On his arrival at the court of France, Silveyra pursued his investigations respecting the expedition, and on the twenty-fifth of April, 1523, wrote to King John III., saying:
“By what I hear Master João Verazano, who is going on the discovery of Cathay, has not left up to this date for want of opportunity, and because of differences, I understand, between himself and men; and on this point, although knowing nothing positively, I have written my doubts in accompanying letters. I shall continue to doubt, unless he take his departure.”[371] Silveyra, according to what is said by D’Andrada, “accomplished nothing he had in hand except to delay the voyage of the Florentine.”
Notwithstanding the secret machinations of the king of Portugal, four vessels were finally fitted out and placed under the command of Verrazzano, “to discover new lands.” Late in the year 1523, the fleet set sail, but having encountered a severe storm in the North Sea, all the ships were disabled, and Verrazzano, having returned to Brittany to repair the two barques, La Normandie and La Dauphine, afterward sailed in the Dauphine to the New Land.[372]
When he returned to France, he wrote an interesting letter to Francis I., king of France, dated “on board the ship La Dauphine, in the port of Dieppe, in Normandy, July 8, 1524.”[373] In this communication Verrazzano relates what had happened to his fleet in the North Sea, how he had carried out the orders of the king by sailing in the Dauphine toward the west to go to Cathay, where and when he discovered a new land never before seen by men of ancient or modern times. He then describes the people inhabiting the country, speaks of its various productions, mentions the peculiar physical features of its coast, tells how many leagues he had sailed along it, and concludes with a brief review of the discoveries made to the year 1524 in the western hemisphere. His remarks concerning his failure to find a convenient harbor where he first descried land, of his unsuccessful search for one south of the thirty-fourth parallel, of his steering afterward toward the north in quest of a haven, and of his disappointment in this direction, are so applicable to the peculiar features of this part of the eastern coast of the United States, that it is easy to perceive that he faithfully pictures the shores of South Carolina and North Carolina, along which he began his explorations. The comparisons he makes respecting the natives, the flora, the fauna, the climate, and the harbors of the more northern part of the coast, prove that he had travelled extensively in other parts of the world, and that he was well informed concerning the things he commented upon in his letter. His geographical knowledge is far in advance of that of the scientific men of his time, and he constantly shows that he was practically acquainted with all the known means which were then used to ascertain longitude, latitude, and the measurement of distances. His opinion that the Orient extended around to the New Land was well founded, since it was not known until the eighteenth century that Behring’s Strait separated America from Asia. His reasoning concerning the dimensions of the new continent, that if its breadth corresponded to the extent of its sea-coast it doubtless exceeded Asia in size, is logically correct. Verrazzano’s hopefulness that information of a more satisfactory character respecting the extent of the territory of the New Land would be obtained by other explorers, shows that he was less thoughtful of the brilliancy of his own achievements than he was of the more desirable and important results of future voyages to that part of the present coast of the United States, between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth parallels, of which he is rightfully entitled to be regarded the discoverer. Verrazzano wrote:[374]
“Most Serene Sire:
“After the past fortune on the northern coasts I did not write to your most serene and Christian majesty concerning the success of the four vessels ordered to the ocean to discover new lands, thinking that you would be informed of all: how, by the impetuous stress of the winds, we were compelled, with only the ships La Normandie and La Dauphine, in a damaged condition, to put back to Brittany, where they were mended. Your serene majesty has heard of the wandering course we made with these, armed as in war, along the shores of Spain, and afterward of the new purpose to pursue, with the Dauphine alone, the first voyage, from which having returned, I will give your serene majesty an account of what we discovered.[375]
“From the desert-rock[376] in the sea, near the island of Madeira of the most serene king of Portugal, we departed with the said Dauphine, on the seventeenth of the past month of January, with fifty men, furnished with provisions, arms, and other martial instruments, and naval stores for eight months. Sailing westwardly, an easterly wind blowing pleasantly and moderately, we ran in twenty-five days 800 leagues.[377] On the fourteenth of February (il di 14 Febbrajo), we encountered a storm as severe as any one navigating ever experienced, from which we were enabled with divine help and goodness to escape, to the praise of the glorious and fortunate name of the ship, which endured the violent waves of the sea, and we pursued our voyage, continuing toward the west, holding a little to the north. In twenty-five more days (in venti cinque altri giorni), we ran 400 other leagues, when there appeared a new land, never before seen by men in ancient or modern times.
“At first it seemed to be somewhat low. On approaching it within a quarter of a league, we saw by the large fires made on the shore that it was inhabited. We observed that the coast trended toward the south, and we inspected it to discover some harbor which we might enter with the ship to examine the nature of the land, but for fifty leagues along it we could not find a convenient haven where we could safely stay. Seeing the coast continued to run toward the south, we determined to turn and go back to the north, where we found the same want of harbors as we ascended the coast.”
