The Letters of Amerigo Vespucci, and Other Documents Illustrative of His Career

by Amerigo Vespucci; Bartolomé de las Casas; Christopher Columbus

The Admiral sent five ships[ 147] with the news of the discovery of the mainland of Paria, and of the pearls. Alonso de Hojeda was then in Spain. I believe myself that he returned at the same time as my uncle, Francisco de Penalosa, knowing that the Admiral had discovered that land and the pearls, and having seen the chart of the new discoveries which the Admiral had sent to the Sovereigns, and that the Admiral said in his letters that it was an island, although he was also inclined to the belief that it was a continent; and being favoured by the Bishop of Badajos, Don Juan de Fonseca, who superintended and managed everything, Hojeda petitioned that he might have licence to discover in those parts either continent, or islands, or whatever he might find. The Bishop gave the licence, signed with his own signature, and not with that of the Sovereign, either because the Sovereigns ordered him to grant such licences, or this one only, which is hard to believe; or because he wished to make the grant of his own authority, and without giving the Sovereigns a share in the matter, the Admiral having complained to the Sovereigns in the year 1495 that it was in opposition to his privileges to give a licence to anyone to undertake discoveries.... I do not see how the Bishop was able to grant the licence in the way he did. But I quite see that as he was a very determined and obstinate man, and was hostile to the Admiral's interests, he may have taken this step actuated by his own audacity, and without consulting the Sovereigns. This is possible, but still I doubt it; for, although he was very intimate with the Sovereigns, this was hardly a thing that he would have dared to do on his own authority. The licence was granted with the limitations that it did not include the territory of the King of Portugal, nor the lands discovered by the Admiral up to the year 1495. Another question arises here: Why was not the land excepted which the Admiral had just discovered, and which was identified by the letters and the chart he had sent to the Sovereigns? To this I cannot give an answer.

That the licence was only signed by the said Bishop, and not by the Sovereigns, there can be no doubt, for Francisco Roldan saw it, and so described it to the Admiral, and I saw Roldan's original letter, as I will presently mention.

Hojeda having obtained the licence, he found persons in Seville who would fit out four caravels or ships, for there were many who were eager to go and discover by means of the thread which the Admiral had put into their hands. For he was the first who opened the gates of that Ocean Sea, which had been closed for so many ages.

Hojeda set out from the port of Santa Maria or of Cadiz in the month of May. If Americo Vespucio does not speak contrary to the truth as regards the day of the month, he does so as regards the year. The date of Hojeda's departure was the 20th of May 1499, not 1497, as Americo says, usurping the honour and glory which belongs to the Admiral, and assuming the whole for himself alone, wishing to give the world to understand that he was the first discoverer of the mainland of Paria, and not the Admiral, to whom is justly and rightfully due all the discovery of all these islands and mainland of the Indies, as has already been proved in chapter 140. In that chapter I endeavoured to leave it doubtful whether Americo had, with intention, tacitly denied that this discovery was made first by the Admiral, and had given the credit of it to himself alone. For I had not then seen what I afterwards gathered from those writings of Americo, and from other writings of those times in my possession, or which I have found. From these I conclude that it was a most false and dishonest thing on the part of Americo to wish to usurp against justice the honour due to the Admiral. The proof of this falsehood is made clear from the evidence of Americo himself, in this way. We will assume what has already been proved in chapter 140, namely:—First, the testimony of such a multitude of witnesses who knew that the Admiral was the first who discovered the mainland of Paria, and consequently no one reached any part of the mainland before him, this being also affirmed by Peter Martyr in the third and ninth chapters of his first Decade; and Hojeda himself, in his deposition, also testified, being unable to deny it, saying that after he had seen the chart in Castille he went to discover, and found that the Admiral had previously arrived at Paria and gone out by the Boca del Drago. Secondly, Americo went with Hojeda, either as a pilot or as one who knew something of the sea, for he is mentioned jointly with Juan de la Cosa and other pilots; or perhaps he went as an adventurer, contributing part of the expenses and having a share in the profits. Thirdly, we refer to what Americo confesses in his first Navigation, which is, that he reached a place called Paria by the Indian natives; also, that in a certain part or province of the coast of the mainland, or in an island where they made war, the Indians wounded twenty-two men and killed one. Now this happened in 1499, as I shall presently prove. What we say is this: The Admiral was the first who discovered the mainland and Paria, Hojeda was the first after the Admiral, and Americo, who went with Hojeda, confesses that they arrived at Paria. The Admiral left San Lucar on the 30th of May 1498; presently, Hojeda and Americo left Cadiz in the following year, 1499. If the Admiral left San Lucar on the 30th of May, and Hojeda and Americo sailed from Cadiz on the 20th of May, and the Admiral departed first, it is clear that the departure of Hojeda and Americo could not have been in that year of 1498, but in the following year of 1499. Even if it can be said that Hojeda and Americo may have departed first on the 20th of May of the same year of 1498 that the Admiral sailed, still the statement of Americo would be false, for he said that he departed in 1497. Now there is no doubt that Hojeda and Americo neither departed in 1497 nor in 1498, but in 1499, and it is, therefore, demonstrated that it was not Americo who first discovered the mainland of Paria, nor anyone else but the Admiral. This is confirmed by what was shown in chapter 140, that Hojeda, in his deposition when he was called as a witness before the Fiscal, said that after he had seen the chart of the land discovered by the Admiral, when he was in Castille, he went on a voyage of discovery himself, and found that the land was as it had been correctly laid down on the chart. Now the Admiral sent this chart with a report to the Sovereigns in the year 1498; on the 18th of October the said ships left Navidad, and my father was on board one of them. Afterwards Hojeda and Americo sailed on the 20th of May, as Americo himself writes, and this can only have been in the following year, 1499. This is confirmed by another reason. The Admiral was informed by the Christians who were in the province of Yaquimo that Hojeda had arrived at the land called Brasil on the 5th of September, and the Admiral wrote to this effect to the Sovereigns by the ships in which the Procurators of the Admiral and of Roldan went home. This was in the year 1499, at the time when Francisco Roldan and his company were about to be, or had been, induced to yield obedience to the Admiral. This was the first voyage that Americo made with Hojeda. It is, therefore, clear that neither Hojeda nor Americo can have left Cadiz in 1497, but they must have sailed in 1499. That this was the first voyage made by Hojeda and Americo in search of the mainland appears from two reasons which have already been mentioned as being given by Americo himself in his first Navigation. One is, that they arrived at a land called by the natives Paria, and the other that the Indians wounded twenty-two men and killed one in a certain island. This latter fact was told to Francisco Roldan by Hojeda's people when the same Roldan went on board the ships of Hojeda. The Admiral sent him as soon as he was informed that Hojeda had reached the land of Brasil.[ 148]

Francisco Roldan wrote to the Admiral from thence these, among other words which I saw in the handwriting of Francisco Roldan, his handwriting being well known to me. The letter begins as follows:—"I make known to your Lordship that I arrived where Hojeda was on Sunday the 29th of September," etc., and he goes on: "this being so, my Lord, I went on board the caravels, and found in them Juan Velasquez and Juan Vizcaino,[ 149] who showed me a concession made to him for the discovery of new countries, signed by the Lord Bishop, by which he was granted permission to make discoveries in these parts so long as he did not touch the territory of the King of Portugal, nor the territory which had been discovered by your Lordship up to the year 1495. They made discoveries in the land which your Lordship recently discovered. He says that they sailed along the coast for 600 leagues, where they encountered people who fought with them, wounding twenty and killing one. In some places they landed and were received with great honour, and in others the natives would not consent to their landing."

These are the words of Francisco Roldan to the Admiral. Americo, in his first Navigation, says:—"But one of our people was killed and twenty-two wounded, all recovering their health by the help of God." The same Americo also relates that Hojeda and himself arrived at the island Española, as will appear presently. It appears clearly from the evidence of the said Americo, and the agreement of his statement with what his companions told to Francisco Roldan, that they had twenty or twenty-two wounded and one killed, and this was during his first voyage. It also appears from both that they went to and saw Paria, and the coast newly discovered by the Admiral. If this was the first voyage of Americo, and he came to this island in the year 1499, on the 5th of September, having left Cadiz on the 20th of May of the same year, 1499, as has been distinctly shown, it follows that Americo has falsely stated that he left Cadiz in the year 1497. This is also shown by what the Admiral wrote to the Sovereigns when he knew that Hojeda had sailed five months before, in May. He wrote as follows:—"Hojeda arrived at the port where the brasil is, five days ago. These sailors say that as the time is so short since his departure from Castille, he cannot have discovered land, but he may well have got a lading of brasil before it could be prohibited, and as he has done, so may other interlopers." These are the words of the Admiral, and I have seen them in his own handwriting. He intended to explain that little land could have been discovered in five months, and that, if he had not sent Francisco Roldan to prohibit the ships from taking a cargo of brasil, they might easily have done so and have departed, and that the same might be done by any other stranger, unless steps were taken to prevent it.

All these proofs, taken from the letters of the Admiral and of Roldan, cannot be disputed, because they are most certainly authentic, and no doubt can be thrown on any of them. For no one then could tell that this matter would be alleged and brought forward, seeing that during fifty-six or fifty-seven years what was written told a different story, which was the truth, nor was there anything to conceal.

But what Americo has written to make himself famous and give himself credit, tacitly usurping the discovery of the continent which belongs to the Admiral, was done with intention. This is shown by many arguments given in this chapter and in chapter 140. But besides these verbal proofs, I desire to submit others which make the thing most manifest. One is that he inverted the voyages he made, applying the first to the second, and making out that things which belonged to one happened in the other. He asserts that in the first voyage they were absent eighteen months, and this is not possible, for after being absent from Castille for five months they came to this island, and they could not have returned again to the mainland to coast along it for such a distance, owing to contrary winds and currents, except with great difficulty and after a long time. Thus his voyage to the continent only took five months, within which time he arrived here, as has been already explained, and as Hojeda told some of the Spaniards who were here, before he left this island. He then made an inroad on some of the surrounding islands, seizing some of the natives and carrying them off to Castille. According to the statement of Americo, they took 222 slaves, and this occurs at the end of his first Navigation. "And we, following the way to Spain, at length arrived at the port of Cadiz with 222 captured persons," etc. Another statement is that certain injuries and violences done by Hojeda and his followers against the Indians and Spaniards in Xaragua in his first voyage is placed by Americo at the end of his second Navigation. He there says: "We departed, and, for the sake of obtaining many things of which we were in need, we shaped a course for the island of Antiglia, being that which Christopher Columbus discovered a few years ago. Here we took many supplies on board, and remained two months and seventeen days. Here we endured many dangers and troubles from the same Christians who were in this island with Columbus. I believe this was caused by envy, but, to avoid prolixity, I will refrain from recounting what happened." The Portuguese then called this island of Española Antilla, and this Americo used the word Antiglia, because he was writing in Lisbon. In the following chapter I will explain what these troubles from the Spaniards were, and what caused them, which he excuses himself from dwelling upon in order to avoid prolixity. It will then be clearly seen that they happened during his first voyage.

Another point is that they arrived at this island on the 5th of September, as he said, and that they remained, according to him, for two months and two days—that is, all September and October, and two more days of November. He there says that they left this island on the 22nd of July and arrived at the port of Cadiz on the 8th of September. All this is most false. The same may be said of the dates of all the years, months, and days which Americo gives in his Navigations. It thus appears that he designedly wished to take the glory and renown of the discovery of the continent, even keeping silence respecting the name of his own captain, Alonso de Hojeda, and tacitly usurping, as has been said, the honour and glory which belongs to the Admiral for this famous deed, deceiving the world by writing in Latin, and to the King Renè of Naples, there being no one to resist or expose his claim out of Spain, those who then knew the truth being kept in ignorance. I am surprised that Don Hernando Colon, son of the same Admiral, and a person of good judgment and ability, and having in his possession these same Navigations of Americo, as I know, did not take notice of this injury and usurpation which Americo Vespucio did to his most illustrious father.