Ramusio here distinctly asserts that the only document in relation to the voyage of Verrazzano which he had been able to procure, was the letter which he published; but he informs his readers that he had been told by certain persons who had known and conversed with Verrazzano, that it was the intention of the navigator, as he himself declared, to seek permission from Francis I, his adopted sovereign, in whose service it is claimed he made the discovery, to make another voyage to the new found land for the purposes of colonization and further exploration; and he also states, upon the same or other authority, that Verrazzano on another voyage was killed and eaten, by the natives of the country.  Consequently, Verrazzano must have made a second voyage to America and obtained such permission from the king.  But there is not a particle of evidence in existence, apart from the declarations of these persons to Ramusio, that any such permission was ever given, or that a second voyage took place.  It proved the credulity of Ramusio that he received these naked statements without any examination.] with the suggestion of Coronelli, the Venetian geographer, that the place where he thus met his death was at the entrance of the gulf of St. Lawrence, The spurious letter of Carli adds that he had been in Egypt, Syria and most other parts of the world.  The ancient manuscripts of Dieppe, as we have seen, [Footnote:  Ante, p. 112, note] speak of one of his name who accompanied Aubert, in his voyage to Newfoundland, in 1508; and the statement of Hakluyt before referred to, gives some ground to believe that he was employed in early voyages to that region, before he engaged in his operations against the commerce of Spain.

What is certainly known of him relates almost exclusively to his career as a French corsair, during the few years which intervened between the breaking out of hostilities between Francis I and Charles V, and his death, in 1527.  His cruises, though directed principally against the Spaniards, were not tender of the interests of Portugal; and it is accordingly from Spanish and Portuguese writers and documents of the period, that the little information that exists in relation to him, is derived.  He is called by the former, Juan Florin or Florentin, or simply, the Florentine,—­the French corsair.  He is designated on an occasion to be noted, as Juan Florin of Dieppe. [Footnote:  On the capture of the treasure fleet.  See Appendix, iv.] They appear to have known him by no other name.  They never heard of him as a discoverer, real or pretended, of new countries, until long afterwards.  The Verrazzano letter had not been published when Peter Martyr, Oviedo and Gomara wrote; and when Martyr and Gomara make mention of him, they do so only by the title by which he was designated by the Spanish sailors.  There was, therefore, no opportunity for his identification by them in the double character of a great discoverer, and a corsair; and it was not until many years after the publication of the Verrazzano letter that this identification was first declared by Barcio [Footnote:  Ensayo Chronologico, sub anno, 1524.].