III.

THE LETTER UNTRUE. I. NO VOYAGE OR DISCOVERY MADE FOR THE KING OF
FRANCE, AS IT STATES.


All the circumstances relating to the existence of the Verrazzano
letter thus prove that it was not the production of Verrazzano at
the time and place it purports to have been written by him. We pass
now to the question of its authenticity, embracing the consideration
of its own statements and the external evidence which exists upon
the subject.

The letter professes to give the origin and results of the voyage;
that is, the agency of the king of France in sending forth the
expedition, and the discoveries actually accomplished by it. In both
respects it is essentially untrue. It commences by declaring that
Verrazzano sailed under the orders and on behalf of the king of
France, for the purpose of finding new countries, and that the
account then presented was a description of the discoveries made in
pursuance of such instructions. That no such voyage of discoveries
were made for that monarch is clearly deducible from the history of
France. Neither the letter, nor any document, chronicle, memoir, or
history of any kind, public or private, printed or in manuscript,
belonging to that period, or the reign of Francis I, who then bore
the crown, mentioning or in any manner referring to it, or to the
voyage and discovery, has ever been found in France; and neither