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Updated: June 1, 2025
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. Isambert, Recueil, &c., tom. Hakluyt, III, p. 305. Ramusio, III, fol. 423.
It was impossible for Verrazzano to collect any details about the manners and mode of life of these people, on account of the short time that he remained among them. The shore at this place was composed of fine sand interspersed here and there with little sandy hillocks, behind which were scattered "groves and very thick forests which were wonderfully pleasant to look upon."
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?
Certain authors, but we have not been able to discover on the authority of what documents, nor under what circumstances this happened, relate that Verrazzano having fallen into the power of the Spaniards, had been taken to Spain and there hanged. It is wiser to admit that we know nothing certain about Verrazzano, and that we are totally ignorant what rewards his long voyage procured for him.
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.
Ramusio, as he informs us himself, translated that paper from the French into the Italian and published it in the same volume, in conjunction with the Verrazzano letter, which he remodelled. He thus had the contents of both documents before him, at the same time, and saw the contradiction between them. They could not both be true.
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. Appendice tom. In the name of God. 4 August, 1524.
This letter bears date only twenty-seven days after that of the Verrazzano letter, which is declared to be inclosed.
But as there were not seven hundred leagues of coast between latitude 38 Degrees and Cape Breton, which is the distance it indicates as having been explored by Verrazzano, that extent could be obtained only, either by changing the latitude of Florida or Cape Breton, or prolonging the coast longitudinally, or both.
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.
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