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stones.

caught with snares, and destroyed with bows and arrows, their principal weapons of offence. The arrows were made with great neatness, and at the point, instead of iron they inserted flints, jaspers, hard marble, and other kinds of cut These they also made use of in felling trees, and in excavating their boats, which, with great skill, were made of a single trunk, yet large enough to hold ten or twelve men commodiously. Their oars were short and broad at the extremity, which they plied in the sea without any accident happening, trusting solely to their strength of arm and skilful management, and seeming able to go at almost any rate they pleased. Their houses were constructed in a circular shape, ten or twelve paces in circuit, built of boards, and separated from each other without any attention paid to architectural arrangement, covered with tiles made of clay, of excellent workmanship, and effectually protected from the wind and rain.* On one subject alone they showed suspicion, being extremely jealous of the least intercourse between the French and their women. These they would on no persuasion allow to enter the ship, and on one occasion, while the king came on board, and spent some hours in curiously examining every part of the vessel, his royal consort was left with her female attendants in a boat at some distance, and strictly watched and guarded.†

The French now bade adieu to this kind people, and pursued their discoveries for one hundred and fifty leagues, exploring a coast which extended first towards the east and afterwards to the north. The country still presented an agreeable and inviting aspect, although the climate became colder, and the regions along which they passed more hilly. A pro

* Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 422.

This country, according to Verazzano, was situated in 413° of latitude (Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 422), which, if correct, would point it out as the present flourishing state of Massachusetts.

1524.]

VERAZZANO.

31

gress of other fifty leagues brought them to a more mountainous district than any yet seen, covered with dark and dense forests, and possessed by a people whose habits and temper seemed to partake of the severer nature of their country. On attempting to open an intercourse, Verazzano found them as fierce and sullen as those with whom he had lately dealt were agreeable and generous. Twenty-five of the crew who landed were received with a shower of arrows; and although the exhibition of articles of barter overcame their scruples, and tempted them to agree to an interchange of commodities, the manner in which this was effected evinced a striking mixture of avidity and suspicion. They came down to the beach, choosing the spot where the surf was breaking most violently, and insisted that the French boat should remain on the other side; a rope was then passed from it to the shore, and the different articles were swung along it. Strings of beads, toys, or mirrors, they utterly despised; but eagerly received knives, fishing-hooks, swords, saws, or anything in the shape of cutting-metal, to be used in war or in the chase, though such was their savage temper, that during the process of exchange they expressed their aversion to the strangers by uncouth gestures of contempt and derision. It seems probable that the country, now for the first time visited by Europeans, was the present province of Maine—as we are told by Verazzano, that a farther run of fifty leagues along the coast brought him to a cluster of thirty islands separated by narrow channelsa description which points out, in precise terms, the Bay of Penobscot.*

* Murray's North America, vol. i. p. 79. The veracity of the Florentine navigator, in his description of the ferocious habits of the natives, is strikingly corroborated by the determined and rancorous hostility evinced afterwards by the Indians of this district in opposing every attempt at settlement.

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VERAZZANO.

[1524.

From this point he pursued his indefatigable course for one hundred and fifty leagues farther, till he reached the land already discovered, as he says, by the Britons, in the latitude of 50°, which is evidently Newfoundland. Here his provisions began to fail, and thinking it prudent to sail for France, he reached home in safety in the month of July 1524.

Verazzano had thus completed the survey of a line of coast extending for seven hundred leagues, and embracing the whole of the United States, along with a large portion of British America. It was undoubtedly an enterprise of great magnitude and splendour, and deserves to be carefully recorded, not only as comprehending one of the widest ranges of early discovery, but as making us for the first time acquainted with that noble country whose history is so important, and whose destinies, even after a progress unrivalled in rapidity, appear at this moment only in their infancy. The Florentine gave to the whole region which he had discovered the name of New France; he then laid before the king a plan for completing his survey of the coast, penetrating into the interior, and establishing a colony; and he appears to have met with encouragement from Francis I., who embraced his proposals for colonization. From this moment, however, his history is involved in obscurity. Hakluyt affirms that he performed three voyages to North America, and gave a map of the coast to Henry VIII. The biographer of Cabot asserts, that he was the "Piedmontese pilot" who was slain on the coast of America in 1527,* not aware that Verazzano was a Florentine, and alive in 1537; and Ramusio could not ascertain the particulars of his last expedition, or even discover in what year it took place. All that is certainly known is, that it proved fatal to this great navigator.

*Memoir of Cabot, p. 278.

1534.]

CARTIER.

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Having landed incautiously upon the American coast, he and his party were surrounded and cut to pieces by the savages; after which they barbarously devoured them in the sight of their companions.*

The death of Verazzano appears to have thrown a damp over the farther prosecution of discovery by the court of France; but at length, after an interval of ten years, Jacques Cartier, an enterprising and able mariner of St. Malo, was chosen by the Sieur de Melleraye, Vice-Admiral of France, to conduct a voyage to Newfoundland, which, since its discovery by Cabot, had been seldom visited, and was imperfectly known. Cartier departed from St. Malo on the 20th of April 1534, with two ships, each of 60 tons burden, and having on board a well-appointed crew of sixty-one men. The voyage appears to have been limited

* Such is the account of Ramusio in his Discourse upon New France, vol. iii. p. 417. But Cardenas, in a work entitled "Ensajo Cronologico para la Historia de la Florida" (p. 8), has committed an error similar to that of the writer of Cabot's Life. He believes that Verazzano was the same as Juan the Florentine, a pirate in the service of France, who was taken by the Spaniards in 1524, and hanged. The evidence which overturns the theories of both these authors is to be found in a letter of Annibal Caro, quoted by Tiraboschi, Storia della Letteratura Ital., vol. vii. part i. pp. 261, 262, from which it appears that Verazzano was alive in 1537. Lettere Familiari del. Comm. Annibal Caro, vol. i. p. 11. In his great work, Tiraboschi has collected all that is known regarding the life of this eminent discoverer; but this all is extremely little. He was born about the year 1485; his father was Pier Andrea Verazzano, a noble Florentine, his mother Fiametta Capelli. Of his youth, and for what reasons he entered into the service of Francis I., nothing is known. The only published work of Verazzano is the narrative in Ramusio, addressed to Francis I., written with much simplicity and elegance. But in the Strozzi Library at Florence is preserved a manuscript, in which he is said to give, with great minuteness, a description of all the countries which he had visited during his voyage, and from which, says Tiraboschi, we derive the intelligence that he had formed the design of attempting a passage through these seas to the East Indies. It is much to be desired that some Italian scholar would favour the world with the publication of this MS. of Verazzano.

† Ramusio, vol. iii. p. 435.

C

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CARTIER.

[1534. to a survey of the northern coast of Newfoundland, of which he gives a minute description, dwelling particularly on the zoological features of the country. He found the land, in most parts, extremely wild and barren, "insomuch that he did not see a cart-load of good earth; and the inhabitants were of stout make, but wild and unruly." They wore their hair tied on the top like a bunch of hay, fixed with a wooden bodkin, and ornamented with birds' feathers. Like their companions whom Cabot had described, they were clothed in beasts' skins, and ornamented their bodies by painting them with roan-colours. They paddled about in boats made of the bark of birch trees, in which they carried on a constant trade of fishing, and caught great numbers of seals. After having almost circumnavigated Newfoundland, Cartier stood in towards the continent, and anchored in a bay, which, from the extreme heat, was denominated Baye du Chaleur. The description of the inhabitants of this spot is striking and interesting. "Taking our way," says he, "along the coast, we came in sight of the savages, who stood on the borders of a lake in the low grounds, where they had lighted their fires, which raised a great smoke. We went towards them, and found that an arm of the sea ran into the lake, into which we pushed with our boats. Upon this the savages approached in one . of their little barks, bringing along with them pieces of roasted seals, which they placed upon wooden boards, and afterwards retired, making signs that this was intended as a present for us. We immediately put two men ashore, with hatchets, knives, garlands for the head, and such like wares. On seeing these articles they appeared much delighted, and crowded to the bank where we were, paddling their barks, and bringing skins and other articles, which they meant to exchange for our merchandise. Their number, including men, women, and children, was upwards of