From a letter of Annibal Caro, quoted by
Tiraboschi, an author of undoubted reputation, in the Storie della
Literature Italiana, Vol.
VII. part I. pp. 261, 462, it is proved that
Verazzani was living in 1537, a year after the pantomime at Ste. Croix!
While on the subject of the Canon de Bronze it may be noted that
Charlevoix mentions also a tradition, that Jacques Cartier himself was
shipwrecked at the mouth of the river called by his name, with the loss of
one of his vessels. From this it has been supposed that the Canon de
Bronze was lost on that occasion; and an erroneous inscription to that
effect has been engraved upon it. In the first place the cannon was not
found at the mouth of the River Jacques Cartier, but opposite the Parish
of Champlain; in the next, no shipwreck was ever suffered by Jacques
Cartier, who wintered in fact at the mouth of the little river St.
Charles. The tradition as to his shipwreck, and to the loss of one of his
vessels, most probably arose from the well known circumstance of his
having returned to France with two ships, instead of three, with which he
left St. Malo. Having lost so many men by scurvy during his first winter
in Canada, he was under the necessity of abandoning one of them, which lay
in the harbour of Ste. Croix. The people of Champlain having possessed
themselves of the old iron to be found on the vessel, it of course soon
fell to pieces, and in process of time arose the tradition that Jacques
Cartier had been shipwrecked.
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