[378] Cape Fear is in 33° 48´ north latitude.
[379] The translation of Verrazzano’s letter by Joseph G. Cogswell, contained in the New York Historical Society’s collections, second series, vol. i. pp. 37-54, will be followed hereafter, except when a better rendering may be presented.
[380] Vide section of Maiollo map in the cover-pocket. The scale of latitudes on the margin of this part of the map has been appended to indicate the position given to places by Visconte de Maiollo. A similar scale is engraved on another part of the rare map.
[381] Palmetto trees.
[382] It was not until 1728 that this conception of the navigator was disproved. Then Vitus Behring discovered the strait which divides the two continents. The distance between East Cape in Asia and Cape Prince of Wales on the continent of America is forty-five miles.
[383] “Nè pensiamo participando dello oriente per la circumferenza sieno senza qualche drogheria o liquore aromatico, et altre divitie oro ed altro del quale colore la terra tutta tende.”
[384] Historical collections of South Carolina. By B. R. Carroll. vol. i. p. xxi.
[385] In Ramusio’s text the word is oriente, east. Raccolta di navigationi e viaggi. Ramusio. vol. ii. fol. 350.
It was the custom of the aborigines to set fire to the underbrush in spring to enable them to hunt and to inclose game within the limits of the burning wood.
[386] The harbor of Beaufort was too far inland to be seen by Verrazzano.