in the Disoovery of Maine, 
 (chart xiv), with an account of the map and its author (p. 393). 
 
102 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 describes as a sketch, of North America, from a map 
 of the new world, in an edition of Ptolemy printed in 
 Basle, 1530. And he adds : " the map was drawn 
 and engraved a few years after Verrazands expedition. 
 The plate upon which it was engraved, must have been 
 in use for a long time ; for the same map appears both 
 in earlier and much later editions of Ptolemy. The 
 same also reappears in the cosmography of Sebastian 
 Miinster, published in Basle." Mr. K. finally observes 
 in regard to it : " this map has this particular interest 
 for us, that it is probably the first on which the sea of 
 Verrazano was depicted in the form given to it by Lok, 
 in 1582. I have found no map prior to 1530, on which 
 this delineation appears." ^ There is a little confusion 
 of dates in this statement. Mr. K. states, however, that 
 he had not seen the map of Hieronimo de Verrazano, 
 and evidently derives his information, in regard to 
 the sea of Verrazano, from the map of Lok, who alone 
 gives the western sea the name of Mare de Verrazana, 
 no doubt because he found the sea laid down on the 
 map presented by Verrazzano to Henry VIII, to which 
 reference will presently be made. Had Mr. K. seen 
 the Verrazano map with the absurd legend upon it, in 
 efiect declaring the western sea to have been observed 
 by Verrazzano, he must have arrived at different conclu- 
 sions, notwithstanding the map in Ptolemy of the sup- 
 posed early date. Mr. Brevoort, in his notes on the 
 Verrazano map, probably relying on the authority of 
 Mr. Kohl, says, " that the first published map contain- 
 ing traces of Verrazano's explorations, is in the Ptxjlemy 
 of Basle, 1530, which appeared four years before the 
 
 ^Discovery of Maine, pp. 396-7. 
 
THE VEERAZANO MAP. 103 
 
 French renewed their attempts at American exploration. 
 It shows the western sea without a name, and the land 
 north of it is called Francisca." ^ The inference left to 
 be drawn is that the presence of the French in this - 
 region, as denoted by the name, Francisca, four years 
 before the discoveries in that quarter, by Jacques Car- 
 tier, and by the delineation of the western sea upon the 
 Verrazano map, establish the authenticity both of the 
 voyage of Verrazzanp and the map. 
 
 All this is erroneous. There was no edition of 
 Ptolemy published in 1530 at Basle, or elsewhere, 
 known to bibliographers. The map to which reference • 
 is made, and which is reproduced by Mr. Kohl, was 
 first printed in 1540 at Basle, in an edition of Ptolemy 
 with new maps, both of the new and old world, and 
 with new descriptions of the countries embraced in 
 them, printed on the back of each, accompanied by a 
 geographical description of the modern state of the 
 countries of the old world by Sebastian Miinster.^ In 
 all the editions of Ptolemy, containing maps of the 
 new world, before the year 1540, North America was 
 represented according to the mistaken ideas of Waltze- 
 miiller on that subject in 1513, and without regard to 
 the discoveries which took place after his edition. The 
 maps of Miinster constituted a new departure of the 
 Ptolemies in this respect, and were intended to repre- 
 sent the later discoveries in the new world. They were 
 reprinted several times at Basle by the same printer, 
 
 ^J<ywmal of Am. Geog. Boc. of New York, vol. iv, p. 379. 
 
 " Oeographia -Urmersalis, wtus et nova, cornplectens Glaudii Ptotemcsi Alex- 
 and/rini ena/rraUoim libros vm. * * * Saceedunt tabula Ptolemaice, opera 
 Sebastiani Munsteri nouo paratce modo. Sis ac^eetw sunt plurime tumm 
 tabulcB, Tnoderna orbisfaciem Uteris t&pictura explieantes, inter guas gucedam, 
 antehae Ptolemmo non fuerunt additae. Sm. fol. Basitese apud Henricum 
 Petram Mense Martio Anno mDxl. 
 
104 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 Henri Pierre (Lelewell ii. 176, 208). In the first 
 edition, which is now lying before us, the map in ques- 
 tion, number 45, bears the title oi Nacce Imalce xvii. 
 Nooa Tabula. It is an enlarged representation of the 
 portion relating to the new world of another map. No. 
 1, in the same volume, cfiUed Ik/pus Universalis, a map 
 of the whole world, which appears here also as a new 
 map, and represents, for the first time in the Ptolemaic 
 series, the straits of Magellan in the south. New France 
 in the north, and the coast running continuously, north 
 and northeast, from Florida to Newfoundland. 
 
 Upon this map a deep gulf is shown, indenting 
 America from a strait in the north, which leads from 
 the Atlantic to the Pacific, in the region of Hudson's 
 straits, in latitude 60° N. This gulf runs southerly 
 into the continent as far as latitude 40° N., approaching 
 the Atlantic coast, and in that respect, alone, conforms 
 to the representation of the western sea on the maps 
 of Verrazano and Lok. It dififers materially, however, 
 from that sea, and indicates an entirely different mean- 
 ing and origin. It is simply a gulf, or deep bay, like 
 Hudson's bay, but reaching further south, being land- 
 locked on all sides, except the north, as high as lati- 
 tude 60° N. ; whereas the western sea, on the other 
 maps, is, as already observed, an open sea, extending 
 westerly from the isthmus in latitude 40°, without 
 intervening land, uninterruptedly to India. The in- 
 tention of the delineation of this portion of the map, is 
 not equivocal. For the first time, on any map, there 
 is found upon it the name of Francisca, which is 
 placed above the parallel of 50° N. latitude and above 
 that of C. Britonum, designated thus by name, in the 
 proper position of Cape Breton. It is placed between 
 
THE TERRAZANO MAP. 105' 
 
 the river St. Lawrence, which also is represented but 
 not named, and the gulf before mentioned. This name, 
 Francisca,^ or the French land, and the position, indi- 
 cate the then recent discoveries in that region, which 
 were due to the French under Jacques Cartier, and 
 which could properly belong to no other exploration of 
 the French. The gulf, no doubt, relates to the great lakes 
 or fresh water sea of which Cartier had heard from the 
 natives, as he himself mentions. (Hakluyt, iii. 225.) 
 
 With the correction, therefore, of the date of the. 
 Miinster map, the argument in favor of the authenticity 
 either of the Verrazzano discovery or of the Verrazano 
 map, based upon the recognition by the Miinster map, 
 of that discovery immediately after it is alleged to 
 have taken place, or after the alleged construction of 
 the Verrazano map, in 1529, and before any other voy- 
 ages were made by the French to that region, falls 
 entirely to the ground. And with the actual represent- 
 ation upon it of the discoveries of Cartier, without any 
 allusion to the alleged discoveries of Verrazzano or 
 the pretensions of the Verrazano map, while giving 
 the latest discoveries in America, it is fairly to be con- 
 cluded that both were unheard of, or utterly discredited 
 by the author of the Miinster map. 
 
 •The map of Agnese stands, therefore, as the earliest 
 chart of an acknowledged date showing the western 
 sea, and that is independently of the Verrazzano dis- 
 covery, or the Verrazano map. The hitherto un- 
 published maps produced by Mr. Kohl, also for the 
 purpose of proving the influence of the Verrazzano 
 discovery, fail entirely of that object. The first of them, 
 
 ' Called Franeese in the discourse of the French captain of Dieppe. 
 14 
 
106 VEREAZZANQ. 
 
 in point of date, the sketch (No. xv. c) from the 
 portdlano of 1536, preserved in the Bodleian library at 
 Oxford, shows a track of navigation from the north of 
 France, across the Atlantic, rwnning- hetween the Baca- 
 laos and the land of the Bretons, through the gulf of 
 St. Lawrence, to the Pacific, and thence to Cathay. There 
 is no representation of the western sea, as shown 
 on the Verrazano map, but on the contrary, the whole 
 of the western coast of North America is shown con- 
 jecturally in a different form, by dotted lines. So far 
 as this map affords any indication on the subject, it 
 refers to the route of Cartier, and delineates the At- 
 lantic coast according to the Spanish map of Eibero, 
 that is, with a trending of the coast in a more north- 
 erly direction than the Verrazano map, and with the 
 peculiar return of that coast westerly, in latitude 40° 
 N., given on that map. The next chart (No. xv. d) 
 from a map made by Diego Homem in 1540, shows 
 the western sea nearly the same as on the map of 
 AgnesS, but conjecturally only ; while the representa- 
 tion of the Atlantic coast ha9 the same characteristics 
 as the Bodleian and Agnese maps, showing its derivar 
 tion 'from Eibero and not the Verrazano map. The 
 remaining sketch given by Mr. Kohl (No. xv. 6) from 
 a map made by G. Ruscelli in 1544, presenting the 
 same features, as do the two others, in regard to the 
 Atlantic coast, puts beyond all question that the map 
 of Ribero is its authority, by adopting from it the name 
 of Montagne Verde which is applied by Ribero to the 
 hills at the mouth of the river San Antonio, in latitude 
 41° N., thereby certainly excluding any recognition 
 of the Verrazzano discovery or the Verrazano map. 
 
THE VEREAZANO MAP. 107 
 
 The first published map which refers to the Verraz- 
 zano discoveries, that of Mercator in 1569, makes no 
 reference to the Verrazano map, and does not recog- 
 nize it in 'any manner. Mercator was the first to give 
 the name of Claudia to the island of Louise, evidently 
 mistaking the name of the wife of Francis for that of 
 his mother, after whom the island was called, accord- . 
 ing to the letter, without stating her name, Mercator 
 gives a legend in which he mentions that Verrazzano 
 arrived on the coast on the 17th of March 1524, which 
 is the day according to the version of Ramusio, fol- 
 lowing our mode of computation, as before explained. 
 It is evident, therefore, that Mercator had the Ramu- 
 sio version before him, and not the Verrazano map, as 
 his authority on the subject. His delineation of the 
 Atlantic coast, moreover, is according to .the plan of 
 Ribero, and he gives no indication of the western sea 
 of the Verrazano map, but mentions in a legend the 
 fresh water inland sea spoken of by Cartier, of the ex- 
 tent of which the Indians were ignorant. 
 
 The existence of the Verrazano map, much less its 
 date, is obviously not proven by any of the maps or 
 charts to which reference has here been made, and 
 which are supposed to reflect some of its features, or 
 indicate the verity of the Verrazzano discovery. There 
 is, however, some evidence of a positive character, both 
 historical and cartographical, which points to the ex- 
 istence of this map in two difierent forms, one origin- 
 ally not representing the Verrazzano discovery, and the 
 other subsequently, as now presented. 
 
 The existence of a Verrazano map in some form or 
 other, as early as 1537, seems to be established by a 
 
108 VEEEAZZANO. 
 
 letter of the commendatory, Annibal Caro, written in 
 that year. Caro, who became distinguished among his 
 countrymen for his polite learning, was, in early life, 
 secretary to the cardinal, M. de Gaddi, a Florentine, 
 residing in Eome. While thus engaged, he accom- 
 panied his patron on a journey to the mines of Sicily, 
 and there, from Castro, addressed a playful letter to 
 the members generally of the cardinal's household, 
 remaining at Rome. In this letter, which is dated 
 the 13th of October in that year, he.« writes to them : 
 " I will address sometimes one and sometimes another 
 of you, as matters come into my mind. To you, Ver- 
 razzauo, a seeker of new worlds and their marvels, I 
 cannot yet say anything worthy of your map, because 
 we have not passed through any country which has 
 not been discovered by you or your brother." ^ This 
 passage was supposed by Tiraboschi to have been ad- 
 dressed to the navigator, and as proving that he was 
 alive at the time the letter was written. But we now 
 know that Yerrazzano had then been dead ten years ; 
 besides, it is not probable, inasmuch as the person 
 addressed w.as one of the servants of the prelate, that 
 the navigator would have occupied that position. M. 
 Arcangeli suggests that the name is used by Caro 
 merely as a nom de guerre ;^ but in either case, whether 
 borrowed or not, the remark plainly enough refers to 
 a Verrazzano map, which may posdhly have been the 
 map of Hieronimo. 
 
 ' De le lettre familiari del commendatore Annibal Cwro, vol. i. p. 6-7. 
 Venetia 1581. 
 
 ' Diacorso Sopra Oimomni da Verrazzano, p. 37, in Archwio Storico 
 Italiano, Appendice vol. ix. 
 
• THE VERRAZANO MAP. 109 
 
 Hakluy t furnishes testimony which, if correct, shows 
 the probable existence of this map before 1529, hut 
 not in its present form. In the dedication, to Phillip 
 Sydney of his "Divers Voyages touching the discoveries 
 of America, &c.," printed in 1582, he refers to the proba- 
 bilities of the existence of a northwest passage, and 
 remarks that, " Master John Verarzanus which had' 
 been thrise on that coast in an olde excellent mappe, 
 which he gave to King Henry the eight, and is yet in 
 custodie of Master Locke, doth so lay it out as is to bee 
 scene in the mappe annexed to the end of this boke, 
 being made according to Verarzanus plat." Hakluyt 
 thus positively afl&rms that the old map to which he 
 refers was given by Verrazzano himself to the king. 
 What evidence he had of that fact he does not men- 
 tion, but he speaks of the map as if it had been seen 
 by him, and probably that was his authority. The 
 map he declares of his own knowledge was transferred, 
 so far as regards the western strait, to the map of Lok, 
 which he himself publishes. Lok's map represents the 
 northwest passage as attempted by Frobisher in his 
 several voyages, and as continued from the termina- 
 tion of the English exploration, to a western sea, a 
 portion' of which lying between the parallels of 40? N. 
 and 50° N. latitude is laid down the same as it appears 
 on the Verrazano map, and bears the inscription of 
 Mare de Yerrazana 1524. The map of Lok is the first 
 one upon which the western sea is so called. The 
 designation was undoubtedly the work of Lok himself, 
 as it is in conformity with his practice in other parts 
 of the map, where he .denotes the discoveries of others 
 in the same way, that is, by their names with the 
 
110 VEERAZZANO. . 
 
 dates of their voyages annexed. He no doubt applied 
 the name of Verrazzano to this ocean from finding 
 it represented on the old map given by Verrazzano 
 to the king, and obtained the date from the letter, of 
 which Hakluyt printed in the same volume a transla- 
 tion from the version in Ramusio. It is certain that 
 •Verrazzano could not have been accessory to declaring 
 it a discovery by himself for the reason already men- 
 tioned that no such sea, as there laid down, existed to 
 have been discovered. 
 
 Lok's map represents on the Atlantic coast, in lati- 
 tude 41° N., the island alleged in the Verrazzano letter 
 to have been named after the king's mother, and gives 
 it the name of Claudia. That it is the same island is 
 proven by note to the translation of the letter given in 
 the volume in which this map is found. Hakluyt 
 puts in the margin, opposite the passage where mention 
 of the island occurs in the letter, the words " Claudia 
 Ilande." From whatever source this name.was derived 
 by them, whether from Mercator or by their own mis- 
 take, both Lo'k and Hakluyt here indirectly bear their 
 testimony to the fact, that the name of Luisia was 
 not upon the old map given to Henry -VIII, which Lok 
 consulted, and Hakluyt described. It is thus to be 
 concluded that the map delivered to the king showed 
 the western sea, but not any discoveries of Verrazzano 
 on the Atlantic coast. 
 
 In another work, as yet unpublished, .Hakluyt 
 affords some additional information in regard to the 
 old map, which though brief, is quite significant. He 
 remarks that it is " a mightie large olde mappe in parch- 
 ment, made as it sJiould seem by Verrazanus, now in the 
 
THE TEERAZANO MAP. Ill 
 
 custodie of Mr. Micliael Locke ; " and he speaks* also 
 of an "olde excellent globe in the Queen's privie gallery, 
 at Westm'r, w'h ahb se&meth to be of Verrazanus mak- 
 ing." ^ Both the map and the globe are thus jnen- 
 tioned as \hQjpr6bable workmanship of Verrazzano, from 
 which it is probable that there was no name upon them 
 to determine that question positively. The great size 
 of the chart, the material upon which it was made, and 
 the authorship of the map and globe by the same per- 
 son, are circumstances which go to prove that they 
 were both the work of a professed cosmographer, and 
 embraced the whole world ; and consequently that the 
 mfPp was not a chart made by the navigator, showing 
 his discoveries, but possibly the map of Hieronimo in 
 its original form. The construction of this old map, 
 whoever was the author, is fixed certainly hefore 1529, 
 by the statement of Hakluyt, that it was presented to 
 Henry VIII by Verrazzano, the navigator, inasmuch 
 as Verrazzano came to his death in 1527. The Ver- 
 razano map, in its present phase, not claiming to have 
 been made before the year 1529, could not, therefore, 
 have furnished the original representation of the west- 
 ern sea, or have been the one used by Lok. 
 
 Hakluyt adds to his statement that Verrazzano had 
 been three times on the coast of America, which, if 
 true, would disprove the discovery set up in the letter. 
 That document alleges that the coast explored by him 
 was entirely unknown and had never hefore been seen 
 by any one before that voyage, and consequently not by 
 him ; and that, as regards the residue of the-coast north 
 
 ' MS. in possession of tlie Maine Historical Society, cited in Mr. Kolil's 
 Discovery of Maine, p. 391, note. 
 
112 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 of 50° N., the Portuguese had sailed along it as far as 
 the Arctic circle, without finding any termination to 
 the land, thus giving the Portuguese as his authority 
 for the continuity of the northern part of the coast, 
 and excluding himself from it. It is thus clearly stated 
 in the letter, that he had not been there before. It 
 was impossible that he could have consummated two 
 voyages to America, and another to England, and 
 made his court to the king, aftenr 1524, and before his 
 last and fatal cruize along the coast of Spain, as would 
 have been necessary to have been done. In asserting 
 that Verrazzano made other voyages to America, Hak- 
 luyt is corroborated by the ancient manuscripts, to 
 which the author of the memoirs of Dieppe refers, as 
 mentioning, that one Jean V^rassen commanded a 
 ship which accompanied that of Aubert to Newfound- 
 land in 1508.^ It is possible, therefore, that Verraz- 
 zano made three voyages to Newfoundland, and was 
 well acquainted with that portion of the coast, before 
 hostilities broke out between Francis I. and. the 
 emperor, in 1522 ; at which time, as will be seen, he 
 entered upon his course of privateering ; and that dur- 
 ing the time Francis was a prisoner at Madrid, in 
 1525-6, and the state of war accordingly suspended, 
 and Verrazzano thrown out of employment, he visited 
 England, and laid before the king a scheme of search- 
 ing for the northwest passage ; a project which Henry 
 had been long meditating, as may be gathered from 
 
 ■ Desmarquets. Mimoires Chronologiques pour aeniir a V histoire ie 
 Dieppe, i. 100. (3 Vols. Paris, 1785.) It is worthy of remark that this 
 annalist seems to regard Verassen and Verrazzano as different persons, 
 which proves, at least, that his authority was independent of any matter 
 connected with the Verrazzano claim. That these names really relate, 
 however, to the same individual, appears from the agreement with Chabot 
 
THE VEREAZANO MAP. 113 
 
 the proposition of Wolsey to Sebastian Cabot in 1519, 
 and the expedition actually sent out for that purpose 
 by that monarch under John Eut, in 1527.^ It is evi- 
 dent that the representation of the western sea, upon 
 the map given to the king, was merely conjectural of 
 its existence in connection with the supposed strait,, 
 laid down upon the map, according to Hakluyt. This 
 explanation will serve also to account most readily for 
 the partial knowledge which the letter exhibits, in 
 regard to the customs and characteristics of the Indians 
 of Cape Breton, which might have been collected by the 
 writer, from the journals of those early voyages or 
 other notes of Verrazzano in relation to them; although 
 the same information was obtainable from others who 
 had made similar voyages to that region, from Nor- 
 mandy and Brittany. 
 
 It is thus established by the same testimony which 
 furnishes the map of Lok, taken in conjunction with 
 its own teachings, that it was ' not derived from the 
 Verrazano map in its present shape, and does not 
 represent the Verrazzano discovery. 
 
 The only evidence of the existence of the Verra- 
 zano map in any cosmographical production whatever, 
 . book, chart or globe, so far as known, independently 
 of its history in the Borgian coUectiqp, is a copper 
 globe found by the late Buckingham Smith in Spain, 
 a few years ago, and now in the possession of the New 
 York Historical Society. This globe purports to have 
 been constructed by Euphrosyuus Ulpius in 1542. 
 
 ' Letter of Contarini, the Venetian ambassador in Spain, to the Council 
 of Ten. See Calendcm- of Slate Papers do. in Venice, 1530-6. Edited by 
 Kawdon Brown. No. 607. London, 1869. Purchas, ni. p. 809. 
 15 
 
114 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 Inscribed upon it, in a separate scroll, is a dedication, 
 in these words : " Marcello Cervino S. R. E. Presbitero 
 Cardinali D.D. Eome." Cervinus had been archbishop 
 of Florence and was afterwards raised from the cardi- 
 nalate to the pontificate under the title of Marcellus II. 
 This globe represents the western sea in the same form 
 as it is on the Verrazano map, and contains a legend 
 on the country lying between the isthmus and Cape 
 Breton, in these words : Verrazanti sive Nova Gallia a 
 Verrazano Florentino Comperta anno sal. M.D. In all 
 other respects it differs essentially from the map in its 
 description of the coast. Florida and Cape Breton are 
 laid down in their true positions, and the isthmus 
 occurs at the parallel of 33° N. latitude, instead of 41°. 
 The direction of the coast, between the two points just 
 mentioned, is more northerly, and the length of it con- 
 sequently much reduced. The names along the coast, 
 so far as the photograph of the map furnishes the 
 means of comparison, are entirely different, except 
 that Piaggia de Calami appears north of the isthmus. 
 Dieppa and Livorno are not found upon it. But the 
 legend affords indubitable evidence that the maker had 
 consulted the map. The name jof Verrazana applied 
 to the land is found no where else so applied, except on 
 the map. But the incompleteness in which the date 
 of the discovery is left, as if written 15 — , proves 
 that the maker was unable to ascertain it fully from 
 his authority ; the map, therefore, must have been his 
 sole authority. 
 
 As to the authenticity of this globe there is no other 
 evidence than that it has the appearance of an old 
 instrument, and its representations generally corre- 
 
THE VEBRAZAKO MAP. .115 
 
 spond with the state of geographical knowledge of the 
 period of its date.^ Adopting its own story of its con- 
 struction, it proves the existence of the Verrazano 
 map, • with the Verrazzano discoveries upon it, and 
 consequently the existence of the claim as early as the 
 year 1542. 
 
 The other references to a Verrazzano map, prove 
 nothing 'on the subject of the discoveries, unless the 
 letter of Annibal Caro, which alludes to discoveries by 
 the brothers Verrazzani, in connection with a map, be 
 deemed as referring to them. In that case, 1537 
 would be the earliest mention of them in any known 
 publication. Lok and Hakluyt, as has been already 
 seen, clearly do not refer to any map showing the 
 Verrazzano discoveries. The period of the fabrication 
 of the letter may therefore, possibly, be fixed between 
 . 1536 and 1542. But whether this period be properly 
 deduced or not, is immaterial ; since in no event can 
 an earlier date than 1529 be assigned by any evidence 
 outside of the letter, for the existence of the Verrazzano 
 claim ; which year, as is now to be shown, was long 
 after the coast had been discovered and made known 
 to the world by another. 
 
 1 It measures forty-two inches in circumference. MM. Mag. (New 
 York) 1863, p. 303. A map showing so much of it as relates to North , 
 America, was lithographed for the dissertation of Mr. Smith, and is here 
 reproduced. 
 
116 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 TX. 
 
 The Letter to the KIcng founded on the Dis(joveeies 
 OE EsTBVAN Gomez. The History of Gomez and his 
 Voyage. The Publication of his Discoveries in. Spain 
 AND Italy before the Verrazzano claim. The Voy- 
 age described in the Letter traced- to Eibbro's Map 
 OF THE Discoveries of Gomez. 
 
 In the proofs adduced, outside of the letter addressed 
 to the king, no direct evidence appears in regard to the 
 discovery. There is no testimony to be found of 
 any one who took part in the setting forth or equip- 
 ment of the expedition, or in the prosecution of the 
 voyage, or who was personally cognizsfnt of the return 
 of the Dauphiny. No chart or private letter, no declar- 
 ation or statement of the navigator, in regaM to the 
 extraordinary discovery achieved by him, is produced 
 or mentioned, although he belonged to a family of 
 some note in Tuscany, which still existed in the pre- 
 sent century. In this respect, Italy, the birth place and 
 home of Verrazzano, is as blank and batren as France. 
 All that is really shown of any pertinency is the single 
 circumstance, that possibly the claim to the discovery 
 was advanced in Italy, and in that country alone, at the 
 tiyie of the construction of the globe of Ulpius in 1542, 
 but not anterior to the year 1529, or "until five years 
 after the event, when, according to the Verrazano 
 map, if that be accepted as genuine in its present form 
 
THE LETTER FOUNDED ON THE VOYAGE OP GOMEZ. 117 
 
 and the most favorable construction be upon its am- 
 biguous legend, of which that inscription is capable, 
 the claim was for the first time announced. 'And thus 
 there is nothing showing that the letter or its preten- 
 sions were known before the last named year. In 
 view of this important fact, and the absence of any 
 evidence whatsoever corroborative of the letter or its 
 contents, it is not unreasonable to believe that the. 
 letter was an attempt to appropriate to the Florentine 
 the glory which belonged to Est^van Gomez, a Portu- 
 guese pilot, who actually discovered and explored this, 
 coast, in 1525, in the service of the emperor, Charles 
 V, and whose voyage and exploration were immedi- 
 ately thereupon made knqy^n, both in Spain and Italy. 
 That such, indeed, was the source from which the 
 Verrazzano letter was derived is susceptible of demon- 
 stration ; and for that purpose some account of the 
 voyage and discoveries of Gomez and their publication 
 becomes necessary. "< 
 
 Gomez, who was born in Oporto and reared there to 
 a sea-faring life, for some reason, unexplained, left 
 Portugal and entered into the Spanish service, in which 
 he was appointed pilot in 1518, at the same time that 
 Sebastian Cabot was created pilot major in the same 
 service. He proposed immediately to the king, to go 
 in search of a new route to the Moluccas or Spice, 
 islands recently discovered by the Portuguese, and 
 which, he affirmed, were within the limits assigned to 
 Spain by the line of deinarkation. He exhibited a chart 
 constructed by 'him showing this fact,^ from which it 
 may be inferred that he had already made a voyage to 
 
 Cespedes, Begimiento de Navigaeion, 148. 
 
118 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 those islands. The way which he proposed then to take 
 is not mentioned. At the same juncture Magellan also 
 arrived in* Spain and tendered his services to find a 
 new route to the Moluccas, specifically by the west, as 
 delineated on a globe which he produced, Magellan 
 prevailed in his suit, which was the reason, a'ccording 
 to Pigafetta, the historian of the. expedition, that the 
 emperor did not give Gomez any caravels to discover 
 new lands.^ It is to be inferred, therefore, that the first 
 route proposed by Gomez was not by the west. The 
 fleet of Magellan set sail on his expedition in September 
 1519, with Gomez as chief pilot, an arrangement in- 
 tended to conciliate and combine both interests; but 
 it was not a happy one. Actuated, it is charged, by 
 a spirit of jealousy and a desire to embarrass Magellan 
 and render his voyage abortive, Gomez at the very 
 moment that success was assured, and the fleet was 
 entering the strait which led into the Pacific, aban- 
 doned his commander; and profiting by the opportunity 
 which was ofiered him in being detached by Magellan 
 with the San Antonio, one of the ships, to make a 
 reconnoissance in another direction, joined with cer- 
 tain mutineers, seized the captain of that vessel, and 
 returned with her to Spain, arriving there in March 
 1521. The reasons assigned by him for this desertion 
 of the expedition, were the severity of the treatment 
 of the crew by Magellan, a want of provisions and the 
 unseaworthiness of the San Antonio. He was, how- 
 ever, held by the council of the Indies to answer to any 
 charges which might be preferred against him by 
 Magellan on his return, and in the meantime his pay 
 
 1 Prima Viaggio, 38. 
 
THE LETTER FOUNDED ON THE VOYAGE OP GOMEZ. 119 
 
 was sequestered and his property on board the ship at- 
 tached. In September 1522, the Victoria, the only 
 ship of Magellan's squadron which succeeded in return- , 
 ingto Spain, arrived with the news of Magellan's dis- 
 covery, and also of his death in a conflict with the 
 natives of the island of Tidore. Upon this information 
 proceedings against Gomez were discontinued and his 
 property released. 
 
 The success of Magellan served the more -to stimu- 
 late the purpose of Gomez to undertake a search for 
 the same object. It was supposed at that time, by 
 Sebastian Cabot and others, that the northern parts of 
 America were broken up into islands, but nothing 
 positively was known in relation to them, except in 
 the region of Newfoundland. Between that country and 
 South Carolina, then recently discovered by the joint 
 expedition of the. licentiates, all was unknown; and 
 it was considered not improbable that a passage might - 
 be found between those points, through to Cathay and 
 the Moluccas, the same as had been discovered in the 
 south, by Magellan. Gomez, released from his dis- 
 abilities, renewed his application to the emperor for 
 permission to prosecute his search, proposing now to 
 make it through the northern seas ; and on the 27th 
 of August 1523 a cedule was made to that effect au- 
 thorizing hiin to go with a caravel of fifty toneles bur- 
 den " on the discovery of eastern Cathay.* In conse- 
 quence, however, of the remonstrance of the king of 
 Portugal against any interference with his rights to 
 the Moluccas, Charles suspended the prosecution of 
 further voyages in that quarter until the question 
 
 ' Herrera, ni. rv. 30. The cedule is still extant in the archives at Seville. 
 
120 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 should be determined to which of the two crowns those 
 islands belonged by virtue of the pope's demarcation. 
 The voyage of Gomez, and also that of Cabot to the La 
 Plata, were delayed until the decision of the junta con- 
 vened at Badajos by the two monarchs for the purpose 
 of making this determination. To this body Gomez, 
 in conjunction with Sebastian Cabot and Juan Ves- 
 pucci as pilots, and Diego Ribero as cartographer, 
 was attached, — a circumstance which shows the high 
 estimation in which his nautical knowledge was held. 
 Its proceedings closed in May 1524, too late for 
 Gomez to make his arrangements to leave in that 
 year. These were completed, however, in February 
 1525, in which month he set sail from Coruna, 
 in the north of Spain, in a single caravel, on his 
 voyage of discovery.^ Peter Martyr, after mention- 
 ing the proposed expedition of Sebastian Cabot to the 
 south, thus refers in July 1524, to that of Gomez and 
 its destination. " It is also decreed that one Stephanus 
 Gomez, who also himselfe is a skillful navigator, shal 
 goe another way, whereby, betweene the Baccalaos and 
 Florida, long since our countries, he saith he will 
 finde out a waye to Cataia : one onely shippe, called 
 a Carvell, is furnished for him, and he shall have no 
 other thing in charge then to search out whether any 
 passage to the great Chan, from out the diuers wind- 
 ings and vast compassings of this our Ocean, were to 
 be founde." * 
 
 Gomez commenced his exploration on the coast of 
 South Carolina, and proceeding thence northwardly, 
 reached the Rio de la huelta, where, as that name de- 
 
 ' Navarrete m. 179. Peter Martyr, Dec. vui. 8. 
 ' Peter Martyr, Dec. vi. 10. EdeTCs trans. 
 
THE LETTER FOUNDED ON THE VOYAGE OF GOMEZ. 121 
 
 notes, he commenced his return, on the island of Cape 
 Breton. He carefully observed the rivers, capes and 
 bays, which occur within those limits, entering the 
 Chesapeake, Delaware, Hudson and Penobscot, to 
 which he gave appropriate names, derived from the 
 church calendar, or from some characteristic of the 
 locality. He was for a while encouraged to believe, 
 in consequence of the great flood of water which he 
 found issuing from the Penobscot, or Rio de Gamos, 
 (Stag river), that he had there fallen upon the desired 
 strait. Though unsuccessful in the object of his search, 
 he nevertheless accomplished an important service for 
 geographical science, in determining that no such 
 passage existed within the region he had sailed. Tak- 
 ing in a cargo of Indians from the islands of the 
 great bay, he continued his course to the south, and 
 running along the coast of Florida, returned to Spain 
 by way of Cuba.^ 
 
 The authenticity of this voyage is established by 
 Oviedo and Peter Martyr both of whom were eyewit> 
 nesses of the Indians which Gomez brought home and 
 exhibited at Toledo. Both of these writers have given 
 short accounts of the voyage, which, as it was not suc- 
 cessful in the purpose for which it was undertaken and 
 promised no returns of gold, excited no public attention. 
 The results were, however, interesting to the hydro- 
 graphers of Spain, who soon prepared charts of the 
 coast, according to his exploration, among which 
 
 ' Peter Martyr, Dee. vr. c. 10. Herrera, iii. vm. 8. Cespedes, Tslario 
 General, in MS. Cespedes was cosmographer major of the Indies in 
 Seville and wrote many geograpliical works early in the seventeenth 
 century. His Tslario General, embracing a history of the islands of the 
 world, exists in the Biblioteca Nacional in Madrid. 
 16 
 
122 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 that made by Diego Kibero, associate of Gomez at the 
 junta of Badajos, and royal cosmographer, will demand 
 especial attention. 
 
 The voyage of Gomez and what he had accomplished 
 became immediately known to the world at large by 
 printed publications. He arrived home on his return 
 in November 1525 ; and three months afterwards 
 Oviedo published his first work, addressed to the 
 emperor, in which he makes the following brief men- 
 tion of the expedition. 
 
 " Shortly after that yowr Maiestie came to the citie of Toledo, 
 there arryved in the moneth of November, Stephen Gomes the pylot 
 who the yeare before of 1524 by the commandement of yowre maiestie 
 sayled to the Northe partes and founde a greats parte of lande eon- 
 tinuate from that which is cauled Baccaleos discoursynge towards 
 the West to the XL, and XLI degree, fro whense he brought certeyne 
 Indians, of the whiche he brought sum with hym from thense who 
 are yet in Toledo at this present, and of greater stature than other 
 of the firme land as they are commonlye. Theyr coldure is much 
 like the other of the firme lande. They are great archers, and go 
 couered with the skinnes of dyuers beastes both wylde and tame. In 
 this lande are many excellent furres, as marterns, sables and such 
 other rych furres, of the which the sayde pilot Brought summe with 
 hym into Spayne. They have sylver and copper and certeyne other 
 metalles. They are Idolaters and honoure the soonne and moone, 
 and are seduced with suche superstitions and errours as are they of 
 the firme." i 
 
 The details of the exploration appear more dis- 
 tinctly upon the charts which the royal cosmographers 
 at Seville prepared, with the names given to the 
 prominent points of the coast. Two of these maps 
 are still extant, bearing the respective dates of 1527 
 
 ' Oviedo de la natural liystoria de las Indias. (Toledo, 15 Feby. 1536), 
 fol. 14; and under the title of Belacion Sumnria, p. 16, in Barcia's His- 
 toriadores primiiivos, tome i. Translated in 'Eden's Decades of ike neweworlde, 
 fol. 213-14. 
 
THE LETTER FOUNDED ON THE VOYAGE OF GOMEZ. 123 
 
 and 1529, the first by .an anonymous cartographer, and 
 the last by Ribero.^ The whole line of coast from 
 the river Jordan, in latitude 33° 10', visited by 
 both the expeditions of Ayllon, to Cape Breton, is 
 laid down upon them with sufficient exactitude. The 
 names indicate the exploration to have been made by 
 Gromez the whole distance between . those points; for 
 no other navigator of Spain, in the language of which 
 they are given, had sailed within those limits up to the 
 time these maps bear date. The only question which has 
 been raised in this regard relates to the expeditions of 
 Ayllon ; but the first of these, a joint descent upon the 
 coast to carry off Indians in 1520 by two vessels be- 
 longing to the licentiates Ayllon and Matienzo of St. 
 Domingo, proceeded no further than the Jordan, as we 
 learn from the testimony of Pedro de Quejo, the pilot 
 of Matienzo.'^ The expedition which Ayllon made 
 afterwards in 1526, in person, to the same coast, pro- 
 ceeded directly to the river Jordan, and after remain- 
 ing there a few days, ran southwesterly along the coast 
 to Gualdape or St Helena, where Ayllon died, and 
 from whence it thereupon immediately returned home 
 to St Domingo, without any further attempt at ex- 
 ploration.^ 
 
 ' Both these maps, so far as they relate to America, have been reproduced, 
 with very valuable notes and illustrations, by Mr. Kohl in Die beiden 
 altestm general harten von Ameriha. Weimar, 1860. 
 
 " ftoceedings before the Auditors at St Domingo, by virtue of a royal 
 decree, of Nov. 1525, in relation to the dispute between Ayllon and 
 Matienzo concerning their discovery, preserved in MS. at Seville. 
 
 ' Oviedo, tom. in. p. 634. (Madrid, 1853,) Mr. Kohl states (Discovery 
 of Maine, 397) that the ships of Ayllon made an extensive survey of the 
 coast, north of the Jordan, soon after their arrival in the country. In this 
 he Is in error; into which he appears to have been misled by Navarrete, a 
 part of whose language he quotes in a note-, as that of Oviedo. Navarrete, 
 
124 VERKAZZANO. 
 
 This disastrous expedition, therefore, went no further 
 north than the Jordan or Santee. It demonstrated 
 the falsity of the stories told to Peter Martyr by 
 Francis, the Chicorane. as he .was called, one of the 
 Indians seized in the first expedition and taken by Ayl- 
 lon to Spain, of the vast provinces with uncouth names 
 which were upon his authority transferred to the roya,l 
 cedule granted to Ayllon on the 12th June, 1523.* 
 That region remained unknown, therefore, until the 
 voyage of Gomez, and to it and it alone can the names 
 on these maps, within the limits before designated, be 
 attributed. 
 
 These maps passed at once into Italy ; and that of 
 Ribero, bearing the date of 1529 and the arms of the 
 then reigning pontiff, Clement VII, and his suc- 
 cessors, the most finished of the three copies known 
 to exist, is still to be found at Rome, and is rea- 
 sonably supposed to have been the original ; and like 
 
 referring to the portion of Oviedo's liistory, not then (1839) published, as 
 his authority, says on this point that after leaving the river Jordan the 
 ships of Ayllon proceeded to Gualdape, " distante cuarenta 6 cincuenta 
 leguas mas al norie" distant forty or fifty leagues more to the north; 
 whereas the language of Oviedo, as contained in the recently published 
 edition of his work, is, " acordaron de yrse a poblar la costa delante ha(;ia 
 la costa occidental, e fueron a un grand rio (quarcnta 6 quarenta e Qinco 
 leguas de alii, pocas ni4s 6 menos) que se di^e Gualdape," (ut supra, p. 
 638) they agreed to go and settle the coast further on towards the west coast, and 
 went to a large river, {forty or forty -fine leagues from, that place, a little more 
 or less) which is called Gualdape . The course of the coast at these points 
 is northeast and southwest. A westerly course was therefore to the south 
 and not to the north. Besides, Oviedo states that the Jordan was in latitude 
 33° 40' and that Gualdape was the country through which the river St. 
 Helena ran, which he also calls theriver of Gualdape, and which in another 
 part of his history he places in latitude 33° N., and expressly stating that the 
 Jordan was north of the St. Helena, towards Cape Trafalgar, or Cape Fear 
 (torn. II. p. 144.) Ayllon, therefore, did not sail north of the Jordan, 
 and the names on the Ribero map, north of that river, are not attribut- 
 able to liis expedition. 
 ' P. Martyr, Dec. vii. c. 3 ; Navarrolc, iii. 153. 
 
THE LETTER FOUNDED ON THE VOYAGE OF GOMEZ. 125 
 
 the last decade of Peter Martyr in 1526, which men- 
 tions the discoveries of Gomez, to have been sent to 
 the Holy Father at his desire, in order to keep him in- 
 formed of the latest discoveries.^ Other copies of the 
 Spanish charts showing the exploration of Gomez, 
 found their way into Italy about the same time, proving 
 that there was then no interdict against their exporta- 
 tionfrom Spain to that country, at least.^ Thisappears 
 by a volume which was published in Venice in 1534 
 under the auspices of Ramusio,^ embracing a summary 
 of the general history of the West Indies by Peter 
 Martyr and a translation of Oviedo's natural history 
 of the Indies of 1526, containing the account of Gomez' 
 voyage, with a map of America upon which the dis- 
 coveries of Gomez are laid down the same as upon the 
 Spanish maps of 1527 and 1529, before mentioned. 
 The following colophon, giving the origin of this map, 
 is to be found at the end of the translation of Oviedo : 
 " Printed at Venice, in the month of December 1534. 
 For the explanation of these books there has been 
 made an universal.'map of the countries of ail the West 
 Indies, together with a special map, taken from two 
 marine charts of the Spaniards, one of which belonged 
 to Don Pietro Martire, Councillor of the Royal Council 
 
 ' Nouvdles Annales des Voyages. Nouvelle series, tome xxxv. Annee 
 1353. Tome troisieme. Paris. Les Papes g6ographes et la cartographie du 
 Vaticam,. Par E. M. Tliomassey. Appendix, p. 375. 
 
 " In regard to the freedom wliich the charts of the Spanish navigators 
 so enjoyed there is confirmatory proof in Ramusio. In the preface to his 
 third volume, dedicated to liis friend Fracastor of Florence, he writes : 
 " All the literary men daily inform you of any discovery made known to 
 them by captain or pilot coming from those parts, and among others the 
 aforesaid Sig. Gonzalo (Oviedo) from the island of Hispaniola, who every 
 year visits you once or twice with some new made chart." 
 
 ' M. d'Avezac in Bulletin de la Sodelede QeograpMe for July and August 
 1873. 
 
126 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 of the said Indies, and was made by the pilot and 
 master of marine charts, Nino Garzia de Loreno, in 
 Seville. The other was made also by a pilot of the 
 majesty, the emperor, in Seville. With which maps 
 the reader can inform himself of the whole of this new 
 world, place by place, the same as if he had been there 
 himself." ^ The special map here referred to is one of 
 Hispaniola, in the same volume, and was undoubtedly 
 taken from that of Nuno Garcia, in the possession of 
 Peter Martyr. It was therefore made in or before the 
 year 1526, since Martyr died in that year. The map 
 of America, by the pilot of the. emperor at Seville, was 
 probably the anonymous map of 1527 before men- 
 tioned, as it appears not to have had the name of 
 the author upon it. These facts prove at least that the 
 map of Ribero was in Italy in the year 1529, and that 
 the map of 1527 may have been there before that year. 
 
 It was from the delineation of the coast on one or 
 other of these two maps, which are in that respect 
 almost identically the same, that the description of it 
 in the Verrazzano letter was derived. This will now be 
 made manifest by the application of that description to 
 the map of Ribero, so much of which as is necessary, is 
 here reproduced for that purpose. 
 
 In making the proof thus proposed, it is to be borne 
 in mind that the letter is positive and explicit as to 
 the extent and limits of the discovery or exploration 
 which it describes. It fixes them by three different 
 modes which prove each other : 1. By giving the latitude 
 
 ' Tiiis volume lias no general title, but contains three books, primo, 
 secoiido <& ultimo della historia de V Indie Occidental. It is very rarely found 
 with the large map of America. We are indebted to the kindness of James 
 Lenox, Esq., of New York, for the use of a perfect copy in this respect. 
 
THE LETTER FOUNDED ON THE VOYAGE OF GOMEZ. 127 
 
 of the commencement and termination of the voyage 
 along the coast ; 2. By a declaration in two different 
 forms of the entire distance run, and 3. By a state- 
 ment of intermediate courses and distances, from point 
 to point, between the landfall and the place of leav- 
 ing the coast, separately, making in the aggregate the 
 whole distance named. There can be therefore no 
 mistake as to the meaning of the writer in respect of 
 the extent of the exploration. 
 
 As to its limits and extent, we have already had 
 occasion to quote his language in impressing upon 
 Francis th^ great length of the voyage ; giving both 
 at the same tima: " In the voyage," he says, " which 
 we made by order of your majesty, in addition to 
 the 92 degrees which we ran towards the west from 
 our point of departure, before we reached land in 
 latitude 34, we have to count 300 leagues which we 
 ran ruyriheastwardly and 400 nearly east, along the 
 coast, hejore we reached the h^th'parallel of north latitude, 
 the point where we turned our course from the shore 
 towards home." This distance is also mentioned in the 
 total at the end of the voyage, where he says : " find- 
 ing our provisions and naval stores nearly exhausted, 
 we took in wood and water, and determined to return 
 to France, having discovered 700 leagues of unknown 
 lands." 
 
 The several courses and distances run are described 
 in the letter, from point to point, as follows : ^ 
 
 First. "We perceived that it (the land) stretched to 
 the ioutli and coasted along in that direction in search of 
 
 ' The translation of Dr. Cogswell, in N. T. Eist. CoOedions, is here used, 
 somewhat condensed. 
 
128 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 some port in which we might come to anchor, and examine L. 
 into the nature of the country,, but for fifty leagues we 
 could find none in which we could lie securely." 50 
 
 Second. " Seeing the coast still stretched to the south 
 we resolved to change our course and stand to the north- 
 ward, and as we still had the same difficulty, we drew in 
 with the land, and sent a boat ashore. Many people, who 
 were seen coming to the sea-side, fled at our approach. We 
 found not far from this people another. This country is 
 plentifully supplied with lakes and ponds of running water, 
 and being in the latitude of 34, the air is salubrious, pure 
 and temperate, and free from the extremes both of heat and 
 cold. We set sail from this place continuing to coast along 
 the shore, which we found stretching out to the west (east?). 
 While at anchor on this coast, there being no harbor to 
 enter, we sent the boat on shore with twenty-five men to 
 obtain water. Departing hence, and always- following the 
 shore, which stretched to the north, we came in the space of 
 fifty leagues, to another land which appeared beautiful and 
 full of the largest forests. 50 
 
 • Third. " After having remained here' three days riding 
 at anchor on the coast, as we could find no harbor we 
 determined to depart, and coast along the shore to the 
 northeast. After proceeding one hundred leagues, we found 
 a very pleasant situation among some steep hills through 
 which a very large river, deep at its mouth forced its way to 
 the sea." 100 
 
 Fourth. " We took the boat and entering the river we 
 found the country on its banks well peopled. All of a sud- 
 den a violent contrary wind blew in from the sea, and 
 forced us to return to our ship. Weighing anchor, we 
 sailed eighty leagues towards the east, as the coast stretched 
 in that direction, and always in sight of it. At length we 
 discovered an island, triangular in form, about ten leagues 
 from the mainland. We gave it the name of your majesty's 
 illustrious mother." 80 
 
 Fifth. " We did not land there, as the weather was un- 
 favorable, but proceeded to another place, fifteen leagues 
 distant from the island, where we found a very excellent 
 harbor. It looks towards the south, on which side the harbor 
 is half a league broad. Afterwards, upon entering it, the 
 extent between the east and the north is twelve leagues, and 
 
THE LETTER FOUNDED ON THE VOYAGE OF GOMEZ. 129 
 
 then enlarging itself, foriQS a v&ry la/rge hay, twenty leagues 
 
 in oircumferenoe." 15 
 
 Sixth. " Having supplied ourselves with every thing 
 flecessary, on the sixth of May we departed fropi the port 
 and sailed one hundred and fifty leagues, keepipg so close to 
 the coast as never to lose it from our sight. We did not 
 stop to land, as the weather was very favorable for pursu- 
 ing our voyage, and the country presented no variety. The 
 shore stretched to the east " 150 
 
 Seventh. ' " And _/i/Jy leagues beyond, more to the north, 
 where we found a more elevated cowntry. The people were 
 entirely different from the others we had seen, so rude and 
 barbarous that we were unable by any signs. we» could make, 
 to hold commuoicatiop with them. Against their will we 
 penetrated two or three leagues' into the interior with twenty- 
 five men." 50 
 
 Eighth. " Departing from thence we kept along the coast. 
 Steering between east and north, and found the country more 
 pleasant and open. Within _/i/(!^ fealties we discovered thirty 
 ■two islands, all near the mainland." 50 
 
 Ninth. . " We had no intercourse with the people. After 
 sailing between east and north one hitndred and fifty leagues 
 more we determined to return to France, having discovered 
 700 leagues of unknown lands." 150 
 
 Making a total of 695 L. 
 
 Now let the reader trace for himself, these courses 
 and distances, as shown on the accompanying sketeh 
 of the map of Eibero, according to the following scale, 
 
 LeagaeB. 
 50 100 150 
 
 I I I I I I I M 
 
 ' . 10 degrees or 156)4 leagues. ' 
 
 representing the measurements in the letter ; which 
 are calculated on the basis of 15.625 leagues to a degree, 
 while those on the map are 17i leagues; and he will 
 find, that not only is the whole littoral distance be- 
 tween the parallels of 34° and 50° on the map about 
 seven hundred leagues, but that the several courses and 
 
 17 
 
130 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 distances, of which this entire distance is composed ac- 
 cording to the letter, correspond with similar divisions 
 on the map, proving to a certainty that this map 
 was the source from which the line of coast described 
 in the letter was derived, or the reverse. 
 
 It will be observed that the first course, beginning 
 according to the letter at the landfall, in latitude 34 N., 
 commences on the map a little north of C. Traffalgar 
 as there laid down, now Cape Fear, and proceeds south- 
 erly fifty leagues to G. de S. Roman. 
 
 The first course being retraced, the Second, also of 
 fifty leagues, starting from the landfall near G. Traffal- 
 gar, extends to G. de S. Juan of the map, the well 
 known point of Hatteras. 
 
 The third, runs from G. de S. Juan, one hundred 
 leagues northwardly, to the Montana verde, the Nave- 
 sinks at the mouth of the Hudson, ' " described as the 
 pleasant situation among steep hills, through which a 
 very large river forced its way into the sea." The 
 perfect identification of this course and distance has 
 already been observed. 
 
 The fourth extends easterly from the Montana verde 
 eighty leagues and strikes the islands of the G. de 
 Muchas yllas, or Cape Cod, where, among the Eliza- 
 beth islands, Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, the 
 island of Louise is intended by the letter to be placed. 
 This course, easterly, fixes the position of that island 
 at this point. 
 
 The fifth course and distance embrace fifteen leagues 
 from the islands of G. de Muchas yllas, but the direction 
 is not stated, and is left to be inferred from the fact 
 which is stated that they proceeded on to another place 
 
TSE letter founded on the voyage op GOMEZ. 131 
 
 where they entered a harbor, at the mouth of a large 
 bay opening between north, and east, of twelve leagues 
 in width. This course must therefore have he&n. north- 
 erly and proceeded along the easterly shore of O. de 
 Muchas yllas or Cape Cod. 
 
 The sixth runs easterly from the harbor on the G. 
 de Mudhas yllas, or Cape Cod, one hundred and fifty 
 leagues easterly which include the opening of the great 
 bay of twelve leagues and proceeds along the Arecifes 
 or C. Sable on the cod,st of Nova Scotia to the Sargales, 
 probably Cape Canso at Chedabucto bay, where the coast 
 trended more north&rly. 
 
 The seventh, from the Sargales, fifty leagues rrtore to 
 the north, extends along the tierra de las Bretones or 
 island of C. Breton to the cape of that name, passing 
 the R. de la huelta, the. easterly limit of the voyage of 
 Gomez. From this river easterly the map is compiled, 
 as the names indicate, from Portuguese charts. 
 
 The eighth, from C. Breton fifty leagues between 
 north and east, runs along the"easterly coast of the tierra 
 de las Bretones, to the supposed northerly shore of the 
 bay between that land and the tierra de las Bacallaos 
 or Newfoundland, but in reality the southerly en- 
 trance into the gulf of St. Lawrence. 
 
 The ninth, from the termination of the last course, 
 embraces one hundred and fifty leagues between north 
 and east along the coast of the Bacallaos to G. Basso or 
 Cape Race and thence along the easterly coast of the 
 Bacallaos to the Y. de Bacallaos in latitude 50° N., the 
 point of departure from the coast, and making the 
 complement of 695 leagues, in all. 
 
 Such exact and unexceptional concurrence in the 
 
132 yEERAZZANO. 
 
 observation of distances for over two thousand miles^ 
 as this comparison -exhibits, by two different naviga- 
 tors sailing at different timeSj under different circum- 
 stances of wind and weather, and under different plans 
 of exploration, is impossible. So far as regards the 
 distances running north and south, such an agreement 
 might-happen, because the truth in that direction was 
 ascertainable by any one, by means of observations of 
 the latitude ; but not as regards those running east and 
 west ; for these, no means of deteitoining them existed, 
 as before explained : and accordingly on the Kibero 
 map they are grossly incorrect. From the Montana 
 verde to the C. de Muchas yllas, that is, from the Hud- 
 son to the west end of the peninsula of Cape Cod, the 
 distance appears to be eighty leagues, or nearly double 
 its true length; while the width of the great bay 
 between the C. de Muchas yllas and the Arecifes, or 
 from Cape Cod to Cape Sable is shown to be less than 
 twenty leagues, whereas it is more than fifty. And so 
 also from the Arecifes to the SarQales, from Cape Sable 
 to Cape Canso, it is one hundred and thirty-five leagues 
 on the map, or twice the actual distance. These great 
 errors show how impossible it was at that time to 
 calculate longitudinal distances correctly. But two 
 navigators, sailing independently as mentioned, could 
 not have fallen into these errors exactly to the same ex- 
 tent, exaggerated in the two cases by the same excessive 
 length, and in the other by the same extraordinary 
 diminution. Yet in the particulars just described the 
 map and the letter correspond precisely. Such a coin- 
 cidence of mistakes, could not "have been accidental. 
 One of these documents must, therefore, have been 
 
THE LETTER FOUNDED ON THE VOYAGE OF GOMEZ. 133 
 
 the source of the other. In determining between them 
 there can be no mistake in adopting as the original, 
 that one which has a certain and indisputable authen-' 
 ticity, and rejecting that which is unsupported by any 
 other testimony. The voyage of Gomez was long the 
 subject of consideration and preparation, and was her- 
 alded to the world for months before it was under- 
 taken. The- order of the king of Spain under which 
 it was made, still exists in the archives of that 
 kingdom. The results of the expedition were an- 
 nounced by credible historians of the country, immedi- 
 ately after its return ; and the nautical information 
 which it brought back, and in regard to which alone it 
 possessed any interest at the time, was transferred at 
 once to the marine charts of the nation, imperfectly it 
 is true, and spread before the world. These charts still 
 remain in their original form, as they were then pre- 
 pared. With these incontrovertible facts to sustain it, 
 the discovery of Gomez must stand as established in 
 history and, consequently, the claim of Verrazzano 
 must fall.^ 
 
 ' The map of Eibero is not a faithful representation of the exploration of 
 Gomez, in many respects. The Uerra de AyUon is made to embrace a large 
 portion of the country the coast of which was discovered by Gomez. The 
 bay of Santa Maria, or the Chesapeake, is placed two degrees fiAther south 
 than it should be, that is, in latitude 35°, instead of 37° N. The B. de los 
 Oamos, or Penobscot, mentioned by Gespedes, is not named at all. The 
 question, however, of ire greater or less correctness is of no importance on 
 the present occasion ; it is sufficient that it was followed by the writer of 
 the letter, erroneous as it was. 
 
134 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 * 
 
 X. 
 
 The Career of Verrazzano. An Adventurous Life 
 AND AN Ignominious Death. Conclusion. 
 
 The true history of Verrazzano, so far as known, is 
 now to be given, in order to make a final disposition 
 of this story. Nothing is preserved in relation to his 
 early, life. EYen the year of his birth is matter of 
 conjecture. He is called by Ramusio, Giovanni da 
 Verrazzano, Florentine ; and according to Pelli, was 
 born about the year" 1485. His father was Piero 
 Andrea, son of Bernardo, the son of Bernardo of Ver- 
 razzano, a little town situated in the Val di Greve, 
 near Florence, — the latter Bernardo having belonged 
 to the magistracy of the priors in 1406. All that his 
 eulogist was enabled to gather concerning him, beyond 
 this brief genealogy, is taken from the Verrazzano 
 letter and the discourse of Ramusio, relating how he 
 was killed, roasted and devoured by the savages in a 
 second voyage to America ;* with the suggestion oT 
 
 ' The account which Ramusio gives of Verrazzano, and the manner of 
 his death, occurs in his Discourse on Labrador, the Baccalaos and New 
 France (vol. ni. fol. 417), in which, after referringlto the Cortereaes and 
 Sebastian Cabot, he adds : 
 
 " There also sailed along the said land, in the year 1534, a great captain 
 of the most Christian king in France, called Giovanni da Verrazzano, a 
 Florentine ; and he ran along all the coast, as far as Florida, as will be 
 particularly seen by a letter of his, written to the said king, which alone 
 we have been able to have, because the others have got astray in the troubles 
 of the unfortunate city of Florence. And in the last voyage which he 
 made, having wished to descend on the land with some companions, they 
 were all put to death by those people, and in the presence of those who 
 remained on board of the ship, were roasted and devoured. Such a wretched 
 
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF VEERAZZANO, 135 
 
 Coronelli, the Venetian geographer, that the place 
 where he thus met his death wa# at the entrance of 
 the gulf of St. Lawrence. The spurious letter of Carli 
 tdds that he had been in Egypt, Syria and most other 
 parts of the world. The ancient manuscripts of Dieppe, 
 as we have seen,^ speak of one of his name who ac- 
 
 end had this valiant gentleman, who, had not this misfortune, intervened, 
 would, by the great knowledge and intelligence which he had of maritime 
 affairs, and of navigation, accompanied and favoured by the immense 
 liberality of King Francis, have discovered and made known to. the world, 
 all that part of the earth, up to the north pole, and would not have been 
 contented with the coast merely,, but would have sought to penetrate far 
 inland, and as far as he could go ; and many, who have known and con- 
 versed with him, have told me, that he declared it was his intention to 
 seek to persuade the Most Christian King to send from these parts, a good 
 number of people to settle in some places of said coast which are of tem- 
 perate climate, and very fertile soU, with very beautiful rivers and harbors 
 capable of holding any fleets. The settlers in these places would be the 
 occasion of producing many good results, and among others of bringing 
 , those rude and ignorant tribes to divine worship, and to our most holy 
 faith, and to show them how to cultivate the land, transporting some of 
 the animals of our Europe to those vast plains ; and finally, in time, hav- 
 ing discovered the inland parts, and seen whether among the many islands 
 existing there, any passage to the south sea exists, or whether the main 
 land of Florida or the West Indies continues up to the pole. This and so 
 much is what has been, related of this so brave a gentleman, of whose toil 
 and sweat, in order that his memory may not remain buried, and his name 
 pass into oblivion, we have desired to giveto the light the little that has come 
 into our hands.'' 
 
 Ramusio here distinctly asserts that the only document in relation to 
 the voyage of Verrazzano which he had be8n able to procure, was the 
 letter which he published ; but he informs his readers that he had been 
 told by certain persons who had known and conversed with Verrazzano, 
 that it was the intention of the nangator, as he himself declared, to seek 
 permission from Francis I, his adopted sovereign, in whose service it is 
 claimed he made the discovery, to make another voyage to the new found 
 land for the purposes of colonization and further exploratiorl ; and he also 
 states, upon the same or other authority, that Verrazzano on another voy- 
 age was killed and eaten, by the natives of the country. Consequently, 
 Verrazzano must have made a second voyage to America and obtained 
 such perrnission from the king. But there is not a particle of evidence in ' 
 existence, apart from the declarations of these persons to Eamusio, that 
 any such permission was ev«r given, OBgthat a second voyage took place. 
 It proves the credulity of Ramusio that he received these naked statements 
 without any examination. 
 ' Ante, p. 113, rwie. 
 
136 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 • 
 
 companied Aubert, in his voyage to Newfoundland, ii 
 1508; and the stateiaent of Hakluyt before referrei 
 to, gives some ground to believe that he was employei 
 in early voyages to that region, before he engaged il 
 his operations against the commerce of Spain. 
 
 What is certainly known of him relates almost ex 
 clusivelj to his career as a French corsair, durinj 
 the few years which intervened between the breakin| 
 out of hostilities between Francis I and Charles V 
 and his death, in 1527. His cruises, though directec 
 principally against the Spaniards, were not tender o 
 the interests of Portugal ; and it is accordingly fron 
 Spanish and Portuguese writers and documents of th( 
 period, that the little information that exists in rela 
 tion to him, is derived. He is called by the former 
 Juan Florin or Florentin, or simply, the Florentine,— 
 the French corsair. He is designated on an occasion t( 
 be noted, as Juan Florin of Dieppe} They appear tc 
 have known him by no other name. They never hearc 
 of him as a discoverer, real or pretended, of new coun 
 tries, until long afterwards. The Verrazzanq letter hac 
 not been published when Peter Martyr, Oviedo anc 
 Gomara wrote ; and when Martyr and Gomara make 
 mention of him, they do so only by the title by whict 
 he was designated by the Spanish sailors. There was 
 therefore^no opportunity for his identification by them 
 in the double character of a great discoverer, and £ 
 corsair; and it was not until many years after th( 
 publication of the Verrazzano letter that this identifi 
 cation was first declared by Barcia.^ 
 
 ' On the capture of the treasiye fleet. See Appendix; ly. 
 " Ensayo Ohronologico, sub anno, 1534. 
 
* 
 THE LIFE AND DEATH OF VERRAZZANO. 137 
 
 There is no room, however, to doubt its entire cor- 
 rectness. That the occupation of Verrazzano was that 
 of a cruizer on the seas, is not only declareet in the 
 letter ascribed to him,^ but is clearly established by 
 the agreement made by him with Chabot. Besides, 
 there is no other Giovanni, a Florentine, known in 
 the history of the time, sailing in that capacity under 
 the French flag and from the same port of Dieppe ; and 
 the references must have therefore been to him alone. 
 
 The appellation of corsair, does not necessarily imply 
 a pirate. It was Applicable to any one engaged in 
 the capture of vessels on the high seas, whether author- 
 ized to do so or not. The state of hostilities between 
 France and Spain, protected Verrazzano under the 
 rules of war, as a subject of Francis, in capturing 
 Spanish vessels, as long as it continued ; and the an- 
 
 ' Ramusio gives Verrazzano this cliaracter more distiactly than it appears 
 in the original .version. One of his first alterations W the text, is of the 
 passage previously referred to, relating to the cruise of the Normandy and 
 Dauphiny, after their repairs in Brittany. The Carli version reads, in 
 Connection with the two ships on that occasion : dme restaurati ard V. 8. 
 M, inteso il discorso facemo con quelle armaie in guerra per li liU di Spagna, 
 that is, " where being repaired, your serene majesty will have understood 
 we made the cruize with this fleet of war along the coasts of Spain," from 
 which it is to be implied only, that the cruize was for the purpose of 
 depredating on Spanish commerce. But Ramusio, as became his practice, 
 with this document at least, altered this clause into, dove poi che furono 
 , secondo il hisogno raecodate & hen armeggiate, per i UU di Spagna ee n'and- 
 ammo in eorso, il che V. M. hcmerd inteso per il proiitto che ne faoemmo; 
 which Haliluyt fairly renders: " where, after we had repaired them in all 
 points as was needfuU, and armed them very well, we took our course along 
 by the coast of Spain, which your Majesty shall understand, by the profit 
 we received thereby." As this cruize according to the date of the letter must 
 have taken place in 1533, this language, which is Ramusio's own, as to the 
 profit, would seem to refer almost to the capture by Verrazzano of the 
 treasure sent by Cortes, to the emperor which occurred in the summer of 
 that year, as hereafter related ; but Verrazzano's fleet consisted of six in- 
 stead of two ships on that occasion. The words of Ramusio, show, how- 
 ever, that he knew Verrazzano was a rover, in search of booty on the seas, 
 or at least, that he so regarded him* 
 18 
 
138 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 omalous condition of affairs existing at that time, ac- 
 cording to the Portuguese historian, Andrade, of pri- 
 vate war between the subjects of the kings of France 
 and Portugal, without' any public war between the 
 sovereigns, would seem to. have justified him in similar 
 acts in regard to the commerce of the Portuguese, as 
 long as the practice was not forbidden by the kings of 
 the two countries. 
 
 The first adventure of the kind, in which we hear 
 of Verrazzano, was in 1521. At this time a valuable 
 commerce had grown up between Spain and her con- 
 quests in the West Indies, and large amounts in gold, 
 pearls, sugar, hides and other articles were sent home. 
 A ship, on her way from Hispaniola, was captured 
 by him, in- the year just mentioned, having on 
 board eighty thousand ducats in gold, six hundred 
 pounds weight — eight ounces to the pound, of pearls 
 and two thousand arrobas, of twenty-five pounds each, 
 of sugar.^ In the following year, he took possession of 
 seven vessels bound from Cadiz to the Canary islands, 
 with emigrants, but being overhauled off the point of 
 Gando, by vessels sent in pursuit, was compelled to 
 relinquish his prizes.^ 
 
 He is next found apparently meditating an expedi- 
 tion against the Portuguese possessions in Brazil, upon 
 the pretext of discovering other countries in the east, 
 which that nation had not found. The mention of 
 
 " Peter Martyr, Bee. v. c. 8. Epistohi 771 (ed. 1671'). In this letter which 
 is dated at Valladolid 19th November, 1632, Martyr writes : " Anno quippe 
 superiore Florinus quidam Qallus piraUi navim unam ab Hispaniola ven- 
 ientem, auro ad summam octoginta millium dragmanim, unionum vcro 
 libris octuncialibus sexcentis & ruborum saccari duobus millibus rapuit." 
 
 ' Don Bartholome Garcia del Castillo in Noticias de la Mstoria de las isim 
 de Oanaria, by Don Joseph de Viera y Qllavijo. (Madrid 1773-84). 
 
THE LIFE AND DEATH OP VERBAZZAlSrO. 139 
 
 this project is positi-^e, and becomes curious and inter- 
 esting in the history of his life, as it affords the only 
 authentic evidence extant of any suggestion of a voy- 
 age of discovery, contemplated by him towards Cathay. 
 The design, if really entertained, appears, however, to 
 have fallen through and to have been abandoned ; but 
 it may, nevertheless, have been the foundation of the 
 story of the alleged voyage. It is related by Francisco 
 d' Andrade, in his Chronicle of John III, the then 
 reigning king of Portugal. After referring to the death 
 of Magellan, as an event which removed a cause of 
 difference between the crowns of Portugal and Castile, 
 growing out of the famous expedition of that navigator, 
 Andrade thus speaks of the state of affairs between the 
 crowns of France and Portugal. 
 
 " At that time, the king was told by some Portuguese, doing 
 business in Prance, that one Joao Varezano, a Florentine, offered 
 himself to Francis, to discover other kingdoms in the East, which 
 the Portuguese had not found, and that in the ports of Normandy 
 a fleet was being made ready under the favor of the admirals of the 
 coast, and the dissimulation of Frantis, to colonize the land of Santa 
 Cruz, called Brazil, discovered and laid down by the Portuguese in 
 the second voyage to India. This, and the complaints every where 
 made of the injuries inflicted by French corsairs, rendered the early 
 attention of the king necessary. 
 
 " Accordingly he sent to France an embassador, Joao da Silveyra, 
 son of Fernao da Silveyra, who delayed his going no longer than 
 was necessary to get ready. The purpose of his mission was to ask 
 Francis, inasmuch as there never had been war between them, but 
 rather an ancient peace and friendship, that he»would give orders 
 throughout his kingdom for the many robberies and injuries, perpe- 
 trated at sea on each other by the Portuguese and French, to cease, 
 (which tacitly was a private and not an open war, as in general they 
 were friends) ; that whatever could be found in his ports taken from 
 the Portuguese, should be restored, as what might be found in the 
 harbors of Portugal, taken from the French, should be forthwith 
 given up, and that to all who should ask justice in this particular 
 
140 VEERAZZANO. 
 
 it should be rendered immediately and fuHy. The king then re- 
 quired Francis likewise, to prevent his vessels from making outfits 
 to go to parts of the Portuguese conquest, vrhither it was not law- 
 ful for even Portuguese vessels to sail or the people to traffic. 
 
 " Joao da Silveyra was well received at the court of Prance; but 
 as respects the specific matters of negotiation in his charge, he was 
 answered every way indefinitely, with reasons more specious than 
 sound which appeared to be given not so much to conclude the afiairs 
 upon which he treated as to procrastinate and consume time. 
 
 ************ 
 
 " Joao da Silveyra continued to solicit with much urgency the 
 matters in his keeping at the court of Prance, and received aliswers 
 respecting them according as the matters which were proposed in 
 Portugal, [the marriage of Carlota, daughter of Francis, with the 
 prince Dom Joao], gave hopes of advancement. The king said 
 through one Luys Homem that he greatly desired the fostering and 
 increase of ancient friendship. Following upon that in a few 
 days he ordered the vessels in his ports preparing for India to be 
 stopped, stating that he would arrange this in such a way that the 
 king should be satisfied. Measures were adopted for the restoration 
 of all property that was known to have been taken from the king or 
 his vessels, and expectations were entertained of an order making 
 such provision throughout as should put a stop to all the robberies 
 and the evils arising from them. Since this had been the principal 
 object for which the embassador had been sent to'Prance, it appeared 
 to the king of Portugal, that it would be for his service that he 
 should order the return of Joao da Silveyra, and that the licentiate 
 Pedro Gromez Feixeira with Master Diego de Gevoeya, (to whom he 
 likewise wrote of this matter) should demand justice respecting cer- 
 tain matters of his property and assist such of his vessels as were 
 seeking it. But before the order for the return of Silveyra had left 
 this court, information was received by one Jacome Monteyro (who 
 by authority of the king of France sought the restitution of property) 
 that Francis had issued new orders, commanding the general seques- 
 tration of all the property of the king of Portugal and of his people, 
 the embargo of all hS vessels to be found in the ports of France, 
 without the declaration of any new cause, or the statement of any 
 reason for this order, the opposite of what had before been promul- 
 gated. The king in consequence, directed Joao da Silveyra to take 
 truthful information of the particulars and the reasons for this pro- 
 ceeding and commanded his presence before the council, to make 
 them known. 
 
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF VEREAZZANO. 141 
 
 " Following this, hostilities having been declared between the 
 kingdoms and seignories of the emperor and the king of France, 
 they waging cruel strife by land and sea, the French with an anma- 
 ment afloat took a Spanish ship with gold, belonging to the emperor, 
 within the limits of the Portuguese coast, besides much property of 
 individuals, regardless of where she had been found, so little atten- 
 tive were they in those times, to Portugal and Portuguese ; seized 
 her by force as belonging to their enemies, and carried her off, as 
 good prize of war. Pedro Batelho was sailing the while, giving 
 protection to the coast of Portugal, by the royal order, according to 
 the ancient custom of this kingdom, held always to be useful and 
 necessary, the value of which became evident from what occurred 
 afterwards, when it fell into disuse. 
 
 " The captain coming out one morning with his fleet, near those 
 who were carrying off the Spanish ship, he obliged them by force to 
 take in sail, as they hesitated to obey for some time, until he in- 
 formed himself of what had passed. Discovering that there were 
 some doubts and that deliberation would be necessary to do justice, 
 he brought all before him to the port of Lisbon, where the ^ize 
 was sequestrated and they made prisoners, and the case, by order ol 
 the king, was sent to the Oasa da Supplicagam where sentence wag 
 pronounced the following year. This news, which was directlj 
 known in Franc|!, m^e great change in the order of affairs witl 
 Portugal, and produced the state they were afterwards in, during 
 the following nine consecutive years that Joao da. Sllveyra was 
 there, in which time, he accomplished nothing he had in hand, ex- 
 eept to emhtbrgo the voyage of the Florentine^ of which mention ii 
 made before, and of some few vessels of corsairs which was but sheei 
 justice to us." 1 • 
 
 The time when these preparations were being made 
 
 by Verrazzano, is more definitely fixed by a despatch 
 
 •of Silveira to the king, from Paris on the 25th of April 
 
 1523, in which he states that "Verazano" had no1 
 
 yet left for Cathay.* It is highly probable, therefore 
 
 > Cronica de muyto alto, emuytopoderosoreydestes reyms de Portugal Don 
 Joao in dente name. By Francisco d' Andrade. Part i, c. 13 and 14 
 (Lisbon 1613.) 
 
 " Santarem gives the date of this despatch as of the 23d of April 1532 
 Quadro Mementa/r, torn, in, sec. xvi, p. 165. But the letter of Silveira wil 
 be found in full in the Appendix (ra) from the Portuguese archives. Santaren 
 
142 VEEEAZZANO. 
 
 that this whole story of an intended voyage of dis- 
 covery was proposed for the purpose of concealing the 
 real object of the preparations which were going on in 
 Normandy, of seizing the treasure which had been 
 sent from Mexico, by Cortes to the emperor, of the 
 successful accomplishment of which we have now to 
 speak. 
 
 In November, 1522, a vessel arrived in Spain which 
 had been sent from Mexico, by the conquistador with 
 the emperor's share of the tribute money collected in 
 that country, in the special charge of Alonzo Davila 
 and Antonio Quinones, with other articles of value. 
 Fearing capture by the French corsairs, this vessel 
 had sailed by the way of the Azores, and leaving the 
 treasure, with its custodians, at the island of Santa 
 Maria, proceeded on without it, in order that a proper 
 force might be sent to that island to bring it safely to 
 Spain. Juan Ribera, the secretary of Cortes, came in 
 the ship tt) Spain. These facts appear to have become 
 notorious immediately. Peter Martyr mentions them 
 in his letter of the 17th of November 1522, and in the 
 fifth of hi^ decades, written while the treasure was 
 still at Santa Maria, speaks of the French having 
 knowledge of its being left there. "I know not," he 
 says, "in reference to the ships sent there for it, what 
 flying report there is that the French pirates have 
 understood of those ships, God grant them good suc- 
 cesse." ^ Three caravels were despatched from- Seville 
 
 is evidently mistaken as to the year, inasmuch as the news of Magellan's 
 death, to which Andrade refers as a prior event, did not reacu Spain until 
 September 1533 and Silveira's appointment as embassador was after that 
 news was received. 
 1 Dee, V. c. 10. (Lok's trans.) 
 
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF TERRAZZAN'O. 143 
 
 to Santa Maria, under the command of Captain Dom- 
 ingo Alonzo, arriving there on the 15th of May 1523. 
 Davila and Quiflones immediately embarked in them, 
 with the treasure, sailing directly to Spain. Mean- 
 while, Verrazzano proceeded with six vessels towards 
 Cape St. Vincent, for the purpose of intercepting them, 
 which he succeeded in doing, within ten leagues of 
 that cape. After a sharp encounter, in which Quinones 
 was killed, he captured two of them, in one of which 
 Bavila was taken with the gold, and the other most 
 valuable articles. The third caravel escaped, and 
 arrived in Spain, with a tiger and Various articles of 
 rich manufacture, which had belonged to Montezuma. 
 Verrazzano took his prizes into Rochelle. The value 
 of the treasure and articles taken was estimated at 
 more than, six hundred thousand ducats, or bne million 
 and a half of dollars. ^ 
 
 These facts at least establish that Joao Verazano 
 mentioned by the Portuguse, Andrade and Silveira, 
 was the same person who made the capture of the 
 treasure ships ; for it is riot to be supposed that two 
 different Florentines of the name of Giovanni, were in 
 command of French fleets, at the same time, belonging 
 to the ports of Normandy alone; and consequently 
 that Verrazzano, our navigator, and Juan Florin the 
 corsair were one. But how far the seizure of the treas- 
 ure ships was, as before suggested, the original pur- 
 
 ' Peter Martyr, Dec. y. c. 8. Ilpist. 771, Nov. 19, 1532, and 779, June, 11, 
 1533 (ed. 1670). Herrera, Dec. m. lib. rv. c. 30. Letter of Davila to the 
 emperor from Rochelle, June 17, 1533, in the archives at Seville, now 
 first published in the Appendix (iv). Martyr says there were two ships, 
 the larger of which only, containing the treasure fell into the hands of John 
 Florin, the French pirate, and the other escaped ; but Davila must be right. 
 
144 VEEEAZZANO. 
 
 pose of the fleet can only be inferred from the circum- 
 stances, and is important only in connecticp with the 
 design of a voyage of discovery. Between the time of 
 the arrival of Ribera with the information that the 
 treasure had been left at the Azores, and the sending 
 of the caravels to bring it to Spain, nearly six months 
 elapsed. Taking the dates, which are established by 
 the official documents now produced, of the fitting out 
 of the fleet in Normandy by Verrazzano and the actual 
 capture of the two caravels, it is easy to see that the 
 real purpose of those preparations from the first, might 
 have been to effect the capture of the treasure. The 
 transmission of the news to Portugal of an intended 
 voyage to Brazil and the sending of instructions to the 
 embassador at^ the French court could all have taken 
 place after 'the detention of the treasure at Santa Maria 
 became known in France and the fitting out of the ves- 
 sels for its capture had begun to be made. It is stated by 
 Andrade that it was at a port in Normandy where the 
 vessels were being made ready ; and it is to be presumed, 
 from the connection of Verrazza,no with Jean Ango, as 
 shown subsequently by the agreement with Chabot for 
 a like purpose, that it was froln Dieppe, and probably 
 at the expense of that rich merchant, who we are told 
 was enabled to entertain his sovereign with princely 
 magnificence and to embargo the port of Lisbon, with 
 a fleet of his own,^ that they sailed on this occasion. 
 
 Verrazzano is certainly found at Rochelle on the 16th 
 of June, 1523, two months after the despatch of Silveira 
 
 ' According to the letter of Bilveira, he was at Poissy on Christmas, and 
 Andrade was therefore, probably in error in stating that he had his instruc- 
 tions in regard to Varesano before he left Portugal. 
 
 ' Mem. Ghron. de Dieppe. 1. 106-111. 
 
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF vSrRAZZANO. 145 
 
 was written, with his prizes. captured on a different ex- 
 pedition from that mentioned by the ambassador. It is 
 evident, therefore, that the prqject of a voyage of dis- 
 covery to Cathay, if ever seriously enteirtained, had at 
 that time been abandoned ; as may also ibe inferred 
 from the statement of Andrade, that Silveira, in the 
 nine years he was at the court of France, succeeded 
 only in embargoing the voyage of the Florentine, and 
 PiCComplishing some minor matters.^ 
 
 But the question of any such voyage of discovery 
 having been made at the time claimed in the Verraz- 
 zano letter is .effectualdy set at rest by the fact that 
 Yerrazzano was then actually engaged in a corsairial 
 enterprise elsewhere. Peter Martyr, in an epistle writ- 
 'ten on the 3d of August 1524, less than a month after 
 the alleged return of Verrazzano to Dieppe from his 
 voyage of discovery, wrote from V^Uadolid that "a 
 eourier of the king of Portugal had arrived (with word) 
 that llorin, the French pirate, had captured a ship of 
 his king on her way from the Indies, with a cargo 
 valued at one hundred and eighty thousand ducats." ^» 
 It is impossible for Verrazzano to have been on the coast 
 of North America, or on his return from Newfoundland 
 to France, and at the same time to have taken a ship 
 on her way from the Indies to Portugal, coming as 
 she must have done, by the Cape of Good Hope. 
 
 The defeat of Francis I at the battle of Pavia and 
 his capture and detention in Spain during the year* 
 
 ' The document accompanying the letter of Davila in the archives, de- 
 scribes Juan Florin as of Dieppe, and thus fixes the seat of his operations 
 in Normandy. See Appendix, (iv. 3.) 
 
 •" Epm. 800 (ed. 1670). 
 
 .19 
 
146 VEEKAZZANO. 
 
 1525, seem to have suspended the depredations upon 
 the seas by the French, and nothing more occurs relat- . 
 ing to Verrazzano, until after the release of the king, 
 in the following year, and then in an adventure which 
 seems to have cost him his life, unless his probable 
 appearance in England as mentioned by Hakluyt, to 
 which reference has already been made, be an excep- 
 tion. Allusion has also been made severa,l times to 
 an agreement between Chabot, admiral of France, 
 and others, including Verrazzano, which now assumes 
 particular importance. It is' the only document yet 
 produced in France, relating to him, and is of recent 
 discovery.^ By this agreement it was stipulated that 
 Chabot, as admiral of France, should furnish two gal- 
 leons, Jean Ango one ship, and Verrazzano two pilots 
 besides himself, and that the three persons here named 
 should with Guillaume Preudhomme, general of Nor- 
 mandy, Pierre DespinoUes and Jacques Boursier, in 
 different specified amounts each, make up the sum of 
 twenty thousand pounds in Tours currency for the 
 •expenses, on joint account, of a voyage to the Indies 
 for spices, — the admiral and Ango, however, to have 
 one-fourth of all the merchandise returned, for the use 
 of the vessels, and Verrazzano to have one-sixth of the 
 remaining three-fourths, for his compensation and that 
 of his two pilots. The contract contained another pro- 
 vision, that if any booty should be taken on the sea 
 from the Moors, or other enemies of the faith and the 
 king, the admiral should first take a tenth of it and the 
 remainder should be divided as stipulated in regard to 
 
 ' Margry, Lea Namgations Frangaiaes,p. 194. (Paris, 167.) See Appendix 
 (n). 
 
THE LIFE AND DEATH OP VEERAZZANO. 147 
 
 the merchandise, except such part as should, upon ad- 
 visement, be given to the crew. The admiral was 
 to have letters patent expedited from the king for 
 permission to make the voyage. This paper has no 
 date, but as it was made by Chabot, in his ofiicial 
 capacity, as admiral of Prance, it could not have been 
 earlier than March 1526, when, as we have seen, he 
 was so created. It belongs, therefore, either to that or 
 the following year, judging from the fatal consequences 
 which happened to Verrazzano in the latter. 
 
 Although a voyage from France to the Indies for 
 spices was not an improbable venture at that time, 
 inasmuch as one was actually made from Dieppe, two 
 years afterwards, by Jean Parmentier in the service of 
 Ango, there is every reason to believe that such was 
 not the real object of the parties- to this agreement. 
 One of the stipulations between them was for a divi- 
 sion of booty, showing an intention to make captures on 
 the sea. Who Were the enemies of the king from 
 whom it was to be taken is not stated. By the treaty 
 of Madrid, in January 1526, peace existed between 
 France and Spain, and any expedition from one of them 
 against the commerce of the other, was clearly pirati- 
 cal. Neither did war exist at this time, between France 
 and Portugal. Yet it appears that both the Spaniards 
 and the Portuguese, were searching for Verrazzano at 
 the time, when the former succeeded in capturing him, 
 in September or. October 1527. He had, therefore,, 
 not sailed to the Indies and must have made himself 
 obnoxious to those nations, by fresh depredations upon 
 their vessels. Bernal Diaz, who gives an account of his 
 capture and execution, states that he was actually so 
 
148 VEBRAZZANO. 
 
 engaged.^ It appears from the letters of the judge who 
 superintended his execution that he was then encount- 
 ered by six Biscayan galleons and ships, and after battle, 
 captured and taken by them to Cadiz, with his crew, 
 consisting of one hundred and twenty or thirty persons, 
 besides several gentlemen adventurers. Verrazzano 
 offered his captors thirty thousand ducats to be re- 
 leased, but in vain. He was sent under guard with 
 the adventurers to Madrid, but was overtaken on the 
 way at Colmenar near Puerto del Pico, villages between 
 Salamanca and Toledo,^ by the judge of Cadiz with an 
 order made by the emperor at Lerma on the 13th of 
 October lo27, by virtue of which he was there put to 
 death in November of that year. Such was the ter- 
 mination of the career of this bold man, which was long 
 ago substantially told by Bernal Diaz and Barcia, but 
 so loosely in regard to dates, as to have created doubts 
 as to their correctness, but which is established by the 
 documents existing in the archives At Simancas, now 
 brought to light.^ 
 
 ' Historia 'ciefrdadera, fol. 164. 
 
 " Blaeu, TTtriusgue Oastilm nova deseriptio. Martiniere, Dietionawe Geo- 
 graphiqiie, sub Colmenar et Pico. 
 
 ° See the letter ofthe judge of Cadiz, in the Appendix (v.i.) Barcia.inhis 
 Chronological Essay, mentions the capture and execution of Juan the 
 Florentine as a pirate under the year 1534. He does not state that they 
 took-place in that year, but refers to them in connection with the discover- 
 ies alleged to have been made in that year by Verrazzano, whom he identi- 
 fies as the corsair. It has been supposed, consequently, that he meant that 
 year as the timeof Verrazzano's death ; and hence, inasmuch as Verrazzano 
 was known to have been alive after that year, .that the whole story was 
 an error. The letters of Juan de Giles, the resident judge of Cadiz, ap- 
 pended to this memoir, enable us to fix the date of his execution, for 
 although not dated th&nselves, they contain a reference to the date of the 
 cedule, ordering the execution, by which it can be determined. Giles men- 
 tions that this cedule was dated at Lerma, on the 13th of last month, show- 
 ing that it was made there on the 13th of some month. According to the 
 Itinerary of Charles V, kept by his private secretary ,Vauderne8se, containing 
 
. THE LIFE AND DEATH OF VERRAZZANO. 149 
 
 And thus finally the testimony, upon which the tale 
 of discovery was credited and proclaimed to the world, 
 is contradicted and disproved. The statement that 
 
 .Verrazzano and a member of his crew were' killed and 
 then feasted upon by the inhabitants of the coast which 
 he had visited a second time, has no support or con- 
 firmation in the history of thait rude and uncivilized 
 people; for, however savage and cruel they were 
 towards their enemies, or, under provocation, towards 
 
 ' strangers, no authenticated iiistalnce of their canibal- 
 ism has ever been produced ; but on the contrary the 
 testimony of the best authorities, is that they were 
 guiltless of any such hoirid practice. Yet that state- 
 ment was a part of the information which Ramusio re- 
 ceived and communicated to his readers at the same 
 time with the Verrazzano letter; and constituted a 
 part of the evidence upon which he relied. How utterly 
 false it was is shown by the agreement with Chabot 
 and the calptuve and execution of Verrazzano by the 
 Spaniards. It is now" seen how the credulity of the 
 historian was iniposed upon, and he was led by actual 
 
 an account of the emperor's journeys from the year 1519 to 1551, Charles 
 went to Lerma, a small town in Old Castile, for the first time on the 9th 
 of May, 1534; and returned thence to Burgos on the 13th of that month, 
 going to Lerma again on the 31st of July of that year and leaving it on 
 the 34th for' ValUdesole. He' was hot there aftetWaWs, until the 13th of 
 October, 1537, where he remained until the 17th of that month when he 
 went to Burgos. He went to Lerma again on the 30th of February 1538, 
 and remained there for two days' only. Thes^ are all the occasions of 
 his presence at Lerma during the whole period Of the Itinerary. These 
 dates prove that the only possible occasion for issuing the order of execu- 
 tion was the 13th of October 1537. The prisoners left under guard, on the 
 15th of that month for Madrid, and the letter apprising the emperor that 
 the order had been executed upon Verrazzano, must have been written in 
 November, the month following. 
 
 The Itinerary will be found in the Correspondence of the Emperor Charles 
 r, by William Bradford, London, 1850. ■ • 
 
150 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 misrepresentations to adopt a narrative which has no 
 foundation in truth, and whose inconsistencies and in- 
 congruities he vainly sought to reconcile, but which, 
 for three centuries, saijctioned by his authority alone, , 
 has been received as authjsntic and true; until "at 
 length; by the exposure of its original character, and 
 the circumstances of its publication by him, with the 
 production of undoubted evidence from the records of 
 the time, it is proven to be a deliberate fraud. 
 
 This completes our purpose. The -question, however, 
 still presents itself, what was the motive for this gross 
 decepfion ? The answer is suggested by the fact that all 
 the evidence produced in favor of the story is traceable 
 to Florence, the birthplace of Verrazzano. Ramusio 
 obtained the Verrazzano letter there, — the only one, 
 he says, not astray in consequence of its unfortunate 
 troubles. The letter of Carli, enclosing that of Verraz- 
 zano, is professedly written by a Florentine to his father 
 in that city. The map of Hieronimo de Verrazano bears 
 the impress of the family. The discourse of the French 
 captain of Dieppe appears to have been sent originally 
 to Florence, whence it was procured by Ramusio. 
 Even the globe of Euphrosynus Ulpius, a name other- 
 wise unknown, is represented to have been constructed 
 for Marcellus, who had been archbishop of Florence, 
 They are all the testimony of Florence in her own be- 
 half. The cities of Italy which had grown in wealth 
 and importance during the fifteenth century, by means 
 of an enterprising and valuable commerce, produced 
 and nurtured a race of skillful seamen, among whom 
 were the most distinguished of the first discoverers of 
 the new world, in the persons of Columbus, Vespucci 
 
THE LIFE AND DEATH OF VEERAZZANO, 151 
 
 and the Cabots ; but those cities contributed nothing 
 more to the discoveries which thus were achieved, than 
 to give these men birth and education. The glory of 
 promoting and successfully accomplishing those results 
 belonged to other nations, which had the wisdom and 
 fortune to secure the services of these navigators. The 
 cities shone, however, with the lustre reflected from 
 having reared. and instructed them to the work they 
 so wonderfully performed. Although enjoying a com- 
 mon nationality, these municipalities belonged to 
 independent republics and were in a measure rivals 
 of each other. Florence emulated Genoa. She truly 
 boasted that Vespucci, born and raised on her soil, was 
 the first to reach the main land and thus to have his 
 name applied to the whole continent, "America quasi 
 Americi terra;" while Genoa justly claimed for her 
 son, that the discovery of all America was to be re- 
 garded as assured from, the moment that Columbus 
 landed on the little sandy island of Guanahana, on the 
 12th of October 1492.* But Florence enjoys in addi- 
 tion the unenviable distinction of having sought to 
 advance the pretensions of Vespucci by fictitious let- 
 ters, purporting to be signed with his name.* That 
 this spirit of civic. pride in that same community may 
 have actuated the fabrication of the Verrazzano letter 
 is not improbable ; but in justice to the memory of Ver- 
 razzano it must be added, there is no reason to believe 
 that he was in any way accessory to the imposture. 
 
 ' Humboldt, Examien Oritiqw, rv, 37. 
 
 ^ Vamhagen, Amerigo Vespucd, soncaraeUre,ses ecritB{mimeles mains au- 
 thentiques) die., p. 67, ei seq. (Lima, 1865). 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX 
 
 I. 
 
 Lettbea di Fernando Caeli a suo padre. 
 
 Fiom the AroMvo Storico Italianio. Appendice Tomo IX. 63-5. Krenze 1853. 
 
 . Al nome di Dio 
 
 a di 4 Agosto 1524, 
 
 « 
 
 " Onorando padre. — Considerando che quando fui in la 
 armata di Barbaria alle Gierbe vi furono grate le nuove 
 advisatevi giornalmente per lo illustre sig. Don Ugo di 
 Moncada , capitano generale della Cesarea Maest^ in quelle 
 barbare parti , seguite certando (1) con li Mori di detta isola ; 
 per la quale moatrasi haver fatto piacere a molti nostri pad- 
 roni ed amici, e con quelli della conseguita vittoria congra- 
 tulatovi: pertanto, essendo nuovamente qui nuova della 
 giunta del capitano Giovanni da Verrazzano nostro fioren- 
 tino alio porto di Diepa in N^ormandia con sua nave Delfina , 
 con la quale si parti dalle insule Oanarie fino di Gennaio 
 passato , per andare in busca di terre nuove per questa ser- 
 enissima corona di Prancia, in che mostr6 coraggio troppo 
 nobile e grande a mettersi a tanto incognito viaggio eon una 
 sola nave che appena h una caravella di tonelli (2) , solo 
 con 50 uomini, con intenzione di, giusta sua possa, disco- 
 prire il Cataio , tenendo cammino per altri climati di quelli 
 usano li Portughesi in lo diScoprire di verso la parte di 
 
 (1) Combatt^do (Nbta delVediaione BomanaY 
 
 (3) L'amanuense ha lasciato il numero delle tonnellate di cui era capace 
 la nave {Nbta come sopra). 
 
156 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 Calicut , ma andando verso coro e settentrione omnmo ten- 
 endd*, che ancora (1) Tolomeo ed Aristotile ed altri cosmo- 
 grafi descrivano verso tali climati non trovarsi terra , di 
 . trovarvene a ogni modo ; e cosi gli ha Dio concesso , come 
 distintamente descrive per una sua lettera a questa S. M. ; 
 della quale in questa ne h una copia. E per mancargli le 
 vettovaglie , dopo molti mesi giunto navigando , assegna 
 essereli stato forza tornare da quello in questo emisperio , 
 e in sette mesi suto in viaggio mostrare grandissimo ed ac- 
 celerato cammino , aver fatto cosa miranda e massima a chi 
 intende la marinera del mondo. Della quale al cominciamen- 
 to di detto suo viaggio si fece male iuditio (2) , e molti pen- 
 sorno che non piu nfe di lui n^ del vascello si avesse nuova , ma 
 Che si dovesse perdere da quella banda della BTorvegia per 
 il grande diaccio che h per quello oceano settentrionale : 
 ma come disse quel Moro , lo Dio grande , per darci ogni 
 giorno piu notizie di sua infinita possanza e mostrarci di 
 quanto sia admirabile questa mundiale macMna , gli ha dis- 
 coperto una latitudine di terra , come intenderete , di tanta 
 grandezza che , secondo le buone ragioni e gradi , per lati- 
 tudine (et) altezza , assegna e mostra piu grande che I'Eu- 
 ropa , Africa e parte di Asia : ergo mundus novus : e questo 
 senza lo che (3) hanno discoperto in piti anni gli Spani per 
 I'occidente, che appena b un anno torn6 Ferrando Maga- 
 ghiana , quale discoperse grande paese con una nave meno 
 delle cinque (4) a diseoprire. Donde addusse garofani mol- 
 to piu eccellenti delli soliti ; e le altre sue navi in 5 anni 
 mai nuova ci h trapelata. Stimansi perse. Quello (5) che 
 questo nostro capitano abbia condotto non dice per questa 
 sua lettera , salvo uno uomo giovanetto preso di quelli paesi ; 
 ma stimansi che abbia portato mostra di oro, poichfe da 
 quelle bande non lo stimano , e di droghe e di altri liquori 
 aromatici , per conferire qua con molti mercatanti di poi 
 
 (1) AncorchS. 
 
 (3) L'ediz. romana ha indizio, ma crediamo per errore di stampa. 
 
 (3) Quello che (Nbta come sopra). 
 
 (4) Forse venne qui omesso ite o simile ; e sembra accennarsi al naufra- 
 gio di una di quelle cinque navi. , 
 
 (5) Nella romana si legge: "stimansi per sS quello ec"; ma ci sembra 
 che il senso giustiflchi abbastanza la nostra correzione. 
 
APPENDIX. 157 
 
 che sar^ stato alia presenza della Serenissima MaestL E a 
 questa ora doverrsl, esservi , e di qua trasfer^i in breve , per 
 ch^ h molto desiato, per ragionare seco ; tanto piu che tro- 
 verA qui la Maest^ del Re nostro sire , che fra tre o quattro 
 giorni vi si attende : e speriamo che S. M, lo rimetta di 
 mezza dozzina di buoni vascelli , e che torner^ al viaggio. 
 B se Francesco Carli nostro ci fosse tornato dal Cairo , ad- 
 visate che alia ventura vorr^ andare seco a detto viaggio , 
 e credo si conoschino al Cairo dove b stato piii anni ; e non 
 solo in Egitto ed Soria , ma quasi per tutto il cognito mon- 
 do ; e di qua mediante sua virtu e stimato un altro Ameri- 
 go Vespucci , un altro Eerrando IVTagaghiana , e davantag- 
 gio ; e speriamo che rimontandosi delle altre buone navi e 
 vascelli ben conditi e vettovagliati come si richiede , al^ia 
 ad iscoprire qualche profittoso traffico e fatto ; e fari, pre- 
 standogli nostro Signore Dio vita , onore alia nostra patria 
 da acquistarne immortale fama e memoria. E Alderotto 
 Brunelleschi che parti con lui , e per fortuna tornando in- 
 dietro non volse piu seguire , come di cos^ lo intende , aark 
 malcontento. ISb altro per ora mi occorr* perch^ per altre 
 vi ho avvisato il bisogno. A voi di continuo mi raccomando , 
 pregandovi ^e facciate parte agli amici nostri , non dimen- 
 jicando Pierfrancesco Dagaghiano (1) , che per easere per- 
 sona perita , tengo che ne prenderA grande passatempo ; ed 
 a lui mi raccoinanderete. Simile al Rustichi , al quale non 
 dispiacer^ se si diletta, come suole, intendere cose di cos- 
 mografia. Che Dio tutti di male vi g&ardi. 
 
 Peenando Caeli in Lione, 
 
 (1) Forse , daGagliano. 
 
158 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 II. 
 
 Agreement of Philippe Chabot, Admiral of France 
 . WITH certain Adventurers including Verrazzano. 
 
 From the Pontette Collection, xxi, 770, fol. 60, In the BibllothSqne Natlonale in Paris. 
 First printed by M. Margry, and here corrected according to the MS. 
 
 Ifous , Philippe Chabot , baron d' Apremont , chevalier 
 de #ordre du E,oi , eon gouverneur et lieutenant general de 
 Bourgoingne , admiral de France et de Bretaine. 
 
 Avons ce jourdhuy delib6re que , pour le bien , prouffict 
 et utilite de la chose publicque du royaulme de France , 
 mettre sur deux de nos gallyons estant de present au 
 Havre de GrSce ayec une nef appartenant k Jehan Ango , 
 de Dieppe , du port soixantedix tonneaulx ou environ , por 
 iceulx troys veseaulx , esquipper , vitailler et convinyr , pour 
 faire le voiaige des espiceryes auxin dies. — Dont pour icel- 
 luy voiage faire avons accorde avec les personnes cides-^ 
 .s'oubz nommes et signez en la mani^re qui ensuict pour 
 fournyr lesd. trois navyres de marchandises , victailles et 
 avance de compaignons ainsi qu'il sera requia et necessaire. 
 
 Et pour ce faire avons conclud et delibere , avec iceulx , 
 mectre et employer jusques k la somme de vingt mil livres 
 tour, c'est assavoir , pour nous A4miral quatre mille livres * 
 tour , maietre Guillaume Pieudhomme , general de l^or- 
 mandye, deux mil livres tour; Pierre DespinoUes, mil 
 livres tour ; Jehan Ango , deux mil livres tour ; Jacques 
 Boursier , pareille somme de deux mil livres tournoys , mes- 
 sire Jehan de Varesam , principalis pilote , semblable som- 
 me de deux mil livres tournoys. 
 
 Lesd. parties revenans ensemble k la somme de vingt mil 
 livres tournoys. Por icelle employer aux vitailles, mar- 
 chandises et avance , loyer de compagnons. Et nous Amy- 
 ral et Ango prometons bailler lesd. gallyons et nef, bien 
 
APPENDIX. 159 
 
 et deuement radoubees et accoustrees , comme il appartient 
 k faire led spyaige , tant de calfadages , cables , ancres , 
 doubles appareilz , tous cordages , artilleryes , pouldres , 
 bouUets , et tout ce qui est requiz k telz navires pour faire 
 ung tel et si ling voiaige que cestuy et rendre iceulx gal- 
 yons et nefs prestz , et apareillez k faire led. voiaige dedans 
 deux moys de ce jourduy Par ainsy que nous Admiral et 
 Ango , prenderons au retour dud. voiaige , pour le fret et 
 noleage desd. gallyons et nef , le cart de toutes les marchan- 
 dises qui revienSront et seront rapportes par iceulx , sans 
 aucune cbose payer. 
 
 Et pour le loyer dudict messire Jeban pillote , lequel 
 s'est submis et oblig6 de fournyr deux pillotes bons et suf- 
 fisans pour conduire les deux aultres navires , prendra'pr 
 son diet loyer et de ses deux pillotes , le sixiesme de tout se 
 qui reviendra de marcbandises , led. cart por noUiage , les 
 frais et mises des marcbandises et loyers des cSpaignons 
 en pr6alable prins et leves avant que prendre led. sixiesme. 
 
 Et se , par cas de fortune , aucuns d'ieeulx 'gallyons ou 
 nef feussent pdus and. voiaige , ou que I'ung p quelque inc5- 
 venient et les deux aultres feissent leur voiaige , la mar- 
 cbandise qui reviendroit s£ pteroit comme dessus et y ptiroit 
 led. navire qui n'ayroit este audict voyaige et les marcbans, 
 cbacun au marc la livre , car tout va a commun profit. 
 
 Et se aucun butin se faict k la mer sur les Mores , ou 
 aultres ennemys de la Foy et du Eoy ; monseigneur I'Amy- 
 ral prendera en prealable sur icelluy butin son xme , et le 
 reste qui revenderoit dud, butin se ptira comme I'autre 
 marcbandise , sauf quelque portion d'icelluy butin , que 1 
 ong baillera aux c5pagnons ainsi qu'il sera avis6. 
 
 Et fera mond. sr Lamyral expedier letres du Roy en; 
 patent pour avoir licence et conge de faire led. voiaige , et 
 que aucun empescbement ne leur sera fet ou donne par 
 aucune nation des aliez , amys ou e6fend#ez du Roy nore 
 
 d sr. 
 Pour le voiage de messire Joan. 
 
160 TEEKAZZANO. 
 
 [Translation.] * 
 
 "We, Philippe Chabot, Baron d'Apremont, Knight of the 
 Ordre du Roi, his Governor and Lieuteijant-general of 
 Burgundy, Admiral of France and of Britt^y, 
 
 Have this day determined for the good, advantage, and 
 utility of the public affairs of the Kingdom of Prance, to 
 put two of our galleons, at present at Havre de Grace, 
 with one ship belonging to Jehan Ango of Dieppe, of 
 seventy tofls burden, or thereabouts, to equip, victual and 
 fit these three vessels, to make the voyage for spices to the 
 Indies. To make the aforesaid voyage, we have agreed 
 with the persons hereinafter named and signed, in the man- 
 ner following, to furnish the said three vessels with goods, 
 victuals, and advance money for the crew, as shall be requi- 
 site and necessary. 
 
 And to do this we have concluded and determined with 
 the aforesaid, to put and employ as large a sum as twenty 
 thousand pounds. Tours currency, that is to say, for ourself, 
 Admiral, four thousand pounds, Tours ; Master Guillaume 
 Preudhomme, General of iformaqdy, two thousand pounds, 
 Tours ; Pierre Despinolles, one thousand pounds, Tours ; 
 Jehan Ango, two thousand pounds. Tours ; Jacques Bour- 
 sier, an equal sum of two thousand pounds, Tours ; Mes- 
 sire Jehan de Varesam, Chief pilot, a like sum of two 
 thousand pounds. Tours. 
 
 The said parts together amounting to the said sum 
 of 20,000 pounds, Tours,^ to be employed for provisions, 
 merchandise, and advance money to hire the crew. And 
 we. Admiral and Ango, promise to deliver the? said gal- 
 leons and ship well and properly refitted and accoutred, 
 as befits to make the said voyage, as well as caulkings, 
 cables, anchor^ duplicate furniture, all cordage, artillery, 
 powder, shot, and all that is required by such vessels, to 
 make such a long voyage as this ; and to have these gal- 
 
 ' The sums here named do not make twenty thousand pounds. — Tbans- 
 
 LATOB. 
 
APPENDIX. ' 161 
 
 leons and ship ready and prepared to make the said voy- 
 age within two months from this day. Also, that we, 
 Admiral and Ango, will take, on the return from the said 
 voyage, for the freight and freighting of the said galleons 
 and ship, the fourth part of all the. merchandise which shall 
 return and shall be brought back by the aforesaid, with- 
 out any cost. 
 
 And for the hire of the said pilot, Messire Jehan, who 
 has agreed and bound himself to provide two good and 
 competent pilots to steer the other two vessels, he shall 
 take for his hire and that of his two pilots, the sixth of all 
 the goods which shall be brought back ; the said fourth 
 for freightage, expenses and disposing of the goods, and the 
 wages of the crew, being previously taken and levied, be- 
 fore taking the said sixth. 
 
 And if, in case of accident, any of those galleons or ship 
 should be lost on the said voyage, or if one by any mis- 
 chance does not, and the other two do make their voyage, 
 .the merchandise which should be brought back, would be 
 divided as above, and the said vessel which might not have 
 been on the said voyage shall share, and the merchants each 
 one a mark to the pound, for all goes to the common profit. 
 
 And if any booty be taken at sea, from the Moors or 
 others enemies of the Faith and the King, my Lord ; the 
 Admiral, shall take pre^ously, of the "aforesaid booty, 
 his tenth; and the balance which would accrue from the 
 said booty, shall be divided like the other goods, except 
 some portion of that booty, which shall be given to the crew 
 as shall be advised. 
 
 And my aforesaid Admiral shall have letters-patent from 
 the king expedited, in order to have permission and leave 
 to make the said voyage; and no obstruction shall be made 
 or given to these letters, by any allies, friend, or confeder- 
 ate of the king, our said Lord. 
 
 For the voyage of Sir Joan . 
 
 21 
 
162 ■ VERRAZZANO. 
 
 III. 
 
 Letter of Joao da Silveiea, the Pobtuquesb Ambassa- 
 DOB IN France, to King Dom Joao III. 
 
 Translated from the' original at Lisbon, ia ArcMvo de Torre de Tomio, Carp. Chron. 
 Part I. Ma. 29. Doc. 54. 
 
 Sire: 
 
 I received a letter from Tour Highness on the 19th of 
 this month, through Joao Francisco, wherein I am directed 
 what is to be done respecting the galleon and caravel, taken 
 at the deira Islands,^ by the galleys of France. As soon as 
 I received the instruction, which was about the beginning 
 of Christmas, I spoke on the subject in a manner befitting 
 the nature of the case., At once they were released, — the 
 caravel with her artillery and the brocades and silks.^ By 
 this time they must have arrived at Lisbon. As respects 
 the merchandise, I had the promise that if it was found to , 
 be the property of Your Highness or of your subjects it 
 should not be sold. After a fe-vj days, discovering that it 
 belonged to Joao Francisco, an ample order was given to 
 his agents for its entire restitution, which orders set forth 
 that as he. lives in the kingdoms of Your Highness, and 
 there is an old friendship existing with the King of France 
 which he was no less desirous of preserving, in this he 
 would favor, that king. After this order was promulgated 
 another came from the chief official, in consequence of 
 which nothing was delivered, and the goods moreover were 
 sold. From that time to the present, nothing has been 
 accomplished. I will strive the best I can for despatch, in 
 the manner that Your Highness points out, and will give 
 account of what I do. 
 
 ' Probably Madeira Islands. Tkanslator. 
 
 '^ That is to say, the hangings, tapestry, and awnings of the vessel. 
 Tbanslatob. 
 
APPENDIX. 163 
 
 "When the matter of the galleon occurred, the Licentiate 
 Pero Gomez had already embarked ^t Anaflor. I advised 
 the Doctor, Maestro Diogo, who was about going to Reuao^ 
 that he ought not to leave before w^riting, and to give 
 Your Highness a statement of the facts in that regard ; as 
 he at once wrote that he would do so, I have said nothing 
 further in my letters. 
 
 By what I hear. Maestro Joao Verazaho, who is going 
 on the discovery of Cathay, has not left up to this date, for 
 want of opportuhity and because of differences, I under- 
 stand, between himself and men ; and on this topic, though 
 knowing nothing positively, I have written my doubts in 
 accoijQpanying letters. I shall continue to doubt unless he 
 take his departure. 
 
 The Doctor Maestro t)iogo de Gouvea is now going to 
 Euao^ where he is going to find out everything with the 
 greatest exactness possible, and, as I have requested, re- 
 port at great length. May our Lord prolong the life of 
 Your Highness many days and prosper the royal estate. 
 
 From Poessi the xxv of April 1523. 
 
 Joao da Silveiea. 
 
 ' i. e. Rouen. Translator. 
 
164 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 IV. 
 
 1. Letter of Alonso Davila to the Empeeok Charles V, 
 relating to the capture op jhb treasure sent erom 
 Mexico bt Cortes. 
 
 Translated from the original in the Archivo de Indias at Seville. 
 
 Very high and very powerful Catholic Lord King: 
 
 Captain Domingo Alonso, who was commander of the 
 three caravels that sailed as guard on the coast of Andalu- 
 sia, gave a cedula to Antonio QuiSones and myself at the 
 Island of Azores, in which Your Majesty was pleased to 
 state to us that, from the news of our fea^ of the French 
 who were said to run the coast, we had remained at the 
 island of Santa Maria until your Highness should direct 
 what might be for the royal service, in so doing we had 
 acted well; that to secure the gold and articles we had 
 brought, the three caravels were sent to us under that cap- 
 tain ; and we were enjoined to embark in them at once and 
 come with every thing fo the city of Seville, to the House 
 of Contratacion, and the officers who by the royal command 
 reside there, for which favor we ki-ss your feet and hands. 
 The caravels arrived the xvth of May, and directly in ful- 
 filment of the order we embarked, sailing for the Portu- 
 guese coast, which the pilots deemed the safer course, and 
 coming within ten leagues of Cape St. Vincent, six armed 
 French ships ran out upon us. We fought thojn from two 
 caravels, until we were overpowered, when everything 
 eminently valuable on the way to Your Majesty was lost ; 
 the other caravel not being . disposed to fight escaped to 
 carry the news ; and but for that perhaps the captain might 
 better have staid with his additional force to aid our defence 
 than to carry back such tidings. Quifiones died, and I am 
 a prisoner at Rochelle in France. 
 
 I should desire to come, would they but let me, to kiss 
 your royal feet, and give a complete history of all ; for I 
 
APPENDIX. 165 
 
 "? J 
 
 lost everything I possessed in the service of Your Majesty, 
 and have wished that my life had been as well. I entreat 
 that privileges be granted to the residents and inhabitants 
 of 'New Spain and that you will consider services to have 
 been rendered, since that people have loyally, done their 
 duty to this moment, and will ever do as true vassals. 
 
 I beseech that Your Majesty be pleased to order good pro- 
 tection placed on the coast of Andalusia for the ships com- 
 ing from the Indies ; for now all the French, flushed as 
 they are, desire to take positions whence they Huay commit 
 mischief. Let it be an armament that can act offensively, 
 and" which will not flee, but seek out the enemy. 
 
 I entreat, prisoner and lost as I am, yet desiring still to 
 die in the royal service, that Your Highness will so favor 
 •me, that if any ship should be sent to New Spain, an order 
 be directed to Hernando Oortes, requiring that the Indians 
 I have there deposited in the name of Your Majesty be not 
 taken, but that they be bestowed on me for the period that 
 is your pleasure. 
 
 Our Lord augment the imperial state of Your Koyal 
 Majesty to the extent your royal person may require. "^ 
 
 From Roch^a of France, the xvith day of June of M. 
 d. xxiij years. 
 
 Of Y. C. Ca. Ma. the loyal vassal who kisses your very 
 
 royal feet and hands. 
 
 Alonso Davila. 
 
 2. Statement Concerning the French Vessels of War 
 WHICH Cruise the Sea of Spain. 
 
 Translated .from the original in the ArcMm de Indias at Seville, in the same hand, says 
 Dr. D. Francisco Xnarez, the ancient arehivero, as the letter of Alonso Davila addressed 
 . from Eochelle to the emperor. The hand writing is most difficult to make out. The 
 amounts' marked en may intend cog, and ci two cO. 
 
 The French vessels of war which cruise the sea of Spain 
 as far as Andalusia, of w||ich Jn. Florin le Dkpa is captain. 
 
 First, a large ship cii. tons, in which are cii men — the 
 half soldiers, and the other half sailors ; carries xx pieces 
 
166 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 of artilfery of brass, besides others of iron, with munitior 
 and victuals in large quantity. 
 
 Another vessel, built in Vizcaya, captured by the Frenc 
 of CI tons. 
 
 Another vessel of ci tons, made in Britany. 
 
 Five galleons — the largest of Ixx tons, another of b 
 another of 1, another of xl, made in Vizcaya, another of x' 
 which are also provided with cc men of war, being of th 
 French soldiers who were in Tuenteravia. They have b( 
 sides full supply of men & of artillery, munition am 
 victuals for one year ; and, it is said, that this armada goe 
 direct to Andalusia, to run that coast and take what ma; 
 come from the Indias ; for this is the same armada that las 
 year took the cxsm ducats that were coming, consequentlj 
 it is necessary that His Majesty should have an armada i) 
 Andalusia to go to meet this one of France, and not suffe 
 it to do mischief. 
 
APPENDIX. 167 
 
 V. 
 
 1. Lbtteb from the Judge of Cadiz to Charles V, giving 
 
 THE N'aMBS of the PRINCIPAL PERSONS CAPTURED WITH 
 
 Juan Florin, and op his Death. 
 
 Translated &om the orlgmal, in the Archivo general in Simancos. 
 Estado : Legajo 13, fol. 346. 
 
 Sacred Caesarean Catholic Majesty:. 
 
 The Licentiate Juan de Giles your Resident Judge in the 
 City of Cadiz reports -what has been done in the taking of 
 Juan Florin, a French corsair, and others, made prisoners 
 with him. Before receiving a cedula signed by Your Majesty 
 at Lerma, the thirteenth of last month, knowing that there 
 ■ were some differences of opinion among those making the 
 capture, I labored, and with success, to induce them to bring 
 Juati Florin, Mons'. de la Sala, Mons' Juan de Mensieris, 
 Michel and a page of Juan Florin before Your Majesty, to 
 avoid certain dijfficulties that were impending. This was 
 done by Bartolome del Alamo, high-sheriff of said City, 
 with six persons, one from each ship engaged in thie cap- 
 ture. These took their departure on the 15th of last month, 
 carrying their' prisoners to court ; and by virtue of the 
 cedula of Your Majesty, I caused the delivery to me of the 
 remaining French to be kept securely as Your Highness 
 required. One hundred and twenty or one hundred end- 
 thirty of them were given up, and were in custody when a 
 certain dispatch came to hand from your Counsel on the 
 twenty seventh of last month. In obedience thereto, I 
 ordered the chief Alcalde of said city to proceed against 
 these in my power, agreeably to what was commanded me 
 by your Counsel ; and with the utmost speed I came on in 
 pursuit of Juan Florin to Colmenar de Arenas where were 
 executed on his person the laws of your kingdom. Mon=' 
 
168 VEKRAZZANO. 
 
 de Mensieris, Michel and Gile I condemned peiTpetually 
 the galleys; and because the High Sheriff and the Vi 
 caynos left Mons' de la Sale at the point of death with Jui 
 Lopez de ^umaya, a Vizcaino, who go by another road, 
 send the High Sheriff for him while I return to Cadiz 
 make provision for things not done in a manner best bef 
 ting the royal service. 
 
 In pursuance of your Majesty's order I take especial ca 
 that no person ransom or conceal himself. Those of co 
 sideration, captured with Juan Florin are Mens' de la Sal 
 doctor indiscretis, a native of Paris, Mons' Juan de Me 
 sieris, a native of Turenne, son of Martin Mensieris, wl 
 has an income of two hundred ducats, Mons' de Londo, 
 native of Lombardy, son of a gentleman, a Baron, nati^ 
 of Venice, Mons' de Lane, second son of Mons' de Lan 
 Mons' Vipar, a native of Drumar, son of Mons' Vipar, wl 
 is rich, and Mons' Fasan. 
 
 S. C. C. M. I kiss the sacred feet of Your Majesty. 
 
 LiCBNciADO Giles. 
 
 2. Letter of the Judge of Cadiz, in Answer to a Rot^ 
 Missive, Stating by whom Juan Florin was Capture: 
 AND HIS Execution. 
 
 Tranelated from the original in the Archivo general in Simancas. 
 BsTADO : Legajo 13, fol. 345. 
 
 Sacred Caesarean Catholic Majesty : 
 
 The Licentiate Giles, Resident Judge in the City of Cadi 
 in compliance with what your Majesty required by yoi 
 cedula that it should be stated who captured Juan Flori 
 and his accomplices, answers that Martin Yrigar, Anton: 
 de 9ii™aya, Juan Martinez de Ari9abalo, Martin Perez c 
 Leabur, Saba de Ysasa, Juan de Galarza, Captains of the 
 galleons and ships, with their people, were those who ca] 
 tured Juan Florin in the manner that they will relate, ar 
 brought him to the Bay of Cadiz. I went directly to the 
 
APPENDIX. 169 
 
 galleons, and to my requirement they answered that they 
 would keep him in safety, that they desired all for your 
 service ; and this notwithstanding that the said Juan Florin 
 promised them thirty thousand ducats to be released. The 
 captains of the fleet of Portugal who were cruising at sea 
 in quest of him at the same place in which he was taken 
 also oflfered ten thousand ducats for him that they might 
 take him to their king, and other offers were made, none of 
 which they would accept, but, unitedly, with the sheriff 
 of that city, took him to Your Majesty, like good and loyal 
 servants. And when they arrived at Puerto del Pico, find- 
 ing Tour Majesty had commanded that he and his said ac- 
 complices should be given up to me at once, they delivered 
 and I executed the law upon them. 
 
 Those captains have sustained much injury and have 
 been at much cost, as I am witness. They arrived with 
 their ships broken, the sails rent, the castles carried away. 
 They had spent much in munition and powder, and for the 
 sustenance of those French before they delivered them to 
 me. "When they arrived in the bay they were greatly re- 
 duced and hungered, having exhausted their stores by giv- 
 ing to the French. Much would it be for the service of 
 Your Majesty that those Captains should be satisfied for 
 their losses and rewarded which I have promised them, as 
 Your Highness desired by your cedula, that others seeing 
 how they are honored may be encouraged in the royal ser- 
 vice. Thus much I entreat that Your Majesty will order 
 done for the loyalty I know those captains bear to your 
 service, afid because they are persons by whom you may • 
 be much served. 
 
 S. C. C. M. I kiss the sacred feet of your Highness. 
 
 LicENCiADo Giles. 
 
 22 
 
170 TEREAZZANO. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Vekkazzano Letter according to the Original 
 Version. 
 
 Translated by Dr. J. Q. Cogswell, from a copy of the MS. in the Magliahechian library 
 
 in Florence, and printed in the Collections of the New York Historical 
 
 Society. Second Series. Vol. 1, pp. 41-51. 
 
 Captain John de Verrazzano to His Most Serene 
 Majesty the King of France, writes : ^ 
 
 Since the tempests which we encountered on the north- 
 ern coasts, I have not written to your most Serene and 
 Christian Majesty concerning the four ships sent out by 
 your orders on the ocean to discover new lands, because I 
 thought you must have been before apprized of all that had 
 happened to us — that we had been compelled by the im- 
 petuous violence of the winds to put into Brittany in distress 
 with only the two ships Normandy and Dolphin;^ and that 
 after having repaired these ships, we made a cruise in them, 
 well armed, along the coast of Spain, as your Majesty must 
 have heard, and also of our new plan of continuing our 
 begun voyage with the Dolphin alone ; from this voyage 
 being now returned, I proceed to give your Majesty an ac- 
 count of our discoveries, 
 
 ' This introduction reads in the original : " Captain John da Verrazzano 
 Florentine, of ifbrmandy, to the most Serene Crown of France, relates : " 
 
 * The signification of Delfina, the name of the Verrazzano ship of dis- 
 covery, is differently given by the translators. Hakluyt renders it into 
 English by the word Dolphin, and Dr. Cogswell here does the same. But 
 this is not correct. The Italian for dolphin is delfino ; which also signifies 
 the dauphin, or oldest son of the king of France, so called because upon 
 the cession of Dauphiny to the crown of France, he became entitled to 
 wear the armorial device, which was a dolphin, of the princes of that pro- 
 vince. Delfina is the feminine noun of Delfino, in that sense, that is, 
 the DauphinesB. M. Margry has so interpreted it in this case, and accord- 
 ingly gives the vessel the name of Dauphine (Nav. Fran., 309),- which, as 
 she is represented to have belonged to France, would have been her actual 
 name. - 
 
APPENDIX. 171 
 
 On the 17th of last January we. set sail from a desolate 
 rock near the island of Madeira, belonging to his most 
 Serene Majesty the King of Portugal, with fifty men, hav- 
 ing provisions sufficient for eight months, arms and other 
 warlike munition and naval stores. Sailing westward with 
 ■a light and pleasant easterly breeze, in twenty-five days we 
 ran eight hundred leagues. On the 24th of February we 
 encountered as violent a hurricane as any ship ever weath- 
 ered, from which we escaped unhurt by the divine assist- 
 ance and goodness, to the praise of the glorious and 
 fortunate name of our good ship, that had been able to 
 support the violent tossing of the waves. Pursuing our 
 voyage towards the wfest, a little northwardly, in twenty- 
 four days more, having run four hundred leagues, we 
 reached a new country, which had never before been seen 
 by any one, either in ancient or modern times. At first it 
 appeared to be very low, but on approaching it to within 
 a quarter of a league from the shore we perceived, by the 
 great fires near the coast, that it was inhabited. We per- 
 ceived that it stretched to tlie south, and coasted along in 
 that direction in search of some port, in which we might 
 come to anchor, and examine into the nature of the country, 
 but for fifty leagues we could find none in which we could 
 lie securely. Seeing the coast still stretched to the south, 
 we resolved to change our course and stand to the north- 
 ward, and as we still had the same difficulty, we drew in 
 with the land and sent a boat on shore. Many people who 
 were seen coming to the sea-side fled at our approach, but 
 occasionally stopping, they looked back upon us with 
 astonishment, and some ,were at length induced, by various 
 friendly signs, to come to us. These showed the greatest 
 delight on beholding us, wondering at our dress, counte- 
 nances and complexion. They then showed us by signs 
 where we could more conveniently secure our boat, and 
 offered us some of their provisions. That your Maj esty may 
 know all that we learned, while on shore,.of their manners 
 and customs of life, I will relate what we saw as briefly as 
 possible. They go entirely naked, except that about the 
 loins they wear skins of small animals, like martens fast- 
 ened by a girdle of plaited grass, to which they tie, all round 
 
172 VEKKAZZANO. 
 
 the body, the tails of other animals hanging down to the 
 knees ; all other parts of the body and the head are naked. 
 Some wear garlands similar to birds' feathers. 
 
 The complexion of these people is black, nqt much dif- 
 ferent from that of the Ethiopians ; their hair .is black and 
 thick, and not very long, it is worn tied back upon the head 
 in the form of a little tail. In person they are of good pro- 
 portions, of middle stature, a little above our own, broad 
 across the breast, strong in the arms, and well formed in 
 the legs and other parts of the body ; the only exception 
 to their good looks is that they have broad faces, but not 
 all, however, as we saw many that had sharp ones, with 
 large black eyes and a fixed expression. They are not 
 ■ very strong in body, but acute in mind, active and swift 
 of foot, as far as we could judge by observation. In these 
 last two particulars they resemble the people of the east, 
 especially those the most remote. "We could not learn a 
 great many particulars of their usages on account of our 
 short stay among them and the distance of our ship from 
 the shore. 
 
 We found not far from this people another whose mode 
 of life we judged to be similar. The whole shore is co- 
 vered with fine sand, about fifteen feet thick, rising in the 
 form of little hills about fifty paces broad. Ascending 
 farther, we found several ai-ms of the sea which . make 
 in through inlets, washing the shores on both sides as the 
 coast runs. An outstretched country, appears at a little 
 distance rising somewhat above the sandy shore in beauti- 
 ful fields and broad plains, covered with immense forests 
 of trees, more or less dense, too various in colours, and too 
 delightful and charming in appearance to be described. I 
 do not believe that they are like the Hercynian forest or 
 the rough wilds of Scythia, and the northern regions full 
 of vines and common trees, but adorned with palms, laurels, 
 cypresses, and other varieties unknown in Europe, that 
 send forth the sweetest fragrance to a great distance, but 
 which we could not examine more closely for the reasons 
 before given, and not on account of any difficulty in tra- 
 versing the woods, which, on the contrary, are. easily 
 penetrated. 
 
APPENDIX. 173 
 
 As the "East" stretches around this country, I think it 
 cannot be devoid of the same medicinal and aromatic drugs, 
 and various riches of gold and the like, as is denoted by 
 the colour of the ground. It abounds also in animals, as 
 deer, stags, hares, and many other similar, and with a great 
 variety of birds for every kind of pleasant a-iid delightful 
 sports. It is plentifully supplied with lakes and ponds of 
 running water, an,d being in the latitude of 34. the air is 
 salubrious, pure and temperate, and free from the extremes 
 of both heat and cold. • There are no violent winds in these 
 regions, the most prevalent are the north-west and west. In 
 summer, the season in which we were there, the sky is clear, 
 with but little rain : if fogs and mists are at any time'driven 
 in by the south wind, they are instantaneously dissipated, 
 and at once it becomes serene and bright again. The sea 
 is calm, not boisterous, and its waves are gentle. Although 
 . the whole coast is low and without harbours, it is not dan- 
 gerous for navigation, being free from rocks and bold, so 
 that within four or five fathoms from the shore there is 
 twenty-four feet of water at all times of tide, and this depth 
 constantly increases in a uniform proportion. The hold- 
 ing ground is so good that no ship can part her cable, 
 however violent the wind, as we proved by experience ; 
 for while riding at anchor on the coast, we were overtaken 
 by a gale in the beginning of March, when the winds are 
 high, as is usual in all •ountries, we found our anchor 
 broken before it started from its hold or moved at all. 
 
 "We set sail from this place, continuing to coast along 
 the shore, which we found stretching out to the west (east*?) ; 
 the inhabitants being numerous, we saw everywhere a 
 multitude of fires. While at alnchor on this coast,* there 
 being no harbour to enter, we sent the boat on shore with 
 twenty-five men to obtain water, but it was not possible to 
 land without endangering the boat, on account of thfe im- 
 mense high surf thrown up by the sea, as it was an open 
 roadstead. Many of the natives came to the beach, indicat- 
 ing by various friendly signs that we might trust ourselves 
 on shore. One of their noble deeds of friendship deserves 
 to be made known to your Majesty. A young sailor was 
 attempting to swim ashore through the surf to carry them 
 
174 • VERRAZZANO. 
 
 some knick-knacks, as little bells, looking-glasses, and 
 other like trifles; wlien he came near three or four of them 
 he tossed the things to them, and turned about to get back 
 to the boat, but he was thrown over by the waves, and so 
 dashed by them that he lay as it were dead upon the beach. 
 When these people saw him in this situation, they ran and 
 took him up by the head, legs and arms, and carried"him 
 to a distance from the surf; the young man, finding him- 
 self borne off in this way uttered very loud shrieks in fear 
 and dismay, while they answered as, they could in their 
 language, showing him that he had no cause for fear. 
 Afterwards they laid him down at the foot of a little hill, 
 when they took off his shirt and trowsers, and examined 
 him, expressing the greatest astonishment at the whiteness 
 of his skin. Our sailors in the boat seeing a great fire 
 made up, and their companion placed very near it, full of 
 fear, as is usual in all cases of novelty, imagined that the. 
 natives were about to roast him for food. But as soon as 
 he had recovered his strength after a short stay with them, 
 showing by signs that he wished to return aboard, they 
 hugged him with great affection, and accompanied him to 
 the shore, then leaving him, that he might feel more secure, 
 they withdrew to a little hill, from which they watched 
 Mm until he was safe in the boat. This young man re- 
 marked that these people were black like the others, that 
 they had shining skins, middle ttature, and sharper faces, 
 and very delicate bodies and limbs, and that they were in- 
 ferior in strength, but quick in their minds ; this is all that 
 he observed of them. 
 
 Departing hence, and always following the shore, which 
 stretched to the north, we came, in the space of fifty leagues, 
 to another land, which appeared very beautiful and full of 
 the largest forests. We approached it, and going ashore 
 with twenty men, we went back from the coast about two 
 leagues, and found that the people had fied and hid them- 
 selves in the woods for 'fear. By searching around we dis- 
 covered in the grass a very old woman, and a young girl 
 of about eighteen or twenty, who had concealed themselves 
 for the same reason ; the old woman carried two infants 
 on her shoulders, and behind her neck a little boy eight 
 
APPENDIX, 175 
 
 jrears of age ; " when we came up to them they began to 
 shriek and make signs to the men who had fled to the woods. 
 We gave them a part of our provisions, which they accepted 
 with delight, but the girl would not touch any ; every thing 
 we offered to her being thrown down in great anger. We 
 took the little boy from the old woman to carry with us to 
 Prance, and would have taken the girl also, who was very 
 beautiful and very tall, but it was impossible because of the 
 loud shrieks she uttered as we attempted to lead her away; 
 having to pass some woods, and being far from the ship, 
 we determined to leave her and take the boy only. "We 
 found them fairer than the others, and wearing a covering 
 made of certain plants, which hung down from the branches 
 of the trees, tying them together with threads of wild 
 hemp ; their heads are without covering and of the same ■ 
 shape as the others. Their food is a kind of pulse which 
 there abounds, different in colour and size from ours, and of 
 a very delicious flavour. Besides they take birds and flsh 
 for food, using snares and bows made of hard wood, with 
 reeds for arrows, in the ends of which they put the bones of 
 fish aaid other animals. The animals in these regions are 
 wilder than in Europe from being continually molested by 
 the hunters. "We saw many of thgir boats made of one 
 tree twenty feet long and four feet broad, ivithout the aid 
 of stone or iron or other kind of metal. In the whole 
 country, for the space of two hundred leagues, which we 
 visited, we saw no stone of any sort. To hollow out their 
 boats they burn out as much of a log as is requisite, and 
 also from the prow and stern to make them float well on 
 the sea. The land, in situation, fertility and beauty, is like 
 the other, abounding also in forests filled with various kinds 
 of trees, but not'of such fragrance, as it is more northern 
 and colder. 
 
 We saw in .this country many vines growing naturally, 
 which entwine about the trees, and run up upon them as 
 they do in the plains of Lombardy. These vines would 
 doubtless produce excellent wine if they were properly 
 cultivated and attended to, as we have often seen the grapes 
 which they produce very sweet and pleasant, and not un- 
 like our own; They must be held in estimation by them. 
 
176 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 as they cai%fully remove the shrubbery from around them, 
 wherever they grow, to allow the fruit to ripen better. We 
 found also wild roses, violets, lilies, and many sorts of plants 
 and fragrant flowers different from our own. We cannot 
 describe their habitations, as they are in the interior of the 
 country, but from various indications we conclude they 
 must be formed of trees and shrubs. We saw also many 
 grounds for conjecturing that they often sleep in the open 
 air, without any covering but the sky. Of their other 
 usages we know nothing ; we believe, however, that all 
 the people we were among live in the same way. 
 
 After having remained here three days, riding at anchor 
 on the coast, as we could find no harbour, we determined 
 to depart, and coast along the shore to the north-east, keep- 
 ing sail on the vessel only by day, and coming to anchor 
 by night. After proceeding one hundred leagues, we found 
 a very pleasant situation among some steep hills, through 
 which a very large river, deep at its mouth, forced its way 
 to the sea ; from the sea to the estuary 'of the river, any 
 ship heavily laden might pass, with the help of the tide, 
 which rises eight feet. But as we were riding at anchor 
 in a good berth, we wojild not venture up in our vessel, 
 veithout a knowledge of the mouth ; therefore we took the 
 boat, and entering the river, we found the country on 
 its banks well peopled, the inhabitants not differing much 
 from the others, being dressed out with feathers of birds 
 of various colours. They came towards us with evident 
 delight, raising loud shouts of admiration, and showing us 
 where we could most securely land with our boat. We 
 passed up this river, about half a league, when we found it 
 formed a most beautiful lake three leagues in circuit, upon 
 which they were rowing thirty or more of t"iieir small boats, 
 from one shore to the other,, filled with multitudes who 
 came to see us. All of a sudden, as is wont to happen to 
 navigators, a violent contrary wind blew in from the sea, 
 and" forced us to return to our ship, greatly regretting to 
 leave this region which seemed so commodious and de- 
 lightful, and which we supposed must also contain great 
 riches, as the hills showed many indications of minerals. 
 Weighing anchor, we sailed eighty (ottanta) leagues towards 
 
APPENDIX. 177 
 
 the east, as the coast stretched in that dipection, and alwa^ 
 in sight of it; at length we discovered an island of a triangu- 
 lar form, ahout ten leagues from the mainland, in size about 
 equal to the island of Rhodes, having many hills covered 
 with trees, and well peopled, judging from the great num- 
 ber of fires which we saw all around its shores ; we gave 
 it the name of your Majesty's illustriou^mother. 
 
 We did not land there, as the weather was unfavourable, 
 but proceeded to another place, fifteen leagues distant from 
 the island, where we found a very excellent harbour. Before 
 entering it, we saw about twenty small boats full of people, 
 who came about our ship, uttering many cries of astonish- 
 ment, but they would not approach nearer than within fifty 
 paces ; stopping, they looked at the structure of our ship, 
 our persons and dress, afterwards they all raised a loud 
 • shout together, signifying that they were pleased.' By 
 imitating their signs, we inspired them in some measure 
 with confidence, so that they came near enough for us to 
 toss to them some little bells and glasses, and many toys, 
 which they took and looked at, laughing, and then came 
 on board without fear. Among them were two kings 
 more beautiful in form and stature than can possibly be 
 described ; one was about forty years old, the other about 
 twenty-four, and they were dressed in the following man- 
 ner : The oldest had a deer's skin around his body, arti- 
 ficially wrought in damask figures, his head was without 
 covering, lis hair was tied back in various knots ; around 
 his neck he wore a large chain ornamented with many 
 stones of different colours. . The young man was similar 
 in his general appearance. This is the finest looking tribe, 
 and the handsomest in their costumes, that we have found 
 in our voyage. They exceed us in size, and they are of a very 
 fair complexion (?) ; some of them incline more to a white 
 (bronze ?), and others to a tawny colour ; their faces are 
 sharp, their hair long and black, upon the adorning of 
 which they bestow great pains ; their eyes are black and 
 sharp, their expression mild and pleasant, greatly resem- 
 bling the antique. I say nothing to your Majesty of the 
 other parts of the b6dy, which are all in good proportion, 
 23 
 
178 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 aad such as belong to well-formed men. Their women 
 are of the same form and beauty, very graceful, of fine 
 countenances and pleasing appearance in manners and 
 modesty ; they wear no clothing except a deer skin, orna- 
 mented like those worn by the men ; some wear very rieh 
 lynx skins upon their arms, and various ornaments upon 
 their heads, comj^sed of braids of hair, which also hang 
 down upon their breasts on each side. Others wear differ- 
 ent ornaments, suph as the women of Egypt and Syria use. . 
 The older and the married people, both men and women, 
 wear many ornaments in their ears, hanging down in the 
 oriental manner. We saw upon them several pieces of 
 wrought copper, which is more esteemed by them than 
 gold, as this is not valued on account of its colour, but is 
 considered by them as the most ordinary of the metals — 
 yellow being the colour especially disliked by them ; azure 
 and red are those in highest estimation with them. Of 
 those things which we gave them, they prized most highly 
 the bells, azure crystals, and other toys to hang in their 
 ears and about their necks ; they do not value or care to 
 have silk or gold stuffs, or other kinds of cloth, nor imple- 
 ments of steel or iron. When we showed them our arms, 
 they expressed no admiration, and only asked how they 
 were made ; the same was the case with the looking-glasses, 
 which they returned to us, smiling, as soofi as they had 
 looted at them. They are very generous, giving away 
 whatever they have. We formed a great friendship with 
 them, and one day we entered into the port with our ship, 
 having before rode at the distance of a league from the shore, 
 as the weather was adverse. They came off to the ship with 
 a number of their little boats, with their faces painted in 
 divers colours, showing us real signs of joy, bringing us 
 of their provisions, and signifying to us where we could 
 best ride in safety with our ship ; and keeping vidth us until 
 we had cast anchor. We remained among them fifteen 
 days, to provide ourselves with many things of which we 
 were in want, during which time they came every day to 
 see our ship, bringing vnth them their wives, of whom 
 they were very careful ; for, although they came on board 
 themselves, and remained a long while, they made their 
 
APPENDIX. 179 
 
 wives'stay in the boats, nor could we ever get them on 
 board by any entreaties or any jfresents we could make 
 them. One of the two kings often- came with his queen 
 and many attendants, to see us for his amusement; but he 
 always stopped at the distance of about two hundred paces 
 and sent a boat to inform us of his intended visit, saying 
 they would come and see our ship — this was done for safety, 
 and as soon as they had an answer from us they came off, 
 and remained awhile to look around ; but on hearing the 
 annoying cries of the sailors, the king sent the queen, with 
 her attendants, in a very light boat, to wait, near an island 
 a quarter of a league distant from us, while he remained a 
 long time on board, talking with us by signs, and express- 
 ing his fanciful notions about every thing in the ship, and 
 asking the use of all. After imitating our modes of saluta- 
 tion, and tasting our food, he courteously took leave of us. 
 Sometimes, when our men staid two or three days on a 
 small island, near the ship, for their various necessities, as 
 sailors are wont to do, he came with seven or eight of his 
 attendant's, to enquire about our movements, often asking 
 us if we intended to remain there long, and offering us 
 every thing at his command, and then he would shoot with 
 his bow, and run up'and down with his people, making 
 great sport for us. We often went five or six leagues into 
 the interior, and found the country as pleasant as is possi- 
 ble to conceive, adapted to cultivation of every kindj 
 whether of corn, wine or oil ; there are open plains twenty- 
 five or .thirty leagues in extent, entirely ft-ee from, trees or 
 other hinderances, and of so great fertility, that whatever . 
 is sown there will yield an excellent crop. On entering 
 the woods, we observed that they might all be trayersed by 
 an army ever so numerous ; the trees of which they were 
 composed, were oaks, cypresses, and others, unknown in 
 Europe. We' found, also, apples, plumbs, filberts, and 
 many other fruits, but all of a different kind from ours. 
 The animals, which are in great numbers, as stags, ^eer, 
 lynxes, and many other species, a-re taken by snares, and 
 by bows, the latter being their chief implement; their 
 arrows are wrought with great beauty, and for the heads 
 •of them, they use emery, jasper, hard marble, and other 
 
180 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 sharp stones, in the place of iron. They also use thesame 
 kind of sharp stones in Cutting tJown trees, and with them 
 they construct their boats of single logs, hollowed out with 
 admirable skill, and sufficiently commodious to contain 
 ten or twelve persons ; their oars are short, and broad at 
 the end, and are managed in rowing by force of the arms 
 alone, with perfect security, and as nimbly as they choose. 
 We saw their dwellings, which are of a circular -form, of 
 about ten or twelve paces in circumference, made of logs 
 split in halves, without any regularity of architecture, and 
 covered with roofs of straw, nicely put on, which protect 
 them from wind and rain. There is no doubt that they 
 would build statgly edifices if they had workmen as skilful 
 as ours, for the whole sea-coast abounds in shining stones, 
 crystals, and alabaster, and for the same reason it has ports 
 and retreats for animals. They change their habitations 
 from place to place as circumstances of situation and sea- 
 son may require ; this is easily done, as they have only to 
 take with them their mats, and they have other houses 
 prepared at once. The father and the whole family dwell 
 together in one house in great numbers ; in 6ome we saw 
 twenty-five or thirty persons. Their food is pulse, as with 
 the other tribes, which is here better-^than elsewhere, and 
 more carefully cultivated ; in the time of sowing they are 
 governed by the moon, the sprouting of grain, and many 
 other ancient usages. They live by hunting and fishing, 
 and they are long-lived. If they fall sick, they cure them- 
 selves without medicine, by the heat of the fire, and their 
 death at last comes from extreme old age. "We judge 
 them to be very affectionate and charitable towards their 
 relatives-;- making loud lamentations in their adversity, 
 and in their misery calling to mind all their good fortune. 
 At their departure out of life, their relations mutually join 
 in weeping, mingled with singing, for a long while. This 
 is all that we could learn of them. This region is situated 
 in th^ parallel of Rome, being 41° 40' of north latitude, 
 but much colder from accidental circumstances, and not 
 by nature, as I shall hereafter explain to your Majesty, 
 and confine myself at present to the description of its local 
 situation. It loolcs towards the south, on which side the 
 
* APPENDIX. 181 
 
 harbour is half a league broad; afterwards upon entering it, 
 the extent between the ea&t (oriente) and north is twelve 
 leagues,-^ and then enlarging itself it forms a very large 
 4)ay, twenty leagues in circumference, in which are five 
 small islands, of great fertility and beauty, covered with 
 large and lofty trees. Among these islands any fleet, how- 
 ever large, might ride safely, without fear of tempests or 
 other dangers. Turning towards the south, at the en- 
 trance of the harbour, on both sides, there are very pleasant 
 hills, and many streams of clear water, which flow dowij 
 to the sea. In the midst of the entrance there is a rock 
 of freestone, formed by nature, and suitable for the con- 
 struction of any kind of machine or bulw^ark for the 
 defence of the harbour. • 
 
 Having supplied ourselves with every thing necessary, 
 on the sixth (sei) of May we departed from the port, and sailed 
 one hundred and fifty leagues, keepir;g so close to the 
 coast as never to lose it from our sight ; the nature of the 
 country appeared much the same as before, but the moun- 
 tains were a little higher, and all in appearance rich in 
 minerals. "We did not stop to land as the weather was 
 very favourable for pursuing our voyage, and the country 
 presented no variety. The shore stretched to the east, 
 and fifty leagues beyond more to the north, where we 
 'found a more elevated country, full of very thick woods 
 of fir trees, cypresses and the like, indicative of a cold cli- 
 mate. The people were entirely different from the others 
 we had seen, whom we had, found kind and gentle, but 
 these were so rude and barbarous that we were unable by 
 any signs we could make, to hold communication with 
 them. They clothe themselves in the skins o^ bears, 
 lynxes, seals and other animals. Their food, as far as we 
 could judge by severalvisits to their dwellings, is obtained 
 by hunting and fishing, and fruits, which are a sort of 
 root of spontaneous growth. They have no pulse, and we 
 saw no signs of cultivation ; the land appears stel-ile and 
 unfit for growing of fruit or grain of any kind. If we 
 wished at any time to traffick with them, they came to 
 the sea shore and stood upon the rocks, from which they 
 
 I Seeanfe.p. 5i,note. 
 
182 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 lowered down by a cord to our boats beneatB whatever 
 they had to barter, continually crying out to us, not to 
 come nearer, and instantly demanding from us that which 
 was to be given in exchange ; they took from us only* 
 knives, fish hooks and sharpened steel. IfTo regard was 
 paid to our courtesies ; when we had nothing left to ex- 
 change with them, the men at our departure made the 
 most brutal signs of disdain and contempt possible. 
 Against their will we penetrated two or three leagues 
 ihto the interior with twenty-five men ; when we came to 
 the shore, they, shot at us with their arrows, raising the 
 most horrible cries and afterwards fleeing to the woods. 
 In this region we found nothing extraordinary except vast 
 forests and some metalliferous hills, as we infer from see- 
 ing that many of the people wore copper ear-rings. De- 
 parting from thence, we kept along the coast, steering 
 north-east, and found the country more pleasant and open, 
 free from woods, and distant in the interior we saw lofty 
 mountains, but none which extended to the shore. With- 
 in fifty leagues we discovered thirty-two islands, all near 
 the main land, small and of pleasant appearance, but high 
 and so disposed as to afford excellent harbours and chan- 
 nels, as we see in the Adriatic gulph, near lUyria and 
 Dalmatia. We had no intercourse with the people, but 
 we judge that they were similar in nature and usages to " 
 those we were last among. After sailing between east 
 and north the distance of one hundred and fifty leagues 
 more, and finding our provisions and naval stores nearly 
 exhausted, we took in wood and water and determined to 
 return to France, having discovered 502,' that is 700 (sic) 
 leagues ^of unknown lands. 
 
 As to the religious faith of all these tribes, not under- 
 standing their language, we could not discover either by 
 sign or gestures any thing certain. It seemed to us that 
 they had no religion or laws, or any knowledge of a 
 First Cause or Mover, that they worshipped neither the 
 heavens, • stars, sun, moon nor other planets; nor could, 
 we learn if they were given to. any kind of idolatry, or 
 offered any sacrifices or supplications, or if they have 
 
 ' See ante, p. 58, note. 
 
APPENDIX. 183 
 
 temples or houses of prayer in their villages; — our con- 
 clusion was, that they have no religious belief whatever, 
 but live in this respect entirely free. All which proceeds 
 from, ignorance, as they are very easy to be persuaded, 
 and iinitated us with earnestness and fervour in all which 
 they saw us do as Christians in our acts of worship. 
 
 It remains for me to lay before your Majesty a Cosmo- 
 graphical exposition of our voyage. Taking our depart- 
 ure, as I before observed, froifi the above mentioned desert 
 rocks, which lie on the extreme verge of the west, as 
 • known to the ancients, in the meridian of the Fortunate 
 Islands, and in the latitude of 32 degrees north from' the 
 equator, and steering a westward course, _we had run, 
 when we first made land, a distance of 1200 leagues or 
 4800 miles, reckoning, according to nautical usage, four 
 miles to a league. This distance calculated geometrically, 
 upon the usual ratio of the diameter to the circumference 
 of the circle, gives 92 degrees ; for if we take 114 degrees 
 as the chord of an arc of" a great circle, we have by the 
 same ratio 95 deg., as the chord of an arc on the parallel 
 of 34 degrees, being that on which we first ma^ land, and 
 300 degrees as the circumference of the whole circle pass- 
 ing through this plane. Allowing then, as actual obser- 
 vations show, that 62J terrestrial miles correspond to a 
 celestial degree, we find the whole circumference of 300 
 deg., as just given, to be 18,759 miles, which divided by 
 360, makes the length of a degree of longitude in the 
 parallel of 34 degrees to .be 52 miles, and that is the true 
 measure. Upon this basis, 1200 leagues, or 4800 miles 
 meridional distance, on the parallel of 34, give 92 degrees, 
 and so many therefore have we sailed farther to the west 
 than was known to the ancients. During our voyage we 
 had no lunar eclipses or like celestial phenomenas, we 
 therefore determined our progress from the difference of 
 longitude, which we ascertained by various instruments, 
 by taking the sun's altitude from day to day, and by 
 calculating geometrically the distance run by the ship 
 from one horizon to another; all these observations, as 
 also the ebb and flow of the sea in all places, were noted 
 in a little book, which may prove serviceable to navi- 
 
184 VERRAZZANO. . 
 
 gators; they ar6 communicated to your Majesty in tl 
 hope of promoting science. 
 
 My intention in this voyage was to reach Cathay, c 
 the extreme coast of Asia, expecting however, to find i 
 the newly discovered land some such an obstacle, as the 
 have proved to be, yet I did not doubt that I shoul 
 penetrate by some passage to the eastern ocean. It wi 
 the opinion of the ancients, that our oriental Indian ocea 
 is one and without interposing land; Aristotle suppor 
 it by arguments founded on various probabilities ; but 
 is contrary to that of the moderns and shown to be erron 
 ous by experience; the country which has been discc 
 vered, and w||^ch was unknown to the ancients, is anoth( 
 world compared with that before known, being manifest] 
 larger than our Europe, together with Africa and perhaj 
 Asia, if we might rightly estimate its extent, a;s shall no 
 be briefly explained to your Majesty. The Spaniarc 
 have sailed south beyond the equator on a meridian 2 
 degrees west of the Fortunate Islands to the latitude < 
 54, and there still found land ; turning about they steere 
 northward^n the same meridian and along the coast 1 
 the. eighth degree of latitude near the equator, and thenc 
 along the coast more to the west and north-west, to tl: 
 latitude of 21°, without finding a termination to the coi 
 tinent; they estimated the distance run as 89 degree 
 which, added to the 20 fijst run west of the Canarie 
 make 109 degrees and so far west ; they sailed from tl 
 meridian of these islands, but this may vary somewhi 
 from truth ; we did n^t make this voyage and therefoi 
 cannot speak from experience ; we calculated it geometi 
 cally from the observations furnished by many navigator 
 who have made the voyage and affirm th^ distance to 1: 
 1600 leagues, due allowance being made for the devi 
 tions of the ship from a straight course, by reason i 
 contrary winds. I hope that we shall now obtain certai 
 information on these points, by new voyages to be mac 
 oh the same coasts. But to return to ourselves ; in tl 
 voyage which we have made by order of your Majesty, i 
 addition to the 92 degrees we run towards the west fro 
 our point of departure, before we reached land in tl 
 
APPENDIX. 185 
 
 Iditittide of 34, we have to count 300 leagues wMch we ran 
 flortli-east-Wardly, tod 400 nearly east along the coast 
 Defore we reached the 50th paralkl of north latitude, the 
 point where we tilf ned our course from the shore towards 
 home. Beyond this point the Portuguese had already 
 sailed as far north as the Arctic circle, without coming 
 to the terraination of the land. Thus adding the degrees 
 of south latitude explored, which are 54, to those of the 
 north, which are 66, the sum is 120, and therefore, more 
 than are embraced in the latitude of Africa and Europe, 
 for the north point of Norway, which is the extremity of 
 Europe, is in 71 north, and the Cape of Good Hope, 
 which is the southern extremity of Africa, is in 35 south, 
 and their sum is only 106, and if the breadth of this newly 
 discovered cOTintry corresponds to its extent of sea coast, 
 it doubtless exceeds Asia in size. In this way we find 
 that the land forms a much larger portion of our globe 
 than the ancients supposed, who maintained, contrary to 
 mathematical reasoning, that it was less than the water, 
 whereas actual experience proves the reverse, so that we 
 judge in respect to extent of surface the land covers as 
 much space as the water ; and I hope more clearly and 
 more satisfactorily to point out and explain to your 
 Majesty the great extent of that new land, or new world, 
 of "which I. have been speaking. . The continent of Asia 
 and Africa, we know for certain is joined to Europe at 
 the north in ISorwaj and Eussia, which disproves the idea 
 of the ancients that all this part had been navigated from 
 theCimbric Chersonesus, eastward as far a? the Caspian 
 Sea. They also maintained that the whole continent was 
 surrounded by two seas situate to the east and west of it, 
 which seas in fact do not surround either of the two con- 
 tinents, for as we have seen above, the land of the south- 
 ern hemisphere at the latitude of 54 extends eastwardly 
 an unknown distance, and that of the northern passing 
 the 66th parallel turns to the east, and has no termination 
 as high as the 70th. In a short time, I hope, we shall 
 * have more certain knowledge of these things, by the aid 
 of your Majesty, whofli I pray Almighty God to prosper 
 24 
 
186 
 
 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 in lasting glory, that we may see the most important 
 results of this our cosmography in the fulfilment of the 
 holy words of the Gospel. 
 
 On board the ship Dolphin, in the port of Dieppe in 
 Normandy, the 8th of July, 1524. 
 
 Your humble servitor, 
 
 Janus Vekbazzanus. 
 
 ERRATA. 
 On pages 49, 72, 79, and 116 for Danphiny read Dauphim. 
 
INDEX 
 
 Acadia, granted to the Sieur de Monts, 40. 
 
 Adventurers -witli Verrazzano at tlie time of his capture, 148, 167. 
 
 Agnese, Baptista, his map showing the western sea, 88, 100, 105. 
 
 Ailly, Pierre d', table of fiimates, 63. 
 
 Albemarle, North Carolina, coast of, 48. 
 
 Alfonse, Jean, chief pilot of Roberval, his cosmography, 37; descript 
 
 and chart of Norumbega, 38 ; explores the coast of New England, i 
 
 his book of voyages, 39. 
 Algonkin Indians, their birch-bark canoe, 75, 83 ; not cannibals, 149. 
 Alonzo, Domingo, sent to the Azores for the treasure, 143. 
 Andrade, extract from his Chronicle of Joao iir, in relation to Verrazza 
 
 139, 145. 
 Ango, Jean, father and son, rich and powerful merchants of Dieppe, c 
 
 nected with ■Verrazzano,-35, 86, 144, 146, 158, 160. 
 Anonymous Portuguese chart, followed by the Verrazauo map, 97, 98. 
 . Anonjrmous S{)amsh chart, of 1537, showing the exploration of Gomez, 1 
 Arcangeli, M., discourse on Verrazzano, 13, 17, 108. 
 Arctic Circle, Portuguese discoveries towards the, 58, 66, 67. 
 Arecifes, on Ribero's map, Cape Sable in Nova Scotia, 131. 
 Aubert, Thomas, of Dieppe, voyage to Newfoundland in 1508, carries Indii 
 
 thence to France, 63-3, 75, 87. 
 Avorobagra, on the French map, supposed to be the same as Norumbega, 
 Ayllon, first expedition in 1531 to the river Jordan or Santee carries si: 
 
 Indians thence to St. Domingo, 78, 133 ; betakes one to Spain, 1 
 
 second expedition in 1536 explores no further north than the Jord 
 
 133-4 ; dies at St. Helena, 133. 
 
 B. 
 
 Bacalao, Bacalaos, Baccalaos Bacallaos and Baccallaos, or Newfoundla 
 
 61, 94, 133, 131. 
 Badajos, Gomez a member of the junta, 130. 
 Barcia, description of the exploration of Menendez Marquez to the Ch 
 
 peake, 50 ; identifies Verrazzano with Juan Florin, 136, 148. 
 Basle, Sebastian Munster's edition of Ptolemy, printed at, 101, 103-4. 
 ■ Beaufort, N. C, an accessible harbor, 48. 
 
188 
 
 VERRAZZANO. 
 
 Belleforest, Francois de, the first historian in France who mentions in 
 
 print the Verrazzano voyage, 38»39. 
 Belle Isle, route of Cartier through the straits, 39, 63. 
 Bergeron, takes his account of the Verrazzano voyage from Lescarbot, 39. 
 Block island, not intended by the island of Louise, 53. 
 Bodleian library, portolano based on the Ribero map, 106. 
 Borgia, Cardinal Stefano, possessor of the Verrazano map, 91. 
 Bourbon, Charles de, the constable, invades France with Pescara, 31, 33. 
 Boy, the Indian, mentioned^ in the Verrazzano letter, 5, 30. 
 Brazil, threatened voyage to, by Verrazzano, 139 ; voyage abandoned, 145. 
 Bretons, early discoveries in North America, 63, 65-8, 86. 
 Brevoort, J. C, notes on the Verrazano map, 4, 95, 103. 
 Bristol, bark canoe taken to, in 1603, 75. 
 Brittany, arms of, 94 ; fishermen of, 100. 
 
 c. 
 
 • 
 Cabot, Sebastian, 73, 113, 117 ; his opinion of the insular character of 
 
 Northern America, 119, 130, 134. 
 Cabral, publication in France of his discoveries, 33. 
 California, black Indians found in, 78. 
 Canada, discovered by Jacques Cartier, 33, 34h6; grant of, to Marquis de 
 
 la Roche, 37 ; first permanent settlements in, by Sieur de Monts, 40-1. 
 Canoes, birch-bairk, peculiar to the northern India,n8, 75, 83, 90. 
 Cape Breton, 38, 57-8, 60-3 ; why so called, 86 ; 97-8, 104, 131. 
 Cape Cod, 53, 54, 56, 75 ; C. de Muchas TUas on the Ribero map, 130-3. 
 Cape de Ras, 86, 90 ; Cabo Raso, 61, 94, 131 ; Cape Race, 57," 59, 63, 131. 
 Cape Roman, S. C, southerly limit of the Verrazzano voyage, 1 ; Cape de 
 
 S. Roman on the Ribero map, 130. 
 Cape Fear, the Verrazzano landfall near, 47 ; C. Traffalgar on the Ribero 
 
 map, 130. 
 Cape Hatteras, 48 ; C. de S. Juan on the Ribero map, 130. 
 Cape Sable, Nova Scotia, Cap de Noroveregue on the chart of Alfonso, 38, 
 
 56 ; Arecifes on the map of Ribero, 131-3. 
 Gape St. Vincent, treasure captured by Verrazzano near, 143. 
 Caravel, depicted, 9 ; described, 47-8. 
 Carh, Fernando, alleged letter to his father, 11, 16, 17, 155 ; his version of 
 
 the Verrazzano letter, 11, 13, 65, 170. 
 Caro, Annibal, letter menlfioning a Verrazzano map, 91, 108, 115. 
 Cartier Jacques, voyages through the sJraits of Belle-Isle, 39, 39 ; silent as 
 
 to Verrazzano, 30 ; his voyages, 33, 34, 44, 46, 59, 103, 105 ;* inland 
 
 sea mentioned by him, 107. 
 Castles, gulf of the, or straits of Belle-Isle, 86, 90. 
 Cathay, 17, 97, 119 ; proposed voyage of Verrazzano, 141, 145. 
 Catholic navigators, custom in regard to naming places, 46. 
 Cespedes, history of islands of the world, 131, 133. 
 Chabot, Phillipe, Sieur de Brion, Admiral of France, enters into a venture 
 
 with Verrazzano, 35, 137, 146, 158, 160 ; superseded by the dauphin, 
 
 afterwards Henry II, 43. 
 
INDEX. ' 189 
 
 Charlevoix, cites Bamusio alone for the voyage, 4, 30. 
 
 Chesapeake bay, the, 40, 48, 49 ; called the bay of Saata Maria, and ex- 
 plored by Menendez Marquez m 1573, 50 ; entrance into, 56, 131, 135. 
 
 Claudia, island of, so first named by Mercator, 107, 110. 
 
 Clement VII, pope, map of Ribero presented to him in 1529, 124. 
 
 Cogswell, Dr. J. &., translation of the Carli version of the Verrazzano letter, 
 13, 51, 137, 170. 
 
 Colines, Simon de, printer in Paris in 1535, 33. 
 
 Colmenar de Arenas, near Puerto del Pico, Verrazzano executed at, 148, 167' 
 
 Columbus, Christopher, 31-3, 48, 70. 
 
 Columbus, Bartholomew, 71. 
 
 Complexion of the Indians misstated in the Verrazzano letter, 76. • 
 
 Contarini, Venetian Ambassador, letter in relation to Sebastian Cabot, 113. 
 
 CoronelU, on the place of death of Verrazzano, 135. 
 
 Corsair the profession of Verrazzano, 137. 
 
 Cortereal, Gaspar, vo*tge of, 32, 59, 60, 95. 
 
 Cortereaes, voyage of the brothers, 61. 
 
 Cortes, treasure sent by him from Mexico to the emperor, captured by Ver- 
 razzano, 143-3. 
 
 Corunna, Gomez sails on his voyage of discovery from, 130. 
 
 Cosmography of , the Yerrazzano letter, 7, 16 ; of Jean Alfonse, 37. 
 • 
 
 D. 
 
 Dauphin, afterwards Henry H, admiral of France, 43 ; arms of, 42, 44. 
 
 Dauphine, the Verrazlzano vessel of discovery, 3, 47, 49, 73, 79, 116, 170. 
 
 D'Avezac, M., on the early French map, 41 ; the Dieppe Captain, 85, 135. 
 
 Davila, Alonzo, custodian of the treasure sent by Cortes captured by Ver- 
 razzano, 143 ; his letter giving an account of the capture, 143, 164. 
 
 Delaware Vky, explored by Gomez,* 121. 
 
 Denys, Jean, voyage in 1504 from Honfleur to Newfoundland, 86. 
 
 Desertas, rocks near Madeira, whence the Verrazzano voyage of disooveiy 
 began, 3, 7, 58. 
 
 Diaz, Bernal, on the capture of Verrazzano, 147-8. 
 
 Dieppa laid down on the Verrazano map, 93, 95, 135-6. 
 
 Dieppe in Normandy, Verrazzano a denizen of, 3, 64, 136, 143-4. 
 
 Dieppe, discourse of thg French captain of, 37, 62, 67, 84. 
 
 E. 
 
 Elizabeth islands, nea* Cape Cod, 52 ; natives of, 78-9 ; termination of the 
 
 fourth course of the yerrazzano voyage, 130. 
 Esctuimaux, voyage of Cortereal among the, 60. 
 Bstienne Henri, early printer in Paris, 31, 33, 63. 
 Ethiopians, Indians represented in the Verrazzano letter to have been black 
 
 like them, 76. 
 Eusebius' Chronicle by Multivallis, account of the Indians taken in 1508 
 
 from Newfoundland to France, 63-3. 
 
190 VERRAZZAJSrO. 
 
 F. 
 
 Fabre's translation of Pigafetta's journal, by order of Louise, 15, 33. 
 
 Florida, disoovered by the Spaniards, 93. 
 
 Florin, Juan, a French corsair, identified as Verrazzano, 136-7 ; capture 
 ship from Hispaniola, 138 ; also the treasure sent by Cortes, 1 
 145 ; takes a Portuguese ship coming from the Indies, 145 ; lisl 
 his vessels, 165. 
 
 France, no evidence of the Verrazzano voyage ever found there, 36. 
 
 Francese, Pranoisca or the French land, 88, 103, 105. 
 
 Francis I , king of France, Verrazzano letter addressed to, 3, 170 ; hismt 
 ments at the time it purports to bear date, 21 ; absent from his cap 
 or a prisoner in Spain from June 1524 untijearly in 1526, 22, 
 never recognized the Verrazzano discovery, 34 ; and lived for 
 years after it is alleged to have taken place, without asserting i 
 right under it ; but otherwise attempting eolonization i|^ Ameri 
 35, 41. 
 
 'Francis, the CMcorane, his false stories about the country to Ayllon, 1S4 
 
 French captain of Dieppe, discourse of, 57, 62, 67, 84 ; who he was,%5. 
 
 French cartographer of the reign of Francis excludes the Verrazzano ( 
 covery, 41-4. 
 
 French fishermen frequented Newfoundland and C^pe Breton, before 1 
 Verrazzano voyage, 63. 
 
 French navigation to the northern coast of America, 100, 106. 
 
 Fundy, bay of, 54, 56. 
 
 e. 
 
 Games, Rio de, the Penobscot, explored by Gomez, 121, 133. 
 
 Garcia, Nuno, Spanish cartographer, his map, 126. 
 
 Gastaldi, his map representing Norumbega, 38; and Acadia, 40; autl 
 of the maps in Ramusio, 93. 
 
 Georgetown, S. C, harbor, 48. 
 
 Giles, Juan de, judge at Cadiz, executes the death warrant upon Verrazza 
 148 ; his letters to the emperor, 167-8. 
 
 Globe of Ulpius containing the Verrazzano legend, 99, 101, 103, 118. 
 
 Gomez, Estevan, Portuguese pilot, enters the Spanish service, 117 ; accc 
 panies Magellan as chief pilot and deserts him, 118 ; attends i 
 _ junta at Badajps, 130 ; sails in 1535 on a TOyage of discovery 
 North America for the emperor, 120 ; explores the coast from Ci 
 Roman to.Cape Breton, 130-1 ; his voyage described by Oviedo 
 the 'following year, and his exploration laid down in 1537 and li 
 on Spanish charts, 132-3 ; wliich were known before the Verrazzi 
 letter is shown to have existed, 136 ; and were the basis of that let 
 120. 
 
 Gosnold's voyage to Cape Cod, 78. 
 
INDEX. 191 
 
 Grapes alleged in the V^rrazzano letter to have been ripe in North Carolina 
 
 in April, 5, 80, 81, 83. 
 Greene, George 'W., his monograph on Verrazzano, 14; asserts the reoom- 
 
 position of the Verrazzano letter in Eamusio, 14, 16. 
 Gualdape, or St. Helena, S. C, river visited by Ayllon, where he dies, 133. 
 
 H. 
 
 Hakluyt, reprints Ribault's Terra Florida, 37 ; publishes map of Michael 
 Lok, 101 ; his mention of Verrazzano, 109-111, 146 ; translation of 
 the letter mentioned, 110, 137, 170. 
 
 Harrisse, M., publishes the commission of Eoberval, 36. 
 
 Hatteras, Cape, 48 ; C. de S. Juan on the Ribero map, 130. 
 
 Henry VIII, of England, sends an expedition to Newfoundland in 1537, 63, 
 113 ; map presented to him by Verrazzano, J09-113. 
 
 Henry, Dauphin, 43; King Henry II, 36, 41. 
 
 Henry III, of France, 37. 
 
 Henry IV, of France, 37. 
 
 Henry, Cape, at the entrance of the Chesapeake, 49, 56. 
 
 Hispaniola, natives, 70 ; map, 136 ; ship.oaptured by Verrazzano, 138. 
 
 Hochelaga, grant* 37 ; river, 38. 
 
 Homem, Diego, map acknowledges that of Eibero, 106. 
 
 Hudson river, shown on the map of Ribero, 43, 131, 130, 133. 
 
 Indians of North America, complexion of, 78, 79, 83. 
 
 Indians carried to Rouen in 1508-9, 63-3 ; to Toledo by Gomez, 133. 
 
 Indies, proposed voyage by Verrazzano to the, 145-7. 
 
 lucatanet, or Nova Gallia on the Verrazzano map, 95. 
 
 Italy, discoveries of Gomez immediately made known in, 134. 
 
 Itinerary of Charles V, 148-9. 
 
 J. 
 
 Jomaid, M., repoduces a French map of the Verrazzano period, 41. 
 
 Jordan, the river Santee, most northerly point reached by the expeditions 
 of Ayllon, 133-4. 
 
 Joao III, king of Portugal, extract in regard to Verrazzano, from the chron- 
 icle of, 139 ; letter of Silveira to, 163. 
 
 K. 
 
 Kohl, J. G., geographical works and observations, 88, 101, 103, 105, 133. 
 Kunstmann, von SBriner and Thomas, their atlas published at Munich, 63. 
 
192 VAEEAZZANO. 
 
 L. 
 
 Labrador, grant of, 37 ; Jean Alfonse there, 39. 
 
 Landfall of the Verrazzano voyage, 4, 5, 47, 130. 
 
 Laudoniere, usesttlie version of Ramusio, 37-8. 
 
 La Plata, voyage of Sebastian Cabot, 130. 
 
 Laurentlan library in Florence, 15. 
 
 League, length according to the "Verrazzano letter, 4'?, 139. 
 
 Le Clerc mistakes as to the discovery of the straits of Belle Isle b^ Alfonse, 
 
 89. 
 Leri, Baron de, fabulous visit to the island of Sable, 40. 
 Lerma, order of execution of Verrazzano taade by Charles V at, 148. 
 Lescarbot, plagiarist as to the voyage of Verrazzano, 39. 
 Livomo, Leghorn, on the Verrazano map, 98, 95. 
 Long Island, 53, 55. 
 
 Lok or Locke, Michael, map of, 101-3. 109-110. 
 Louise of Savoy, mother of Francis I, island called after, 6 ; made regent, 
 
 37 ; causes Pigafetta's journal of Magellan's voyage to be translated, 
 
 33-3 ; her death. 10 ; referred to in the discourse of the French 
 
 captain, 87. 
 Luisia, island of, on the Verrazzano map, 94. 
 
 M. 
 
 Madeira, the Dauphine leaves there on her voyage of discovery, 4, 79. 
 
 Madrid, treaty of in 1536, 147. , 
 
 Magellan, 15, 18 ; journal of his voyage presented to Louise, 33-3; straits 
 of first represented on the Ptolemaic maps by Miinster, 104 ; his ex- 
 pedition from Spain, 118 ; death, 119. 
 
 Magliabechian library in Florence, Verrazzano letter in the, 15, 170. 
 
 Maine, bay of, 54. 
 
 MareelluB Cerviuus, bishop of Florence, cardinal and pope, globe constructed 
 for by tJlpius, 114, 150. 
 
 Mare de Verrazzana, 103, 109. 
 
 Mare Occidentale, 96, 103. 
 
 Margaux, wild fowl on the coast of Newfoundland, 90. 
 
 Margry, M. adopts the Carli version of the letter, 30; first publishes the 
 agreement between Chabot and Verrazzano, 146, 158 ; his interpreta- 
 tion of the name of the Verrazano vessel, 170. 
 
 Martha's Vineyard, island of, 53 ; Indians of, 79, 130. 
 
 Martyr, Peter, decades of, translated into French and printed in Paris, 83 ; 
 account of natives of the West India islands, 73 ; describes the com- 
 plexion of the Indians of South Carolina, 78 ; mentions the proposed 
 expedition of Gomez, 130 ; his history of the West Indies, 135 ; his 
 mention of Juan Florin, 136, 138, 143, 143, 145. 
 
 Massachusetts bay, 54r-5, 69. t 
 
INDEX. • 193 
 
 Matienzo and Ayllmi, expedition of, 78, 123. 
 
 Menendez, Pedro, the adelantado, 50. 
 
 Menendez Marquez Pedro, explores the coast from the point of Florida to 
 
 the Chesapeake, 50. 
 Mereator, the first cartographer to refer to Verrazzauo, 101, 107. 
 Miemacs, natives of Cape B»eton, 63. 
 Moluccas, new route proposed by Gomez, 117. 
 
 Moncada, Hugo de, commander of the.Spanish fleet in Barbary, 17, 19, 33. 
 Montana verde, on thctoap of Uibero, the highlands of Navesink at the 
 
 mouth of the ftudson, 130, 133 ; copied on the map of Ruscelli, 106. 
 Montezuma, articles belonging to, 143. 
 Monts, Seiur de, Canada first colonized under his grants, 40. 
 Muchas yllas, C. de, or Cape Cod, 130-3. 
 Munich atlas, 61-3, {note), 97. % 
 
 Miinster, Sebastian, map in his works, 103, 103, 105. 
 
 Nantucket, island of, 54, 130. 
 
 Narraganset, bay of, not referred to in the Verrazzano letter, 53, 55 ; Indi- 
 ans, 73, 79. 
 Nasquapees, natives of Labrador, 63. 
 Navarrete, error as to the voyage of Ayllon, 133. 
 'Navesink, the highlands of, recognized, 49, 130. 
 Newfoundland, 37-8, 57, 61 ; resorted by the French and Portuguees. 
 
 before the Verrazzano voyage, 61-4 ; red Indians of, 68, 90. 
 New England, coast of, explored by Jean Alfonso, 38-9 ; part of Acadia, 
 
 40, 55 ; early French navigation to, 100. 
 New France, first attempt to colonize, 36 ; map of 93. 
 Newport, its harbor not intended in the Verraazano letter, 53. 
 Normands and Bretons, in 1504 discover Newfoundland, 63, 86 ; resort 
 
 there to fish, 63^. 
 Normanda, name of one of the Verrazzano fleet, 3. 
 Normandy, fishermen of, in Newfoundland, 63-4; fleet preparing in the 
 
 ports of, 139-43 ; Verrazzano a denizen of, 170. 
 Noroveregue, cape of. Cape Sable, 38. 
 North Carolina, landfall of the Verrazzano voyage, 47; harbor of Beaufort, 
 
 48 ; natives, 69, 79 ; ripening of ^apes, 81. 
 Nornmbega, land of, 36 ; described by Jean Alfonso, 37-8 ; map of, 37-8 ; 
 
 discovered by the Portuguese and Spaniards, 39 ; an Indian name, 
 
 38, 87. 
 
 0. 
 
 Ochelaga, country of, 36 ; river of, 38. 
 
 Ollmpe, C. de, on the Verrazzano map, 93. , 
 
 Oviedo, on the custom of naming newly discovered places, 46 ; his account 
 of the voyage of Gomez, 83, 131-2, 135, 186. 
 25 
 
194 • ^ VEREAZZANO. 
 
 P. 
 
 Paesi novamente ritrovati, Italian book of voyages translated and pri 
 
 inJ'aris, 32. 
 Pamlico sound, complexion of the natives, 78. 
 Paris, early printing, 31-3. Jff 
 
 Parmentier, Jean, voyage to Sumatra, 85, 147. * 
 
 Pasqualigo, the Venetian ambassador, account of the voyage of Cortereal 
 PeUi, life of Verrazzano, 12, 134. 
 Peltry, early trade in, to Norumbega, 38. 
 Penobscot, caU|d the river of Norumbega and described by Alfonse, 3' 
 
 explored first by Gomez and called by him rio de los Gamos, 121, 
 Pensee, a ship of Dieppe, voyage to Newfoundland, 86. 
 Pescara, army of, in Provence in 1524, 21-2. 
 Pigafetta, journal of Magellan's voyage, translated by order of Louise, 
 
 82-3. 
 Portuguese, discoveries of the, 58, 59, 86 ; charts of, 61, 65-7 ; flshen 
 
 in Newfoundland, 61-3. 
 Printing well established in France in the time of Verrazzano, 31-2. 
 Pringe, Capt. Martin, his description of the birch-bark canoe, 75 ; anc 
 
 the complexion of the Indians of Martha's Vineyard, 79. 
 Propaganda, college of the, Verrazzano map in its possession, 17. 
 Provence, invasion of, by the army of the emperor, 22. 
 Ptolemy, edition of, by Bernardus Sylvanus, showing Newfoundland 
 
 1511, 60 ; by Sebastian Milnster printed in 1540 at Basle, shov 
 
 Canada, 101-3. 
 Puerto del Pico, Verrazzano executed at Colmenar, near, 148. 
 
 Q. 
 
 Quejo, Pedro de, pilot of Matienzo, testimony as to his expedition, 123. 
 Quinones, Antonio, custodian of treasure sent to Spain by Cortes, 
 killed in the action with Verrazzano, 148. 
 
 R. 
 
 Race, Cape, 57, 59, 61-2, 94, 131. 
 
 Ramusio, first publishes the Verrazzano letter, 2, 10 ; recomposes i1 
 materially alters the text, 4, 55, 82-3, 137 ; for three centuries 
 only authority for the voyage, 18, 30, 33, 65, 67 ; responsible fo) 
 credit given to the letter, 83 ; edits a translation in Italian of Ov; 
 first work, 125 ; his account of the death of Verrazzano an impos 
 134-5, 149-50. 
 
 Raso, Cabo, 61, 94, 131. 
 
INDEX. 195 
 
 Red Indians of Newfoundland, why so called, 63. 
 
 Regiomontanus, his table of eclipses, 8. 
 
 Eeinel, Pedro, map of, 61, 97. 
 
 Rhode Island, complexion of the Indians of, 78. 
 
 Rhodes, similar island named after the mother of Francis, 6, 31, 52. 
 
 Ribault, derives his information in regard to Verrazzano, from Ramusio, 
 
 36-7. 
 Ribera, Juan, secretary of Cortes, carries the news to Spain of the treasure 
 
 at the Azores, 143, 144. 
 Ribero, Diego, Spanish cartographer, map of, 43, 50, 100 ; lays down the 
 
 exploration of Gomez, 131-8 ; his map in 1539 presented to the pope, 
 
 134 ; and is the basis of the Verrazzano letter, 136-138. 
 Rio de Buelta, on Cape Breton, northerly limit of the voyage of Gomez, 130. 
 Rio de los Games, the Penobscot, explored by Gomez, 131. 
 Eoberval, expedition to Canada, 34-6 ; his commission first published by 
 
 M. Harrisse, 36 ; his return from Canada in 1543, 41-3. 
 Roche, Marquis de la, commissions to settle the newly discovered countries, 
 
 36-7 ; his failure, 89, 40. 
 Rochelle, Verrazzano at, 143-4 ; letter of Alonzo Davila from, 164-5. 
 Rosier, account of the New England Indians using tobacco, 74. 
 Eouen, Indians of Newfoundland, with their birch-bark canoe, taken there 
 
 in 1603,63. 
 Ruscelli, map of, refers to the discoveries of Gomez, 106. 
 Rut, John, voyage to Newfoimdland in 1537, 63, 113. 
 
 s. 
 
 Sable, Cape, Nova Scotia, called Cape of Norumbega, by Alfonso, 38, 56 ; 
 
 Arecifes on Ribero's map, 181-3. 
 Sable island, convicts abandoned there by de la Roche, 40. 
 Saggiatore, a journal in Rome, first publishes the letter of Carli, 17. 
 Saguenay, Roberval in 1543 at, 41. 
 San Antonio, one of Magellan's ships, with Gomez, 118. 
 San Antonio, river on Ribero's map, 106. 
 Santa Cruz, Alonzo de, map of, in the Munich atlas, 43. 
 Santa Cruz, or Brazil, threatened expedition of Verrazzano, to, 139. 
 St. Domingo, Indians taken to, from South Carolina, 78 ; expeditions of 
 
 Ayllon and Matienzo from, 183. 
 Santa Elena orHelena, South Carolina, Ayllon dies and his expedition ends 
 
 there, 133. 
 Santiago, on the Ribero map, 43 ; on the Verrazzano map, 93. 
 St. Johns, Newfoundland, fishing vessels there in 1537,63. 
 S. Juan, C. de, on the Ribero map. Cape Hatteras, 180. 
 St. Lawrence, the river, 37, 40. 
 
 Santa Maria, bay of, the Chesapeake, visited by MenendezMarquez, 50, 133. 
 Santa Maria, one of the Azores, treasure sent by Cortes, remains at, 143, 
 St. Roman, C. de, southerly limit of the Verrazzano voyage, 130. 
 St. Vincent, Cape, treasure captured off, 143, 
 
196 VEREAZZANO. 
 
 Santee, the river Jordan, Indians taken from, 78 j northerly limit of the 
 expeditions of Ayllon, 133-4. 
 
 Saracens, complexion of the American Indians likened by Eamusio to the, 
 83. 
 
 Sargales, on Ribero's map, at or near Cape Canso, 131. 
 
 Seville, charts showing the exploration of Gomez prepared at, 123, 136. 
 
 Silveira, Portuguese ambassador to France, 189 ; his letter to King Joao 
 III, 141, 163. 
 
 Simancas, documents from the archives at, 148, 167, 168. 
 
 Smith, Buckingham, his inquiry into the authenticity of the Verrazzano 
 discovery, 3; globe of ITlpius found by him, 113 ; documents ob- 
 tained by him from the archives of Spain and Portugal, prefatory 
 note and Appendix. 
 
 Smith, Capt. John, description of the complexion of the Indians of the 
 Chesapeake, 78-9. 
 
 South Carolina discovered in the expedition of Ayllon and Matienzo, 119. 
 
 Spaniards discover Norumbega, 39 ; and Florida, 93. 
 
 Strozzi library in Florence, depository of the Carli manuscript, 11, 15 ; when 
 founded, 11. 
 
 Sumatra, voyage to, 85. 
 
 Sylvanus, Bernardus, map in his edition of the Ptolemy of 1511, 60. 
 
 T. 
 
 Terra Nova, fisheries carried on there by the Portuguese in 1506, 61 ; 
 Indians taken thence to France in 1508, 63-3 ; discovered by the 
 Bretons and Normands and the Portuguese, 86-7. 
 
 Thomassey, M. , first to call attention to the Verrazano map in 1853, 93 ; 
 describes the Ribero map sent to the pope, 135. 
 
 Thevet, Andre, his account of the Verrazzano voyage, 30. 
 
 TiraboBchi, mentions the Carli version of the letter, 13, 15 ; and the letter 
 of Caro, 108. 
 
 Tobacco pipe, its use among the Indians of the North American continent, 74. 
 
 Toledo, ludians taken there by Gomez, 131. 
 
 Traffalgar, C. now Cape Fear, on the map of Ribera, the landfall of the Ver- 
 razzano voyage near, 130. 
 
 u. 
 
 Ulpius, Euphrosynus, globe of, 99 ; the only evidence of the early existence 
 of the Verrazano map, 101, 113 ; from, 115. 
 
 V. 
 
 Val di Greve, Verrazzano a town in the, whence the family name, 134. 
 Varesam, Jehan de, agreement with Chabot, 35, 158. 160. 
 
INDEX. 197 
 
 Varezano Joao, mentioned by the Portuguese chronicler, Andrade, 139 ; 
 and by the ambassador, Silveira, 141, 163. 
 
 Verassen, Jean, mentioned in the manuscripts of Dieppe, 112. 
 
 Verrazano, Hieronimo de, map of, 84 ; map described, 91-115. 
 
 Verrazzana, land of, 94 ; sea of, 163. 
 
 Verrazzani, the brothers, 113, 115. 
 
 Verrazzauo, family of, 13, 116, 134. 
 
 Verrazzario, Bernardo da, two ancestors of the name, 134. 
 
 Verrazzano, Giovanni da, the discovery attributed to him, 1 ; letter in his 
 name addressed to the king of France, 3 ; letter not genuine, 10 ; two 
 versions of the letter, 10 ; one first printed by Ramusio, in 1556, 10 ; 
 the other appended to a letter of Fernando Carli, first printed in 
 1841, 11-13 ; the latter the original form, 13-16 ; the letter not au- 
 thentic, 35 ; no voyage made by him for the king of France known 
 in the history of France or acknowledged by her kings, 35-44 ; the 
 letter intrinsically false, 45-83 ; stated by Hakluyt to have made 
 three voyages to America and visited Henry VIII, of England, 109 ; 
 his career, 134^148 ; Eamusio's account of his death, 134-5 ; was a 
 corsair known by the name of Juan Florin, 186 ; his first capture, 
 138 ; threatens an expedition against Brazil, 139-141 ; captures the 
 treasure sent from Mexico by Cortes, 143 ; takes a Portuguese India- 
 man intlie summer of 1534, 145 ; his probable visit to England, 146 ; 
 enters into a venture with Chabot, 146 ; depredates upon the com- 
 merce of Spain and is himself captured, 147 ; summarily executed by 
 order of Charles V, in November 1437, 148 ; not answerable for the 
 fraud, 151. 
 
 Verrazzano, Piero Andrea da, father of Giovanni, 134. 
 
 Vespucci, Amerigo, 7, 53. 
 
 Vespucci, Juan, 130. 
 
 Victoria, one of Magellan's ships returns with the news of his death, 119. 
 
 w. 
 
 Wampum, used for money and personal ornament by the Indians of New 
 
 England, 73-3. 
 Waymouth, Captain, Eosier's account of smoking the tobacco pipe by the 
 
 Indians seen on his voyage, 74. 
 Williams, Roger, on the use of wampum by the Narraganset Indians, 73- 
 
 4 ; on their complexion, 79. 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, proposition to Sebastian Cabot, in 1519, to go in search 
 
 of a northwest passage, 118. 
 Wood, William, description of the wampum of the Narrangansets, 73. 
 
 Xaragua, Beohechio Cacique of, 71. 
 
198 VEEEAZZANO. 
 
 T. 
 
 Yucatan and Yucatanet on the Verrazano map, 95 note. 
 
 Zi, the letter used differently in the name of the author of the map, 
 and that of the navigator, 91 ma^, 94 note, 16 note, 134, 186. 
 
 PRESS OF J. MUNSELL. 
 ALBANY, N. T. 
 
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