[387] In Hakluyt’s translation of the text of Ramusio’s condensed copy of Verrazzano’s letter is the following respecting the vines of Virginia: “We saw in this country many vines growing naturally, which, growing up, took holde of the trees as they doe in Lombardie, which if by husbandmen they were dressed in good order, without all doubt they would yeeld excellent wines; for hauing oftentimes seene the fruit thereof dryed; which was sweete and pleasant, and not differing from ours, we thinke that they doe esteeme the same, because in euery place where they growe, they take away the under branches growing round about, that the fruit thereof may ripen the better.”—Voyages. Hakluyt. vol. ii. p. 297.
[388] Chesapeake Bay “extends 190 miles from its mouth, into the States of Virginia and Maryland; it is from 7 to twenty miles broad, and generally 9 fathoms deep.”
The peninsula is “about 60 miles long, and from 10 to 15 wide, and bounded toward the sea by a string of low sandy islets. The waters of the Chesapeake enter the sea between Cape Charles and Cape Henry, forming a strait of fifteen miles in width.”—Gazetteer of Virginia and the District of Columbia. By Joseph Martin. 1835. pp. 23, 18.
[389] Vide Maiollo map of 1527 in the cover-pocket.
[390] “Epistle dedicatorie” to Hakluyt’s Divers voyages, 1582.
[391] “Da questo mare orientale si vede il mare occidentale; sono 6 miglia di terra infra l’uno a l’altro.”
[392] Hakluyt’s Particular discourse, 1584.
The English collector illustrates his Divers voyages with Locke’s map, which the English cartographer dedicated to Sir Philip Sidney.
[393] Sandy Hook light-house is in 40° 27´ 39´´ north latitude.
[394] At Sandy Hook, a low, sandy point of land, eighteen miles from the city of New York, are two ship-channels through which vessels of the heaviest tonnage can pass. Immediately north of Sandy Hook is the spacious roadstead called the Lower Bay. Between Staten Island, north of it, and Long Island is the Narrows, a channel about one mile and a half long by one wide. North of it is the Upper Bay or harbor of New York.