besides what was contained in the enclosed letter, such as must have
reached Lyons, with the news of the return of the expedition, would
have been mentioned, especially, as it would all have been
interesting to Florentines. But nothing of the kind is related.
Nothing appears in the letter in regard to the expedition that is
not found in the Verrazzano letter. [Footnote: Mr. Greene, in his
life of Verrazzano, remarks that it appears from Carli's letter,
that the Indian boy whom Verrazzano is stated to have carried away,
arrived safely in France; but that is not so. What is said in that
letter is, that Verrazzano does not mention IN HIS LETTER what he
had brought home, except this boy.] What is stated in reference to
the previous life of Verrazzano, must have been as well known to
Carli's father as to himself, if it were true, and is therefore
unnecessarily introduced, and the same may be said of the facts
stated in regard to Brunelleschi's starting on the voyage with
Verrazzano and afterwards turning back. The particular description
of Dagaghiano and Rustichi, both of Florence, the one as a man of
experience and the other as a student of cosmography, was equally
superfluous in speaking of them to his father. These portions of the
letter look like flimsy artifices to give the main story the
appearance of truth. They may or may not have been true, and it is
not inconsistent with an intention to deceive in regard to the
voyage that they should have been either the one or the other. A
single allusion, however, is made to the critical condition of
affairs in France and the stirring scenes which were being enacted
on either side of the city of Lyons at the moment the letter bears
date. It is the mention of the expected arrival of the king at Lyons
within three or four days. It is not stated for what purpose he was
coming, but the fact was that Francis had taken the field in person
to repel the Spanish invasion in the south of France, and was then