Don Fernando devoted himself much to letters. According to the inscription

on his tomb, he composed a work in four books, or volumes, the title of

which is defaced on the monument, and the work itself is lost. This is

much to be regretted, as, according to Zuñiga, the fragments of the

inscription specify it to have contained, among a variety of matter,

historical, moral, and geographical notices of the countries he had

visited, but especially of the New World, and of the voyages and

discoveries of his father.

His most important and permanent work, however, was a history of the

admiral, composed in Spanish. It was translated into Italian by Alonzo de

Ulloa, and from this Italian translation have proceeded the editions which

have since appeared in various languages. It is singular that the work

only exists in Spanish, in the form of a retranslation from that of Ulloa,

and full of errors in the orthography of proper names, and in dates and

distances.

Don Fernando was an eye-witness of some of the facts which he relates,

particularly of the fourth voyage, wherein he accompanied his father. He

had also the papers and charts of his father, and recent documents of all

kinds to extract from, as well as familiar acquaintance with the principal

personages who were concerned in the events which he records. He was a man

of probity and discernment, and writes more dispassionately than could be

expected, when treating of matters which affected the honor, the

interests, and happiness of his father. It is to be regretted, however,

that he should have suffered the whole of his father's life, previous to

his discoveries (a period of about fifty-six years), to remain in

obscurity. He appears to have wished to cast a cloud over it, and only to

have presented his father to the reader after he had rendered himself

illustrious by his actions, and his history had become in a manner

identified with the history of the world. His work, however, is an

invaluable document, entitled to great faith, and is the corner-stone of

the history of the American Continent.

[Illustration: Galley, from the tomb of Fernando Columbus, at Seville.]

No. IV.

Age of Columbus.

As the date I have assigned for the birth of Columbus makes him about ten

years older than he is generally represented, at the time of his

discoveries, it is proper to state precisely my authority. In the valuable

manuscript chronicle of the reign of the Catholic sovereigns, written by

Andres Bernaldes, the curate of Los Palacios, there is a long tract on the

subject of the discoveries of Columbus: it concludes with these words:

_Murió en Valladolid, el año de 1506, en el mes de Mayo, in senectute

bona, de edad 70 años, poco mas ó menos_. (He died in Valladolid in the

year 1506, in the month of May, in a good old age, being seventy years

old, a little more or less.) The curate of Los Palacios was a

contemporary, and an intimate friend of Columbus, who was occasionally a

guest in his house; no one was more competent, therefore, to form a

correct idea of his age. It is singular, that, while the biographers of

Columbus have been seeking to establish the epoch of his birth by various

calculations and conjectures, this direct testimony of honest Andres

Bernaldes has entirely escaped their notice, though some of them had his

manuscript in their hands. It was first observed by my accurate friend Don

Antonio Uguina in the course of his exact investigations, and has been

pointed out and ably supported by Don Martin Fernandez de Navarrete, in

the introduction to his valuable collection of voyages.

Various circumstances in the life of Columbus will be found to corroborate

the statement of the curate; such, for example, as the increasing

infirmities with which he struggled during his voyages, and which at last

rendered him a cripple and confined him to his bed. The allusion to his

advanced age in one of his letters to the sovereigns, wherein he relates

the consolation he had received from a secret voice in the night season:

_Tu vejez no impedira a toda cosa grande. Abraham pasaba cien años

cuando engendro a Isaac, &c_. (Thy old age shall be no impediment to

any great undertaking. Abraham was above a hundred years old, when he

begat Isaac, &c.) The permission granted him by the king the year previous

to his death to travel on a mule, instead of a horse, on account of his

_age_ and infirmities; and the assertion of Oviedo that at the time

of his death he was quite old. (_era ya viejo._)

This fact of the advanced age of Columbus throws quite a new coloring over

his character and history. How much more extraordinary is the ardent

enthusiasm which sustained him through his long career of solicitation,

and the noble pride with which he refused to descend from his dignified

demands, and to bargain about his proposition, though life was rapidly

wasting in delays. How much more extraordinary is the hardihood with which

he undertook repeated voyages into unknown seas, amidst all kinds of

perils and hardships; the fortitude with which he bore up against an

accumulation of mental and bodily afflictions, enough to have disheartened

and destroyed the most youthful and robust, and the irrepressible buoyancy

of spirit with which to the last he still rose from under the ruined

concerns and disappointed hopes and blasted projects of one enterprise, to

launch into another, still more difficult and perilous.

We have been accustomed to admire all these things in Columbus when we

considered him in the full vigor of his life; how much more are they

entitled to our wonder as the achievements of a man whom the weight of

years and infirmities was pressing into the grave.

No. V.

Lineage of Columbus.

The ancestry of Christopher Columbus has formed a point of zealous

controversy, which is not yet satisfactorily settled. Several honorable

families, possessing domains in Placentia, Montferrat, and the different

parts of the Genoese territories, claim him as belonging to their houses;

and to these has recently been added the noble family of Colombo in

Modena. [Spotorno, Hist. Mem., p. 5.] The natural desire to prove

consanguinity with a man of distinguished renown has excited this rivalry;

but it has been heightened, in particular instances, by the hope of

succeeding to titles and situations of wealth and honor, when his male

line of descendants became extinct. The investigation is involved in

particular obscurity, as even his immediate relatives appear to have been

in ignorance on the subject.

Fernando Columbus, in his biography of the admiral, after a pompous

prelude, in which he attempts to throw a vague and cloudy magnificence

about the origin of his father, notices slightly the attempts of some to

obscure his fame, by making him a native of various small and

insignificant villages; and dwells with more complacency upon others who

make him a native of places in which there were persons of much honor of

the name, and many sepulchral monuments with arms and epitaphs of the

Colombos. He relates his having himself gone to the castle of Cucureo, to

visit two brothers of the family of Colombo, who were rich and noble, the

youngest of whom was above one hundred years of age, and who he had heard

were relatives of his father; but they could give him no information upon

the subject; whereupon he breaks forth into his professed contempt for

these adventitious claims, declaring, that he thinks it better to content

himself with dating from the glory of the admiral, than to go about

inquiring whether his father "were a merchant, or one who kept his hawks;"

[268] since, adds he, of persons of similar pursuits, there are thousands

who die every day, whose memory, even among their own neighbors and

relatives, perishes immediately, without its being possible afterwards

to ascertain even whether they existed.

After this, and a few more expressions of similar disdain for these empty

distinctions, he indulges in vehement abuse of Agostino Guistiniani, whom

he calls a false historian, an inconsiderate, partial, or malignant

compatriot, for having, in his psalter, traduced his father, by saying,

that in his youth he had been employed in mechanical occupations.

As, after all this discussion, Fernando leaves the question of his

father's parentage in all its original obscurity, yet appears irritably

sensitive to any derogatory suggestions of others, his whole evidence

tends to the conviction that he really knew nothing to boast of in his

ancestry.

Of the nobility and antiquity of the Colombo family, of which the admiral

probably was a remote descendant, we have some account in Herrera, "We

learn," he says, "that the emperor Otto the Second, in 940, confirmed to

the counts Pietro, Giovanni, and Alexandro Colombo, brothers, the

feudatory possessions which they held within the jurisdiction of the

cities of Ayqui, Savona, Aste, Montferrato, Turin, Viceli, Parma, Cremona,

and Bergamo, and all others which they held in Italy. It appears that the

Colombos of Cuccaro, Cucureo, and Placentia, were the same, and that the

emperor in the same year, 940, made donation to the said three brothers of

the castles of Cuccaro, Conzano, Rosignano, and others, and of the fourth

part of Bistanio, which appertained to the empire." [269]

One of the boldest attempts of those biographers, bent on ennobling

Columbus, has been to make him son of the Lord of Cuccaro, a burgh of

Montferrat, in Piedmont, and to prove that he was born in his father's

castle at that place; whence he and his brothers eloped at an early age,

and never returned. This was asserted in the course of a process brought

by a certain Baldasser, or Balthazar, Colombo, resident in Genoa, but

originally of Cuccaro, claiming the title and estates, on the death of

Diego Colon, duke of Veragua, in 1578, the great-grandson, and last

legitimate male descendant of the admiral. The council of the Indies

decided against this claim to relationship. Some account of the lawsuit

will be found in another part of the work.

This romantic story, like all others of the nobility of his parentage, is

at utter variance with the subsequent events of his life, his long

struggles with indigence and obscurity, and the difficulties he endured

from the want of family connections. How can it be believed, says Bossi,

that this same man, who, in his most cruel adversities was incessantly

taunted by his enemies with the obscurity of his birth, should not reply

to this reproach, by declaring his origin, if he were really descended

from the Lords of Cuccaro, Conzano, and Rosignano? a circumstance which

would have obtained him the highest credit with the Spanish nobility.

[270]

The different families of Colombo which lay claim to the great navigator,

seem to be various branches of one tree, and there is little doubt of his

appertaining remotely to the same respectable stock.

It appears evident, however, that Columbus sprang immediately from a line

of humble but industrious citizens, which had existed in Genoa, even from

the time of Giacomo Colombo the wool-carder, in 1311, mentioned by

Spotorno; nor is this in any wise incompatible with the intimation of

Fernando Columbus, that the family had been reduced from high estate to

great poverty, by the wars of Lombardy. The feuds of Italy, in those ages,

had broken down and scattered many of the noblest families; and while some

branches remained in the lordly heritage of castles and domains, others

were confounded with the humblest population of the cities.

No. VI.

Birthplace of Columbus.

There has been much controversy about the birthplace of Columbus. The

greatness of his renown has induced various places to lay claim to him as

a native, and from motives of laudable pride, for nothing reflects greater

lustre upon a city than to have given birth to distinguished men. The

original and long established opinion was in favor of Genoa; but such

strenuous claims were asserted by the states of Placentia, and in

particular of Piedmont, that the Academy of Sciences and Letters of Genoa

was induced, in 1812, to nominate three of its members, Signors Serra,

Carrega, and Piaggio, commissioners to examine into these pretensions.

The claims of Placentia had been first advanced in 1662, by Pietro Maria

Campi, in the ecclesiastical history of that place, who maintained that

Columbus was a native of the village of Pradello, in that vicinity. It

appeared probable, on investigation, that Bertolino Colombo,

great-grandfather to the admiral, had owned a small property in Pradello,

the rent of which had been received by Domenico Colombo of Genoa, and

after his death by his sons Christopher and Bartholomew. Admitting this

assertion to be correct, there was no proof that either the admiral, his

father, or grandfather, had ever resided on that estate. The very

circumstances of the case indicated, on the contrary, that their home was

in Genoa.

The claim of Piedmont was maintained with more plausibility. It was shown

that a Domenico Colombo was lord of the castle of Cuccaro in Montferrat,

at the time of the birth of Christopher Columbus, who, it was asserted,

was his son, and born in his castle. Balthazar Colombo, a descendant of

this person, instituted a lawsuit before the council of the Indies for the

inheritance of the admiral, when his male line became extinct. The council

of the Indies decided against him, as is shown in an account of that

process given among the illustrations of this history. It was proved that

Domenico Colombo, father of the admiral, was resident in Genoa both before

and many years after the death of this lord of Cuccaro, who bore the same

name.

The three commissioners appointed by the Academy of Sciences and Letters

of Genoa to examine into these pretensions, after a long and diligent

investigation, gave a voluminous and circumstantial report in favor of

Genoa. An ample digest of their inquest may be found in the History of

Columbus by Signer Bossi, who, in an able dissertation on the question,

confirms their opinion. It may be added, in farther corroboration, that

Peter Martyr and Bartholomew Las Casas, who were contemporaries and

acquaintances of Columbus, and Juan de Barros, the Portuguese historian,

all make Columbus a native of the Genoese territories.

There has been a question fruitful of discussion among the Genoese

themselves, whether Columbus was born in the city of Genoa, or in some

other part of the territory. Finale, and Oneglia, and Savona, towns on the

Ligurian coast to the west, Boggiasco, Cogoleto, and several other towns

and villages, claim him as their own. His family possessed a small

property at a village or hamlet between Quinto and Nervi, called Terra

Rossa; in Latin, Terra Kubra; which has induced some writers to assign his

birth to one of those places. Bossi says that there is still a tower

between Quinto and Nervi which bears the title of Torre dei Colombi.

[271] Bartholomew Columbus, brother to the admiral, styled himself of

Terra Rubra, in a Latin inscription on a map which he presented to Henry

VII of England, and Fernando Columbus states, in his history of the

admiral, that he was accustomed to subscribe himself in the same manner

before he attained to his dignities.

Cogoleto at one time bore away the palm. The families there claim the

discoverer and preserve a portrait of him. One or both of the two admirals

named Colombo, with whom he sailed, are stated to have come from that

place, and to have been confounded with him so as to have given support to

this idea. [272]

Savona, a city in the Genoese territories, has claimed the same honor, and

this claim has recently been very strongly brought forward. Signer

Giovanni Battista Belloro, an advocate of Savona, has strenuously

maintained this claim in an ingenious disputation, dated May 12th, 1826,

in form of a letter to the Baron du Zach, editor of a valuable

astronomical and geographical journal, published monthly at Genoa.

[273]

Signor Belloro claims it as an admitted fact, that Domenico Colombo was

for many years a resident and citizen of Savona, in which place one

Christopher Columbus is shown to have signed a document in 1472.

He states that a public square in that city bore the name of Platea

Columbi, toward the end of the 14th century; that the Ligurian government

gave the name of Jurisdizione di Colombi to that district of the republic,

under the persuasion that the great navigator was a native of Savona; and

that Columbus gave the name of Saona to a little island adjacent to

Hispaniola, among his earliest discoveries.

He quotes many Savonese writers, principally poets, and various historians

and poets of other countries, and thus establishes the point that Columbus

was held to be a native of Savona by persons of respectable authority. He

lays particular stress on the testimony of the Magnifico Francisco

Spinola, as related by the learned prelate Felippo Alberto Pollero,

stating that he had seen the sepulchre of Christopher Columbus in the

cathedral at Seville, and that the epitaph states him expressly to be a

native of Savona: "Hic jacet Christophorus Columbus Savonensis."

[274]

The prooft advanced by Signor Belloro show his zeal for the honor of his

native city, but do not authenticate the fact he undertakes to establish.

He shows clearly that many respectable writers believed Columbus to be a

native of Savona; but a far greater number can be adduced, and many of

them contemporary with the admiral, some of them his intimate friends,

others his fellow-citizens, who state him to have been born in the city of

Genoa. Among the Savonese writers, Giulio Salinorio, who investigated the

subject, comes expressly to the same conclusion: "_Geneva cittá

nobilissima era la patria de Colombo_."

Signor Belloro appears to be correct in stating that Domenico, the father

of the admiral, was several years resident in Savona. But it appears from

his own dissertation, that the Christopher who witnessed the testament in

1472, styled himself of Genoa: "_Christophorus Columbus lancrius de

Janua._" This incident is stated by other writers, who presume this

Christopher to have been the navigator on a visit to his father, in the

interval of his early voyages. In as far as the circumstance bears on the

point, it supports the idea that he was born at Genoa.

The epitaph on which Signor Belloro places his principal reliance,

entirely fails. Christopher Columbus was not interred in the cathedral of

Seville, nor was any monument erected to him in that edifice. The tomb to

which the learned prelate Felippo Alberto Pollero alludes, may have been

that of Fernando Columbus, son of the admiral, who, as has been already

observed, was buried in the cathedral of Seville, to which he bequeathed

his noble library. The place of his sepulture is designated by a broad

slab of white marble, inserted in the pavement, with an inscription,

partly in Spanish, partly in Latin, recording the merits of Fernando, and

the achievements of his father. On either side of the epitaph is engraved

an ancient Spanish Galley. The inscription quoted by Signor Belloro may

have been erroneously written from memory by the Magnifico Francisco

Spinola, under the mistaken idea that he had beheld the sepulchre of the

great discoverer. As Fernando was born at Cordova, the term Savouensis

must have been another error of memory in the Magnifico; no such word is

to be found in the inscription.

This question of birthplace has also been investigated with considerable

minuteness, and a decision given in favor of Genoa, by D. Gio Battista

Spotorno, of the royal university in that city, in his historical memoir

of Columbus. He shows that the family of the Columbi had long been

resident in Genoa. By'an extract from the notarial register, it appeared

that one Giacomo Colombo, a woolcarder, resided without the gate of St.

Andria, in the year 1311. An agreement, also published by the academy of

Genoa, proved, that in 1489, Domenico Colombo possessed a house and shop,

and a garden with a well, in the street of St. Andrew's gate, anciently

without the walls, presumed to have been the same residence with that of

Giacomo Colombo. He rented also another house from the monks of St.

Stephen, in the Via Mulcento, leading from the street of St. Andrew to the

Strada Giulia. [275]

Signor Bossi states, that documents lately found in the archives of the

monastery of St. Stephen, present the name of Domenico Colombo several

times, from 1456 to 1459, and designate him as son of Giovanni Colombo,

husband of Susanna Fontanarossa, and father of Christopher, Bartholomew,

and Giacomo [276] (or Diego). He states also that the receipts of the

canons show that the last payment of rent was made by Domenico Colombo for

his dwelling in 1489. He surmises that the admiral was born in the

before-mentioned house belonging to those monks, in Via Mulcento, and that

he was baptized in the church of St. Stephen. He adds that an ancient

manuscript was submitted to the commissioners of the Genoese academy, in

the margin of which the notary had stated that the name of Christopher

was on the register of the parish as having been baptized in that church.

[277]

Andres Bernaldez, the curate of los Palacios, who was an intimate friend

of Columbus, says that he was of Genoa. [278] Agostino Giustiniani, a

contemporary of Columbus, likewise asserts it in his Polyglot Psalter,

published in Genoa, in 1516. Antonio de Herrera, an author of great

accuracy, who, though not a contemporary, had access to the best

documents, asserts decidedly that he was born in the city of Genoa.

To these names may be added that of Alexander Geraldini, brother to the

nuncio, and instructor to the children of Ferdinand and Isadella, a most

intimate friend of Columbus. [279] Also Antonio Gallo, [280] Bartolomeo

Senarega, [281] and Uberto Foglieta, [282] all contemporaries with the

admiral, and natives of Genoa, together with an anonymous writer, who

published an account of his voyage of discovery at Venice in 1509. [283]

It is unnecessary to mention historians of later date agreeing in the

same fact, as they must have derived their information from some of these

authorities.

The question in regard to the birthplace of Columbus has been treated thus

minutely, because it has been, and still continues to be, a point of warm

controversy. It may be considered, however, as conclusively decided by the

highest authority, the evidence of Columbus himself. In a testament

executed in 1498, which has been admitted in evidence before the Spanish

tribunals in certain lawsuits among his descendants, he twice declares

that he was a native of the city of Genoa: "_Siendo yo nacido en

Genova._" ("I being born in Genoa.") And again, he repeats the

assertion, as a reason for enjoining certain conditions on his heirs,

which manifest the interest he takes in his native place. "I command the

said Diego, my son, or the person who inherits the said mayorazgo (or

entailed estate), that he maintain always in the city of Genoa a person of

our lineage, who shall have a house and a wife there, and to furnish him

with an income on which he can live decently, as a person connected with

onr family, and hold footing and root in that city as a native of it, so

that he may have aid and favor in that city in case of need, _for from

thence I came and there was born_." [284]

In another part of his testament he expresses himself with a filial

fondness in respect to Genoa. "I command the said Don Diego, or whoever

shall possess the said mayorazgo, that he labor and strive always for the

honor, and welfare, and increase of the city of Genoa, and employ all his

abilities and means in defending and augmenting the welfare and honor of

her republic, in all matters which are not contrary to the service of the

church of God, and the state of the king and queen our sovereigns, and

their successors."

An informal codicil, executed by Columbus at Valladolid, May 4th, 1506,

sixteen days before his death, was discovered about 1785, in the Corsini

library at Rome. It is termed a military codicil, from being made in the

manner which the civil law allows to the soldier who executes such an

instrument on the eve of battle, or in expectation of death. It was

written on the blank page of a little breviary presented to Columbus by

Pope Alexander VII. Columbus leaves the book "to his beloved country, the

Republic of Genoa."

He directs the erection of a hospital in that city for the poor, with

provision for its support, and he declares that republic his successor in

the admiralty of the Indies, in the event of his male line becoming

extinct.

The authenticity of this paper has been questioned. It has been said, that

there was no probability of Columbus having resort to a usage with which

he was, most likely, unacquainted. The objections are not cogent. Columbus

was accustomed to the peculiarities of a military life, and he repeatedly

wrote letters, in critical moments, as a precaution against some fatal

occurrence that seemed to impend. The present codicil, from its date, must

have been written a few days previous to his death, perhaps at a moment

when he imagined himself at extremity. This may account for any difference

in the handwriting, especially as he was, at times, so affected by the

gout in his hands as not to be able to write except at night. Particular

stress has been laid on the signature; but it does not appear that he was

uniform in regard to that, and it is a point to which any one who

attempted a forgery would be attentive. It does not appear, likewise, that

any advantage could have been obtained by forging the paper, or that any

such was attempted.

In 1502, when Columbus was about to depart on his fourth and last voyage,

he wrote to his friend, Doctor Nicolo Oderigo, formerly ambassador from

Genoa to Spain, and forwarded to him copies of all his grants and

commissions from the Spanish sovereigns, authenticated before the alcaldes

of Seville. He, at the same time, wrote to the bank of San Giorgio, at

Genoa, assigning a tenth of his revenues to be paid to that city, in

diminution of the duties on corn, wine, and other provisions.

Why should Colnmbus feel this strong interest in Genoa, had he been born

in any of the other Italian states which have laid claim to him? He was

under no obligation to Genoa. He had resided there but a brief portion of

his early life; and his proposition for discovery, according to some

writers, had been scornfully rejected by that republic. There is nothing

to warrant so strong an interest in Genoa, but the filial tie which links

the heart of a man to his native place, however he may be separated from

it by time or distance, and however little he may be indebted to it for

favors.

Again, had Columbus been born in any of the towns and villages of the

Genoese coast which have claimed him for a native, why should he have made

these bequests in favor of the _city_ of Genoa, and not of his native

town or village?

These bequests were evidently dictated by a mingled sentiment of pride and

affection, which would be without all object if not directed to his native

place. He was at this time elevated above all petty pride on the subject.

His renown was so brilliant, that it would have shed a lustre on any

hamlet, however obscure: and the strong love of country here manifested

would never have felt satisfied until it had singled out the spot, and

nestled down, in the very cradle of his infancy. These appear to be

powerful reasons, drawn from natural feeling, for deciding in favor of

Genoa.

No. VII.

The Colombos.

During the early part of the life of Columbus, there were two other

navigators, bearing the same name, of some rank and celebrity, with whom

he occasionally sailed; their names occurring vaguely from time to time,

during the obscure part of his career, have caused much perplexity to some

of his biographers, who have supposed that they designated the discoverer.

Fernando Columbus affirms them to have been family connections,[285] and

his father says, in one of his letters, "I am not the first admiral of our

family."

These two were uncle and nephew; the latter being termed by historians

Colombo the younger, (by the Spanish historians Colombo el mozo.) They

were in the Genoese service, but are mentioned, occasionally, in old

chronicles, as French commanders, because Genoa, during a great part of

their time, was under the protection, or rather the sovereignty, of

France, and her ships and captains, being engaged in the expeditions of

that power, were identified with the French marine.

Mention is made of the elder Colombo in Zurita's Annals of Arragon, (L.

xix. p. 261,) in the war between Spain and Portugal, on the subject of the

claim of the Princess Juana to the crown of Castile. In 1476, the king of

Portugal determined to go to the Mediterranean coast of France, to incite

his ally, Louis XI, to prosecute the war in the province of Guipuzcoa.

The king left Toro, says Zurita, on the 13th June, and went by the river

to the city of Porto, in order to await the armada of the king of France,

the captain of which was Colon, (Colombo,) who was to navigate by the

straits of Gibraltar to pass to Marseilles.

After some delays Colombo arrived in the latter part of July with the

French armada at Bermeo, on the coast of Biscay, where he encountered a

violent storm, lost his principal ship, and ran to the coast of Galicia,

with an intention of attacking Kibaldo, and lost a great many of his men.

Thence he went to Lisbon to receive the king of Portugal, who embarked in

the fleet in August, with a number of his noblemen, and took two thousand

two hundred foot soldiers, and four hundred and seventy horse, to

strengthen the Portuguese garrisons along the Barbary coast. There were in

the squadron twelve ships and five caravels. After touching at Ceuta the

fleet proceeded to Colibre, where the king disembarked in the middle of

September, the weather not permitting them to proceed to Marseilles.

(Zurita, L. xix. Ch. 51.)

This Colombo is evidently the naval commander of whom the following

mention is made by Jaques George de Chaufepie, in his supplement to Bayle,

(vol. 2, p. 126 of letter C.)

"I do not know what dependence," says Chaufepie, "is to be placed on a

fact reported in the _Ducatiana_, (Part 1, p. 143,) that Columbus was

in 1474 captain of several ships for Louis XI, and that, as the Spaniards

had made at that time an irruption into Roussillon, he thought that, for

reprisal, and without contravening the peace between the two crowns, he

could run down Spanish vessels. He attacked, therefore, and took two

galleys of that nation, freighted on the account of various individuals.

On complaints of this action being made to king Ferdinand, he wrote on the

subject to Louis XI; his letter is dated the 9th December, 1474. Ferdinand

terms Christopher Columbus a subject of Louis; it was because, as is

known, Columbus was a Genoese, and Louis was sovereign of Genoa; although

that city and Savona were held of him in fief by the duke of Milan."

It is highly probable that it was the squadron of this same Colombo of

whom the circumstance is related by Bossi, and after him by Spotorno on

the authority of a letter found in the archives of Milan, and written in

1476 by two illustrious Milanese gentlemen, on their return from

Jerusalem. The letter states that in the previous year 1475, as the

Venetian fleet was stationed off Cyprus to guard the island, a Genoese

squadron, commanded by one Colombo, sailed by them with an air of

defiance, shouting "Viva San Giorgia!" As the republics were then at

peace, they were permitted to pass unmolested.

Bossi supposes that the Colombo here mentioned was Christopher Columbus

the discoverer; but it appears rather to have been the old Genoese admiral

of that name, who according to Zurita was about that time cruising in the

Mediterranean; and who, in all probability, was the hero of both the

preceding occurrences.

The nephew of this Colombo, called by the Spaniards Colombo el mozo,

commanded a few years afterwards a squadron in the French service, as will

appear in a subsequent illustration, and Columbus may at various times

have held an inferior command under both uncle and nephew, and been

present on the above cited occasions.

No. VIII.

Expedition of John of Anjou.

About the time that Columbus attained his twenty-fourth year, his native

city was in a state of great alarm and peril from the threatened invasion

of Alphonso V of Aragon, king of Naples. Finding itself too weak to

contend singly with such a foe, and having in vain looked for assistance

from Italy, it placed itself under the protection of Charles the VIIth of

France. That monarch sent to its assistance John of Anjou, son of René or

Renato, king of Naples, who had been dispossessed of his crown by

Alphonso. John of Anjou, otherwise called the duke of Calabria, [286]

immediately took upon himself the command of the place, repaired its

fortifications, and defended the entrance of the harbor with strong

chains. In the meantime, Alplionso had prepared a large land force, and

assembled an armament of twenty ships and ten galleys at Ancona, on the

frontiers of Genoa. The situation of the latter was considered eminently

perilous, when Alphonso suddenly fell ill of a calenture and died; leaving

the kingdoms of Anjou and Sicily to his brother John, and the kingdom of

Naples to his son Ferdinand.

The death of Alphonso, and the subsequent division of his dominions, while

they relieved the fears of the Genoese, gave rise to new hopes on the part

of the house of Anjou; and the duke John, encouraged by emissaries from

various powerful partisans among the Neapolitan nobility, determined to

make a bold attempt upon Naples for the recovery of the crown. The Genoese

entered into his cause with spirit, furnishing him with ships, galleys,

and money. His father, René or Renato, fitted out twelve galleys for the

expedition in the harbor of Marseilles, and sent him assurance of an

abundant supply of money, and of the assistance of the king of France. The

brilliant nature of the enterprise attracted the attention of the daring

and restless spirits of the times. The chivalrous nobleman, the soldier of

fortune, the hardy corsair, the bold adventurer, or the military partisan,

enlisted under the banners of the duke of Calabria. It is stated by

historians, that Columbus served in the armament from Genoa, in a squadron

commanded by one of the Colombos, his relations.

The expedition sailed in October, 1459, and arrived at Sessa, between the

mouths of the Garigliano and the Volturno. The news of its arrival was the

signal of universal revolt; the factious barons, and their vassals,

hastened to join the standard of Anjou, and the duke soon saw the finest

provinces of the Neapolitan dominions at his command, and with his army

and squadron menaced the city of Naples itself.

In the history of this expedition we meet with one hazardous action of the

fleet in which Columbus had embarked.

The army of John of Anjou, being closely invested by a superior force, was

in a perilous predicament at the mouth of the Sarno. In this conjuncture,

the captain of the armada landed with his men, and scoured the

neighborhood, hoping to awaken in the populace their former enthusiasm for

the banner of Anjou; and perhaps to take Naples by surprise. A chosen

company of Neapolitan infantry was sent against them. The troops from the

fleet having little of the discipline of regular soldiery, and much of the

freebooting disposition of maritime rovers, had scattered themselves about

the country, intent chiefly upon spoil. They were attacked by the infantry

and put to rout, with the loss of many killed and wounded. Endeavoring to

make their way back to the ships, they found the passes seized and blocked

up by the people of Sorento, who assailed them with dreadful havoc. Their

flight now became desperate and headlong; many threw themselves from rocks

and precipices into the sea, and but a small portion regained the ships.

The contest of John of Anjou for the crown of Naples lasted four years.

For a time fortune favored him, and the prize seemed almost within his

grasp, but reverses succeeded: he was defeated at various points; the

factious nobles, one by one, deserted him, and returned to their

allegiance to Alfonso, and the duke was finally compelled to retire to the

island of Ischia. Here he remained for some time, guarded by eight

galleys, which likewise harassed the bay of Naples. [287] In this

squadron, which loyally adhered to him until he ultimately abandoned this

unfortunate enterprise, Columbus is stated to have served.

No. IX.

Capture of the Venetian Galleys, by Colombo the Younger.

As the account of the sea-fight by which Fernando Columbus asserts that

his father was first thrown upon the shores of Portugal, has been adopted

by various respectable historians, it is proper to give particular reasons

for discrediting it.

Fernando expressly says, that it was in an action mentioned by Marco

Antonio Sabelico, in the eighth book of his tenth Decade; that the

squadron in which Columbus served was commanded by a famous corsair,

called Columbus the younger, (Colombo el mozo,) and that an embassy was

sent from Venice to thank the king of Portugal for the succor he afforded

to the Venetian captains and crews. All this is certainly recorded in

Sabellicus, but the battle took place in 1485, after Columbus had

_left_ Portugal. Zurita, in his annals of Aragon, under the date of

1685, mentions this same action. He says, "At this time four Venetian

galleys sailed from the island of Cadiz and took the route for Flanders;

they were laden with merchandise from the Levant, especially from the

island of Sicily, and, passing by Cape St. Vincent, they were attacked by

a French corsair, son of captain Colon, (Colombo,) who had seven vessels

in his armada; and the galleys were captured the twenty-first of August."

[288]

A much fuller account is given in the life of king John II of Portugal, by

Garcia de Resende, who likewise records it as happening in 1485. He says

the Venetian galleys were taken and robbed by the French, and the captains

and crews, wounded, plundered, and maltreated, were turned on shore at

Cascoes. Here they were succored by Doña Maria de Meneses, countess of

Monsanto.

When king John II heard of the circumstance, being much grieved that such

an event should have happened on his coast, and being disposed to show his

friendship for the republic of Venice, he ordered that the Venetian

captains should be furnished with rich raiment of silks and costly cloths,

and provided with horses and mules, that they might make their appearance

before him in a style befitting themselves and their country. He received

them with great kindness and distinction, expressing himself with princely

courtesy, both as to themselves and the republic of Venice; and having

heard their account of the battle, and of their destitute situation, he

assisted them with a large sum of money to ransom their galleys from the

French cruisers. The latter took all the merchandises on board of their

ships, but king John prohibited any of the spoil from being purchased

within his dominions. Having thus generously relieved and assisted the

captains, and administered to the necessities of their crews, he enabled

them all to return in their own galleys to Venice.

The dignitaries of the republic were so highly sensible of this

munificence, on the part of king John, that they sent a stately embassy to

that monarch, with rich presents and warm expressions of gratitude.

Geronimo Donate was charged with this mission, a man eminent for learning

and eloquence; he was honorably received and entertained by king John, and

dismissed with royal presents, among which were jenets, and mules with

sumptuous trappings and caparisons, and many negro slaves richly clad.

[289]

The following is the account of this action as given by Sabellicus, in his

history of Venice: [290]

Erano andate quatro Galee delle quali Bartolommeo Minio era capitano.

Queste navigando per l'Iberico mare, Colombo il piu giovane, nipote di

quel Colombo famoso corsale, fecesi incontro a' Veniziani di notte,

appresso il sacro Promontorio, che chiamasi ora capo di san Vincenzo, con

sette navi guernite da combattere. Egli quantunque nel primo incontro

avesse seco disposto d'opprimere le navi Veniziane, si ritenne però del

combattere sin al giorno: tuttavia per esser alia battaglia più acconcio

così le seguia, che le prode del corsale toccavano le poppe de Veniziani.

Venuto il giorno incontanente i Barbari diedero 1' assalto. Sostennero i

Veniziani allora 1' empito del nemico, per numero di navi e di combattenti

superiore, e durò il conflitto atroce per molte ore. Rare fiate fu

combattuto contro simili nemici con tanta uccisione, perchè a pena si

costuina d'attaccarsi contro di loro, se non per occasione. Affermano

alcuni, che vi furono presenti, esser morte deile ciurme Veniziane da

trecento uomini. Altri dicono che fu meno: morì in quella zuffa Lorenzo

Michele capitano d'una galera e Giovanni Delfino, d'altro capitano

fratello. Era durata la zuffa dal fare del giorno fin' ad ore venti, e

erano le genti Veneziane mal Initiate. Era gia la nave Delfina in potere

de' nemici quando le altre ad una ad una si renderono. Narrano alcuni, che

furono di quel aspro conflitto participi, aver numerato nelle loro navi da

prode a poppe ottanta valorosi uomini estinti, i quali dal nemico veduti

lo mossero a gemere e dire con sdegno, che cosi avevano voluto, i

Veniziani. I corpi morti furono gettati nel mare, e i feriti posti nel

lido. Quei che rimasero vivi seguirono con le navi il capitano vittorioso

sin' a Lisbona e ivi furono tutti licenziati.... Quivi furono i Veniziaui

benignamente ricevuti dal Re, gli infermi furono medicati, gli altri

ebbero abiti e denari secondo la loro condizione.... Oltre cio vietd in

tutto il Regno, che alcuno non comprasse della preda Veniziana, portata

dai corsali. La nuova dell' avuta rovina non poco afflisse la città, erano

perduti in quella mercatanzia da ducento mila ducati; ma il danno

particolare degldi nomini uccisi diede maggior afflizione. _Marc. Ant.

Sabelico, Hist, Venet., decad. iv. lib. iii._

No. X.

Amerigo Vespucci.

Among the earliest and most intelligent of the voyagers who followed the

track of Columbus, was Amerigo Vespucci. He has been considered by many as

the first discoverer of the southern continent, and by a singular caprice

of fortune, his name has been given to the whole of the New World. It has

been strenuously insisted, however, that he had no claim to the title of a

discoverer; that he merely sailed in a subordinate capacity in a squadron

commanded by others; that the account of his first voyage is a

fabrication; and that he did not visit the main-land until after it had

been discovered and coasted by Columbus. As this question has been made a

matter of warm and voluminous controversy, it is proper to take a summary

view of it in the present work.

Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, March 9th, 1451, of a noble, but

not at that time a wealthy, family; his father's name was Anastatio; his

mother's was Elizabetta Mini. He was the third of their sons, and received

an excellent education under his uncle, Georgio Antonio Vespucci, a

learned friar of the fraternity of San Marco, who was instructor to

several illustrious personages of that period.

Amerigo Vespucci visited Spain, and took up his residence in Seville, to

attend to some commercial transactions on account of the family of the

Medici of Florence, and to repair, by his ingenuity, the losses and

misfortunes of an unskillful brother. [291]

The date of his arrival in Spain is uncertain, but from comparing dates

and circumstances mentioned in his letters, he must have been at Seville

when Columbus returned from his first voyage.

Padre Stanislaus Canovai, Professor of Mathematics at Florence, who has

published the life and voyages of Amerigo Vespucci, says that he was

commissioned by king Ferdinand, and sent with Columbus in his second

voyage in 1493. He states this on the authority of a passage in the

Cosmography of Sebastian Munster, published at Basle in 1550;[292] but

Munster mentions Vespucci as having accompanied Columbus in his first

voyage; the reference of Canovai is therefore incorrect; and the

suggestion of Munster is disproved by the letters of Vespucci, in which he

states his having been stimulated by the accounts brought of the

newly-discovered regions. He never mentions such a voyage in any of his

letters; which he most probably would have done, or rather would have

made it the subject of a copious letter, had he actually performed it.

The first notice of a positive form which we have of Vespucci, as resident

in Spain, is early in 1496. He appears, from documents in the royal

archives at Seville, to have acted as agent or factor for the house of

Juanoto Berardi, a rich Florentine merchant, resident in Seville; who had

contracted to furnish the Spanish sovereigns with three several armaments,

of four vessels each, for the service of the newly-discovered countries.

He may have been one of the principals in this affair, which was

transacted in the name of this established house. Berardi died in

December, 1495, and in the following January we find Amerigo Vespucci

attending to the concerns of the expeditions, and settling with the

masters of the ships for their pay and maintenance, according to the

agreements made between them and the late Juanoto Berardi. On the 12th

January, 1496, he received on this account 10,000 maravedis from Bernardo

Pinelo, the royal treasurer. He went on preparing all things for the

dispatch of four caravels to sail under the same contract between the

sovereigns and the house of Berardi, and sent them to sea on the 3d

February, 1496; but on the 8th they met with a storm and were wrecked; the

crews were saved with the loss of only three men. [293] While thus

employed, Amerigo Vespucci, of course, had occasional opportunity of

conversing with Columbus, with whom, according to the expression of the

admiral himself, in one of his letters to his son Diego, he appears to

have been always on friendly terms. From these conversations, and from his

agency in these expeditions, he soon became excited to visit the

newly-discovered countries, and to participate in enterprises, which were

the theme of every tongue. Having made himself well acquainted with

geographical and nautical science, he prepared to launch into the career

of discovery. It was not very long before he carried this design into

execution.

In 1498, Columbus, in his third voyage, discovered the coast of Paria, on

Terra Firma; which he at that time imagined to be a great island, but that

a vast continent lay immediately adjacent. He sent to Spain specimens of

pearls found on this coast, and gave the most sanguine accounts of the

supposed riches of the country.

In 1499, an expedition of four vessels, under command of Alonzo de Ojeda,

was fitted out from Spain, and sailed for Paria, guided by charts and

letters sent to the government by Columbus. These were communicated to

Ojeda, by his patron, the bishop Fonseca, who had the superintendence of

India affairs, and who furnished him also with a warrant to undertake the

voyage.

It is presumed that Vespucci aided in fitting, out the armament, and

sailed in a vessel belonging to the house of Berardi, and in this way was

enabled to take a share in the gains and losses of the expedition; for

Isabella, as queen of Castile, had rigorously forbidden all strangers to

trade with her transatlantic possessions, not even excepting the natives

of the kingdom of Aragon.

This squadron visited Paria and several hundred miles of the coast, which

they ascertained to be Terra Firma. They returned in June, 1500; and on

the 18th of July, in that year, Amerigo Vespucci wrote an account of his

voyage to Lorenzo de Pier Francisco de Medici of Florence, which remained

concealed in manuscript, until brought to light and published by Bandini

in 1745.

In his account of this voyage, and in every other narrative of his

different expeditions, Vespucci never mentions any other person concerned

in the enterprise. He gives the time of his sailing, and states that he

went with two caravels, which were probably his share of the expedition,

or rather vessels sent by the house of Berardi. He gives an interesting

narrative of the voyage, and of the various transactions with the natives,

which corresponds, in many substantial points, with the accounts furnished

by Ojeda and his mariners of their voyage, in a lawsuit hereafter

mentioned.

In May, 1501, Vespucci, having suddenly left Spain, sailed in the service

of Emanuel, king of Portugal; in the course of which expedition he visited

the coast of Brazil. He gives an account of this voyage in a second letter

to Lorenzo de Pier Francisco de Medici, which also remained in manuscript

until published by Bartolozzi in 1789. [294]

No record nor notice of any such voyage undertaken by Amerigo Vespucci, at

the command of Emanuel, is to be found in the archives of the Torre do

Tombo, the general archives of Portugal, which have been repeatedly and

diligently searched for the purpose. It is singular also that his name is

not to be found in any of the Portuguese historians, who in general were

very particular in naming all navigators who held any important station

among them, or rendered any distinguished services. That Vespucci did sail

along the coasts, however, is not questioned. His nephew, after his death,

in the course of evidence on some points in dispute, gave the correct

latitude of Cape St. Augustine, which he said he had extracted from his

uncle's journal.

In 1504, Vespucci wrote a third letter to the same Lorenzo de Medici,

containing a more extended account of the voyage just alluded to in the

service of Portugal. This was the first of his narratives that appeared

in print. It appears to have been published in Latin, at Strasburgh, as

early as 1505, under the title "Americus Vesputius de Orbe Antarctica per

Regem Portugalliæ pridem inventa." [295]

An edition of this letter was printed in Vicenza in 1507, in an anonymous

collection of voyages edited by Francanzio di Monte Alboddo, an

inhabitant of Vicenza. It was re-printed in Italian in 1508, at Milan,

and also in Latin, in a book entitled "Itinerarium Portugalensium." In

making the present illustration, the Milan edition in Italian [296] has

been consulted, and also a Latin translation of it by Simon Grinæus, in

his Novus Orbis, published at Basle in 1532. It relates entirely the

first voyage of Vespucci from Lisbon to the Brazils in 1501.

It is from this voyage to the Brazils that Amerigo Vespucci was first

considered the discoverer of Terra Firma; and his name was at first

applied to these southern regions, though afterwards extended to the

whole continent. The merits of his voyage were, however, greatly

exaggerated. The Brazils had been previously discovered, and formally

taken possession of for Spain in 1500, by Vincente Yañez Pinzon; and

also in the same year, by Pedro Alvarez Cabral, on the part of Portugal;

circumstances unknown, however, by Vespucci and his associates. The

country remained in possession of Portugal, in conformity to the line

of demarcation agreed on between the two nations.

Vespucci made a second voyage in the service of Portugal. He says that

he commanded a caravel in a squadron of six vessels destined for the

discovery of Malacca, which they had heard to be the great depot and

magazine of all the trade between the Ganges and the Indian sea. Such

an expedition did sail about this time, under the command of Gonzalo

Coelho. The squadron sailed, according to Vespucci, on the 10th of May,

1503. It stopped at the Cape de Verd islands for refreshments, and

afterwards sailed by the coast of Sierra Leone, but was prevented from

landing by contrary winds and a turbulent sea. Standing to the

southwest, they ran three hundred leagues until they were three degrees

to the southward of the equinoctial line, where they discovered an

uninhabited island, about two leagues in length and one in breadth.

Here, on the 10th of August, by mismanagement, the commander of the

squadron ran his vessel on a rock and lost her. While the other vessels

were assisting to save the crew and property from the wreck, Amerigo

Vespucci was dispatched in his caravel to search for a safe harbor in

the island. He departed in his vessel without his long-boat, and with

less than half of his crew, the rest having gone in the boat to the

assistance of the wreck. Vespucci found a harbor, but waited in vain

for several days for the arrival of the ships. Standing out to sea, he

met with a solitary vessel, and learnt that the ship of the commander

had sunk, and the rest had proceeded onwards. In company with this

vessel he stood for the Brazils, according to the command of the king,

in case that any vessel should be parted from the fleet. Arriving on

the coast, he discovered the famous bay of All Saints, where he

remained upwards of two months, in hopes of being joined by the rest

of the fleet. He at length ran 260 leagues farther south, where he

remained five months building a fort and taking in cargo of

Brazil-wood. Then, leaving in the fortress a garrison of 24 men with

arms and ammunition, he set sail for Lisbon, where he arrived in June,

1504. [297] The commander of the squadron and the other four ships were

never heard of afterwards.

Vespucci does not appear to have received the reward from the king of

Portugal that his services merited, for we find him at Seville early in

1505, on his way to the Spanish court, in quest of employment: and he

was bearer of a letter from Columbus to his son Diego, dated February 5,

which, while it speaks warmly of him as a friend, intimates his having

been unfortunate. The following is the letter:

My Dear Son,--Diego Mendez departed hence on Monday, the third of this

month. After his departure I conversed with Amerigo Vespucci, the bearer

of this, who goes there (to court) summoned on affairs of navigation.

Fortune has been adverse to him as to many others. His labors have not

profited him as much as they reasonably should have done. He goes on my

account, and with much desire to do something that may result to my

advantage, if within his power. I cannot ascertain here in what I can

employ him, that will be serviceable to me, for I do not know what may

be there required. He goes with the determination to do all that is

possible for me; see in what he may be of advantage, and co-operate

with him, that he may say and do every thing, and put his plans in

operation; and let all be done secretly, that he may not be suspected.

I have said every thing to him that I can say touching the business,

and have informed him of the pay I have received, and what is due, &c.

[298]

About this time Amerigo Vespucci received letters of naturalization from

king Ferdinand, and shortly afterwards he and Vincente Yafiez Pinzon were

named captains of an armada about to be sent out in the spice trade and to

make discoveries. There is a royal order, dated Toro, 11th April, 1507,

for 12,000 maravedis for an outfit for "Americo de Vespuche, resident of

Seville." Preparations were made for this voyage, and vessels procured and

fitted out, but it was eventually abandoned. There are memoranda existing

concerning it, dated in 1506, 1507, and 1508, from which it appears that

Amerigo Vespucci remained at Seville, attending to the fluctuating

concerns of this squadron, until the destination of the vessels was

changed, their equipments were sold, and the accounts settled. During this

time he had a salary of 30,000 maravedis. On the 22d of March, 1508, he

received the appointment of principal pilot, with a salary of 70,000

maravedis. His chief duties were to prepare charts, examine pilots,

superintend the fitting out of expeditions, and prescribe the route that

vessels were to pursue in their voyages to the New World. He appears to

have remained at Seville, and to have retained this office until his

death, on the 22d of February, 1512. His widow, Maria Corezo, enjoyed a

pension of 10,000 maravedis. After his death, his nephew, Juan Vespucci,

was nominated pilot, with a salary of 20,000 maravedis, commencing on the

22d of May, 1512. Peter Martyr speaks with high commendation of this young

man. "Young Vesputius is one to whom Americus Vesputius his uncle left the

exact knowledge of the mariner's faculties, as it were by inheritance,

after his death; for he was a very expert master in the knowledge of his

carde, his compasse and the elevation of the pole starre by the

quadrant.... Vesputius is my very familiar friend, and a wittie young man,

in whose company I take great pleasure, and therefore use him oftentymes

for my guest. He hath also made many voyages into these coasts, and

diligently noted such things as he hath seen." [299]

Vespucci, the nephew, continued in this situation during the lifetime of

Fonseca, who had been the patron of his uncle and his family. He was

divested of his pay and his employ by a letter of the council, dated the

18th of March, 1525, shortly after the death of the bishop. No further

notice of Vespucci is to be found in the archives of the Indies.

Such is a brief view of the career of Amerigo Vespucci; it remains to

notice the points of controversy. Shortly after his return from his last

expedition to the Brazils, he wrote a letter dated Lisbon, 4th September,

1504, containing a summary account of all his voyages. This letter is of

special importance to the matters under investigatiod, as it is the only

one known that relates to the disputed voyage, which would establish him

as the discoverer of Terra Firma. It is presumed to have been written in

Latin, and was addressed to René, duke of Lorraine, who assumed the title

of king of Sicily and Jerusalem.

The earliest known edition of this letter was published in Latin, in 1507,

at St. Diez in Lorraine. A copy of it has been found in the library of the

Vatican (No. 9688) by the abbe Cancellieri. In preparing the present

illustration, a reprint of this letter in Latin has been consulted,

inserted in the Novus Orbis of Grinæus, published at Bath in 1532. The

letter contains a spirited narrative of four voyages which he asserts to

have made to the New World. In the prologue he excuses the liberty of

addressing king René by calling to his recollection the ancient intimacy

of their youth, when studying the rudiments of science together, under the

paternal uncle of the voyager; and adds that if the present narrative

should not altogether please his Majesty, he must plead to him as Pliny

said to Mæcenas, that he used formerly to be amused with his triflings.

In the prologue to this letter, he informs king René that affairs of

commerce had brought him to Spain, where he had experienced the various

changes of fortune attendant on such transactions, and was induced to

abandon that pursuit and direct his labors to objects of a more elevated

and stable nature. He therefore purposed to contemplate various parts of

the world, and to behold the marvels which it contains. To this object

both time and place were favorable; for king Ferdinand was then preparing

four vessels for the discovery of new lands in the west, and appointed him

among the number of those who went in the expedition. "We departed," he

adds, "from the port of Cadiz, May 20, 1497, taking our course on the

great gulf of ocean; in which voyage we employed eighteen months,

discovering many lands and innumerable islands, chiefly inhabited, of

which our ancestors make no mention."

A duplicate of this letter appears to have been sent at the same time

(written, it is said, in Italian) to Piere Soderini, afterwards

Gonfalonier of Florence, which was some years subsequently published in

Italy, not earlier than 1510, and entitled "Lettera de Amerigo Vespucci

delle Isole nuovamente trovate in quatro suoi viaggi." We have consulted

the edition of this letter in Italian, inserted in the publication of

Padre Stanislaus Canovai, already referred to.

It has been suggested by an Italian writer, that this letter was written

by Vespucci to Soderini only, and the address altered to king René through

the flattery or mistake of the Lorraine editor, without perceiving how

unsuitable the reference to former intimacy, intended for Soderini, was,

when applied to a sovereign. The person making this remark can hardly have

read the prologue to the Latin edition, in which the title of "your

majesty" is frequently repeated, and the term "illustrious king" employed.

It was first published also in Lorraine, the domains of René, and the

publisher would not probably have presumed to take such a liberty with his

sovereign's name. It becomes a question, whether Vespucci addressed the

same letter to king René and to Piere Soderini, both of them having been

educated with him, or whether he sent a copy of this letter to Soderini,

which subsequently found its way into print. The address to Soderini may

have been substituted, through mistake, by the Italian publisher. Neither

of the publications could have been made under the supervision of

Vespucci.

The voyage specified in this letter as having taken place in 1497, is the

great point in controversy. It is strenuously asserted that no such voyage

took place; and that the first expedition of Vespucci to the coast of

Paria was in the enterprise commanded by Ojeda, in 1499. The books of the

armadas existing in the archives of the Indies at Seville, have been

diligently examined, but no record of such voyage has been found, nor any

official documents relating to it. Those most experienced in Spanish

colonial regulations insist that no command like that pretended by

Vespucci could have been given to a stranger, till he had first received

letters of naturalization from the sovereigns for the kingdom of Castile,

and he did not obtain such till 1505, when they were granted to him as

preparatory to giving him the command in conjunction with Pinzon.

His account of a voyage made by him in 1497, therefore, is alleged to be a

fabrication for the purpose of claiming the discovery of Paria; or rather

it is affirmed that he has divided the voyage which he actually made with

Ojeda, in 1499, into two; taking a number of incidents from his real

voyage, altering them a little, and enlarging them with descriptions of

the countries and people, so as to make a plausible narrative, which he

gives as a distinct voyage; and antedating his departure to 1497, so as to

make himself appear the first discoverer of Paria.

In support of this charge various coincidences have been pointed out

between his voyage said to have taken place in 1497, and that described in

his first letter to Lorenzo de Medici in 1499. These coincidences are with

respect to places visited, transactions and battles with the natives, and

the number of Indians carried to Spain and sold as slaves.

But the credibility of this voyage has been put to a stronger test. About

1508 a suit was instituted against the crown of Spain by Don Diego, son

and heir of Columbus, for the government of certain parts of Terra Firma,

and for a share in the revenue arising from them, conformably to the

capitulations made between the sovereigns and his father. It was the

object of the crown to disprove the discovery of the coast of Paria and

the pearl islands by Columbus; as it was maintained, that unless he had

discovered them, the claim of his heir with respect to them would be of no

validity.

In the course of this suit, a particular examination of witnesses took

place in 1512-13 in the fiscal court. Alonzo de Ojeda, and nearly a

hundred other persons, were interrogated on oath; that voyager having been

the first to visit the coast of Paria after Columbus had left it, and that

within a very few months. The interrogatories of these witnesses, and

their replies, are still extant, in the archives of the Indies at Seville,

in a packet of papers entitled "Papers belonging to the admiral Don Luis

Colon, about the conservation of his privileges, from ann. 1515 to 1564."

The author of the present work has two several copies of these

interrogatories lying before him. One made by the late historian Muñoz,

and the other made in 1826, and signed by Don Jose de la Higuera y Lara,

keeper of the general archives of the Indies in Seville. In the course of

this testimony, the fact that Amerigo Vespucci accompanied Ojeda in this

voyage of 1499, appears manifest, first from the deposition of Ojeda

himself. The following are the words of the record: "In this voyage which

this said witness made, he took with him Juan de la Cosa and Morego

Vespuche [Amerigo Vespucci] and other pilots." [300] Secondly, from the

coincidence of many parts of the narrative of Vespucci with events in

this voyage of Ojeda. Among these coincidences, one is particularly

striking. Vespucci, in his letter to Lorenzo de Medici, and also in that

to René or Soderini, says, that his ships, after leaving the coast of

Terra Firma, stopped at Hispaniola, where they remained about two months

and a half, procuring provisions, during which time, he adds, "we had

many perils and troubles with the very Christians who were in that

island with Columbus, and I believe through envy." [301]

Now it is well known that Ojeda passed some time on the western end of the

island victualing his ships; and that serious dissensions took place

between him and the Spaniards in those parts, and the party sent by

Columbus under Roldan to keep a watch upon his movements. If then

Vespucci, as is stated upon oath, really accompanied Ojeda in this voyage,

the inference appears almost irresistible, that he had not made the

previous voyage of 1497, for the fact would have been well known to Ojeda;

he would have considered Vespucci as the original discoverer, and would

have had no motive for depriving him of the merit of it, to give it to

Columbus, with whom Ojeda was not upon friendly terms.

Ojeda, however, expressly declares that the coast had been discovered by

Columbus. On being asked how he knew the fact, he replied, because he saw

the chart of the country discovered, which Columbus sent at the time to

the king and queen, and that he came off immediately on a voyage of

discovery, and found what was therein set down as discovered by the

admiral was correct. [302]

Another witness, Bernaldo de Haro, states that he had been with the

admiral, and had written (or rather copied) a letter for the admiral to

the king and queen, designating, in an accompanying sea-chart, the courses

and steerings and winds by which he had arrived at Paria; and that this

witness had heard that from this chart others had been made, and that

Pedro Alonzo Niño and Ojeda, and others, who had since, visited these

countries, had been guided by the same. [303]

Francisco de Molares, one of the best and most credible of all the pilots,

testified that he saw a sea-chart which Columbus had made of the coast of

Paria, _and he believed that all governed themselves by it_.

[304]

Numerous witnesses in this process testify to the fact that Paria was

first discovered by Columbus. Las Casas, who has been at the pains of

counting them, says that the fact was established by twenty-five

eye-witnesses and sixty ear-witnesses. Many of them testify also that the

coast south of Paria, and that extending west of the island of Margarita,

away to Venezuela, which Vespucci states to have been discovered by

himself, in 1497, was now first discovered by Ojeda, and had never before

been visited either by the admiral "or any other Christian whatever."

Alonzo Sanchez de Carvajal says that all the voyages of discovery which

were made to the Terra Firma, were made by persons who had sailed with the

admiral, or been benefited by his instructions and directions, following

the course he had laid down;[305] and the same is testified by many other

pilots and mariners of reputation and experience.

It would be a singular circumstance, if none of these witnesses, many of

whom must have sailed in the same squadron with Vespucci along this coast

in 1499, should have known that he had discovered and explored it two

years previously. If that had really been the case, what motive could he

have for concealing the fact? and why, if they knew it, should they not

proclaim it? Vespucci states his voyage in 1497 to have been made with

four caravels; that they returned in October, 1498, and that he sailed

again with two caravels in May, 1499, (the date of Ojeda's departure.)

Many of the mariners would therefore have been present in both voyages.

Why, too, should Ojeda and the other pilots guide themselves by the charts

of Columbus, when they had a man on board so learned in nautical science,

and who, from his own recent observations, was practically acquainted with

the coast? Not a word, however, is mentioned of the voyage and discovery

of Vespucci by any of the pilots, though every other voyage and discovery

is cited; nor does there even a seaman appear who has accompanied him in

his asserted voyage.

Another strong circumstance against the reality of this voyage is, that it

was not brought forward in this trial to defeat the claims of the heirs of

Columbus. Vespucci states the voyage to have been undertaken with the

knowledge and countenance of king Ferdinand; it must, therefore, have been

avowed and notorious. Vespucci was living at Seville in 1508, at the time

of the commencement of this suit, and, for four years afterward, a

salaried servant of the crown. Many of the pilots and mariners must have

been at hand, who sailed with him in his pretended enterprise. If this

voyage had once been proved, it would completely have settled the

question, as far as concerned the coast of Paria, in favor of the crown.

Yet no testimony appears ever to have been taken from Vespucci while

living; and when the interrogatories were made in the fiscal court in

1512-13, not one of his seamen is brought up to give evidence. A voyage so

important in its nature, and so essential to the question in dispute, is

not even alluded to, while useless pains are taken to wrest evidence from

the voyage of Ojeda, undertaken at a subsequent period.

It is a circumstance worthy of notice, that Vespucci commences his first

letter to Lorenzo de Medici in 1500, within a month after his return from

the voyage he had actually made to Paria, and apologizes for his long

silence, by saying that nothing had occurred worthy of mention, ("e gran

tempo che non ho scritto à vostra magnifizensa, e non lo ha causato altra

cosa ne nessuna salvo non mi essere occorso cosa degna di memoria,") and

proceeds eagerly to tell him the wonders he had witnessed in the

expedition from which he had but just returned. It would be a singular

forgetfulness to say that nothing had occurred of importance, if he had

made a previous voyage of eighteen months in 1497-8 to this

newly-discovered world; and it would be almost equally strange that he

should not make the slightest allusion to it in this letter.

It has been the endeavor of the author to examine this question

dispassionately; and after considering the statements and arguments

advanced on either side, he cannot resist a conviction, that the voyage

stated to have been made in 1497 did not take place, and that Vespucci has

no title to the first discovery of the coast of Paria.

The question is extremely perplexing from the difficulty of assigning

sufficient motives for so gross a deception. When Vespucci wrote his

letters there was no doubt entertained but that Columbus had discovered

the main-land in his first voyage; Cuba being always considered the

extremity of Asia, until circumnavigated in 1508. Vespucci may have

supposed Brazil, Paria, and the rest of that coast, part of a distinct

continent, and have been anxious to arrogate to himself the fame of its

discovery. It has been asserted, that, on his return from his voyage to

the Brazils, he prepared a maritime chart, in which he gave his name to

that part of the mainland; but this assertion does not appear to be well

substantiated. It would rather seem that his name was given to that part

of the continent by others, as a tribute paid to his supposed merit, in

consequence of having read his own account of his voyages. [306]

It is singular that Fernando, the son of Columbus, in his biography of his

father, should bring no charge against Vespucci of endeavoring to supplant

the admiral in this discovery. Herrera has been cited as the first to

bring the accusation, in his history of the Indies, first published in

1601, and has been much criticized in consequence, by the advocates of

Vespucci, as making the charge on his mere assertion. But, in fact,

Herrera did but copy what he found written by Las Casas, who had the

proceedings of the fiscal court lying before him, and was moved to

indignation against Vespucci, by what he considered proofs of great

imposture.

It has been suggested that Vespucci was instigated to this deception at

the time when he was seeking employment in the colonial service of Spain;

and that he did it to conciliate the bishop Fonseca, who was desirous of

any thing that might injure the interests of Columbus. In corroboration of

this opinion, the patronage is cited which was ever shown by Fonseca to

Vespucci and his family. This is not, however, a satisfactory reason,

since it does not appear that the bishop ever made any use of the

fabrication. Perhaps some other means might be found of accounting for

this spurious narration, without implicating the veracity of Vespucci. It

may have been the blunder of some editor, or the interpolation of some

book-maker, eager, as in the case of Trivigiani with the manuscripts of

Peter Martyr, to gather together disjointed materials, and fabricate a

work to gratify the prevalent passion of the day.

In the various editions of the letters of Vespucci, the grossest

variations and inconsistencies in dates will be found, evidently the

errors of hasty and careless publishers. Several of these have been

corrected by the modern authors who have inserted these letters in their

works. [307] The same disregard to exactness which led to these blunders,

may have produced the interpolation of this voyage, garbled out of the

letters of Vespucci and the accounts of other voyagers. This is merely

suggested as a possible mode of accounting for what appears so decidedly

to be a fabrication, yet which we are loath to attribute to a man of the

good sense, the character, and the reputed merit of Vespucci.

After all, this is a question more of curiosity than of real moment,

although it is one of those perplexing points about which grave men will

continue to write weary volumes, until the subject acquires a fictitious

importance from the mountain of controversy heaped upon it. It has become

a question of local pride with the literati of Florence; and they emulate

each other with patriotic zeal, to vindicate the fame of their

distinguished countryman. This zeal is laudable when kept within proper

limits; but it is to be regretted that some of them have so far been

heated by controversy as to become irascible against the very memory of

Columbus, and to seek to disparage his general fame, as if the ruin of it

would add any thing to the reputation of Vespucci. This is discreditable

to their discernment and their liberality; it injures their cause, and

shocks the feelings of mankind, who will not willingly see a name like

that of Columbus lightly or petulantly assailed in the course of these

literary contests. It is a name consecrated in history, and is no longer

the property of a city, or a state, or a nation, but of the whole world.

Neither should those who have a proper sense of the merit of Columbus put

any part of his great renown at issue upon this minor dispute. Whether or

not he was the discoverer of Paria, was a question of interest to his

heirs, as a share of the government and revenues of that country depended

upon it; but it is of no importance to his fame. In fact, the European who

first reached the mainland of the New World was most probably Sebastian

Cabot, a native of Venice, sailing in the employ of England. In 1497 he

coasted its shores from Labrador to Florida; yet the English have never

set up any pretensions on his account.

The glory of Columbus does not depend upon the parts of the country he

visited or the extent of coast along which he sailed; it embraces the

discovery of the whole western world. With respect to him, Vespucci is as

Yañez Pinzon, Bastides, Ojeda, Cabot, and the crowd of secondary

discoverers, who followed in his track, and explored the realms to which

he had led the way. When Columbus first touched a shore of the New World,

even though a frontier island, he had achieved his enterprises; he had

accomplished all that was necessary to his fame: the great problem of the

ocean was solved; the world which lay beyond its western waters was

discovered.

No. XI.

Martin Alonzo Pinzon.

In the course of the trial in the fiscal court, between Don Diego and the

crown, an attempt was made to depreciate the merit of Columbus, and to

ascribe the success of the great enterprise of discovery to the

intelligence and spirit of Martin Alonzo Pinzon. It was the interest of

the crown to do so, to justify itself in withholding from the heirs of

Columbus the extent of his stipulated reward. The examinations of

witnesses in this trial were made at various times and places, and upon a

set of interrogatories formally drawn up by order of the fiscal. They took

place upwards of twenty years after the first voyage of Columbus, and the

witnesses testified from recollection.

In reply to one of the interrogatories, Arias Perez Pinzon, son of Martin

Alonzo, declared, that, being once in Rome with his father on commercial

affairs, before the time of the discovery, they had frequent conversations

with a person learned in cosmography who was in the service of Pope

Innocent VIII, and that being in the library of the pope, this person

showed them many manuscripts, from one of which his father gathered

intimation of these new lands; for there was a passage by an historian as

old as the time of Solomon, which said, "Navigate the Mediterranean Sea to

the end of Spain and thence towards the setting sun, in a direction

between north and south, until ninety-five degrees of longitude, and you

will find the land of Cipango, fertile and abundant, and equal in

greatness to Africa and Europe." A copy of this writing, he added, his

father brought from Rome with an intention of going in search of that

land, and frequently expressed such determination; and that, when Columbus

came to Palos with his project of discovery, Martin Alonzo Pinzon showed

him the manuscript, and ultimately gave it to him just before they sailed.

It is extremely probable that this manuscript, of which Arias Perez gives

so vague an account from recollection, but which he appears to think the

main thing that prompted Columbus to his undertaking, was no other than

the work of Marco Polo, which, at that time, existed in manuscript in most

of the Italian libraries. Martin Alonzo was evidently acquainted with the

work of the Venetian, and it would appear, from various circumstances,

that Columbus had a copy of it with him in his voyages, which may have

been the manuscript above mentioned. Columbus had long before, however,

had a knowledge of the work, if not by actual inspection, at least through

his correspondence with Toscanelli in 1474, and had derived from it all

the light it was capable of furnishing, before he ever came to Palos. It

is questionable, also, whether the visit of Martin Alonzo to Rome, was not

after his mind had been heated by conversations with Columbus in the

convent of La Rabida. The testimony of Arias Perez is so worded as to

leave it in doubt whether the visit was not in the very year prior to the

discovery: "fue el dicho su padre á Roma aquel dicho año antes que fuese a

descubrir." Arias Perez always mentions the manuscript as having been

imparted to Columbus, after he had come to Palos with an intention of

proceeding on the discovery.

Certain witnesses who were examined on behalf of the crown, and to whom

specific interrogatories were put, asserted, as has already been mentioned

in a note to this work, that had it not been for Martin Alonzo Pinzon and

his brothers, Columbus would have turned back for Spain, after having run

seven or eight hundred leagues; being disheartened at not finding land,

and dismayed by the mutiny and menaces of his crew. This is stated by two

or three as from personal knowledge, and by others from hearsay. It is

said especially to have occurred on the 6th of October. On this day,

according to the journal of Columbus, he had some conversation with Martin

Alonzo, who was anxious that they should stand more to the southwest. The

admiral refused to do so, and it is very probable that some angry words

may have passed between them. Various disputes appear to have taken place

between Columbus and his colleagues respecting their route, previous to

the discovery of land; in one or two instances he acceded to their wishes,

and altered his course, but in general he was inflexible in standing to

the west. The Pinzons also, in all probability, exerted their influence in

quelling the murmurs of their townsmen and encouraging them to proceed,

when ready to rebel against Columbus. These circumstances may have become

mixed up in the vague recollections of the seamen who gave the foregoing

extravagant testimony, and who were evidently disposed to exalt the merits

of the Pinzons at the expense of Columbus. They were in some measure

prompted also in their replies by the written interrogatories put by order

of the fiscal, which specified the conversations said to have passed

between Columbus and the Pizons, and notwithstanding these guides, they

differed widely in their statements, and ran into many absurdities. In a

manuscript record in possession of the Pinzon family, I have even read the

assertion of an old seaman, that Columbus, in his eagerness to compel the

Pinzons to turn back to Spain, _fired upon_ _their ships_, but,

they continuing on, he was obliged to follow, and within two days

afterwards discovered the island of Hispaniola.

It is evident the old sailor, if he really spoke conscientiously, mingled

in his cloudy remembrance the disputes in the early part of the voyage

about altering their course to the southwest, and the desertion of Martin

Alonzo, subsequent to the discovery of the Lucayos and Cuba, when after

parting company with the admiral, he made the island of Hispaniola.

The witness most to be depended upon as to these points of inquiry is the

physician of Palos, Garcia Fernandez, a man of education, who sailed with

Martin Alonzo Pinzon as steward of his ship, and of course was present at

all the conversations which passed between the commanders. He testifies

that Martin Alonzo urged Columbus to stand more to the southwest, and that

the admiral at length complied, but, finding no land in that direction,

they turned again to the west; a statement which completely coincides

with the journal of Columbus. He adds that the admiral continually

comforted and animated Martin Alonzo, and all others in his company.

(Siempre los consolaba el dicho Almirante esforzandolos al dicho Martin

Alonzo e â todos los que en su compania iban.) When the physician was

specifically questioned as to the conversations pretended to have passed

between the commanders, in which Columbus expressed a desire to turn back

to Spain, he referred to the preceding statement, as the only answer he

had to make to these interrogatories.

The extravagant testimony before mentioned appears never to have had any

weight with the fiscal; and the accurate historian Muñoz, who extracted

all these points of evidence from the papers of the lawsuit, has not

deemed them worthy of mention in his work. As these matters, however,

remain on record in the archives of the Indies, and in the archives of the

Pinzon family, in both of which I have had a full opportunity of

inspecting them, I have thought it advisable to make these few

observations on the subject; lest, in the rage for research, they might

hereafter be drawn forth as a new discovery, on the strength of which to

impugn the merits of Columbus.

No. XII.

Rumor of the Pilot Said to Have Died in the House of Columbus.

Among the various attempts to injure Columbus by those who were envious of

his fame, was one intended to destroy all his merit as an original

discoverer. It was said that he had received information of the existence

of land in the western parts of the ocean from a tempest-tossed pilot, who

had been driven there by violent easterly winds, and who on his return to

Europe, had died in the house of Columbus, leaving in his possession the

chart and journal of his voyage, by which he was guided to his discovery.

This story was first noticed by Oviedo, a contemporary of Columbus, in his

history of the Indies, published in 1535. He mentions it as a rumor

circulating among the vulgar, without foundation in truth.

Fernando Lopez de Gomara first brought it forward against Columbus. In his

history of the Indies, published in 1552, he repeats the rumor in the

vaguest terms, manifestly from Oviedo, but without the contradiction given

to it by that author. He says that the name and country of the pilot were

unknown, some terming him an Andalusian, sailing between the Canaries and

Madeira, others a Biscayan, trading to England and France; and others a

Portuguese, voyaging between Lisbon and Mina, on the coast of Guinea. He

expresses equal uncertainty whether the pilot brought the caravel to

Portugal, to Madeira, or to one of the Azores. The only point on which the

circulators of the rumor agreed was, that he died in the house of

Columbus. Gomara adds that by this event Columbus was led to undertake his

voyage to the new countries. [308]

The other early historians who mention Columbus and his voyages, and were

his contemporaries, viz. Sabellicus, Peter Martyr, Giustiniani, Bernaldez,

commonly called the curate of los Palacios, Las Casas, Fernando, the son

of the admiral, and the anonymous author of a voyage of Columbus,

translated from the Italian into Latin by Madrignano, [309] are all silent

in regard to this report.

Benzoni, whose history of the New World was published in 1565, repeats the

story from Gomara, with whom he was contemporary; but decidedly expresses

his opinion, that Gomara had mingled up much falsehood with some truth,

for the purpose of detracting from the fame of Columbus, through jealousy

that any one but a Spaniard should enjoy the honor of the discovery.

[310]

Acosta notices the circumstance slightly in his Natural and Moral History

of the Indies, published in 1591, and takes it evidently from Gomara.

[311]

Mariana, in his history of Spain, published in 1592, also mentions it, but

expresses a doubt of its truth, and derives his information manifestly

from Gomara. [312]

Herrera, who published his history of the Indies in 1601, takes no notice

of the story. In not noticing it, he may be considered as rejecting it;

for he is distinguished for his minuteness, and was well acquainted with

Gomara's history, which he expressly contradicts on a point of

considerable interest. [313]

Garcilasso de la Vega, a native of Cusco in Peru, revived the tale with

very minute particulars, in his Commentaries of the Incas, published in

1609. He tells it smoothly and circumstantially; fixes the date of the

occurrence 1484, "one year more or less;" states the name of the

unfortunate pilot, Alonzo Sanchez de Huelva; the destination of his

vessel, from the Canaries to Madeira; and the unknown land to which they

were driven, the island of Hispaniola. The pilot, he says, landed, took an

altitude, and wrote an account of all he saw, and all that had occurred in

the voyage. He then took in wood and water, and set out to seek his way

home. He succeeded in returning, but the voyage was long and tempestuous,

and twelve died of hunger and fatigue, out of seventeen, the original

number of the crew. The five survivors arrived at Tercera, where they were

hospitably entertained by Columbus, but all died in his house in

consequence of the hardships they had sustained; the pilot was the last

that died, leaving his host heir to his papers. Columbus kept them

profoundly secret, and by pursuing the route therein prescribed, obtained

the credit of discovering the New World. [314]

Such are the material points of the circumstantial relation furnished by

Garcilasso de la Vega, one hundred and twenty years after the event. In

regard to authority, he recollects to have heard the story when he was a

child, as a subject of conversation between his father and the neighbors,

and he refers to the histories of the Indies, by Acosta and Gomara, for

confirmation. As the conversations to which he listened must have taken

place sixty or seventy years after the date of the report, there had been

sufficient time for the vague rumors to become arranged into a regular

narrative, and thus we have not only the name, country, and destination of

the pilot, but also the name of the unknown land to which his vessel was

driven.

This account, given by Garcilasso de la Vega, has been adopted by many old

historians, who have felt a confidence in the peremptory manner in which

he relates it, and in the authorities to whom he refers. [315]

These have been echoed by others of more recent date; and thus a weighty

charge of fraud and imposture has been accumulated against Columbus,

apparently supported by a crowd of respectable accusers. The whole charge

is to be traced to Gomara, who loosely repeated a vague rumor, without

noticing the pointed contradiction given to it seventeen years before, by

Oviedo, an ear-witness, from whose book he appears to have actually

gathered the report.

It is to be remarked that Goinara bears the character, among historians,

of inaccuracy, and of great credulity in adopting unfounded stories.

[316]

It is unnecessary to give further refutation to this charge, especially as

it is clear that Columbus communicated his idea of discovery to Paulo

Toscanelli of Florence, in 1474, ten years previous to the date assigned

by Garcilasso de la Vega for this occurrence.

No. XIII.

Martin Behem.

This able geographer was born in Nuremburg, in Germany, about the

commencement of the year 1430. His ancestors were from the circle of

Pilsner, in Bohemia, hence he is called by some writers Martin of Bohemia,

and the resemblance of his own name to that of the country of his

ancestors frequently occasions a confusion in the appellation.

It has been said by some that he studied under Philip Bervalde the elder,

and by others under John Muller, otherwise called Regiomontanus, though De

Murr, who has made diligent inquiry into his history, discredits both

assertions. According to a correspondence between Behem and his uncle

discovered of late years by De Murr, it appears that the early part of his

life was devoted to commerce. Some have given him the credit of

discovering the island of Fayal, but this is an error, arising probably

from the circumstance that Job de Huertar, father-in-law of Behem,

colonized that island in 1466.

He is supposed to have arrived at Portugal in 1481, while Alphonso V was

still on the throne; it is certain that shortly afterwards he was in high

repute for his science in the court of Lisbon, insomuch that he was one of

the council appointed by king John II to improve the art of navigation,

and by some he has received the whole credit of the memorable service

rendered to commerce by that council, in the introduction of the astrolabe

into nautical use.

In 1484 king John sent an expedition under Diego Cam, as Barros calls him,

Cano according to others, to prosecute discoveries along the coast of

Africa. In this expedition Behem sailed as cosmographer. They crossed the

equinoctial line, discovered the coast of Congo, advanced to twenty-two

degrees forty-five minutes of south latitude, [317] and erected two

columns, on which were engraved the arms of Portugal, in the mouth of the

river Zagra, in Africa, which thence, for some time, took the name of the

River of Columns. [318]

For the services rendered on this and on previous occasions, it is said

that Behem was knighted by king John in 1485, though no mention is made of

such a circumstance in any of the contemporary historians. The principal

proof of his having received this mark of distinction, is his having given

himself the title on his own globe of _Eques Lusitanus_.

In 1486 he married at Fayal the daughter of Job de Huerter, and is

supposed to have remained there for some few years, where he had a son

named Martin, born in 1489. During his residence at Lisbon and Fayal, it

is probable the acquaintance took place between him and Columbus, to which

Herrera and others allude; and the admiral may have heard from him some of

the rumors circulating in the islands, of indications of western lands

floating to their shores.

In 1491 he returned to Nuremburg to see his family, and while there, in

1492, he finished a terrestrial globe, considered a masterpiece in those

days, which he had undertaken at the request of the principal magistrates

of his native city.

In 1493 he returned to Portugal, and from thence proceeded to Fayal.

In 1494 king John II, who had a high opinion of him, sent him to Flanders

to his natural son prince George, the intended heir of his crown. In the

course of his voyage Behem was captured and carried to England, where he

remained for three months detained by illness. Having recovered, he again

put to sea, but was captured by a corsair and carried to France. Having

ransomed himself, he proceeded to Antwerp and Bruges, but returned almost

immediately to Portugal. Nothing more is known of him for several years,

during which time it is supposed he remained with his family in Fayal, too

old to make further voyages. In 1506 he went from Fayal to Lisbon, where

he died.

The assertion that Behem had discovered the western world previous to

Columbus, in the course of the voyage with Cam, was founded on a

misinterpretation of a passage interpolated in the chronicle of Hartmann

Schedel, a contemporary writer. This passage mentions, that when the

voyagers were in the Southern Ocean not far from the coast, and had passed

the line, they came into another hemisphere, where, when they looked

towards the east, their shadows fell towards the south, on their right

hand; that here they discovered a new world, unknown until then, and which

for many years had never been sought except by the Genoese, and by them

unsuccessfully.

"Hii duo, bono deorum auspicio, mare meridionale sulcantes, a littore non

longe evagantes, superato circulo equinoctiali, in alterum orbem excepti

stint. Ubi ipsis stantibus orientem versus, umbra ad meridiem et dextram

projiciebatur. Aperuêre igitur sua industria, alium orbem hactenus nobis

incognitum et multis annis, a nullis quam Januensibus, licet frustra

temptatum."

These lines are part of a passage which it is said is interpolated by a

different hand, in the original manuscript of the chronicle of Schedel. De

Murr assures us that they are not to be found in the German translation of

the book by George Alt, which was finished the 5th October, 1493. But even

if they were, they relate merely to the discovery which Diego Cam made of

the southern hemisphere, previously unknown, and of the coast of Africa

beyond the equator, all which appeared like a new world, and as such was

talked of at the time.

The Genoese alluded to, who had made an unsuccessful attempt were Antonio

de Nolle with Bartholomeo his brother, and Raphael de Nolle his nephew.

Antonio was of a noble family, and, for some disgust, left his country and

went to Lisbon with his before-mentioned relatives in two caravels;

sailing whence in the employ of Portugal, they discovered the island of

St. Jago, &c. [319]

This interpolated passage of Schedel was likewise inserted into the work

De Europa sub Frederico III of Æneas Silvius, afterwards Pope Pius II,

who died in 1464, long before the voyage in question. The

misinterpretation of the passage first gave rise to the incorrect

assertion that Behem had discovered the New World prior to Columbus; as if

it were possible such a circumstance could have happened without Behem's

laying claim to the glory of the discovery, and without the world

immediately resounding with so important an event. This error had been

adopted by various authors without due examination, some of whom had

likewise taken from Magellan the credit of having discovered the strait

which goes by his name, and had given it to Behem. The error was too

palpable to be generally prevalent, but was suddenly revived in the year

1786 by a French gentleman of highly respectable character of the name of

Otto, then resident in New York, who addressed a letter to Dr. Franklin,

to be submitted to the Philosophical Society of Philadelphia, in which he

undertook to establish the title of Behem to the discovery of the New

World. His memoir was published in the Transactions of the American

Philosophical Society, vol. ii., for 1786, article No. 35, and has been

copied into the journals of most of the nations of Europe.

The authorities cited by M. Otto in support of his assertion are generally

fallacious, and for the most part given without particular specification.

His assertion has been diligently and satisfactorily refuted by Don

Christoval Cladera. [320]

The grand proof of M. Otto is a globe which Behem made during his

residence in Nuremburg, in 1492, the very year that Columbus set out on

his first voyage of discovery. This globe, according to M. Otto, is still

preserved in the library of Nuremburg, and on it are painted all the

discoveries of Behem, which are so situated that they can be no other than

the coast of Brazil and the straits of Magellan. This authority staggered

many, and, if supported, would demolish the claims of Columbus.

Unluckily for M. Otto, in his description of the globe, he depended on the

inspection of a correspondent. The globe in the library of Nuremburg was

made in 1520, by John Schoener, professor of mathematics, [321] long after

the discoveries and death of Columbus and Behem. The real globe of Behem,

made in 1492, does not contain any of the islands or shores of the New

World, and thus proves that he was totally unacquainted with them. A copy,

or planisphere, of Behem's globe is given by Cladera in his

investigations.

No. XIV.

Voyages of the Scandinavians.

Many elaborate dissertations have been written to prove that discoveries

were made by the Scandinavians on the northern coast of America long

before the era of Columbus; but the subject appears still to be wrapped in

much doubt and obscurity.

It has been asserted that the Norwegians, as early as the ninth century,

discovered a great tract of land to the west of Iceland, which they called

Grand Iceland; but this has been pronounced a fabulous tradition. The most

plausible account is one given by Snorro Sturleson, in his Saga or

Chronicle of King Olaus. According to this writer, one Biorn of Iceland,

sailing to Greenland in search of his father, from whom he had been

separated by a storm, was driven by tempestuous weather far to the

southwest, until he came in sight of a low country, covered with wood,

with an island in its vicinity. The weather becoming favorable, he turned

to the northeast without landing, and arrived safe at Greenland. His

account of the country he had beheld, it is said, excited the enterprise

of Leif, son of Eric Rauda (or Redhead), the first settler of Greenland. A

vessel was fitted out, and Leif and Biorn departed alone in quest of this

unknown land. They found a rocky and sterile island, to which they gave

the name of Helleland; also a low sandy country covered with wood, to

which they gave the name of Markland; and, two days afterwards, they

observed a continuance of the coast, with an island to the north of it.

This last they described as fertile, well wooded, producing agreeable

fruits, and particularly grapes, a fruit with which they were

unacquainted. On being informed by one of their companions, a German, of

its qualities and name, they called the country, from it, Vinland. They

ascended a river, well stored with fish, particularly salmon, and came to

a lake from which the river took its origin, where they passed the winter.

The climate appeared to them mild and pleasant; being accustomed to the

rigorous climates of the north. On the shortest day, the sun was eight

hours above the horizon. Hence it has been concluded that the country was

about the 49th degree of north latitude, and was either Newfoundland, or

some part of the coast of North America, about the Gulf of St.

Lawrence. [322] It is added that the relatives of Leif made several

voyages to Vinland; that they traded with the natives for furs; and that,

in 1121, a bishop named Eric went from Greenland to Vinland to convert

the inhabitants to Christianity. From this time, says Forster, we know

nothing of Vinland, and there is every appearance that the tribe which

still exists in the interior of Newfoundland, and which is so different

from the other savages of North America, both in their appearance and

mode of living, and always in a state of warfare with the Esquimaux of

the northern coast, are descendants of the ancient Normans.

The author of the present work has not had the means of tracing this story

to its original sources. He gives it on the authority of M. Malte-Brun,

and Mr. Forster. The latter extracts it from the Saga or Chronicle of

Snorro, who was born in 1179, and wrote in 1215; so that his account was

formed long after the event is said to have taken place. Forster says,

"The facts which we report have been collected from a great number of

Icelandic manuscripts, and transmitted to us by Torfreus in his two works

entitled Veleris Groenlandiae Descriptio, Hafnia, 1706, and Historia

Winlandiae Antiquae, Hafnia, 1705." Forster appears to have no doubt of

the authenticity of the facts. As far as the author of the present work

has had experience in tracing these stories of early discoveries of

portions of the New World, he has generally found them very confident

deductions drawn from very vague and questionable facts. Learned men are

too prone to give substance to mere shadows, when they assist some

reconceived theory. Most of these accounts, when divested of the erudite

comments of their editors, have proved little better than the traditionary

fables, noticed in another part of this work, respecting the imaginary

islands of St. Borondon, and of the Seven Cities.

There is no great improbability, however, that such enterprising and

roving voyagers as the Scandinavians, may have wandered to the northern

shores of America, about the coast of Labrador, or the shores of

Newfoundland; and if the Icelandic manuscripts said to be of the

thirteenth century can be relied upon as genuine, free from modern

interpolation, and correctly quoted, they would appear to prove the fact.

But granting the truth of the alleged discoveries, they led to no more

result than would the interchange of communication between the natives of

Greenland and the Esquimaux. The knowledge of them appears not to have

extended beyond their own nation, and to have been soon neglected and

forgotten by themselves.

Another pretension to an early discovery of the American continent has

been set up, founded on an alleged map and narrative of two brothers of

the name of Zeno, of Venice; but it seems more invalid than those just

mentioned. The following is the substance of this claim.

Nicolo Zeno, a noble Venetian, is said to have made a voyage to the north

in 1380, in a vessel fitted out at his own cost, intending to visit

England and Flanders; but meeting with a terrible tempest, was driven for

many days he knew not whither, until he was cast away upon Friseland, an

island much in dispute among geographers, but supposed to be the

archipelago of the Ferroe islands. The shipwrecked voyagers were assailed

by the natives; but rescued by Zichmni, a prince of the islands, lying on

the south side of Friseland, and duke of another district lying over

against Scotland. Zeno entered into the service of this prince, and aided

him in conquering Friseland, and other northern islands. He was soon

joined by his brother Antonio Zeno, who remained fourteen years in those

countries.

During his residence in Friseland, Antonio Zeno wrote to his brother

Carlo, in Venice, giving an account of a report brought by a certain

fisherman, about a land to the westward. According to the tale of this

mariner, he had been one of a party who sailed from Friseland about

twenty-six years before, in four fishing-boats. Being overtaken by a

mighty tempest, they were driven about the sea for many days, until the

boat containing himself and six companions was cast upon an island called

Estotiland, about one thousand miles from Friseland. They were taken by

the inhabitants, and carried to a fair and populous city, where the king

sent for many interpreters to converse with them, but none that they could

understand, until a man was found who had likewise been cast away upon the

coast, and who spoke Latin. They remained several days upon the island,

which was rich and fruitful, abounding with all kinds of metals, and

especially gold. [323] There was a high mountain in the centre, from which

flowed four rivers which watered the whole country. The inhabitants were

intelligent and acquainted with the mechanical arts of Europe. They

cultivated grain, made beer, and lived in houses built of stone. There

were Latin books in the king's library, though the inhabitants had no

knowledge of that language. They had many cities and castles, and carried

on a trade with Greenland for pitch, sulphur, and peltry. Though much

given to navigation, they were ignorant of the use of the compass, and

finding the Friselanders acquainted with it, held them in great esteem;

and the king sent them with twelve barks to visit a country to the south,

called Drogeo. They had nearly perished in a storm, but were cast away

upon the coast of Drogeo. They found the people to be cannibals, and were

on the point of being killed and devoured, but were spared on account of

their great skill in fishing.

The fisherman described this Drogeo as being a country of vast extent, or

rather a new world; that the inhabitants were naked and barbarous; but

that far to the southwest there was a more civilized region, and temperate

climate, where the inhabitants had a knowledge of gold and silver, lived

in cities, erected splendid temples to idols, and sacrificed human victims

to them, which they afterwards devoured.

After the fisherman had resided many years on this continent, during which

time he had passed from the service of one chieftain to another, and

traversed various parts of it, certain boats of Estotiland arrived on the

coast of Drogeo. The fisherman went on board of them, acted as

interpreter, and followed the trade between the main-land and Estotiland

for some time, until he became very rich: then he fitted out a bark of his

own, and with the assistance of some of the people of the island, made his

way back, across the thousand intervening miles of ocean, and arrived safe

at Friseland. The account he gave of these countries, determined Zichmni,

the prince of Friseland, to send an expedition thither, and Antonio Zeno

was to command it. Just before sailing, the fisherman, who was to have

acted as guide, died; but certain mariners, who had accompanied him from

Estotiland, were taken in his place. The expedition sailed under command

of Zichmni; the Venetian, Zeno, merely accompanied it. It was

unsuccessful. After having discovered an island called Icaria, where they

met with a rough reception from the inhabitants, and were obliged to

withdraw, the ships were driven by a storm to Greenland. No record remains

of any further prosecution of the enterprise.

The countries mentioned in the account of Zeno, were laid down on a map

originally engraved on wood. The island of Estotiland has been supposed by

M. Malte-Brun to be Newfoundland; its partially civilized inhabitants the

descendants of the Scandinavian colonists of Vinland; and the Latin books

in the king's library to be the remains of the library of the Greenland

bishop, who emigrated thither in 1121. Drogeo, according to the same

conjecture, was Nova Scotia and New England. The civilized people to the

southwest, who sacrificed human victims in rich temples, he surmises to

have been the Mexicans, or some ancient nation of Florida or Louisiana.

The premises do not appear to warrant this deduction. The whole story

abounds with improbabilities; not the least of which is the civilization

prevalent among the inhabitants; their houses of stone, their European

arts, the library of their king; no traces of which were to be found on

their subsequent discovery. Not to mention the information about Mexico

penetrating through the numerous savage tribes of a vast continent. It is

proper to observe that this account was not published until 1558, long

after the discovery of Mexico. It was given to the world by Francisco

Marcolini, a descendant of the Zeni, from the fragments of letters said to

have been written by Antonio Zeno to Carlo his brother. "It grieves me,"

says the editor, "that the book, and divers other writings concerning

these matters, are miserably lost; for being but a child when they came to

my hands, and not knowing what they were, I tore them and rent them in

pieces, which now I cannot call to remembrance but to my exceeding great

grief." [324]