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Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century

History

Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century

America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History

drew from Navarrete’s representations of those documents has been
denied by Varnhagen; and H. H. Bancroft in his _Central America_ (i.
99, 102, 106) does not deem the proof complete.[474]

Vespucius’ own story for what he calls his second voyage (1499) is
that he sailed from Cadiz shortly after the middle of May, 1499. The
subsequent dates of his being on the coast are conflicting; but it
would appear that he reached Spain on his return in June or September,
1500. We have, of course, his narrative of this voyage in the
collective letter to Soderini;[475] but there is also an independent
narrative, published by Bandini (p. 64) in 1745, said to have been
written July 18, 1500, and printed from a manuscript preserved in the
Riccardiana at Florence.[476] The testimony of Ojeda that Vespucius
was his companion in the voyage of 1499-1500 seems to need the
qualification that he was with him for a part, and not for the whole,
of the voyage; and it has been advanced that Vespucius left Ojeda
at Hispaniola, and, returning to Spain, sailed again with Pinzon in
December, 1499,—thus attempting to account for the combination of
events which seem to connect Vespucius with the voyages of both these
navigators.

It is noteworthy that Oviedo, who sought to interpret Peter Martyr as
showing that Solis and Pinzon had preceded Columbus to the main, makes
no mention of Vespucius. There is no mention of him in what Beneventano
furnished to the Ptolemy of 1508. Castanheda does not allude to him,
nor does Barreiros in his _De Ophira regione_ (Coimbra, 1560), nor
Galvano in his _Descobrimientos_, nor Pedro Magalhaes de Gandavo in his
account of Santa Cruz (1576).[477]

But it was not all forgetfulness as time went on. The currency to
his fame which had been given by the _De orbe antarctica_, by the
_Paesi novamente_, by the _Cosmographiæ introductio_, as well as by
the _Mundus novus_ and the publications which reflected these, was
helped on in 1510 by the Roman archæologist Francesco Albertini in his
_Opusculum de mirabilibus Urbis Romæ_, who finds Florence, and not
Genoa, to have sent forth the discoverer of the New World.[478]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Opening the text

History

Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century

America -- Discovery and exploration; America -- History; United States -- History

drew from Navarrete’s representations of those documents has been
denied by Varnhagen; and H. H. Bancroft in his _Central America_ (i.
99, 102, 106) does not deem the proof complete.[474]

Vespucius’ own story for what he calls his second voyage (1499) is
that he sailed from Cadiz shortly after the middle of May, 1499. The
subsequent dates of his being on the coast are conflicting; but it
would appear that he reached Spain on his return in June or September,
1500. We have, of course, his narrative of this voyage in the
collective letter to Soderini;[475] but there is also an independent
narrative, published by Bandini (p. 64) in 1745, said to have been
written July 18, 1500, and printed from a manuscript preserved in the
Riccardiana at Florence.[476] The testimony of Ojeda that Vespucius
was his companion in the voyage of 1499-1500 seems to need the
qualification that he was with him for a part, and not for the whole,
of the voyage; and it has been advanced that Vespucius left Ojeda
at Hispaniola, and, returning to Spain, sailed again with Pinzon in
December, 1499,—thus attempting to account for the combination of
events which seem to connect Vespucius with the voyages of both these
navigators.

It is noteworthy that Oviedo, who sought to interpret Peter Martyr as
showing that Solis and Pinzon had preceded Columbus to the main, makes
no mention of Vespucius. There is no mention of him in what Beneventano
furnished to the Ptolemy of 1508. Castanheda does not allude to him,
nor does Barreiros in his _De Ophira regione_ (Coimbra, 1560), nor
Galvano in his _Descobrimientos_, nor Pedro Magalhaes de Gandavo in his
account of Santa Cruz (1576).[477]

But it was not all forgetfulness as time went on. The currency to
his fame which had been given by the _De orbe antarctica_, by the
_Paesi novamente_, by the _Cosmographiæ introductio_, as well as by
the _Mundus novus_ and the publications which reflected these, was
helped on in 1510 by the Roman archæologist Francesco Albertini in his
_Opusculum de mirabilibus Urbis Romæ_, who finds Florence, and not
Genoa, to have sent forth the discoverer of the New World.[478]

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century

Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. 2 (of 8): Spanish Explorations and Settlements in America from the Fifteenth to the Seventeenth Century

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