What is certainly known of him relates almost exclusively to his career as a French corsair, during the few years which intervened between the breaking out of hostilities between Francis I and Charles V, and his death, in 1527. His cruises, though directed principally against the Spaniards, were not tender of the interests of Portugal; and it is accordingly from Spanish and Portuguese writers and documents of the period, that the little information that exists in relation to him, is derived. He is called by the former, Juan Florin or Florentin, or simply, the Florentine,--the French corsair. He is designated on an occasion to be noted, as Juan Florin of Dieppe. [Footnote: On the capture of the treasure fleet. See Appendix, iv.] They appear to have known him by no other name. They never heard of him as a discoverer, real or pretended, of new countries, until long afterwards. The Verrazzano letter had not been published when Peter Martyr, Oviedo and Gomara wrote; and when Martyr and Gomara make mention of him, they do so only by the title by which he was designated by the Spanish sailors. There was, therefore, no opportunity for his identification by them in the double character of a great discoverer, and a corsair; and it was not until many years after the publication of the Verrazzano letter that this identification was first declared by Barcio [Footnote: Ensayo Chronologico, sub anno, 1524.]. There is no room, however; to doubt its entire correctness. That the occupation of Verrazzano was that of a cruizer on the seas, is not only declared in the letter ascribed to him, [Footnote: Ramusio gives Verrazzano this character more distinctly than it appears in the original version. One of the first alterations of the text, is of the passage previously referred to, relating to the cruise of the Normandy and Dauphiny, after their repairs in Brittany. The Carli version, reads, in connection with the two ships on that occasion: date restaurati ara V. S. M. inteso il discorso facemo con quelle armate in querra per li liti di Spagna, that is, "where being repaired, your serene majesty will have understood we made the cruize with THIS FLEET OF WAR along the coasts of Spain," from which it is to be implied only, that the cruize was for the purpose of depredating on Spanish commerce. But Ramusio, as became his practice, with this document at least, altered this clause into doce poi che furono secondo il bisogno raccociate So ben armeggiate, per i liti di Spagna ce n'andammo in carso, il che V. M. haverd inteso per il profitto che ne facemmo; which Hakluyt fairly renders: "Where, after we had repaired them in all points as was needfull, and armed them very well, we took our course along by the coast of Spain, which your majesty shall understand, BY THE PROFIT WE RECEIVED THEREBY." As this cruize according to the date of the letter must have taken place in 1523, this language, which is Ramusio's own, as to the profit, would seem to refer almost to the