In pursuing its main object of making known the discovery, the letter ventures upon certain statements which are utterly inconsistent with an actual exploration of the country. The general position and direction of the coast are given with sufficient correctness to indicate the presence there of a navigator; but its geographical features are so meagrely and untruthfully represented, as to prove that he could not have been the writer. The same apparent inconsistency exists as to the natural history of the country. Some details are given in regard to the natives, which correspond with their known characteristics, but others are flagrantly false. The account is evidently the work of a person who, with an imperfect outline of the coast, by another hand, before him, undertook to describe its hydrographical character at a venture, so far as he deemed it prudent to say anything on the subject; and to give the natural history of the country, in the same way, founded on other accounts of parts of the new world. The actual falsity of the statements alluded to is, at all events, sufficient to justify the rejection of the whole story. So far as they relate to the littoral, they are now to be considered.
In general, the geography of the coast is very indefinitely described. Of its latitudes, with the exception of the landfall and termination of the exploration, which are fixed also by other means, and are necessary to the ground work of the story, only a single one is mentioned. The particular features of the coast are for the most part unnoticed. Long distances, embracing from two hundred to six hundred miles each, are passed over with little or no remark. Islands, rivers, capes, bays, and other land or seamarks, by which navigators usually describe their progress along an unknown coast, are almost entirely unmentioned. For a distance of over two thousand miles, adopting the narrowest limits possible assigned to the discovery, only one island, one river, and one bay are attempted to be described, and not a single cape or headland is referred to. No name is given to any of them, or to any part of the coast, except the one island which is named after the king's mother. It was the uniform practice of the Catholic navigators of that early period, among whom, according to the import of the letter, Verrazzano was one, to designate the places discovered by them, by the names of the saints whose feasts were observed on the days they were discovered, or of the festivals of the church celebrated on those days; so that, says Oviedo, it is possible to trace the course of any such explorer along a new coast by means of the church calendar. This custom was not peculiar to the countrymen of that historian. It was observed by the Portuguese and also by the French, as the accounts of the voyages of Jacques Cartier attest. But nothing of the kind appears here. These omissions of the ordinary and accustomed practices of voyagers are suspicious, and of themselves sufficient to destroy all confidence in the narrative. But to proceed to what is actually stated in regard to the coast.
Taking the landfall to have occurred, as is distinctly claimed, at latitude 34 Degrees, which is a few leagues north of Cape Fear in North Carolina, and which is fixed with certainty, for the purposes of the letter, at that point by the estimate of the distance they ran northerly along the coast before it took an easterly direction, the discovery must be regarded as having commenced somewhat south of Cape Roman in South Carolina, being the point where the fifty leagues terminated which they ran along the coast, in the first instance, south of the landfall. It is declared that from thence, for two hundred leagues, to the Hudson river, as it will appear, there was not a single harbor in which the Dauphine could ride in safety. [Footnote: A league, according to the Verrazzano letter, consisted of four miles; and a degree, of 15,625 leagues or 62 1/3 miles.] The size of this craft is not mentioned, but it is said she carried only fifty men, though manned as a corsair. Judging from the size of the vessels used at that time on similar expeditions, she was small. The two which composed the first expedition of Jacques Cartier carried sixty men and were each of about sixty tons burden. The Carli letter, which must be assumed to express the idea of the writer on the subject, describes her as a caravel; which was a vessel of light draught adapted to enter shallow rivers and harbors and to double unknown capes where shoals might have formed, and was therefore much used by the early navigators of the new world. [Footnote: Le Moyen Age et la Renaissance. Tome Second. Marine, par M. A. Jal. fol. V. (Paris 1849.)] Columbus chose two caravels, out of the three vessels with which he made his first voyage; and the third one, which was larger than either of the caravels, was less than one hundred tons. The Dauphine is therefore to be considered, from all the representations in regard to her, of less than the latter capacity, and as specially adapted to the kind of service in which she is alleged to have been engaged. In running north from their extreme southerly limit, they must have passed the harbor of Georgetown in South Carolina, and Beaufort in North Carolina, in either of which the vessel could have entered; and in the latter, carrying seventeen feet at low water and obtaining perfect shelter from all winds. [Footnote: Blunt's American Coast Pilot, p. 359 (19th edition.)] But if they really had been unable to find either of them, it is impossible that they should not have discovered the Chesapeake, and entered it, under the alleged circumstances of their search. That it may be seen what exactly is the statement of the letter in regard to this portion of the coast, it is here given in its own terms. Having represented the explorers as having reached a point fifty leagues north of the landfall, which would have carried them north of Hatteras, but still on the coast of North Carolina, their movements over the next four hundred miles north are disposed of in the following summary manner: "After having remained here," (that is, at or near Albemarle,) "three days riding at anchor on the coast, as we could find no harbor, we determined to depart and coast along the shore to the northeast, keeping sail on the vessel ONLY BY DAY, and coming to anchor by night. After proceeding one hundred leagues we found a VERY PLEASANT SITUATION AMONG SOME STEEP HILLS, THROUGH WHICH A VERY LARGE RIVER, DEEP AT ITS MOUTH, FORCED ITS WAY TO THE SEA." There can be no mistake in regard to the portion of the coast here intended. Upon leaving this river they found that the coast stretched, it is stated, as will presently appear, in an EASTERLY direction. A stream coming from the hills, its situation at the bend of the coast, its latitude as fixed by that of the port which, after leaving it, they found in nearly the same parallel and which is placed in 41 Degrees 40', all point distinctly to the embouchure of the Hudson at the highlands of Navesink as the termination of the hundred leagues. Within this distance the Chesapeake empties into the sea.
The explorers were not only in search of a harbor for the purpose of recruiting, but they were seeking, as the great end of the voyage, a passage to Cathay, rendering, therefore, every opening in the coast an object of peculiar interest and importance. They were sailing with extreme caution and observation, in the day-time only, and constantly in sight of land. The bay of the Chesapeake is the most accessible and capacious on the coast of the United States. It presents an opening into the sea of twelve miles from cape to cape, having a broad and deep channel through which the largest ships of modern times, twenty times or more the tonnage of the Dauphiny, may enter and find inside of Cape Henry ample and safe anchorage. [Footnote: Blunt's American Coast Pilot, p. 340.] That an actual explorer could not have failed to have discovered this bay and found a secure harbor at that time, is shown by the account of the expedition, which the Adelantado, Pedro Menendes, of infamous memory, despatched under the command of Pedro Menendez Marquez, for the survey of this coast in 1573; when the means and facilities of navigators for exploration were not different from what existed at the date of the Verrazzano voyage. Menendez Marquez was the first to enter the Chesapeake after Gomez, who gave it the name of the bay of Santa Maria. [Footnote: This name occurs on the map of Ribero on this part of the coast, which establishes its application by Gomez; but its position is evidently misplaced and carried too far south.] Barcia thus summarizes the result of the expedition, so far as it relates to this bay.
"Pedro Menendez Marquez, governor of Florida for his uncle the Adelantado reduced many Indians to obedience and took possession of the provinces particularly in the name of the king, in the presence of Rodrigo de Carrion, notary of the government of Santa Elena. Afterwards, he, being a great seaman, inasmuch as he had formerly been admiral of the fleet, as Francisco Cano relates, Lib. 3, de la Histor. de las Ordenes Militares, fol. 184, went, by order of the Adelantado, to explore the coast, which exploration commenced at the cape of the Martyrs, and the peninsula Tequesta [point of Florida], where the coast begins to run north and south, at the outlet of the Bahama channel, and extended along the coast to beyond the harbor and bay of Santa Maria, which is three leagues wide and which is entered towards the northwest; and within it are many rivers and harbors where, on both sides of it, they can anchor. At the entrance, near the shore, on the south, there are from nine to thirteen fathoms of water, and on the north, from five to seven. Two leagues outside, in the sea, the depth is the same, north and south, but more sandy than inside. Going through the channel there are from nine to thirteen fathom; and in the harbor about fifteen, ten and six fathoms were found in places where the lead was thrown."
"The bay of Santa Maria is in thirty-seven degrees and a half.
[Footnote: Ensayo Chronologico, pp. 146, 8.]"
To ignore the existence of this great bay, the most important hydrographical feature of our coast, as Verrazzano, according to the letter, does, and to pretend that no harbor could be found there, in which the diminutive Dauphiny could lie, is, under the circumstances under which this exploration is alleged to have been conducted, to admit that he was never on that part of the coast.
Suddenly leaving the river of the hills, in consequence of an approaching storm, they continued their course directly east for a distance of ninety-five leagues, passing in sight of the island and arriving finally at the bay, which are the only ones described, and that very briefly, in the whole voyage along the coast.
"Weighing anchor," reads the letter, "we sailed eighty leagues TOWARDS THE EAST, as the coast stretched in that direction, and ALWAYS IN SIGHT OF IT. At length we discovered an island of triangular form, about ten leagues from the main land, in size about equal to the island of Rhodes, having many hills covered with trees and well peopled, judging from the great number of fires which we was all around its shores; we gave it the name of your majesty's illustrious mother. WE DID NOT LAND THERE, as the weather was unfavorable, but proceeded to another place, fifteen leagues distant from the island, where we found a very excellent harbor. * * * This land is situated in the parallel of Rome, being 41 degrees 41' of north latitude. It looks towards the south, on which side the harbor is half a league broad; afterwards, upon entering it between the east and the north it extends twelve leagues, [Footnote: A slight correction of the translation of Dr. Cogswell, which is the one we have adopted, here becomes necessary. It reads: "upon entering it the extent between the east [misprinted coast], and north, is twelve leagues." The text is, "entrando in quello infra oriente e settentrione s'esteude leghe XII.">[ and then enlarging itself it forms a very large bay, twenty leagues in circumference, in which are five small islands of great fertility and beauty, covered with large and lofty trees. Among these islands any fleet, however large, might ride safely, without fear of tempests or other dangers. Turning towards the south, at the entrance of the harbor on both sides there are very pleasant hills and many streams of clear water which flow down to the sea. In the midst of the entrance, there is a rock of freestone, formed by nature and suitable for the construction of any kind of machine or bulwark for the defence of the harbor."
This island is a mere fancy; none such exists any where upon this coast. The distance which they thus ran easterly, of eighty leagues, would have carried them more than an hundred miles into the ocean beyond Cape Cod. That distance, however, may be regarded only as approximate, because they possessed no means of determining longitude with accuracy, and therefore this, like all statements in the letter, of distances running east and west, is to be considered an estimate only, formed from the circumstances attending the sailing of the vessel, and liable to serious error. But the island and bay were objects of actual observation, and are therefore to be regarded as they are described. After leaving Long Island, which forms the coast in an easterly direction for a little over an hundred miles from the Hudson, only three islands occur, except some insignificant ones and the group of the Elizabeth islands all near the shore, in the entire distance to the easterly shore of Cape Cod, when the coast turns directly north. They are all three somewhat of a triangular shape, and in that respect are equally entitled to consideration in connection with the description of the island of Louise, but are all incompatible with it in other particulars. Louise is represented as being a very large island, equal in size to the famous island of Rhodes, which has an area of four hundred square miles, and as being situated ten leagues distant from the main land. The first of the three islands met with, eastward of Long Island, is Block island. It contains less than twenty square miles of territory and lies only three leagues from the land; and thus both by its smallness and position cannot be taken as the island of Louise. It has, however, been so regarded by some writers, because on the main land, about five leagues distant, are found Narraganset bay and the harbor of Newport, which, it is imagined, bear some resemblance to the bay and harbor which the explorers entered fifteen leagues beyond the island of Louise, and which cannot be elsewhere found.