Giovanni da Verrazzano (often spelled Verrazano; 1485-1528) was an Italian explorer of North America, in the service of the French crown. He is renowned as the first European since the Norse colonization of the Americas around AD 1000 to explore the Atlantic coast of North America between South and North Carolina and Newfoundland, including New York Harbor and Narragansett Bay in 1524.

Origins and voyages to America

Verrazano was born at his ancestral home in Val di Greve, south of Florence. Although he left a detailed account of his voyages to North America, little is known about his life. After 1506, he settled in Dieppe, in France, where he began his career as a navigator; probably in 1508, in the company of captain Thomas Aubert, he embarked for the American coast on a ship called La Pensée, equipped by the shipowner Jean Ango. He explored, possibly during a fishing trip, the region of Newfoundland and the mouth of the St. Lawrence River in Canada and made numerous voyages to the eastern Mediterranean Sea. In 1523, he was invited by King Francis I of France to explore an area between Florida and Terranova, in order to find a sea route through the newly-found Americas to the Pacific Ocean.

With his ship, La Dauphine, piloted by Antoine de Conflans, he neared the area of Cape Fear on about March 1, 1524 and, after a short stay, he explored the coast further northwards, reaching modern North Carolina and the Pamlico Sound lagoon. In a letter to Francis I, he wrote that he was convinced the latter was the beginning of the Pacific Ocean, from which an access could be gained to China. This report caused one of many errors in the depiction of North America in contemporary maps. The continent would not be fully mapped until almost the 20th century.

He also came into contact with Native Americans living on the coast. During the northward voyage, he did not notice the entrances to the Chesapeake Bay or the Delaware River. In New York Bay, he encountered Lenape and observed what he deemed to be a large lake, which was in fact the entrance to the Hudson River. He then passed by Long Island and entered Narragansett Bay where he received a delegation of Wampanoag. He stayed there for two weeks, and then moved northwards, following the coast up to modern Maine, southeastern Nova Scotia and Newfoundland, after which he returned to France by 8 July 1524.
Verrazzano named the region he explored Francesca in honor of the French king, but his brother's map labels it Nova Gallia.

Verrazzano arranged a second voyage with financial support from Jean Ango and Philippe de Chabot which
departed from Dieppe with four ships in spring 1527. One ship was separated from the others in a gale near the
Cape Verde islands, but Verrazzano reached the coast of Brazil with two ships and harvested a cargo of brazilwood
before returning to Dieppe in September. The third ship with a cargo of brazilwood also returned later.

This partial success, although it did not find the desired passage to the Pacific Ocean, inspired Verrazzano's final voyage
which departed Dieppe in the spring of 1528.

Death

In 1528, during his third voyage to North America, after exploring Florida, The Bahamas, and the Lesser Antilles, Verrazzano anchored away from shore and rowed ashore, probably on the island of Guadeloupe. He was killed and eaten by the native Carib inhabitants.. The fleet of two or three ships were anchored out of gunshot range and no one could respond in time.

Reputation

Despite his discoveries, his reputation did not endure and proliferate as much as other explorers of that era. As a prime example, in accordance with the practices of the time, Verrazzano gave a European name to the new land he had seen, Francesa, after the French king he had been appointed by. This and other names he bestowed on features he discovered have not survived. He had the bad luck of making major discoveries within a few years of both the dramatic Conquest of Mexico and Ferdinand Magellan's circumnavigation of the world — which Magellan, ironically, did not complete, but which nevertheless brought him undying fame. (Both of these events occurred in the same three-year period, 1519 to 1521.)

In the 19th and early 20th centuries there was a great debate in the United States about the authenticity of the letters he wrote to Francis I describing the geography, flora, fauna and native population of the east coast of North America. Others thought it was true, and it is almost universally accepted as authentic today, particularly after the discovery of the letter signed by Francis I which referred to Verrazzano's letter.

Verrazzano's reputation was particularly obscure in New York City, where the 1609 voyage of Henry Hudson came to be regarded as the de facto start of the European exploration of New York, since he sailed for the Dutch, not the French. It was only with great effort in the 1950s and 1960s that Verrazzano's name and reputation as the European discoverer of the harbour was re-established, during an effort to have the newly built Narrows bridge named after him. See Naming controversy of the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge. A Staten Island ferryboat that served New York from the 1950s to the 1990s was also named for him (oddly, the ferry was named the "Verrazzano", while the bridge, another Staten Island landmark, was named "Verrazano", indicating the ongoing confusion over the spelling of his name). There are numerous other commemorations on Staten Island itself to the explorer. A Little League is named for him, reflecting not only his connection to Staten Island, but also the large number of descendants of Italians who live there. In Narragansett Bay, the Jamestown Verrazzano Bridge is also named for him, as is Maryland's Verrazano Bridge.