letter in this respect depending both upon the sight and the taste,
must, like that of the contrasted appearance of the natives, be
regarded as deliberately made; and consequently, the two as
establishing the falsity of the description in those particulars,
and thus involving the integrity and truth of the whole.

The liberty which Ramusio took with these passages in his version of
the letter, demands notice, and adds his testimony again to the
absurdity of the account. He doubtless knew, from the numerous
descriptions which had been published, of the uniformity of the
physical characteristics of the American Indians; and he certainly
knew of it as regarded the natives of this coast; as is proven by
his publication of Oviedo's account of the voyage of Gomez, made
there in 1525, in which they are described, in the same volume with
the Verrazzano letter. [FOOTNOTE: Tom. III. fol. 52, (ed. 1556).]
His own experience, as to the climate of Venice, taught him also
that grapes could not have ripened in the latitude and at the time
of year assigned for that purpose. He had therefore abundant reason
to question the correctness of the letter in both particulars. As in
the case of the representation of the extent of the discovery,
before mentioned, he did not hesitate to make them conform more to
the truth. He amended the original in regard to the complexion of
the natives represented as those first seen, by inserting in place
of the words, applied to them, of "black and not much different from
Ethiopians," the phrase, "brownish and not much unlike the Saracens"
(berrettini & non molto dalli Saracini differenti) [FOOTNOTE:
Berrettini is derived from beretta, the Turkish fez, a red cap,
designating also the scarlet cap of the cardinals & the church of
Rome.] by which they are likened to those Arabs whose complexion,
"yellow, bordering on brown," is of a similar cast; [Footnote: