1528, THE LAST VOYAGE

Between 1526 and 1527 Verrazzano led an expedition in the direction of Brazil, in search of the famous passage to the East.

In March 1528, Verrazzano set forth from Dieppe on his final voyage, again seeking the passage to India. The expedition, which numbered Giovanni’s brother Girolamo, cartographer, amongst the participants, sailed along the coast of Florida and then entered into the Caribbean Sea. While sailing in the direction of the Gulf of Darien, the crew noted what seemed to be an uninhabited island covered with luxuriant vegetation, so Verrazzano landed on the island with six members of his crew to explore it. They were promptly attacked by a throng of natives who killed them, cut them to pieces and devoured them all, in full view of his terrified brother, who was unable to help in any way. On his return Girolamo recounted this story to Paolo Giovio and his nephew and assistant Giulio, who added this episode to his epic poem about the explorers and colonisers of America:

"By rude people they were suddenly taken / they attacked them / and killed them and laid them on the ground / They were cut in pieces to the bone / and by them they were eaten and in that country / was Verrazzano’s brother and / he saw the soil red with his brother’s blood / And being on the ship he could not give assistance / he saw all this and then in Rome / where he came one day, crying / he narrated this crude story to us."

This was the tragic end to the life of the man whose discoveries permitted the world to learn about the Atlantic coast of America and who represented it in maps drawn in the 15th Century.