AMERICUS VESPUCIUS.
As soon as it became known in Europe that there really was land across
the Atlantic, all the nations wished to send ships and men to gather the
gold which they supposed to be there. The Spaniards, of course, thought
that they had the best right to the new country, but the English and
French sent out expeditions, and soon there arose a great quarrel as to
whom the New World should belong. One of the most interesting voyages
made at that time was that of Americus Vespucius. Like Columbus, he was
an Italian, having been born in the beautiful city of Florence, but at
the time of the discovery of the western world he was living in Spain.
Vespucius sailed across the sea, and in the summer of 1499 (the year
after Columbus discovered the Orinoco), he landed on the coast of
Venezuela. Here he saw a queer little village which looked as if some
children had been trying to build a "make-believe" Venice. The village
was built on piles driven into the water, and the houses, which were of
such a shape that they looked like big bells, could only be entered by
means of drawbridges. Each house had its own bridge, and when the owner
wished he could draw the bridge up and no one could get in, and there he
was just as safe as a turtle when it shrinks into its shell.
[Illustration: VESPUCIUS LANDING TO CHASTISE THE CANNIBALS]
Vespucius and his men had never seen anything like it before and looked
at the funny little place in astonishment. But as soon as the natives
saw the Spaniards, they drew up all their bridges and disappeared; in a
few minutes, however, Vespucius saw twenty-two canoes filled with these
savages coming toward his boats; as soon as they got near enough they
began shooting arrows at the Spaniards, and then Vespucius, seeing that
they did not mean to be friendly, ordered the guns to be fired. The
Indians were terribly frightened by the noise and smoke of the guns;
they had never seen such things before, and very soon they rowed back
to the shore, and Vespucius sailed on farther south. When he landed next
he found a more friendly tribe of Indians; they were at first afraid of
the Spaniards, and ran away when they saw them coming. Vespucius and his
men went into the wigwams and found that the Indians had fires burning,
upon which young alligators were roasting. By and by the Indians, seeing
that the Spaniards meant no harm, came back and treated their guests so
kindly that Vespucius stayed there nearly two weeks, visiting, in the
meantime, some of their villages which were built back from the sea. The
natives grew very fond of him, and hundreds of them followed him back to
his ship, but when he ordered the cannon fired they all jumped back into
the water and swam away. But Vespucius did not mean to harm them, so he
called them back, and then the Indians and Spaniards exchanged presents
and Vespucius sailed away. He still kept to the coast of Venezuela, and
sailing northwest entered the bay of Cremana. Here he found the natives
friendly and remained with them more than a month, and they begged him
to help them kill their enemies, who lived on an island in the sea, and
who were a very great and powerful tribe, and came every year and took
away many of their number whom they killed and ate. Vespucius promised
to help them, and taking seven of them with him as guides, he started
off for the island.
As soon as the cannibals saw him coming they gathered on the shore ready
for fight. They were covered with war-paint and feathers, and armed with
arrows, lances and clubs. At first it seemed that the Spaniards would be
beaten, as the Indians pressed around them so closely they could not use
their swords, but finally the cannibals were driven back. Vespucius then
tried to make friends with them, but they would not do so, and after a
two days' fight he conquered them, burned their town, and sailed away
with two hundred and fifty of them whom he sold for slaves on reaching
Spain. This seems a very cruel act now, but in those times it was
thought to be quite right to sell captives taken in war, and so
Vespucius only did what he thought was perfectly fair.
When Vespucius got back to Spain, he wrote a letter to a friend of his
in Florence, giving an account of his voyage and the lands he had
visited. This letter was published a year or two afterward, and as it
was the first printed account of a visit to the _mainland_ of the New
World, it was read with much wonder and interest by the people who
wanted to learn all they could of the strange lands beyond the ocean.
No one knows just how it happened that the new country was called
America. Some of Vespucius' friends thought that the New World ought to
be called after him, but it was well known that the honor of the great
discovery belonged to Columbus alone. At any rate it came about that
after reading Vespucius' book, people began talking about the land of
Americus Vespucius, and finally it came to be called the land of
Americus, or America. But although the great country itself is not named
after Columbus, yet mountains, rivers, and towns bear his name, and in
poetry and songs, the United States, the greatest American country, is
often called Columbia; while in South America, one of the principal
divisions is called the United States of Colombia. All of which shows
that the people of the New World are very ready to honor its great
discoverer.