I was twenty-eight years old when I came into your Highnesses’ service, and now I have not a hair upon me that is not gray: my body is infirm, and all that was left to me, as well as to my brothers, has been taken away and sold, even to the frock that I wore, to my great dishonor. I cannot but believe that this was done without your royal permission. The restitution of my honor, the reparation of my losses, and the punishment of those who have inflicted them, will redound to the honor of your royal character. A similar punishment also is due to those who have plundered me of my pearls, and who have brought a disparagement upon the privileges of my admiralty. Great and unexampled will be the glory and fame of your Highnesses, if you do this; and the memory of your Highnesses, as just and grateful sovereigns, will survive as a bright example to Spain in future ages. The honest devotedness I have always shown to your Majesties’ service, and the so unmerited outrage with which it has been repaid, will not allow my soul to keep silence, however much I may wish it. I implore your Highnesses to forgive my complaints. I am indeed in as ruined a condition as I have related. Hitherto I have wept over others: may Heaven now have mercy upon me, and may the earth weep for me!
BOOK III.
CABOT AND VERRAZZANO.
(A.D. 1497–1524.)
SHIP OF THE 15TH CENTURY.
The first of these extracts in regard to the Cabots may be found in one of the Hakluyt Society’s volumes, entitled “Henry Hudson the Navigator, edited by G. M. Asher,” London, 1860, p. lxix.
The extracts which follow are from another volume of the same series, entitled “Hakluyt’s Divers Voyages,” London, 1850, pp. 23–26.
Verrazzano’s narrative is taken from “Hakluyt’s Divers Voyages,” same edition, pp. 55–71. Another translation, by J. G. Cogswell, may be found, with the original Italian narrative, in the Collections of the New York Historical Society, second series, vol. 1.
CABOT AND VERRAZZANO.