Those captains have sustained much injury and have been at much cost, as I am witness. They arrived with their ships broken, the sails rent, the castles carried away. They had spent much in munition and powder, and for the sustenance of those French before they delivered them to me. When they arrived in the bay they were greatly reduced and hungered, having exhausted their stores by giving to the French. Much would it be for the service of Your Majesty that those Captains should be satisfied for their losses and rewarded which I have promised them, as Your Highness desired by your cedula, that others seeing how they are honored may be encouraged in the royal service. Thus much I entreat that Your Majesty will order done for the loyalty I know those captains tear to your service, and because they are persons by whom you may he much served.
S. C. C. M. I kiss the sacred feet of your Highness. LICENCLADO
GILES.
VI. THE VERRAZZANO LETTER ACCORDING TO THE ORIGINAL VERSION
Translated by Dr. J. G. Cogswel, from a copy of the MS. in the Magliahechian Library in Florence, and printed in the Collections of the New York Historical Society. Second Series. Vol. 1, pp. 41-51
CAPTAIN JOHN DE VERRAZZANO to His Most Serene Majesty the KING OF
FRANCE, writes: [Footnote: This introduction reads in the original:
"Captain John Da Verrazzano Florentine, of Normandy, to the most
Serene Crown of France, relates:">[
Since the tempests which we encountered on the northern coasts, I have not written to your most Serene and Christian Majesty concerning the four ships sent out by your orders on the ocean to discover new lands, because I thought you must have been before apprized of all that had happened to us—that we had been compelled by the impetuous violence of the winds to put into Brittany in distress with only the two ships Normandy and Dolphin; [Footnote: The signification of Delfina, the name of the Verazzano ship of discovery, is differently given by the translators. Hakluyt renders it into English by the Word Dolphin and Dr. Cogswel here does the same. But this is not correct. The Italian for dolphin is delfino; which also signifies the dauphin, or oldest son of the King of France, so called because upon the cession of Dauphiny to the crown of France, he became entitled to wear the armorial device, which was a dolphin, of the princes of that province. Delfina is the feminine noun of Delfino, in that sense, that is the Dauphiness, M. Margry has so interpreted it in this case, and accordingly gives the vessel the name of Dauphine (Nav. Fran. 209), which as she is represented to have belonged to France, would have been her actual name.] and that after having repaired these ships, we made a cruise in them, well armed, along the coast of Spain, as your Majesty must have heard, and also of our new plan of continuing our begun voyage with the Dolphin alone; from this voyage being now returned, I proceed to give your Majesty an account of our discoveries,
On the 17th of last January we set sail from a desolate rock near the island of Madeira, belonging to his most Serene Majesty the King of Portugal, with fifty men, having provisions sufficient for eight months, arms and other warlike munition and naval stores. Sailing westward with a light and pleasant easterly breeze, in twenty-five days we ran eight hundred leagues. On the 24th of February we encountered as violent a hurricane as any ship ever weathered, from which we escaped unhurt by the divine assistance and goodness, to the praise of the glorious and fortunate name of our good ship, that had been able to support the violent tossing of the waves. Pursuing our voyage towards the west, a little northwardly, in twenty-four days more, having run four hundred leagues, we reached a new country, which had never before been seen by any one, either in ancient or modern times. At first it appeared to be very low, but on approaching it to within a quarter of a league from the shore we perceived, by the great fires near the coast, that it was inhabited. We perceived that it stretched to the south, and coasted along in that direction in search of some port, in which we might come to anchor, and examine into the nature of the country, but for fifty leagues we could find none in which we could lie securely. Seeing the coast still stretched to the south, we resolved to change our course and stand to the north-ward, and as we still had the same difficulty, we drew in with the land and sent a boat on shore. Many people who were seen coming to the sea-side fled at our approach, but occasionally stopping, they looked back upon us with astonishment, and some were at length induced, by various friendly signs, to come to us. These showed the greatest delight on beholding us, wondering at our dress, countenances and complexion. They then showed us by signs where we could more conveniently secure our boat, and offered us some of their provisions. That your Majesty may know all that we learned, while on shore, of their manners and customs of life, I will relate what we saw as briefly as possible. They go entirely naked, except that about the loins they wear skins of small animals, like martens fastened by a girdle of plaited grass, to which they tie, all round the body, the tails of other animals hanging down to the knees; all other parts of the body and the head are naked. Some wear garlands similar to birds' feathers.
The complexion of these people is black, not much different from that of the Ethiopians; their hair is black and thick, and not very long, it is worn tied back upon the head in the form of a little tail. In person they are of good proportions, of middle stature, a little above our own, broad across the breast, strong in the arms, and well formed in the legs and other parts of the body; the only exception, to their good looks is that have broad faces, but not all, however, as we saw many that had sharp ones, with large black eyes and a fixed expression. They are not very strong in body, but acute in mind, active and swift of foot, as far as we could judge by observation. In these last two particulars they resemble the people of the east, especially those the most remote. We could not learn a great many particulars of their usages on account of our short stay among them and the distance of our ship from the shore.
We found not far from this people another whose mode of life we judged to be similar. The whole shore is covered with fine sand, about fifteen feet thick, rising in the form of little hills about fifty paces broad. Ascending farther, we found several arms of the sea which make in through inlets, washing the shores on both aides as the coast runs. An outstretched country appears at a little distance rising somewhat above the sandy shore in beautiful fields and broad plains, covered with immense forests of trees, more or less dense, too various in colours, and too delightful and charming in appearance to be described, I do not believe that they are like the Hercynian forest or the rough wilds of Scythia, and the northern regions full of vines and common trees, but adorned with palms, laurels, cypresses, and other varieties unknown in Europe, that send forth the sweetest fragrance to a great distance, but which, we could not examine more closely for the reasons before given, and not on account of any difficulty in traversing the woods, which, on the contrary, are easily penetrated.
As the "East" stretches around this country, I think it cannot be devoid of the same medicinal and aromatic drugs, and various riches of gold and the like, as is denoted by the colour of the ground. It abounds also in animals. as deer, stags, hares, and many other similar, and with a great variety of birds for every kind of pleasant and delightful sports. It is plentifully supplied with lakes and ponds of running water, and being in the latitude of 34. the air is salubrious, pure and temperate, and free from the extremes of both heat and cold. There are no violent winds in these regions, the most prevalent are the north-west and west. In summer, the season in which we were there, the sky is clear, with but little rain: if fogs and mists are at any time driven in by the south wind, they are instantaneously dissipated, and at once it becomes serene and bright again. The sea is calm, not boisterous, and its waves are gentle. Although the whole coast is low and without harbours, it is not dangerous for navigation, being free from rocks And bold, so that within four or five fathoms from the shore there is twenty-four feet of water at all times of tide, and this depth constantly increases in a uniform proportion. The holding ground is so good that no ship can part her cable, however violent the wind, as we proved by experience; for while riding at anchor on the coast, we were overtaken by a gale in the beginning of March, when the winds are high, as is usual in all countries, we found our anchor broken before it started from its hold or moved at all.