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Show CATHOLICS OVERLOOKED Early American History Fails to Credit Catholic Explorers, Who Discovered the Hudson? Professor Fiske Credits an Italian Explorer. The Now York Freeman's Journal thinks the early Catholic explorer? of America have not been jriven the credit to which they are due, and points I cut a few instances in which the histories of Amer- f jca are lax, either intentionally or not. The Hud son-Fulton celebration furnished the subject. The Journal says: The credit jriven to Henry Hudson in connection connec-tion with the river bearing his name has somewhat dimmed the fame of one who discovered the Hudson Hud-son river long before Henry Hudson was born. It , was in 1524 that the Catholic Giovanni de Verra--j zano first caujrht sijrht of the noble river which is tr known by the name of the English captain of the ' V? Half Moon. Born near Florence, Italy, in 1470, ( i Verrazzano entered the French marine service at ' I the ajre of -!. years. From that time forward until his eventful career closed in either Newfoundland f or Puerto de Kico, at the age of 57. his life was J spent in voyages of discovery in the New World. I A hundred years before the Puritans sot foot on ! Plymouth Rock, Verrazano was cruising: in the West Indies. Three years later, in 1523, we find him setting sail from Dieppe. France, on the frigate frig-ate La Dauphino with a commission from Francis I. King of France, to explore the coast of North America. He sailed from Madeira in the opening month of 1524, and in February reached our coast, landing at a point near Cape Fear. Later on this was the point from which he starred on the voyage that resulted in the discovery of Narragansett Bay and the great river up which Henry Hudson sailed in the Half Moon eighty-five years later. Professor John Fiske. the well known American historian, is emphatic in stating that the Italian explorer in the service of France was the first European Eu-ropean to set eyes on the river on the bank of which rise the lofty buildings of the American' metropolis. "There can be no doubt whatever." he writes, "as to Verrazano's enlering New York harbor in 1524 (ighty-five years before Hudson's discovery. The -anie historian informs us that another Catholic explorer had named the river after a Catholic Saint (St. Anthony) long before the English ex- . plorer was aware of its existence. We quote Pro-' Pro-' lessor FiskeV testimony: "There can be little doubt that French skippers ascended as far as the city of ; 1 Albany, to trade with the Mohawk Indians, even building a fort there about 1540. Gomez as well as errazano contests the claim of Hudson, and as l"iig ago as 1525 the former named the river the II in de San Antonio (St. Anthony's river)." These two Catholic explorers belonged to that ; vontursome band who. following in the footsteps of Columbus, faced death in many forms in their ef- fnrts to make Europe better acquainted with the "J X:v World. Full justice has not been done to these I i heroic pioneers who made possible the glorious con- I eueM of the Cross on American soil conquests j v.hieb were the precursors of the development of that civilization nf which later generations have the beneficiaries. X- f, The portrayal of the part the Catholic Church 5, s'"' ln phrious work will supply an inspiring V heine To some properly equipped Catholic writer in y -..i:e coming years. He will have ample matter at 1;-:ip1 to choose from. Take, for instance, the story 1,1 planting of the cross in Florida by Ponce de I I.e..-, ;,, i.-,: more than a hundred years before the M'ttleir.ent of New England by the Puritans. The I r.crd of the devout and self-sacrificing mission-i mission-i : n'iw u!" Inhered in this part of the United States '-i'-li -!"''' years ago makes a glorious page in Amer-!,-;:n hi-tory. K-;u:d!y glorious is that which tells of the spir-'nquests spir-'nquests made by Catholic missionaries in X''W York. Michigan. Illinois, Wisconsin, j Mid orl,er parts of the United States now known ; miofr !l,o designation of the Middle West. The .y-iir- ii.fervening between 1011 and 1052 witnessed n tjn-M- seftions of our country deeds of heroism I "-n. :,., lV Catholic missionaries, the recital of ""'h. jdu-r the lapse of almost 300 years, evokes M:tl,u;:iMTi in every man capable of appreciating I'.' 1 iniobling in human nature. The Catholic the future of whom we have spoken ; ,W1 1 'i''Tibe .-ill this in befitting terms and thus j p!1 popularize a part of our history which is too |