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Page 36
Hakluyt furnishes testimony which, if correct, shows the probable
existence of this map before 1529, BUT NOT IN ITS PRESENT FORM. In
the dedication to Phillip Sydney of his "Divers voyages touching the
discoveries of America, &c.," printed in 1582, he refers to the
probabilities of the existence of a northwest passage, and remarks
that, "Master John Verarzanus which had been THRISE ON THAT COAST in
an olde excellent mappe, which HE GAVE to King Henry the eight, and
is yet in custodie of Master Locke, doth so lay it out as is to bee
seene in the mappe annexed to the end of this boke, being made
according to Verarzanus plat." Hakluyt thus positively affirms that
the old map to which he refers was given by Verrazzano himself to
the king. What evidence he had of that fact he does not mention, but
he speaks of the map as if it had been seen by him, and probably
that was his authority. The map he declares of his own knowledge was
transferred, so far as regards the western strait, to the map of
Lok, which he himself publishes. Lok's map represents the northwest
passage as attempted by Frobisher in his several voyages, and as
continued from the termination of the English exploration, to a
western sea, a portion of which lying between the parallels of 40
Degrees N. and 50 Degrees N. latitude is laid down the same as it
appears on the Verrazano map, and bears the inscription of Mare de
Verrazana, 1524. 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. It is certain that Verrazzano could not have been accessory
to declaring it a DISCOVERY by himself for the reason already
mentioned that no such sea, as there laid down, existed to have been
discovered.
Lok's map represents on the Atlantic coast, in latitude 41 Degrees
N., the island alleged in the Verrazzano letter to have been named
after the king's mother, and gives it the name of Claudia. That it
is the same island is proven by note to the translation of the
letter given in the volume in which this map is found. Hakluyt puts
in the margin, opposite the passage where mention of the island
occurs in the letter, the words "Claudia Ilande." From whatever
source this name was derived by them, whether from Mercator or by
their own mistake, both Lok and Hakluyt here indirectly bear their
testimony to the fact, that the name of Luisia was not upon the old
map given to Henry VIII, which Lok consulted, and Hakluyt described.
It is thus to be concluded that the map delivered to the king showed
the western sea, but not any discoveries of Verrazzano on the
Atlantic coast.
In another work, as yet unpublished, Hakluyt affords some additional
information in regard to the old map, which though brief, is quite
significant. He remarks that it is "a mightie large olde mappe in
parchment, made AS IT WOULD SEEM by Verrazanus, now in the custodie
of Mr. Michael Locke;" and he speaks also of an "olde excellent
GLOBE in the Queen's privie gallery, at Westm'r, w'h ALSO SEEMETH
to be of Verrazanus making." [Footnote: MS. in possession of the
Maine Historical Society, cited in Mr. Kohl's Discovery of Maine, p.
291, note.] 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. The construction of this old map, whoever was the
author, is fixed certainly BEFORE 1529, by the statement of Hakluyt,
that it was presented to Henry VIII by Verrazzano, the navigator,
inasmuch as Verrazzano came to his death in 1527. The Verrazzano
map, in its present phase, not claiming to have been made before the
year 1529, could not, therefore, have furnished the original
representation of the western sea, or have been the one used by Lok.
Hakluyt adds to his statement that Verrazzano had been three times
on the coast of America, which, if true, would disprove the
discovery set up in the letter. That document alleges that the coast
explored by him was entirely unknown and HAD NEVER BEFORE BEEN SEEN
BY ANY ONE before that voyage, and consequently not by him; and
that, as regards the residue of the coast north of 50 Degrees N.,
the Portuguese had sailed along it as far as the Arctic circle,
without finding any termination to the land, thus giving the
Portuguese as his authority for the continuity of the northern part
of the coast, and excluding himself from it. It is thus clearly
stated in the letter, that he had not been there before. It was
impossible that he could have, consummated two voyages to America,
and another to England, and made his court to the king, after 1524,
and before his last and fatal cruize along the coast of Spain, as
would have been necessary to have been done. In asserting that
Verrazzano made other voyages to America, Hakluyt is corroborated by
the ancient manuscripts, to which the author of the memoirs of
Dieppe refers, as mentioning that one Jean Verassen commanded a ship
which accompanied that of Aubert to Newfoundland in 1508. [Footnote:
Desmarquets. "Memoires chronologiques pour servir a l'histoire de
Dieppe," I. 100. (2 Vols. Paris, 1785.) It is worthy of remark that
this annalist seems to regard Verasseu and Verrazzano as different
persons, which proves, at least, that his authority was independent
of any matter connected with the Verrazzano claim. That these names
really relate, however, to the same individual, appears from the
agreement with Chabot] It is possible, therefore, that Verrazzano
made three voyages to Newfoundland, and was well acquainted with
that portion of the coast, before hostilities broke out between
Francis I. and the emperor, in 1522; at which time, as will be seen,
he entered upon his course of privateering; and that during the time
Francis was a prisoner at Madrid, in 1525-6, and the state of war
accordingly suspended, and Verrazzano thrown out of employment, he
visited England, and laid before the king a scheme of searching for
the northwest passage; a project which Henry had been long
meditating, as may be gathered from the proposition of Wolsey to
Sebastian Cabot in 1519, and the expedition actually sent out for
that purpose by that monarch under John Rut, in 1527. [Footnote:
Letter of Contarini, the Venetian ambassador in Spain, to the
Council of Ten. See "Calendar of State Papers &c. in Venice," 1520-
6. Edited by Rawdon Brown. No. 697, London, 1869. Purchas, III. p.
809.] It is evident that the representation of the western sea, upon
the map given to the king, was merely conjectural of its existence
in connection with the supposed strait, laid down upon the map,
according to Hakluyt. This explanation will serve also to account
most readily for the partial knowledge which the letter exhibits, in
regard to the customs and characteristics of the Indians of Cape
Breton, which might have been collected by the writer, from the
journals of those early voyages or other notes of Verrazzano in
relation to them; although the same information was obtainable from
others who had made similar voyages to that region, from Normandy
and Brittany.
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