Giovanni da Verrazzano (also spelled Giovanni da Verrazano) explored the east coast of what is now the United States in 1525. He is best known for being the discoverer of New York Harbor and for mistaking Pamlico Sound for the Pacific
The east coast of what is now known of the United States of America was largely unexplored in the early 1520s. The Spanish had discovered Florida, and the English and Portuguese Newfoundland, which was already visited frequently by fishermen and whalers of various nations, but the area between these two areas was still a white spot on the map. Maybe a route to Cathay (China) could be found there? Perhaps even one that was shorter than the known ones around the Cape of Good Hope or through the Straits of Magalhães?
King François-premier (Francis I) of France decided to send out an expedition to investigate the area. As he was a fan of everything Italian, it is no wonder that he chose the Florentine Giovanni da Verrazzano to lead the expedition. The expedition was also backed by wealthy Italian bankers and merchants living in Lyons. Strangely, the year is given in books on the subject sometimes at 1524, sometimes as 1525. I have no idea which one is correct.
Although we do not know this for sure, it is generally assumed that Verrazzano
was born in or around 1485, on his family's castle,
Castello Verrazzano, near
Val di Greve, 30 miles south of Florence. Upon reaching majority (also around
1506-7) he moved to Dieppe, France,
to pursue a maritime career. He made
several voyages to the Eastern Mediterranean, and probably also visited
Newfoundland.
Verrazzano had been provided with four ships, but two of them shipwrecked shortly after depart, while a third one was sent home carrying the prizes from privateering on the Spanish coast, so only the flagship La Dauphine actually made the crossing of the Atlantic. The ship measured 100 tuns and had fifty men crew. Of these, the only one who is known apart from Verrazzano himself was his brother Girolamo da Verrazzano, who was a mapmaker. His 1529 world map was one of the two first maps to show Verrazzano's discoveries (the other was Vesconte de Maggiolo's 1527 map of the western hemisphere).
He set out for his crossing from Madeira, on 17 January, and touched land on or around 1 March, at Cape Fear. From here he first sailed south, but he returned at some unknown point (yet north of Charleston), being afraid to run into the Spanish, and anchored not far from his original landfall. Unlike other explorers of the day, he preferred to anchor well out at sea. He did, however, send a boat, to the shore, and had a pleasant meeting with the natives, whom he describes thus:
These people go altogether naked except only that they cover their privy parts with certain skins of beasts like unto martens, which they fasten onto a narrow girdle made of grass, very artfully wrought, hanged about with tails of divers other beasts, which round about their bodies hang dangling down to their knees. Some of them wear garlands of birds' feathers. The people are of a color russet, and not much unlike the Saracens; their hair black, thick, and not very long, which they tie together in a knot behind, and wear it like a tail. They are well featured in their limbs, of average stature, and commonly somewhat bigger than we; broad breasted, strong arms, their legs and other parts of their bodies well fashioned, and they are disfigured in nothing, saving that they have somewhat broad visages, and yet not all of them; for we saw many of them well favoured, having black and great eyes, with a cheerful and steady look, not strong of body, yet sharp-witted, nimble and great runners, as far as we could learn by experience.Sailing along the coast, he reached the Outer Banks of Carolina. He believed that the sea that lay behind it, in reality Pamlico Sound, was the Pacific. Thus North America at this point seemed nothing more than a rather long, extremely narrow isthmus. This mistake led mapmakers, starting with Maggiolo and Girolamo, to show North America as almost completely divided in two, the two parts just connected by a narrow piece of land on the east coast. It would take more than a century for this 'sea of Verrazzano' to disappear from the maps.
Further north he came to a beautiful place which he therefore called Arcadia. This was probably Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Here he kidnapped a young child, and failed to kidnap a young woman. Sailing further north, he missed the entrances to Chesapeake and Delaware bays, because until New Jersey he kept quite far from the coast.
Verrazzano next discovered New York Harbor, and anchored in the Narrows, later named after him and now spanned by the Verrazzano Narrows bridge. He describes the bay and its people as follows:
The people are almost like unto the others, and clad with feather of fowls of diverse colors. They came towards us very cheerfully, making great shouts of admiration, showing us where we might come to land most safely with our boat. We entered up the said river into the land about half a league, where it made a most pleasant lake [the Upper bay] about 3 leagues in compass; on the which they rowed from the one side to the other, to the number of 30 in their small boats, wherein were many people, which passed from one shore to the other to come and see us. And behold, upon the sudden (as it is wont to fall out in sailing) a contrary flaw of wind coming from the sea, we were enforced to return to our ship, leaving this land, to our great discontentment for the great commodity and pleasantness thereof, which we suppose is not without some riches, all the hills showing mineral matters in them.He continued his voyage east, discovering Block Island, and reaching Narragansett Bay. Because the natives were very friendly, for once he decided to break his habit and anchor near the coast. These Wampanoags showed him an even better sheltered harbour, present day Newport, and Verrazzano stayed there for two weeks, waiting for better weather conditions. His men traded with the Wampanoags. Verrazzano described the Wampanoags very positively.
Much less positive he was about the Abnaki of Maine, whom he describes as "...of such crudity and evil manners, so barbarous, that despite all the signs we could make, we could never converse with them. They are clothed in peltry of bear, lynx, 'sea wolves' and other beasts. Their food, as far as we could perceive, often entering their dwellings, we suppose to be obtained by hunting and fishing, and of certain fruits, a kind of wild root. The Abnaki shot arrows at the French when they tried to land, but they could still conduct some meager trade through baskets, let down on a line from cliffs at the shore by the Indians. What displeased the French even more were the Abnaki's disdainful manners when the Europeans left, "such as exhibiting their bare behinds and laughing inmoderately". The country itself he described as immensely beautiful. Missing Bay of Fundy and most of Nova Scotia, he reached Newfoundland. As this was already known, he returned to France, and after a fast Atlantic crossing, reached Dieppe on 8 July.
Verrazzano made two more voyages. In 1527 his men mutinied and ordered him to return to France, but Verrazzano, using their incompetence in navigation, nonetheless reached Brazil, cut logwood (a red dye wood then named Brazil wood, this is the origin of the name Brazil) and his backers made good profit from it.
In 1528 he again crossed the Atlantic (exploration and the cutting of logwood being the joint goals of the expedition), landing in Florida, then following the chain of the lesser Antilles. On one of the islands (probably Guadeloupe) his habit of anchoring away from the shore became fatal. Giovanni was going ashore in a boat to greet the natives, wading the last part while the boat, with his brother, remained at sea. Unfortunately, the natives were not a friendly tribe that wanted to trade, but cannibalistic Caribs. They expertly killed Giovanni and ate him while still fresh, under the eyes of his brother. The ship was too far away to give gunfire support.
Sources used:
Other Internet resources:
This page is part of Discoverers Web, and was created by Andre Engels.
