The Lost Colony of the Templars : Verrazanos Secret Mission to America

In 1524, the Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazano was sent by the French king, Francis I, on an expedition to find a shorter route to China. However, his true mission, Steven Sora suggests, was to contact a Templar colony that might have been established in Newport, Rhode Island, by Henry Sinclair at the end of the 14th century. In his expedition log, Verrazano recorded that his only stay on the journey was at Newport Harbour, the site of a tower built to the exact measurements of the Templar baptistery, a sacred sanctuary representing baptism and eternal life. This tower is a remnant of Sinclair's voyage to America nearly a century before that of Columbus (who had access to Sinclair's maps thanks to his wife, who was Sinclair's great-granddaughter). Whilst Verrazano's mission succeeded in finding the tower, the colony itself eluded him. His backers then decided to resurrect the dream of Acadia by creating a new secret society that contained Huguenots and Catholic Sulpicians.