PRELIMINARY NOTICE BY THE TRANSLATOR.

The following paper is a new translation of the letter written by Verazzano on his return from his first voyage to the western continent, giving an account of his discoveries to Francis I of France, by whose orders he had undertaken it. It is made from a copy of the original manuscript in the Magliabecchian Library at Florence, which was presented to the New York Historical Society by G. W. Greene, Esq., now Consul of the United States at Rome. A translation of part of the same letter is printed in the first volume of the Society's ‘Collections’, which was taken from Hakluyt,1 who followed the original as given by Ramusio; but as that varies in substance, in some few instances, from the Magliabecchian; and as Hakluyt's translation is throughout obscure and antiquated in language, it seems requisite to publish the one which has been made from the Society's copy. This letter is in itself highly interesting and important; and is rendered still more so from the fact of its being the earliest original account in existence of the Atlantic coast of the United States, nearly the whole extent of which was visited by Verazzano during the voyage described in it.