This being understood, we shall now see when Americo Vespucio set out, and with whom, to discover and trade in those parts. Those who may read this history must know that, at that time, Alonso de Hojeda was in Castille, when the account of the discovery and of the form of that land arrived, which was sent by the Admiral to the Sovereigns. This report and map came into the hands of the Bishop Don Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, afterwards Bishop of Palencia, who had charge of all business connected with the Indies from the beginning, and was then Archdeacon of Seville. The said Alonso de Hojeda was a great favourite of the Bishop, and when the report of the Admiral and the map arrived, Fonseca suggested to Hojeda to go and make more discoveries in the same direction as the Admiral had taken. For when the thread is discovered and placed in the hand, it is an easy matter to reach the skein. Hojeda was aided by the information which the Admiral had collected from the Indians when he served in the first voyage, that there was a continent behind the lands and islands then reached. As he had the favour and goodwill of the Bishop, he looked out for persons who would fit out some ships, for he himself had not sufficient funds. As he was known in Seville as a brave and distinguished man, he found, either there, or perhaps at the port of Santa Maria, whence he sailed, some one who enabled him to fit out four ships. The Sovereigns gave him his commission and instructions, and appointed him captain, for the discovery and purchase of gold and pearls, a fifth being reserved as the royal share, and to treat of peace and friendship with people he should meet with during the expedition.
Thus the first who went to discover after the Admiral was no other than Alonso de Hojeda. Those whom he took, and wanted to take in his company, consisted of the sailors who were acquainted with the voyage to those lands, who were none others but those who had come and gone with the Admiral. Those were the principal mariners of the time. One of them was Juan de la Cosa Biscayan,[ 143] who went with the Admiral when he discovered this island, and was afterwards with him in the Cuba and Jamaica discovery, the most laborious voyage up to that time. Hojeda also took with him the pilot Bartolomé Roldan, who was well known in this city of San Domingo, and who built, from their foundations, a great number of the houses now standing in the four streets. He too had been with the Admiral in his first voyage, and also in the discovery of Paria and the mainland. Hojeda also took the said Americo, and I do not know whether as pilot, or as a man instructed in navigation and learned in cosmography. For it appears that Hojeda puts him among the pilots he took with him.
I gather from the prologue he addressed to King Rènè of Naples, in the book of his four Navigations, that the said Americo was a merchant, for so he confesses. Probably he contributed some money towards the expenses of fitting-out the four ships, with the condition of receiving a proportionate share of the profits. Although Americo asserts that the King of Castille sent out the expedition, and that they went to discover by his order, this is not true. Three or four, or ten, persons combined, who were possessed of some money, and begged and even importuned the Sovereigns for permission to go and discover and search, with the object of promoting their own profits and interests. Thus Hojeda, owing to his having got possession of the chart which the Admiral had sent home of the mainland he had discovered, for the Sovereigns, and owing to his having with him the pilots and mariners who had been with the Admiral, came to discover the further part of the mainland, which will be described in chapter 166.
It is a thing well known, and established by many witnesses, that Americo went with Alonso de Hojeda, and that Hojeda went after the Admiral had discovered the mainland. It is also proved by Alonso de Hojeda himself. He was produced as a witness in favour of the Crown, when the Admiral Don Diego Colon, next and legitimate successor of the Admiral Don Cristobal Colon, had a lawsuit with the Crown for all the estate of which his father had been dispossessed, as he was by the same cause. Alonso de Hojeda testifies as follows, in his reply to the second question. He was asked "if he knew that the Admiral Don Cristobal Colon had not discovered any part of what is now called mainland, except when he once touched at the part called Paria?" The answer of Hojeda was that the Admiral touched at the island of Trinidad, and passed between that island and the "Boca del Drago", which is Paria, and that he sighted the island of Margarita. Being asked how he knew this, he answered that he knew it because he, the witness, saw the chart which the said Admiral sent to Castille, to the King and Queen our Lords, of what he had discovered at that time: and also because he, the witness, soon afterwards went on his voyage of discovery, and found that the Admiral's account of what he had discovered was the truth. To the fifth question, which refers to what the same Hojeda discovered himself beyond Paria, he replied as follows: "I was the first to go on an exploring expedition after the discovery of the Admiral, and I went first nearly 200 leagues to the south on the mainland, and afterwards came to Paria, going out by the 'Boca del Drago'. There I ascertained that the Admiral had been at the island of Trinidad, bordering on the 'Boca del Drago'." Further on he says: "In the voyage which this witness undertook, he took with him Juan de la Cosa and Americo Vespucio, and other pilots."[ 144] Alonso de Hojeda says this, among other things, in his deposition and statement.
Two things are thus proved by Hojeda himself. One is that he took Americo with him, and the other that he undertook his voyage to the mainland, after it had been discovered by the Admiral. The latter fact is established beyond any doubt, namely, that the Admiral was the first who discovered Paria, and that he was there before any other Christian whatever was either there or on any other part of the mainland, nor had any tidings of it. The Admiral Don Diego, his son, had proof of this from sixty hearsay witnesses and twenty-five eye-witnesses, as is seen by the records of the lawsuit, which I have not only seen but thoroughly examined. It was also proved that it was owing to the Admiral having first discovered these islands of the Indies, and afterwards Paria, which is the mainland, before anyone else whatever, that the others had the courage to follow his example and become discoverers. It may be held for certain that no one would have undertaken to go on voyages of discovery, and that neither the Indies nor any part of them would have been made known if the Admiral had not led the way. This is proved by sixteen hearsay witnesses, by forty-one who believed it, by twenty who knew it, and by thirteen who gave evidence that in their belief the Admiral made his discoveries before anyone else whatever. Peter Martyr also gives the same testimony in his first Decade, chapters 8 and 9. This author deserves more credit than any of those who have written in Latin, because he was in Castille at the time, and knew all the explorers, and they were glad to tell him all they had seen and discovered, as a man in authority; and because he made his inquiries with a view to writing, as we mentioned in the prologue of the history.
Americo confesses in his first Navigation that he arrived at Paria during his first voyage, saying: "Et provincia ipsa Parias[ 145] ab ipsis nuncupata est." Afterwards he made the second Navigation, also with Hojeda, as will appear in chapter 162.
Here it is important to note and make clear the error made by the world in general respecting America. What I say is this: As no one had arrived at nor seen Paria before the Admiral, and as the next explorer who arrived was Hojeda, it follows that either Americo was with Hojeda, or came after him. If he was with Hojeda, Hojeda was after the Admiral. The Admiral left San Lucar on the 30th of May, and came in sight of Trinidad and the mainland on the last day of July, and the 1st and 3rd of August, as has been proved. How, therefore, can Americo say, without a perversion of the truth, that he left Cadiz in his first Navigation on the 20th of May of the year of our salvation 1497? The falsehood is clear, and if the statement was made by him in earnest, he committed a great infamy. Even if it is not an intentional falsehood, it seems to be so; for he gives himself an advantage of ten days as regards the Admiral, with reference to the departure from Cadiz, for the Admiral left San Lucar on the 30th of May, and Americo alleges that he departed from Cadiz on the 20th of that month, and also usurps a year, for the Admiral sailed in 1498, while Americo pretends that he set out on his first Navigation in the year 1497. It is true that there would seem to be a mistake, and not an intentional fraud in this, for Americo says that his first Navigation occupied eighteen months, and at the end he asserts that the date of his return to Cadiz was the 15th of October 1499. If he left Cadiz on the 20th of May 1497, the voyage occupied twenty-nine months: seven in the year 1497, all the year 1498, and ten months in the year 1499. It is possible that 1499 may be a misprint for 1498[ 146] in treating of the return to Castille, and if this was so, there can be no doubt that the fraud was intentional. This fraud or mistake, whichever it may have been, and the power of writing and narrating well and in a good style, as well as Americo's silence respecting the name of his captain, which was Hojeda, and his care to mention no one but himself, and his dedication to King Renè, these things have led foreign writers to name our mainland America, as if Americo alone, and not another with him, had made the discovery before all others. It is manifest what injustice he did if he intentionally usurped what belonged to another, namely, to the Admiral Don Cristobal Colon, and with what good reason this discovery, and all its consequences, should belong to the Admiral, after the goodness and providence of God, which chose him for this work. As it belongs more to him, the said continent ought to be called Columba, after Colon, or Columbo, who discovered it, or else "Sancta" or "De Gracia", the names he himself gave it, and not America after Americo.