The voyage of Verrazzano : $b a chapter in the early history of maritime discovery in America — John Shaqi
The voyage of Verrazzano : $b a chapter in the early history of maritime discovery in AmericaMurphy, Henry Cruse
History
The voyage of Verrazzano : $b a chapter in the early history of maritime discovery in America
Murphy, Henry Cruse
America -- Discovery and exploration -- French; Verrazzano, Giovanni da, 1485-1528
The whole coast claimed by the letter is thus
assigned to other parties than Verrazzano. The logical maxim,
expressio unius est exclusio alterius, must here apply. The
expression of the Spanish discoveries, at least exclude those of
Verrazzano; demonstrating almost to a moral certainty that the
latter could never have been performed for the king of France. The
author of this map, whether executing it under official
responsibility or upon his own account, would not have ascribed, or
dared to ascribe, to a foreign nation, much less to a rival, the
glory which belonged to his own sovereign, then living, whose
protection he enjoyed.
IV.
II. MISREPRESENTATIONS IN REGARD TO THE GEOGRAPHY OF THE COAST. THE
CHESAPEAKE. THE ISLAND OF LOUISE. MASSACHUSETTS BAY.
In pursuing its main object of making known the discovery, the
letter ventures upon certain statements which are utterly
inconsistent with an actual exploration of the country. The general
position and direction of the coast are given with sufficient
correctness to indicate the presence there of a navigator; but its
geographical features are so meagrely and untruthfully represented,
as to prove that he could not have been the writer. The same
apparent inconsistency exists as to the natural history of the
country. Some details are given in regard to the natives, which
correspond with their known characteristics, but others are
flagrantly false. The account is evidently the work of a person who,
with an imperfect outline of the coast, by another hand, before him,
undertook to describe its hydrographical character at a venture, so
far as he deemed it prudent to say anything on the subject; and to
give the natural history of the country, in the same way, founded on
other accounts of parts of the new world. The actual falsity of the
statements alluded to is, at all events, sufficient to justify the
rejection of the whole story. So far as they relate to the littoral,
they are now to be considered.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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