Verrazzano's North American Exploration

Timeline

1. 1523–1524Madeira Islands to the coast of North Carolina · Southeastern United StatesVerrazzano set out from Dieppe, France, crossed the Atlantic after passing the Madeira Islands, and in March reached the coast of present-day North Carolina, where he made contact with indigenous people, recorded the vegetation and terrain, and then continued northward.
2. 1524New York Bay to Nova Scotia · Northeastern United StatesThe fleet entered present-day New York Harbor (the Verrazzano Narrows is named after him); after an unsuccessful attempt to explore the mouth of the Hudson River, they turned toward New England and continued north to Nova Scotia and south of Newfoundland, confirming that the North American continent stretched extensively and that no narrow isthmus to the Pacific existed.
3. 1524Dieppe · NormandyVerrazzano returned to Dieppe and presented King Francis I with a navigational report describing the rich lands and friendly indigenous people of the eastern North American coast, providing France's first systematic geographic intelligence for future colonial expansion in the New World.