Verrazzano Charts the North American Coast

1524

The Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, sailing under French colors, traced the coastline from the Carolinas to Newfoundland and became the first European to enter New York harbor. He returned convinced, wrongly, that a vast western sea lapped just beyond the Carolina Outer Banks. His letter to Francis I described encounters with the Narragansett and the natural harbor of New York, providing France its first coastal intelligence.