678 H. p. Biggar third and last he gives a description of the manners and customs of the savages of the New World. ' After stating what he proposed to do in Chapter I. and prov- ing to his satisfaction in Chapters II. and III. that the Gauls, being descended from Noah, had always been great navigators, - and that they or other Europeans were the ancestors of the American In- dians, he begins his account of the French expeditions to the New World in Chapter IV. with that of Verrazano. He does not go into this very fully however but contents himself with merely copying the account given by Belleforest. ' He appears however to have seen Ramusio, for he gives the same account of Verrazano's death as that given by the latter. * His account of the expeditions of Ribaut, Laudonniere and Gourgues which occupies Chapters V. to XX. is taken from a work published at Paris in the year 1586 under the title oi L Histoire Notable dc la Floride situce es hides Occidentales contcnant les trois voyages fails en icelle par certains Capitaines et Pilotes frangois, de- scrits par le Capitaine Laudonniere, qui y a commande I'espace d'lin an trois nioys; a laquelle a estc adjouste iin quatriesme voyage fait par le Capitaine Gourgues. This work had been published by the efforts of a French mathematician named Basanier and of the English col- lector of voyages Hakluj-t."^ It is strange however that no one has hitherto pointed out that the "tomb " in which the manuscript had been lying was Thevet's, the Cordelier's, cell.'^ Lescarbot, who 1 Ibid., p. 25. " Ce que je feray, Dieu aydant, en trois livres, au premier desquels sera decrit ce qui avoisine les deux Tropiques, au deuxieme ce qui est depuis le quaran- tieme degre jusques au cinquantieme et au troisieme les nioeurs, facons et coutumes des peuples desquels nous avons a parler." 2 In proof of this Lescarbot cites the "Equivoques" of Xenophon. No such work ever existed. He drew his information from a volume of forged fragments pub- lished by Annius of Viterbo (Giovanni Nanni) at the close of the fifteenth century. In the edition printed by Ascensius at Paris in 1512 under the title of Antiquitatum Varia- rum volumina XJ'IJ., ihe De Aequivocis occupies folios xxxiv to xli. The passage here referred to will be found on folio xxxvi verso while the accompanying commentary is on folios xxxvii and xxxviii. ^Histoire, 1609, p. 27. " Duquel je representeray les choses principales sans m'arreter a suivre le fil de son discours." Belleforest, Cosniographie Universelle, Paris, II. 2175-2178. This was a translation of Munster's work with additions. ^ Ibid., p. 36. " Quelqu'un dit qu'estant parvenu au Cap Breton i! fut pris et de- vore par des Sauvages." In truth Ramusio does not say where his death took place, but only that it was on a subsequent voyage : " et nell' ultimo viaggio, che esto fece havendo voluto smontar in terra con alcuni compagni, furono tutti morti da quel popol et in presentia di coloro, che erano rimasi nelle navi, furono arrostiti et mangiati." Navigatiojii et Viaggi, Venice, 1556, III. fol. 417 verso. 5 " Mise en lumiere par M. Basanier, Gentil-homme franpois Matheraaticien." Cf. also the dedication to Ralegh. " Je I'ay tiree avec la diligence de Monsieur Hakluit, homme certainement bien verse en I'histoire geographique . . . comme du tombeau, oil elle avoit ja si longtemps inutille repose," etc. 6 Bibliotheque Nationale MS. Fr. 15453, fol. 177 vena. " J'ay asses amplement
