Chapter X: (Addenda.)

1524-1526.

The safe return of Verrazzano to France and his remarkable discoveries along the new continent were immediately heralded through Europe. The letter which he wrote on his arrival at Dieppe was at once eagerly copied and the transcripts widely circulated. In less than a month’s time the news of the navigator’s extensive explorations was spread over France, and became a prominent topic of conversation. The commercial advantages likely to accrue to France by the important discovery of a country thickly populated and rich in drugs, furs, and metals were everywhere discussed, and Verrazzano’s presence at the chief centres of trade was much desired that more information might be obtained respecting the people and the productions of the New Land.

A Florentine, named Fernando Carli, a person well acquainted with Verrazzano’s former voyages, was in Lyons at the time when the surprising intelligence reached that city. He obtained a copy of Verrazzano’s letter, and sent it to his father in Florence, inclosed in the following communication:

“In the name of God.

“August 4, 1524.

“Honored Father:—

“Considering that when I was in the army in Barbary, at
Gierbe, the news was sent you every day by the illustrious
gentleman, Don Hugo de Moncada, captain-general of his Cesarean
majesty in those barbarous parts, what followed contending
with the Moors of that island, which seemed to have pleased
our patrons and friends; and also the congratulatory news of
the subsequent victory; [I now send you] the news [which]
has recently reached this place, of the arrival of Captain
Giovanni da Verrazzano, our Florentine, at the port of Dieppe,
in Normandy, with his ship, the Dauphine, with which he
sailed from the Canary Islands, the last of January, to go in
search of new lands for this most serene crown of France, in
which enterprise he displayed very noble and great courage
in undertaking such an unknown voyage with only one ship, a
caravel of hardly tons burden,[413] with only fifty men, with
the intention, if possible, to discover Cathay, steering a
course through climates other than those frequented by the
Portuguese in going to it by the way of Calicut, by keeping
more to the northwest and north, believing that, although
Ptolemy, Aristotle, and other cosmographers assert that no land
is to be found toward such climates, he would nevertheless
find land there, which God has permitted him, as he distinctly
describes in his letter to his serene majesty, a copy of which
is inclosed in this communication. After spending many months
in exploring, he asserts that he was compelled to return for
want of provisions from that hemisphere into this one, having
been seven months on the voyage, showing a very great and rapid
passage, having accomplished a wonderful and most extraordinary
undertaking in the opinion of those who understand the
navigation of the globe.

“At the beginning of the voyage there was an unfavorable
opinion formed concerning it, many thinking that there would be
no more news respecting him and his vessel, and that he would
be lost on that side of Norway, in consequence of the great
ice which is in the northern ocean.[414] However, the great
God, as the Moor said, in order to give us every day proofs of
his infinite power, and to show how admirable is this mundane
sphere, has disclosed to him a breadth of land, as you will
perceive, of great extent, as shown by good reasoning and by
degrees of latitude and longitude.

“He declares and shows it to be greater than Europe, Africa,
and a part of Asia; therefore a new world (_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 which he brought spices much more excellent than the
common kind, and of his other ships no news has transpired for
five years. They are supposed to be lost.[415]

“What this our captain has brought he does not state in his
letter, except a very young boy 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, in order to confer here with several merchants after
he shall have been in the presence of his most serene majesty.
And at this hour he should be with the king, and from choice
should come here soon, as he is much desired, in order to be
conversed with; moreover, here he will find his majesty, the
king, our sire, who is expected in three or four days.[416]
And we hope that his serene majesty will intrust him with a
half dozen good vessels, and that he will go on the voyage. If
our Francisco Carli be returned from Cairo, advise him to go
at a venture on this voyage with him, for I believe they were
acquainted at Cairo, where he [Verrazzano] was for several
years, and not only in Egypt and Syria, but almost in all parts
of the known world. On account of his merits, he is regarded
as another Amerigo Vespucci, another Magellan, and even more
than they. We hope that, being provided with other good ships
and vessels, well-built and properly provisioned, he will
discover and develop a profitable traffic, and will, our Lord
God preserving his life, do honor to our country in acquiring
immortal fame and memory. Alderotto Brunelleschi, who started
with him, and by chance turned back unwilling to accompany him
farther, will, when he hears this news, be discontented.

“Nothing else now occurs to me, as I have advised you by
others what is necessary. I commend myself constantly to you,
praying you to impart this to our friends, not forgetting
Pier Francisco 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 cosmography.
God guard you from all evil.

“Your son,

“Fernando Carli,

“In Lyons.”[417]

The notable success attending Verrazzano’s voyage in 1524, it seems, induced the celebrated navigator to undertake another in 1526. For the furtherance of this project, he and five other persons entered into an agreement in which it was stipulated that Philippe Chabot, baron of Apremont, knight of the Order of the King, governor and lieutenant-general of Burgundy, admiral of France and of Brittany,[418] was to furnish him with two galleons then at Havre de Grace, and a ship belonging to Jean Ango of Dieppe,[419] of seventy tons burden, and that the admiral was also to equip and victual them for the voyage to the New Land. The three vessels were to be ready to sail within two months.[420] Before setting sail on this voyage, Verrazzano, on Friday, the eleventh of May, 1526, gave to his brother, Hieronymus, and Zanobus de Rousselay,[421] a power of attorney by which they were empowered to act for him in any matter pertaining to his interest; and also, on the following day, a similar instrument to Adam Godeffroy of Rouen, which authorized him to transact certain business for the navigator.[422] In each of these legal instruments, Verrazzano is named “Jehan de Varasenne, nobleman, captain of the ships equipped to go on the voyage to the Indies.”

The French sea-captain, Jean Ribaut, in his report to Admiral Gaspard de Coligni, of his first voyage to Florida, in 1562, says that Verrazzano, after his return to France, in 1524, “neuer ceassed to make suite vntil he was sent thither againe, where at last he died.”[423]

The voyage of 1526 was the third made by Verrazzano to America: the first in 1508, with Thomas Aubert; the second, in 1524, in the Dauphine. This fact is corroborated by the well-informed English collector, Hakluyt, who says that he “had been thrise on that coast.”[424]

Of Verrazzano’s death, Ramusio gives this account: “In the last voyage which he made, having gone on land with some of his men, he and they were all put to death by the inhabitants, and in the presence of those who were on board the ship were roasted and devoured. Such was the terrible death of this valiant gentleman, who, had not this misfortune happened him, would, by the great knowledge and experience which he had of maritime affairs and of navigation, attended and favored by the large liberality of King Francis, have discovered and made known to the world, all that part of the earth up to the north pole, and would not have been contented with only the exploration of the coast, but would have attempted to penetrate far inland, and as far as he could go.

“Many who had known and conversed with him, have told me that he had declared that it was his intention to persuade the most Christian king to send from these parts a goodly number of people to settle in some places of the new country which are of a temperate climate and very fertile soil, with very beautiful rivers and harbors capable of holding any fleet.

“Settlers in these places would be the means of effecting many good results, and among others that of bringing those barbarous and ignorant tribes to know God and our most holy religion, showing them how to cultivate the land, transporting some of the animals of Europe to those vast plains; and finally, in time, discovering the inland parts, and seeing whether or not among the many islands in that part of the world any passage to the South Sea exists, or that the West Indies extend as far north as the pole.

“This and so much has been related respecting the achievements and efforts of this brave gentleman, and in order that his memory may not be buried and his name pass into oblivion, we have desired to give to the light the little information that has come into our hands.”[425]

Hakluyt, speaking of the map which Verrazzano had made and presented to King Henry VIII. of England, which as late as the year 1584 was still preserved by an English cartographer, says: “There is a mighty large olde mappe in parchemente, made as yt shoulde seeme, by Verarsanus, traced all alonge the coaste, from Florida to Cape Briton, with many Italian names, which laieth oute the sea, makinge a little necke of land in 40 degrees of latitude much like the streyte necke or istmus of Dariena.” The English collector also refers to a globe which he believed Verrazzano made: “There is an old excellent globe in the Queens privie gallery at Westminster, which also semeth to be of Verarsanus makinge, having the coaste in Italian, which laieth oute the very same straite necke of lande in the latitude of 40 degrees, with the sea joyninge harde on bothe sides, as it dothe on Panama and Nombre di Dios; which were a matter of singular importance, yf it shoulde be true, as it is not unlikely.”[426]

Although the “mighty large olde mappe in parchemente” of Verrazzano’s drafting is lost, there are several maps extant which seemingly represent the territory of North America as it was delineated by him. The rarest and the most valuable of these is a vellum-map of the world in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, made in 1527. It is five feet seven inches long and one foot eleven inches wide, and bears this inscription: “_Vesconte de Maiollo conposuy hanc cartan. In Janua anno dñy, 1527, die xx. decenbris._” (Visconte de Maiollo composed this chart, in Genoa, in the year of the Lord, 1527, the twentieth day of December). The narrow isthmus, near the fortieth parallel, and the “number of Italian names” from “Tera Florida” to “C. de Bertoni” on this map, fully agree with Hakluyt’s description of Verrazzano’s chart.[427]

Hieronymus, the brother of the navigator, it seems, also made a map of the New Land, which, it is conjectured, he drafted in 1529.[428] The original is a planisphere delineated on parchment, fifty-one by one hundred and two inches. This map is in the Borgian museum in Rome. The inscription: “_Hieronimus de Verrazanus faciebat_” (Hieronimus de Verrazano made it), permits the inference that the map was not the one which Hakluyt described, for had Hieronymus da Verrazzano’s name been inscribed on it, the English collector, it seems, would have mentioned the fact. The representation of the so-called Western Sea, or “Mare Indicum” (the Chesapeake Bay), with the explanatory inscription on Hieronymus da Verazzano’s map, indicates that he had some knowledge of the cartographic features of his brother’s chart, and of the geographical _memoranda_ recorded in the little book which the latter speaks of in his letter to King Francis I., and which he thought would be serviceable to other navigators.[429]