The Voyage of the Verrazzano | Page 2

and Productions of the Land not
made from the Personal Observations of the Writer of the Letter. What
distinctly belonged to the Natives is unnoticed, and what is originally
mentioned of them is untrue. Further important Alterations of the Text
by Ramusio,
VII. The Extrinsic Evidence in Support of the Claim. I. Discourse of
the French Sea Captain of Dieppe,
VIII. II. The Verrazzano 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
IX. The Letter to the King founded on the Discoveries of Estevan
Gomez. The History of Gomez and his Voyage. The Publication of his
Discoveries in Spain and Italy before the Verrazzano claim. The
Voyage described in the Letter traced to Ribero's Map of the
Discoveries of Gomez
X. The Career of Verrazzano. An Adventurous Life and Ignominious
Death. Conclusion
Appendix
Index
[Proofreaders note: ILLUSTRATIONS and MAPS omitted]

THE VOYAGE OF VERRAZZANO:
A
CHAPTER IN
THE EARLY HISTORY OF MARITIME DISCOVERY IN
AMERICA.

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. [Footnote: 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 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.
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