Of an equally absurd and preposterous character is the statement made in reference to the condition in which the plants and vegetation were found. The grape particularly is mentioned in a manner which proves, beyond question, that the writer could not have been in the country. The dates which are given for the exploration are positive; and are conclusive in this respect. The Dauphiny is represented as having left Madeira on the 17th of January, and arrived on the coast on the 7th of March, that is, the 17th of that month, new style. [Footnote: See ante, page 4, note.] They left the harbor of the great bay, where they had remained for fifteen days on the 6th of May, which makes their arrival there to have been on the 21st of April, or first of May, N. S. They were thus during the months of March and April, engaged in coasting from the landfall to the great bay in latitude 41 Degrees 40', during which period the observations relating to the intermediate country, consequently, must have been made. They left the coast, finally, in latitude 50 Degrees N., for the purpose of returning to France, in time to reach there and have the letter written announcing their arrival at Dieppe on the 8th of July, and therefore it must have been some time in June, at the latest; so that very little if any portion of the summer season was passed upon the coast of America.
In describing the country which they reached at the end of the fifty leagues north of the landfall, that is, near the boundary between North Carolina and Virginia, where they discovered the old woman and girl concealed in the GRASS and found the land generally, "abounding in forests filled with various kinds of trees but not of such FRAGRANCE" as those where they first landed, the writer gives a particular description of the condition in which they found the vines and flowers.
"We saw," he says, "many vines there growing naturally, which run upon, and entwine about the trees, as they do in Lombardy, and which if the husbandmen were to have under a perfect system of cultivation, would without doubt produce the BEST WINES, because TASTING (beendo, literally, drinking or sucking) THE FRUIT MANY TIMES, we perceived it was sweet and pleasant, not different from ours. They are held in estimation by them because wherever they grow they remove the small trees around them in order that the fruit may be able to germinate. We found wild roses, violets, lilies and many species of plants and ODORIFEROUS FLOWERS, different from ours." [Footnote: "Vedenimo in quella molte vite della natura prodotte, quali alzando si avvoltano agli alberi come nella Cisalpina Gallia custumano; le quali se dagli agricultori avessimo el perfetto ordine di cultura, senza dubbio produrrebbono ottimi vini, perche piu volte il frutto di quello beendo, veggiendo suave e dolce, non dal nostro differente sono da loro tenuti in extimatione; impero che per tutto dove nascono, levano gli arbusculi circustanti ad causa il frutto possa gierminare. Trovamo rose silvestre et vivuole, gigli et molte sorte di erbe e fiori odoriferi da nostri differenti.">[
The flavor and vinous qualities of the grapes are thus particularly mentioned as having been proven several times by eating the ripe and luscious fruit, and in language peculiarly expressive of the fact. According to the dates before given, this must have occurred early in the month of April, as the scene is laid upon the coast of North Carolina. There is no native vine which ever flowers in this country, north of latitude thirty-four, before the month of May, and none that ripens its fruit before July, which is the month assigned by Lawson for the ripening of the summer fox grape in the swamps and moist lands of North Carolina,—the earliest of all the grapes in that region. [Footnote: New Voyage to Carolina, p. 602.] North of latitude 41 Degrees no grape matures until the latter part of August. As the explorers are made to have left the shores of Newfoundland for home in June, at farthest, they were at no time on any part of the coast, in season to have been able to see or taste the ripe or unripe fruit of the vine. The representation of the letter in this respect depending both upon the sight and the taste, must, like that of the contrasted appearance of the natives, be regarded as deliberately made; and consequently, the two as establishing the falsity of the description in those particulars, and thus involving the integrity and truth of the whole.
The liberty which Ramusio took with these passages in his version of the letter, demands notice, and adds his testimony again to the absurdity of the account. He doubtless knew, from the numerous descriptions which had been published, of the uniformity of the physical characteristics of the American Indians; and he certainly knew of it as regarded the natives of this coast; as is proven by his publication of Oviedo's account of the voyage of Gomez, made there in 1525, in which they are described, in the same volume with the Verrazzano letter. [FOOTNOTE: Tom. III. fol. 52, (ed. 1556).] His own experience, as to the climate of Venice, taught him also that grapes could not have ripened in the latitude and at the time of year assigned for that purpose. He had therefore abundant reason to question the correctness of the letter in both particulars. As in the case of the representation of the extent of the discovery, before mentioned, he did not hesitate to make them conform more to the truth. He amended the original in regard to the complexion of the natives represented as those first seen, by inserting in place of the words, applied to them, of "black and not much different from Ethiopians," the phrase, "brownish and not much unlike the Saracens" (berrettini & non molto dalli Saracini differenti) [FOOTNOTE: Berrettini is derived from beretta, the Turkish fez, a red cap, designating also the scarlet cap of the cardinals & the church of Rome.] by which they are likened to those Arabs whose complexion, "yellow, bordering on brown," is of a similar cast; [Footnote: Pritchard, Natural History of Man, p. 127 (2d edition).] and in regard to the grapes, by substituting instead of, "tasting the fruit many times we perceived it was sweet and pleasant," the passage, "having often seen the fruit thereof DRIED, which was sweet and pleasant," (havedo veduto piu volte il frutto di quelle secco, che era suave & dolce,) by which he apparently obviates the objection, but in fact only aggravates it, by asserting what has never yet been heard of among the Indians of this coast, the preservation of the grape by drying or otherwise.
It is evident that whatever may have been the motives of Ramusio in making these repeated alterations of the statements in the letter, they not only show his own sense of their necessity, but they have had the effect to keep from the world the real character of this narrative in essential particulars, until its exposure now, by the production of the Carli version.
VII.
THE EXTRINSIC EVIDENCE IN SUPPORT OF THE CLAIM. I. DISCOURSE OF THE FRENCH SEA-CAPTAIN OF DIEPPE.
The extrinsic evidence which in urged in support of the claim to the discovery by Verrazzano is not of great amount. It is certain, however, that if the letter upon which the claim is founded, be spurious and fictitious, as for the reasons assigned, it is considered to be, any extraneous evidence, must either partake of the same character, or have originated in some misconception or error. What exists upon the subject consists principally of two pieces, which have only recently been regarded of any importance for this purpose, and in connection with which the others may be considered.
One of them is an anonymous paper entitled in full, "Discourse of a great sea-captain, a Frenchman of the town of Dieppe, as to the voyages made to the new land of the West Indies, called New France, from the 40 Degrees to the 47 Degrees under the Arctic pole, and concerning the land of Brazil, Guinea, the island of St. Lawrence and that of Sumatra," the other is a map of the world, bearing the name of Hieronimo de Verrazzano.