The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus Part 52

The older Scaliger charges him with venality, and with being swayed by Venetian gold.

[291]: Bandini vita d'Amerigo Vespucci.

[292]: Cosm. Munst., p. 1108.

[293]: These particulars are from ma.n.u.script memoranda, extracted from the royal archives, by the late accurate historian Munoz.

[294]: Bartolozzi, Recherche Historico. Firenze, 1789.

[295]: Panzer, tom. vi. p. 33, apud Esame Critico, p. 88, Antazione 1.

[296]: This rare book, in the possession of O. Rich, Esq., is believed to be the oldest printed collection of voyages extant. It has not the pages numbered; the sheets are merely marked with a letter of the alphabet at the foot of each eighth page--It contains the earliest account of the voyages of Columbus, from his first departure until his arrival at Cadiz in chains. The letter of Vespucci to Lorenzo de Medici occupies the fifth book of this little volume. It is stated to have been originally written in Spanish, and translated into Italian by a person of the name of Jocondo. An earlier edition is stated to have been printed in Venice by Alberto Vercellese, in 1504. The author is said to have been Angelo Trivigiani, secretary to the Venetian amba.s.sador in Spain. This Trivigiani appears to have collected many of the particulars of the voyages of Columbus from the ma.n.u.script decades of Peter Martyr, who erroneously lays the charge of the plagiarism to Aloysius Cadamosto, whose voyages are inserted in the same collection. The book was ent.i.tled, "_Libretto di tutta la navigazione del Re de Espagna, delle Isole e terreni nuovamente trovati._"

[297]: Letter of Vespucci to Soderini or Renato--Edit. of Canovai.

[298]: Navarrete, Colec. Viag., tom. i. p. 351.

[299]: Peter Martyr, decad. iii. lib. v. Eden's English trans.

[300]: En este viage que este dicho testigo hizo trujo consigo a Juan de la Cosa, piloto, e Morego Vespuche, e otros pilotos.

[301]: Per la necessita del mantenimento fummo all' Isola d'Antiglia (Hispaniola) che e questa che descoperse Cristoval Colombo piu anni fa, dove facemmo molto mantenimento, e stemmo due mesi e 17 giorni; dove pa.s.sammo moti pericoli e travagli con li medesimi christiani que in questa isola stavanno col Colombo (credo per invidia). Letter of Vespucci.--Edit.

of Canovai.

[302]: Preguntado como lo sabe; dijo--que lo sabe porque vio este testigo la figura que el dicho Almirante al dicho tiempo embio a Castilla al Rey e Reyna, nuestros Senores, de lo que habia descubierto, y porque este testigo luego vino a descubrir y hallo que era verdad lo que dicho tiene que el dicho Almirante descubrio MS. Process of D. Diego Colon, Pregunta 2.

[303]: Este testigo escrivio una carta que el Almirante escriviera al Rey a Reyna N. N. S. S. haciendo les saber las perlas e cosas que habia hallado, y le embio senalado con la dieba carta, en una carta de marear, los rumbos y vientos por donde habia llegado a la Paria, e que este testigo oyo decir como pr. aquella carte se habian hecho otras e por ellas habian venido Pedro Alonzo Merino (Nino) e Ojeda e otros que despues han ido a aquellas partes. Process of D. Diego Colon, Pregunta 9.

[304]: Idem, Pregunta 10.

[305]: Que en todos los viages qne algunos hicieron descubriendo en la dicha tierra, ivan personas que ovieron navegado con el dicho Almirante, y a ellos mostro muchas cosas de marear, y ellos por imitacion e industria del dicho Almirante las aprendian y aprendieron, e seguendo ag. que el dicho Almirante les habia mostrado, hicieron los viages que desenbrieron en la Tierra Firma. Process, Pregunta 10.

[306]: The first suggestion of the name appears to have been in the Latin work already cited, published in St. Diez, in Lorraine, in 1507, in which was inserted the letter of Vespucci to king Rene. The author, after speaking of the other three parts of the world, Asia, Africa, and Europe, recommends that the fourth ehall be called Amerigo, or America, after Vespucci, whom he imagined its discoverer.

_Note to the Revised Edition, 1848._--Humboldt, in his Examen Critique, published in Paris, in 1837, says: "I have been so happy as to discover, very recently, the name and the literary relations of the mysterious personage who (in 1507) was the first to propose the name of America to designate the new continent, and who concealed himself under the Grecianized name of Hylacomylas." He then, by a long and ingenious investigation, shows that the real name of this personage was Martin Waldseemuller, of Fribourg, an eminent cosmographer, patronized by Rene, duke of Lorraine; who no doubt put in his hands the letter received by him from Amerigo Vespucci. The geographical works of Waldseemuller, under the a.s.sumed name of Hylacomylas, had a wide circulation, went through repeated editions, and propagated the use of the name America throughout the world.

There is no reason to suppose that this application of the name was in any wise suggested by Amerigo Vespucci. It appears to have been entirely gratuitous on the part of Waldseemuller.

[307]: An instance of these errors may be cited in the edition of the letter of Amerigo Vespucci to king Rene, inserted by Grinaeus in his Novus...o...b..s, in 1532. In this Vespucci is made to state that he sailed from Cadiz May 20, MCCCCXCVII. (1497,) that he was eighteen months absent, and returned to Cadiz October 15, MCCCCXCIX. (1499,) which would const.i.tute an absence of 29 months. He states his departure from Cadiz, on his second voyage, Sunday, May 11th, MCCCCLx.x.xIX. (1489,) which would have made his second voyage precede his first by eight years. If we subst.i.tute 1499 for 1489, the departure on his second voyage would still precede his return from his first by five months. Canovai, in his edition, has altered the date of the first return to 1498, to limit the voyage to eighteen months.

[308]: Gomara, Hist. Ind., cap. 14.

[309]: Navigatio Christophori Columbi, Madrignano Interprete. It is contained in a collection of voyages called Novus...o...b..s Regionum, edition of 1555, but was originally published in Italian as written by Montalbodo Francanzano (or Francapano de Montaldo), in a collection of voyages ent.i.tled Nuovo Mundo, in Vicenza, 1507.

[310]: Girolamo Benzoni, Hist, del Nuevo Mundo, lib. i. fo. 12. In Venetia, 1572.

[311]: Padre Joseph de Acosta, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 19.

[312]: Juan de Mariana, Hist. Espana, lib. xxvi. cap. 3.

[313]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. ii. lib. iii. cap. 1.

[314]: Commentarios de los Incas, Lib. i. cap. 3.

[315]: Names of historians who either adopted this story in detail, or the charge against Columbus, drawn from it.

Bernardo Aldrete, Antiguedad de Espana, lib. iv. cap. 17, p. 567.

Roderigo Caro, Antiguedad, lib. iii. cap. 76.

Juan de Solorzano, Ind. Jure, tom. i. lib. i. cap. 5.

Fernando Pizarro, Varones Il.u.s.t. del Nuevo Mundo, cap. 2.

Agostino Torniel, Annal. Sacr., tom. i. ann. Mund., 1931, No. 48.

Pet. Damarez or De Mariz, Dial. iv. de Var. Hist., cap. 4.

Gregorio Garcia, Orig. de los Indies, lib. i. cap. 4, 1.

Juan de Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. xviii. cap. 1.

John Baptiste Riccioli, Geograf. Reform., lib. iii.

To this list of old authors may be added many others of more recent date.

[316]: "Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Presbitero, Sevillano, escribio con elegante estilo acerca de las cosas de las Indies, pero dexandose llevar de falsas narraciones." Hijos de Sevilla, Numero ii. p. 42, Let. F. The same is stated in Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, lib. i. p. 437. "El Francisco Lopez de Gomara escrivio tantos borrones e cosas que no son verdaderas, de que ha hecho mucho dano a muchos escritores e coronistas, que despues del Gomara han escrito en las cosas de la Nueva Espana ... es porque les ha hecho errar el Gomara." Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Hist. de la Conquest de la Nueva Espana, Fin de cap. 13.

"Tenia Gomara doctrina y estilo ... per empleose en ordinar sin discernimiento lo que hallo escrito por sus antecesores, y dio credito a petranas no solo falsas sino inverisimiles." Juan Bautista Munoz, Hist. N.

Mundo, Prologo, p 18.

[317]: Vasconcelos, lib. 4.

[318]: Murr, Notice sur M. Behaim.

[319]: Barros, decad. i. lib. ii. cap. 1. Lisbon, 1552.

[320]: Investigations Historicas, Madrid, 1794.

[321]: Cladera, Investig. Hist., p. 115.

[322]: Forster's Northern Voyages, book ii. chap. 2.

[323]: This account is taken from Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 123. The pa.s.sage about gold and other metals is not to be found in the original Italian of Ramusio, (tom. ii. p. 23,) and is probably an interpolation.

[324]: Hakluyt, Collect., vol. iii. p. 127.

[325]: Malte-Brun, Hist, de Geog., tom. i. lib. xvii.

[326]: Idem, Geog. Unirerselle, tom. xiv. Note sur la decouverte de l'Amerique.

[327]: Gosselin, Recherches sur la Geographic des Anciens, tom. i. p. 162, &c.

[328]: Memoirs de l'Acad. des Inscript., tom. xxvi.

[329]: Capmany, Questiones Criticas, Quest. 6.

[330]: Archives de Ind. en Sevilla.