First To Land In
North Carolina
Al last, a historic marker i'or Vorrnz-
zano, who arrivc*«l 61 years before Sir
Waillcr llalri^li* explorers.
«I/
gi:okoi: e. m»do\
In his remarks ai the dedication of the
Verrazzano marker George London
also noted the role of Virginia Pint
Dough ton. of Raleigh and Morehcad
City, in having this and
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other mar¬
kers placed in the Carteret area. (The
others recognized the old Atlantic Hotel
in Morehcad City and. at Marshall -
burg. Fort Hancock — built by the
French on Shackleford Hanks during the
American Revolution. I George London
is past president of the North Carolina
Art Society and numerous organizations
in the Raleigh area. — Ei>.
Who was ihis Verrazzano and when
and why was he here? Don’t feel had if
you never heard of him because many
early North Carolina historians such as
Wheeler. Ashe, Moore don’t mention
him tho more recent ones such as Con¬
ner. Powell, and H. G. Jones do.
Giovanni Da Verrazzano was born
near Florence. Italy about 1480 into a
very prominent Italian family. After
receiving an excellent upper-class
Renaissance education, he removed to
France to pursue a maritime career. In
the early part of the next century he was
employed by the French as a privateer
to raid Spanish ships, a privateer being
apparently a legal pirate backed by the
government, and once he was credited
with capturing a ship with
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million
dollars of Montezuma's treasure being
sent back by Cortez to the Spanish King
Charles V
A Commercial Venture
By 1524 he is described as a gentle¬
man navigator, thoroughly professional
with an impeccable maritime record.
And in January of that year under the
banner of Francis the 1st. King of
France, he embarked on his most fa¬
mous voyage. This time not as a raider
but as an explorer to find a short cut to
the Far Fast where the spices and silks
were. He borrowed a ship of the royal
French navy named La Dauphine for
14
the King’s young son and heir. How¬
ever. the expedition was largely
financed by the bankers and merchants
of Lyons, the center of the French silk
industry. Most of the investors in this
syndicate were members of the Floren¬
tine colony in Lyons and some were kin
to both Verrazzano and his well con¬
nected wife.
For some 16 centuries since the days
of overland camel caravans, solutions
had been sought in vain to the problem
of transporting to the west the silks and
spices of China and India. I might add
that the value and importance of both
silk and spices throughout the world
then cannot be over estimated as the
spices were necessary to preserve food
and to enhance the flavor, and silk was
an expensive luxury for royalty, nobil¬
ity. and the very rich.
So this was purely a commercial ven¬
ture with unlimited potential for high
profit should a shorter route to the East
be discovered.
The I .and Fall
The expedition's first land fall in
early March was in the Cape Fear area,
and then after cruising up and dmvn the
coast for a few weeks they headed
north, where on March 25. 1524. they
dropped anchor off the coast w here we
are now. The question has naturally
arisen as to how we can be sure that this
is where they came in and the answer
is that in Verra/zano’s report to the King
of France he describes it as where the
land "trends toward the east” — and the
only such location fitting that descrip¬
tion is Boguc Banks. Carteret County.
North Carolina.
The leader himself never landed,
their main interest being to replenish
their water supply, and the only boat
that tried failed to make it through the
heavy surf. However, one of the sailors
managed to sw im ashore where he dis¬
tributed small gifts to the natives, who
treated him with much friendliness and
kindness and awe - he being the first
Giovanni Oa Verrazzano. ol whom ihe new marker
says: Florentine sailing under French flag. His voy-
ago along the coast In 1524 marked the first re¬
corded European contact with North Carolina." (Il¬
lustration from "The European Oiscovery of
America" by Samuel Eliot Monson.)
European they had ever seen. Thus we
might say began the long tradition of
East Carolina hospitality to strangers!
These natives were called Indians er¬
roneously. just as Columbus had in
1492. because like him they thought
they were near the shores of India. The
people seen were described as dark
skinned "with the flesh very shining, of
mean stature, handsome visage, and
delicate limbs, and of very little
strength, but of prompt wit." And Ver-
razzano's report at the end of the voy¬
age further records ". . . These people
go altogether naked exeept that they
cover their privy parts with certain
skins of beasts like unto martens, which
they fasten onto a narrow girdle made
of grass, very artfully wrought, hanged
about with tails of divers other beasts
which round about their bodies hang
dangling down to their knees."
Annunziata and Arcadia
This spot Verrazzano named Annun¬
ziata because the day was March 25. the
Feast of the Annunciation of the Virgin.
As the expedition sailed north look¬
ing unsuccessfully for a safe haven, they
could sec our sounds beyond the Outer
Banks which they mistakenly assumed
was the long-sought Pacific Ocean.
Though it was 3.000 miles away, the Pa¬
cific did lap our western shores accord¬
ing to the boundaries in the charter
given to the Lords Proprietors by
Charles II in 1663.
THE STATE. SEPTEMBER 1986
