Verrazzano set out in 1524 toward what he, like Columbus, thought
was Asia. He hit the North American continent far to the north of where
Columbus landed, at about Cape Fear in what is today North Carolina.
Although at first he found no place to land, the fires he observed convinced
him that the land was filled with “Chinese.” Seeking a port or safe inlet, he
turned south for about a day’s sail and, then, still finding no suitable har-
bor, he doubled back to the north. Somewhere along the coast, probably in
what is now Virginia, he did find a place to land. There, he convinced him-
self that the people he saw were indeed Chinese.
These “Chinese” were curious rather than hostile. As far as we know,
they had had no previous contact with Europeans: Ponce de León, who
had discovered Florida in 1513, had not traveled that far north, and the
ravages of de Soto would not begin for another fifteen years. Verrazzano
wisely did little more than observe. He had been sent only to gather infor-
mation.
The information he wanted, how to find the supposed passage to the
Pacific, the natives could not tell him. So he continued close along the coast
to the north, where he found what he took to be the entrance to the grand
passage. What he saw was probably Chesapeake Bay. (He does not mention
the word, but the Indians later told the Spaniards that they called it Jacán.)
Still farther north, he found a waterway later known as the Narrows “in the
midst of which flowed to the sea a very great river, which was deep within
the mouth.” That, we assume, was the Hudson. Again he found the natives
to be friendly. Apparently seeing the visit as a supernatural event, they
turned out in a grand festival, “clothed with the feathers of birds of various
colors...to see us.”
Quite a sight it must have been, but Verrazzano was not to be delayed. He
feared the advent of stormy weather. Pushing on north, he paused at another
bay where the Narragansett people—perhaps reacting to earlier visits by fish-
ermen—were less welcoming; continuing, he rounded Cape Cod, where
European fishermen almost certainly had been. The farther north he got, the
less hospitable the Indians became. Their acquaintance with Europeans had
led to aversion: the more the natives knew of Europeans, the less they wanted
to see any. On the Massachusetts coast, the Native Americans were actively
hostile. While they were willing to trade, they wanted no contact. Gathering on
56 THE BIRTH OF AMERICA