westerly to a river running north from the Atlantic and connecting
with the St. Lawrence or river of Hochelaga. Gastaldi, or Gastaldo,
published previously an edition of Ptolemy's Geography (12mo.,
Venice, 1543), in which (map 56), Norumbega is similarly laid down,
without the river running to the St. Lawrence. Norumbega was
therefore a well defined district of country at that time.

The word was undoubtedly derived from the Indians, and is still in
use by those of the Penobscot, to denote certain portions of that
river. The missionary Vetromile, in his History of the Abnakis (New
York, 1866), observes (pp. 48-9): "Nolumbega means A STILL-WATER
BETWEEN FALLS, of which there are several in that river. At
different times, travelling in a canoe along the Penobscot, I have
heard the Indians calling those localities NOLUMBEGA."

That the country did not become known through Verrazzano is evident
from the letter, in which it is stated that he ran along the entire
coast, from the harbor to which they remained fifteen days, one
hundred and fifty leagues easterly, that is from Cape Cod to the
Island of Cape Breton, without landing, and consequently without
having any correspondence with the natives, so as to have acquired
the name.

When in particular Alfonse ran along the Atlantic coast is not
mentioned, though it is to be inferred that it was on the occasion
of Roberval's expedition. There is nothing stated, it is true, to
preclude the possibility of its having taken place on some other
voyage previously. It could not have been afterwards, as the
cosmography describing it was written in 1544-5. Some authors assert
that Roberval dispatched him towards Labrador with a view of finding