And thus finally the testimony, upon which the tale of discovery was credited and proclaimed to the world, is contradicted and disproved. The statement that Verrazzano and a member of his crew were killed and then feasted upon by the inhabitants of the coast which he had visited a second time, has no support or confirmation in the history of that rude and uncivilized people; for, however savage and cruel they were towards their enemies, or, under provocation, towards strangers, no authenticated instance of their canibalism has ever been produced; but on the contrary the testimony of the best authorities, is that they were guiltless of any such horrid practice. Yet that statement was a part of the information which Ramusio received and communicated to his readers at the same time with the Verrazzano letter; and constituted a part of the evidence upon which he relied. How utterly false it was is shown by the agreement with Chabot and the capture and execution of Verrazzano by the Spaniards. It is now seen how the credulity of the historian was imposed upon, and he was led by actual misrepresentations to adopt a narrative which has no foundation in truth, and whose inconsistencies and incongruities he vainly sought to reconcile, but which, for three centuries, sanctioned by his authority alone, has been received as authentic and true; until at length, by the exposure of its original character, and the circumstances of its publication by him, with the production of undoubted evidence from the records of the time, it is proven to be a deliberate fraud.