Giovanni da Verrazzano

Giovanni da Verrazzano was an Italian who sailed in the service of France in 1524. Verrazzano's voyage was largely backed by Florentine merchants and bankers in France, and its stated goal was to reach Asia by finding a northern strait through the Americas. Of course, no such strait existed, but in his search Verrazzano ended up charting the coast of North America from approximately South Carolina to Nova Scotia. He landed several times to explore the New World and meet its inhabitants.

In the following account, taken from a report written to King Francis I, Verrazzano, unlike many other explorers, acknowledges that any certain knowledge of the natives he encountered is impossible because of language barriers. While he does not fully recognize their humanity, he does observe that each group he meets is...