But the question of any such voyage of discovery having been made at the time claimed in the Verrazzano letter is effectually set at rest by the fact that Verrazzano was then actually engaged in a corsairial enterprise elsewhere.  Peter Martyr, in an epistle written on the 3d of August 1524, less than a month after the alleged return of Verrazzano to Dieppe from his voyage of discovery, wrote from Valladolid that “a courier of the king of Portugal had arrived (with word) that Florin, the French pirate, had captured a ship of his king on her way from the Indies, with a cargo valued at one hundred and eighty thousand ducats.” [Footnote:  Epist. 800 (ed. 1670).] It is impossible for Verrazzano to have been on the coast of North America, or on his return from Newfoundland to France, and at the same time to have taken a ship on her way from the Indies to Portugal, coming as she must have done, by the Cape of Good Hope.

The defeat of Francis I at the battle of Pavia and his capture and detention in Spain during the year 1525, seem to have suspended the depredations upon the seas by the French, and nothing more occurs relating to Verrazzano, until after the release of the king, in the following year, and then in an adventure which seems to have cost him his life, unless his probable appearance in England as mentioned by Hakluyt, to which reference has already been made, be an exception.  Allusion has also been made several times to an agreement between Chabot, admiral of France, and others, including Verrazzano, which now assumes particular importance.  It is the only document yet produced in France, relating to him, and is of recent discovery. [Footnote:  Margry, Les Navigations Francaises, p.194 (Paris, 167.) See Appendix (II)] By this agreement it was stipulated that Chabot, as admiral of France, should furnish two galleons, Jean Ango one ship, and Verrazzano two pilots besides himself, and that the three persons here named should with Guillaume Preudhomme, general of Normandy, Pierre Despinolles and Jacques Boursier, in different specified amounts each, make up the sum of twenty thousand pounds in Tours currency for the expenses, on joint account, of a voyage to the Indies for spices,—­the admiral and Ango, however, to have one-fourth of all the merchandise returned, for the use of the vessels, and Verrazzano to have one-sixth of the remaining three-fourths, for his compensation and that of his two pilots.  The contract contained another provision, that if any booty should be taken on the sea from the Moors, or other enemies of the faith and the king, the admiral should first take a tenth of it and the remainder should be divided as stipulated in regard to the merchandise, except such part as should, upon advisement, be given to the crew.  The admiral was to have letters patent expedited from the king for permission to make the voyage.  This paper has no date, but as it was made by Chabot, in his official capacity, as admiral of France, it could not have been earlier than March 1526, when, as we have seen, he was so created.  It belongs, therefore, either to that or the following year, judging from the fatal consequences which happened to Verrazzano in the latter.