Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1.: The Exploration of the WorldVerne, Jules
History
Celebrated Travels and Travellers, Part 1.: The Exploration of the World
Verne, Jules
Discoveries in geography; Explorers; Voyages and travels
Americus Vespucius made three other voyages. Humboldt identifies the
first with that of Vincent Yanez Pinzon, and M. d'Avezac with that
of Diego de Lepe (1499-1500). At the close of this latter year,
Giuliano Bartholomeo di Giocondo induced Vespucius to enter the
service of Emmanuel, King of Portugal, and he accomplished two more
voyages at the expense of his new master. On the first of these two
voyages, he was no higher in command than he had been in his earlier
ones, and only accompanied the expedition as one whose intimate
acquaintance with all nautical matters might prove of service under
certain circumstances. During this voyage the ships coasted along
the American shores from Cape St. Augustine to 52 degrees of south
latitude. The fourth voyage of Vespucius was marked by the wreck of
the flag-ship off the Island of Fernando de Noronha, which prevented
the other vessels from continuing their voyage towards Malacca by
way of the Cape of Good Hope, and obliged the crews to land at All
Saints' Bay, in Brazil.
This fourth voyage was unquestionably made with Gonzalo Coelho, but
we are quite ignorant as to who was in command on the third voyage.
These various expeditions had not tended to enrich Vespucius, while
his position at the Portuguese court was so far from satisfactory
that he determined to re-enter the service of the King of Spain. By
him he was made _Piloto Mayor_ on the 22nd of March, 1508. There
were some valuable emoluments attached for his advantage to this
appointment, which enabled him to end his days, if not as a rich man,
at least as one far removed from want. He died at Seville on the
22nd of February, 1512, with the same conviction as Columbus, that
he had reached the shores of Asia. Americus Vespucius is especially
famous from the New World having been named after him, instead of
being called Columbia, as in all justice it should have been, but
with this Vespucius had nothing to do. He was for a long time
charged, though most unjustly, with impudence, falsehood, and deceit,
it being alleged that he wished to veil the glory of Columbus and to
arrogate to himself the honour of a discovery which did not belong
to him. This was an utterly unfounded accusation, for Vespucius was
both loved and esteemed by Columbus and his contemporaries, and
there is nothing in his writings to justify this calumnious
assertion. Seven printed documents exist which are attributed to
Vespucius; they are--the abridged accounts of his four voyages, two
narratives of his third and fourth voyages, in the form of letters,
addressed to Lorenzo de Pier Francesco de Medici, and a letter
addressed to the same nobleman, relative to the Portuguese
discoveries in the Indies. These documents, printed and bound up as
small thin volumes, were soon translated into various languages and
distributed throughout Europe.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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