Giovanni
da Verrazano (also spelled Verrazzano and Verazano) may or may not have made
landfall in Pine Knoll Shores, but a letter he wrote to King Francis I of France,
dated July 8, 1524, indicates that Verrazano did sail along our coast. North
Carolina Department of Cultural Resources highway marker ID: C-59, on the
corner of Highway 58 and Pine Knoll Boulevard, honors his passage.
Francis
I along with Italian merchants and French bankers sponsored Verrazano’s
navigational venture to find a northwest passage to Asia. Several years earlier,
Christopher Columbus and Ponce de Leon, both sailing in a similar search under
the Spanish flag, had made famous landings in North America.
National
Humanities Center[i]
In his letter to the French King, Verrazano described campfires along the coast. When he and his crew first came ashore, he marveled at what he saw:
The
seashore is completely covered with fine sand XV feet deep, which arises in the forms of small hills
about fifty paces wide. After climbing farther, we found other streams and
inlets from the sea, which come in by several mouths, and follow the ins and
outs of the shoreline. Nearby we could see a stretch of country much higher
than the sandy shore, with many beautiful fields and plains full of great
forests, some sparse and some dense; and the trees have so many colors, and are
so beautiful and delightful that they defy description. [ii]
Was he
down by the mouth of the Cape Fear River or right here along the shores of
Bogue Banks?
Verrazano
also described a native population he and his crew encountered:
They go completely naked except that around their loins they wear skins of small animals like martens, with a narrow belt of grass around the body, to which they tie various tails of other animals, which hang down to the knees; the rest of the body is bare, and so is the head. Some of them wear garlands of birds’ feathers. They are dark in color, not unlike the Ethiopians, with thick black hair, not very long, tied back behind the head like a small tail. As for the physique of these men, they are well proportioned, of medium height, a little taller than we are. They have broad chests, strong arms, and the legs and other parts of the body are well composed. There is nothing else, except that they tend to be rather broad in the face: but not all, for we saw many with angular faces. They have big black eyes, and an attentive and open look.[iii]
Are these
early residents of Pine Knoll Shores?
A portion of the
letter showing Verrazano’s handwriting.
National Humanities Center
In the
translation used to support the highway marker, Verrazano is quoted as saying, “We departed this place still running
along the coast, which we found to trend toward the east.” And, “In defense of the Pine
Knoll Shores site in Carteret it is pointed out that the geographical landmass
on Bogue Banks is the only spot along the explorer’s route where the land
‘trend[s]’ toward the east.” [iv]
This
said, “The text of the marker was crafted to avoid making a claim for any one
location.”[v] It simply identifies Verrazano and his
achievement: “Florentine sailing under French flag. His voyage along the coast
in 1524 marked the first recorded European contact with North Carolina.”
Screenshot of 1582 Map and NASA Satellite
Shot of Pamlico Sound
Michael
Lok, Illustri
Viro, 1582, depicting
the “Mare de Verrazana”
National
Humanities Center
In fact, the remainder of his voyage was to take him up the coast all the way to Newfoundland. He made important stops along the way. The following map shows how he saw New York Harbor:
 |
| National Humanities Center |
Statue in Battery Park [vi]
Giovanni
da Verrazano was born in Tuscany near Florence, where he received a good
education. He lived in Dieppe, France, as a young man and entered the French
maritime service, making several voyages for France to Turkey, Syria and
Lebanon. After his failed attempt to find a northwest passage to Asia by
crossing the ocean and traveling along our coast, he made another voyage in
1527 to the West Indies and the coast of South America, where, it is believed, natives
in the Lesser Antilles killed him.
 |
| National Humanities Center |
Giovanni
da Verrazano is not as well known as other explorers who came to the coast of
North America. But, thanks to a historic marker, we remember him here in Pine
Knoll Shores. We also appreciate his descriptions of the natural beauty he saw
and the natives he encountered when he first came ashore.
Post Authors: Barbara Milhaven and Phyllis
Makuck
Phyllis
Makuck modified Barbara Milhaven’s original article, which appeared in The Shoreline.
To contact the authors or the History Committee
Excerpted and images added
by the National Humanities Center, 2006, www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/pds/pds.htm.
Translated from the Italian by Susan Tarrow; in Lawrence C. Wroth, ed., The Voyages of Giovanni
da Verrazzano, 1524-1528 (New
Haven: Published for The Pierpont Morgan Library by Yale University Press,
1970). Reproduced by permission. Some paragraphing added by NHC. Full text
(translation by Joseph Cogswell) in American Journeys: Eyewitness Accounts of
Early American Exploration and Settlement (Wisconsin Historical Society) at
www.americanjourneys.org/aj-094/. Complete image credits at
www.nhc.rtp.nc.us/pds/amerbegin/ imagecredits.htm.
[iv]
North Carolina Department of Natural Resources, NC Highway Marker Program. www.ncmarkers.com/
[v]
North Carolina Department of Natural Resources, NC Highway Marker Program. www.ncmarkers.com/
[vi] Fazl Shaikh February 11, 2008. Posted on Wikispaces.
[vi] Fazl Shaikh February 11, 2008. Posted on Wikispaces.