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Dromo's Den
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[Up] [Dromo's Den] Amerigo Vespucci Biography VESPUCIUS, vĕs-pū′shĭ-ŭs, Americus (It. Amerigo Vespucci) (1451–1512). A Florentine navigator, from whom the Western continents received their name of America. He was born March 9, 1451; entered the offices of the commercial establishment of the Medici in Florence, and between 1483 and 1492 occupied a position of responsibility with that house. In 1492 he went to Spain and established himself as a merchant in Seville. In 1495 he took over the business of another Florentine merchant of Seville, who had been in the habit of furnishing supplies for the vessels engaged in the voyages to the West Indies. This brought Vespucius into direct touch with the affairs of the New World. Vespucius claims that in 1497 he placed his business in other hands, and set out to see something of the New World for himself. Sailing in May, 1497, he was absent 18 months, probably exploring the South American coast, on the lockout for opportunities for commercial profit. Instead of returning to Spain with the vessel on which he had sailed, Vespucius seems to have left it at some port at which he met a fleet commanded by Alonso de Ojeda. Despite Varnhagen's defense thereof, most scholars do not believe in this 1497 voyage. With Ojeda he started (May, 1499) on what he calls his second voyage, lasting 14 months. He returned to Spain in September, 1500. Shortly after this he must have gone to Portugal, for on May 10, 1501, he sailed on a Portuguese expedition which reached the South American mainland on June 6, and returned in September, 1502. In May, 1503, he sailed again with the Portuguese, returning June 18, 1504. In February, 1505, he was back in Seville, where he met Columbus, who described him, in a letter to his son, Diego Columbus, as "a very worthy man who has always endeavored to be agreeable to me. . . . He is determined to do for me all he can." This letter of Columbus has been used to discount the assertion that the two explorers were rivals, or that Vespucius tried to secure the renown properly belonging to Columbus. After a visit to the court of Ferdinand, Vespucius became a citizen of Seville again and naturalized himself as a Spanish subject, in April, 1505. He spent the next 18 months in preparing an expedition for the Moluccas, in coöperation with Vicente Yáñez Pinzón (q.v.), which was eventually prevented from sailing by Portuguese intrigues. In November, 1507, Vespucius was summoned to the court at Burgos, where he was appointed pilot major on March 22, 1508. He then repaired to Seville, where he occupied himself with the duties of his office, examining pilots, collecting geographical and cartographical data, and supervising the dispatch of expeditions to the New World. He died on Feb. 22, 1512. During his sojourn at Lisbon, in September, 1504, Vespucius completed and dispatched to his old patrons, the Medici, an account of his alleged four voyages. The original has unfortunately disappeared, and the abridged translations which were printed at the time are so confused, and in places so incoherent, that it is impossible to decide from them (the only source of information regarding those voyages) exactly. where Vespucius went, or what he discovered. It is quite certain that he explored a large section of the coast of South America, and if his claims concerning the 1497 voyage could be authenticated, they would prove that he had landed on the American mainland a few days before Cabot reached the shores of North America. A literal reading of his narrative would give an exploration from somewhere on the Guiana coast northwestward for 1000 miles or more, reaching into the Pacific Ocean off the California coast. As there are physical difficulties against this, the champions of Vespucius have ascribed to him a voyage around the Gulf of Mexico and up the United States coast as far as the Chesapeake, but the country described by Vespucius is clearly that of northeastern South America, perhaps stretching south on his later voyages nearly to La Plata. Aside from all the other evidence, internal and external, against this voyage of 1497 with its alleged vast discoveries, we have the famous map of Juan de la Cosa made in 1500, after he had served on the 1499 voyage with Ojeda and Vespucius, and which indicates all the farthest known points, but marks none of the places that would have to be included if Vespucius' figures and claims were correct. Vespucius' narrative was translated in 1507 by Martin Waldseemüller (q.v.), who printed it as an appendix to his Cosmographiœ Introductio. In this work he made a suggestion that inasmuch as Vespucius had been the first to make known this new southern continent, it might be proper to name the new continent America. The new name was given only to the newly discovered southern continent, with no thought of extending it over the islands of the West Indies. Waldseemüller's suggestion was embodied, in printed and manuscript maps, a few of which have survived to the present day. The name gradually became fixed in popular usage. The actual facts regarding Vespucius are given in Henry Harrisse, Discovery of North America (London, 1892). Consult also John Fiske, Discovery of America (New York, 1892), and C. E. Lester, Life of Americus Vespucius (New York, 1905). The details of Waldseemüller's christening of America are given in Justin Winsor, Narrative and Critical History of America, vol. ii (New York, 1886), and in Thatcher, Continent of America (ib., 1896). One of the most scholarly books on the whole controversy is "The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci," etc., translated with Notes and an Introduction by C. R. Markham, in The Hakluyt Society, Publications, No. 90 (London, 1894). The New International Encyclopaedia, Vol. XXIII (New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1920) 119-120. |