Chapter XIII: Introduction (6)

Returned from his second voyage, Columbus found his popularity waning, and with it the enthusiasm for new discoveries. The voyage had not been profitable, had not been fruitful enough in gold to satisfy the adventurers who accompanied him, and the ghastly faces of the mariners more than counteracted the effect of the specimens of native products exhibited. It was difficult, therefore, to obtain men for a new enterprise. Still, notwithstanding the reports of his numerous enemies, the admiral was considerately treated at court, and finally, by the efforts of the queen, six vessels were made ready, and Columbus embarked from San Lúcar on a third voyage May 30, 1498. This time he determined to steer farther to the south than before, in order to reach, as he supposed, the richer parts of Asia. After touching at Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Canaries, he divided his fleet, sent three vessels direct to Española, and with the other three reached the Cape Verde Islands the 27th of June. Thence he sailed first south-west and west through the region of tropical calms, and then northward to Trinidad Island, where he arrived the 31st of July. Coasting the island on the south, in sight of the main-land, he entered the gulf of Paria, landed, and found much gold of an inferior quality, and an abundance of pearls; from which circumstance, that land, which was the northern end of South America, was for some time thereafter known as the Pearl Coast. Passing out by the Boca del Drago on the 14th of August, he followed the northern coast of Paria to the island of Cubagua, beginning to suspect meanwhile that the land on his left was the main-land of Asia. Ill health and the state of his supplies did not permit him to satisfy himself on that point at the time, and consequently he turned his course north-west for Española. On the 30th of August he arrived at the mouth of the river Ozema, where he met his brother Bartolomé, who informed him of the internal discords and external wars of the colonists. Francisco Roldan had refused to submit to the admiral's authority, and on the 18th of October five ships were despatched for Spain with news of the rebellion. By this departure Columbus sent letters and charts describing this Pearl Coast, as his present South American discoveries which yielded so many gems were called. During the whole year following, peace was maintained among the colonists only by the most humiliating concessions of Columbus to Roldan and his crew. On the 5th of September, 1499, Alonso de Ojeda arrived at Española from the Pearl Coast, whither he had been to take advantage of the discoveries and misfortunes of the admiral.

Vessels laden with complaints by and against Columbus were despatched for Spain in October; needy, ambitious courtiers held King Ferdinand's willing ear against him; from his persistent advocacy of Indian slave-traffic the friendship of his patron, Queen Isabella, grew cold; and in July, 1500, Francisco de Bobadilla was sent to Española with powers to investigate. Arrived at Santo Domingo August 23, the commissioner assumed at once authority, which at most was his right only after careful and conscientious inquiry, seized Columbus and his brother, and in October sent them in irons to Spain. _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, tom. i. pp. 74-99; _Peter Martyr_, dec. i. cap. vi.-vii.; _Tercer Viage de Cristobal Colon_, in _Navarrete_, tom. i. pp. 242-76; _Napione_ and _De Conti_, _Biografia di Colombo_, pp. 350-75; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 99-108, where is given Columbus' letter received in Spain in December, 1498, but apparently not printed at the time.

During this third voyage, while about the gulf of Paria, new visions of the earth's form filled the mind of the great navigator, inflamed as it was by illness and anxiety. The world was indeed for the most part spherical, as had been supposed, but in this great central region on the equator he believed the surface to rise gradually to a great height, making the earth pear-shape with the terrestrial paradise, or birth-place of man, on its apex, the waters and islands visited by him being on the borders of this elevated portion. It is not necessary to enumerate the natural phenomena, scientific writings, and scripture texts with which he confirmed his theory. In his distracted enthusiasm he leaves us somewhat uncertain as to his idea of the situation of this new region with respect to India proper and those parts of Asia found by him in a former voyage farther north. If he had supposed it to be simply a southern extension of Marco Polo's Asia, he would not subsequently have sought for a strait or passage to India to the north rather than to the south of this point. Gama's successful circumnavigation of Africa forbade a revival in the mind of Columbus of the old theory of Ptolemy, that Africa extended east and north so as to enclose the Indian Ocean like an immense gulf. The admiral's idea, so far as he formed a definite one on the subject, must have been that of a large island, or detached portion of the Asiatic continent, occupying very nearly the actual relative position of the Australian archipelago, and only vaguely included, if at all, in ancient or mediæval knowledge of the far East. No other conclusion could rationally be drawn from his letters and subsequent actions; and we shall find such an idea of the geography of these parts often repeated in following years. We shall also see how unfortunate it was for the posthumous glory of the great discoverer in the matter of naming the western world, that he did not more clearly specify his idea of this new land—for I believe this was the first suspicion that new lands of any considerable extent existed—and that his account of this and his fourth voyage were not more widely circulated in print.

[1499.] The discovery of the Pearl Coast, made known in Spain in December, 1498, caused several expeditions to be sent out in the following year. These were trading and not exploring voyages, and their commanders had no thought of cosmography, caring little whether Paria were the terrestrial paradise or the infernal regions, so that pearls, and gold, and slaves were abundant. No connected journals of these voyages have been preserved, our knowledge of them being derived from statements of the early historians and from testimony in the famous lawsuit with the heirs of Columbus, printed in Navarrete's collection.

[Sidenote: MINOR EXPEDITIONS.]

The first was that of Alonso de Ojeda, who, by the influence of Bishop Fonseca, the admiral's most bitter enemy, obtained a commission to visit the Pearl Coast, avoiding, however, lands discovered by the Portuguese and by Columbus prior to 1495. In company with Juan de la Cosa and Amerigo Vespucci, Ojeda embarked with four vessels from Santa María, near Cádiz, on the 20th of May, 1499. Sailing by the admiral's charts, he touched at the Canaries, and after twenty-four days reached the main-land of South America between 3° and 6° north latitude—that is according to Ojeda's testimony; but Vespucci's account of what was probably the same voyage brings them first upon the continent further south. This is claimed by Varnhagen, _Examen de quelques points de l'histoire géographique du Brazil_, Paris, 1858, as the first discovery of Brazil. Following the coast north-west for 200 leagues without landing, but discovering the two great rivers Essequebo and Orinoco, they landed on Trinidad Island, the first inhabited coast which they touched, where they traded for pearls and found traces of the admiral who had preceded them. Out through the Boca del Drago, following the coast of Paria to the gulf of Pearls, or Curiana, landing on Margarita Island, anchoring in the bay of Corsarios, they continued from port to port to Chichirivichi, where they had a fight with the natives, and spent twenty days in a port near by. Ojeda then visited Curazao and the gulf of Venezuela, where was found a town built over the water like Venice. On the 24th of August he discovered Lake Maracaibo, and afterward followed the coast westward to Cape de la Vela, whence he directed his course, on the 30th of August, to Española, arriving, as we have seen, September 5, 1499. He finally returned to Spain in the middle of June, 1500, the voyage having yielded but a small profit. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 4-11 and 543-5; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 367-9; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. pp. 195, 220; _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i. p. 76.

The second minor expedition to South America was that of Pedro Alonso Niño and Cristóbal Guerra, similar in its object to that of Ojeda. A few days after Ojeda's departure they sailed from Palos in one vessel with thirty-three men, reaching the main-land farther north, and some fifteen days later than Ojeda. They traded on the coast of Cumaná for three months, their western limit being the region of Chichirivichi, started for home February 13, 1500, and arrived in Spain about the middle of April with a large quantity of pearls. _Peter Martyr_, dec. i. cap. viii.; _Gomara_, _Hist. de las Indias_, fol. 98; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. ii. p. 147; tom. iii. pp. 11-18, 542; _Irving's Columbus_, vol. iii. p. 37-42; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 220.

The third expedition of this year was that of Vicente Yañez Pinzon, who had commanded a vessel under Columbus in 1492. Sailing early in December, 1499, from Palos with a fleet of four vessels he crossed the equator, and on the 20th of January—Peter Martyr says the 26th, and Irving the 28th of January—discovered land in latitude 8° south, at Cape St Augustine, which he named Santa María de la Consolacion. Varnhagen, _Examen_, pp. 19-24, entertains doubts regarding the spot where Pinzon first landed, and thinks it quite as likely to have been some cape further north. From this point, wherever it may have been, Pinzon followed the coast to the north, touched at various places, discovered the Amazon, and in due time reached the gulf of Paria. Thence he sailed through the Boca del Drago, arrived at Española on the 23d of June, and returned to Spain in September, 1500. This voyage was as disastrous as the preceding one had been profitable. Peter Martyr states, dec. i. cap. ix., that Paria was thought to be a part of Asia beyond the Ganges. See also _De Navigatione Pinzoni Socii Admirantis, et de rebus per eum repertis_, in _Grynæus_, _Novus Orbis_, p. 119; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 18-23; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 369; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 313-14; tom. iii. p. 221.

Here belongs Amerigo Vespucci's account of a second voyage made in conjunction with others in the service of the king of Spain. Departing in May, 1499—some editions of his letters have it 1489—from Cádiz and touching at the Canaries he steered south-west for nineteen days, sailing in that time 500 leagues to a point on the main-land in latitude 5° south,—from incorrect readings of the originals some editors make him say 800 leagues and latitude 8°—where the days and nights are equal on the 27th of June, at which time the sun enters Cancer. Thence coasting eastward forty leagues; then north-west to a beautiful island and convenient harbor; and yet eighty other leagues to a secure harbor where he remained seventeen days and gathered many pearls; thence to another port; then to an island fifteen leagues from the main-land; and again to another island, which was called Gigantes, where captives were taken; then to a fine bay where the ships were refitted; and finally, after forty-seven days at this last place they sail for Antilla, that is Española. Two months and two days are spent at Antilla, whence on the 22d of July they embark for Spain, and reach Cádiz September 8, 1500. _De Secundariæ Navigatinis Cursu_, Latin text and Spanish translation of Vespucci's letter in _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 242-62.

It has never been claimed that Vespucci attempted discoveries in 1499 as chief in command. The voyage described by him is without doubt that of Pinzon or Ojeda, although D'Avesac, in _Bulletin de la Soc. Géog._, makes it identical with that of Lepe. Humboldt, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. pp. 200 et seq., by comparing the details decides that it was that of Pinzon, and by the same method he concludes that Vespucci's first voyage was that under Ojeda. As the points of resemblance are slight in either case; as Vespucci is known to have accompanied Ojeda; as he would have been obliged to return to Spain before Ojeda in June, 1500, in order to sail with Pinzon in December, 1499; and as Vespucci describes an astronomical phenomenon which, as Humboldt admits, could not possibly have taken place during Pinzon's voyage, I am inclined to accept the generally received opinion that Ojeda's is the voyage described. "There can now be no doubt that Vespucci's voyage in 1499 was identical with that of Ojeda." _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 370; _Varnhagen_, _Exam._, pp. 1-19. Navarrete and Irving imply that this was the only voyage made by Vespucci for the crown of Spain. However it may be, for the purposes of this Summary the question is of little importance; for there are no disputed points of geographical import depending on the two trading voyages, one of which Vespucci attempts to describe; and if there were, his account in the different forms in which it exists is so full of blunders that it could throw but little light upon the subject.

[Sidenote: LEPE, GUERRA, AND CABRAL.]

The fourth minor expedition of this year was that of Diego de Lepe, who sailed in less than a month after Pinzon—that is near the end of December, 1499—with two vessels. Touching main-land below Cape St Augustine, he observed the south-western trend of the coast below that point; but of his voyage along the shore nothing is known save that he reached the Pearl Coast. Before the 5th of June he had returned to Spain. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 23-4, 553-5; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 314-15; tom. iv. pp. 221-2.

There are some scattered hints collected in _Biddle's Memoir of Sebastian Cabot_, pp. 91 et seq., of a new expedition in 1499 by the Cabots, directed this time to tropical regions. They are not sufficient to render it probable that such a voyage was made, although Ojeda reported that he found several Englishmen cruising on the Pearl Coast. _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 41; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, p. 145.

[1500.] In this year Cristóbal Guerra made a second voyage to the Pearl Coast with some success, and returned to Spain before November 1, 1501. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 24-5. Spain also made preparations to explore the northern lands discovered by the Cabots, but without any known results. _Peschel_, _Geschichte der Entd._, Stuttgart, 1858, p. 316; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 41-46; _Biddle's Mem. Cabot_, p. 236; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 192-3. In _Diccionario Universal, Apénd._, article 'Viages,' p. 805, is mentioned a voyage to the Pearl Coast by Alonso Velez de Mendoza in two vessels. No authorities are given.

The year following the return of Gama from his successful voyage to India, Pedro Alvarez Cabral was entrusted with the command of thirteen well-armed vessels, and sent to establish commercial relations with the new countries now made accessible to Portuguese enterprise. Cabral embarked from Lisbon on the 9th of March, 1500; thirteen days later he left behind him the Cape Verde Islands, pursuing a south-westerly course. Whether he was driven by storms in this direction, or wished to avoid the calms of the Guinea coast, or whether he entertained a hope of reaching some part of the regions recently discovered by the Spaniards is not known. Certain it is, however, that notwithstanding his having sailed for India, on the 22d of April—Humboldt says in February—he found himself on the coast of Brazil in about latitude 10° south, leaving a gap probably of some 170 leagues between this point and the southern limit of Lepe and Pinzon. Thence he coasted southward, took formal possession of the land on the 1st of May at Porto Seguro, and named the country Vera Cruz, which name soon became Santa Cruz. Cabral immediately sent Gaspar de Lemos in one of the ships back to Portugal with an account and map of the new discoveries. Leaving two convicts with the natives of that coast, Cabral continued his journey for India on the 22d of May. Off the Cape of Good Hope he lost four vessels, in one of which was Bartolomeu Dias, the discoverer of the cape, and reached Calicut on the 13th of September. Returning he met at Cape Verde a fleet, on board of which is supposed to have been Amerigo Vespucci, and arrived at Lisbon July 23, 1501. _Navigation del Capitano Pedro Alvares_, in _Ramusio_, tom. i. fol. 132-9; _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. i. booke ii. pp. 30-1; _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 48-9; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 45-6, 94-101; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. p. 315; tom. iv. p. 223; tom. v. pp. 53, 61.

The Portuguese did not overlook the north while making their important discoveries to the south. Two vessels, probably in the spring of 1500, were sent out under Gaspar Cortereal. No journal or chart of the voyage is now in existence, hence little is known of its object or results. Still more dim is a previous voyage ascribed by Cordeiro to João Vaz Cortereal, father of Gaspar, about the time of Kolno, which, as Kunstmann views it, "requires further proof." Touching at the Azores, Gaspar Cortereal, possibly following Cabot's charts, struck the coast of Newfoundland north of Cape Race, and sailing north discovered a land which he called Terra Verde, perhaps Greenland, but was stopped by ice at a river which he named Rio Nevado, whose location is unknown. Cortereal returned to Lisbon before the end of 1500. _Cancellieri_, _Notizie di Colombo_, pp. 48-9; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 57; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 95-6; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 374; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 166-8, 174-7. Biddle, _Mem. Cabot_, pp. 137-261, thinks that Cortereal landed south of Cape Race; Humboldt, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 222, is of the opinion that Terra Verde was not Greenland.

In October of this same year Rodrigo de Bastidas sailed from Cádiz with two vessels. Touching the shore of South America near Isla Verde, which lies between Guadalupe and the main-land, he followed the coast westward to El Retrete, or perhaps Nombre de Dios, on the isthmus of Darien, in about 9° 30' north latitude. Returning, he was wrecked on Española toward the end of 1501, and reached Cádiz in September, 1502. This being the first authentic voyage by Europeans to the territory herein defined as the Pacific States, such incidents as are known will be given hereafter. For references to this voyage, see _Oviedo_, _Hist. Gen._, tom. i. p. 76; tom. ii. p. 334, where the date given is 1502; _Gomara_, _Hist. Ind._, fol. 67, date of voyage also 1502; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 25-8, 545-6; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i. lib. iv. cap. xi.; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 99-100, date of voyage 1503; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. pp. 360-1; tom. iv. pp. 224; _Voyages, Curious and Ent._, p. 436; _Churchill's Col. Voy._, vol. viii. p. 375; _Harris' Col. Voy._, vol. i. p. 270; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 369-70; _Asiento que hizo con sus Majestades Católicas Rodrigo de Bastidas_, in _Pacheco_ and _Cárdenas_, _Col. Doc. Inéd._, tom. ii. pp. 362-467; _Robertson's Hist. Am._, vol. i. p. 159; _Quintana_, _Vidas de Españoles Célebres_, 'Balboa,' p. 1.

[Sidenote: EARLIEST EXISTING MAPS.]

Of the many manuscript maps and charts made by navigators prior to this time none have been preserved. In the year 1500, however, a map of the world was made by the veteran pilot Juan de la Cosa, who had sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, and had accompanied Alonso de Ojeda to the Pearl Coast. It is preserved in the Royal Library of Madrid, and shows in a remarkably clear manner all discoveries up to that date. Drawn in colors and gold on ox-hide, on a scale of fifteen leagues to the degree, it lays down the parallels of Gibraltar and Paris, beside the equator and tropic of Cancer, and gives a scale at the top and bottom. _Stevens' Notes_, p. 16. Humboldt first published a copy of the American portion, and the whole, or parts thereof, have been since published or described in _Lelewel_, _Géog. du moyen âge_, tom. ii. pp. 109 et seq., atlas, no. 41; _Sagra_, _Hist. physique et politique de l'île de Cuba_, Paris, 1838, and atlas; _Ghillany_, _Geschichte_, etc., pref. by Humboldt; _Jomard_, _Monuments de géog._, atlas no. xvi., which gives a full-sized fac-simile; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 151-5, 239, plate v., being a copy of the northern part from Humboldt with additions from Jomard. Stevens in his _Notes_, see pp. 11-16, 33, 51, and plate i., produces a photo-lithographic copy of the western hemisphere from Jomard. I give a copy of the central portions of the western hemisphere from Humboldt, Stevens, and Kohl.

The upper portion is North America, and the lower South America, between which a continuous coast line remains as yet undiscovered.

All the newly found regions are represented as parts of Asia, and consequently names are applied only to islands and particular localities. Up to this time three portions of the supposed Asiatic seaboard have been explored. First, there are the discoveries of the Cabots in the north, represented as extending from 'Cabo de Yngleterra' westward to the flag which bounds the 'Sea discovered by the English.' This direct western trend of the coast, most likely laid down from Cabot's charts, is one of the strongest evidences that the coast explored by Cabot was the northern shore of the gulf of St Lawrence. Another reason for entertaining such belief is the use of the words _Mar descubierta por Yngleses_ instead of _Mare Oceanus_, thus indicating that it was a sea or gulf and not the open ocean. Cosa could not at the time have known the results of Cortereal's voyage. On Cabot's coast various points are named, but farther to the north-east and to the south-west the line is laid down indefinitely and without names, probably from Marco Polo. Kohl puts the inscription _Mar descubierta_, etc., farther south and west than on the original, and thinks the curve in the coast west of the last flag to be Cape Cod. Then we have in the south the northern coast of South America quite accurately laid down from Cape de la Vela south-eastward to the limit of Pinzon's voyage in 1499; with a nameless coast-line south-east to the locality of Cape St Augustine. From Cape de la Vela we have the same imaginary coast-line without names extending westward, as if to meet the line from the north-east; but just at the point where the lines must meet, or be separated by a strait leading to India proper, the non-committal map-maker inserted a picture—indicated by the double dotted lines—thus avoiding the expression of his opinion as to whether the Pearl Coast was joined to Asia, or was detached from the continent. On the original map no attempt is made to show inland topography, although the copies of Humboldt and Kohl have some lakes and rivers. I have taken the liberty to indicate the indefinite, nameless coasts by a dotted line for greater clearness. The last of the three several explored regions shown by this map are the central islands, Cuba, Española, and others discovered by Columbus, who was accompanied in at least one of his voyages by the author himself. In this part of the map some difficulty has arisen from the fact that Cuba is represented as an island, while Columbus is known to have held the opinion that it was a part of the mainland; an opinion, as before stated, which was subscribed to under oath by all his men, including Juan de la Cosa. On the original, the western part of Cuba is cut off by green paint, the conventional sign of _terra incognita_, which leads Stevens to infer that the pilot "did not intend to represent Cuba to be an island," but that he only supposed it to be such. This, however, by no means implies that the draughtsman intended to say that Cuba was not an island, but rather that he was not certain that it was an island, but only supposed it to be. It will be remembered that the natives affirmed from the first that it was an island, although so large that no one had ever reached its western extremity. This statement, together with his own observations during the voyage, probably caused Juan de la Cosa to afterward change the opinion to which he had perhaps hastily subscribed at the request of Columbus. There can be but little doubt of the authenticity of this map, although Stevens considers it has been distorted in the various copies and descriptions. That the author did not himself make any later additions to it is evident from the fact that his own subsequent discoveries are not shown.

[1501.] Again King Henry of England issues commissions permitting private persons to make discovery at their own expense. So far as known, however, no voyage was effected under this royal encouragement, although it is not improbable that intercourse with Newfoundland was continued after Cabot's discovery. _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 55; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 185-7; _Biddle's Mem. Cabot_, p. 228 et seq.; _Peschel_, _Geschichte der Entd._, p. 334 et seq.

[Sidenote: JUAN DE NOVA AND THE CORTEREALS.]

The Portuguese, more practical in their attempts, push discovery in all directions. Juan de Nova with four vessels sails from Lisbon March 5, 1501, doubles the Cape of Good Hope, and returning reaches Lisbon September 11, 1502, having discovered Ascension Island on the voyage out, and St Helena on the return. _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 97-8; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 413; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 225; tom. v. p. 107. The Cape of Good Hope route to India may now be declared open; voyages thither from this time cannot properly be called voyages of discovery; hence of the frequent subsequent voyages of the Portuguese to India I shall make no mention except of such as in some way relate to America. For a summary of these later voyages see _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 413-18.

Gaspar Cortereal this year makes a second voyage to the regions of the north, sailing from Belem, near Lisbon, May 15, 1501, with two or three vessels, touching probably at some point in Newfoundland, and coasting northward some six or seven hundred miles. He does not, however, reach the Terra Verde of the former voyage on account of ice. One of the vessels—Kunstmann says two—returned, arriving at Lisbon October 8, 1501; the other with the commander was never afterward heard from. One of the chief objects of this expedition seems to have been the capture of slaves. The name Labrador is applied by Cortereal to this discovery, "and is perhaps the only permanent trace of Portuguese adventure within the limits of North America." _Bancroft's Hist. U. S._, vol. i. p. 16; _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. p. 44; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 374; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 224; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 169-71; _Peschel_, _Geschichte der Entd._, pp. 331 et seq.; _Biddle's Mem. Cabot_, pp. 237 et seq.

The Portuguese also send an expedition to prosecute the discoveries begun by Cabral, who has not yet returned from India, but whose discovery of Brazil has been reported by Lemos. Strangely enough no documents exist in the Portuguese archives touching this voyage, nor is the name of its commander known, although Varnhagen thinks it may have been Manuel. It is known as Vespucci's third voyage, and its incidents are found only in his letters. The authenticity of this as of his other voyages has been often doubted and denied, and as it is the voyage that resulted in the naming of America, it has given rise to much discussion, into which however I shall not enter. The discussion does not affect the voyage itself, nor the leading facts connected with it, the questions being whether Vespucci was in command, which indeed he does not claim to have been; and above all, whether the results of the voyage entitled him to the honor of naming America, which they certainly did not, even had he commanded, from the fact that other navigators had discovered both of the Americas before him. Navarrete, one of Vespucci's most jealous enemies, admits that he visited the coast of Brazil in a subordinate capacity in some Portuguese expedition; and Humboldt, in an essay of 115 pages, effectually defends the veracity of Vespucci in his accounts of his voyages, which the distinguished commentator quotes with notes on the variations of different editions.

Vespucci was induced to leave Seville in order to accompany the fleet, which consisted of three vessels—some editions say ten, some fourteen—and which sailed from Lisbon on the 13th of May. Passing the Canaries without landing, to the African coast and Basilica in 14°, probably Cape Verde, there he remained eleven days. At this place he met Cabral's fleet returning from India and learned the particulars of the voyage, including the American discoveries, of which he gives a full account in a letter written at the time under date of June 4, 1501, which is a strong proof of the veracity of his other accounts. See extracts in _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. v. pp. 34-44. It is extraordinary that in the several accounts of this meeting the name of Vespucci's commander is not mentioned. From Cape Verde the fleet sailed south-west sixty-seven days and touched the main-land the 17th of August, at a point in 5° south latitude, taking possession for the king of Portugal. Thence it followed the coast south-east, doubled Cape St Augustine, and went on in sight of land for 600 leagues to a point in 32° south—according to Gomara, 40°; Navarrete thinks it could not have been over 26°. Having found no precious metals during a voyage of ten months, the Portuguese abandoned this coast on the 13th (or 15th) of February, 1502, and after having been driven by storms far to the south-east, and discovering some land whose identity is uncertain—Humboldt thinks it was an accumulation of ice, or the coast of Patagonia—they reached the coast of Ethiopia on the 10th of May, the Azores toward the end of July, and Lisbon September 7, 1502. Vespucci gives full descriptions of the natives of Brazil, but these descriptions, together with the numerous conflicting statements, or blunders of the various texts relating to details of the voyage, I pass over as unimportant to my purpose. That Vespucci was with a Portuguese fleet which in 1501-2 explored a large but ill-defined portion of the Brazilian coast, there can be no doubt. _Grynæus_, _Novus Orbis_, pp. 122-30; _Ramusio_, _Viaggi_, tom. i. pp. 139-44; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 46, 262-80; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. v. pp. 1-115; _Major's Prince Henry_, pp. 375-7; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 98-9.

[1502.] Miguel Cortereal sailed from Lisbon May 10, 1502, in search of his brother Gaspar, only to share his brother's fate. Neither of his two vessels appears to have returned. _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 44; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 226; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 374; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 171-2.

It is probable that Portuguese fishermen continued their trips more or less to Labrador and Newfoundland, but if so, no accounts have been preserved. _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 187-92; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 69, 95; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. ii. lib. v. cap. iii.

In January, 1502, Alonso de Ojeda with four vessels departed from Cádiz on a second voyage to the Pearl Coast, with the intention of there establishing a colony. Accompanied by Garcia de Ocampo, Juan de Vergara, Hernando de Guevara, and his nephew Pedro de Ojeda, he touched at the Canaries and Cape Verde Islands, and reached the gulf of Paria. Refitting his vessels, on the 11th of March he set sail and coasted north-westward, touching at various points until he came to a port which he called Santa Cruz, probably Bahía Honda, about twenty-five miles east of Cape de la Vela. During the voyage along the coast the vessels were much of the time separated, following different courses. At Santa Cruz Ojeda found a man who had been left by Bastidas, and there he determined to establish his colony. A fort was built, and a vessel sent to Jamaica for supplies; but the colony did not prosper. To other troubles were added dissensions among the fiery leaders, and about the end of May Ojeda was imprisoned by his companions; the colony was finally abandoned, and its governor brought as a prisoner to Española in September. The few disputed points of this voyage concern only the personal quarrels of Ojeda and his fellow-captains. _Navarrete_, _Col. de Viages_, tom. iii. pp. 28-39, 168-70, 591 et seq.; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. p. 360; tom. iv. p. 226.

[Sidenote: FOURTH VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS.]

On the eleventh of May, 1502, Columbus embarked from Cádiz on his fourth and last voyage. Refitting at Española, he directed his course westward, discovered _terra firma_ at the Guanaja Islands, off the north coast of Honduras, and sailing southward, followed the shores of the supposed Asia to El Retrete on the isthmus of Darien, where terminated the discovery of Bastidas from the opposite direction, whose chart may have been in the admiral's possession. Particulars of this voyage are given hereafter. See _Cuarto y Último Viage de Cristobal Colon_, in _Navarrete_, tom. i. pp. 277-313; _Colon_, _Hist. del Almirante_, in _Barcia_, tom. i. pp. 101-18; _Gomara_, _Hist. de las Indias_, fol. 31; _Peter Martyr_, dec. iii. cap. iv.; _Herrera_, _Hist. Gen._, dec. i. lib. v.-vi.; _Benzoni_, _Historia del Mondo Nvovo_, Venetia, 1572, fol. 28; _Galvano's Discov._, pp. 100-1; _Robertson's Hist. Am._, vol. i. pp. 164-74; _Burke's European Settlements in Am._, vol. i. pp. 37-45; _Napione_ and _De Conti_, _Biografia Colombo_, pp. 379-406; _Laharpe_, _Abrégé_, tom. ix. p. 122; _Acosta_, _Comp. Histórico de la Nueva Granada_, cap. i.; _Navigatio Christophori Colvmbi_, in _Grynæus_, _Novus Orbis_, p. 90, and elsewhere.

Since the admiral's discovery, in 1498, of the Pearl Coast, that is, the extreme northern shore of South America, nothing had occurred to modify his views formed at that time concerning the new regions, except to show that this southern addition of the Asiatic continent was much larger than had at first been supposed. His special aim in this fourth voyage was to do what various circumstances had prevented him from doing before, namely, to sail along the eastern and southern coasts of Asia to India, passing, of course, through the supposed strait between the main-land and the land of Paria. It is certainly extraordinary that this idea entertained by Columbus corresponded so closely with the actual conformation of the eastern Asiatic coast, and its southern addition of the Australian archipelago; that this conformation is so closely duplicated in the American coasts; and that the position of the admiral's hypothetical strait was almost identical with the actual narrowest part of the American continent. Columbus followed the coast to the western limit of Bastidas' voyage and could find no opening in the shore, either because the ancient chroniclers were faulty in making no mention of this great supposed southern extension of Asia, or because the strait had in some way escaped his scrutiny. He therefore abandoned the search, and gave himself up to other schemes, but he never relinquished his original idea, and died, 1506, in the belief that he had reached the coast of Asia, and without the suspicion of a new continent. Moreover, his belief was shared by all cosmographers and scholars of the time. _Peter Martyr_, dec. i. cap. viii.; _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. i. p. 26; tom. iv. p. 188; Preface to _Ghillany_; _Major's Prince Henry_, p. 420; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 140, 238-9; _Draper's Int. Develop._, p. 445; _Stevens' Notes_, p. 37.

[1503.] Another expedition was sent by Portugal in search of the Cortereals, but returned unsuccessful. _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 58; _Peschel_, _Geschichte der Entd._, p. 334.

According to Harrisse, _Bib. Am. Vet._, pp. 173-4, we have "authentic deeds and depositions proving beyond doubt a French expedition to Brazil as early as 1503;" in support of which he refers to _De Gonneville_, _Mémoires_, Paris, 1663; _De Brosses_, _Hist. des Navigations_, Paris, 1756, tom. i. pp. 104-14; _Revista Trimensal_, Rio de Janeiro, tom. vi. p. 412-14; _D'Avesac_, in _Bulletin de la Soc. Géog._, tom. xiv. p. 172.

In 1503 the Portuguese sent a third fleet of six vessels under Gonzalo Coelho to make farther explorations on the coast of Brazil, then called Santa Cruz, and to sail, if possible, around its southern extremity to India, an idea that seems to have been conceived during the preceding voyage, but which could not then be carried into effect for want of supplies. Vespucci commanded one of the vessels, and set out with high hopes of accomplishing great things for his country, his God, and himself. This is known as Vespucci's fourth voyage. Beyond the account which he gives in his letters, little is known of it except the fact that Coelho made such a voyage at the time. The identity of the two expeditions has not been undisputed, but Humboldt and Major both show that there can be little doubt in the matter. The fleet sailed from Lisbon on the 10th of June—Vespucci says May—remained twelve or thirteen days at the Cape Verde Islands, and thence sailed south-east to within sight of Sierra Leone. The navigators were prevented by a storm from anchoring, and so directed their course south-west for 300 leagues to a desert island in about lat. 3° south, supposed to be Fernando de Noronha, where Coelho lost his ship on the 10th of August. Vespucci's vessel was separated from the rest for eight days, but afterward joined one of them, and the two sailed south-west for seventeen days, making 300 leagues, and arriving at the Bahía de Todos os Santos. Remaining there two months and four days, they followed the coast for 260 leagues to the port now called Cape Frio, where they built a fort and left twenty-four men who had belonged to the vessel which had been wrecked. In this port, which by Vespucci's observations was in lat. 18° south and 35° (or 57°) west of Lisbon, they remained five months, exploring the interior for forty leagues; they then loaded with Brazil-wood, and after a return voyage of seventy-seven days arrived in Lisbon June 28 (or 18), 1504. Vespucci believed the other ships of the fleet to have been lost, but after his account was written, Coelho returned with two ships; nothing, however, is now known of his movements after the separation. _Di Amerigo Vespucci Fiorentino_, in _Ramusio_, tom, i., _Lettera prima_, fol. 139, _Lettera secondo_, fol. 141, _Sommario_, fol. 141; _Viages de Vespucio_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. pp. 281-90; _Southey's Hist. Brazil_, vol. i. p. 20.

[Sidenote: DIVERS EXPEDITIONS.]

Alfonso de Alburquerque sailed from Lisbon April 6, 1503, with four vessels for India; but shaping his course far to the south-west, after twenty-four (or twenty-eight) days he reached an island previously discovered by Vespucci; thence he touched the main-land of Brazil, after which he proceeded around the Cape of Good Hope to India, and returned to Lisbon September 16, 1504. _Viaggio fatto nell'India per Giovanni di Empoli_, in _Ramusio_, tom. i. fol. 158; _Purchas_, _His Pilgrimes_, vol. i. pp. 32-3. _Bergomas_, _Nouissime historiarũ omniũ_, etc., Venetiis, 1503, a book of chronicles published with frequent additions to date, contains, for the first time, in this edition, a chapter on the newly found islands of Columbus. In my copy, which is dated ten years later, this chapter is on folio 328. At least nine editions of the work appeared before 1540.

[1504.] Soon after the return from his third voyage, Vespucci wrote a letter to Piero de' Medici, setting forth its incidents. This letter, which bears no date, was probably written in corrupt Italian, and after circulating to some extent in manuscript, as was the custom at the time, it may have been printed, but no copies are known to exist, and the original is lost. Translations were made, however, into Latin and German, which appeared in small pamphlet form in at least seventeen different editions before 1507, under the title of _Mundus Novus_, or its equivalent. The earliest edition which bears a date is that of 1504, but of the nine issues without date, some undoubtedly appeared before that year. It is probable that other editions have disappeared on account of their undurable form. None of Vespucci's other accounts are known to have been printed before 1507.

This same year the _Libretto de tutta le Navigazione del Re di Spagna_ is said to have been printed at Venice, being the first collection of voyages, and containing, according to the few Italian authors who claim to have seen it, the first three voyages of Columbus and those of Niño and Pinzon. If authentic, it was the first account of the voyage of Columbus to the Pearl Coast; but no copy is known at present to exist, and its circulation must have been small compared with Vespucci's relations. _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. pp. 67-77; _Harrisse_, _Bib. Am. Vet._, nos. 22-41.

A chart made about 1504 has been preserved which shows Portuguese discoveries only. In the north are laid down Newfoundland and Labrador under the name of 'Terra de Cortte Reall,' and Greenland with no name, but so correctly represented as to form a strong evidence that it was reached by Cortereal. On the south we have the coast of Brazil, to which no name is given; between the two is open sea, with no indication of Spanish discoveries. _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 127-8, and _Munich Atlas_, no. iii.; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 174-7, plate viii.

With the year 1504 the fishing voyages of the Bretons and Normans to Newfoundland are said to have begun, but there are no accounts of any particular voyage. _Sobre las navegaciones de los vascongados á los mares de Terranova_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 176; _Viages Menores_, _Id._, p. 46. Kunstmann, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 69 et seq., makes these trips begin with Denys' in 1503.

Juan de la Cosa equipped and armed four vessels, and was despatched in the service of Queen Isabella of Spain, to explore and trade in the vicinity of the gulf of Urabá, and also to check rumored encroachments of the Portuguese in that direction. All that is recorded of the expedition is that in 1506 the crown received 491,708 maravedís as the royal share of the profits. _Carta de Cristobal Guerra_, in _Navarrete_, tom. ii. p. 293; _Carta de la Reina_, in _Id._, tom. iii. p. 109; _Real Cédula, adicion_, _Id._, p. 161. Stevens, in his _Notes_, p. 33, gives the date as 1505.

[1505.] Alonso de Ojeda, with three vessels, made a third voyage to Coquibacoa and the gulf of Urabá. _Noticias biográficas del capitan Alonso Hojeda_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 169.

The letter written by Columbus from Jamaica July 7, 1503, describing the events of his fourth voyage, is preserved in the Spanish archives. If printed, no copies are known to exist, but an Italian translation appeared as _Copia de la Lettera_, Venetia, 1505.

A Portuguese map made about 1505 by Pedro Reinel shapes Newfoundland more accurately than the map of 1504, being the first to give the name 'C. Raso' to the south-east point; but Greenland is drawn much less correctly. _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, pp. 125-7; _Munich Atlas_, no. i. Plate ix. in _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 177-9, differs materially from the fac-simile in the _Munich Atlas_. See also _Peschel_, _Geschichte der Entd._, p. 332; _Schmeller_, _Ueber einigen der handschriftlichen Seekarten_, in _Akademie der Wissenschaften_, _Abhandl._, tom. iv. pt. i. p. 247 et seq.

[1506.] The Bretons under Jean Denys are said to have explored the gulf of St Lawrence, and to have made a map which has not been found. The reports of this and of succeeding voyages northward are exceedingly vague. _Charlevoix_, _Hist. de la Nouvelle France_, Paris, 1744, tom. i. p. 4; _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 41; _Kohl's Hist. Discov._, pp. 201-5; _Kunstmann_, _Entdeckung Am._, p. 69; _Bancroft's Hist. U. S._, vol. i. p. 16.

Vicente Yañez Pinzon made a second voyage with Juan Diaz de Solis, in which he explored the gulf of Honduras, from the Guanaja Islands, the western limit of Columbus' voyage, to the islands of Caria on the coast of Yucatan, in search of the passage which was still believed to exist between the main continent of Asia and the land known as the Pearl Coast, Santa Cruz, or, in the Latin translations of Vespucci, as the _Mundus Novus_, or New World. Brief mention of this voyage may be found in _Viages Menores_, in _Navarrete_, tom. iii. p. 46, repeated in _Irving's Columbus_, vol. iii. p. 52; and _Humboldt_, _Exam. Crit._, tom. iv. p. 228. See also _Reise des Diaz de Solis und Yanez Pinzon_, in _Sammlung aller Reisebeschreibungen_, tom. xiii. p. 157.

Tristan da Cunha in a voyage to India, sailing from Lisbon March 6, 1506, round Cape St Augustine, heard of—_eut connaissance de_—a Rio São Sebastião in the province of Pernambuco, and discovered the island since called by his name, in 37° 5' south latitude, on his passage to the Cape of Good Hope. Galvano does not mention that Cunha reached America.

* * * * *

On the 20th of May, 1506, at Valladolid, died the great admiral of the Western Ocean, Christopher Columbus; whose story, notwithstanding his innumerable historians, is nowhere more fully comprehended than in the simple lines which may be seen to-day upon his tomb:

"Por Castilla y por Leon
Nuevo Mundo halló Colon."

_Maffei_ of _Volterra_, _Commentariorum urbanorum_, Rome, 1506, a kind of geographical encyclopædia, contains a section on the _loca nuper reperta_. Five editions are mentioned as having been issued in the years 1510, 1511, and 1530, all but one at Paris.

M. Varnhagen claims that the original mixed Italian text of Vespucci's first voyage was printed in Florence in 1505 or 1506, and that several copies have been preserved. This is the text used by him in his defense of Vespucci. See _Premier Voy._, Vienna, 1869, and _Vespucci, son caractère_, etc., Lima, 1865, in which the letter is reproduced. I find no mention by any other author of such an edition.

[1507.] No voyages are mentioned in this year; but the bibliography of the year is remarkable. _Montalboddo_ (or Zorzi), _Paesi Nouamente retrouati, Et Nouo Mondo da Alberico Vesputio, Florentino, intitulato_, Vicentia, 1507, is the second collection of voyages issued, and the first of which any copies at present exist. This work is divided into six books, of which the fourth and fifth relate to America, the fourth being a reproduction of the _Libretto_ of 1504, while the fifth is the _Nouo Mondo_, or third voyage of Vespucci; and its mention in the title shows how important a feature it was deemed in a work of this character. In the following year, besides a new Italian edition, there appeared a German translation under the title of _Ruchamer_, _Newe unbekanthe landte_, Nuremberg, 1508, and a Latin translation, _Itinerariũ Portugallẽsiũ_, Milan, 1508. At least fourteen editions in Italian, Latin, German, and French appeared before 1530.

[Sidenote: THE NAMING OF AMERICA.]