Voyage of Verazzani

WE will now leave the Spanish discoverers, and turn our attention to others who made voyages to the coasts of North America on similar errands.

Francis the First, one of the most energetic as well as enlightened sovereigns of France down to the sixteenth century, becoming jealous of the glory acquired by his rival of Spain, by discoveries and conquests on this continent, fitted out four ships late in the year 1523 for explorations on the North American coasts. They were placed under the command of John Verazzani, a Florentine, of whose career very little is known. He appears to have been a somewhat eminent navigator, but the narrative of his voyage to our country is so obscure in many parts that it is difficult to discover the truth. The account of that voyage on which historians have most relied, is given in a letter which, it is alleged, the navigator wrote to King Francis after his return, by which it seems he sailed for the Madeiras in December, 1523, and left them on the 27th of January, 1524, proceeding due west. Three of his ships were soon disabled by a tempest that swept over the Atlantic, and put back; and he went on with only one vessel. In that he reached the American coast in north latitude 34 deg, or not far from Cape Fear in southern North Carolina. That was in the month of March. He speaks of the climate as salubrious; of the coast as abounding with lakes and ponds--the numerous bays and inlets there; of the people as black-skinned, "not much differing from Ethiopians," with thick black hair worn tied back upon the head in the from of a little tail; and going entirely naked excepting at the loins, from which depended from a gridle of braided grass, a marten skin. These people gathered on the beach in considerable numbers, and made many friendly signs. A young sailor, more courageous than the rest, swam toward the shore with little bells, looking-glasses and other trifles as presents for them, and when he was near the beach, he tossed them to the natives, and turned to swim back. The surf was high, and he was thrown by it upon the sands, so much exhausted that he seemed to be dead. But he was sufficiently alive to scream lustily when the natives bore him away from the water, for he expected to be killed and eaten by them. They stripped him, and viewed with astonishment his white skin. Then they made a large fire on which, his companions imagined, they were about to roast him for their dinner, but it was only an act of kindness to restore warmth to his limbs. When he had recovered sufficiently to show, by signs, that he wished to return, they hugged him with great affection, withdrew to a little sand-hill, and watched him until he was safely in the boat from which he swam.

Verazzani then went further up the coast, probably as far as the vicinity of Albemarle Sound, where he landed, with twenty men. A short distance from the sea, the land was covered with large trees, among which were noble cypresses. From these forest trees trailed luxuriant vines which were clustered with delicious grapes, the natives said, in early autumn. The people fled in fear to the woods. They were fairer than those further south, and were covered with a light drapery made of "certain plants which hung down from the branches"--Spanish moss?--tied by threads of wild hemp. Their heads were uncovered. They lived in huts made of saplings and shrubbery, and navigated canoes dug out of a single log without any iron instrument whatever. In the tall reedy grass, the mariners found concealed "a very old woman and a young girl eighteen or twenty years of age. The old woman carried two infants on her shoulders, and behind her neck a little boy eight years of age." The women shrieked and made signs to the men, who had fled, to come to their rescue. "We took the little boy from the old woman," says the Florentine, "to carry with us to France, and would have taken the girl, who was very beautiful and very tall, but it was impossible because of the loud shrieks she uttered as we attempted to lead her away; so we determined to leave her, and take the boy only." The story of this kidnapping was soon spread over all that region, and planted the seeds of intense hatred of the white man in the bosoms of the natives. Their products were the bane of Raleigh's settlement on Roanoke Island on that coast, sixty years later.