that has ever been performed, and nothing can be imagined that would
surpass it except a journey to some other planet. It has not the
unique historic position of the first voyage of Columbus, which
brought together two streams of human life that had been disjoined
since the glacial period. But as an achievement in ocean navigation
that voyage of Columbus sinks into insignificance by the side of it;
and when the earth was a second time encompassed by the greatest
English sailor of his age,[2] the advance in knowledge, as well as the
different route chosen, had much reduced the difficulty of the
performance. When we consider the frailness of the ships, the
immeasurable, extent of the unknown, the mutinies that were prevented
or quelled, and the hardships that were endured, we can have no
hesitation in speaking of Magellan as the prince of navigators. Nor
can we ever fail to admire the simplicity and purity of that devoted
life, in which there is nothing that seeks to be hidden or explained
away.
[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
(1524)
VERAZZANO'S OWN ACCOUNT[1]
Having remained in this place[2] three days, anchored off the coast,
we decided on account of the scarcity of ports to depart, always
skirting the shore, which we baptized Arcadia on account of the beauty
of the trees.
In Arcadia we found a man who came to the shore to see what people we
were: who stood hesitating and ready to fight. Watching us, he did not
permit himself to be approached. He was handsome, nude, with hair
fastened back in a knot, of olive color.
We were about XX [in number], ashore, and coaxing him, he approached
to within about two fathoms, showing a burning stick as if to offer us
fire. And we made fire with powder and flint and steel, and he
trembled all over with terror, and we fired a shot. He stopt as if
astonished, and prayed, worshiping like a monk, lifting his finger
toward the sky, and pointing to the ship and the sea he appeared to
bless us.
Toward the north and east, navigating by daylight and casting anchor
at night, we followed a coast very green with forests, but without
ports, and with some charming promontories and small rivers. We
baptized the coast "di Lorenna" on account of the Cardinal; the first
promontory "Lanzone," the second "Bonivetto," the largest river
"Vandoma" and a small mountain which stands by the sea "di S. Polo" on
account of the count.
At the end of a hundred leagues we found a very agreeable situation
located within two small prominent hills, in the midst of which flowed
to the sea a very great river, which was deep within the mouth; and
from the sea to the hills of that [place] with the rising of the
tides, which we found eight feet, any laden ship might have passed. On
account of being anchored off the coast in good shelter, we did not
wish to adventure in without knowledge of the entrances. We were with
the small boat, entering the said river[3] to the land, which we found
much populated. The people, almost like the others, clothed with the
feathers of birds of various colors, came toward us joyfully, uttering
very great exclamations of admiration, showing us where we could land
with the boat more safely. We entered said river, within the land,
about half a league, where we saw it made a very beautiful lake with a
circuit of about three leagues; through which they [the Indians] went,
going from one and another part to the number of XXX of their little
barges, with innumerable people, who passed from one shore and the
other in order to see us. In an instant, as is wont to happen in
navigation, a gale of unfavorable wind blowing in from the sea, we
were forced to return to the ship, leaving the said land with much
regret because of its commodiousness and beauty, thinking it was not
without some properties of value, all of its hills showing indications
of minerals. We called it Angoleme from the principality which thou
attainedst in lesser fortune, and the bay which that land makes called
Santa Margarita[4] from the name of thy sister who vanquished the
other matrons of modesty and art.
The anchor raised, sailing toward the east, as thus the land turned,
having traveled LXXX leagues always in sight of it, we discovered an
island triangular in form, distant ten leagues from the continent, in
size like the island of Rhodes, full of hills, covered with trees,
much populated [judging] by the continuous fires along all the
surrounding shore which we saw they made. We baptized it Aloysia, in
the name of your most illustrious mother;[5] not anchoring there on
account of the unfavorableness of the weather.
We came to another land, distant from the island XV leagues, where we
found a very beautiful port,[6] and before we entered it, we saw about
XX barges of the people who came with various cries of wonder round
about the ship. Not approaching nearer than fifty paces, they halted,
looking at the edifice [_i.e._, the ship], our figures and clothes;
then all together they uttered a loud shout, signifying that they were
glad. Having reassured them somewhat, imitating their gestures, they
came so near that we threw them some little bells and mirrors and many
trinkets, having taken which, regarding them with laughter, they
entered the ship confidently. There were among them two Kings, of as
good stature and form as it would be possible to tell; the first of
about XXXX years, the other a young man of XXIIII years, the clothing
of whom was thus: the older had on his nude body a skin of a stag,
artificially adorned like a damask with various embroideries; the head
bare, the hair turned back with various bands, at the neck a broad
chain ornamented with many stones of diverse colors. The young man was
almost in the same style.
This is the most beautiful people and the most civilized in customs
that we have found in this navigation. They excel us in size; they are
of bronze color, some inclining more to whiteness, others to tawny
color; the face sharply cut, the hair long and black, upon which they
bestow the greatest study in adorning it; the eyes black and alert,
the bearing kind and gentle, imitating much the ancient [manner]. Of
the other parts of the body I will not speak to Your Majesty, having
all the proportions which belong to every well-built man. Their women
are of the same beauty and charm; very graceful; of comely mien and
agreeable aspect; of habits and behavior as much according to womanly
custom as pertains to human nature; they go nude with only one skin of
the stag embroidered like the men, and some wear on the arms very rich
skins of the lynx; the head bare, with various arrangements of braids,
composed of their own hair, which hang on one side and the other of
the breast. Some use other hair-arrangements like the women of Egypt
and of Syria use, and these are they who are advanced in age and are
joined in wedlock.
They have in the ears various pendant trinkets as the orientals are
accustomed to have, the men like the women, among which we saw many
plates wrought from copper, by whom it is prized more than gold;
which, on account of its color, they do not esteem; wherefore among
all it is held by them more worthless; on the other hand rating blue
and red above any other. That which they were given by us which they
most valued were little bells, blue crystals and other trinkets to
place in the ears and on the neck. They did not prize cloth of silk
and of gold, nor even of other kind, nor did they care to have them;
likewise with metals like steel and iron; for many times showing them
our arms they did not conceive admiration for them nor ask for them,
only examining the workmanship. They did the same with the mirrors;
suddenly looking at them, they refused them, laughing. They are very
liberal, so much so that all which they have they give away. We formed
a great friendship with them, and one day, before we had entered with
the ship in the port, remaining on account of the unfavorable weather
conditions anchored a league at sea, they came in great numbers in
their little barges to the ship, having painted and decked the face
with various colors, showing to us it was evidence of good feeling,
bringing to us of their food, signaling to us where for the safety of
the ship we ought to anchor in the port, continually accompanying us
until we cast anchor there.
In which we remained XV days, supplying ourselves with many
necessities; where every day the people came to see us at the ship,
bringing their women, of whom they are very careful; because, entering
the ship themselves, remaining a long time, they made their women stay
in the barges, and however many entreaties we made them, offering to
give them various things, it was not possible that they would allow
them to enter the ship. And one of the two Kings coming many times
with the Queen and many attendants through their desire to see us, at
first always stopt on a land distant from us two hundred paces,
sending a boat to inform us of their coming, saying they wished to
come to see the ship; doing this for a kind of safety.
And when they had the response from us, they came quickly, and having
stood awhile to look, hearing the noisy clamor of the sailor crowd,
sent the Queen with her damsels in a very light barge to stay on a
little island distant from us a quarter of a league; himself remaining
a very long time, discoursing by signs and gestures of various
fanciful ideas, examining all the equipments of the ship, asking
especially their purpose, imitating our manners, tasting our foods,
then parted from us benignantly. And one time, our people remaining
two or three days on a little island near the ship for various
necessities as is the custom of sailors, he came with seven or eight
of his attendants, watching our operations, asking many times if we
wished to remain there for a long time, offering us his every help.
Then, shooting with the bow, running, he performed with his attendants
various games to give us pleasure.
Many times we were from five to six leagues inland, which we found as
pleasing as it can be to narrate, adapted to every kind of
cultivation--grain, wine, oil. Because in that place the fields are
from XXV to XXX leagues wide, open and devoid of every impediment of
trees, of such fertility that any seed in them would produce the best
crops. Entering then into the woods, all of which are penetrable by
any numerous army in any way whatsoever, and whose trees, oaks,
cypresses, and others are unknown in our Europe. We found Lucallian
apples, plums, and filberts, and many kinds of fruits different from
ours. Animals there are in very great number, stags, deer, lynx, and
other species, which, in the way of the others, they capture with
snares and bows, which are their principal arms. The arrows of whom
are worked with great beauty, placing at the end, instead of iron,
emery, jasper, hard marble, and other sharp stones, by which they
served themselves instead of iron in cutting trees, making their
barges from a single trunk of a tree, hollowed with wonderful skill,
in which from fourteen to XV men will go comfortably; the short oar,
broad at the end, working it solely with the strength of the arms at
sea without any peril, with as much speed as pleases them.
Going further, we saw their habitations, circular in form, of XIIII to
XV paces compass, made from semi-circles of wood [_i.e._, arched
saplings, bent in the form of an arbor], separated one from the other,
without system of architecture, covered with mats of straw ingeniously
worked, which protect them from rain and wind. There is no doubt that
if they had the perfection of the arts we have, they would build
magnificent edifices, for all the maritime coast is full of blue
rocks, crystals and alabaster; and for such cause is full of ports and
shelters for ships. They change said houses from one place to another
according to the opulence of the site and the season in which they
live. Carrying away only the mats, immediately they have other
habitations made. There live in each a father and family to a very
large number, so that in some we saw XXV and XXX souls. Their food is
like the others: of pulse (which they produce with more system of
culture than the others, observing the full moon, the rising of the
Pleiades, and many customs derived from the ancients), also of the
chase and fish. They live a long time and rarely incur illness; if
they are opprest with wounds, without crying they cure themselves by
themselves with fire, their end being of old age. We judge they are
very compassionate and charitable toward their relatives, making them
great lamentations in their adversities, in their grief calling to
mind all their good fortunes. The relatives, one with another, at the
end of their life use the Sicilian lamentation, mingled with singing
lasting a long time. This is as much as we were able to learn about
them.
The land is situated in the parallel of Rome, in forty and two-thirds
degrees, but somewhat colder on account of chance and not on account
of nature, as I will narrate to Your Majesty in another part,
describing at present the situation of said port. The shore of said
land runs from west to east. The mouth of the port looks toward the
south, half a league wide, after entering which between east and north
it extends XII leagues, where, widening itself, it makes an ample bay
of about XX leagues in circuit. In which are five little islands of
much fertility and beauty, full of high and spreading trees, among
which any numerous fleet, without fear of tempest or other impediment
of fortune, could rest securely. Turning thence toward the south to
the entrance of the port, on one side and the other are very charming
hills with many brooks, which from the height to the sea discharge
clear waters, which on account of its beauty we called "Refugio."
In the midst of the mouth is found a rock of Petra Viva produced by
nature, adapted for the building of any desired engine or bulwark for
its protection, which on account of the nature of the stone and on
account of the family of a gentlewoman we called "La Petra Viva"; on
whose right side at said mouth of the port is a promontory which we
called "Jovio Promontory."
Being supplied with our every necessity, the 6th day of May we
departed from said port, following the shore, never losing sight of
the land. We sailed one hundred and fifty leagues, within which space
we found shoals which extend from the continent into the sea 50
leagues. Upon which there was over three feet of water; on account of
which great danger in navigating it, we survived with difficulty and
baptized it "Armellini," finding it of the same nature and somewhat
higher with some mountains, with a high promontory which we named
"Pallavisino,"[7] which all indicated minerals. We did not stop there
because the favorableness of the weather served us in sailing along
the coast: we think it must conform to the other. The shore ran to the
east.
In the space of fifty leagues, holding more to the north, we found a
high land full of very thick forests, the trees of which were pines,
cypresses and such as grow in cold regions. The people all different
from the others, and as much as those passed were of cultivated
manners, these were full of uncouthness and vices, so barbarous that
we were never able, with howsoever many signs we made them, to have
any intercourse with them. They dress with the skins of bear, lynxes,
sea-wolves, and other animals. The food, according to that which we
were able to learn through going many times to their habitations, we
think is of the chase, fish, and some products which are of a species
of roots which the ground yields by its own self. They do not have
pulse, nor did we see any signs of cultivation, nor would the ground,
on account of its sterility, be adapted to produce fruit or any grain.
If, trading at any time with them, we desired their things, they came
to the shore of the sea upon some rock where it was very steep,
and--we remaining in the small boat--with a cord let down to us what
they wished to give, continually crying on land that we should not
approach, giving quickly the barter, not taking in exchange for it
except knives, hooks for fishing, and sharp metal. They had no regard
for courtesy, and when they had nothing more to exchange, at their
departing the men made at us all the signs of contempt and shame which
any brute creature could make. Contrary to their wish, XXV armed men
of us were inland two and three leagues, and when we descended to the
shore they shot at us with their bows, sending forth the greatest
cries, then fled into the woods. We do not know any value of any
moment in this land, except the very great forests, with some hills
which possibly have some metal, because on many [natives] we saw
"paternosters" of copper in the ears.
We departed, skirting the coast between east and north, which we found
very beautiful, open and bare of forests, with high mountains back
inland, growing smaller toward the shore of the sea. In fifty leagues
we discovered XXXII islands, among which we called the three larger
"The Three Daughters of Navarra," all near to the continent, small and
of pleasing appearance, high, following the curving of the land, among
which were formed most beautiful ports and channels, as are formed in
the Adriatic Gulf, in the Illyrias, and Dalmatia. We had no
intercourse with the peoples and think they were, like the others,
devoid of morals and culture.
Navigating between east-southeast and north-northeast, in the space
of CL leagues, we came near the land which the Britons found in the
past, by the Cabots,[8] which stands in fifty degrees, and having
consumed all our naval stores and victuals, having discovered six
hundred leagues and more of new land, furnishing ourselves with water
and wood, we decided to turn toward France.
[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.
[3] This river is now known as the Hudson.
[4] Verazzano's Bay, St. Margarita, was New York Bay.
[5] Aloysia is now called Block Island.
[6] Newport.
[7] Cape Cod.
[8] A Reference to the discovery of Newfoundland in 1497.
CARTIER'S EXPLORATION OF THE ST. LAWRENCE
(1534)
I
THE ACCOUNT GIVEN BY JOHN A. DOYLE[1]
Jacques Cartier was a brave and experienced sea captain from St. Malo.
In 1534, Cartier made a preliminary voyage of exploration. Touching at
Newfoundland, he sailed through the straits of Belle Isle and explored
the east shore of the island, a region which for the barrenness of its
soil and the severity of its climate seemed the very spot whither Cain
had been banished. The coast of New Brunswick held out a more inviting
prospect. The fertility of the soil reminded the voyagers of their
native Brittany, and one field there seemed worth more than the whole
of Newfoundland. Thence Cartier sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence,
and would have explored the great river of Canada, but storms arose
and he deemed it prudent to return to France before bad weather set
in. His report of the country was encouraging. The soil, as we have
seen, promised well, and the voyagers had not yet learned the terrors
of a Canadian winter. The natives were rude in their habits, but they
were uniformly peaceful and ready to trade on easy terms for such
goods as they possest. There seemed good reason to hope, too, that
they might be converted to Christianity, and one of them had shown
confidence enough in the strangers to trust them with his two
children, who were easily reconciled to their captivity by the gift of
red caps and colored shirts.
In the next year Cartier again went forth with three ships. After
confessing and taking the sacrament in the church of St. Malo, the
adventurers set sail on Whit Sunday. Among them was the cup-bearer to
the Dauphin, Claudius de Pont-Briand. As before, the strangers were
well received by the Indians, and landed safely at Quebec. There
Cartier left his sailors with instructions to make a fortified camp,
while he himself, with the greater part of his men-at-arms and his two
Indian captives of the year before, should explore the upper banks of
the St. Lawrence, and penetrate, if possible, to the great Indian city
of Hochelaga.[2] The Indians, tho outwardly friendly, seem either to
have distrusted the French, or else grudged their neighbors at
Hochelaga such valuable allies, and would have dissuaded Cartier from
his expedition. When their remonstrances proved useless, the savages
tried to work on the fears of the visitors. Three canoes came floating
down the river, each containing a fiendish figure with horns and
blackened face. The supposed demons delivered themselves of a
threatening harangue, and then paddled to the shore, and whether to
complete the performance, or through honest terror, fell fainting in
their boats. The Indians then explained to Cartier that their god had
sent a warning to the presumptuous strangers, bidding them refrain
from the intended voyage. Cartier replied that the Indian god could
have no power over those who believed in Christ. The Indians
acquiesced, and even affected to rejoice in the approaching
discomfiture of their deity. Cartier and his followers started on the
voyage.