our voyage we had no lunar eclipses or similar celestial phenomena. We therefore determined our progress from the difference of longitude, which we ascertained by various instruments, taking the sun's altitude from day to day, and by calculating geometrically the distance run by the ship from one horizon to another. All these observations, as also the ebb and flow of the tide in all places, were noted down in a little book, which may prove serviceable to navigators. They are communicated to your majesty with the hope of promoting science.

"My intention in this voyage was to reach Cathay, on the extreme coast of Asia, expecting, however, to find in the newly discovered land some obstacle as I found, yet I did not doubt that I should sail by some passage to the eastern ocean. It was the opinion of the ancients that our eastern ocean of India was an expanse of water without any intervening land. Aristotle supports it by arguments founded on various probabilities, but it is contrary to later belief and false by observation. The discovered country, of which the ancients knew nothing, is another world compared with that which was before known, being evidently larger than our Europe together with Africa, and, perhaps, Asia, if one rightly estimate its extent, as shall now be explained briefly to your majesty." He then

"The Spaniards have sailed south beyond the equator, on a meridian 2008 degrees west of the Fortunate Islands to the latitude of 54° and there still found land. Turning about they steered northward on the same meridian and along the coast to the eighth parallel, and then along the coast more to the west, and north to the latitude of 21° [31° ?], without finding a termination to the continent. They estimated the distance run as 89378 which added to the 2019 first run make 110, but this may vary somewhat from the truth. We did not make this voyage, and therefore cannot speak from experience. We calculated it geometrically from the observations furnished by many navigators, who have made the voyage and affirm the distance to be 1600 leagues, due allowance being made for the deviations of the ship from a straight course by reason of contrary winds. I hope that we shall now obtain accurate informa

speaks of the Spaniards sailing as far south as the Strait of Magellan and as far north as the twenty-first parallel without finding a termination to the continent. **

"But to return to ourselves :-in the voyage which we have made by the order of your majesty, in addition to the ninety-two degrees we ran toward the west from the point of our departure before we reached land on the thirty-fourth parallel, we have to count 300 leagues which we sailed northeastwardly, and 400 nearly east along the coast before we reached the fiftieth parallel of north latitude, the point where we turned our course from the shore toward home. Beyond this point the Portuguese had sailed as far north as the arctic circle without coming to the end of the continent. Adding the degrees of south latitude explored, which are fifty-four, to those of the north, which are sixty-six, the sum is one hundred and twenty degrees, and therefore more than are included in the latitude of Africa and Europe, for the north point of Norway, the extremity of Europe, is in 71° north latitude, and the Cape of Good Hope, the southern extremity of Africa, is in 35° south latitude, and their sum is only one hundred and six degrees. If the breadth of this newly discovered country correspond to the extent of its sea-coast, it doubtless exceeds Asia in size. In this way we find that the land forms a much larger part of our globe than the ancients supposed, who maintained, contrary to mathematical reasoning, that it was less than the water, whereas actual experience proves the reverse, so that judging in respect to extent of surface, the land covers apparently as much space as the water.'

tion on these points, by new voyages to be made on the same coasts."-Vide Maiollo map of 1527.

'Verrazzano's argument is based upon the supposition that the extent of the

"I hope to point out and explain more clearly and satisfactorily the great extent of the New Land or New World, of which I have been speaking. Asia and Africa, we know, are joined together and are connected. with Norway and Russia with Europe, which disproves the idea of the ancients that all this northern part had been navigated from the promontory of Cimbri [Denmark] eastward as far as the Caspian Sea. They also maintained that the whole continent was surrounded by two oceans, lying east and west of it, which seas in fact do not surround either of the two continents, for as we have already seen the land in the western hemisphere at 54° south latitude extends eastwardly an unknown distance, and that the land north of the equator, beyond the sixty-sixth parallel, turns to the east and does not terminate at the seventieth parallel.'

"In a short time, I hope we shall have more satisfactory information concerning these things by the aid of your serene majesty, whom I pray Almighty God to prosper in lasting glory, that we may see the most important results of this our geography in the fulfillment of the holy words of the gospel.

"On board the ship Dauphine, in the port of Dieppe, in Normandy, the 8th day of July, 1524. Your humble servant,

land of the new continent was greater than it really was, for at this time the Pacific coast of the New Land had not been explored. Verrazzano believed that the New World extended much farther westward than it does.

'Tierra del Fuego, south of the Strait of Magellan, had not yet been explored, and it was not known how far it extended, or in what direction.

CHAPTER X.

(Addenda.)

1524-1526.

THE safe return of Verrazzano to France and his remarkable discoveries along the new continent were immediately heralded through Europe. The letter which he wrote on his arrival at Dieppe was at once eagerly copied and the transcripts widely circulated. In less than a month's time the news of the navigator's extensive explorations was spread over France, and became a prominent topic of conversation. The commercial advantages likely to accrue to France by the important discovery of a country thickly populated and rich in drugs, furs, and metals were everywhere discussed, and Verrazzano's presence at the chief centres of trade was much desired that more information might be obtained respecting the people and the productions of the New Land.

A Florentine, named Fernando Carli, a person well acquainted with Verrazzano's former voyages, was in Lyons at the time when the surprising intelligence reached that city. He obtained a copy of Verrazzano's letter, and sent it to his father in Florence, inclosed in the following communication:

"In the name of God.

"Honored Father:

“August 4, 1524.

"Considering that when I was in the army in

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Barbary, at Gierbe, the news was sent you every day by the illustrious gentleman, Don Hugo de Moncada, captain-general of his Cesarean majesty in those barbarous parts, what followed contending with the Moors of that island, which seemed to have pleased our patrons and friends; and also the congratulatory news of the subsequent victory; [I now send you] the news [which] has recently reached this place, of the arrival of Captain Giovanni da Verrazzano, our Florentine, at the port of Dieppe, in Normandy, with his ship, the Dauphine, with which he sailed from the Canary Islands, the last of January, to go in search of new lands for this most serene crown of France, in which enterprise he displayed very noble and great courage in undertaking such an unknown voyage with only one ship, a caravel of hardly tons burden,' with only fifty men, with the intention, if possible, to discover Cathay, steering a course through climates other than those frequented by the Portuguese in going to it by the way of Calicut, by keeping more to the northwest and north, believing that, although Ptolemy, Aristotle, and other cosmographers assert that no land is to be found toward such climates, he would nevertheless find land there, which God has permitted him, as he distinctly describes in his letter to his serene majesty, a copy of which is inclosed in this communication. After spending many months in exploring, he asserts that he was compelled to return for want of provisions from that hemisphere into this one, having been seven months on the voyage, showing a very great and rapid passage, having accomplished a wonderful and most extraordinary undertaking in the opinion of those who understand the navigation of the globe.

'The number of tons is not mentioned.