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Page 10
I. That no evidence of the Verrazzano discovery ever existed in
France, is not only necessarily presumed from the circumstance that
none has ever been produced, but is inferentially established by the
fact that all the French writers and historians, who have had
occasion to consider the subject, have derived their information in
regard to it from the Italian so-called copies of the letter, and
until recently from that in Ramusio alone. No allusion to the
discovery, by any of them, occurs until several years after the work
of Ramusio was published, when for the first time it is mentioned in
the account written by Ribault, in 1563, of his voyage to Florida
and attempted colonization at Port Royal in South Carolina, in the
previous year. Ribault speaks of it very briefly, in connection with
the discoveries of Sebastian Cabot and others, as having no
practical results, and states that he had derived his information in
regard to it, from what Verrazzano had written, thus clearly
referring to the letter. He adds that Verrazzano made another voyage
to America afterwards, "where at last he died." As Ramusio is the
only authority known for the latter statement, it is evident that
Ribault must have had his work before him, and consequently his
version of the letter, when he prepared this account. [Footnote: The
original narrative of Ribault, in French, has never appeared in
print. It was probably suppressed at the time for political reasons,
as the colony was intended for the benefit of the protestants of
France. It was, however, translated immediately into English and
printed in 1563, under the following title: "The whole and true
discoverye of Terra Florida &c never found out before the last year,
1562. Written in French by Captain Ribault &c and now newly set
forthe in Englishe the XXX of May, 1563. Prynted at London, by
Rowland Hall, for Thomas Hacket." This translation was reprinted by
Hakluyt in his first work, Divers Voyages, in 1582; but was omitted
by him in his larger collections, and the account by Laudoniere, who
accompanied Ribault, of that and the two subsequent expeditions,
substituted in its stead.] In the relation written by Laudoniere in
1566, but not printed until 1586, of all three of the expeditions
sent out from France, for the colonization of the French
protestants, mention is again made of the discoveries of Verrazzano.
Laudoniere gives no authority, but speaks of them in terms which
show that he made his compend from the discourse of the French
captain of Dieppe, published by Ramusio in the same volume, in
connection with the Verrazzano letter. 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. Louise did
not become regent until after the return of Verrazzano is stated to
have taken place, and after both his letter and that of Carli are
represented to have been written. [Footnote: The edict appointing
Louise regent, was dated at Pignerol, the 17th of October, 1524,
when Francis was en route for Milan. Isambert, Recueil, &c., tom.
XII, part I, p. 230.] In adopting this error it is plain that
Laudoniere must have taken it from the work of Ramusio, as the
discourse of the French captain is found in no other place, and
therefore used that work. He also speaks of the discovered country
being called Francesca, as mentioned in the discourse. [Footnote:
Basanier, L'Histoire notable de la Floride. (Paris, 1586), fol. 1-3.
Hakluyt, III, p. 305. Ramusio, III, fol. 423. (Ed. 1556.)]
The Verrazzano discovery is referred to, for the first time, in any
work printed in France, in 1570, in a small folio volume called the
Universal History of the World, by Francois de Belleforest, a
compiler of no great authority. In describing Canada, he
characterizes the natives as cannibals, and in proof of the charge
repeats the story, which is found in Ramusio only, of Verrazzano
having been killed, roasted and eaten by them, and then proceeds
with a short account of the country and its inhabitants, derived, as
he states, from what Verrazzano had written to King Francis.
[Footnote: L'Histoire Universelle du Monde. Par Francois de
Belleforest. (Paris 1570, fol. 253-4.)] He does not mention where he
obtained this account, but his reference to the manner in which
Verrazzano came to his death, shows that he had consulted the volume
of Ramusio. Five years later the same writer gave to the world an
enlarged edition of his work, with the title of The Universal
Cosmography of the World, in three ponderous folios, in which he
recites, more at length, the contents of the Verrazzano letter, also
without mentioning where he had found it, but disclosing
nevertheless that it was in Ramusio, by his following the variations
of that version, particularly in regard to the complexion of the
natives represented to have been first seen, as they will be
hereafter explained. [Footnote: La Cosmographie Universelle de tout
le Monde, tom. II, part II, 2175-9. (Paris, 1575.)] This publication
of Belleforest is the more important, because it is from the
abstract of the Verrazzano letter contained in it, that Lescarbot,
thirty-four years afterwards, took his account of the voyage and
discovery, word for word, without acknowledgment. [Footnote: Hist.
de la Nouvelle France, p. 27, et seq. (ed. 1609). In a subsequent
portion of his history (p. 244) Lescarbot again refers incidentally
to Verrazzano in connection with Jacques Cartier, to whom he
attributes a preposterous statement, acknowledging the Verrazzano
discovery. He states that in 1533 Cartier made known to Chabot, then
admiral of France, his willingness "to discover countries, as the
Spanish had done, in the West Indies, and as, nine years before,
Jean Verrazzano (had done) under the authority of King Francis I,
which Verrazzano, being prevented by death, had not conducted any
colony into the lands he had discovered, and had only remarked the
coast from about the THIRTIETH degree of the Terre-neuve, which at
the present day they call Florida, as far as the FORTIETH. For the
purpose of continuing his design, he offered his services, if it
were the pleasure of the king, to furnish him with the necessary
means. The lord admiral having approved these words, represented
then to his majesty, &c." Lescarbot gives no authority for this
statement, made by him seventy-five years after the voyage of
Cartier. It is absurd on its face and is contradicted by existing
records of that voyage. No authority has ever confined the
Verrazzano discovery within the limits here mentioned. Cartier is
represented as saying to the admiral that in order to complete
Verrazzano's design of carrying colonials to the country discovered
by him, that is, within those limits, he would go himself, if the
king would accept his services. The documents recently published
from the archives of St. Malo, show that the voyage of Cartier
proposed by Cartier, was for the purpose of passing through the
straits of Belle Isle, in latitude 52 Degrees, far north of the
northern limit of the Verrazzano discovery, according to either
version of the letter, and not with a design of planting a colony,
or going to any part of the Verrazzano explorations, much less to a
point south of the fortieth degree. (Rame, Documents inedits sur
Jacques Cartier et le Canada, p. 3, Tross, Paris, 1865.) Besides,
neither in the commissions to Cartier, nor in any of the accounts of
his voyages, is there the slightest allusion to Verrazzano.] The
latter writer has accordingly been cited by subsequent authors as an
original authority on the subject, among others by Bergeron,
[Footnote: Traiete des Navigations, p. 103, par. 15.] and the
commissioners of the king of France, in the controversy with his
Britannic majesty in relation to the limits of Acadia; [Footnote:
Memoires des Commissaires du Roi, &c., I, 29.] but, as this
plagiarism proves, without reason. Charlevoix, with a proper
discrimination, refers directly to Ramusio as the sole source from
whence the account of the discovery is derived, as do the French
writers who have mentioned it since his time, except M. Margry, who,
in his recent work on the subject of French voyages, quotes from the
Carli version. It is thus seen that no other authority is given by
the French historians than one or other of the Italian versions.
[Footnote: Andre Thevet, who published a work with the title of
Cosmographie Universelle, in two volumes, large folio, in rivalry
apparently with Belleforest, and in the same year, 1575, is referred
to sometimes as an authority on this subject. Speaking of the cruel
disposition of the people of Canada, he mentions in illustration of
it, the fate at their hands of some colonists whom Verrazzano took
to that country. The fact is thus related by him in connection with
this voyage, for which he gives no authority or indication of any.
"Jean Verazze, a Florentine, left Dieppe, the SEVENTEENTH OF MARCH,
one thousand five hundred and twenty-four, by command of King
Francis, and coasted the whole of Florida, as far as the thirty-
fourth degree of latitude, and the three hundredth of longitude, and
explored all this coast, and PLACED HERE A NUMBER OF PEOPLE TO
CULTIVATE IT, who in the end were all killed and massacred by this
barbarous people" (fol. 1002 B.). This statement seems to justify
what the President De Thou, the contemporary of Thevet, says of him,
that he composed his books by putting "the uncertain for the
certain, and the false for the true, with an astonishing assurance."
(Hist. Univ., tom. II, 651, Loud., 1734.) Thevet had published before
this, in 1557, another book, called Les Singularites de la France
Antarctique, autrement nommee Amerique, in which he describes all
the countries of America as far north as Labrador, and says that he
ran up the coast to that region on his way home from Brazil, where
he went in 1555, with Villegagnon. In this earlier work he makes no
mention of Verrazzano; but does say that Jacques Cartier told him
that he (Cartier) had made the voyage to America twice (fol. 148-9).
It is thus evident that Thevet had not heard of Verrazzano in 1557,
or he would necessarily have mentioned him, as he had the subject
distinctly before him; and if he is to be believed in regard to his
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