ABSTRACT
This text serves both as an example of sixteenth-century usage in a factual account, here of a voyage of discovery, and of the spread of French to the new domain of geography - or cosmographie as it was called at the time. The author, Andre Thevet (1516/17-92), a Franciscan monk who enjoyed the protection of noble families linked to the monarchy, had already made several journeys in the 1540s to Italy, Switzerland, Naples and Africa, and a trip to the Middle East which was related in his Cosmographie de Levant (1554). In 1555 he became aumonier or chaplain to the expedition led by Villegagnon to Brazil which landed there in November 1555. However, Thevet fell ill and had to leave Brazil at the end of January 1556, as is recounted in our extract; the return journey apparently took him past Haiti, Cuba and Florida and close to Canada. All this is recounted in his SinguLaritez de La France Antarctique, a work which was highly popular in his day and earned him the role of Royal Cosmographer to four French kings (Henri II, Fran~ois II, Charles IX and Henri III).
