[ [2] ] Careta was an Indian chief whose friendship Balboa secured.
[ [3] ] The date of this view of the Pacific by Balboa was September 25, 1513. Readers of the poems of Keats are familiar with the error in his sonnet "On First Looking Into Chapman's 'Homer,'" where, by a curious error, never corrected, he makes Cortez, instead of Balboa, the Spaniard who stood "silent upon a peak in Darien."
THE VOYAGE OF MAGELLAN TO THE PACIFIC
[ [1] ] From Fiske's "Discovery of America." Copyright, 1892, by John Fiske. Reprinted by arrangement with the publishers, Houghton, Mifflin Co. Ferdinand Magellan was born at Saborosa in Portugal, about 1480, and died in the Philippines in 1521. Before discovering the strait that bears his name he had served with the Portuguese in the East Indies and in Morocco. Becoming dissatisfied he had gone to Spain, where he proposed to find a western passage to the Moluccas, a proposal which Charles V accepted, fitting out for him a government squadron of five ships and 265 men. Magellan sailed from San Lucar September 20, 1519, and, after passing through the strait as here described by Fiske, proceeded to the Philippines, where, in an attack on unfriendly natives, he, with several of his men, was killed. One of his ships afterward completed the voyage by way of the Cape of Good Hope, and thus made the first circumnavigation of the globe.
[ [2] ] A reference to Sir Francis Drake, the first Englishman who circumnavigated the globe.
THE DISCOVERY OF NEW YORK HARBOR BY VERAZZANO
[ [1] ] From a letter addrest to Francis I, King of France, on July 8, 1524. Three copies of Verazzano's letter exist. One was printed by Ramusio in 1556 and translated for Hakluyt's "Voyages" in 1583. The second was found in the Strozzi Library in Florence, and published in 1841 by the New York Historical Society with a translation by J.G. Cogswell.
The third copy is the one now owned by Count Gulio Macchi di Cellere, of Rome. It was first published in Italy in 1909, and the first English translation of it was made by Dr. Edward Hagaman Hall, secretary of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, and published in the report of that society for 1910. This copy has the distinction of being contemporaneous. Dr. Hall says its value "consists not only in confirming the voyage itself, but also in supplying a wealth of names and details not previously known to exist." Verazzano's account of his visit to New York harbor here given is taken from Dr. Hall's translation.
Giovanni de Verazzano was born in Italy about 1480, and died about 1527. He early became a Florentine navigator and afterward a corsair in French service. His expedition to America was of French origin and sailed in 1523.
[ [2] ] Off the coast of Virginia or Maryland.