USA > Maine > A history of the discovery of Maine > Part 24
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284
RUT'S EXPEDITION, 1527.
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Cabots and others, before this time, had sailed in sight of this coast, yet we are not told distinctly, that they went on shore or reconnoitered the country.
It is much to be regretted that we have so little informa- tion on this exploring expedition, which is so highly inter- esting to the object of our inquiry, especially as the expedition is said to have been accompanied by a learned man, "a Canon of St. Paul in London, a great mathematician." It may be presumed that his observations on these regions were brought to England ; and that by this means, or others, the English had now become somewhat acquainted with Norum- bega .*
Mr. Biddle conjectures that Verrazano who, like Thorne, had recommended this expedition, was on board of the Mary of Guilford, and was killed by the natives of Norumbega on one of the excursions into the interior .¡ Verrazano, on his expedition in 1524, had observed the numerous islands and the broken and indented shores of these coasts. He had ex- pressed in his letter to Francis I. a great interest in these regions, and a wish to visit them again ; and it may be sup- posed, that he had persuaded the commander, Master Rut, to explore more carefully these coasts, where from their wide indentations he might hope to find a passage. It is therefore not unlikely, that Verrazano found his death on the shores of Norumbega : and if a monument to the memory of this fa- mous discoverer should ever be contemplated, this would be the region in which it should be erected.
From certain statements of Spanish authors it is probable that the "Mary," after passing the coasts of Norumbega,
* Hakluyt (1. c. p. 179) says, that he could not learn the name of " the mathematician." Mr. Biddle (p. 274) makes it probable, that it was the clergyman Albert de Prato, mentioned by Purchas.
t See Biddle's Memoir, p. 276 seq.
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RUT'S EXPEDITION, 1527.
sailed still further south along the east coast of the United States, and, arriving in the Spanish West Indies, cast anchor off the island of Porto Rico.
The Spanish historian Oviedo, who at the time of this ex- pedition lived in the West Indies, reports, that in the year 1527 an English vessel had appeared off Porto Rico. He gives no further particulars regarding this alarming appear- ance of Englishmen in these exclusively Spanish waters .* But another Spanish historian, Herrera, without giving an exact date, relates this event as follows : + A strange vessel of three masts and of the burden of two hundred and fifty tons had appeared off the island of S. Juan de Porto Rico. Gines Navarro, the master of a Spanish vessel then lying in the port, supposing her also to be Spanish, went out in a boat to board her. But on his way he was met by a pinnace from . the strange vessel, with twenty-five armed men, and two pieces of artillery. They proved to be Englishmen, and told the Spaniard the following story : They had come from the north. In the beginning they had two vessels, fitted out for the purpose of searching for the country of the Great Chan.# The second vessel had been separated from them in a storm. They had passed through a very rough sea, where they had encountered great islands of ice, and afterwards had entered into waters which were boiling hot (the Gulf-stream ?). They had reconnoitered " the Bacallaos," where they had found fifty Spanish, French, and Portuguese fishing vessels. In one instance they had gone ashore to confer with the Indians, by whom their pilot, an Italian, " a native of Piedmont," was killed. They had then coasted along as far south as the river
* See Oviedo, Historia general de las Indias, lib. 19, cap. 13; and Bid- dle, Memoir of Cabot, pp. 114, 275.
t Herrera, Dec. II, lib. 5, cap. 3.
# .. . "para yr a buscar la tierra del Gran Can."
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286
RUT'S EXPEDITION, 1527.
of Chicora (hasta el Rio de Chicora), and from this river they had come over to the island of S. Juan de Porto Rico.
These Englislimen, as Herrera proceeds to relate, invited Captain Navarro to come on board their vessel, showing him their papers and instructions from the king of England, and their great store of victuals, wine, flour, clothes, ammunition, artillery, and iron-work. The ship was manned by sixty men. They wished to know the way to Santo Domingo ; and, after some time, sailed thither. From this place, how- ever, not being received in a friendly manner by the Spanish commander of the castle, who fired upon them, they returned to Porto Rico, traded some time with the inhabitants of the port of St. German, and after that disappeared altogether.
From this narrative it is evident, that the early events of . the English expedition of which Herrera speaks, have a strik- ing resemblance to the early events of the expedition of the " Mary of Guilford " and the " Samson," as related by Hakluyt and Master Rut. It is nearly certain, that both the Spanish and the English accounts refer to the same expe- dition ; and both agree in ascribing to it the same essential particulars, of the commission from the king, the purpose of the voyage, the number of vessels and the fortunes of eachı, the countries visited, and the obstructions and difficul- ties encountered. The islands of ice, and the French and Portuguese fishing vessels near Newfoundland, are mentioned in both reports .* Thus it appears, that Master Rut commu- nicated to the Spanish captain nearly the same things, and in nearly the same words, which he had just before written in his letter from Newfoundland to the king of England.
The principal point on which they differ is the date. Her- rera, in his chronological history, speaks of his English vessel in a chapter in which he treats of events of the year 1519.
* Herrera mentions also Spanish vessels, which Rut does not.
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287
RUT'S EXPEDITION, 1527.
That he has misplaced this voyage under that year is evident from the following facts :
1. The perfect silence of all English authorities on a royal English expedition for a north-west passage in the year 1519.
2. The improbability that all the alleged circumstances should agree in two different expeditions.
3. The circumstance that Oviedo, a contemporary and an inhabitant of the West Indies, mentions the arrival of an En- glish vessel at Porto Rico in the year 1527, and does not speak of such an event in the year 1519.
It is possible that Herrera may have made a chronological mistake, and that he was not sure about the date of this event. But it is more probable, that he did not intend to give the date of 1519 to the incident which he has here related. In a chapter under the head of 1519, he considers and reviews. in a general way, the condition of the Spanish colonies, and merely adverts, by way of example, to this appearance of an English vessel, as one of several circumstances which had led to complaints and uneasiness on the part of Spain. In giving ,examples and instances, he thus refers to an event which oc- curred at a later period.
And last but not least, it must be observed, that the coun- try and river of "Chicora," which Herrera mentions under the head of the year 1519, did not become known to the Spaniards until after the subsequent expeditions of Ayllon in 1520-1526 .* In the year 1519, no Captain Navarro could speak with an English captain about " Chicora."
From all this it is perfectly clear, that the strange vessel which the Spanish Captain Navarro saw off Porto Rico was the " Mary of Guilford " in 1527, and that the English com- mander, with whom he had this conversation, was Master Rut. And hence it follows, that the oral communication
* See amongst others, Herrera, Dec. X, lib. 9, cap. 12.
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288
RUT'S EXPEDITION, 1527.
made by Master Rut to Captain Navarro regarding certain events of his expedition subsequent to its departure from Newfoundland, namely, the killing of the Italian pilot (Verra- zano ?) and the sail of the Mary of Guilford along the east coast of North America to "Chicora," must be regarded as a supplement to his written communication, made to Henry VIII. concerning the carlier events of his expedition.
Unfortunately, we do not certainly know whether any chart of the track of the " Mary of Guilford," and of the coasts reconnoitered by her, was drawn during this voyage. But as it was usual on these royal or official expeditions to draw charts of their routes, we may infer, that it was done in this instance ; and also from the fact that they had on board a " learned man," both a canon and a mathematician. Though it has not been preserved to us, it may have existed for some time in England, and have been used by later English map- makers.
This voyage of the Mary of Guilford, in 1527, was the last official enterprise of the English to our waters and coasts, until the expedition of Sir John Hawkins, in 1565.
The result of our examination of this expedition, so far as they relate to our special purpose, may be thus summed up :
The coast of the country of Norumbega was visited by an English vessel in 1527.
The Mary of Guilford not only came in sight of the coast of Maine, but she also " often times put her men on land to search the state of these unknown regions ;" * and it is the first occasion of which we are distinctly informed, that Englishmen actually landed on this coast.
It is not improbable, that it was on the occasion of this
* Hakluyt, ed. of 1589, p. 517.
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289
RUT'S EXPEDITION, 1527.
landing, that the celebrated French navigator, Verrazano, was killed by the Indians.
After Cabot, this was the second English expedition which sailed along the entire east coast of the United States, as far south as Carolina,-the country of Chicora.
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APPENDAGE TO CHAPTER VIII.
I. CHARTS FROM VERRAZANO.
1. ON MAP, NO. 13, OF NORTH AMERICA, MADE AFTER VERRA- ZANO'S CHART, BY MICHAEL LOK, IN 1582.
THE charts made by Verrazano of his voyage in 1524 are, as I have before mentioned, unfortunately lost. Hakluyt, however, in 1582, when he published his "Divers Voyages," says, "an olde excellent mappe, which Verrazano gave to king Henry VIII. existed still, and was then in the custodie of Master Michael Lok."*
This " Master Lok" (or Locke) was the son of Sir William Locke, an alderman of London, and was a merchant, who during his life had made many and great travels through nearly all the countries of Eu- rope and in the East, and had also been for some time consul at Aleppo for the company of merchants of Turkey. He is said by Haklnyt, " to have been a man of knowledge, worthie, and of good reputation." To his own misfortune he became a great promoter of the expeditions un- dertaken for finding a north-west passage, and particularly of the voy- ages of Martin Frobisher in 1576-1578.t
Being desirous of proving the possibility of a north-west passage. he composed with this view, probably for those who were interested in its discovery, a map of North America, on which he drew the coasts of terra firma so far as they had become known to him, and, where no country had been discovered, left open water.
Hakluyt affirms, that Lok made his map "according to Verrazano's plat ;" and he accordingly added it as an illustration to the report on Verrazano's voyage, published by him. In this we follow his example ; for though the map shows very few traces of Verrazano, still it is the only one known to us, which, according to good authority, pretends to have been taken partly at least from his charts. ;
* Hakluyt, Divers Voyages. Edited by J. Winter Jones, p. 11. London, 1850. t See the introduction of Mr. Jones to Hakluyt, Divers Voyages, p. xc. seq.
# M. R. Thomassy, however, says, that there exists in Rome still another old chart relating to Verrazano's voyage, among the collections of the Propagands. This
291
CHARTS OF MICHAEL LOK, 1582.
Hakluyt's " Divers Voyages," first published in 1582, had become very rare; and still rarer the map contained in it. There were not more than four copies of it known in 1850. In that year it was republished by the Hakluyt Society, and of this our map, No. 13, is a reduced copy.
The map has in the west the coast of California (Quiviri), beyond 44º N .; and on the coast of Florida the names, " River de May," etc., given by the French under Ribault. This could not have been taken from " Verrazano's plat," because it alludes to discoveries made a long time after his death. Much less could " Verrazano's plat " have served for the delineations given of the islands and straits in the high north: " Meta incognita," "Frobisher's Strait," etc.,-names relating to discov- eries in the time of Lok himself. The trending and configuration given to that part of the east coast of America, along which Verrazano had sailed, agrees also so little with the longitudes and distances given in Verrazano's report, that I find it difficult to believe, that our map is a copy from Verrazano's original survey. Master Lok probably took it from some one of the innumerable maps of his time, which was nearest at hand.
The coast of Maine is, however, easily recognized by the chain of islands ranged along it, in 43º N. Among those islands there is one bearing the name of Claudia, which Verrazano is erroneously stated to have given in honor of the mother of Francis I. The island, to which this name is supposed to have been given by Verrazano, lies on the south coast of New England, near Narraganset Bay. On our map and on many contemporary maps, it is located near the great river of Norum- bega (Penobscot Bay).
The name " Norumbega," which is prominently written on this map, was also conspicuous on all the maps in Lok's time. It was probably not taken from Verrazano's map. " Norumbega " (including here Nova Scotia and part of New England) is represented as a long island. The large strait which bounds it on the west, and runs from south to north,
chart, according to Thomassy, is a sea-chart representing a great part of the world. An inscription on it says, that it was made by Hieronymus Verrazano, probably a brother of the discoverer, Giovanni Verrazano, " five years after the voyage of the lat- ter," consequently in the year 1529. Unhappily, I have not been able, as yet, to pro- cure a copy of this chart. The notes of Thomassy give very little information of its contents or importance. See his article: " Les cartes géographiques et la carto- graphie du Vatican," in " Nouvelles Annales des voyages, tom. 3, p. 209 seq., 1853." [In the MIS. of Hakluyt, in the hands of the Maine Historical Society for publication, there is a reference to " a mightie large olde mappe in parchmente, made, as it shoulde wme, by Verrazanus, nowe in the custodie of Mr. Michael Locke;" and also to " an olde excellent globe in the Queene's privie gallory at Westm'r, w'ch also seemeth to be of Verrazauns makinge." (Cap. 17, §§ 10, 11.)-ED.]
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292
MAP OF BAPTISTA AGNESE, 1536.
from the Atlantic to the great St. Lawrence, is by some supposed to In. Hudson's river. And indeed this idea may have been suggested to Lok by Verrazano's chart. In looking into the broad mouth of Hudson River, from which he was unfortunately beaten back by a flaw of wind, Verrazano may have thought this to be an open passage. But he could not have thought it connected with the St. Lawrence River; for in 1524 he had no knowledge of that river. Besides, the river in question is too far east and north for the Hudson. Its connection with the St. Lawrence may be a mere invention of Master Lok. And other rivers and inlets of our coast, besides the Hudson, were supposed at that time to be branches or outlets of the St. Lawrence.
On the western coast of North America, a gulf is drawn, approaching from the great eastern ocean so near to the Atlantic, as to leave only an isthmus between them no wider than that of Panama, and thus di- viding North America into two great continents. Something like this delineation may have been seen by Master Lok on the chart of Verra- zano; as otherwise he would hardly have designated this gulf as he does on his map, by the inscription, " Mare de Verrazana, 1524."
The great merit of this map is the correct manner in which Fro- bisher's discoveries are laid down. On many subsequent maps they were widely misplaced, and led to serious geographical mistakes. But I do not propose to point them out in this place.
Whether Master Lok took from Verrazano's plat all these traditional and fabulous islands, " Sept Cités," " I. Brandan," "Emperada," etc., with which he has filled the Atlantic Ocean, it is impossible to tell. Per- haps his cosmographical wisdom and his antiquarian tastes, had in- spired him with a certain fondness for these old names. They had disappeared long before his time from all authentic and official French and Spanish maps, But they lingered for some time after in the maps compiled by learned geographers. Lok disposes of them very much after the manner of old Ortelius, in the year 1570.
2. ON MAP, No. 14, OF AMERICA, BY BAPTISTA AGNESE, 1536.
Baptista Agnese was an Italian cosmographer and map-maker of Venice, who is better known by his numerous works, than by the cir- cumstances of his life. He lived in the first half of the sixteenth cen- tury. He appears to have been settled at Venice, where he found a large circle of persons interested in the western discoveries of the Spaniards, Portuguese, French, and English. His works were pub- lished principally in Venice, between the years 1530 and 1545. He was no traveler or discoverer himself, but received his information from others. He is said " to have composed his maps for the curious."
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1
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From a map of the world made in the year 1536 by B.Aquele.
Litgrade delige de perif.
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a nage hø atlar
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MAP OF BAPTISTA AGNESE, 1536.
Though his cartographical works, as historical documents, are not of much importance, still we see reflected in them the ideas and con- iectures current in his time respecting the configuration of the new world.
Many of his maps are still preserved in several collections of Ger- many, France, Italy, and England. Some of them I have seen in Dresden, others in the library of the Duke of Gotha, some in Paris others in the British Museum; and there are others still in the excel- lent collection of Mr. Henry Huth of London, to whose extreme kind- ness I am indebted for photographs of such of them as appeared useful to our present purpose.
All these maps of Agnese are executed with great skill and taste, beautifully embellished with colors and gold, drawn upon the best of parchment, all in the same style and handwriting, and according to the same geographical ideas; so that even when the author's name is not given, as in some instances is the case, his works are easily recog- nized and identified.
The work, of which our No. 15 is a fragment, is a Portolano, or col- lection of sea-charts, which represents all the known coasts of the world upon ten plates. Upon nine of these plates the several coun- tries are depicted separately and minutely ; and upon the tenth, there is a resume of the whole, in a complete picture of the world. We give here, in a somewhat reduced compass, the western half of this picture.
The Portolano is preserved in the Royal Library at Dresden. In the catalogue of that library it is described as "a work of Baptista Agnese, made in the year 1536;" though neither the name nor the date were given to his atlas by Agnese himself. However, the statement of the catalogue is rendered quite certain from internal evidence. There is, moreover, in the British Museum, a similar parchment atlas (Manu- script Department, No. 5463), which has the following inscription, in the handwriting of the author, "Bapt. Agnese, Venetiis, 1536." Both works, which I have compared, have exactly the same configuration of the several parts of the world, the same embellishments; as, for in- stance, the same delineation, even as to figure and number, of the golden mountains in the central parts of South America.
At the time when this map was composed, the discovery of Magel- lan was recent; and still more recent, the discoveries of Pizarro along the coasts of Peru. The more southern parts of Peru and Chili were unknown. The great oceanic route through Magellan's Strait to the Moluccas, and the highway over the Isthmus of Panama to the golden country of the Incas, had, however, been frequently traversed; and they might, to a certain degree, be considered as beaten tracks. They
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294
MAP OF BAPTISTA AGNESE, 1536.
are pointed out on our map by clear and distinct lines, as well as that long-known highroad of the Portuguese to the East Indies round the Cape of Good Hope. On the original, the Peruvian track, called " el viago de Peru" (the way to Peru), is gilded; the routes through Ma- gellan's Strait, and round the Cape of Good Hope, are only silvered; which embellishments we have not attempted to reproduce in our copy. The road through Magellan's Strait is designated as the track for going (de andar) to the Moluccas ; that round the Cape of Good Hope, as the track for returning from them.
In North America, we find only Mexico and its vicinity represented as being known on both sides. The exploring expeditious of Cortes to California, and the charts made by his captains, could not have been known to our Italian author in the year 1536. They had but just commenced their exploration in these regions. On a map which was made a few years later,* the same author has laid down the Peninsula of California,-a proof that the geographers in Venice became soon ac- quainted with the new discoveries.
De Soto had not, as yet, discovered his great " River of the Holy Cross" (the Mississippi). And the discovery of another great river of North America (the St. Lawrence), which Cartier had partially ex- plored in 1534 and 1535, was evidently not known to our author in 1536. On the entire east coast of North America no great river had been no- ticed. HIence there was nothing to hinder the Italian geographers and map-makers, at the time of the composition of this map, from repre- senting North America as narrow and as meagre as they wished to have it. It was their opinion and wish, often expressed in their works, that on the west coast of America, from the termination of the voyage of Cortes on the Pacific coast of Mexico, the shore would turn quickly, and run in a north-eastern direction " to the point of Labrador," (alla punta di Labrador).
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Our author entertained this idea. and has represented the whole of North America as an extremely narrow strip of land, and the greater part of the western coast, by a dotted line; both evidently showing that his draft is a matter of conjecture. The countries surrounding the Gulf of Mexico, and also Labrador and the vicinity, called on our map by the old name, " terra de Baccalaos," were generally admitted to be broad tracts of country. But the section including New England and New York, was at that time generally regarded as the narrowest part of the continent.
On some former maps, as I have stated, this part of the country was depicted as an open space, with broad water between the north and
* A map dated 1544, preserved in the Royal Library of Dresden.
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295
MAP OF BAPTISTA AGNESE, 1536.'
south; because at that time, the statements of Cabot and the delinea- tions of Cosa's map of the continuity of the coast, were not believed. But in 1536, after the explorations of Verrazano and Gomez, this fact could no longer be denied. The broad water-gaps must, of course, have then disappeared; while many inlets and narrow passages, not seen by navigators, would still be believed in, and be entered upon their maps many years later.
The Western Ocean, the so-called Pacific, approaches, on our map, nearest to the Atlantic between 40° and 45º N. In 40º N. is depicted a hook-like promontory, projecting in a manner strikingly similar to the " C. arenas," (Cape Cod?) drawn on the map of Lok, after the " plat of Verrazano." Here lies a very narrow strip of land, somewhat like the Isthmus of Panama, running through five degrees of latitude. By this delineation, the section of the continent running due west of the present States of New England is very much contracted, and forms a very narrow isthmus between the Atlantic and Pacific. It was this imaginary isthmus which led Francis I. and his captain Ver- razano, to direct to this region the expedition of 1524 in search of a passage to Cathay. And although Verrazano was arrested by a con- tinuous coast, he did not give up the hope, that he might find an open- ing somewhere; at any rate, he was confident that the Western Ocean was quite near.
From Lok's copy of Verrazano's chart, on which these ideas were depicted, we conclude that such was, at this time, the prevailing opin- ion in France and Italy.
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