discovering that there was direct communication between Cathay and the
Indies, he entreated the khan to allow the Polos to go on a voyage,
promising faithfully that they would return after a short stay with
their friends in Venice. The old khan gave his consent reluctantly,
overwhelming them with gifts at their departure, among other things
giving them a tablet of gold, on which were engraved his orders to all
the subjects in his vast dominions to provide guides, escorts,
pilots--every convenience for their voyage and journey--without cost.
He also authorized them to serve as his ambassadors to the pope and
other European potentates, presented them with many precious stones,
including rubies of great value, and money enough to defray their
expenses for at least two years. From all this it will be seen that
the grand khan was a very munificent prince, whose deeds must have
made a lasting impression upon the minds of the generation in which he
lived.
Fourteen large vessels were contained in the fleet he furnished the
Polos, for with them was embarked, with a train of ambassadors, a
noble maiden of Cathay who was to become the bride of a "king of the
Indies" known as Argon. The voyage was so protracted that the king had
died before she reached her destination, and whose bride she became
was never known to the Polos, though they faithfully acquitted
themselves of their charge, and then continued on towards the
frontiers of Persia. Two years had been consumed in voyaging to Java,
Sumatra, and along the coast of southern India. Three more elapsed
before they finally reached their native city, in 1295, after an
absence of nearly twenty-five years. Nobody in Venice knew them then,
except by name, for Niccolo and his brother were advanced in age,
and Marco had grown from a boy to manhood, while in their dress and
manners they were more like Tartars than Venetians, and had almost
completely lost their native speech.
[Illustration: MARCO POLO]
Many of their former friends and relations were dead, and the
survivors were at first inclined to denounce them as impostors, until
the fertile imagination of Marco hit upon an expedient. They were
invited to a magnificent banquet, at which the three Polos appeared
arrayed in robes of crimson velvet, which, after their guests had
arrived, they threw off and gave to their attendants. Then, after the
last course was served, they produced from their queer Tartarian
garments, which they ripped open for the purpose, precious gems by the
handful, and displayed them to the astonished guests as their
credentials.
They were promptly received into the best Venetian society, Maffei,
the uncle, being appointed a magistrate, and Niccolo, the father,
espousing a beautiful young lady. Such Polos as still bear the
name--if there are any--must have descended from the children born of
this second marriage, for though Marco himself took a wife, several
years later, he left no male children to inherit the vast wealth that
gave him the title, in Venice, of "Marco Millioni."
It was about three years after his return to Venice that Marco fell
into the hands of the Genoese, and a little later that, as narrated,
he wrote the story of his travels. His books abound in romantic
adventures, and many, probably, that are fabulous; but that it stamped
itself upon the times in which he lived and those of succeeding
generations, has been shown already. Nearly two hundred years after
the story was written, we find the Spaniards seeking the great island
of Cipango, of which the following is Marco Polo's description:
"This is a very large island, fifteen hundred miles from the
continent [of Asia]. The people are fair, handsome, and of
agreeable manners. They are idolaters, and live quite
separate from all other nations. Gold is very abundant, and
no man being allowed to export it, while no merchant goes
thence to the main-land, the people accumulate a vast
amount. But I, Marco Polo, will give you a wonderful account
of a very large palace all covered with that metal, as our
churches are with lead. The pavements of its court, the
halls, windows, and every other part, have it laid on two
inches thick, so that the riches of this palace are
incalculable. Here are also pearls, large and of equal value
with the white, with many other precious stones.
"Kublai, on hearing of this amazing wealth, desired to
conquer the island, and sent two of his barons with a very
large fleet containing warriors, both horsemen and on foot.
They sailed from Zaitun and Quinsai, reached the isle,
landed, and took possession of the plain and of a number of
houses; but they were unable to take any city or castle,
when a sad misadventure occurred. A storm threatened and
some of the troops were embarked; but about thirty thousand
were left upon a small and barren island by the sailing of
the ships. The sovereign and the people of the larger island
rejoiced greatly when they saw the host thus scattered and
many of them cast upon the islet. As soon as the sea calmed
they assembled a great number of ships, sailed thither and
landed, hoping to capture all those refugees. But when the
latter saw that their enemies had disembarked, leaving the
vessels unguarded, they skilfully retreated to another
quarter and continued moving about till they reached the
ships, when they went aboard without any opposition. They
then sailed direct for the principal island, where they
hoisted its own standards and ensigns.
"On seeing these, the people believed their own countrymen
had returned, and allowed them to enter the city. Finding it
defended only by old men, the Tartars soon drove them out,
retaining the women as slaves. When the king and his
warriors saw themselves thus deceived and their city
captured, they were like to die of grief; but they assembled
other ships, and invested it so closely as to prevent all
communication. The Tartars maintained themselves thus seven
months, and planned day and night how they might convey
tidings to their master of their condition; but finding this
impossible, they agreed with the besiegers to surrender,
securing only their lives. This took place in the year 1269.
"The grand khan ordered one of the commanders of the host
that had returned to lose his head, and the other to be sent
to the isle where he had caused the loss of so many men, and
there put to death. I have to relate, also, a very wonderful
thing: that these two barons took a number of persons in a
castle of Cipango, and because they had refused to surrender
ordered all their heads to be cut off. But there were eight
on whom they could not execute this sentence, because these
wore consecrated stones in their arms, between the skin and
the flesh, which so enchanted them that they could not die
by steel. They were therefore beaten to death with clubs,
and the stones, being extracted, were held very precious.
But I must leave this matter and go on with the narrative."
FOOTNOTES:
[6] The first printing-press in America was set up in Mexico in 1535,
the first book printed on it was probably _La Escala de San Juan
Climaco_, date 1536, and the first printer was Juan Pablos. The oldest
existing example of this first Mexican printing is said to be the
_Manual de Adultos_, bearing date 1540.
IV
IN THE SERVICE OF SPAIN
1490
Before we revert to the real hero of this biography, let us seek to
identify the various names we find in Marco Polo's book, and in
Toscanelli's letter to Columbus, with the objects to which they were
applied. We will imagine ourselves with the first-named in far Cathay,
with the second in his library at Florence, and with the third as he
gropes his way along the shores of islands for the first time then
revealed to European eyes.
If Columbus had known--what we now know--that thousands of miles
intervened between the places he was seeking and those to which he
misapplied their names, he would not have died in the belief that he
had discovered a new way to the Old World. To anticipate a little what
will be revealed later in the unfolding of this story: it was Amerigo
Vespucci, and not Columbus, who first applied to this newly discovered
hemisphere the title _Mundus Novus_, or New World. However, we will
not discuss that question now, but merely remark that _Cathay_ was
identical with northern China, while _Mangi_ was the southern
territory of that vast empire which, in Marco Polo's time, was in
possession of Kublai Khan. _Chambalu_, or Peking, was its capital,
while the "most noble and vast city of _Quinsay_," or Cansay, is the
ancient _King-sze_ connected with Peking by the grand canal.
The large island of _Cipango_, or _Zipangu_, outlying upon the coast
of Cathay, was probably Japan, or Formosa; though its golden-tiled
temples may never have been seen by the Polos, nor its red pearls have
come into their hands. Forty years after Columbus began his vain
search, Pizarro found and plundered the gold-plated temples of Cuzco,
which were as rich as any described by Marco Polo in his account of
Cipango; and in the Bahamas archipelago, through which the Spaniards
passed in the voyage of 1492, precious pink pearls have been
discovered in great numbers and of surpassing beauty.
Vasco da Gama, in 1497, was to open the way by water to the vast
Oriental seas--to Calicut and Cathay--but until the last quarter of
the fifteenth century the commerce of the eastern hemisphere depended
mainly upon transportation by land. "Voyages of much extent were
almost unknown, and the mariner confined himself to inland waters, or
hovered along the shores of the great Western Ocean, without venturing
out of sight of land.... The thriving republics of Italy were the
carriers of the world. For many centuries their citizens were almost
the only agents for commercial communication with the countries of the
East. Venice and Genoa maintained establishments on the farthest
shores of the Mediterranean and Black seas.
"Immense caravans crossed the deserts of Arabia and Egypt, their
camels laden with the costly fabrics of the Indies, which were
received by the Italian traders from the hands of the Mahometans and
distributed over Europe. Here and there upon the deserts a green
oasis, with its bubbling spring or rippling rivulet, served these
mighty trains for a resting-place, where man and beast halted to
recover from the fatigues of their weary journeys. Occasionally, on
these spots where the soil was of sufficient fertility to sustain a
population, villages grew up. In rarer instances and in earlier ages,
large cities had been built upon these stopping-places and were for
the time the centres of the traffic.... Travellers of the present day
occasionally visit their sites, and tell wonderful tales of the
gigantic ruins of some Baalbec or Palmyra of the wilderness.
"It was not to be supposed that the shrewd spirit of mercantile
enterprise and speculation would remain dormant in this state of
affairs. Traders in every part of Europe were alive to the advantages
to be derived from the discovery of a new route of transportation.
Several efforts were made, and in some cases attended with immense
profit and success, to communicate with India by the long and arduous
journey round the Black Sea, and through the almost unexplored regions
of Circassia and Georgia. The far-off shores of the Caspian were
reached by some travelling traders, and the geographical knowledge
they circulated on their return gave a new impulse to the growing
spirit of adventure. Apocryphal as the narratives of Marco Polo and
Mandeville appeared, there was a sufficient mixture of truth with
exaggeration to stimulate the minds of men, ever greedy of gain, and
the endless wealth of the grand khan and his people were the subjects
of many eager and longing anticipations."[7]
The Polos were merely the forerunners, the pioneers, to the far
Cathay, and in the fourteenth century missionaries and merchants
followed on their trail with varying success. The death of Kublai Khan
had relieved them from their obligation to return; but soon after they
had reached Venice, in 1295, a Franciscan monk, John of Monte Corvino,
penetrated to Chambalu and established missions there. In the year
1338 an ambassador arrived at Avignon from the then reigning Khan of
Cathay, and in return John de Marignoli, a Florentine, was sent to the
court at Chambalu, where he remained four years as legate of the holy
see. Commercial travellers followed after them, and about 1340 a
guide-book was written by another Florentine, Francesco Pelotti, who
was a clerk in the great trading-house of Bardi, or Berardi, with
which, at a later date, Amerigo Vespucci was connected in Spain.
"When the throne of the degenerate descendants of Ghengis Khan began
to totter to its fall, missions and merchants alike disappeared from
the field. Islam, with all its jealousies and exclusiveness, had
recovered its grasp over Central Asia. Night again descended upon the
farther East, covering Cathay, with those cities of which the old
travellers had told such marvels, Chambalu and Cansay, Zaitun and
Chinkalan. And when the veil rose before the Portuguese and Spanish
explorers of the sixteenth century those names were heard of no
more....
"But for a long time all but a sagacious few continued to regard
Cathay as a region distinct from any of the new-found Indies; while
map-makers, well on into the seventeenth century, continued to
represent it as a great country lying entirely to the north of China
and stretching to the Arctic Sea. It was Cathay, with its outlying
island of Zipangu, that Columbus sought to reach by sailing westward,
penetrated as he was by his intense conviction of the smallness of the
earth and of the vast extension of Asia to the eastward. To the day of
his death he was full of the imagination of the proximity of the
domain of the grand khan to the islands and coasts which he had
discovered. And such imaginations are curiously embodied in some maps
of the early sixteenth century, which intermingle on the same
coast-line the new discoveries, from Labrador to Brazil, with the
provinces and rivers of Marco Polo's Cathay."[8]
Having shown the state of European geographical knowledge in the
fifteenth century, in the hope thereby of throwing light upon the
conditions which surrounded Vespucci at the time, we will now follow
as closely as possible the career which was then opening before him.
He was, as we have stated, keenly alive to what was taking place in
the world around him, and especially interested in geographical
discoveries. Although it is not likely that he had an abundance of
ready money, having been so many years engaged in preparation for his
great pursuit, without immediate recompense of any sort, yet we learn
from the records of his life that he was already making a collection
of all the charts, maps, and globes that he could find. He had
assembled the best works of the most distinguished projectors, and for
one of the finest then available, "a map of sea and land," made in
1439 by one Gabriel de Valesca, he paid the large sum of one hundred
and thirty ducats, equivalent to more than five hundred dollars at the
present day. There was danger then, his parents and friends thought,
of the abstruse and unprofitable science of cosmography absorbing him
entirely; but, though he may have indulged in the hope of devoting his
life to the studies which had so enriched the mind of his friend
Toscanelli, he was rudely awakened from his day-dream by a family
catastrophe.
Mention has been made of one of his brothers, Girolamo, who, about the
year 1480, left home and went to Asia Minor, including in his travels
a trip to Palestine. He finally established himself in one of the
Grecian cities, and, being of a hopeful turn, sent for and obtained
the greater portion of his father's money, with which he engaged in
trade. All went well for a time, and the Vespuccis congratulated
themselves upon having a son of the family finally embarked on the
full tide of commercial prosperity.
Nine years went by, and nothing but good news came from the absent
Girolamo; but one day, in 1489, disastrous tidings arrived. A
Florentine pilgrim, returning from a pious visit to the holy sepulchre
in Jerusalem, brought Amerigo a letter from his brother. It was dated
July 24th, and contained information to the effect that while Girolamo
was attending religious services at a convent in his neighborhood his
house was broken open and robbed. "At one fell swoop," he wrote, he
had been deprived of all his earnings during those nine years of toil,
besides the money his father had sent him, which represented the
accumulations of a lifetime.
He did not explain how his entire capital was in cash at the time,
when he was supposed to be in trade; but even if derelict, he was too
far away to be sought out and his story investigated, so the loss was
accepted by the family as an indication that Providence was not
inclined to smile upon the substitution of the eldest for the youngest
son as a retriever of the Vespucci fortunes. All looked now towards
Amerigo to take up the distasteful business of money-making, for which
he had been so long in training, but which hitherto he had so
successfully evaded. In sorrow, it is said, but without a murmur, he
turned his back upon his maps, globes, books, and astrolabes and faced
the situation manfully.
A position had long been open to him with the great trading-house of
Lorenzo de Medici, who was own cousin to the world-famous Lorenzo the
Magnificent, and he had only to apply in order to receive it. For the
Medici well knew the value of men--good and faithful men--trained, as
Amerigo was, in the diplomacy as well as the routine of commercial
life in that age. They needed just such a man as he in their foreign
agency, and bidding farewell to his family he set sail from Leghorn
for the Spanish city of Barcelona.
The Iberian peninsula afforded at that time a most attractive field
for commercial as well as military adventure. The protracted wars with
the Moors, which had been carried on for generations, were drawing to
a close, but they had taken thither many a man athirst for glory, and
the demand for supplies gave the merchants great opportunities for
profits. The commerce of that day was, as we have seen, mainly in the
hands of Italian merchants, and as early as 1486 the Florentine
trader, Juan Berardi, obtained a safe conduct from Barcelona to
Seville, where, a few years later, we find Amerigo busily engaged in
outfitting vessels for the Spanish voyages of discovery.
It was in the year 1490, or 1491, that Amerigo Vespucci went to Spain,
accompanied by his nephew Giovanni, and several other young
Florentines, who were placed in his charge by their parents that they
might receive the benefit of his experience and the advantages of
foreign travel. Giovanni, or Juan, was greatly attached to his uncle,
and subsequently went with him on his voyages to America. Many years
later the historian, Peter Martyr, wrote of him: "Young Vespucius is
one to whom Americus, his uncle, left the exact knowledge of the
mariner's faculties, as it were by inheritance, after his death, for
he is a very expert master in the knowledge of the compass and the
elevation of the pole star by the quadrant. He is my particular
friend, a witty young man in whose company I take great pleasure, and
therefore have him often for my guest."
Whether Giovanni was associated with Amerigo in business is not
exactly known, nor can we tell just when the latter removed from
Barcelona into southern Spain; but there is a letter extant, written
at Cadiz in 1492, signed jointly by himself and a young Florentine,
Donato Nicollini, as agents either of the Medici or the house of
Berardi. The following extract was copied by his biographer, Bandidi,
from this manuscript in Amerigo's handwriting:
"As it is necessary for one of us, either Amerigo or Donato,
to proceed in a short time to Florence, we shall be able to
give you better information on all points by word of mouth
than can possibly be done by letter. As yet, it has been
impossible to do anything respecting the freight of salt,
for want of a vessel, as for some time past, we are sorry to
say, no ship has arrived here which was not chartered. Be
assured that if one arrives we shall be active for your
interests.
"You will have learned from the elder Donato the
good-fortune which has happened to his highness the king.
Assuredly the most high God has given him His aid; but I
cannot relate it in full. God preserve him many years--and
us with him.
"There is nothing new to communicate. Christ preserve you.
"DONATO NICOLLINI.
"AMERIGO VESPUCCI.
"We date this January 30, 1492."
The last decade of the fifteenth century, which Amerigo was to pass
chiefly in Spain, has been termed by historians the most important
epoch in modern history. It was, admittedly, the most important for
Spain, also for that country (then unknown) which her sailors were to
discover and explore, and which was to receive the name of the
Florentine merchant then living obscurely in Cadiz or Seville.
"The foreign intercourse of the country," says the renowned author of
_Ferdinand and Isabella_, "was every day more widely extended. Her
agents and consuls were to be found in all the ports of the
Mediterranean and the Baltic. The Spanish mariner, instead of creeping
along the beaten track of inland navigation, now struck boldly across
the great Western Ocean. The new discoveries had converted the land
trade with India into a sea trade, and the nations of the peninsula,
which had hitherto lain remote from the great highways of commerce,
now became the factors and carriers of Europe.
"The flourishing condition of the nation was seen in the wealth and
population of its cities, the revenue of which, augmented in all to a
surprising extent, had increased in some forty and even fifty fold
beyond what they were at the commencement of Ferdinand and Isabella's
reign: the ancient and lordly Toledo; Burgos, with its bustling
industrious traders; Valladolid, sending forth thirty thousand
warriors from its gates; Cordova, in the south, and the magnificent
Granada, naturalizing in Europe the arts and luxuries of the East;
Saragossa, 'the abundant,' as she was called from her fruitful
territory; Valencia, 'the beautiful'; Barcelona, rivalling in
independence and maritime enterprise the proudest of the Italian
republics; Medina del Campo, whose fairs were already the great mart
for the commercial exchanges of the peninsula; and Seville, the golden
gate of the Indies, whose quays began to be thronged with merchants
from the most distant countries of Europe."
FOOTNOTES:
[7] _The Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius_, by C. Edwards
Lester, 1845.
[8] Article, "China," in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_.
V
CONVERSATIONS WITH COLUMBUS
1492 OR 1493
While we cannot affirm that Christopher Columbus and Vespucci were
acquainted previous to the voyage which made America known to Europe,
it is well established that Amerigo was in Spain when his favored
rival sailed from Palos, in August, 1492, and also when he returned,
in March, 1493. In the very month of January, 1492, in which Vespucci
wrote the letter quoted in the previous chapter, Columbus and the
Spanish sovereigns signed the "capitulation" that set forth the
demands of the discoverer and the concessions of the king and queen.
That paper was signed and sealed in the palace of the Alhambra, not
far distant from Cadiz, and still nearer to Seville, whither Vespucci
removed soon after. He may have been there when Columbus passed
through the latter city on his way to Palos, Seville being in the
direct route between Granada and the Rio Tinto; but if he then saw and
conversed with him there is no record of the fact.
What must have been his feelings, though, when he learned of the
transaction between Columbus and the sovereigns? Columbus had gained
permission to make--what he himself was far better equipped for--a
voyage across the Sea of Darkness, to the islands that lay on the
route of Marco Polo's Cathay. And Columbus had merely corresponded
with his master, Toscanelli, at whose feet he, Vespucci, had sat, and
during days and hours discussed the problem that his rival was now
going forth to solve!