Part 6 (2/2)

These facts at least establish that Joao Verazano mentioned by the Portuguse, Andrade and Silveira, was the same person who made the capture of the treasure s.h.i.+ps; for it is not to be supposed that two different Florentines of the name of Giovanni, were in command of French fleets, at the same time, belonging to the ports of Normandy alone; and consequently that Verrazzano, our navigator, and Juan Florin the corsair were one. But how far the seizure of the treasure s.h.i.+ps was, as before suggested, the original purpose of the fleet can only be inferred from the circ.u.mstances, and is important only in connection with the DESIGN of a voyage of discovery. Between the time of the arrival of Ribera with the information that the treasure had been left at the Azores, and the sending of the caravels to bring it to Spain, nearly six months elapsed. Taking the dates, which are established by the official doc.u.ments now produced, of the fitting out of the fleet in Normandy by Verrazzano and the actual capture of the two caravels, it is easy to see that the real purpose of those preparations from the first, might have been to effect the capture of the treasure. The transmission of the news to Portugal of an intended voyage to Brazil and the sending of instructions to the emba.s.sador at [Footnote: According to the letter of Silveira, he was at Polssy on Christmas, and Andrade was therefore, probably in error in stating that he had his instructions in regard to Varezano before he left Portugal.] the French court could all have taken place after the detention of the treasure at Santa Maria became known in France and the fitting out of the vessels for its capture had begun to be made. It is stated by Andrade that it was at a port in Normandy where the vessels were being made ready; and it is to be presumed, from the connection of Verrazzano with Jean Ango, as shown subsequently by the agreement with Chabot for a like purpose, that it was from Dieppe, and probably a the expense of that rich merchant, who we are told was enabled to entertain his sovereign with princely magnificence and to embargo the port of Lisbon, with a fleet of his own, [Footnote: Mem. Chron. de Dieppe. I. 106-111.]

that they sailed on this occasion.

Verrazzano is certainly found at Roch.e.l.le on the 16th of June, 1523, two months after the despatch of Silveira was written, with his prizes captured on a different expedition from that mentioned by the amba.s.sador. It is evident, therefore, that the project of a voyage of discovery to Cathay, if ever seriously entertained, had at that time been abandoned; as may also be inferred from the statement of Andrade, that Silveira, in the nine years he was at the court of France, succeeded only in embargoing the voyage of the Florentine, and accomplis.h.i.+ng some minor matters.[Footnote: The doc.u.ment accompanying the letter of Davila in the archives, describes Juan Florin as of Dieppe, and thus fixes the seat of his operations in Normandy. See Appendix, (IV. 2.)]

But the question of any such voyage of discovery having been made at the time claimed in the Verrazzano letter is effectually set at rest by the fact that Verrazzano was then actually engaged in a corsairial enterprise elsewhere. Peter Martyr, in an epistle written on the 3d of August 1524, less than a month after the alleged return of Verrazzano to Dieppe from his voyage of discovery, wrote from Valladolid that ”a courier of the king of Portugal had arrived (with word) that Florin, the French pirate, had captured a s.h.i.+p of his king on her way from the Indies, with a cargo valued at one hundred and eighty thousand ducats.” [Footnote: Epist. 800 (ed. 1670).] It is impossible for Verrazzano to have been on the coast of North America, or on his return from Newfoundland to France, and at the same time to have taken a s.h.i.+p on her way from the Indies to Portugal, coming as she must have done, by the Cape of Good Hope.

The defeat of Francis I at the battle of Pavia and his capture and detention in Spain during the year 1525, seem to have suspended the depredations upon the seas by the French, and nothing more occurs relating to Verrazzano, until after the release of the king, in the following year, and then in an adventure which seems to have cost him his life, unless his probable appearance in England as mentioned by Hakluyt, to which reference has already been made, be an exception. Allusion has also been made several times to an agreement between Chabot, admiral of France, and others, including Verrazzano, which now a.s.sumes particular importance. It is the only doc.u.ment yet produced in France, relating to him, and is of recent discovery.

[Footnote: Margry, Les Navigations Francaises, p.194 (Paris, 167.) See Appendix (II)] By this agreement it was stipulated that Chabot, as admiral of France, should furnish two galleons, Jean Ango one s.h.i.+p, and Verrazzano two pilots besides himself, and that the three persons here named should with Guillaume Preudhomme, general of Normandy, Pierre Despinolles and Jacques Boursier, in different specified amounts each, make up the sum of twenty thousand pounds in Tours currency for the expenses, on joint account, of a voyage to the Indies for spices,--the admiral and Ango, however, to have one- fourth of all the merchandise returned, for the use of the vessels, and Verrazzano to have one-sixth of the remaining three-fourths, for his compensation and that of his two pilots. The contract contained another provision, that if any booty should be taken on the sea from the Moors, or other enemies of the faith and the king, the admiral should first take a tenth of it and the remainder should be divided as stipulated in regard to the merchandise, except such part as should, upon advis.e.m.e.nt, be given to the crew. The admiral was to have letters patent expedited from the king for permission to make the voyage. This paper has no date, but as it was made by Chabot, in his official capacity, as admiral of France, it could not have been earlier than March 1526, when, as we have seen, he was so created.

It belongs, therefore, either to that or the following year, judging from the fatal consequences which happened to Verrazzano in the latter.

Although a voyage from France to the Indies for spices was not an improbable venture at that time inasmuch as one was actually made from Dieppe, two years afterwards, by Jean Parmentier in the service of Ango, there is every reason to believe that such was not the real object of the parties to this agreement. One of the stipulations between them was for a division, of booty, showing an intention to make captures on the sea. Who were the enemies of the king from whom it was to be taken is not stated. By the treaty of Madrid, in January 1526. peace existed between France and Spain, and any expedition from one of them against the commerce of the other, was clearly piratical. Neither did war exist at this time, between France and Portugal. Yet it appears that both the Spaniards and the Portuguese, were searching for Verrazzano at the time, when the former succeeded in capturing him, in September or October 1527. He had, therefore, not sailed to the Indies and must have made himself obnoxious to those nations, by fresh depredations upon their vessels. Bernal Diaz, who gives an account of his capture and execution, states that he was actually so engaged. [Footnote: Historia verdadera, fol 164.] It appears from the letters of the judge who superintended his execution that he was then encountered by six Biscayan galleons and s.h.i.+ps, and after battle, captured and taken by them to Cadiz, with his crew, consisting of one hundred and twenty or thirty persons, besides several gentlemen adventurers, Verrazzano offered his captors thirty thousand ducats to be released, but in vain. He was sent under guard with the adventurers to Madrid, but was overtaken on the way at Colmenar near Puerto del Pico, villages between Salamanca and Toledo, [Footnote: Blaen, Utriusque Castilia nova descripto. Martiniere, Dictionaire Geographique, aub Colmenar et Pico.] by the judge of Cadiz with an order made by the emperor at Lerma on the 13th of October 1527, by virtue of which he was there put to death in November of that year.

Such was the termination of the career of this hold man, which was long ago substantially told by Bernal Diaz and Barcia, but so loosely in regard to dates, as to have created doubts as to their correctness, but which is established by the doc.u.ments existing in the archives at Simancas, now brought to light. [Footnote: See the letter of the judge of Cadiz, in the Appendix (V.L.) Barcia, in his Chronological Essay, mentions the capture and execution of Juan the Florentine as a pirate under the year 1524. He does not state that they took place in that year, but refers to them in connection with the discoveries alleged to have been made in that year by Verrazzano, whom he identifies as the corsair. It has been supposed, consequently, that he meant that year as the time of Verrazzano's death; and hence, inasmuch as Verrazzano was known to have been alive after that year, that the whole story was an error. The letters of Juan de Giles, the resident judge of Cadiz, appended to this memoir, enable us to fix the date of his execution, for although not dated themselves, they contain a reference to the date of the cedule, ordering the execution, by which it can be determined. Giles mentions that this cedule was dated at Lerma, on the 13th of last month, showing that it was made there on the 13th of some month. According to the Itinerary of Charles V, kept by his private secretary, Vandernesse, containing an account of the emperor's journeys from the year 1519 to 1551, Charles went to Lerma, a small town in Old Castile, for the first time on the 9th of May, 1524 and returned thence to Burgos on the 12th of that month, going to Lerma again on the 21st of July of that year and leaving it on the 24th for Vallidesole. He was not there afterwards, until the 12th of October, 1527, where he remained until the 17th of that month when he went to Burgos. He went to Lerma again on the 20th of February 1528, and remained there for two days only. These are all the occasions of his presence at Lerma during the whole period of the Itinerary. These dates prove that the only possible occasion for issuing the order of execution was the 13th of October 1527. The prisoners left under guard, on the 15th of that month for Madrid, and the letter apprising the emperor that the order had been executed upon Verrazzano must have been written in November, the month following.

The Itinerary will be found in the Correspondence of the Emperor Charles V, by William Bradford, London, 1850.]

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 const.i.tuted 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 circ.u.mstances 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.

This completes our purpose. The question, however, still presents itself what was the motive for this gross deception? The answer is suggested by the feet that all the evidence produced in favor of the story is traceable to Florence, the birthplace of Verrazzano.

Ramusio obtained the Verazzano letter there,--the only one, he says, not astray in consequence of its unfortunate troubles. The letter of Carli, enclosing that of Verrazzano, is professedly written by a Florentine to his father in that city. The map of Hieronimo de Verrazano bears the impress of the family. The discourse of the French captain of Dieppe appears to have been sent originally to Florence, whence it was procured by Ramusio. Even the globe of Euphrosynus Ulpius, a name otherwise unknown, is represented to have been constructed for Marcellus, who had been archbishop of Florence.

They are all the testimony of Florence in her own behalf. The cities of Italy which had grown in wealth and importance during the fifteenth century, by means of enterprising and valuable commerce, produced and nurtured a race of skillful seamen, among whom were the most distinguished of the first discoverers of the new world, in the persons of Columbus, Vespucci and the Cabots; but those cities contributed nothing more to the discoveries which thus were achieved, than to give these men birth and education. The glory of promoting and successfully accomplis.h.i.+ng those results belonged to other nations, which had the wisdom and fortune to secure the services of these navigators. The cities shone, however, with the l.u.s.tre reflected from having reared and instructed them to the work they so wonderfully performed. Although enjoying a common nationality, these munic.i.p.ales belonged to independent republics and were in a measure rivals of each other. Florence emulated Genoa. She truly boasted that Vespucci, born and raised on her soil, was the first to reach the main land and thus to have his name applied for the whole continent, ”America quasi Americi terra;” while Genoa justly claimed for her son, that the discovery of all America was to be regarded as a.s.sured from the moment that Columbus landed on the little sandy island of Guanahana, on the 12th of October 1492.

[Footnote: Humboldt, Examen Critique, IV, 37.] But Florence enjoys in addition the unenviable distinction of having sought to advance the pretensions of Vespucci by fict.i.tious letters, purporting to be signed with his name.[Footnote: Varnhagen, Amerigo Vespucci, son caractere, ses scrits (meme les moins authentiques) &c., p. 67, et seq. (Lima, 1865).] That this spirit of civic pride in that same community may have actuated the fabrication of the Verrazzano letter is not improbable; but in justice to the memory of Verrazzano it must be added, there is no reason to believe that he was in any way accessory to the imposture.

APPENDIX

I.

LETTERA DI FERNANDO CARLI A SUO PADRE.

From the Archivo Storico Italiano. Appendice Tomo IX. 58-5 Firenze 1858.

Al nome di Dio

a di 4 Agosta 1524.

”Onorando padre,--Considerando che quando fui in la armata di Barbaria alle Gierbe vi furono grate le nuove advisatevi giornalmente per lo ill.u.s.tre sig. Don Ugo di Moncada, capitano generale della Cesarea Maesta in quelle barbare parti, seguite certando [Footnote: Combattendo (Nota dell edisione Romana) con li Mori di detta isola; per la quale mostrasi haver fatto piacere a molti nostri padroni ed amici, e con quelli della conseguita vittoria congratulatovi, pertanto, essendo nuovamente qui nuova della giunta del capitano Giovanui da Verrazzano nostro fiorentino allo porto di Diepa in Normandia con sua nave Delfina, con la quale si parti dalle insule Canarie fino di Gennaio pa.s.sato, per andare in busca di terre nuove per questa serenissima corona di Francia, in che mostro coraggio troppo n.o.bile e grande a mettersi a tanto incognito viaggio con una sola nave che appena e una caravella di tonelli [Footnote: L'amanuense ha lasciato il numero delle lonnellate di cui era capace la nave (Nota come sopra)], solo con 60 uomini, con intenzione di, giusta sua possa discoprire il Oataio, tenendo cammino per altri climati di quelli usano li Portughesi in lo discoprire di verso la parte di Calicut, ma andando verso coro e settentrione omnino tenendo, che ancora [Footnote: Ancorche] Tolomeo ed Aristotile ed altri cosmografi descrivano verso tali climati non trovarsi terra, di trovarvene a ogni modo; e cosi gli ha Dio concesso, come distintamente descrive per una sua lettera a questa S. M.; della quale in questa ne e una copia. E per mancargli le vettovaglie, dopo molti mesi giunto navigando, a.s.segna essergli stato forza tornare da quello in questo emisperio; e in sette mesi suto in viaggio mostrare grandissimo ed accelerato cammino, aver fatto cosa miranda e ma.s.sima a chi intende la marinera del mondo.

Della quale al cominciamento di detto suo viaggio si fece male iuditio [Footnote: L'ediz. romana ha indizio, una crediamo per errore di stampa.], e molti pensorno che non piu nedilui ne del vascello si avesse nuova, ma che ei dovesso perdere da quella banda della Norvegia per il grands diaccio che e per quello oceano settentrionale; ma come disse quel Moro, lo Dio grande, per darca ogni giorno piu notizie di sua infinita possanza e mostrarci di quanto sia admirabile questa mundiale machina, gli ha discoperto una lat.i.tudine di terra, come intenderete, di tauta grandezza che, secondo le buone ragioni e gradi, per lat.i.tudine (et) altezza, a.s.segna e mostra piu grande che l'Europa, Africa e parte di Asia: ergo mundus novus; e guesto senza lo che [Footnote: Quello che (Nota come sopra.)] hanno discoperto in piu auni gli Spani per l'occidente, che appena e un anno torno Ferrando Maga-ghiana, quale discoperse grande paese con una nave meno delle cinque [Footnote: Forse venne qui omesso ite o simile; e sembra accennarsi al naufragio di una di quelle cinque navi] a discoprire. Donde addusse garofani molto piu eccellenti delli soliti; e le altro sue navi in 5 anui mai nuova ci e trapelata. Stimansi perae. Quello [Footnote: nelle romana si legge: ”stimansi per se quello ec.”; ma ci sembra che il senso gl.u.s.tifichi abbastanza la nostra correzione.] che questo nostro capitano abbia condotto non dice per questa sua lettera, salvo uno uomo giovanetta preso di quelli paesi; ma stimansi che abbia portato mostra di oro, poicbe da quelle bande non lo etimano, e di droghe e di altri liquori aromatici, per conferie qua con mold mercatanti di poi che sara stato alla presenza della Serenissima Maesta. E a questa ora doverra. essarvi, a di qua trasferirsi in breve, per che e molto desiato, par ragionare seco; tanto piu che trovers qui la Maesta del Re nostro sire, Che fra tre o quattro giorni vi si attende: e speriamo She S. M. lo rimetta. di mezza dozzina di buoni vascelli, e che tornera al viaggio. E se Francesco Carli nostro ci fosse tornato dal Cairo, advisate che alla ventura vorra andere seco a detto viaggio, e credo si conoschino al Cairo dove e stato piu anni; e non solo in Egitto ed Soria, ma quasi per tutto il cognito mondo; e di qua mediante sua virtu e stimato un altro Amerigo Vespucci, un altro Ferrando Magaghiana, e davantaggio; e speriamo che rimontandosi delle altre buone navi e vascelli ben conditi a vettovagliati come si richiede, abbia ad iscoprire qualche profittoso traffico e fatto; e fara, prestandogli nostro Signore Dio vita, onore alla nostra patria da acquistarne immortale fama e mamoria. E Alderotto Brunelleschi che parti con lui, e per fortuna tornando indietro nou volse piu seguire, come di costa lo intende, sara malcontento. Ne altro per ora mi occorre, perche per altre vi ho avvisato il bisogno. A voi di continuo mi raccomando, pregandovi ne facciate parte agli amici nostri, non dimenticando Pierfrancesco Dagaghiano [Footnote: Forse, da Gagliano], che per essere persona perita, tengo che na prendera grande pa.s.satempo; ed u lui mi raccomanderete. Simile al Rustichi, al quale non dispiacera se si diletta, come suole, intendere cose di cosmografia. Che Dio tutti di male vi guardi.

Vostro figliuoio FERNANDO CARLI in Lione.”

II.

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