When he returned to France, he wrote an interesting letter to Francis I., king of France, dated “on board the ship La Dauphine, in the port of Dieppe, in Normandy, July 8, 1524.”[373] In this communication Verrazzano relates what had happened to his fleet in the North Sea, how he had carried out the orders of the king by sailing in the Dauphine toward the west to go to Cathay, where and when he discovered a new land never before seen by men of ancient or modern times. He then describes the people inhabiting the country, speaks of its various productions, mentions the peculiar physical features of its coast, tells how many leagues he had sailed along it, and concludes with a brief review of the discoveries made to the year 1524 in the western hemisphere. His remarks concerning his failure to find a convenient harbor where he first descried land, of his unsuccessful search for one south of the thirty-fourth parallel, of his steering afterward toward the north in quest of a haven, and of his disappointment in this direction, are so applicable to the peculiar features of this part of the eastern coast of the United States, that it is easy to perceive that he faithfully pictures the shores of South Carolina and North Carolina, along which he began his explorations. The comparisons he makes respecting the natives, the flora, the fauna, the climate, and the harbors of the more northern part of the coast, prove that he had travelled extensively in other parts of the world, and that he was well informed concerning the things he commented upon in his letter. His geographical knowledge is far in advance of that of the scientific men of his time, and he constantly shows that he was practically acquainted with all the known means which were then used to ascertain longitude, latitude, and the measurement of distances. His opinion that the Orient extended around to the New Land was well founded, since it was not known until the eighteenth century that Behring’s Strait separated America from Asia. His reasoning concerning the dimensions of the new continent, that if its breadth corresponded to the extent of its sea-coast it doubtless exceeded Asia in size, is logically correct. Verrazzano’s hopefulness that information of a more satisfactory character respecting the extent of the territory of the New Land would be obtained by other explorers, shows that he was less thoughtful of the brilliancy of his own achievements than he was of the more desirable and important results of future voyages to that part of the present coast of the United States, between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth parallels, of which he is rightfully entitled to be regarded the discoverer. Verrazzano wrote:[374] “Most Serene Sire: