II. MISREPRESENTATIONS IN REGARD TO THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE COAST. THE
CHESAPEAKE. THE ISLAND OF LOUISE. MASSACHUSETTS BAY.
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.
But Narraganset bay does not correspond in any particular with the
bay described in the letter, except as to its southern exposure and
its latitude, and as to them it has no more claim to consideration
than Buzzard's bay, three leagues further east, and in other
respects not so much. Newport harbor, several miles inside of
Narraganset bay, faces the north and west, and not the south. The
whole length of that bay, including the harbor of Newport from the
ocean to Providence river, is less than five leagues, and its
greatest breadth not more than three. But the harbor described in
the letter first as extending twelve leagues and then enlarging
itself, formed a large bay of twenty leagues in circumference. The
two, it is clear, are essentially unlike. The great rock rising out
of the sea at the entrance of the harbor, has no existence in this
bay or harbor. Narraganset bay, therefore, affords no support to the
idea that Block island, or any other, is the island of Louise.
Martha's Vineyard, the second of the three islands before mentioned,
is the largest of them, but it contains only one hundred and twenty
square miles of land, and is within two leagues of the main land.
Nantucket, the last of the three, is less than half the size of
Martha's Vineyard, and is about thirty miles from Cape Cod, the
nearest part of the continent. From neither of them is any harbor to
be reached corresponding with that mentioned in the letter. It is
incontrovertible, therefore, that there is neither island nor bay on
this coast answering the description. It is not difficult to
perceive that the island of Louise was a mere invention and artifice
on the part of the writer to give consistency to the pretension that
the voyage originated with Francis. This island is the only one of
which particular mention is made in the whole exploration. Yet it
was not visited or seen except, in sailing by it, at a distance. Its
pretended hills and trees disclosed nothing of its character; and,
under such circumstances, its alleged dimensions were all that could
have entitled it to such particular notice and made it worthy of so
exalted a designation; and to those no island on this coast has any
claim.
There is little room to doubt from the description itself, and the
fact will be confirmed by other evidence hereafter, that the bay
intended to be described was the great bay of Massachusetts and
Maine terminating in the bay of Fundy. It is represented as making
an offset in the coast of twelve leagues towards the north, and then
swelling into an enclosed bay beyond, of twenty leagues in
circumference, indicating those bays, in their form. The distances,
it is true, do not conform to those belonging to that part of the
coast; but it is to be borne in mind that they may have been taken,
according to the only view which can reconcile the contradictions of
the letter, from an imperfect delineation of the coast by another
hand. The identity of the two is, however, proven, without recourse
to this explanation, by the description of the coast beyond, which
is given as follows:
"Having supplied ourselves with every thing necessary, we departed,
on the sixth [Footnote: According to the Archivio Storico Italiano,
and not the FIFTH, as given in N. Y. Hist. Coll.] of May, from this
port [where they had remained fifteen days] and SAILED ONE HUNDRED
AND FIFTY LEAGUES, KEEPING SO NEAR TO THE COAST AS NEVER TO LOSE IT
FROM OUR SIGHT; the nature of the country appeared much the same as
before, but the MOUNTAINS were a little higher and all in appearance
RICH IN MINERALS. WE DID NOT STOP TO LAND, as the weather was very
favorable for pursuing our voyage, and the country presented no
variety. THE SHORE STRETCHED TO THE EAST, and fifty leagues beyond
more to the north, where we found a more elevated country full of
very thick woods of fir trees, cypresses and the like, indicative of
a cold climate. The people were entirely different from the others
we had seen, whom we had found kind and gentle, but these were so
rude and barbarous that we were unable by any signs we could make to
hold communication with them."
This is all that is mentioned in regard to the entire coast of New
England and Nova Scotia, embracing a distance of eight hundred miles
according to this computation, but in fact much more. It is here
stated, however, distinctly, that from the time of leaving the
harbor, near the island of Louise, they kept close to the land,
which ran in an EASTERLY direction, and CONSTANTLY IN SIGHT OF IT,
for one hundred and fifty leagues. This they could not have done if
that harbor were on any part of the coast, west of Massachusetts
bay. If they sailed from Narraganset bay, or Buzzard's bay, or from
any harbor on that coast, east of Long Island, they would in the
course of twenty leagues at the furthest, in an easterly direction,
have reached the easterly extremity of the peninsula of Cape Cod,
and keeping close to the shore would have been forced for one
hundred and fifty miles, in a northerly and west of north direction,
and thence along the coast of Maine northeasterly a further distance
of one hundred and fifty miles, and been finally locked in the bay
of Fundy. It is only by running from Cape Sable along the shores of
Nova Scotia that this course and distance, in sight of the land, can
be reconciled with the actual direction of the coast; and this makes
the opening between Cape Cod and Cape Sable the large bay intended
in the letter. But this opening of eighty leagues in width, could
never have been seen by the writer of it; and nothing could more
conclusively prove his ignorance of the coast, than his statements
that from the river among the hills, for the distance of ninety-five
leagues easterly to the harbor in 41 Degrees 40' N. and from thence
for a further distance of one hundred and fifty leagues, also
EASTERLY, the land was always in sight.
[Illustration with caption: ] CAPE HENRY AND ENTRANCE INTO THE
CHESAPEAKE. Lighthouse, with lantern 129 feet above the sea, bearing
W. N. W. 1/2 W., three leagues distant.