[405] As described by a late writer: “Narragansett Bay is one of the most beautiful sheets of water in the United States; it is unrivalled for its navigable advantages, affording at all times a safe and ready communication with the ocean; and its shores, which are indented with innumerable bays and inlets containing many excellent harbors. This bay ... extends more than thirty miles into the interior of the state, and for this distance affords superior advantages for ship-navigation. The whole extent of the bay and river, from Point Judith to Providence, is about thirty-six miles. The average breadth of the lower section of the bay is nearly ten miles; but the upper part is narrow. Exclusive of the islands, of which there are about fifteen in number, and some of considerable extent, the waters of the bay comprise an area of about one hundred and thirty square miles.”—Gazetteer of Connecticut and Rhode Island. 1819. pp. 302, 303, 349, 359.
[406] See note, page 293.
[407] The distance given by the Spanish historian, Francisco Lopez de Gomara, in 1552, from the Point of Baccalaos, in 48° 30´ to Cape St. Helen, in 32° north latitude, is more than seven hundred and sixty Spanish leagues, measured as the coast trended: “From the Point of Baccallaos are set down eight hundred and seventy leagues to Florida, counting as follows: From the Point of Baccallaos which is in 48° 30´ are seventy leagues of coast to La Baya del Rio, which is in more than 45°. Thence are seventy to another bay called Isleos which is in less than 44°. From Baya Isleos to Rio Fonda are seventy leagues, and thence to Rio de las Gamas, are other seventy, both rivers being in 43°. From Rio de los Gamas are fifty leagues to Cabo Bajo, and thence to Rio de San Anton, they reckon more than a hundred leagues. From Rio de San Anton are eighty leagues along the shore of a gulf to Cabo de Arenas, which is in nearly 39°, thence to Puerto del Principe are more than a hundred leagues, and from it to Rio Jordan seventy, and thence to Cabo de Santa Elena, which is in 32°, there are forty leagues. From Santa Elena to Rio Seco, which is in 31°, are forty leagues.”—La historia general de las Indias. Gomara. cap. xii.
[408] The name Francesca is used on the Maiollo map of 1527. Hieronymus da Verrazzano called the region “Verrazana seu Gallia nova,”—Verrazana or New Gaul. By some French writers it was denominated in the sixteenth century, “Terre Francesque.”
[409] “This distance,” he remarks, “calculated geometrically upon the ratio that three and one seventh times the diameter of a circle is equal to its circumference, gives 92⁵⁴¹⁶⁴⁄₄₇₂₇₃₃ degrees. For if we take 114⁶⁄₁₁ degrees as the chord of an arc of a great circle, we have by the same ratio 95²⁴⁸³⁄₄₉₅₀ degrees as the chord of an arc on the parallel of 34°, being that on which we first made land, and 300²³³⁄₁₅₇₅ degrees as the circumference of the whole circle, passing through this plane. Allowing then, as actual observations show, that 62½ terrestrial miles correspond to a celestial degree, we find the whole circumference of 300²³³⁄₁₅₇₅ degrees, as just given, to be 18,759³¹⁄₁₂₆ miles, which, divided by 360, makes the length of a degree of longitude on the parallel of 34° to be 52⁹⁸⁹⁄₉₀₇₂ miles, and that is the true measure. Therefore, by a right line to the said rock which stands in 32°, we have to calculate the distance, the said 1,200 leagues which we have found, from the thirty-fourth parallel, from west to east, hence I should have run 92⁵⁴¹⁶⁴⁄₄₇₂₇₃₃ degrees, and this many therefore we have sailed to the West, which was not known to the ancients.”
114⁶⁄₁₁ × 3¹⁄₇ = 360. 300²³³⁄₁₅₇₅ × 7 ÷ 22 = 95²⁴⁸³⁄₄₉₅₀. 300²³³⁄₁₅₇₅ × 62½ = 18,759³¹⁄₁₂₆. 18,759³¹⁄₁₂₆ ÷ 560 = 52⁹⁸⁹⁄₉₀₇₂. 4,800 by 52⁹⁸⁹⁄₉₀₇₂ = 92⁵⁴¹⁶⁴⁄₄₇₂₇₃₃.
[410] “The Spaniards have sailed south beyond the equator, on a meridian 20³²⁰⁶⁰/₄₇₂₈₁ degrees west of the Fortunate Islands to the latitude of 54° and there still found land. Turning about they steered northward on the same meridian and along the coast to the eighth parallel, and then along the coast more to the west, and north to the latitude of 21° [31°?], without finding a termination to the continent. They estimated the distance run as 89²⁹⁷⁰⁹/₄₆₇₈₁ which added to the 20³²⁰⁶⁰/₄₇₂₈₁ first run make 110¹⁴⁴⁸⁸/₄₆₇₈₁, but this may vary somewhat from the truth. We did not make this voyage, and therefore cannot speak from experience. We calculated it geometrically from the observations furnished by many navigators, who have made the voyage and affirm the distance to be 1600 leagues, due allowance being made for the deviations of the ship from a straight course by reason of contrary winds. I hope that we shall now obtain accurate information on these points, by new voyages to be made on the same coasts.”—Vide Maiollo map of 1527.
[411] Verrazzano’s argument is based upon the supposition that the extent of the land of the new continent was greater than it really was, for at this time the Pacific coast of the New Land had not been explored. Verrazzano believed that the New World extended much farther westward than it does.
[412] Tierra del Fuego, south of the Strait of Magellan, had not yet been explored, and it was not known how far it extended, or in what direction.
[413] The number of tons is not mentioned.