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Page 48
But the question of any such voyage of discovery having been made at
the time claimed in the Verrazzano letter is effectually set at rest
by the fact that Verrazzano was then actually engaged in a
corsairial enterprise elsewhere. Peter Martyr, in an epistle written
on the 3d of August 1524, less than a month after the alleged return
of Verrazzano to Dieppe from his voyage of discovery, wrote from
Valladolid that "a courier of the king of Portugal had arrived (with
word) that Florin, the French pirate, had captured a ship of his
king on her way from the Indies, with a cargo valued at one hundred
and eighty thousand ducats." [Footnote: Epist. 800 (ed. 1670).] 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.
The defeat of Francis I at the battle of Pavia and his capture and
detention in Spain during the year 1525, seem to have suspended the
depredations upon the seas by the French, and nothing more occurs
relating to Verrazzano, until after the release of the king, in the
following year, and then in an adventure which seems to have cost
him his life, unless his probable appearance in England as mentioned
by Hakluyt, to which reference has already been made, be an
exception. Allusion has also been made several times to an agreement
between Chabot, admiral of France, and others, including Verrazzano,
which now assumes particular importance. It is the only document yet
produced in France, relating to him, and is of recent discovery.
[Footnote: Margry, Les Navigations Francaises, p.194 (Paris, 167.)
See Appendix (II)] By this agreement it was stipulated that Chabot,
as admiral of France, should furnish two galleons, Jean Ango one
ship, and Verrazzano two pilots besides himself, and that the three
persons here named should with Guillaume Preudhomme, general of
Normandy, Pierre Despinolles and Jacques Boursier, in different
specified amounts each, make up the sum of twenty thousand pounds in
Tours currency for the expenses, on joint account, of a voyage to
the Indies for spices,--the admiral and Ango, however, to have one-
fourth of all the merchandise returned, for the use of the vessels,
and Verrazzano to have one-sixth of the remaining three-fourths, for
his compensation and that of his two pilots. The contract contained
another provision, that if any booty should be taken on the sea from
the Moors, or other enemies of the faith and the king, the admiral
should first take a tenth of it and the remainder should be divided
as stipulated in regard to the merchandise, except such part as
should, upon advisement, be given to the crew. The admiral was to
have letters patent expedited from the king for permission to make
the voyage. This paper has no date, but as it was made by Chabot, in
his official capacity, as admiral of France, it could not have been
earlier than March 1526, when, as we have seen, he was so created.
It belongs, therefore, either to that or the following year, judging
from the fatal consequences which happened to Verrazzano in the
latter.
Although a voyage from France to the Indies for spices was not an
improbable venture at that time inasmuch as one was actually made
from Dieppe, two years afterwards, by Jean Parmentier in the service
of Ango, there is every reason to believe that such was not the real
object of the parties to this agreement. One of the stipulations
between them was for a division, of booty, showing an intention to
make captures on the sea. Who were the enemies of the king from whom
it was to be taken is not stated. By the treaty of Madrid, in
January 1526. peace existed between France and Spain, and any
expedition from one of them against the commerce of the other, was
clearly piratical. Neither did war exist at this time, between
France and Portugal. Yet it appears that both the Spaniards and the
Portuguese, were searching for Verrazzano at the time, when the
former succeeded in capturing him, in September or October 1527. He
had, therefore, not sailed to the Indies and must have made himself
obnoxious to those nations, by fresh depredations upon their
vessels. Bernal Diaz, who gives an account of his capture and
execution, states that he was actually so engaged. [Footnote:
Historia verdadera, fol 164.] It appears from the letters of the
judge who superintended his execution that he was then encountered
by six Biscayan galleons and ships, and after battle, captured and
taken by them to Cadiz, with his crew, consisting of one hundred and
twenty or thirty persons, besides several gentlemen adventurers,
Verrazzano offered his captors thirty thousand ducats to be
released, but in vain. He was sent under guard with the adventurers
to Madrid, but was overtaken on the way at Colmenar near Puerto del
Pico, villages between Salamanca and Toledo, [Footnote: Blaen,
Utriusque Castilia nova descripto. Martiniere, Dictionaire
Geographique, aub Colmenar et Pico.] by the judge of Cadiz with an
order made by the emperor at Lerma on the 13th of October 1527, by
virtue of which he was there put to death in November of that year.
Such was the termination of the career of this hold man, which was
long ago substantially told by Bernal Diaz and Barcia, but so
loosely in regard to dates, as to have created doubts as to their
correctness, but which is established by the documents existing in
the archives at Simancas, now brought to light. [Footnote: See the
letter of the judge of Cadiz, in the Appendix (V.L.) Barcia, in his
Chronological Essay, mentions the capture and execution of Juan the
Florentine as a pirate under the year 1524. He does not state that
they took place in that year, but refers to them in connection with
the discoveries alleged to have been made in that year by
Verrazzano, whom he identifies as the corsair. It has been supposed,
consequently, that he meant that year as the time of Verrazzano's
death; and hence, inasmuch as Verrazzano was known to have been
alive after that year, that the whole story was an error. The
letters of Juan de Giles, the resident judge of Cadiz, appended to
this memoir, enable us to fix the date of his execution, for
although not dated themselves, they contain a reference to the date
of the cedule, ordering the execution, by which it can be
determined. Giles mentions that this cedule was dated at Lerma, on
the 13th of last month, showing that it was made there on the 13th
of some month. According to the Itinerary of Charles V, kept by his
private secretary, Vandernesse, containing an account of the
emperor's journeys from the year 1519 to 1551, Charles went to
Lerma, a small town in Old Castile, for the first time on the 9th of
May, 1524 and returned thence to Burgos on the 12th of that month,
going to Lerma again on the 21st of July of that year and leaving it
on the 24th for Vallidesole. He was not there afterwards, until the
12th of October, 1527, where he remained until the 17th of that
month when he went to Burgos. He went to Lerma again on the 20th of
February 1528, and remained there for two days only. These are all
the occasions of his presence at Lerma during the whole period of
the Itinerary. These dates prove that the only possible occasion for
issuing the order of execution was the 13th of October 1527. The
prisoners left under guard, on the 15th of that month for Madrid,
and the letter apprising the emperor that the order had been
executed upon Verrazzano must have been written in November, the
month following.
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