The Voyage of Verrazzano - Chapters I-III



CHAPTER I.
THE DISCOVERY ATTRIBUTED TO VERRAZZANO
 
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 France, has received until quite recently the assent of all the 
geographers and historians who have taken occasion to treat of the 
subject. This acknowledgment, for more than three hundred years, which 
would seem to preclude all question in regard to its authenticity at this 
late day, has, however, been due more to the peculiar circumstances of its 
publication than to any evidence of its truth. The only account of it 
which exists, is contained in a letter purporting to have been written by 
the discoverer himself, and is not corroborated by the testimony of any 
other person, or sustained by any documentary proof. It was not published 
to the world until it appeared for the first time in Italy, the birth 
place of the navigator, more than thirty years after the transactions 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 sovereign, it is asserted, sent forth the expedition, and to whose 
crown the right of the discovery accordingly attached. Yet it is not 
difficult to comprehend how the story, appealing to the patriotic 
sympathies of Ramusio, was inconsiderately adopted by him, and inserted 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 hearing, it is no less easy to understand, how thus adopted 
and promulgated by the only countries interested in the question, the 
claim was admitted by other nations without challenge or dispute, and has 
thus become incorporated 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 geographical interest in connection with the origin and progress of 
maritime discovery on this continent. Our own writers assuming its 
validity, without investigation, have been content to trace, if possible, 
the route of Verrazzano and point out the places he explored, seeking 
merely to reconcile the account with the actual condition and situation of 
the country. Their explanations, though sometimes plausible, are often 
contradictory, 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 utterly 
fictitious.* The grounds upon which our conviction rests we propose now to 
state. Some documents will be introduced, for the first time here brought 
to light, which will serve further to elucidate the question, and show the 
career and ultimate fate of Verrazzano. 

(* An Inquiry into the Authenticity of Documents concerning a Discovery in 
North America claimed to have been made by Verrazzano. Read before the New 
York Historical Society, Tuesday, October 10, 1864. By Buckingham Smith. 
New York, 1864. pp. 31, and a map.) 

The letter, in which the pretension is advanced, professes to be addressed 
by Verrazzano to the king of France, at that time Francis I, from Dieppe, 
in Normandy, the 8th of July (Old Style), 1534, 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 
accordingly made. He first reminds his majesty that, after starting with 
four ships, originally composing the expedition, he was compelled by 
storms, encountered on the northern coasts, to put into Brittany in 
ddistress, with the loss of two of them; and that after repairing there 
the others, called the Normanda and Delfina (Dauphine), be made a cruize 
with this fleet of war, as they are styled, along the coast of Spain. He 
finally proceeded on the voyage of discovery with the Dauphine 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 they fell 
upon a "country never before seen by any one either in ancient or modern 
times."* 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** 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 leagues, they retraced their 
course, and ran to the north with no better 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 black. 
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 adjoined the Orient, and for that reason was not devoid of medicinal 
and aromatic drugs and gold; and being in latitude 34 Degrees 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 entwining the trees and producing sweet and luscious 
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 France. Coasting thence northeasterly for one hundred leagues, 
sailing 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 
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 canoes, 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 upon it, they proceeded to a harbor fifteen 
leagues beyond, at the entrance of a large bay, twelve leagues broad, 
where they came to anchor and remained for fifteen days. They encountered 
here a people with whom they formed a great friendship, different 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 Degrees 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 land which stretched 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 further, they discovered within 
that distance thirty-two islands. And finally, after having sailed between 
east and north one hundred and fifty leagues more, they reached the 
fiftieth degree of north latitude, where the Portuguese had commenced 
their discoveries towards the Arctic circle; when finding their provisions 
nearly exhausted, they took in wood and water and returned to France, 
having coasted, it is stated, along an unknown country for seven hundred 
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 Christian worship performed by the discoverers.

(* Some writers have regarded this introductory as referring to two 
voyages or cruises, one with the four ships before the disaster, and the 
other with the Dauphine afterwards. But it seems clear from their being 
described 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 on their return to that port. If they were on their return from a 
voyage to America, as Charlevoix infers (Fastes Chronologques 1523-4), or 
simply from a cruise, 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 alteration which Ramusio made in this portion of the letter, by 
introducing the word "success," as of the four ships, Charelvoix expressly 
refers to Ramusio as his authority and Mr. Brevoort makes a paraphrase 
from the Carli and Ramusio versions combined. (Notes on the Verrazzano Map 
in Journal of the Am. Geog. 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 sailint 
westward, in twenty-five days we ran eight hundred leagues. On the 24th of 
February, we encountered as violent a hurricane as any ship ever 
weathered. Pursuing our voyage toward the west, a little northwardly, in 
twenty-four days more, have run four hundred leagues, we reached a new 
country," &c. If the twenty-four days be calculated 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 distance first sailed from 800 to 
500 leagues; the day when they encountered the storm from the 24th to the 
20th of February; and the twenty-four days last run to twenty-five; making 
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 
encountered a gale while at anchor on the coast, early in March, the 7th 
of that month must be taken as the time of the landfall.)

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 
supplement, except that it emphasizes and enforces the statements 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 degrees N. 
latitude, and gives seven hundred leagues as the extent of the discovery. 
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 made 
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, that they took the 
aim's altitude from day to day, and noted the observations, together with 
the rise and fall of the tide, in a little boat, 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 published 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 redeem of its originality. Such is the account, in brief; 
which the letter gives of the origin, nature and extent of the alleged 
discovery; and as it assumes to be the production of the navigator 
himself, and is the only source of information on the subject, it suggests 
all the questions which arise in this inquiry. These relate both to the 
genuineness of the letter, and the truth of its statements; and 
accordingly bring under consideration the circumstances under which that 
instrument was made known and has received credit; the alleged promotion 
of the voyage by the king of France; and the results claimed to have been 
accomplished thereby. It will be made to appear upon this examination, 
that the letter, according to the evidence upon which its existence is 
predicated, could not have been written by Verrazzano; that the 
instrumentality of the King of France, in any such expedition of discovery 
as therein described, is unsupported by the history of that country, and 
is inconsistent with the acknowledged acts of Francis and his successors, 
and therefore incredible; 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 knowledge of the direction 
and extent of the coast was derived from the exploration of Estevan Gomez, 
a Portuguese 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.



CHAPTER II.
THE VERRAZZANO LETTER NOT GENUINE

No proof that the 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 modern 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 genuineness 
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 both of them of uncertain 
date. The printed copy appears 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, according 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 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 found 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 manuscript version 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 letter 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 manuscript 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
library 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 competent persons who have examined it, indicates that it was written 
in the middle of the sixteenth century. There is, therefore, nothing in 
the history or character of the publication in Ramusio or the manuscript, 
to show that the letter emanated from Verrazzano. 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 enough to authorize an inference in favor of 
such an original by reason of their giving the earliest account of the 
coasts and country claimed to have been discovered. 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. 

(* Verrazzano died in 1527; Louise, the mother of Francis I in September, 
1582, and Francis himself in March, 1547.)

(** Der Italicum von D. Friedrich Blume. Baud II, 81. Halle, 1827.)
 
The existence of the copy which, in consequence of its connection in the 
same manuscript with that of the Carli 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 omitted 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 the letter of Ramusio, states that an 
addition to it, describing the distances to the places 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 in 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. Arcangeli. From an inspection of the codex 
in the library, where it then existed in Florence, M. Arcangeli supposes 
the manuscript was written in the middle of the sixteenth century. 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 cosmography, 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 
purpose. 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 recomposition of the other in the language in which they now are 
found. In regard to their being both translated from the French, the only 
other language in which the letter can be supposed to have been written 
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, nevertheless, 
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 explanation 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 evident, however, that the Carli version could 
not have been derived from that contained in Ramusio, 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 which it inevitably leads. If the version in Ramusio be 
a recomposition of the Carli copy, an important step is gained towards 
determining the origin of the Verrazzano 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: 

(* Serie di Ritratti d'Uomini Illustri Toscani con gli elogj istorici dei 
medesimi. Vol. secondo Firenze, 1768.)
 
"The Strozzi Library is no longer in existence; but the manuscripts of 
that collection passed into the hands of the Tuscan government, and were 
divided between the Magliabechian and Laurentian libraries of Florence. 
The historical documents were deposited in the former. Among them was the 
cosmographical narration 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. Verraz;" 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 
corsivo), 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 Ramusio, we were struck with the 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, bianchissimo is put for branzino. There 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 Ramusio, except by supposing that this editor worked the 
whole piece over anew, correcting the errors of language upon his own 
authority.** These errors indeed are numerous, and the whole exhibits a 
strange mixture of Latinisms*** 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 great measure, 
owing to false pointing. 

(* 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 
translation of Marco Polo. See Apostolo Zeno, Annot. alla Bib. Ital. del 
Fontanini, tom. II, p. 300; ed. di Parma. 1804." There is another instance 
mentioned by Amoretti in the preface to his translation of Pigafetta's 
journal 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. Premier 
voyage autour du monde. xxxii. (Jansen, Paris l'an ix.))

(*** An instance of these Latinisms is the signature "Janus Verrazzanus," 
affixed to the letter.)

"The cosmographical description forms the last three pages of the letter. 
It was doubtless intentionally omitted by Ramusio, though it would be 
difficult to say why. Some of the readings are apparently 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 
transcriber. 
 
"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 history, 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: Carli 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 
own 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 sufficient corroboration of our statement."*

(* Historical Studies: by George Washington Greene, New York, 1850; p. 
323. Life and Voyages of Verrazzano (by the same), in the North American 
Review for October, 1837. (Vol. 45, p. 306).)
 
Adopting 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 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 Carli to his Father.*

(* The letter of Carli was first published in 1844, with the discourse of 
Mr. Greene on Verrazzano, in the Saggiatore (I, 257), a Roman journal of 
history, the fine arts and philology. (M. Arcangeli, Discorso sopra 
Giovanni da Verrazzano, p. 35, in Archivio Storico Italiano. Appendice 
tom. IX.) It will be found in our appendix, according to the reprint in 
the latter work.)
 
In the name of God. 
4 August, 1524. 
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 Caesarean 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 Dieppe, in 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 noble and 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 provisions, after many months spent in 
navigating, he asserts he was forced to return from that hemisphere into 
this, and having been 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 unfavorable 
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 God, as the Moor said, in order to give us every day proofs of his 
infinite power and show us how admirable is this worldly machine, has 
disclosed to him a breadth of land, as you will perceive, of such extent 
that according to good reasons, 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 whence be 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 this 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 not value in those parts, and of drugs and other 
aromatic liquors for the purpose of conferring 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 desired in order to converse with him; the more so that he 
will find here the Majesty, the King, our Lord, who is expected herein 
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 victualed, he may discover some profitable traffic 
and matter; and will, our Lord God granting him life, do honor to our 
country, in acquiring immortal fame and memory. And Alderotto Branelleschi 
who started with him and by chance turning back was not willing to 
accompany him further, will, when he hears of this, 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 Pierfrancesco Dagaghiano who in consequence 
of being an experienced person will take much pleasure in it, and commend 
me to him. Likewise to Rustichi, who will not be displeased, if he 
delight, as usual, in learning matters of cosmograpby. 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 this 
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 existed 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 Francisco Carli 
is named as of the same family, but without designating his relationship. 
Whether a myth or a reality, Fernando seems to have been an obscure 
person, at the best; not known to the political or literary history 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 circumstance, personal or otherwise, 
connected with the navigator or the voyage, or some incident of his 
discovery, besides what was contained in the enclosed letter, such as must 
have reached Lyons, with the news of the return of the expedition, would 
have been mentioned, 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 expedition 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 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 experience 
and the other as a student 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 inconsistent 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 Lyons 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. 

(* Mr. Greene, in his life of Verrazzano, remarks that it appears from 
Carli's letter, that the Indian boy whom Verrazzano is stated to have 
carried 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 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 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 28th of June from 
Amboise, near Tours, to the Provencaux that he would march immediately 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 Bourbon 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 correctly stated in the Carli letter.****
 
(* Letter of Bourbon. Dyer's Europe, 442.)

(** Sismondi, xvi. 216, 217.)

(*** Gaillard, Histoire de Francois Premier, tom. III, 172 (Paris, 1769).)

(**** Letter of Moncada in Doc. ined. para la Hist. de Espana. tom. XXIV, 
403, and Letters of Pace to Wolsey in State Papers of the reign of Henry 
VIII, vol. IV, Part I, 589, 606.)

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 discovered, 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 reached Lyons, but that the letter to the king was known to 
the merchants at that place, and that a copy 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 Verrazzano, 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 Normandy. 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 Verrazzano, without 
permission, to a private person, and especially a foreigner, without 
subjecting himself to the charge of disloyalty, if not of treason, which 
there is no other 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 official 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 publicity, 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 foreigner 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. 



CHAPTER III. 
THE LETTER UNTRUE. I. NO VOYAGE OR DISCOVERY 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 description of 
the discoveries made in pursuance of such instructions. That no such 
voyage of discoveries were made for 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 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 under 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 
discoveries 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 presumed 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 colonization at Port Royal in South Carolina, in the 
previous year. Ribault speaks of it very briefly, in connection with the 
discoveries of Sebastian Cabot and 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 latter statement, it 
is evident that Ribault must have had 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 them 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 commits 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 from 
the work of Ramusio, as the discourse of the French captain is found in no 
other place, and therefore used that work. He also speaks of the 
discovered country being called Francesca, as mentioned in the 
discourse.***

(* 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 whole and true discoverye of Terra Florida 
&c never found out before the last year, 1562. Written in French by 
Captain Ribault &c and now newly set forthe in Englishe the XXX of May, 
1563. Prynted at London, by Rowland Hall, for Thomas Hacket." This 
translation was reprinted by Hakluyt in his first work, Divers Voyages, in 
1582; 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, 1524, when Francis was en route for Milan. Isambert, Recueil, 
&c., tom. XII, part I, p. 230.)

(*** Basanier, L'Histoire notable de la Floride. (Paris, 1586), fol. l-3. 
Hakluyt, III, p. 305. Ramusio, III, fol. 423. (Ed. 1556.))

The Verrazzano discovery is referred to, for the first time, in any work 
printed in France, in 1570, in a small folio volume called the Universal 
History of the World, by Francois de Belleforest, a compiler of no great 
authority. In describing Canada, he characterizes the natives as 
cannibals, and in proof of the charge repeats the story, which is found in 
Ramusio 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, hut his reference to 
the manner in which Verrazzano came to his death, shows that he had 
consulted the volume of Ramusio. 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 Verrazzano letter, also without 
mentioning where he had found it, but disclosing nevertheless that it was 
in Ramusio, 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 will be hereafter explained.** This publication of 
Belleforest is the more important, because it is from the abstract of the 
Verrazzano letter contained in it, that Lescarbot, thirty-four years 
afterwards, took his acount of the voyage and discovery, word for word, 
without acknowledgment.*** The latter writer has accordingly 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 in relation to the limits of
Acadia;***** but, as this plagiarism proves, without reason. Charlevoix, 
with a proper discrimination, refers directly to Ramusio as the sole 
source from whence the account of the discovery is derived, as do the 
French writers who have mentioned it since his time, except M. 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, as regarded as confessed by them, that no original 
authority for the discovery has never existed in France. 
 
(* L'Histoire Universelle du Monde. Par Francois de Belleforest. (Paris 
1570, fol. 253-4.))

(** La Cosmographie Universelle de tout le Monde, tom. II, part II, 2175-
9. (Paris, 1575.))

(*** Hist. de la Nouvelle France, p. 27, et seq. (ed. 1609). In a 
subsequent portion of his history (p. 244) Lescarbot again refers 
incidentally to Verrazzano in connection with Jacques Cartier, to whom he 
attributes a preposterous 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 
the thirtieth degree of the erre-neuve, which at the present day they call 
Florida, as far as the fortieth. For the purpose of continuing his design, 
he offered his services, if it were the pleasure of the king, to furnish 
him with the necessary means. The lord admiral having approved these 
words, represented then to his majesty, &c." Lescarbot 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 contratdicted by existing records 
of that voyage. No authority has ever confined the Verrazzano discovery 
within the limits here mentioned. Cartier is represented as saying to the 
admiral that in order to complete Verrazzano's design of carrying 
colonials 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 52 Degrees, 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. (Rame, Documents inedits sur Jacques Cartier et le Canada, p. 3, 
Tross, Paris, 1865.) Besides, neither in the commissions to Cartier, nor 
in any of the accounts of his voyages, is there the slightest allusion to 
Verrazzano.)

(**** Traiete des Navigations, p. 103, par. 15.)

(***** Memoires des Commissaires du Roi, &c., I, 29.)

(****** Andre Thevet, who published a work with the title of Cosmographie 
Universelle, in two volumes, large folio, in rivalry apparently with 
Belleforest, 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 indication 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 here 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 contemporary 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." (Hist. Univ., tom. II,
651, Loud., 1734.) Thevet had published before this, in 1557, another 
book, called Les Singularites de la France Antarctique, autrement nommee 
Amerique, 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 Verrazzano; 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 from 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.)

If any voyage had taken place, such as this is alleged to have been, 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 grandest achievements in the 
annals of discovery, and promised the most important results to France. It 
was an enterprise of her king, which had been successfully 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 Vespucci, describing their voyages and the 
countries they had found, were 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 Paesi 
novamente ritrovati, containing accounts of the discoveries of Columbus, 
Cortereal, Cabral and Vespucci in America, and in 1532 the Decades of 
Peter Martyr, were translated and published in Paris, in the French 
language. Cartier's account of his voyage in 1535-6, undertaken by order 
of Francis, in which he discovered Canada, was printed in 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 the 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 told of the discovery of the newly 
discovered route to the Moluccas and Cathay. It was written in Italian; 
and the queen mother caused it to be translated into French 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 
glorious 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.**
 
(* Didot in Harrisse Bib. Am. Vet., 189.) 

(** The little book of Pigafetta, a copy of which, by the kindness of Mrs. 
John Carter Brown, of Providence, is now in our hands, bears the title of 
Le voyage et navigation faict par les Espaignols es Isles de Molucques, 
&c. It is fully described by M. Harrisse in his Bib. Vet. Am. The 
concluding paragraph contains the statement that this manuscript was 
presented to the queen regent. Ramusio (vol. I, 346), mentions the fact 
that it was given by her to Fabre to be translated. The particulars are 
detailed by Amoretti Primo Viaggio, Introd. XXXVII. Premier Voyage, XLIV.)


II. Conclusive as the silence of the history of France 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 reigned over 
France for more than twenty years afterwards, active in promoting the 
greatness of his kingdom; 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 realm of colonies in America, and not without 
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 
Degrees 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 Verrazzano 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 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, and 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 bask 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, consequently, 
that any services which he had previously rendered must have been in the 
possession of the crown. In either case, 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. 

(* Pere Anselme, IV, 57l.)

(** M. Margry. Navigations Francaises, p. 194. See Appendix.)

In sending forth the expeditions of Jacques Cartier and the joint 
expeditions of Cartier and Roberval, Francis not only showed his interest 
in the discovery of new countries, but he acted in perfect ignorance of 
the Verrazzano discovery. If it were known to him, 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 to Canada was found out by 
Cartier, what was there more inviting 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?*

(* The letters issued to Roberval have been recently published, for the 
first time, by M. Harrisse, from the archives of France, in his Notes pour 
servir a l'histoire de la Nouvelle France, p. 244, et seq. (Paris, 1872.) 
They are dated the 16th of February 1540. Cartier's commission for the 
same service is dated in October, 1540. Charlevoix, misled probably by the 
letters granted by Henry IV to the Marquis de la Roche 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.)

With the failure of the expedition of Roberval, Francis abandoned the 
attempt to discover new countries, or plant colonies in America; but his 
successors, though much later, entered upon the colonization 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 Ramusio 
took place during the reign of Henry II, who died in 1559; but he made no 
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 settlement in the terres 
neufves and the adjacent countries NEWLY discovered, 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 conquest of Canada, 
Hochelaga, Newfoundland, Labrador, the country of the river St. Lawrence, 
Norumbega, and other countries adjacent. This is the first document 
emanating from the crown, containing any mention of any part of the 
continent north of latitude 33 degrees and south of Cape Breton. 
 
Norumbega is the only country of those here enumerated which is included 
within those limits, and that did not become known through Verrazzano.*

(* Norumbega embraced the region 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 subsequently 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 occasion of Roberval's 
expedition to Canada, in 1542. (Hakluyt, III, 239-240. MS. cosmography of 
Alfonse, in Bib. Nat. of Paris, fol. 185.) Alfonse states that he ran down 
the coast as far as a bay which he did not penetrate, in latitude 42, 
between Norumbega and Florida, showing that Norumbega was considered as 
north of that parallel of latitude. He particularly describes it in the 
manuscript just cited, which Hakluyt had before him, as the ruttier of 
Alfonse which he publishes is found in that manuscript. It appears to have 
been written by Alfonse in 1544-5, which was shortly after his return from 
Canada with Roberval. the name of Norumbega is found in the discourse of 
the captain of Dieppe, written in 1539, and printed in third volume of 
Ramusio. 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: "I say 
that the cape of St. Jehan, called Cape Breton and the cape of the 
Franciscaine, 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 Noroveregue. This said cape is at forty-
five 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 fish 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 neufve), where they fish. On no 
account would they save the life of a person when they capture him, if it 
he not a child or young girl, and are so cruel that if they find a man 
wearing a beard, they cut his limbs off 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 Noroveregue [Cape Sable] 
descends the river of the said Noroveregue which is about twenty-five 
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 leagues 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 Norombergue, and there are in it good 
people and there is much peltry of all animals. 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 handsome 
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 cannot be 
inhabited."
Two sketches of the coast by Alfonse accompany this description, which are 
here reproduced united in one. The map in Ramusio (III, fol. 424-5), 
prepared by Gastaldi, shows the Terra de Nurumbega, 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 
Ptolemy's Geography (12mo., Venice, 1543), in which (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 the Abnakis (New York, 1866), 
observes (pp. 48-9): "Nolumbega means a still-water between falls, of 
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 Nolumbega." 
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 to which they remained fifteen days, one hundred and fifty 
leagues easterly, that is from Cape Cod to the Island of Cape Breton, 
without 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 
expedition. 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 the cosmography describing it was 
written in 1544-5. Some authors assert that Roberval dispatched him 
towards Labrador with a view of finding a passage to the East Indies, 
without mentioning his exploration along Nova Scotia and New England. But 
Le Clerc, who seems to have been the author of this statement (Premier 
Etablissement de la Foy dans la Nouvelle France, I, 12-13. Paris, 1691), 
and who is followed 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 1534. Le Clerc either drew false inferences or 
relied upon false information. 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 discovery of his own. 
In the printed work, called Les voyages avantureux du Capitaine Jean 
Alphonse, Saintongeois, which was first published in 1559, after the death 
of Alfonse, it is expressly stated that the river of Norumbega, was 
discovered 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 neufue, et de la terre fes Bretons trente on quarante lieues. Et 
d'icy va tout au long de la coste jusques a la riviere du Norembergue, qui 
est nouvellement descouverte par les Portugalois et Espagnols," p. 53. 
We quote from an edition of the work not mentioned by the biblographers 
(Brunet-Harrisse), printed at Rouen in 1602. This is almost a contemporary 
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.)

No allusion is made, in these letters of de la Roche, to any previous 
exploration, although an enormous recital, already alluded to, is made to 
a purpose of Francis I, in his commission to Roberval, to conquer the 
countries here indicated.* De la Roche made a miserable 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 discovery. 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 Degrees N. to 46 Degrees 
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 distinctly 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 inhabitants. Accompanying these letters patent was a 
license to De Monts to trade with the natives of the St. Lawrence, and 
make settlements on that river. It was under these authorisations to De 
Monts exclusively, that all the permanent settlements of the French in 
Nova Scotia and Canada were effected, beyond 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. 

(* Lescarbot (ed. 1609), 434. Harrisse, Notes de la Nouvelle France, p. 
243.) 

(** 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 Sable 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.)


It is thus evident that the history of France and of her kings is utterly 
void on the subject of this discovery, without any legitimate cause, if it 
had ever taken place; and that the policy of the crown in regard 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 executed map of the world, which has been reproduced 
by M. Jomard, in his Monuments of Geography, under the title of Mappemonde 
peinte sur parchemin par 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 
inscribed, evidently denoting his visit to that country, which did not 
take place until June, 1543.*** No information, 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 
other hand the arms of both the king and dauphin are repeatedly drawn in 
the decorated 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 of France, which he assumed after the disgrace of 
Chabot, in 1540, and continued to exercise until the death of Francis, in 
1547. 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 an 
accomplished French geographer, during the reign of Francis, and it, no 
doubt, represents not only the state of geographical 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 already known, he had before him the best models and 
originals."**** Yet notwithstanding the thorough knowledge 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. Roman 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 mentioned, embracing the exploration of Gomez no 
designation 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 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 Verrazzano. The logical maxim, expressio unius est exclusio 
alterius, must here apply. The expression of the Spanish discoveries, at 
least exclude those of Verrazzano; demonstrating almost to a moral 
certainty that the latter could never have been performed for 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. 

(* Les Monuments de la Geographie ou Receuil d'anciennes cartes, &c., en 
facsimile de la grandeur des originaux. Par M. Jomard. No. XIX.)

(** Inventaire et classement raisonne des "Monuments de la Geographie" 
publies par M. Jomard de 1842 a 1863. (Communication de M. D'Avezac.) 
Extrait du Bulletin de L'Academie des inscriptions et belles lettres. 
Seance du 30 Aout 1867, p. 7. L'Annee Geographique. Sixieme annee (1867), 
pp. 548, 554.)

(*** Hakluyt, III, 242.)

(**** Discovery of Maine, 351-4.)

(***** Thus R. del principe, R. del espiritu santo, B. de Santa Maria (the 
Chesapeake) Playa, C. de S. Juan, R. de St. Iago, C. de Arenas (Cape 
Henlopen), B. de S. Christoval (the Delaware), B. de S. 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, C. 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 R. de Canoes, R. Seche, Playne, Coste de 
Dieu, R. d'Arbres, which, on the map XII, of the Munich 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 Ilana, 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.)