Verrazzano, Giovanni da

Verrazzano, Giovanni da ( c. 1485 – c. 1528 )
Italian (Florentine) navigator in the service of France. He led three expeditions in search of a westward passage into the Pacific and thus to the East. In 1524 he explored the North American coast from North Carolina to New York Bay and continued north to Newfoundland before returning to Dieppe. In 1527 he took a second expedition across the Atlantic and reached Brazil. He set out once more in 1528 but was met in the Antilles by cannibal Caribs who killed and ate him.