[405] As described by a late writer: “Narragansett Bay is one of the most beautiful sheets of water in the United States; it is unrivalled for its navigable advantages, affording at all times a safe and ready communication with the ocean; and its shores, which are indented with innumerable bays and inlets containing many excellent harbors. This bay ... extends more than thirty miles into the interior of the state, and for this distance affords superior advantages for ship-navigation. The whole extent of the bay and river, from Point Judith to Providence, is about thirty-six miles. The average breadth of the lower section of the bay is nearly ten miles; but the upper part is narrow. Exclusive of the islands, of which there are about fifteen in number, and some of considerable extent, the waters of the bay comprise an area of about one hundred and thirty square miles.”—Gazetteer of Connecticut and Rhode Island. 1819. pp. 302, 303, 349, 359. [406] See note, page 293. [407] The distance given by the Spanish historian, Francisco Lopez de Gomara, in 1552, from the Point of Baccalaos, in 48° 30´ to Cape St. Helen, in 32° north latitude, is more than seven hundred and sixty Spanish leagues, measured as the coast trended: “From the Point of Baccallaos are set down eight hundred and seventy leagues to Florida, counting as follows: From the Point of Baccallaos which is in 48° 30´ are seventy leagues of coast to La Baya del Rio, which is in more than 45°. Thence are seventy to another bay called Isleos which is in less than 44°. From Baya Isleos to Rio Fonda are seventy leagues, and thence to Rio de las Gamas, are other seventy, both rivers being in 43°. From Rio de los Gamas are fifty leagues to Cabo Bajo, and thence to Rio de San Anton, they reckon more than a hundred leagues. From Rio de San Anton are eighty leagues along the shore of a gulf to Cabo de Arenas, which is in nearly 39°, thence to Puerto del Principe are more than a hundred leagues, and from it to Rio Jordan seventy, and thence to Cabo de Santa Elena, which is in 32°, there are forty leagues. From Santa Elena to Rio Seco, which is in 31°, are forty leagues.”—La historia general de las Indias. Gomara. cap. xii. [408] The name Francesca is used on the Maiollo map of 1527. Hieronymus da Verrazzano called the region “_Verrazana seu Gallia nova_,”—Verrazana or New Gaul. By some French writers it was denominated in the sixteenth century, “_Terre Francesque_.”