A Book of American Explorers. Thomas Wentworth Higginson
on still the way to Cathaio, which is in the East and would have done it, if the mutiny of the shipmaster and mariners had not rebelled, and made him to return homewards from that place. But it seemeth that God doth yet reserve this great enterprise for some great Prince to discover this voyage of Cathaio by this way: which for the bringing of the spiceries from India into Europe were the most easy and shortest of all other ways hitherto found out. And, surely, this enterprise would be the most glorious, and of most importance of all other, that can be imagined, to make his name great, and fame immortal, to all ages to come, far more than can be done by any of all these great troubles and wars, which daily are used in Europe among the miserable Christian people.
This much concerning Sebastian Gabot’s discovery may suffice for a present cast: but shortly, God willing, shall come out in print, all his own maps and discourses, drawn and written by himself, which are in the custody of the worshipful master William Worthington, one of her Majesty’s Pensioners, who—because so worthy monuments should not be buried in perpetual oblivion—is very willing to suffer them to be overseen and published in as good order as may be, to the encouragement and benefit of our countrymen.72
III.—Verrazzano’s Letter to the King.
[This letter is said to have been written at Dieppe, July 8, 1524, being addressed to King Francis I. of France.
This narrative, if authentic, is the earliest original account of the Atlantic coast of the United States. Its authenticity has been doubted; and Mr. Bancroft, in the new edition of his History, does not refer to it at all. But, as the question is still unsettled, the letter is included here.]
VERRAZZANO.
VERRAZZANO.
I wrote not to your Majesty (most Christian king), since the time we suffered the tempest in the north parts, of the success of the four ships which your Majesty sent forth to discover new lands by the ocean, thinking your Majesty had been already duly informed thereof. Now by these presents I will give your Majesty to understand how, by the violence of the winds, we were forced with the two ships, the “Norman” and the “Dolphin,” in such evil case as they were, to land in Brittany. Where after we had repaired them in all points as was needful, and armed them very well, we took our course along by the coast of Spain. Afterwards, with the “Dolphin” alone, we determined to make discovery of new countries, to prosecute the navigation we had already begun; which I purpose at this present to recount unto your Majesty, to make manifest the whole proceeding of the matter. The 17th of January, the year 1524, by the grace of God we departed from the dishabited rock,73 by the Isle of Madeira, appertaining to the King of Portugal, with fifty men, with victuals, weapon, and other ship munition very well provided and furnished for eight months. And, sailing westwards with a fair easterly wind, in twenty-five days we ran five hundred leagues; and the 20th of February we were overtaken with as sharp and terrible a tempest as ever any sailors suffered: whereof, with the divine help and merciful assistance of Almighty God, and the goodness of our ship, accompanied with the good hap of her fortunate name, we were delivered, and with a prosperous wind followed our course west by north. And in other twenty-five days we made about four hundred leagues more, where we discovered a new land74 never before seen of any man, either ancient or modern. And at the first sight it seemed somewhat low; but, being within a quarter of a league of it, we perceived, by the great fires that we saw by the seacoast, that it was inhabited, and saw that the land stretched to the southwards. …
While we rode75 upon that coast, partly because it had no harbor, and for that we wanted water, we sent our boat ashore with twenty-five men, where, by reason of great and continual waves that beat against the shore, being an open coast, without succor none of our men could possibly go ashore without losing our boat. We saw there many people which came unto the shore making divers signs of friendship, and showing that they were content we should come a-land; and by trial we found them to be very courteous and gentle, as your Majesty shall understand by the success. To the intent we might send them of our things, which the Indians commonly desire and esteem, as sheets of paper, glasses, bells, and such like trifles, we sent a young man, one of our mariners, ashore, who swimming towards them, and being within three or four yards off the shore, not trusting them, cast the things upon the shore. Seeking afterwards to return, he was with such violence of the waves beaten upon the shore, that he was so bruised that he lay there almost dead, which the Indians perceiving, ran to catch him, and, drawing him out, they carried him a little way off from the sea. The young man, perceiving they carried him, being at the first dismayed, began then greatly to fear, and cried out piteously. Likewise did the Indians, which did accompany him, going about to cheer him and give him courage; and then setting him on the ground at the foot of a little hill against the sun, began to behold him with great admiration, marvelling at the whiteness of his flesh. And, putting off his clothes, they made him warm at a great fire, not without our great fear, which remained in the boat, that they would have roasted him at that fire and have eaten him. The young man having recovered his strength, and having staid a while with them, showed them by signs that he was desirous to return to the ship. And they with great love, clapping him fast about with many embracings, accompanying him unto the sea, and, to put him in more assurance, leaving him alone, went unto a high ground, and stood there, beholding him until he was entered into the boat. This young man observed, as we did also, that these are of color inclining to black, as the others were, with their flesh very shining, of mean stature, handsome visage, and delicate limbs, and of very little strength, but of prompt wit; farther we observed not. …
VERRAZZANO IN NEWPORT HARBOR.
Departing from hence, following the shore, which trended somewhat toward the north, in fifty leagues’ space we came to another land, which showed much more fair, and full of woods, being very great, where we rode at anchor; and, that we might have some knowledge thereof, we sent twenty men a-land,76 which entered into the country about two leagues, and they found that the people were fled to the woods for fear. They saw only one old woman with a young maid of eighteen or twenty years old, which, seeing our company, hid themselves in the grass for fear. The old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind her neck a child of eight years old. The young woman was laden likewise with as many. But, when our men came unto them, the old woman made signs that the men were fled into the woods as soon as they saw us. To quiet them, and to win their favor, our men gave them such victuals as they had with them to eat, which the old woman received thankfully; but the young woman disdained them all, and threw them disdainfully on the ground. They took a child from the old woman to bring into France; and going about to take the young woman, which was very beautiful, and of tall stature, could not possibly, for the great outcries that she made, bring her to the sea; and especially having great woods to pass through, and being far from the ship, we purposed to leave her behind, bearing away the child only. We found those folks to be more white than those that we found before, being clad with certain leaves that hang on the boughs of trees, which they sew together with threads of wild hemp. Their heads were trussed up after the same manner as the former were. Their ordinary food is of pulse,77 whereof they have great store, differing in color and taste from ours, of good and pleasant taste. Moreover they live by fishing and fowling, which they take with gins78 and bows made of hard wood, the arrows of canes being headed with the bones of fish and other beasts. The beasts in these parts are much wilder than in our Europe, by reason they are continually chased and hunted.
We saw many of their boats, made of one tree, twenty feet long and four feet broad, which are not made of iron, or stone, or any other kind of metal, because that in all this country, for the space of two hundred leagues which we ran, we never saw one stone of any sort. They help themselves with fire, burning so much of the tree as is sufficient for the hollowness of the boat: the like they do in making the stern and forepart, until it be