One of the earliest accounts of the Land of the Grand Scarp extant is in the discourse of the unnamed sea-captain of Dieppe, written in 1539. Describing the country of Francesca, he says: “Beyond Cape Breton there is a region contiguous to this cape, the coast of which extends west and a quarter southwest as far as the region of Florida, and it stretches full five hundred leagues, which coast was discovered fifteen years ago, by Monsieur Giovanni da Verrazzano, in the name of King Francis and of Madame, the regent, and this region is called by many the land of the French (_la Francese_), and likewise by the Portuguese, and its termination toward Florida is in 78° west longitude and 30° north latitude.[449] “The inhabitants of this domain are a tractable people, amiable and agreeable. The country abounds with all kinds of fruit. Oranges and almonds grow in wild forests, with many different varieties of odoriferous trees. This region is called by the peasants (_paesani_) Norumbega, and between it and Brazil there is a large gulf, extending west as far as the ninety-second meridian.”[450] In 1540 Jacques Cartier again sailed to New France and ascended the St. Lawrence River. Jean François de la Roque, Sieur de Roberval, was placed in command of this expedition, and, by letters-patent, dated January 15, 1540, was commissioned viceroy and lieutenant-general of the new lands belonging to France in the western hemisphere. Jean Alphonse, an experienced navigator, a native of Saintonge, near the town of Cognac, France, accompanied Sieur de Roberval as chief pilot.[451] In the manuscript of the cosmography of Raulin Secalart, written about the year 1545, preserved in the National library, in Paris, is a short description of the coast and people of La Terre d’Anormée Berge.[452] The writer, evidently Jean Alphonse, very faithfully describes Long Island Sound, the eastern entrance to the Grande River, when he says: “This river is wider than forty leagues of latitude at its mouth, and within, the width is as much as thirty or forty leagues, and it is full of islands, which extend ten or twelve leagues in the sea, and it is very dangerous on account of rocks and swashings.” These observations are remarkably consonant with those of a later writer: “Long Island Sound, a Mediterranean Sea, separating the island from the main-land of Connecticut, is connected with the ocean at each end of the island and affords a sheltered line of navigation of about one hundred and twenty miles in extent.... Opposite Harlem River is the noted pass or strait called Hell-Gate, which is crooked, and from the numerous rocks, islands, eddies, and currents, is somewhat difficult and dangerous.”[453]