In April 1524 while searching for a way to China and India, Giovanni da Verrazzano explored the area now known as New York Harbor and noted the river later called the Hudson River. He wrote, “My intention on this voyage was to reach Cathay and the extreme eastern coast of Asia, but I did not expect to find such an obstacle of new land as I have found.”
He met native peoples “dressed in birds’ feathers of various color and they came toward us joyfully, uttering loud cries of wonderment…,” Verrazzano thought. He claimed the area for France, naming North America Francesca,
The fact that he did not stay ashore while sailing by the coasts of Manhattan, Staten Island, Long Island, and elsewhere made his claim on the territory for France and Catholicism very weak. Some feel that if he had set foot on Manhattan and left men to stay that America would have started out as Catholic rather than Protestant. While Verrazano did not speak any Indian languages, he concluded about the natives, “We think they have neither religion nor laws.”
Why did the builders of the bridge in Verrazzano’s name use only one “z” in their spelling? The historical evidence has it spelled both ways, but perhaps it is a fitting commentary on what happened to the explorer in the Caribbean where he was downsized. In 2018, New York State officially changed the name to include two “z’s”.
Instead of comfortably staying where he was welcomed, he sailed on. On his third trip to the New World, he visited the West Indies. Going ashore probably on the island of Guadeloupe in 1528, he met with a local group of Caribs. They welcomed him to their banquet. He got eaten by the cannibals. Whoops!
(There is another story that he was executed for piracy under another name by the Spanish.)
The quotes are from ” The Written Record of the Voyage of 1524 of Giovanni da Verrazano as recorded in a letter to Francis I, King of France, July 8th, 1524.” For more on Verrazzano, see Lawrence C. Wroth. 1970. The voyages of Giovanni da Verrazzano, 1524-1528. New Haven, Published for the Pierpont Morgan Library by Yale University Press.
Illustration based on a book illustration held by The Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Division of Art, Prints and Photographs: Print Collection, The New York Public Library. “John Verazzani. Verrazzani. Fig. 17.–Portrait of Verazzano.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. 1840 – 1899. https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/434d7ff0-bcab-0130-12c5-58d385a7bbd0
