g Frobisher and Davis, who
entered Hudson's Strait before Hudson's time.

Verrazano was an Italian, sailing in the French service. Gomez was
a Portuguese, sailing in the Spanish service. Both sought a
westerly way to the Indies, and both sought it in the same
year--1524. Verrazano has left a report of his voyage, written
immediately upon his return to France; and with it a vaguely drawn
chart of the coasts which he explored. (It is my duty to add that
certain zealous historians have denounced his report as a forgery,
and his chart as a "fake"--a matter so much too large for
discussion here that I content myself with expressing the opinion
that these charges have not been sustained.) Gomez has left no
report of his voyage, but a partial account of it may be pieced
together from the maritime chronicles of his time. He also charted,
with an approximate accuracy, the lands which he coasted; and while
his chart has not been preserved in its original shape, there is
good reason for believing that we have it embodied in the
planisphere drawn by Juan Ribero, geographer to Charles V., in the
year 1529. On that planisphere the seaboard of the present states
of Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and Rhode Island is called "the
land of Estevan Gomez."

Lacking the full report that Gomez presumably made of his voyage,
and lacking the original of his chart, it is impossible to decide
whether he did or did not pass through the Narrows and enter the
Upper Bay. Doctor Asher holds that he did make that passage; and
adds: "It is certain that the later Spanish seamen who followed in
his track in after years were familiar with the [Hudson] river, and
called it the Rio de Gamas." In support of this strong assertion he
cites the still-extant "Rutters," or "Routiers," of the period--the
ocean guide-books showing the distances from place to place,
marking convenient stations for watering and refitting, and
describing the entrances to rivers and to harbors--"from which we
learn," he declares, "that the Rio de Gamas, the name then
regularly applied to the Hudson on the charts of the time, was one
of these stages between New Foundland and the colonies of Central
America."[1]

[Footnote 1: Asher mentions, in this connection, that
"Nantucket Island also figures in some of these rutters under
the name of the island of Juan Luis, or Juan Fernandez, and is
recommended as a most convenient stage for those who, coming
from Europe, wish to pr