The Voyage of Verrazzano by Henry Cruse Murphy


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Page 2

X. The Career of Verrazzano. An Adventurous Life and
Ignominious Death. Conclusion

Appendix

Index

[Proofreaders note: ILLUSTRATIONS and MAPS omitted]






THE VOYAGE OF VERRAZZANO:

A CHAPTER IN THE EARLY HISTORY OF MARITIME DISCOVERY IN AMERICA.




I.

THE DISCOVERY ATTRIBUTED TO VERRAZZANO.


The discovery of the greater portion of the Atlantic coast of North
America, embracing all of the United States north of Cape Roman in
South Carolina, and of the northern British provinces as far at
least as Cape Breton, by Giovanni da Verrazzano, a Florentine, in
the service of the king of France, has received until quite recently
the assent of all the geographers and historians who have taken
occasion to treat of the subject. This acknowledgment, for more than
three hundred years, which would seem to preclude all question in
regard to its authenticity at this late day, has, however, been due
more to the peculiar circumstances of its publication than to any
evidence of its truth. The only account of it which exists, is
contained in a letter purporting to have been written by the
discoverer himself, and is not corroborated by the testimony of any
other person, or sustained by any documentary proof. It was not
published to the world until it appeared for the first time in
Italy, the birth place of the navigator, more than thirty years
after the transactions to which it relates are alleged to have taken
place; and it has not, up to the present time, received any
confirmation in the history of France, whose sovereign, it is
asserted, sent forth the expedition, and to whose crown the right of
the discovery accordingly attached. Yet it is not difficult to
comprehend how the story, appealing to the patriotic sympathies of
Ramusio, was inconsiderately adopted by him, and inserted in his
famous collection of voyages, and thus receiving his sanction, was
not unwillingly accepted, upon his authority, by the French nation,
whose glory it advanced, without possibly its having any real
foundation. And as there never was any colonization or attempt at
possession of the country in consequence of the alleged discovery,
or any assertion of title under it, except in a single instance of a
comparatively modern date, and with no important hearing, it is no
less easy to understand, how thus adopted and promulgated by the
only countries interested in the question, the claim was admitted by
other nations without challenge or dispute, and has thus become
incorporated into modern history without investigation.

Although the claim has never been regarded of any practical
importance in the settlement of the country, it has nevertheless
possessed an historical and geographical interest in connection with
the origin and progress of maritime discovery on this continent. Our
own writers assuming its validity, without investigation, have been
content to trace, if possible, the route of Verrazzano and point out
the places he explored, seeking merely to reconcile the account with
the actual condition and situation of the country. Their
explanations, though sometimes plausible, are often contradictory,
and not unfrequently absurd. Led into an examination of its merits
with impressions in its favor, we have nevertheless been compelled
to adopt the conclusion of a late American writer, that it is
utterly fictitious. [Footnote: An Inquiry into the Authenticity of
Documents concerning a Discovery in North America claimed to have
been made by Verrazzano. Read before the New York Historical
Society, Tuesday, October 10, 1864. By Buckingham Smith. New York,
1864. pp. 31, and a map.] The grounds upon which our conviction
rests we propose now to state. Some documents will be introduced,
for the first time here brought to light, which will serve further
to elucidate the question, and show the career and ultimate fate of
Verrazzano.

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Books | Photos | Paul Mutton | Fri 29th Mar 2024, 12:28