The Voyage of the Verrazzano

The Voyage of the Verrazzano

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Title: The Voyage of Verrazzano
Author: Henry C. Murphy
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THE VOYAGE OF VERRAZZANO;
A
CHAPTER IN
THE EARLY HISTORY OF MARITIME DISCOVERY IN
AMERICA.
BY HENRY C. MURPHY.

TO THE MEMORY OF
BUCKINGHAM SMITH,
OF ST. AUGUSTINE, FLORIDA.

The following pages, intended to show the claim of discovery in
America by Verrazzano to be without any real foundation, belong to a
work, in hand, upon the earliest explorations of the coast which have
led to the settlement of the United States by Europeans. They are now
printed separately, with some additions and necessary changes, in
consequence of the recent production of the map of Hieronimo de
Verrazano, which professes to represent this discovery, and is therefore
supposed to afford some proof of its authenticity; in which view it has
been the subject of a learned and elaborate memoir by J. Carson
Brevoort Esq.
Certain important documents in relation to Verrazzano, procured from
the archives of Spain and Portugal by the late Buckingham Smith, on a
visit to those countries a year or two before his death, are appended.
They were intended to accompany a second edition of his Inquiry, a
purpose which has been interrupted by his decease. They were

entrusted by him to the care of his friend, George H. Moore Esq., of
New York, who has placed them at our disposal on the present
occasion.
The fragmentary and distorted form in which the letter ascribed to
Verrazzano, appeared in the collection of Ramusio, and was thence
universally admitted into history, rendered it necessary that the letter
should be here given complete, according to its original meaning. It is,
therefore, annexed in the English translation of Dr. Cogswell, which
though not entirely unexceptionable is, for all purposes, sufficiently
accurate. The original Italian text can, however, be consulted in the
Collections of the New York Historical Society, accompanying his
translation, and also in the Archivio Storico Italiano, in which it is
represented by the editor to be more correctly copied from the
manuscript, and amended in its language where it seemed corrupt; but
such corrections are few and unimportant. In all cases in which the
letter is now made the subject of critical examination, the passages
referred to are given, for obvious reasons, according to the reading of
the Florentine editor.
We are indebted to the American Geographical Society of New York
for the use of its photographs of the Verrazano map, and to Mr.
Brevoort for a copy of the cosmography of Alfonse, from which the
chart of Norumbega has been taken. And our thanks are due to Dr. J.
Gilmary Shea of New York, for valuable assistance; and to Dr. E. B.
Straznicky of the Astor Library, Mons. O. Maunoir of the Societe de
Geographie of Paris, Dr. J. Hammond Trumbull of Hartford, Hon. John
R. Bartlett of Providence, and James Lenox Esq. of New York, for
various favors kindly rendered during the progress of our researches.
BROOKLYN, SEPT. 1875

CONTENTS.
Page I. The Discovery Attributed to Verrazzano
II. The Verrazzano Letters not Genuine
III. The Letter untrue. I. No Voyage of Discovery made for the King of
France, as it states
IV. II. Misrepresentations in regard to the Geography of the Coast. The
Chesapeake. The Island of Louise. Massachusetts Bay
V. III. Cape Breton and the Southerly Coast of Newfoundland, here

claimed to have been discovered, were known previously. Perversion of
the Text of the Letter by Ramusio
VI. IV. The Description of the People