y to their wish, XXV armed men
of us were inland two and three leagues, and when we descended to the
shore they shot at us with their bows, sending forth the greatest
cries, then fled into the woods. We do not know any value of any
moment in this land, except the very great forests, with some hills
which possibly have some metal, because on many [natives] we saw
"paternosters" of copper in the ears.

We departed, skirting the coast between east and north, which we found
very beautiful, open and bare of forests, with high mountains back
inland, growing smaller toward the shore of the sea. In fifty leagues
we discovered XXXII islands, among which we called the three larger
"The Three Daughters of Navarra," all near to the continent, small and
of pleasing appearance, high, following the curving of the land, among
which were formed most beautiful ports and channels, as are formed in
the Adriatic Gulf, in the Illyrias, and Dalmatia. We had no
intercourse with the peoples and think they were, like the others,
devoid of morals and culture.

Navigating between east-southeast and north-northeast, in the space
of CL leagues, we came near the land which the Britons found in the
past, by the Cabots,[8] which stands in fifty degrees, and having
consumed all our naval stores and victuals, having discovered six
hundred leagues and more of new land, furnishing ourselves with water
and wood, we decided to turn toward France.

[1] From a letter addrest to Francis I, King of France, on July 8,
1524. Three copies of Verazzano's letter exist. One was printed by
Ramusio in 1556 and translated for Hakluyt's "Voyages" in 1583.
The second was found in the Strozzi Library in Florence, and
published in 1841 by the New York Historical Society with a
translation by J.G. Cogswell.

The third copy is the one now owned by Count Gulio Macchi di
Cellere, of Rome. It was first published in Italy in 1909, and the
first English translation of it was made by Dr. Edward Hagaman
Hall, secretary of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation
Society, and published in the report of that society for 1910.
This copy has the distinction of being contemporaneous. Dr. Hall
says its value "consists not only in confirming the voyage itself,
but also in supplying a wealth of names and details not previously
known to exist." Verazzano's account of his visit to New York
harbor here given is taken from