Giovanni da Verrazzano Dies

1524

The Florentine navigator Giovanni da Verrazzano, having charted the North American coast for France, later sailed to the Caribbean where Carib islanders killed and reportedly ate him. His younger brother Girolamo survived to carry home the family's charts and memory of his brother's achievements. His death by cannibalism, witnessed by his brother from the ship, became one of exploration's most horrifying cautionary tales.