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Page 27
Of an equally absurd and preposterous character is the statement
made in reference to the condition in which the plants and
vegetation were found. The grape particularly is mentioned in a
manner which proves, beyond question, that the writer could not have
been in the country. The dates which are given for the exploration
are positive; and are conclusive in this respect. The Dauphiny is
represented as having left Madeira on the 17th of January, and
arrived on the coast on the 7th of March, that is, the 17th of that
month, new style. [Footnote: See ante, page 4, note.] They left the
harbor of the great bay, where they had remained for fifteen days on
the 6th of May, which makes their arrival there to have been on the
21st of April, or first of May, N. S. They were thus during the
months of March and April, engaged in coasting from the landfall to
the great bay in latitude 41 Degrees 40', during which period the
observations relating to the intermediate country, consequently,
must have been made. They left the coast, finally, in latitude 50
Degrees N., for the purpose of returning to France, in time to reach
there and have the letter written announcing their arrival at Dieppe
on the 8th of July, and therefore it must have been some time in
June, at the latest; so that very little if any portion of the
summer season was passed upon the coast of America.
In describing the country which they reached at the end of the fifty
leagues north of the landfall, that is, near the boundary between
North Carolina and Virginia, where they discovered the old woman and
girl concealed in the GRASS and found the land generally, "abounding
in forests filled with various kinds of trees but not of such
FRAGRANCE" as those where they first landed, the writer gives a
particular description of the condition in which they found the
vines and flowers.
"We saw," he says, "many vines there growing naturally, which run
upon, and entwine about the trees, as they do in Lombardy, and which
if the husbandmen were to have under a perfect system of
cultivation, would without doubt produce the BEST WINES, because
TASTING (beendo, literally, drinking or sucking) THE FRUIT MANY
TIMES, we perceived it was sweet and pleasant, not different from
ours. They are held in estimation by them because wherever they grow
they remove the small trees around them in order that the fruit may
be able to germinate. We found wild roses, violets, lilies and many
species of plants and ODORIFEROUS FLOWERS, different from ours."
[Footnote: "Vedenimo in quella molte vite della natura prodotte,
quali alzando si avvoltano agli alberi come nella Cisalpina Gallia
custumano; le quali se dagli agricultori avessimo el perfetto ordine
di cultura, senza dubbio produrrebbono ottimi vini, perche piu volte
il frutto di quello beendo, veggiendo suave e dolce, non dal nostro
differente sono da loro tenuti in extimatione; impero che per tutto
dove nascono, levano gli arbusculi circustanti ad causa il frutto
possa gierminare. Trovamo rose silvestre et vivuole, gigli et molte
sorte di erbe e fiori odoriferi da nostri differenti."]
The flavor and vinous qualities of the grapes are thus particularly
mentioned as having been proven several times by eating the ripe and
luscious fruit, and in language peculiarly expressive of the fact.
According to the dates before given, this must have occurred early
in the month of April, as the scene is laid upon the coast of North
Carolina. There is no native vine which ever flowers in this
country, north of latitude thirty-four, before the month of May, and
none that ripens its fruit before July, which is the month assigned
by Lawson for the ripening of the summer fox grape in the swamps and
moist lands of North Carolina,--the earliest of all the grapes in
that region. [Footnote: New Voyage to Carolina, p. 602.] North of
latitude 41 Degrees no grape matures until the latter part of
August. As the explorers are made to have left the shores of
Newfoundland for home in June, at farthest, they were at no time on
any part of the coast, in season to have been able to see or taste
the ripe or unripe fruit of the vine. The representation of the
letter in this respect depending both upon the sight and the taste,
must, like that of the contrasted appearance of the natives, be
regarded as deliberately made; and consequently, the two as
establishing the falsity of the description in those particulars,
and thus involving the integrity and truth of the whole.
The liberty which Ramusio took with these passages in his version of
the letter, demands notice, and adds his testimony again to the
absurdity of the account. He doubtless knew, from the numerous
descriptions which had been published, of the uniformity of the
physical characteristics of the American Indians; and he certainly
knew of it as regarded the natives of this coast; as is proven by
his publication of Oviedo's account of the voyage of Gomez, made
there in 1525, in which they are described, in the same volume with
the Verrazzano letter. [FOOTNOTE: Tom. III. fol. 52, (ed. 1556).]
His own experience, as to the climate of Venice, taught him also
that grapes could not have ripened in the latitude and at the time
of year assigned for that purpose. He had therefore abundant reason
to question the correctness of the letter in both particulars. As in
the case of the representation of the extent of the discovery,
before mentioned, he did not hesitate to make them conform more to
the truth. He amended the original in regard to the complexion of
the natives represented as those first seen, by inserting in place
of the words, applied to them, of "black and not much different from
Ethiopians," the phrase, "brownish and not much unlike the Saracens"
(berrettini & non molto dalli Saracini differenti) [FOOTNOTE:
Berrettini is derived from beretta, the Turkish fez, a red cap,
designating also the scarlet cap of the cardinals & the church of
Rome.] by which they are likened to those Arabs whose complexion,
"yellow, bordering on brown," is of a similar cast; [Footnote:
Pritchard, Natural History of Man, p. 127 (2d edition).] and in
regard to the grapes, by substituting instead of, "tasting the fruit
many times we perceived it was sweet and pleasant," the passage,
"having often seen the fruit thereof DRIED, which was sweet and
pleasant," (havedo veduto piu volte il frutto di quelle secco, che
era suave & dolce,) by which he apparently obviates the objection,
but in fact only aggravates it, by asserting what has never yet been
heard of among the Indians of this coast, the preservation of the
grape by drying or otherwise.
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