312 Evidence of French Discoveries of New York, etc. 



island, in the form of a triangle distant from the mainland three 

 leagues, about the bigness of the island of Khodes. It was full of 

 hills covered with trees, well peopled; for we saw fires all along the 

 coast. We gave the name of it of your majesty's mother (Claudia); 

 not staying there by reason of the weather being contrary. " It would 

 seem from this account that Verazzano sailed along the entire coast of 

 Long Island (as it is nearly fifty leagues in length), supposing it to be 

 the main land; and the island to which he gave the name of Claudia 

 was afterward called Block Island from its subsequent Dutch discov- 

 erer, Adrian Block. The astonishment of the Indians at the sight 

 of Hudson's ship, the Half Moon, eighty-five years after, and of him- 

 self in scarlet robes, showed that this visit had been forgotten. But 

 then the witnesses of the first European visit were long dead, and the 

 archives of the Indians made no revelations of these matters. 



There are those who have asserted doubts of the authenticity of this 

 letter. But there is no more reason to challenge the genuineness of 

 this, than of any other document of human history. The letter is 

 given in Hakluyt's voyages as any other historical document, entitled 

 to the same belief. Hakluyt, as an Englishman, was interested to sup- 

 press, but he was too honest to do so, the evidence of the French dis- 

 covery of New England; De Laet. the Dutch historian of the same 

 period, published in 1640 in a history of the world, this letter of Ver- 

 azzano, notwithstanding it was adverse to the title of his own nat ion to 

 New Netherlands. These facts are also given in the relations of the 

 Jesuits and of Voyageurs, and particularly by those of Champlain, 

 pp. 9 and 10, and of L'Escarbot, pp. 3 and 29. 



Now, after these remarkable discoveries what would naturally hap- 

 pen ? Would the French say to the English on the north : " Here is a 

 splendid land we have discovered, rich in harbors, rivers and natural 

 products; move down and occupy." Or to the Spaniards on the south : 

 "Move up and enjoy." Not very likely. Thev would natural lv do 

 just what they did. do. They would claim it as their own. Now" let 

 me direct your attention to a map called the Carte Figurative, in the 

 New York State Library. This map, Mr. Brodhead, the historian, says, 

 was presented to the States General by the Directors of the West 

 India Company in 1GU. This map contains a remarkable memoran- 

 dum written in the Dutch language, and. as Brodhead says, probably 

 by one of Hudson's companions on his first vovage of discovery up the 

 river in 1609. The translation of this memorandum is: "But as far 

 as one can understand from what the Mohawks say and show, the 

 French come with sloops as high up as to their country to trade with 



