Following the trend of the coast of Maine, Verrazzano found along this part of his course for the space of fifty leagues, numerous islands, thirty-two of which, near the main-land, were high and attractive. Among them he saw many excellent roadsteads and navigable channels.
Describing his exploration along the coast of Maine, Verrazzano remarks: “Departing from this place [perhaps in the vicinity of Cape Neddock], we kept along the coast steering to the northeast, and found the country more pleasant and open, free from woods, and far in the interior we saw lofty mountains, but none which extended to the shore.
“Within fifty leagues we discovered thirty-two small and attractive islands, all near the main-land. They were so high and so disposed as to afford as fine harbors and channels as those that are in the Adriatic Gulf, near Illyria and Dalmatia. We had no intercourse with the people, but we judge that they were similar in disposition and habits to those we were last among.
“After sailing between east and north the distance of one hundred and fifty more leagues, and finding our provisions and naval stores nearly exhausted, we took in wood and water, and determined to return to France, having discovered five hundred and two, that is to say, seven hundred leagues of new land (avendo discoperto leghe 502 cioe leghe 700 più di nuova terra).”
The distance of seven hundred leagues Verrazzano reckoned in the following way, as explained by him in his geographical exposition of the voyage: “In addition to the 92 degrees we ran toward the west from our point of departure before we reached land on the thirty-fourth parallel, we have to count 300 [French] leagues, which we ran northeastwardly and 400 nearly east along the coast before we reached the fiftieth parallel of north latitude.” Measured directly north from the thirty-fourth parallel to the fiftieth, the space includes sixteen degrees, which multiplied by 31¼ French leagues, which at that time equaled a degree of latitude, the product of 500 French leagues is obtained.[406] Two leagues added to these, for the distance sailed directly south of the thirty-fourth parallel, make 502 French leagues, or about eleven hundred and four land-miles, the geographical extent of the coast explored by Verrazzano.[407] The New Land (Nuova Terra), discovered by Verrazzano, was as early as the year 1527 delineated on a map of the world and denominated Francesca. This Italian name it bore for a number of years until the French geographical designation La Nouvelle France (New France) was substituted for it.[408]
Concluding his description of the new country, Verrazzano remarks: “As to the religious faith of all these tribes, not understanding their language, we could not learn either by signs or gestures any thing certain. It seemed to us that they had no religion or laws, nor any knowledge of a First Cause or Mover,—that they worshipped neither the heavens, stars, sun, moon, nor the other planets. We could not learn if they were given to any kind of idolatry, or offered any sacrifices or supplications, or if they have temples or houses of prayer in their villages. Our conclusion was that they had no religion, but lived without any. This seems to be the result of ignorance, for they are very easily persuaded, and imitated us with earnestness and fervor in all that they saw us do as Christians in our acts of devotion.”
Verrazzano added to this general description of his remarkable discoveries, an elaborate cosmographical explanation of the situation of the New Land. His geometrical elucidation of the distances sailed by the Dauphine, shows how desirous he was to make plain the geography of the vast continent, which he and others had partly explored. He says:
“It remains for me to place before your serene majesty a cosmographical description of the voyage. As I have already said, we departed from the desert-rocks, lying in the extreme part of the West known to the ancients, and in the described meridian near the Fortunate Islands, on the thirty-second parallel from the equator of our hemisphere, and sailed from it westwardly to where we found the first land, 1,200 leagues or 4,800 miles, reckoning according to nautical custom four miles to a [marine] league.[409] ... During our voyage we had no lunar eclipses or similar celestial phenomena. We therefore determined our progress from the difference of longitude, which we ascertained by various instruments, taking the sun’s altitude from day to day, and by calculating geometrically the distance run by the ship from one horizon to another. All these observations, as also the ebb and flow of the tide in all places, were noted down in a little book, which may prove serviceable to navigators. They are communicated to your majesty with the hope of promoting science.
“My intention in this voyage was to reach Cathay, on the extreme coast of Asia, expecting, however, to find in the newly discovered land some obstacle as I found, yet I did not doubt that I should sail by some passage to the eastern ocean. It was the opinion of the ancients that our eastern ocean of India was an expanse of water without any intervening land. Aristotle supports it by arguments founded on various probabilities, but it is contrary to later belief and false by observation. The discovered country, of which the ancients knew nothing, is another world compared with that which was before known, being evidently larger than our Europe together with Africa, and, perhaps, Asia, if one rightly estimate its extent, as shall now be explained briefly to your majesty.”[410] He then speaks of the Spaniards sailing as far south as the Strait of Magellan and as far north as the twenty-first parallel without finding a termination to the continent....
“But to return to ourselves:—in the voyage which we have made by the order of your majesty, in addition to the ninety-two degrees we ran toward the west from the point of our departure before we reached land on the thirty-fourth parallel, we have to count 300 leagues which we sailed northeastwardly, and 400 nearly east along the coast before we reached the fiftieth parallel of north latitude, the point where we turned our course from the shore toward home. Beyond this point the Portuguese had sailed as far north as the arctic circle without coming to the end of the continent. Adding the degrees of south latitude explored, which are fifty-four, to those of the north, which are sixty-six, the sum is one hundred and twenty degrees, and therefore more than are included in the latitude of Africa and Europe, for the north point of Norway, the extremity of Europe, is in 71° north latitude, and the Cape of Good Hope, the southern extremity of Africa, is in 35° south latitude, and their sum is only one hundred and six degrees. If the breadth of this newly discovered country correspond to the extent of its sea-coast, it doubtless exceeds Asia in size. In this way we find that the land forms a much larger part of our globe than the ancients supposed, who maintained, contrary to mathematical reasoning, that it was less than the water, whereas actual experience proves the reverse, so that judging in respect to extent of surface, the land covers apparently as much space as the water.[411]