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Page 7
Honorable Father:
Considering that when I was in the armada in Barbary at Garbich the
news were advised you daily from the illustrious Sig. Don Hugo de
Moncada, Captain General of the Caesarean Majesty in those barbarous
parts, [of what] happened in contending with the Moors of that
island; by which it appears you caused pleasure to many of our
patrons and friends and congratulated yourselves on the victory
achieved: so there being here news recently of the arrival of
Captain Giovanni da Verrazzano, our Florentine, at the port of
Dieppe, in Normandy, with his ship, the Dauphiny, with which he
sailed from the Canary islands the end of last January, to go in
search of new lands for this most serene crown of France, in which
he displayed very noble and great courage in undertaking such an
unknown voyage with only one ship, which was a caravel of hardly--
tons, with only fifty men, with the intention, if possible, of
discovering Cathay, taking a course through other climates than
those the Portuguese use in reaching it by the way of Calicut, but
going towards the northwest and north, entirely believing that,
although Ptolemy, Aristotle and other cosmographers affirm that no
land is to be found towards such climates, he would find it there
nevertheless. And so God has vouchsafed him as he distinctly
describes in a letter of his to this S. M.; OF WHICH, IN THIS, THERE
IS A COPY. And for want of provisions, after many months spent in
navigating, he asserts he was forced to return from that hemisphere
into this, and having been seven months on the voyage, to show a
very great and rapid passage, and to have achieved a wonderful and
most extraordinary feat according to those who understand the
seamanship of the world. Of which at the commencement of his said
voyage there was an unfavorable opinion formed, and many thought
there would be no more news either of him or of his vessel, but that
he might be lost on that side of Norway, in consequence of the great
ice which is in that northern ocean; but the Great God, as the Moor
said, in order to give us every day proofs of his infinite power and
show us how admirable is this worldly machine, has disclosed to him
a breadth of land, as you will perceive, of such extent that
according to good reasons, and the degrees of latitude and
longitude, he alleges and shows it greater than Europe, Africa and a
part of Asia; ergo mundus novus: and this exclusive of what the
Spaniards have discovered in several years in the west; as it is
hardly a year since Fernando Magellan returned, who discovered a
great country with one ship out of the five sent on the discovery.
From whence be brought spices much more excellent than the usual;
and of his other ships no news has transpired for five years. They
are supposed to be lost. What this our captain has brought he does
not state in this letter, except a very young man taken from those
countries; but it is supposed he has brought a sample of gold which
they do not value in those parts, and of drugs and other aromatic
liquors for the purpose of conferring here with several merchants
after he shall have been in the presence of the Most Serene Majesty.
And at this hour he ought to be there, and from choice to come here
shortly, as he is much desired in order to converse with him; the
more so that he will find here the Majesty, the King, our Lord, who
is expected herein three or four days. And we hope that S. M. will
entrust him again with half a dozen good vessels and that he will
return to the voyage. And if our Francisco Carli be returned from
Cairo, advise him to go, at a venture, on the said voyage with him;
and I believe they were acquainted at Cairo where he has been
several years; and not only in Egypt and Syria, but almost through
all the known world, and thence by reason of his merit is esteemed
another Amerigo Vespucci, another Fernando Magellan and even more;
and we hope that being provided with other good ships and vessels,
well built and properly victualed, he may discover some profitable
traffic and matter; and will, our Lord God granting him life, do
honor to our country, in acquiring immortal fame and memory. And
Alderotto Branelleschi who started with him and by chance turning
back was not willing to accompany him further, will, when he hears
of this, be discontented. Nothing else now occurs to me, as I have
advised you by others of what is necessary. I commend myself
constantly to you, praying you to impart this to our friends, not
forgetting Pierfrancesco Dagaghiano who in consequence of being an
experienced person will take much pleasure in it, and commend me to
him. Likewise to Rustichi, who will not be displeased, if he
delight, as usual, in learning matters of cosmography. God guard you
from all evil. Your son.
FERNANDO CARLI, in Lyons.
This letter bears date only twenty-seven days after that of the
Verrazzano letter, which is declared to be inclosed. To discover its
fraudulent nature and the imposition it seeks to practise, it is
only necessary to bear this fact in mind, with its pretended origin,
in connection with this warlike condition of France and the personal
movements of the king, immediately preceding and during the interval
between the dates of the two letters. It purports to have been
written by Fernando Carli to his father in Florence. Carli is not an
uncommon Italian name and probably existed in Florence at that time,
but who this Fernando was, has never transpired. He gives in this
letter all there is of his biography, which is short. He had
formerly been in the service of the emperor, Charles V, under
Moncada, in the fleet sent against the Moors in Barbary, and was
then in Lyons, where, it might be inferred, from a reference to its
merchants, that he was engaged in some mercantile pursuit; but the
reason of his presence there is really unaccounted for. It is not
pretended that he held any official position under the king of
France. The name of his father, by means of which his lineage might
be traced, is not mentioned, but Francisco Carli is named as of the
same family, but without designating his relationship. Whether a
myth or a reality, Fernando seems to have been an obscure person, at
the best; not known to the political or literary history of the
period, and not professing to occupy any position, by which he might
be supposed to have any facility or advantage for obtaining official
information or the news of the day, over the other inhabitants of
Lyons and of France.
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