FOURTH VOYAGE OF COLUMBUS.
On the eleventh of May, 1502, Columbus embarked from Cádiz on his fourth and last voyage. Refitting at Española, he directed his course westward, discovered terra firma at the Guanaja Islands, off the north coast of Honduras, and sailing southward, followed the shores of the supposed Asia to El Retrete on the isthmus of Darien, where terminated the discovery of Bastidas from the opposite direction, whose chart may have been in the admiral's possession. Particulars of this voyage are given hereafter. See Cuarto y Último Viage de Cristobal Colon, in Navarrete, tom. i. pp. 277-313; Colon, Hist. del Almirante, in Barcia, tom. i. pp. 101-18; Gomara, Hist. de las Indias, fol. 31; Peter Martyr, dec. iii. cap. iv.; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. i. lib. v.-vi.; Benzoni, Historia del Mondo Nvovo, Venetia, 1572, fol. 28; Galvano's Discov., pp. 100-1; Robertson's Hist. Am., vol. i. pp. 164-74; Burke's European Settlements in Am., vol. i. pp. 37-45; Napione and De Conti, Biografia Colombo, pp. 379-406; Laharpe, Abrégé, tom. ix. p. 122; Acosta, Comp. Histórico de la Nueva Granada, cap. i.; Navigatio Christophori Colvmbi, in Grynæus, Novus Orbis, p. 90, and elsewhere.
Since the admiral's discovery, in 1498, of the Pearl Coast, that is, the extreme northern shore of South America, nothing had occurred to modify his views formed at that time concerning the new regions, except to show that this southern addition of the Asiatic continent was much larger than had at first been supposed. His special aim in this fourth voyage was to do what various circumstances had prevented him from doing before, namely, to sail along the eastern and southern coasts of Asia to India, passing, of course, through the supposed strait between the main-land and the land of Paria. It is certainly extraordinary that this idea entertained by Columbus corresponded so closely with the actual conformation of the eastern Asiatic coast, and its southern addition of the Australian archipelago; that this conformation is so closely duplicated in the American coasts; and that the position of the admiral's hypothetical strait was almost identical with the actual narrowest part of the American continent. Columbus followed the coast to the western limit of Bastidas' voyage and could find no opening in the shore, either because the ancient chroniclers were faulty in making no mention of this great supposed southern extension of Asia, or because the strait had in some way escaped his scrutiny. He therefore abandoned the search, and gave himself up to other schemes, but he never relinquished his original idea, and died, 1506, in the belief that he had reached the coast of Asia, and without the suspicion of a new continent. Moreover, his belief was shared by all cosmographers and scholars of the time. Peter Martyr, dec. i. cap. viii.; Humboldt, Exam. Crit., tom. i. p. 26; tom. iv. p. 188; Preface to Ghillany; Major's Prince Henry, p. 420; Kohl's Hist. Discov., pp. 140, 238-9; Draper's Int. Develop., p. 445; Stevens' Notes, p. 37.
[1503.] Another expedition was sent by Portugal in search of the Cortereals, but returned unsuccessful. Kunstmann, Entdeckung Am., p. 58; Peschel, Geschichte der Entd., p. 334.
According to Harrisse, Bib. Am. Vet., pp. 173-4, we have "authentic deeds and depositions proving beyond doubt a French expedition to Brazil as early as 1503;" in support of which he refers to De Gonneville, Mémoires, Paris, 1663; De Brosses, Hist. des Navigations, Paris, 1756, tom. i. pp. 104-14; Revista Trimensal, Rio de Janeiro, tom. vi. p. 412-14; D'Avesac, in Bulletin de la Soc. Géog., tom. xiv. p. 172.
In 1503 the Portuguese sent a third fleet of six vessels under Gonzalo Coelho to make farther explorations on the coast of Brazil, then called Santa Cruz, and to sail, if possible, around its southern extremity to India, an idea that seems to have been conceived during the preceding voyage, but which could not then be carried into effect for want of supplies. Vespucci commanded one of the vessels, and set out with high hopes of accomplishing great things for his country, his God, and himself. This is known as Vespucci's fourth voyage. Beyond the account which he gives in his letters, little is known of it except the fact that Coelho made such a voyage at the time. The identity of the two expeditions has not been undisputed, but Humboldt and Major both show that there can be little doubt in the matter. The fleet sailed from Lisbon on the 10th of June—Vespucci says May—remained twelve or thirteen days at the Cape Verde Islands, and thence sailed south-east to within sight of Sierra Leone. The navigators were prevented by a storm from anchoring, and so directed their course south-west for 300 leagues to a desert island in about lat. 3° south, supposed to be Fernando de Noronha, where Coelho lost his ship on the 10th of August. Vespucci's vessel was separated from the rest for eight days, but afterward joined one of them, and the two sailed south-west for seventeen days, making 300 leagues, and arriving at the Bahía de Todos os Santos. Remaining there two months and four days, they followed the coast for 260 leagues to the port now called Cape Frio, where they built a fort and left twenty-four men who had belonged to the vessel which had been wrecked. In this port, which by Vespucci's observations was in lat. 18° south and 35° (or 57°) west of Lisbon, they remained five months, exploring the interior for forty leagues; they then loaded with Brazil-wood, and after a return voyage of seventy-seven days arrived in Lisbon June 28 (or 18), 1504. Vespucci believed the other ships of the fleet to have been lost, but after his account was written, Coelho returned with two ships; nothing, however, is now known of his movements after the separation. Di Amerigo Vespucci Fiorentino, in Ramusio, tom, i., Lettera prima, fol. 139, Lettera secondo, fol. 141, Sommario, fol. 141; Viages de Vespucio, in Navarrete, tom. iii. pp. 281-90; Southey's Hist. Brazil, vol. i. p. 20.
DIVERS EXPEDITIONS.
Alfonso de Alburquerque sailed from Lisbon April 6, 1503, with four vessels for India; but shaping his course far to the south-west, after twenty-four (or twenty-eight) days he reached an island previously discovered by Vespucci; thence he touched the main-land of Brazil, after which he proceeded around the Cape of Good Hope to India, and returned to Lisbon September 16, 1504. Viaggio fatto nell'India per Giovanni di Empoli, in Ramusio, tom. i. fol. 158; Purchas, His Pilgrimes, vol. i. pp. 32-3. Bergomas, Nouissime historiarũ omniũ, etc., Venetiis, 1503, a book of chronicles published with frequent additions to date, contains, for the first time, in this edition, a chapter on the newly found islands of Columbus. In my copy, which is dated ten years later, this chapter is on folio 328. At least nine editions of the work appeared before 1540.
[1504.] Soon after the return from his third voyage, Vespucci wrote a letter to Piero de' Medici, setting forth its incidents. This letter, which bears no date, was probably written in corrupt Italian, and after circulating to some extent in manuscript, as was the custom at the time, it may have been printed, but no copies are known to exist, and the original is lost. Translations were made, however, into Latin and German, which appeared in small pamphlet form in at least seventeen different editions before 1507, under the title of Mundus Novus, or its equivalent. The earliest edition which bears a date is that of 1504, but of the nine issues without date, some undoubtedly appeared before that year. It is probable that other editions have disappeared on account of their undurable form. None of Vespucci's other accounts are known to have been printed before 1507.
This same year the Libretto de tutta le Navigazione del Re di Spagna is said to have been printed at Venice, being the first collection of voyages, and containing, according to the few Italian authors who claim to have seen it, the first three voyages of Columbus and those of Niño and Pinzon. If authentic, it was the first account of the voyage of Columbus to the Pearl Coast; but no copy is known at present to exist, and its circulation must have been small compared with Vespucci's relations. Humboldt, Exam. Crit., tom. iv. pp. 67-77; Harrisse, Bib. Am. Vet., nos. 22-41.