lovuian wrote:
So hear me out Tank on this
we have John Cabot landing in
On a second voyage Cabot again used only one ship with 18 crew, the Matthew, a small ship (50 tons), but fast and able. He departed on either May 2 or May 20, 1497 and sailed to Dursey Head (latitude 51°36N), Ireland. He landed on the coast of Newfoundland on June 24, 1497. His precise landing-place is a matter of controversy, with Bonavista or St. John's in Newfoundland, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Labrador, or Maine all being possibilities. Cape Bonavista, however, is the location recognised by the governments of Canada and the United Kingdom as being Cabot's official landing. His men may have been the first Europeans to set foot on the North American mainland since the Vikings. On the homeward voyage his sailors incorrectly thought they were going too far north, so Cabot sailed a more southerly course, reaching Brittany instead of England, and on August 6 arrived back in Bristol
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Cabotothen there was
Giovanni da Verrazzano in 1524.
two Italians and yet it turns up to be New Scotland
but the first to settle it was the French
In 1604, French colonists established the first permanent European settlement north of Florida at Port Royal, founding what would become known as Acadia.
and why is it called of all things Acadia
The origin of the designation Acadia is credited to the explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano, who on his sixteenth century map applied the ancient Greek name "Arcadia" to the entire Atlantic coast north of Virginia (note the inclusion of the 'r' of the original Greek name). "Arcadia" is a the name of a district in Greece which since classical antiquity has also had the extended meanings of "refuge" or "idyllic place". The Dictionary of Canadian Biography says: "Arcadia, the name Verrazzano gave to Maryland or Virginia 'on account of the beauty of the trees,' made its first cartographical appearance in the 1548 Gastaldo map and is the only name on that map to survive in Canadian usage. . . . In the 17th century Champlain fixed its present orthography, with the 'r' omitted, and Ganong has shown its gradual progress northwards, in a succession of maps, to its resting place in the Atlantic Provinces."
lovuian,
The first European Crown to possess Nova Scotia was Portugal via the 1494 Treaty of Tordesillas. It would appear by all accounts for the Spanish to have been satisfied will all lands south of the Penobscot River of Maine. The Spanish did not infringe upon the northern area of Portuguese control as it would have jeopardized the benefits gained by Spain under said Treaty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Tordesillas
Prior to Verrazano the coast from modern day Florida to the Penobscot River of Maine was known as Flora, and north of this, Terra de Cortes Real. Around the time of Verrazano the Spanish renamed the area between Florida to Massachusetts as Tiera de Allyon and between Tierra de Allyon and Terra de Cortes Real as Tierra de Estava Gomez. This is well drawn on the 1529 Ribero map.
The first Europeans who attempted to settle the general area were the Portuguese from the Azores.
João Álvares Fagundes in 1521...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jo%C3%A3o_ ... s_Fagundes
and the family of Pineheiro de Barcelos at some point after 1508, but most certainly prior to 1532. The links to those documents have been previously provided in this forum.
The efforts of Champlain were not the first attempts by the French to colonize North America and Verrazano did not give the name of Arcadia as alternative history authors would have you think. While the name L'Arcadia does appear on maps, those maps are not of French origins and not from the time of Verrazano.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_col ... e_Americas
Several Canadian place names seen on the Gastaldo/Gastaldi of 1548 are still in use to this very day. Cape Breton, Cape Race, Bonivista, and Labrador are four.
http://www.helmink.com/Antique_Map_Gastaldi_Terra_Nova/
The name L'Arcadia appears to give way to Norumbega as one approaches the 1590s, especially in French maps; however, the Italian copy houses still like to use L'Arcadia as a smaller area within Norumbega. Ruscalli 1561 to Metellus 1597 are prime examples of Italian work. The Nicholas Vallard map of 1547 is without the L’Arcadia/ Acadia place name and considering he was a Dieppe cartographer, this exclusion appears as very suspicious.
Examine folio f9
http://dpg.lib.berkeley.edu/webdb/dsheh ... mber=HM+29
The authenticity of Verrazzano’s narrative and even trip has been in great doubt for well over 150 years.
http://books.google.ca/books?id=97IUAAA ... #PPA131,M1
Unfortunately the cottage industry of speculative alternative history has had some influence in the past 30 or so years and for which Oak Island has not been immune. Stepping away from the paperback fiction shows many assertions and supposed links to the area’s early European history are without merit.