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
This description, as well as the name, Terra Nova, indicates the
region of Newfoundland as the place from whence these Indians were
taken. According to the tables of Pierre d'Ailly, the seventh
climate commences at 47 Degrees 15' N. and extends to 50 Degrees 30'
N. beginning where the longest day of the year is 15 hours and 45
minutes long. (IMAGO MUNDI, tables prefixed to the first chapter.)
This embraces the greater part of the southerly and easterly coasts
of Newfoundland. The practice of tattooing their faces in lines
across the jaw, as here described, was common to all the tribes of
this northern coast, the Nasquapecs of Labrador, the red Indians of
Newfoundland and the Micmacs of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia. It was
from the use of red ochre for this purpose that the natives of
Newfoundland obtained their designation of red Indians. The Micmacs
used blue and other colors; hence it would appear from the
circumstance of the marks upon these Indians being livid (LIVIDAE)
or blue, like veins, that they belonged to the tribes of Cape
Breton. (Hind's Labrador II, 97-110. Purchas, III. 1880-1. Denys.
(HIST. NAT. DE L'AMERIQUE SEPT. II, 887.))]
That the French and especially the Normands had soon afterwards
resorted to Newfoundland for the purpose of taking fish, and were
actually so engaged there at the time of the Verrazzano voyage, is
evident from the letter of John Rut, who commanded one of the ships
sent out on a voyage of discovery by Henry VIII of England in 1527.
That voyager states that, driven from the north by the ice, he
arrived at St. Johns in Newfoundland on the third of August in that
year, and found there eleven Normand, one Breton and two Portuguese
vessels, "all a fishing." [Footnote: Purchas, III, 809. Memoir of
Sebastian Cabot, pp. 108, 268, and the authorities there cited.]
This was at a single point on the coast, and in latitude 47 Degrees
30' N.; and so large a number of vessels there denotes a growth of
many years, at that time, of those fisheries.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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