[1497-1503 A.D.] nised into the title of the entire New World. There exists a letter credited to Vespucci which says: "We sailed from the port of Cadiz, May 10, 1497. After spending a few days at the Canaries, the four ships proceeded and "arrived at the end of twenty-seven days upon a shore which we believed to be that of a continent."

If this letter is to be believed, Vespucci reached the continent a week or more before John Cabot, for whom June 24th, 1497, is the earliest date claimed; and fourteen months before the date when Columbus sighted the mainland in August 1498. Therefore there would be at least partial justice in giving the name America to the mainland. But this letter is in conflict with so much negative evidence that the 1497 voyage of Vespucci is not seriously accepted by the majority of historians, though, of course, it cannot be entirely disproved to have happened in a crowded time when, as Columbus said, "the very tailors" wanted to be discoverers. The letter however was not written till 1504, if then, and it distinctly states that Vespucci went under royal commission. Of this there is absolutely no confirmation, which is suspicious; there is indeed some proof that he could not have been out of Spain in the period indicated.

While Vespucci's voyage in 1497 is denied by almost all reputable historians with the exception of a few stalwart defenders like Varnhagen" and John Fiske, there is little doubt that he made what he calls his "second" voyage, in 1499. Of this there is proof, for he is mentioned by Alonzo de Ojeda who was with Columbus in 1492 and who in 1499, made an independent voyage with four ships by royal commission and reached the Orinoco. In 1512 Columbus' son Diego, as heir to his father's rights, brought suit against the king of Spain for royalties from certain provinces. The king tried to prove that Columbus did not discover the provinces in question. Ojeda, called as a witness, mentioned his voyage in 1499 and stated that he took with him "Juan de la Cosa and Morigo Vespuche and other pilots.' But he did not say that Vespucci had two years earlier discovered the mainland, though he did admit that his own voyage in 1499 was made possible by a surreptitious use of the maps and journals made by Columbus in 1498. Nor did Vespucci's nephew, who was at the trial, advance any family claims for priority.

The claim thus being further discredited, the question of Vespucci's intention to deceive is a new problem. The letters credited to him claim four voyages, two for the king of Spain, two for the king of Portugal. These letters appear as an appendix to the Cosmographiæ introductio published in the small town of St. Dié in 1507. In the text the author says, "The fourth part of the world having been discovered by Americus, it may be called Amerige; i.e., Americus' land or America," He later reiterates the suggestion and explains the form America by saying that "both Europe and Asia have chosen their names from the feminine form." The author of this book, Martin Waldzeemüller, otherwise known at Hylacomylus, thus deliberately invented the word America in 1509. In 1522 it was placed on a map in an edition of Ptolemy's Geographia.

From that time its convenience and gracefulness have given it permanence. The problem of Vespucci's assistance in foisting his name on the New World is also in dispute. He wrote the letters in which he claims to have made four voyages of which the one he calls "the first" required seventeen months, while the one he calls "the second" was made in 1499, it seems hard to relieve him of a charge of intentional fraud. He deserves, however, the honour of planting the first colony of Europeans in South America, in 1503. In 1508

[1499-1500 A.D.]

he was made pilot-major to King Ferdinand and he died February 22nd, 1512, apparently in high honour. The contrast with Columbus is complete. Columbus spent years and years of land-travel and toil preparing the means to invade the unknown sea, found a world there, suffered, after a brief glory, ignominy, imprisonment, and neglect, and was buried with the chains he had worn.

The year after his death, a suggestion was obscurely made that a certain minor navigator, Amerigo Vespucci, should be chosen as the sponsor for the New World. In proof of his right to the naming of a quarter of the globe, certain letters of his own were cited to the effect that he saw a coast which he thought to be a continent; this was five years after Columbus had made his first voyage. At best the letter utterly lacks substantiation, but evidence which would in a law court hardly establish a claim to an acre of ground has sufficed to fasten the name of a subordinate pilot upon a hemisphere."

OTHER SPANISH EXPLORERS (1499-1511 A.D.)

A voyage of discovery was undertaken in 1499 by Alonso Niño, who had served under the admiral in his last voyage. Having fitted out a single ship, in conjunction with Christobal Guerra, a merchant of Seville, they both sailed to the coast of Paria. Though their discoveries were unimportant, yet they carried home such a quantity of gold and pearls, as inflamed their countrymen with desire of engaging in similar enterprises.

Vincent Yañez Pinzon, having, in connection with Ariez Pinzon, built four caravels, sailed in December of the preceding year from Palos for America. Leaving the Cape Verd Islands on the 13th of January, he stood boldly toward the south, and was the first Spaniard who ventured to cross the equinoctial line. In February, he discovered a cape, in 8° north latitude, and called it Cabo de Consolacion; but it has since been called Cape Augustine. Here his men landed, who cut the names of the ships, and the date of the year and day upon the trees and rocks, and took possession of the country for the crown of Castile. They saw no natives, but they perceived footsteps upon the shore. During the following night they saw many fires. In the morning, they sent forty armed men to treat with the natives, thirty-two of whom, armed with bows and arrows, advanced to meet them, followed by others, armed in the same manner. The Spaniards endeavoured to allure them by gifts, but in vain; for, in the dead of night, they fled from the places which they had occupied. Sailing northwestward, they discovered the river of the Amazons. At the mouth of this great river, they found many islands, the inhabitants of which received them hospitably and unsuspiciously; but Pinzon, with barbarian cruelty, seized about thirty of them, and carried them away to sell for slaves. At the mouth of one of the rivers, Pinzon and his squadron were endangered; but, escaping thence, crossing the line, and continuing his course till he came to Orinoco and Trinidad, he then made for the islands, sailed homewards, and, losing two of his three ships by the way, returned to Spain.

THE PORTUGUESE CABRAL DISCOVERS BRAZIL (1500 A.D.)

Before Pinzon reached Europe, the coast which he had discovered, had been taken possession of by the nation to whom it was allotted. The fertile district of country, "on the confines of which Pinzon stopped short," was very soon more fully discovered. Pedro Alvarez Cabral, sent by Emanuel, king of

[1501-1509 A.D.]

Portugal, with thirteen ships, on a voyage from Lisbon to the East Indies, in order to avoid the calms on the Guinea shore, fetched a compass so far westward, as, by accident, to discover land in the 10th degree south of the equinoctial line. Proceeding along the coast several days, he was led from its extent to believe, that it must be a part of some great continent; and, on account of a cross which he erected there with much ceremony, he called it the Land of the Holy Cross; but it was afterward called Brazil. Having taken possession of it for the crown of Portugal, he despatched a ship to Lisbon with an account of this important discovery, and pursued his voyage.

The Portuguese king, on receiving the intelligence, sent ships to discover the whole country, and found it to be the land of America. A controversy hence arose between him and the king of Spain; but they being kinsmen and near friends, it was ultimately agreed that the king of Portugal should hold all the country that he had discovered, which was from the river of Marañon, or Amazons, to the river of Plate.

Portugal, at that time still in her glory, disregarding the donation made by the pope, and the compromise for half the world, to which he had reluctantly agreed, viewed all the discoveries made by Spain in the New World as so many encroachments on her own rights and property. Under the influence of this national jealousy, Gaspar de Cortereal, a Portuguese, of respectable family, inspired with the resolution of discovering new countries, and a new route to India, sailed from Lisbon, as we have already seen, and discovered the land which he judged to be fit for cultivation, and named Terra de Lavradores.

The king of Portugal, on receiving intelligence of Cabral's discovery, fitted out three ships to explore the country, and gave the command to Amerigo Vespucci, whom he invited for that purpose from Seville. They sailed in May, 1501, and, after a very tempestuous voyage of three months, made land in 5° south latitude. Having coasted on northward till they advanced as far as 32°, they left the coast, and struck out to sea. Standing to the southward till they reached 52°, they found it expedient to return, and they reached Lisbon after a voyage of sixteen months.

FURTHER SPANISH DISCOVERIES

Rodigero de Bastidas, in partnership with John de la Cosa, fitted out two ships from Cadiz. Sailing toward the western continent, he arrived on the coast of Paria; and, proceeding to the west, discovered all the coast of the province since known by the name of Terra Firma, from Cape de Vela to the gulf of Darien. Ojeda, with his former associate Amerigo Vespucci, went on a second voyage. Unacquainted with the destination of Bastidas, he held the same course, touched at the same places, and proceeded to Hispaniola.

In 1508, Juan Diaz de Solis and Vincent Yañez Pinzon sailed from Seville, with two caravels, to the coast of Brazil, and went to the 35th degree, south latitude, where they found the great river Paranaguazu, afterward called Rio de Plata, or River of Silver. Proceeding to the 40th degree, they erected crosses wherever they landed, took formal possession, and returned to Spain. In this voyage they discovered an extensive province, known afterward by the name of Yucatan. This same year Sebastian de Ocampo, by command of Ovando, sailed around Cuba, and first discovered with certainty that this country, which Columbus once supposed to be a part of the continent, is a large island.

In 1509, Don Diego, son of Christopher Columbus, having for two years

[1511 A.D.]

after the death of his father made incessant but fruitless application to King Ferdinand for the offices and rights to which he was legally entitled, at last commenced a suit against the king before the council of the Indies, and obtained a decree in confirmation of his claim of the viceroyalty, with all the privileges stipulated in the capitulation with his father. Succeeding Ovando in the government of Hispaniola, he now repaired to that island, accompanied by his wife, his brother, and uncles, and a numerous retinue of both sexes, of good parentage; and the colony acquired new lustre by the accession of so many respectable inhabitants. Agreeably to instructions from the king, he settled a colony in Cubagua, where large fortunes were soon acquired by the fishery of pearls. He also sent to Jamaica John de Esquibal with seventy men, who began a settlement on that island.

Alonso de Ojeda, having sailed from Hispaniola with a ship and two brigantines, carrying three hundred soldiers, to settle the continent, landed at Carthagena; but was beaten off by the natives. While he began a settlement at St. Sebastian, on the east side of the gulf of Darien, Diego Nicuesa with six vessels and 780 men began another at Nombre de Dios, on the west side. Both, however, were soon broken up by the natives. The early historians say that the natives of these countries were fierce and warlike; that their arrows were dipped in a poison so noxious that every wound was followed with certain death; that in one encounter they slew seventy of Ojeda's followers; and that the Spaniards, for the first time, were taught to dread the inhabitants of the New World. This was the first attempt to take possession of Terra Firma; and it was by virtue of the pope's grant, made in a form prescribed by some of the most eminent divines and lawyers in Spain.

The greater part of those who had engaged with Ojeda and Nicuesa in the expedition for settling the continent having perished in less than a year, a few who survived now settled, as a feeble colony, at Santa Maria on the gulf of Darien, under the command of Vasco Nuñez de Balboa.

In 1511, Don Diego Columbus, proposing to conquer the island of Cuba, and to establish a colony there, many persons of distinction in Hispaniola engaged in the enterprise. Three hundred men, destined for the service, were put under the command of Diego Velazquez, who had accompanied Christopher Columbus in his second voyage. With this inconsiderable number of troops, Velazquez conquered the island, without the loss of a man, and annexed it to the Spanish monarchy. The conqueror was now appointed governor and captain-general of the island.p

PONCE DE LEON IN FLORIDA (1513 A.D.)

Juan Ponce de Leon was the discoverer of Florida. His youth had been passed in military service in Spain, and during the wars in Granada he had shared in the wild exploits of predatory valour. No sooner had the return of the first voyage across the Altantic given an assurance of a New World, than he hastened to participate in the dangers and the spoils of adventure in America. He was a fellow voyager of Columbus in his second expedition. In the wars of Hispaniola he had been a gallant soldier; and Ovando had rewarded him with the government of the eastern province of that island. From the hills in his jurisdiction he could behold, across the clear waters of a placid sea, the magnificent vegetation of Porto Rico, which distance rendered still more admirable as it was seen through the transparent atmosphere of the tropics. A visit to the island stimulated the cupidity of avarice; and Ponce aspired to the government. He obtained the station in 1509: inured to

[1513-1521 A.D.] sanguinary war, he was inexorably severe in his administration: he oppressed the natives; he amassed wealth. But his commission as governor of Porto Rico conflicted with the claims of the family of Columbus; and policy, as well as justice, required his removal. Ponce was displaced.

Yet, in the midst of an archipelago, and in the vicinity of a continent, what need was there for a brave soldier to pine at the loss of power over a wild though fertile island? Age had not tempered the love of enterprise: he longed to advance his fortunes by the conquest of a kingdom, and to retrieve a reputation which was not without a blemish. Besides, the veteran soldier, whose cheeks had been furrowed by hard service as well as by years, had heard, and had believed the tale, of a fountain which possessed virtues to renovate the life of those who should bathe in its stream, or give a perpetuity of youth to the happy man who should drink of its ever-flowing waters. So universal was this tradition that it was credited in Spain, not by the people and the court only, but also by those who were distinguished for virtue and intelligence. Nature was to discover the secrets for which alchemy had toiled in vain; and the elixir of life was to flow from a perpetual fountain of the New World, in the midst of a country glittering with gems and gold.

Ponce embarked at Porto Rico, March 3rd, 1513, with a squadron of three ships, fitted out at his own expense, for his voyage to fairyland. He touched at Guanahani; he sailed among the Bahamas; but the laws of nature remained inexorable. On Easter Sunday, March 27th, which the Spaniards call Pascua Florida, land was seen. It was supposed to be an island, and received the name of Florida, from the day on which it was discovered and from the aspect of the forests, which were then brilliant with a profusion of blossoms and gay with the fresh verdure of early spring. Bad weather would not allow the squadron to approach land (April 2nd): at length the aged soldier was able to go on shore, in the latitude of thirty degrees and eight minutes; some miles, therefore, to the north of St. Augustine. The territory was claimed (April 8th) for Spain. Ponce remained for many weeks to investigate the coast which he had discovered; though the currents of the Gulf Stream, and the islands, between which the channel was yet unknown, threatened shipwreck. He doubled Cape Florida; he sailed among the group which he named Tortugas; and, despairing of entire success, he returned to Porto Rico, leaving a trusty follower to continue the research. The Indians had everywhere displayed determined hostility. Ponce de Leon remained an old man; but Spanish commerce acquired a new channel through the gulf of Florida, and Spain a new province, which imagination could esteem immeasurably rich, since its interior was unknown.

The government of Florida was the reward which Ponce received from the king of Spain; but the dignity was accompanied with the onerous condition that he should colonise the country which he was appointed to rule. Preparations in Spain, and an expedition against the Caribbee Indians, delayed his return to Florida. When, after a long interval, he proceeded in 1521 with two ships to take possession of his province and select a site for a colony, his company was attacked by the Indians with implacable fury. Many Spaniards were killed; the survivors were forced to hurry to their ships; Ponce de Leon himself, mortally wounded by an arrow, returned to Cuba to die. So ended the

[The Peter Martyr map of 1511 had already shown in the relative place of Florida an island called Bimini. Here the fountain of youth was generally supposed to exist, and its discovery was the ambition of various explorers, but only incidentally. The fountain of youth has no place in the official documents of that time, and Balboa like others was mainly seeking gold and power.]