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
represented as identical with Newfoundland. It appears first on a
map of the world in the Ptolemy of 1511 edited by Bernardus Sylvanus
of Eboli, and is there laid down as extending from latitude 50
Degrees N. to 60 Degrees N. with the name of Corte Real or Court
Royal, latinized into Regalis Domus. [Footnote: Claudii Ptholemaei
Alexandrini liber geographiae, cum tabulis et universali figura et
cum additione locorum quae a recentioribus reporta sunt diligenti
cura emendatus et impressus. (Fol., Venetiis, 1511.)] The length of
the coast, corresponds with the description of Pasqualigo, and its
position with the latitude assigned by the Verrazzano letter for
their exploration. Its direction is north and south. There can be no
question therefore as to the pretension of the Verrazzano letter to
the discovery of the coast by him, actually as far north as the
fiftieth parallel.
That it is utterly unfounded, so far as regards that portion of the
coast lying east and north of Cape Breton, that is, from 46 Degrees
N. latitude to 50 Degrees N., embracing a distance of five hundred
miles according to actual measurement, or eight hundred miles
according to the letter, is proven by the fact, that it had all been
known and frequented by Portuguese and French fishermen, for a
period of twenty years preceding the Verrazano voyage. The
Portuguese fisheries in Newfoundland must have commenced shortly
after the voyages of the brothers Cortereaes in 1501-2, as they
appear to have been carried on in 1506, from a decree of the king of
Portugal published at Leiria on the 14th of October in that year,
directing his officers to collect tithes of fish which should be
brought into his kingdom from Terra Nova; [Footnote: Memorias
Economicas da academia Real das Sciencias da Lisboa, tom. III, 393.]
and Portuguese charts belonging to that period, still extant, show
both the Portuguese and French discoveries of this coast. On a map
(No. 1, of the Munich atlas,) of Pedro Reinel, a Portuguese pilot,
who entered the service of the king of Spain at the time of fitting
out Magellan's famous expedition, Terra Nova, and the land of Cape
Breton are correctly laid down, as regards latitude, though not by
name. On Terra Nova the name of C. Raso, (preserved in the modern
Cape Race) is applied to its southeasterly point, and other
Portuguese names, several of which also still remain, designating
different points along the easterly coast of Newfoundland, and a
Portuguese banner, as an emblem of its discovery by that nation, are
found. Another Portuguese chart, belonging to the period when the
country between Florida and Terra Nova was unknown (No. 4 of the
same atlas) delineates the land of Cape Breton, not then yet known
to be an island, in correct relation with the Bacalaos, accompanied
by a legend that it was discovered by the Bretons. [Footnote: Atlas
zur entdeckingsgeschichte Amerikas. Herausgegeben von Friedrick
Kunstmann, Karl von Sprusser, Georg M. Thomas. Zu den Monumenta
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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