Captain John De Verazzano was ordered by Francis І of France to travel to the West Continent in 1524. He set sail with 50 men on the 17th of January, with enough supplies to last 8 months.
It took them just over a month to get to their first stop on the West border of the United States. Their first encounter was with a few natives living in that area.
“Many people who were seen coming to the sea-side fled at our approach but occasionally stopping. They looked back upon us with astonishment, and some were at length induced, by various friendly signs, to come to us.”
Obviously, and understandably, the natives were weary of the newcomers to their land and a few were distressed and left them. Others, were more kind of, mesmerized by them and their dress. Verazzano goes to state that some of the natives showed great delight in their outfits and complexion.
It seems to me that Verazzano really writes about their time in the new land in a systematic way. It is very as-it-happens written. The natives were the very first thing they came in contact with, and instead of looking at them and describing their nature, he writes about their reaction first.
He then gets a bit of time to really look and see who is helping him and his men onto the land. He describes their naked bodies in details from their stature, broad chests to their formed arms and legs.
“Not very strong in body, but acute in mind, active and swift on foot”
He realises that although they may not be the biggest men, or the strongest they have very quick minds and would be able to use that as an advantage. I think that Verazzano would be more weary of this that their strong figure.
He also mentioned that two of the men looked like they were from the East, and were different from the rest of the men they were talking with.
After their encounter with the natives, the men were able to wander around the land that they had found. The whole shore that they saw was covered in sand and they saw “beautiful fields, broad plains covered in immense forests of trees”.
They were amazed at the land they were seeing and only used positive words to describe it. He listed flowers, animals and colours that they saw in amazement compared to that of France.
They left this place in search of a new land, so travelled north east along the coast. But, unlike the first stop, it was not easy to pull into the harbour, seeing as there was none. So, again, there were natives watching them and offering to help them. One young sailor jumped into the water attempting to send them looking-glasses and other resources that may have been useful. But he was taken by the waves and pulled ashore, seen as dead by everyone around. (The young sailor survived.)
Verazzano described this experience in quite a lot of detail and I believe that they were astonished at this man’s determination to help them without knowing a thing about their motives or who they were.
“One of their noble deeds of friendship deserves to be made known your majesty”
http://content.wisconsinhistory.org/cdm4/document.php?CISOROOT=/aj&CISOPTR=115
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