Chapter XXXVI: Introduction

The relation which is here offered to the public, we believe for the first time in the English language, is only an abridged account of four voyages made by Americus Vespucius to the New World, as written by himself, in which he expresses his intention of publishing a more extensive work, wherein all the events of these four voyages were to be related at large. The information he has conveyed in the present article is by no means satisfactory; yet it constitutes an original document respecting the early discoveries of the southern continent of the New World, and is therefore essential to the principles and arrangement of our work. Ample opportunities will occur in the sequel, for inserting more extended accounts of the countries which were visited lay this early navigator, whose singular good fortune has raised him an eternal monument infinitely beyond his merit, by the adoption of his otherwise obscure name for designating the grand discovery of the immortal Columbus.

Various early editions of the voyages of this navigator are mentioned in the _Bibliotheque Universelle des Voyages_[2], a recent work of much research, published at Paris in 1808. In the titles of these he is named _Americo Vespucio_, and _Alberico Vespucio_. In the NOVUS ORBIS of _Simon Grynaeus_, from which our present article is translated, he is called _Americus Vesputius_. In another portion of that work, containing some very slight notices of these four voyages, his name is altered to _Albericus_[3]. A modern author, we know not on what authority, names him _Amerigo Vespucci_[4]. In all these publications, the authors or editors have used their endeavours to deprive the illustrious _Columbus_ of the well earned glory of being the discoverer of the _New World_, and to transfer that honour most undeservedly to Americus, whose name has long been indelibly affixed to this new grand division of our globe. Americus himself pretended to have made the first discovery of the _continent_ of the New World, alleging that his great precursor Columbus was only the discoverer of the large West India islands. It has been already mentioned, in the introduction to the voyages of Columbus, that in his first voyage Americus sailed under the command of a Spanish officer named Ojeda or Hojeda, who had accompanied Columbus in his second voyage: But, though it sufficiently appears from his own writings that Americus did not command in chief in any of his four voyages, he anxiously conceals the names of the commanders under whom he sailed. The actual accomplishment of any of these voyages by Americus has even been doubted[5]. At all events, there are strong reasons for believing that all their dates have been industriously falsified, on purpose to ground a pretension for having discovered the continent or main-land of Paria, prior to the third voyage of Columbus, in 1498, when that country and the islands of Trinidada and Margarita certainly were discovered by Columbus. The same author here quoted as doubting the reality of the navigations of Americus to the New World, gives the following account of his pretensions as a discoverer. "Americus Vespucius, by the interest of Bishop _Fonseca_, the enemy of Columbus, was made chief pilot of Spain, and to him all the journals of discovery were communicated, from which he constructed elegant maps, helping out by his fancy whatever was deficient in his materials, so as to exhibit things in graceful proportions, and the only thing wanting to his cosmographic delineation was a strict regard to truth. But they answered well his purpose; as, besides securing him a good place and competent salary, they enabled him to impose his own name on the new world, before he had discovered one foot of its coasts[6]." These are heavy charges; but, as Harris quotes no authorities, it is utterly impossible to determine on their justice at this distance of time. In another part of his work, Harris acknowledges the reality of the first voyage of Americus, under the command of Alonso Hojeda, and assigns the 20th May 1499 as its commencement[7]. Americus was probably only pilot of the different navigations he relates. It will be seen in the first section of this chapter, that Americus dates his first voyage two years earlier; obviously to warrant his pretended discovery of the coast of Paria, which Columbus had actually discovered in July or August 1498.

It has been alleged, but we have forgot the authority for this assertion, that the _two_ first voyages of Vespucius, as given in this article, were in reality one and the same; but thus divided by himself, for giving the better colour to his assuming a false date to ground his pretended priority of discovering the continent of Paria.

Soon after the departure of this expedition under Hojeda. Peter Alonso Nino and Christopher Guerro of Seville obtained a license from the court of Spain to sail upon discovery to the New World, on condition that they were not to anchor or land within fifty leagues of any place that had been discovered by Columbus. Nino had sailed in the third voyage along with Columbus, when Trinidada, Paria, and Margarita were discovered, and the sole object of these interlopers appears to have been the acquisition of pearls, which were found by Columbus in considerable numbers on this coast. Accordingly, they do not appear to have extended their researches beyond the coast which Columbus had already discovered; and in what is called the Bay of Pearls, which is formed between the Island of Margarita and the main, they procured great numbers of that precious commodity from the natives, in barter for hawks-bells, and various baubles made of tin. From thence they proceeded westwards to Coro and Venezuela, where they augmented their store of pearls. This last place, the name of which signifies Little Venice, appears to have been the town built in the water, which is mentioned in the first voyage of Americus. Farther on, at a place which they named Curiana, they procured some gold, both wrought and in its native state, with monkeys and beautiful parrots. In the course of this voyage, they are said to have procured 150 marks, or 1200 ounces of pearls, all very beautiful, and of a fine water, some as large as hazel-nuts, but ill bored, owing to the imperfect tools of the natives. Besides pearls and gold, they took on board a considerable quantity of Brazil wood, though contrary to their instructions. They returned eastwards along the coast of Paria or Cumana to the gulf of Paria, whence they took their departure for Spain, and arrived in Galicia on the 6th February 1500; where they were accused by their own crew of concealing the pearls, on purpose to deprive the crown of the established duty, being a fifth of all importations[8].

Vincent Yanez Pinzon, who had accompanied Columbus during his first and second voyages, sailed on a voyage of discovery about the close of the year 1499, with four stout vessels fitted out at his own expence. In this voyage Pinzon appears to have sailed along the east coast of South America, and to have discovered Cape St Augustine in Brazil, to which he gave the name of Cape Consolation. On his return to the northwards, he likewise appears to have discovered the great Maranon, or river of the Amazons, and the mouth of the Oronoko; which latter he named _Rio Dulce_, or Fresh River, because he took up fresh water _twenty_ leagues out at sea. He thence proceeded to the coast of Paria, where he took in a cargo of Brazil wood, and stood over to the islands between that coast and Hispaniola, losing two of his ships in a great storm. With the two which remained he went to Hispaniola to refit, and returned thence into Spain about the end of September 1500[9].

In the immediately subsequent chapter a summary will be found of the discoveries and settlements of the Spaniards in the West Indies, from the death of the great Columbus to the commencement of the expedition under Cortes, by which the rich and populous empire of Mexico was added to the Spanish dominions in the New World. The present chapter consists of voyages to the New World which were contemporary with those of the immortal Columbus, and all surreptitiously intended to abridge the vast privileges which he had stipulated for and obtained the grant of for his inestimable services; but which the court of Spain was anxious to procure pretexts for abrogating or circumscribing.

Of the other early voyages of discovery to America, very imperfect notices now remain. England lays claim to have been the next nation in succession, after the Spaniards and Portuguese, to explore the New World; yet, like Spain, under the guidance of an Italian. We have already seen that Columbus, when disappointed in his first views of patronage from the king of Portugal, and while he went himself to offer his services to the court of Spain, dispatched his brother Bartholomew into England, to lay his proposals for discovery before Henry VII. and the circumstances have been already detailed by which this scheme was disappointed, though Henry is said to have agreed to the proposals of Columbus _four_ years before that archnavigator began his career in the service of the crown of Castile. After the king of England had thus, as it were by accident, missed reaping the advantage and glory of patronizing the first discovery of the New World, he is said to have encouraged other seamen of reputation to exert their talents in his service, by prosecuting the faint light which had transpired respecting the grand discovery of Columbus. Giovani Gabota, or John Cabot, a citizen of Venice, who had been long settled in Bristol, was among those who offered their services to the king of England on this occasion, and his services appear certainly to have been employed. By patent, dated 5th of March 1495 at Westminster, John Cabot and his three sons, Lewis, Sebastian, and Sancio, their heirs and deputies, were authorised, with five ships of any burthen they thought fit, and as many mariners as they pleased, to sail under the flag of England to all countries of the East, West, and North, at their own cost and charges, to seek out and discover whatever isles, countries, regions, or provinces of the heathens and unbelievers were hitherto unknown to all Christians; with power to subdue, occupy, and possess all such towns, cities, castles, and isles as they were able, leaving the sovereignty to the crown of England, and bound to bring back to Bristol all fruits, profits, gains, and commodities procured in their voyages, paying the fifth part of the profit to the king, all necessary costs and charges first deducted from the proceeds. And forbidding all the subjects of England from frequenting or visiting their discoveries, unless by license from the Cabots, their heirs or deputies, under forfeiture of their ships and goods[10].

In pursuance of the authority of this patent, and of a farther licence dated 13th February 1497, allowing John Cabot to sail from any of the ports of England with six ships of 200 tons burthen or under, John Cabot and his son Sebastian sailed from Bristol, and discovered a land which had never been before seen, on the 24th June 1497, about five in the morning, to which they gave the name of _Prima Vista_, because that part was first seen from sea. The island seen opposite, they named the Island of St John, because discovered on the day of St John the Baptist. The inhabitants of this island wore the skins of beasts, which they held in as much estimation as we do our finest garments. In their wars they used bows, arrows, spears, darts, wooden clubs, and slings. The land is barren and unfruitful, but has white bears, and stags of unusual size. It abounds in fish of great size, as seawolves, or seals, salmon, and soles above a yard long; but chiefly in immense quantities of that kind which is vulgarly called bacalaos. The hawks of this island are as black as crows, and the eagles and partridges are likewise black[11].

The foregoing account is given by Hakluyt on the authority of a map, engraved by Clement Adams after the design of Sebastian Cabot, which map was then to be seen in the private gallery of Queen Elizabeth at Westminster, and in the houses of many of the merchants of London. From Ramusio, however, Hakluyt gives rather a different account of this matter. By this account, it would appear that the father John Cabot had died previous to the voyage, and that Sebastian went as commander of two vessels furnished by King Henry. He sailed to the north-west, not expecting to find any other land than Cathay, or northern China, and from, thence to proceed for India. But falling in with land, he sailed northwards along the coast, to see if he could find any gulf that permitted him to proceed westwards in his intended voyage to India, and still found firm land to lat 56° N. Finding the coast here turning to the east, he despaired of finding a passage in that direction: he sailed again down the coast to the southwards, still looking everywhere for an inlet that would admit a passage by sea to India, and came to that part of the continent now called Florida; where, his victuals failing, he took his departure for England[12]. In the preface to the third volume of his navigations, Ramusio, as quoted by Hakluyt, says that Sebastian Cabot sailed as far north in this voyage as 67° 30', where on the 11th June the sea was still quite open, and he was in full hope of getting in that way to Cathay, but a mutiny of his people forced him to return to England[13]. Peter Martyr of Angleria, as likewise quoted by Hakluyt, says that Sebastian was forced to return to the southwards by the immense quantities of ice which he encountered in the northern part of his voyage[14].

Sebastian Cabot, on his return to England, found matters in a state which did not promise him any farther advantages as a mariner, on which he went into Spain, where he was employed by Ferdinand and Isabella, in whose service he explored the eastern coast of South America, and discovered the _Rio Plata_, up which he sailed above 360 miles, finding it to flow through a fine country, everywhere inhabited by great numbers of people, who flocked from all parts to admire his ships. After making many other voyages, which are not specified, he settled in Seville, where he employed himself in making sea charts, and had the appointment of pilot-major, all pilots for the West Indian Seas having to pass his examination, and to have his license[15]. He thought fit, however, to return into England, and was employed by Henry VIII. In the service of that sovereign he made a voyage to the coast of Brazil in 1516, under the superior command of Sir Thomas Pert, vice-admiral of England, of which the following imperfect account is preserved by Haklyut.

"That learned and industrious writer Richard Eden, in an epistle to the Duke of Northumberland, prefixed to a work which he translated from Munster in 1553, called _A treatise of the New India_, makes mention of a voyage of discovery made from England by Sir Thomas Pert and Sebastian Cabota, about the eighth year of Henry VIII. The want of courage in Sir Thomas Pert occasioned this expedition to fail of its intended effect; otherwise it might have happened that the rich treasury called _Perularia_, now in Seville, in which the infinite riches which come from the new-found country of Peru, would long since have been in the Tower of London to the great honour of the king, and the vast increase of the wealth of this realm. Gonsalvo de Oviedo, a famous Spanish writer, alludes to this voyage, in his General and Natural History of the West Indies, as thus quoted by Ramusio. In the year 1517, an English corsair, under pretence of a voyage of discovery, came with a great ship to the coast of Brazil, whence he crossed over to the island of Hispaniola, and arrived near the mouth of the harbour of St Domingo, where he sent his boat to demand leave of entry for the purpose of traffic. But Francis de Tapia, the governor of the castle, caused some ordnance to be fired from the castle at the ship, which was bearing in for the port; on which the ship put about, and the people in the boat went again on board. They then sailed to the island of St John, or Porto Rico, where they went into the harbour of St Germaine, where they required provisions and other necessaries for their ship, and complained against the inhabitants of St Domingo, saying that they came not to do any harm, but to trade for what they wanted, paying in money or merchandize. In this place they procured provisions, and paid in certain vessels of wrought tin and other things. They afterwards departed towards Europe, where it was thought they never arrived, as we never heard any more news of them[16]."

From the above hint respecting the riches of Peru finding their way to the Tower of London, and as combined with the former voyage of Cabot to the north-west; in search of a passage to India, it may be inferred, that the object of the present voyage was to discover a passage to India by the south-west, or by what is now called Cape Horn. The passage to India by the Cape of Good Hope, had been granted exclusively by the Pope to the Portuguese; and Henry VIII. then a good catholic, wished to evade this exclusive privilege by endeavouring to discover a new route. It was well observed by one of the kings of France, in reference to the Pope having granted all the East to the Portuguese, and all the West to the Spaniards, "I wish my brothers of Spain and Portugal would shew me the testament of our father Adam, by which they claim such ample inheritance." The supposition that Cabot had perished on his voyage from Porto Rico to England was unfounded. He was alive there in 1549, in which year Edward VI. granted a yearly pension for life to him and his assigns, of L.166, 13s. 4d. to be paid quarterly, in consideration of the good and acceptable service done and to be done by him[17].

We have been induced to insert this long digression in this place, because no journals remain of the voyages to which they relate. The other early voyages of the English to the New World, were all for the purpose of discovering a N.W. passage by sea to India, or for colonizing the provinces of North America, and will fail to be particularly noticed in other divisions of our work.

[1] Novus Orbis, p. 111.

[2] Vol. I. 262, and Vol. V. 479.

[3] Nov. Orb. 87.

[4] Mod. Geogr. III. 8.

[5] Harris, Col. of Voy. and Trav. II. 167.

[6] Harris, Coll. of Voy. and Trav. II. 62.

[7] Id. II. 87.

[8] Harris, II. 33.

[9] Harris, II. 38.

[10] Hakluyt, III. 25.

[11] Hakluyt, III. 27.

[12] Hakl. III. 28.

[13] Id. III. 29.

[14] Id. ib.

[15] Id. ib.

[16] Hakl. III. 591.

[17] Hakl. III. 31.

DEDICATION.

_To the most illustrious Renee, King of Jerusalem and Sicily, Duke of Lorain and Bar, Americas Vespucius in all humble reverence and due gratitude, wisheth health and prosperity_.

Most illustrious sovereign, your majesty may perhaps be surprised at my presumption in writing this prolix epistle, knowing, as I do, that your majesty is continually engaged in conducting the arduous affairs of government. I may deserve blame for presuming to dedicate to your majesty this work, in which you will take little interest, both because of its barbarous style, and that it was composed expressly for Ferdinand king of Spain. But my experience of your royal virtues has given me a confident hope that the nature of my subject, which has never yet been treated of by ancient or modern writers, may excuse me to your majesty. The bearer, _Benvenuto_, a servant of your majesty, and my valued friend, whom I met with at Lisbon, earnestly entreated me to write this history, that your majesty might be informed of all those things which I had seen during the four voyages to different parts of the world, which I had undertaken for the discovery of unknown countries. Of these four voyages, two were made through a vast extent of ocean towards the West, at the command of the illustrious Don Ferdinand king of Spain: The other two were to the south, in the service of Don Manuel king of Portugal. I have used my utmost diligence in the composition of this work, in hopes that your majesty would graciously receive me among the number of your dependants, considering that we were formerly companions during youth, while studying grammar under the tuition of my venerable uncle, Fra George Antony Vespucius. I wish that I were able to imitate that worthy person, as I should then be quite different from what I am: Yet I am not ashamed of myself, having always placed my chief delight in the practice of virtue, and the acquisition of literature. Should these voyages displease you, I may say, as Pliny said to his patron, "formerly my pleasantries used to delight you." Although your majesty is always occupied in affairs of state, you may certainly have as much leisure as will permit you to peruse these pages; which, however trivial in comparison, may yet please by their novelty. After the cares of government, your majesty will, I hope, receive amusement from my labours, as a pleasant desert promotes digestion after a plentiful repast. But, if I have been too tedious in my narrative, I ask pardon and take my leave.

Be it known to your majesty that I first went to these new countries in search of trade, in which I was occupied for four years, during which I experienced various reverses of fortune; at one time raised to the summit of human wishes, and afterwards reduced to the lowest ebb of misery, in so much that I had resolved to abandon commerce, and to confine my exertions to more laudable and safer exertions. I disposed myself, therefore, to the purpose of exploring various parts of the world, that I might see the wonderful things which it contains. An opportunity soon fortunately offered for satisfying this desire, as King Ferdinand of Spain fitted out four ships for the discovery of new countries towards the west, and was pleased to employ me upon this service. We set sail on the 20th of May 1497 from the port of Cadiz, taking our course through the great gulf of the ocean, in which voyage we were occupied for eighteen months, discovering _many continents_, and almost innumerable islands, most of which were inhabited, all of which were utterly unknown to our predecessors and the ancients. If I am not mistaken, I have somewhere read that the ocean is entirely void of countries and inhabitants, as appears to have been the opinion of our poet Dante, in his _Inferno_. But of the wonderful things which I have seen there, your majesty will find an account in the following narrative.