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, every 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 capacious on the coast of the United States. It presents an opening into the 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. [Footnote: Blunt's American Coast Pilot, p. 340.] That an actual explorer could not have failed to have discovered this bay and found a secure harbor at that time, is shown by the account of the expedition, which the Adelantado, Pedro Menendes, of infamous memory, despatched under the command of Pedro Menendez Marquez, for the survey of this coast in 1573; when the means and facilities of navigators for exploration were not different from what existed at the date of the Verrazzano voyage. Menendez Marquez was the first to enter the Chesapeake after Gomez, who gave it the name of the bay of Santa Maria. [Footnote: This name occurs on the map of Ribero on this part of the coast, which establishes its application by Gomez; but its position is evidently misplaced and carried too far south.] Barcia thus summarizes the result of the expedition, so far as it relates to this bay.

"Pedro Menendez Marquez, governor of Florida for his uncle the Adelantado reduced many Indians to obedience and took possession of the provinces particularly in the name of the king, in the presence of Rodrigo de Carrion, notary of the government of Santa Elena. Afterwards, he, being a great seaman, inasmuch as he had formerly been admiral of the fleet, as Francisco Cano relates, Lib. 3, de la Histor. de las Ordenes Militares, fol. 184, went, by order of the Adelantado, to explore the coast, which exploration commenced at the cape of the Martyrs, and the peninsula Tequesta [point of Florida], where the coast begins to run north and south, at the outlet of the Bahama channel, and extended along the coast to beyond the harbor and bay of Santa Maria, which is three leagues wide and which is entered towards the northwest; and within it are many rivers and harbors where, on both sides of it, they can anchor. At the entrance, near the shore, on the south, there are from nine to thirteen fathoms of water, and on the north, from five to seven. Two leagues outside, in the sea, the depth is the same, north and south, but more sandy than inside. Going through the channel there are from nine to thirteen fathom; and in the harbor about fifteen, ten 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. [Footnote: Ensayo Chronologico, pp. 146, 8.]"

To ignore the existence of this great bay, the most important hydrographical feature of our coast, as Verrazzano, according to the letter, does, and to pretend that no harbor could be found there, in which the diminutive Dauphiny could lie, is, under the circumstances under which this exploration 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 consequence 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 the main land, in size about equal to the island of Rhodes, having many hills covered with trees and well peopled, judging from the great number of fires which we was 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 degrees 41' 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 extends twelve leagues, [Footnote: 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 north, is twelve leagues." The text is, "entrando in quello infra oriente e settentrione s'esteude leghe XII."] 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 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 rock 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 attending the sailing of the vessel, and liable to serious error. But the island and bay were objects of actual observation, 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 somewhat 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 incompatible 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 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 land, about five leagues distant, are found Narraganset bay and the harbor of Newport, which, it is imagined, 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 Narraganset 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 Buzzard'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 essentially 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 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 corresponding with that mentioned in the letter. It is incontrovertible, 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 exploration. Yet it was not visited or seen except, in sailing by it, at a distance. Its pretended hills and 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 description itself, and the fact will be confirmed by other evidence hereafter, that the bay intended to be described was the great bay of Massachusetts and Maine terminating 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 the contradictions of the letter, from an imperfect delineation 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 given as follows:

"Having supplied ourselves with every thing necessary, we departed, on the sixth [Footnote: According to the Archivio Storico Italiano, and not the FIFTH, as given in N. Y. Hist. Coll.] of May, from this port [where they had remained fifteen days] and SAILED ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY LEAGUES, KEEPING SO NEAR TO THE COAST AS NEVER TO LOSE IT FROM OUR 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 cold climate. 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."

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 computation, 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 CONSTANTLY 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 Buzzard's bay, or from any harbor on that coast, east of Long Island, they would in the course of twenty 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 northerly 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 Degrees 40' N. and from thence for a further distance of one hundred and fifty leagues, also EASTERLY, the land was always in sight.

CAPE HENRY AND ENTRANCE INTO THE CHESAPEAKE. Lighthouse, with lantern 129 feet above the sea, bearing W. N. W. 1/2 W., three leagues distant.



V.

III. CAPE BRETON AHD THE SOUTHERLY COAST OF NEWFOUNDLAND, HERE CLAIMED TO HAVE BEEN DISCOVERED, WERE KNOWN PREVIOUSLY. PERVERSION OF THE TEXT OF THE LETTER BY RAMUSIO.

By the two courses and distances just mentioned, the explorers are brought first to the island of Cape 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 considered, however, as properly limited to the turn of the coast before mentioned, as that is a governing circumstance 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 Degrees N. to latitude 50 Degrees N. on the east side of Newfoundland, it pretends to the discovery of parts, which were in fact already known; and it makes this claim 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 description of the coast with the following paragraph.

"Departing from thence, we kept along the coast, steering northeast, 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 between east and north 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 (avendo discoperto) VII, [Footnote: "The MS. has erroneously and uselessly the repetition VII, that is, 700 leagues." Note, by M. Arcangeli. It is evident that VII is mistakenly rendered 502 in the transcription used by Dr. Cogswell.] 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 extended, 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 50TH 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 TERMINATION OF THE LAND."

That this latitude must be taken as correctly determined 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 navigators 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 Newfoundland 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. [Footnote: Damiam de Goes, Chronica do felicissimo rei Dom Emanuel parte I. C. 66. (Fol., Lisboa, 1566)]

This intention is made positively certain by the remark which follows the statement of the latitude, that "beyond this point the Portuguese had already sailed as far north as the Arctic 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 hundred miles, "without finding the end." [Footnote: Paesi novamente ritrovati. Lib. sexto. cap. CXXXL. Venice, 1521. 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. 235-6.] No other exploration along this coast by the Portuguese, tending to 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 Esquimaux, whether on the one side or the other of Davis straits it is unnecessary here to inquire, as the Esquimaux are not found south of 50 Degrees N. latitude. The land along which he ran in his second voyage, was, according 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 Newfoundland. It appears first on a map of the world in the Ptolemy of 1511 edited by Bernardus Sylvanus of Eboli, and is there laid down as extending from latitude 50 Degrees N. to 60 Degrees N. with the name of Corte Real or Court Royal, latinized into Regalis Domus. [Footnote: Claudii Ptholemaei Alexandrini liber geographiae, cum tabulis et universali figura et cum additione locorum quae a recentioribus reporta sunt diligenti cura emendatus et impressus. (Fol., Venetiis, 1511.)] The length of the coast, corresponds with the description of Pasqualigo, 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 therefore 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 Breton, that is, from 46 Degrees N. latitude to 50 Degrees N., embracing a distance of five hundred miles according to actual measurement, or eight hundred miles according to the letter, is proven by the fact, that it had all been known and frequented by Portuguese and French fishermen, for a period of twenty years preceding the Verrazano voyage. The Portuguese fisheries in Newfoundland 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; [Footnote: Memorias Economicas da academia Real das Sciencias da Lisboa, tom. III, 393.] 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 down, as regards latitude, though not by name. On Terra Nova the name of C. Raso, (preserved in the modern Cape Race) is applied to its southeasterly point, and other Portuguese names, several of which also still remain, designating different points along the easterly coast of Newfoundland, and a Portuguese banner, 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) delineates 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 the Bretons. [Footnote: Atlas zur entdeckingsgeschichte Amerikas. Herausgegeben von Friedrick Kunstmann, Karl von Sprusser, Georg M. Thomas. Zu den Monumenta Saecularia der K.B. Akademie der Wissenschaften, 28 Maers, 1859. Munchen.] The French authorities are more explicit. 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 Normandy 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. [Footnote: Eusebii Chronicon, continued by Joannes Multivallis of Louvain, (Paris 1512) fol. 172.

We give here, 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 were 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 extending 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 nakedness. They form their speech with their lips. No religion. THEIR 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 arrows pointed with stone or fish-bone. 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 animals. Their country is in the parallel of the seventh climate, more under the west than France is above the west." PLUS SUB OCCIDENTE QUAM GALLICA REGIO SUPRA OCCIDENTEM. 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 Degrees 15' N. and extends to 50 Degrees 30' N. beginning where the longest day of the year is 15 hours and 45 minutes long. (IMAGO MUNDI, 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 jaw, as here described, was common to all the tribes of this northern coast, the Nasquapecs of Labrador, the red Indians of Newfoundland and the Micmacs of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. It was from the use of red ochre for this purpose that the natives of Newfoundland 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 (LIVIDAE) or blue, like veins, that they belonged to the tribes of Cape Breton. (Hind's Labrador II, 97-110. Purchas, III. 1880-1. Denys. (HIST. NAT. DE L'AMERIQUE SEPT. II, 887.))]

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 evident from the letter of John Rut, 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." [Footnote: Purchas, III, 809. Memoir of Sebastian Cabot, pp. 108, 268, and the authorities there cited.] This was at a single point on the coast, and in latitude 47 Degrees 30' N.; and so large a number of vessels there denotes a growth of many years, at that time, of those fisheries.

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 inhabitants, 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, without 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 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 representing 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 circle 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 Degrees 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 effect of the alteration.

VERSION OF CARLI, Narrative.

Navicando infra 'l subsolano ed aquilone in spatio di leghe CL et de gia avendo consumato tutte le nostre substantie navale et vettovaglie, avendo discopruto leghe DII cive leghe 700, piu do nuova terra fornendoci di acque et legne deliberammo di tornare in Francia. * * * * * * * * * * * *

Cosmography.

In questa nostra navigatione fatta per ordine du V. S. M., oltre i gradi 92 che dal detto meridiano verso lo occidente della prima terra trovamo gradi 34 navigando leghe 300 infra oriente e settentrione leghe 400, quasi allo oriente continuo el lito della terra siamo pervenuti per infino a gradi 50, lasciando la terra che piu tempe fa trovorno li Lusitani, quali seguirno piu al septentrione, pervenendo sino al circulo artico e'l fine lasciendo incognito.

Translation Narrative.

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 VII that is 700 leagues of unknown lands. * * * * * * * * * * *

Cosmography.

In the voyage which we made by order of your Majesty, in addition 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 50TH 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 NORTH AS THE ARCTIC CIRCLE, WITHOUT COMING TO THE TERMINATION OF THE LAND.

VERSION OF RAMUSIO, Narrative.

Navigando fra levante & tramontana per spatio di leghe 150, PERVENIMO PROPINQUI ALLA TERRA EGE PER IL PASSATO TREVORONO I BRETTONI, QUALE STA IN GRADI 50 & havendo horamai consumati tutti li nostri armeggi & vettovaglie, havendo scoperto leghe 700, & piu di nuova terra, fortnitoci di acque & legue, deliberammo tornare in Francia. * * * * * * * * * * * *

Cosmography omitted.

Translation Narrative.

Sayling northeast for the space of 150 leagues WE APPROACHED TO THE LANDE THAT IN TIMES PAST WAS DISCOVERED BY THE BRITONS, WHICH IS IN FIFTIE DEGREES. Having now spent all our provision and victuals and having discovered about 700 leagues and more of newe countries, and being furnished with water and wood we concluded to returne into Fraunce. (Hakluyt, Divers voyages).

(Cogswell, Coll. of N. Y. Hist. Society, Second series, I.)

Ramusio in omitting the cosmography and confining 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 qualification of the latitude, what does not appear in the letter, that it was near where the Bretons had formerly made discoveries, and omitting all reference to the Portuguese. 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 fake claim to the discovery north of Cape Breton, by admitting the discoveries of the Bretons, 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 designation 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 Ramusio to make this alteration is found in the discourse of the French captain of Dieppe, in which it is stated that this part of the coast was discovered by the Normands and Bretons and the Portuguese, many years before the Verrazzano voyage. Ramusio, as he informs us himself, translated 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 necessary; 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 cosmography occurs. Whether this limit was so transposed by him for a purpose or not, may be a question; but the origin of it cannot be disputed.



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 BELONGED TO THE NATIVES IS UNNOTICED, AND WHAT IS ORIGINALLY MENTIONED OF THEM IS UNTRUE. FURTHER ALTERATIONS OF THE TEXT BY RAMUSIO.

We are brought now to the observations in reference 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 off 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 vegetation 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 France, is designated by name, nor any object peculiar 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 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 discovered, 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 experiences 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 apparrelling her, they let her depart to her companie." 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." [Footnote: Peter Martyr, Dec. LL in Eden.]. The Verrazzano letter tells us, in like phrase, that when they landed 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 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 complete, 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 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 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 accompanied by the gentlemen of his household and of his squaw queen with her maids of honor, has its prototype in the visit paid to Bartholomew Columbus, during the absence of his brother, the admiral, by Bechechio the king or cacique of Xacagua and his sister, the queen dowager, Anacoana, who are represented as going to the ship of the Adelantado in two canoes, "one for himself and certayne of his gentlemen, another for Anacoana and her waiting women." The astonishment which the natives manifested at the appearance of the Dauphiny and her crew; their admiration 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 inhabitant of the islands discovered by Columbus, and of the northern regions by Sebastian Cabot. These traits of Indian life and character, therefore, not having been peculiar to the natives of the country described in the letter, and having been already mentioned 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 prominent 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 to the letter, fifteen days in familiar intercourse with the inhabitants, was its greatest mart, from which it was spread among the 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 westerne Indians fetch all their coyne from these southern mint- masters. 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, as formes of birds, beasts and fishes, carved out of bone, shels, and stone, with long bracelets of their curious wrought wampompeage and mowhackees which they put about their necks and loynes; which they count a rare kinde of decking." The same writer adds a description of an Indian king of this country in his attire, which 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 wampompeage 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 himselfe little inferiour to the great Cham. [Footnote: New England Prospect, pp. 61, 65-6.] 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 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." [Footnote: Key into the Language of America, pp. 149-50.]

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, sometimes of very elaborate workmanship. Smoking the pipe was of universal use among them, both on ordinary and extraordinary occasions. It was a tender of hospitality to strangers; and a sign of peace and friendship between the nations. [Footnote: 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 the Southern Indians. By Charles C. Jones Jr., p. 382. (New York, 1873.)] When Captain Waymouth ran along the coast of the great bay of Massachusetts, in 1605, he repeatedly encountered this custom. 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 made of earth very strong, but blacke and short, containing 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." [Footnote: Purchas, IV. 1662.] 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 Europe, 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 describes, as if he saw no other kind.

"Their boats whereof we brought one to Bristoll, were in proportion like a wherrie of the river of Thames, seventeene foot long and foure foot broad, made of the barke of a birch 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 incredible in regard of the largenesse 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." [Footnote: Purchas, IV. 1655.]

The silence of the letter in regard to this species of the canoe is the more remarkable, as it is in connection with the natives of the harbor where they spent fifteen days, that mention is made in it a second time of the manner of making their boats out of single logs, as if it were a subject of importance, and worthy of remark. 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 used them.

The absence of all allusion to any of the peculiar attributes, especially of the essential character just described, 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 between 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 molto dagli Etiopi 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 opportunity 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 northwardly, 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 surrounded 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 latitude 41 Degrees 40", who are described as essentially different 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 pendano piu in bianchezza, altri in colore flavo). The difference between the inhabitants of the two sections 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 America, except in California where some are said to exist. The Indians of the Atlantic coast were uniformly 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 assigning them this complexion. Reference 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 Jordan, 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. [Footnote: Dec. VII, 2.] Barlowe, in his account of the first expedition of Raleigh, which entered Pamlico sound, within the region now under consideration, describes the Indians whom he found there as of a "colour yellowish." [Footnote: Hakluyt, III. 248.] 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." [Footnote: Smith, Map of Virginia, 1612, p. 19.] On the other hand the natives of Massachusetts and Rhode Island in latitude 4l Degrees 40' are described by the first explorers of that region in substantially the same terms. Brereton, who accompanied Gosnold in his first voyage to the Elisabeth islands and the main land opposite, in 1602, mentions the natives there, as being of a complexion or color "much like a dark olive." [Footnote: Purchas, IV. 1652.] 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 hundred and twentie at once," says, "these people are inclined to a swart, tawnie or chesnut colour, not by nature but accidentally." [Footnote: Ibid, IV, 1655.] And Roger Williams, partaking of the same idea as Pringe, that the swarthy color was accidental, testifies, almost in the same language as Captain Smith, that the Narragansets and others within a region of two hundred miles of them, were "tawnie by the sunne and their annoyntings, yet they were born white." [Footnote: Roger Williams's Key, 52.] 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 which 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 conclusive 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, the 17th of that month, new style. [Footnote: See ante, page 4, note.] They left the harbor of the great bay, where they had remained for fifteen days on the 6th 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 months of March and April, engaged in coasting from the landfall to the great bay in latitude 41 Degrees 40', during which period the observations relating to the intermediate country, consequently, must have been made. They left the coast, finally, in latitude 50 Degrees N., for the purpose of returning to France, in time to reach there and have the letter written announcing their arrival at Dieppe on the 8th 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 Virginia, where they discovered the old woman and girl concealed in the GRASS and found the land generally, "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. They are held 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." [Footnote: "Vedenimo in quella molte vite della natura prodotte, quali alzando si avvoltano agli alberi come nella Cisalpina Gallia custumano; le quali se dagli agricultori avessimo el perfetto ordine di cultura, senza dubbio produrrebbono ottimi vini, perche piu volte il frutto di quello beendo, veggiendo suave e dolce, non dal nostro differente sono da loro tenuti in extimatione; impero che per tutto dove nascono, levano gli arbusculi circustanti ad causa il frutto possa gierminare. Trovamo rose silvestre et vivuole, gigli et molte sorte di erbe e fiori odoriferi da nostri differenti."]

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. According 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 assigned by Lawson for the ripening of the summer fox grape in the swamps and moist lands of North Carolina,—the earliest of all the grapes in that region. [Footnote: New Voyage to Carolina, p. 602.] North of latitude 41 Degrees 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 appearance of the natives, be regarded as deliberately made; and consequently, the two as establishing the falsity of the description in those particulars, and thus involving 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 account of the voyage of Gomez, made there in 1525, in which they are described, in the same volume with the Verrazzano letter. [FOOTNOTE: Tom. III. fol. 52, (ed. 1556).] His own experience, as to the climate of Venice, taught him also that grapes could 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 Ethiopians," the phrase, "brownish and not much unlike the Saracens" (berrettini & non molto dalli Saracini differenti) [FOOTNOTE: Berrettini is derived from beretta, the Turkish fez, a red cap, designating also the scarlet cap of the cardinals & the church of Rome.] by which they are likened to those Arabs whose complexion, "yellow, bordering on brown," is of a similar cast; [Footnote: Pritchard, Natural History of Man, p. 127 (2d edition).] and in regard to the grapes, by substituting instead of, "tasting the fruit many times we 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 suave & dolce,) by which he apparently obviates the objection, but in fact only aggravates 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 alterations 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 character of this narrative in essential particulars, until its exposure now, by the production of the Carli version.



VII.

THE EXTRINSIC EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE CLAIM. I. DISCOURSE OF THE FRENCH SEA-CAPTAIN OF DIEPPE.

The extrinsic evidence which in 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 considered 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 Degrees to the 47 Degrees under the Arctic pole, and concerning the land of Brazil, Guinea, the island of St. Lawrence and that of Sumatra," the other is a map of the world, bearing the name of Hieronimo de Verrazzano.

The discourse of the French captain does not, any more than the letter of Verrazzano, exist in the original; nor has any copy of it ever been produced, except in a printed translation by Ramusio in the same volume, as that in which his version of that letter appears, and immediately following it. Ramusio states that it was written in 1539, as may he 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 giving it he seemed to do wrong to the memory of so valiant and noble a gentleman. It is evident, however, upon comparing the description, which it gives, of a voyage made from Dieppe to Sumatra, with the original 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.[Footnote: Voyages et decouvertes des navigateurs Normands. Par L. Estancelin, p. 241. (Paris 1832.) M. Estancelin supposes that Pierre Mauclere the astronomer of one of the ships composing the expedition of Parmentier, was the author of this discourse (p. 45, note). But M. D'Avezac attributes it to Pierre Crignon, 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 variation of the needle. Introduction to the Brief Recit of Jacques Cartier, p. VIL (Tross, Paris, 1868.) Brunet, sub Parmentier. Margry, Les navigateurs Francaises, p. 199. ] Its authenticity, in general, may therefore not be questioned. 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 defects and errors, proves that we have by no means a reliable copy for our guidance. In fact, as given by Ramusio, 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.

The writer, after explaining the nature of latitude and longitude, and taking the meridian of no variation 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 Ras, is situated west of our diametrical or meridional line whereon is fixed the first point of longitude according to the true meridian of the compass; and the said Cape de Ras is in west longitude 40 Degrees and 47 of North latitude. The Terra Nova extends towards the Arctic pole from 40 Degrees to 60, and from Cape de Ras going towards the pole, the coast almost always runs from south to north, and contains in all 350 leagues, and from said Cape de Ras 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 Degrees 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 Ras 760 leagues.

"Between Cape de Ras 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, on the face and as it were striped with color between black and red, (tra il nero & berrettino) and in many respects as to face and 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 Ras 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 (Giovanni Dionisio) was captain and Camart (Camarto) of Rouen, 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 Dieppe went thither, the master or the captain of said ship being Thomas Aubert, and he was the first who brought hither people of the said country.

"Following beyond the cape of the Brettons there is a land contiguous to the said cape, the coast whereof extends west by southwest as far as the land of Florida and it runs full 500 leagues, (WHICH COAST WAS DISCOVERED FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, BY MESSER GIOVANNI DA VERRAZZANO, IN THE NAME OF KING FRANCIS, AND MADAME THE REGENT,) and this land is called by many la Francese, and likewise by the Portuguese themselves and its end towards Florida is at 78 Degrees west longitude and 30 Degrees north latitude. The inhabitants of this land are tractable 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 Nurumbega, and between this land and that of Brazil is a great gulf which extends westwardly to 92 Degrees 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." [Footnote: Ramusio, III. fol. 423-4 (ed. 1556).]

This account emphatically contradicts the Verrazzano letter which claims the discovery of the coast from Cape Breton in 46 Degrees N, as far east and north, as 50 Degrees 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, assigning 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 Degrees N. The 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 unfounded. 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 evidently derived from other sources of discovery. Two names are attributed to it, Francese and Nurumbega, 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, indicates 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. [Footnote: Discovery of Maine, p. 202, chart XIV.] Nurumbega, as the writer himself states, is an Indian name, which could not have been taken from the Verrazzano account, as that does not mention a single Indian word of any kind. The statement of the productions 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 connection 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 another 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 preparing 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, THE LAND DISCOVERED BY THE BRETONS, for that of, THE COUNTRY EXPLORED BY THE PORTUGUESE, as the northern limit of the voyage of Verrazzano; thereby removing the objection, to which the letter was obnoxious, of entirely ignoring the discoveries of the Bretons, which were distinctly asserted in the discourse. In order to conform to the Verrazzano letter, as it was thus modified, it was necessary to insert this clause in the discourse, which would else 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 existence of a claim in its behalf; the statement which it contains in relation to Verrazzano, originating with Ramusio adding nothing to the case. [Footnote: The writer gives, however, some details in relation to the Indians and the fisheries along the easterly coast of Newfoundland, illustrative of certain 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 southerly coast between Cape Race and Cape Breton, he states: "There are many stags and deer, and birds like geese and margaux. On the coast there is much good fishery of cod, which fish are taken by the FRENCH AND BRETONS, ONLY BECAUSE THOSE OF THE COUNTRY DO NOT TAKE THEM. 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 aforesaid 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 fishery is ended, winter coming on, they depart with their fish, and go away, IN LITTLE BOATS MADE OF THE BARK OF TREES, called buil, into other countries, which are perhaps warmer, but we know not where."]



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 ANNIBAL CARO. THE MAP PRESENTED TO HENRY VIII. VOYAGES OF VERRAZZANO. THE GLOBE OF EUPHROSYNUS ULPIUS.

The map of Hieronimo de Verrazano, recently brought to particular notice, [Footnote: Journal of the American Geographical Society of New York. 1873 Vol. IV. Notes on the Verrazano map. By James Carson Brevoort.] is a planisphere on a roll of parchment 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 Verrazzano discovery, it may be inferred that the year 1529 is intended to be understood as the time when it was constructed. No paleographical description of it, however, has yet been published, from which the period of its construction might be determined, or the congruity of its parts verified. It may, however, in order to disencumber the question, be admitted to be the map mentioned by Annibal Caro in 1537, 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. [Footnote: This map was either unknown to Ramusio and Gastaldi or discredited by them. Ramusio in his preface, after mentioning to Fracastor that he placed the relation of Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier in that volume, adds, that inasmuch as Fracastor has exhorted him to make, in imitation of Ptolemy, four or five maps of as much as was known up to that time of the part of the world recently discovered, he could not disobey his commands, and had therefore arranged to have them made by the Piedmontese cosmographer Giacomo 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 Verrazzano map are to be traced upon it: and no other map of the country is given. Fol. 424-5.]

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 Society, from the larger of which, so much as relates to the present purpose, has been carefully reproduced here on the same scale. It is 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 although a knowledge of all the names is necessary for a thorough understanding of this map, these photographs, nevertheless, affording a true transcript of it in other respects, enable us to determine that it is of no authority as to the alleged discovery itself. [Footnote: This map was first brought to public notice by M. Thomassey, in a memoir entitled, Les Papes Geographes et la Cosmographie du Vatican, which was published in the Nouvelles Annales des Voyages. Nouvelle serie, tome XXXV. Annee 1853. Tome Troisieme. Paris. We are indebted to this memoir for the explanation of our copy of the map of the scale of distances, which is illegible on the photographs. According to this explanation there should be nine points in the narrower, and nineteen in the wider spaces. These being two and half leagues apart, give twenty-five leagues for the smaller and fifty leagues for the larger spaces, making three hundred and fifty leagues for the whole scale.]

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 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 continuously from the gulf of Mexico to Davis straits, in latitude 60 Degrees N. Beginning at the point of Florida, which is placed IN LATITUDE 33 1/2 Degrees 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 Degrees 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 Degrees N. that is, from the land of Florida as here shown, the coast continues in a northerly direction thirty or forty leagues farther, to a point between 40 Degrees and 41 Degrees N. when, turning northeasterly, it runs with slight variations, on a general course of east north east, for six hundred and fifty leagues to Cape Breton placed in latitude 51 1/2 S., 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 sufficiently 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 commencing AT LATITUDE 38 Degrees, are Dieppa and Livorno. The others, proceeding north, are Punta de Calami, Palamsina, Polara flor, Comana, 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 Degrees N., is a large triangular island, designated by the name of Luisia. Hence to Cape Breton the names are illegibly photographed. Along this coast, at three points, namely, in latitude 42 Degrees; opposite the island of Luisia, in latitude 46; and in latitude 50 Degrees, standards are displayed, the nationality of which cannot be distinguished, but which no doubt were intended for those of France, inasmuch as over them occurs the name of Nova Gallia sive Iucatanet in large, commanding letters, with the Verrazzano legend, before referred to underneath it, in these words: 'Verrazana seu Gallia nova quale discopri 5 anni fa Giovanni di Verrazano fiorentino per ordine et comandamete del Chrystianissimo Re di Francia; that is, Verrazzana or New Gaul which Giovanni di Verrazzano, a Florentine, discovered five years ago by order and command of the most Christian king of France. [Footnote: The names Verrazzana and Verrazzano in this legend are WRITTEN on the photograph by hand, with a double z, though M. Thomassey uses only the single z, 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. Hieronimo, 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.]

Over Cape Breton is a representation of the shield of Brittany, denoted by its ermines, 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, are delineated, with the Portuguese name of C. Raso and the island of Baccalaos barely legible. The coast runs north from C. Raso to C. Formoso in latitude 60 Degrees where it meets the straits which separate it from Terra Laboratoris, the country discovered by Gaspar Cortereal on his first voyage, but here attributed to the English, and being in fact Greenland. [Footnote: Mr. Brevoort gives other names as legible on the easterly coast of Terra Nova, which we have not been able to distinguish, namely: c. de spera, illa de san luis, monte de trigo, and illa dos avos. Mr. B. reads IUCATANET, and M. Margry YUCATANET, where our engraver has IUCATANIA, 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.]

It is obvious that the discoveries of Verrazzano are thus intended to embrace the coast from latitude 38 Degrees N. to Cape Breton, that is, between the points designated by the armorial designations of Spain and Brittany, 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 Dieppa 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 declaring 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 continuation of the names to that point, showing an exploration 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 Dieppa 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 Degrees N. 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 Degrees; and on the other hand, in limiting them, in the north, to the land discovered by the Bretons, it conforms to its Portuguese 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 commenced their explorations to the Arctic circle, which this map itself shows were on the east side of Terra Nova. Verrazzano the navigator, therefore, could not have been the author of the letter and also the authority 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 confined. It lies on the west side of the continent but approaches so near the Atlantic, in latitude 41 Degrees 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 within 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 its position a part of the discoveries of Verrazzano, 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 it; and 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 accomplishment 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, and its short distance.

The unauthentic character of this map, and the manner in which its representation of the Verrazzano discoveries was produced, distinctly appear in its method of construction. Cape Breton and Terra Nova are represented 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, is precisely the same it as it is shown on the anonymous Portuguese chart just mentioned. 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 Degrees and Cape Breton, 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 51-1/2 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 Degrees N. instead of 41 Degrees, the latitude assigned to it in the letter. Nothing could more conclusively show the factitious origin of this delineation and its worthlessness 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 constructed 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 language of the legend, which states that the discovery 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. If 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, unacquainted with the letter, can determine from this inscription, or any other part of the map, the date either of the discovery or map; and this precise difficulty Euphrosynus Ulpius apparently encountered in attempting to fix the time of the discovery for his globe, as will hereafter be seen. Why the time of the discovery should have been left in such an ambiguous state, compatibly with fair intentions, it is difficult to understand. 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 without 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 Vatican; 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.