The east coast of the present United States of America was largely unexplored in the early 1520s. The Spanish had discovered Florida, & the Norsemen, English & Portuguese were familiar with Newfoundland, which was visited frequently by fishermen & whalers of various nations, but the area between these 2 locations was a mystery on the map.
King Francis I of France decided to finance an expedition to investigate the area. He chose the Florentine, Giovanni da Verrazzano, to lead the exploration. Verrazzano began with 4 ships, but 2 shipwrecked shortly after departure, while a 3rd was sent home loaded with the prizes from privateering on the Spanish coast. Only the flagship, La Dauphine, actually crossed the Atlantic with 50-man crew. Of these, the only one who is known apart from Verrazzano himself was his brother Girolamo da Verrazzano, who was a mapmaker. His 1529 world map was one of the first maps to show Verrazzano's discoveries.
Giovanni da Verrazzano set out for his crossing from Madeira, on January 17, & touched land on or around March 1, at Cape Fear. From here he sailed south, but returned from north of Charleston, afraid to run into the Spanish, anchoring not far from his original landfall. He send a boat, to the shore, & had a pleasant meeting with the natives, whom he describes thus: "These people go altogether naked except only that they cover their privy parts with certain skins of beasts like unto martens, which they fasten onto a narrow girdle made of grass, very artfully wrought, hanged about with tails of diverse other beasts, which round about their bodies hang dangling down to their knees. Some of them wear garlands of birds' feathers. The people are of a color russet, & not much unlike the Saracens; their hair black, thick, & not very long, which they tie together in a knot behind, & wear it like a tail. They are well-featured in their limbs, of average stature, & commonly somewhat bigger than we; broad breasted, strong arms, their legs & other parts of their bodies well fashioned, & they are disfigured in nothing, saving that they have somewhat broad visages, & yet not all of them; for we saw many of them well favored, having black & great eyes, with a cheerful & steady look, not strong of body, yet sharp-witted, nimble & great runners, as far as we could learn by experience. From what we could tell from observation, in the last 2 respects they resemble the Orientals, particularly those from the farthest Sinarian regions. We could not learn the details of the life & customs of these people because of the short time we spent on land, due to the fact that there were few men, & the ship was anchored on the high seas. Not far from these people, we found others on the shore whose way of life we think is similar. "
Sailing along the coast, Verrazzano reached the Outer Banks of North Carolina. Further north he came to a beautiful place which he therefore called Arcadia. This was probably Kitty Hawk, North Carolina. Here he kidnapped a young Native American child to carry back to France. Sailing further north, Verrazzano next discovered New York Harbor, & He describes the bay & Native Americans as follows: "The people are almost like unto the others, & clad with feather of fowls of diverse colors. They came towards us very cheerfully, making great shouts of admiration, showing us where we might come to land most safely with our boat. We entered up the said river into the land about half a league, where it made a most pleasant lake [the Upper bay] about 3 leagues in compass; on the which they rowed from the one side to the other, to the number of 30 in their small boats, wherein were many people, which passed from one shore to the other to come & see us. & behold, upon the sudden (as it is wont to fall out in sailing) a contrary flow of wind coming from the sea, we were enforced to return to our ship, leaving this land, to our great discontentment for the great commodity & pleasantness thereof, which we suppose is not without some riches, all the hills showing mineral matters in them."
He continued his voyage east reaching Narragansett Bay. Because the natives there were very friendly, for once he decided to break his habit & anchor near the coast. These Wampanoags led him to an even better sheltered harbor, present day Newport, & Verrazzano stayed there for 2 weeks, waiting for better weather conditions. His men traded with the Wampanoags. Verrazzano described the Wampanoags very positively. The Verrazano party made contact with the Narragansett, Mahican, Wampanoag, Abnaki, Pokanoket, & Penobscot. Verrazano reported that he and his crew were treated well by the Natives they encountered. The Europeans and the Indians shared meals and the Indians often organized sporting games for their mutual entertainment. In Narragansett Bay Indians came on board the ship. According to Verrazano, “They exceed us in size, and they are of a very fair complexion, some incline more to a white and others to a tawny color; their faces are sharp, and their hair long and black, upon the adorning of which they bestow great pains; their eyes are black and sharp, their expressions mild and pleasant, greatly resembling the antique.” In a letter to the King of France Verrazano wrote that the Narragansett “are the most beautiful and have the most civil customs that we found on this voyage.” Verrazano also observed that the Indians set their planting times according to their observations of the moon and the rising of the Pleiades. In other words, they understood some of the basics of astronomy. While Verrazano did not speak any Indian languages, he concluded: “We think they have neither religion nor laws.”
The Native American Abnaki of Maine, he describes as "of such crudity & evil manners, so barbarous, that despite all the signs we could make, we could never converse with them. They are clothed in peltry of bear, lynx, 'sea wolves' & other beasts. Their food, as far as we could perceive, often entering their dwellings, we suppose to be obtained by hunting & fishing, & of certain fruits, a kind of wild root." The Abnaki shot arrows at the French when they tried to land, but they could still conduct some meager trade through baskets, let down on a line from cliffs at the shore by the Indians. The French disliked the Abnaki's parting salute as the Europeans left, "such as exhibiting their bare behinds & laughing inmoderately."
There are conflicting accounts of Verrazzano's death. Historian Samuel Eliot Morison (1887-1976) asserts that in 1528, Giovanni da Verrazzano again crossed the Atlantic for the French (to explore & collect wood), landing in Florida, then following the chain of the lesser Antilles. Reportedly, once again anchored out at sea, Giovanni decided to go ashore in a small boat to greet the natives, wading the last part while the ship, with his brother, remained farther out. Unfortunately, these Native Americans were not a friendly tribe looking to trade, but cannibalistic Caribs. Reportedly they killed Giovanni & ate him. The French ship his brother was aboard was too far away to give support.
See:
The Written Record of the Voyage of 1524 of Giovanni da Verrazano as recorded in a letter to Francis I, King of France, July 8th, 1524, in Lawrence C. Wroth, ed., The Voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524-1528 (Yale, 1970)]
Morison, Samuel Eliot (1971). The European Discovery of America: The Northern Voyages. New York: Oxford University Press
A Biography of 1524 Giovanni da Verrazzano
