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I.—Jean Ribaut in Florida.
[‘Dedicated to a great nobleman1 of France, and translated into English by one Thomas Hackit.’]Whereas, in the year of our Lord God 1562, it pleased God to move your Honor to choose and appoint us to discover and view a certain long coast of the West India, from the head of the land called La Florida, drawing toward the north part, unto the head of Britons,2 distant from the said head of La Florida nine hundred leagues, or thereabout, to the end we might certify you, and make true report of the temperature, fertility, ports, havens, rivers, and generally of all the commodities that be seen and found in that land, and also to learn what people were there dwelling. . . .
Thursday, the last of April, at the break of the day, we discovered and clearly perceived a fair coast,