between the dates of the two letters. It purports to have been
written by Fernando Carli to his father in Florence. Carli is not an
uncommon Italian name and probably existed in Florence at that time,
but who this Fernando was, has never transpired. He gives in this
letter all there is of his biography, which is short. He had
formerly been in the service of the emperor, Charles V, under
Moncada, in the fleet sent against the Moors in Barbary, and was
then in Lyons, where, it might be inferred, from a reference to its
merchants, that he was engaged in some mercantile pursuit; but the
reason of his presence there is really unaccounted for. It is not
pretended that he held any official position under the king of
France. The name of his father, by means of which his lineage might
be traced, is not mentioned, but Francisco Carli is named as of the
same family, but without designating his relationship. Whether a
myth or a reality, Fernando seems to have been an obscure person, at
the best; not known to the political or literary history of the
period, and not professing to occupy any position, by which he might
be supposed to have any facility or advantage for obtaining official
information or the news of the day, over the other inhabitants of
Lyons and of France.

He is made to say that he writes this letter for the particular
purpose of communicating to his father and their friends in
Florence, the news, which had reached Lyons, of the arrival of
Verrazzano from his wonderful and successful voyage of discovery,
and that he had advised his parent of all other matters touching his
own interests, by another conveyance. It might be supposed and
indeed reasonably expected in a letter thus expressly devoted to
Verrazzano, that some circumstance, personal or otherwise, connected
with the navigator or the voyage, or some incident of his discovery,