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Page 49
The Itinerary will be found in the Correspondence of the Emperor
Charles V, by William Bradford, London, 1850.]
And thus finally the testimony, upon which the tale of discovery was
credited and proclaimed to the world, is contradicted and disproved.
The statement that Verrazzano and a member of his crew were killed
and then feasted upon by the inhabitants of the coast which he had
visited a second time, has no support or confirmation in the history
of that rude and uncivilized people; for, however savage and cruel
they were towards their enemies, or, under provocation, towards
strangers, no authenticated instance of their canibalism has ever
been produced; but on the contrary the testimony of the best
authorities, is that they were guiltless of any such horrid
practice. Yet that statement was a part of the information which
Ramusio received and communicated to his readers at the same time
with the Verrazzano letter; and constituted a part of the evidence
upon which he relied. How utterly false it was is shown by the
agreement with Chabot and the capture and execution of Verrazzano by
the Spaniards. It is now seen how the credulity of the historian was
imposed upon, and he was led by actual misrepresentations to adopt a
narrative which has no foundation in truth, and whose
inconsistencies and incongruities he vainly sought to reconcile, but
which, for three centuries, sanctioned by his authority alone, has
been received as authentic and true; until at length, by the
exposure of its original character, and the circumstances of its
publication by him, with the production of undoubted evidence from
the records of the time, it is proven to be a deliberate fraud.
This completes our purpose. The question, however, still presents
itself what was the motive for this gross deception? The answer is
suggested by the feet that all the evidence produced in favor of the
story is traceable to Florence, the birthplace of Verrazzano.
Ramusio obtained the Verazzano letter there,--the only one, he says,
not astray in consequence of its unfortunate troubles. The letter of
Carli, enclosing that of Verrazzano, is professedly written by a
Florentine to his father in that city. The map of Hieronimo de
Verrazano bears the impress of the family. The discourse of the
French captain of Dieppe appears to have been sent originally to
Florence, whence it was procured by Ramusio. Even the globe of
Euphrosynus Ulpius, a name otherwise unknown, is represented to have
been constructed for Marcellus, who had been archbishop of Florence.
They are all the testimony of Florence in her own behalf. The cities
of Italy which had grown in wealth and importance during the
fifteenth century, by means of enterprising and valuable commerce,
produced and nurtured a race of skillful seamen, among whom were the
most distinguished of the first discoverers of the new world, in the
persons of Columbus, Vespucci and the Cabots; but those cities
contributed nothing more to the discoveries which thus were
achieved, than to give these men birth and education. The glory of
promoting and successfully accomplishing those results belonged to
other nations, which had the wisdom and fortune to secure the
services of these navigators. The cities shone, however, with the
lustre reflected from having reared and instructed them to the work
they so wonderfully performed. Although enjoying a common
nationality, these municipales belonged to independent republics and
were in a measure rivals of each other. Florence emulated Genoa. She
truly boasted that Vespucci, born and raised on her soil, was the
first to reach the main land and thus to have his name applied for
the whole continent, "America quasi Americi terra;" while Genoa
justly claimed for her son, that the discovery of all America was to
be regarded as assured from the moment that Columbus landed on the
little sandy island of Guanahana, on the 12th of October 1492.
[Footnote: Humboldt, Examen Critique, IV, 37.] But Florence enjoys
in addition the unenviable distinction of having sought to advance
the pretensions of Vespucci by fictitious letters, purporting to be
signed with his name.[Footnote: Varnhagen, Amerigo Vespucci, son
caractere, ses scrits (meme les moins authentiques) &c., p. 67, et
seq. (Lima, 1865).] That this spirit of civic pride in that same
community may have actuated the fabrication of the Verrazzano letter
is not improbable; but in justice to the memory of Verrazzano it
must be added, there is no reason to believe that he was in any way
accessory to the imposture.
APPENDIX
I.
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