THE NAMING OF THE NEW LANDS. Why was our country named America rather than Columbia or New India? Both the southern and northern continents which we call the Americas were named for Americus Vespucius rather than for Christopher Columbus. This seems the more strange since we know so little about the life of Americus. Americus Vespucius was born in Florence, Italy, and like many other young Italians of that day entered the service of neighboring countries. He went to Spain and accompanied several Spanish expeditions sent to explore the new continent which Columbus had discovered on his third voyage. Perhaps Americus went as a pilot; he certainly was not the leader in any expedition. But he seems to have written to his friends interesting accounts of what he had seen. In one of these letters Americus seems to have written boastfully of how he had found lands which might be called a new world. He said that the new continent was more populous and more full of animals than Europe, or Asia, or Africa, and that the climate was even more temperate and pleasant than any other region. This was clearly a new world. WHY AMERICUS WAS REGARDED AS THE DISCOVERER OF AMERICA. The statement of Americus was scattered widely by the help of the newly invented printing press. It was written in Latin, and so could be read by the learned of all countries. They were impressed by the belief of Americus that he had seen a new world and not simply the Indies. This was especially true of men living outside of Spain who had heard little of Columbus or his discovery. Columbus for his part had written as if his great discovery was a way to the Indies and the finding of islands on the way thither less important. Besides, when he saw what we call South America he had no idea that it was a new world. The people of Europe either never knew that he had discovered the mainland or had forgotten it altogether. But they heard a great deal about Americus and his doings. It is not strange that Americus rather than Columbus was long regarded as the true discoverer of America. TWO NAMES FOR THE NEW LANDS. Even then the new continent might not have been called America but for the suggestion of a young scholar of the time. Martin Waldseemueller, a professor of geography at the college of St. Die, now in eastern France, wrote a book on geography. In his description of the parts of the world unknown to the ancients, he suggested naming the continent stretching to the south for Americus. [Illustration: FACSIMILE Of the passage in the _Cosmographia Introductio_ (1507), by Martin Waldseemueller, in which the name of America is proposed for the New World.] The facsimile's transcription reads as follows: