Henry Cruse Murphy

“ Departing from thence, we kept along the coast, steering north-east, and found the country more pleasant and open, free from woods, and distant in the interior we saw lofty mountains, but none which extended to the shore. Within fifty leagues we discovered thirty-two islands, all near the main land, small and of pleasant appearance, but high and so disposed as to afford excellent harbours and channels, as we see in the Adriatic gulph, near Illyria and Dalmatia. We had no intercourse with the people, but we judge that they were similar in nature and usages to those we were last among. ”

“ We did not stop to land as the weather was very favourable for pursuing our voyage, and the country presented no variety. The shore stretched to the east, and fifty leagues beyond more to the north, where we found a more elevated country, full of very thick woods of fir trees, cypresses and the like, indicative of a cold climate. The people ware entirely different from the others we had seen, whom we had found kind and gentle, but these were so rude and barbarous that we were unable by any signs we could make, to hold communication with them. ”

“ In summer, the season in which we were there, the sky is clear, with but little rain: if fogs and mists are at any time driven in by the south wind, they are instantaneously dissipated, and at once it becomes serene and bright again. The sea is calm, not boisterous, and its waves are gentle. ”

“ Turning towards the south, at the entrance of the harbor on both sides there are very pleasant hills and many streams of clear water which flow down to the sea. In the midst of the entrance, there is a rock of freestone, formed by nature and suitable for the construction of any kind of machine or bulwark for the defence of the harbor."
This island is a mere fancy; none such exists any where upon this coast. The distance which they thus ran easterly, of eighty leagues, would have carried them more than an hundred miles into the ocean beyond Cape Cod. ”

“ It is not probable that the queen mother, exercising the regal power immediately after the alleged return of Verrazzano, would have left entirely unnoticed and unpublished an account of his discovery, so interesting to the subjects of the king and so glorious to France, and yet have caused to be put forth within his realm in its stead, the history of a like enterprise, redounding to the glory of the great rival and enemy of her son. ”

“ Pursuing our voyage towards the west, a little northwardly, in twenty-four days more, having run four hundred leagues, we reached a new country, which had never before been seen by any one, either in ancient or modern times. At first it appeared to be very low, but on approaching it to within a quarter of a league from the shore we perceived, by the great fires near the coast, that it was inhabited. ”

“ Thus adding the degrees of south latitude explored, which are 54, to those of the north, which are 66, the sum is 120, and therefore, more than are embraced in the latitude of Africa and Europe, for the north point of Norway, which is the extremity of Europe, is in 71 north, and the Cape of Good Hope, which is the southern extremity of Africa, is in 35 south, and their sum is only 106, and if the breadth of this newly discovered country corresponds to its extent of sea coast, it doubtless exceeds Asia in size. ”

“ The map of Lok is the first one upon which the western sea is so called. The designation was undoubtedly the work of Lok himself, as it is in conformity with his practice in other parts of the map, where he denotes the discoveries of others in the same way, that is, by their names with the dates of their voyages annexed. He no doubt applied the name of Verrazzano to this ocean from finding it represented on the old map given by Verrazzano to the king, and obtained the date from the letter, of which Hakluyt printed in the same volume a translation from the version in Ramusio. ”

“ The coast of North America is laid down continuously from the gulf of Mexico to Davis straits, in latitude 60 Degrees N. Beginning at the point of Florida, which is placed IN LATITUDE 33 1/2 Degrees N., more than eight degrees north of its true position, it runs northerly along the Atlantic, trending slightly to the west, to a bay or river, in latitude 38 Degrees N. On this part of the country, called Terra Florida, the arms of Spain are represented, denoting its discovery by the Spaniards: and the whole of its coast for a distance of eighty or ninety leagues, is entirely devoid of names. ”

“ We set sail from this place, continuing to coast along the shore, which we found stretching out to the west (east?) ; the inhabitants being numerous, we saw everywhere a multitude of fires. While at anchor on this coast, there being no harbour to enter, we sent the boat on shore with twenty-five men to obtain water, but it was not possible to land without endangering the boat, on account of the immense high surf thrown up by the sea, as it was an open roadstead. Many of the natives came to the beach, indicating by various friendly signs that we might trust ourselves on shore. ”

“ This sea is laid down by Agnese in the same manner as it is shown on the Verrazzano map, approaching the Atlantic, from the north, along a narrow isthmus terminating at latitude 40 Degrees, with the coast turning abruptly to the west; the ocean being thus represented open thence from the isthmus to Cathay. A track of French navigation, not a single voyage, expressed by the words: el viages de France, is designated upon it, leading from the north of France to this isthmus, referring obviously to the voyages of the fishermen of Brittany and Normandy, to the coasts of Nova Scotia and New England. ”

“ The unauthenticated and until recently unnoticed globe of Euphrosynus Ulpius, purporting to have been constructed in 1542, of which we will speak presently, is the only evidence yet presented of the existence of the Verrazano map, as it now appears, beyond the map itself. The whole theory of the early influence of the Verrazzano discovery, or of the Verrazano map, upon the cartography of the period to which they relate, and its consequently proving their authenticity, as advanced by some learned writers, is therefore incorrect and is founded in a misconception of fact. ”

“ There is no testimony to be found of any one who took part in the setting forth or equipment of the expedition, or in the prosecution of the voyage, or who was personally cognizant of the return of the Dauphiny. No chart or private letter, no declaration or statement of the navigator, in regard to the extraordinary discovery achieved by him, is produced or mentioned, although he belonged to a family of some note in Tuscany, which still existed in the present century. In this respect, Italy, the birth place and home of Verrazzano, is as blank and barren as France. ”

“ But to return to ourselves; in the voyage which we have made by order of your Majesty, in addition to the 92 degrees we run towards the west from our point of departure, before we reached land in the latitude of 34, we have to count 800 leagues which we ran north-east-wardly, and 400 nearly east along the coast before we reached the 50th parallel of north latitude, the point where we turned, our course from the shore towards home. Beyond this point the Portuguese had already sailed as far north as the Arctic circle, without coming to the termination of the land. ”

“ Though so light as to be capable of being borne on a man's shoulders, it would sometimes carry nine men, and ride with safety over the most stormy sea. It was always from the first a great object of interest with the discoverers of the northerly parts of the coast, which they manifested by taking them back to Europe, as curiosities. Aubert carried one of them to Dieppe in 1508, and Captain Martin Fringe, who was one of the first to visit the shores of Cape Cod, took one, in 1603, thence to Bristol, which he thus describes, as if he saw no other kind. ”

“ Both the map and the globe are thus mentioned as the PROBABLE workmanship of Verrazzano, from which it is probable that there was no name upon them to determine that question positively. The great size of the chart, the material upon which it was made, and the authorship of the map and globe by the same person, are circumstances which go to prove that they were both the work of a professed cosmographer, and embraced the whole world; and consequently that the map was not a chart made by the navigator, showing his discoveries, but possibly the map of Hieronimo in its original form. ”

“ There is, therefore, nothing in the history or character of the publication in Ramusio or the manuscript, to show that the letter emanated from Verrazzano. Neither of them is traceable to him; neither of them was printed at a time when its publication, without contradiction, might be regarded as an admission or acknowledgment by the world of a genuine original; and neither of them is found to have existed early enough to authorize an inference in favor of such an original by reason of their giving the earliest account of the coasts and country claimed to have been discovered. ”

“ At that time, the king was told by some Portuguese, doing business in France, that one Joao Varezano, a Florentine, offered himself to Francis, to discover other kingdoms in the East, which the Portuguese had not found, and that in the ports of Normandy a fleet was being made ready under the favor of the admirals of the coast, and the dissimulation of Francis, to colonize the land of Santa Cruz, called Brazil, discovered and laid down by the Portuguese in the second voyage to India. ”

“ The Spaniards have sailed south beyond the equator on a meridian 20 degrees west of the Fortunate Islands to the latitude of 54, and there still found land; turning about they steered northward on the same meridian and along the coast to the eighth degree of latitude near the equator, and thence along the coast more to the west and north-west, to the latitude of 21 Degrees, without finding a termination to the continent; they estimated the distance run as 89 degrees, which, added to the 20 first run west of the Canaries, make 109 degrees and so far west ”

“ In attributing to others the discovery of that large portion of the coast, east and north of Cape Breton, he must have considered the claim to that extent as unfounded. It is difficult therefore to account for his admitting its validity as regards the country south of Cape Breton as he apparently does; as it is a manifest inconsistency to reject so important a part as false, and affirm the rest of it to be true, when the whole depends upon the same evidence. ”

“ Sometimes, when our men staid two or three days on a small island, near the ship, for their various necessities, as sailors are wont to do, he came with seven or eight of his attendants, to enquire about our movements, often asking us if we intended to remain there long, and offering us every thing at his command, and then he would shoot with his bow, and run up and down with his people, making great sport for us. We often went five or six leagues into the interior, and found the country as pleasant as is possible to conceive, adapted to cultivation of every kind, whether of corn, wine or oil ”

“ Following this, hostilities having been declared between the kingdoms and seignories of the emperor and the king of France, they waging cruel strife by land and sea, the French with an armament afloat took a Spanish ship with gold, belonging to the emperor, within the limits of the Portuguese coast, besides much property of individuals, regardless of where she had been found, so little attentive were they in those times, to Portugal and Portuguese; seized her by force as belonging to their enemies, and carried her off, as good prize of war. ”

“ Following beyond the cape of the Brettons there is a land contiguous to the said cape, the coast whereof extends west by southwest as far as the land of Florida and it runs full 500 leagues, (WHICH COAST WAS DISCOVERED FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, BY MESSER GIOVANNI DA VERRAZZANO, IN THE NAME OF KING FRANCIS, AND MADAME THE REGENT,) and this land is called by many la Francese, and likewise by the Portuguese themselves and its end towards Florida is at 78 Degrees west longitude and 30 Degrees north latitude. The inhabitants of this land are tractable peoples, friendly and pleasant. ”

“ And thus finally the testimony, upon which the tale of discovery was credited and proclaimed to the world, is contradicted and disproved. The statement that Verrazzano and a member of his crew were killed and then feasted upon by the inhabitants of the coast which he had visited a second time, has no support or confirmation in the history of that rude and uncivilized people; for, however savage and cruel they were towards their enemies, or, under provocation, towards strangers, no authenticated instance of their canibalism has ever been produced ”

“ THEIR BOAT IS OF BARK and a man may carry it with one hand on his shoulders. Their weapons are bows drawn with a string made of the intestines or sinews of animals, and arrows pointed with stone or fish-bone. Their food consists of roasted flesh, their drink is water. Bread, wine and the use of money they have none. They go about naked or dressed in the skins of bears, deer, seals and similar animals. Their country is in the parallel of the seventh climate, more under the west than France is above the west. ”

“ It is impossible for Verrazzano to have been on the coast of North America, or on his return from Newfoundland to France, and at the same time to have taken a ship on her way from the Indies to Portugal, coming as she must have done, by the Cape of Good Hope. ”

“ This said cape is at forty-five degrees of the height of the arctic pole. The said coast is all sandy land, low without any mountain. And along this coast there are several islands of sand and coast very dangerous, with banks and rocks. The people of this coast and of Cape Breton are bad people, powerful, great archers and live on fish and flesh. They speak, as it were, the same language as those of Canada, and are a great nation. And those of Cape Breton go and make war upon those of Newfoundland (Terre neufve) , where they fish. ”

“ All that is really shown of any pertinency is the single circumstance, that possibly the claim to the discovery was advanced in Italy, and in that country alone, at the time of the construction of the globe of Ulpius in 1542, but not anterior to the year 1529, or until five years after the event, when, according to the Verrazano map, if that he accepted as genuine in its present form, and the most favorable construction be upon its ambiguous legend, of which that inscription is capable, the claim was for the first time announced. ”

“ The people use many words, which resemble Latin, and adore the sun; and are handsome and large men. The land of Norobregue is tolerably high. On the side on the west of the said city there are many rocks which run into the sea well fifteen leagues; and on the side towards the north there is a bay in which there is a little island which is very subject to tempest and cannot be inhabited."
Two sketches of the coast by Alfonse accompany this description, which are here reproduced united in one. ”