Verrazano, Giovanni Da
1485
Tuscany, Italy
1528
Guadeloupe, West Indies
Italian explorer, first European to sight eastern North America
" . . . we reached a new country, which had never before been seen by any one, either in ancient or modern times. . . . "
Giovanni da Verrazano.
Giovanni da Verrazano (also Verrazzano) was an Italian explorer commissioned by the king of France to chart the eastern coast of North America, from Florida to Newfoundland. His main goal was to find a passage to Asia via the Pacific Ocean. Although Verrazano did not fulfill this mission, in 1524 he became the first European to sight New York Harbor as well as Narragansett Bay and other points along the northeastern Atlantic shore. Verrazano did not start any permanent settlements, yet he opened the way for Europeans who came to America in the early seventeenth century. For example, in 1624 the Dutch West India Company established New Amsterdam around New York Harbor and on Manhattan Island (see Peter Stuyvesant entry), and in 1636 English religious dissenter Roger Williams (see entry) founded Rhode Island on the mainland off Narragansett Bay. Verrazano also gave one of the earliest existing accounts of Native American life in North America.
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