"Por Castilla y por Leon
Nuevo Mundo halló Colon."
Maffei of Volterra, Commentariorum urbanorum, Rome, 1506, a kind of geographical encyclopædia, contains a section on the loca nuper reperta. Five editions are mentioned as having been issued in the years 1510, 1511, and 1530, all but one at Paris.
M. Varnhagen claims that the original mixed Italian text of Vespucci's first voyage was printed in Florence in 1505 or 1506, and that several copies have been preserved. This is the text used by him in his defense of Vespucci. See Premier Voy., Vienna, 1869, and Vespucci, son caractère, etc., Lima, 1865, in which the letter is reproduced. I find no mention by any other author of such an edition.
[1507.] No voyages are mentioned in this year; but the bibliography of the year is remarkable. Montalboddo (or Zorzi), Paesi Nouamente retrouati, Et Nouo Mondo da Alberico Vesputio, Florentino, intitulato, Vicentia, 1507, is the second collection of voyages issued, and the first of which any copies at present exist. This work is divided into six books, of which the fourth and fifth relate to America, the fourth being a reproduction of the Libretto of 1504, while the fifth is the Nouo Mondo, or third voyage of Vespucci; and its mention in the title shows how important a feature it was deemed in a work of this character. In the following year, besides a new Italian edition, there appeared a German translation under the title of Ruchamer, Newe unbekanthe landte, Nuremberg, 1508, and a Latin translation, Itinerariũ Portugallẽsiũ, Milan, 1508. At least fourteen editions in Italian, Latin, German, and French appeared before 1530.
THE NAMING OF AMERICA.
Hylacomylus (Waldsee-Müller), Cosmographiæ Introdvctio ... Insuper quatuor Americi Vespucij Nauigationes, Deodate (St Dié, Lorraine), 1507, is the title of a work which appeared four times in the same place and year. It is the first collection of Vespucci's four voyages, and generally regarded as the first edition of the first and fourth, although as we have seen M. Varnhagen claims an Italian edition of the first in 1506. This account of the third voyage is different from that so widely circulated before as Mundus Novus. Three other editions of the work, or of the part relating to Vespucci, appeared in 1509 and 1510. In Hylacomylus the following passage occurs: "But now that those parts have been more extensively examined, and another fourth part has been discovered by Americus (as will be seen in the sequel), I do not see why we should rightly refuse to name it America, namely, the land of Americus or America, after its discoverer, Americus, a man of sagacious mind, since both Europe and Asia took their names from women." Here we have the origin of the name 'America.' To the northern discoveries of Columbus, Cabot, and Cortereal, on the islands and coast of the supposed Asia, no general name was given because those regions were already named India, Cathay, Mangi, etc., while names were applied by Europeans only to particular places on the new coasts. When Columbus in 1498 explored the northern coast of South America he had no doubt it was a portion, though probably a detached portion, of Asia, and the terms Paria and the Pearl Coast sufficed to designate the region during the succeeding trading voyages. Concerning these voyages, only a letter of Columbus and a slight account of Pinzon's expedition had been printed, apparently without attracting much attention. The voyages of Columbus, Bastidas, and Pinzon along the coast of Central America were almost unknown. Meanwhile the fame of the great navigator had become much obscured. His enterprises on the supposed Asiatic coast had been unprofitable to Spain. The eyes of the world were now directed farther south. By the Portuguese the coasts of Brazil had been explored for a long distance, proving the great extent of this south-eastern portion of the supposed Asia, whose existence was not indicated on the old charts, and which certainly required a name. These Portuguese explorations and their results were known to the world almost exclusively by the letter of Vespucci so often printed. To the Latin translation of the letter, the name Mundus Novus had been applied, meaning not necessarily a new continent, but simply the newly found regions. The name 'America' suggested itself naturally, possibly through the influence of some friend who was an admirer of Vespucci, to the German professor of a university in Lorraine, as appropriate for the new region, and he accordingly proposed it. Having proposed it, his pride and that of his friends—a clique who had great influence over the productions of the German press at that period—was involved in securing its adoption. No open opposition seems to have been made, even by the Portuguese who had applied the name 'Santa Cruz' to the same region; still it was long before the new name replaced the old ones. In later years, when America was found to be joined to the northern continent, and all that great land to be entirely distinct from Asia, the name had become too firmly fixed to be easily changed, and no effort that we know of was made to change it. Later still some authors, inadvertently perhaps, attributed the first discovery to Vespucci. This aroused the wrath of Las Casas and others, and a discussion ensued which has lasted to the present time. See list of partisans on both sides in Harrisse, Bib. Am. Vet., pp. 65-7. Muñoz and Navarrete insist that Vespucci was an impostor, but others, headed by Humboldt, have proved conclusively that the name 'America' was adopted as the result of the somewhat strange combination of circumstances described, without any intentional wrong to Columbus. This conclusion is founded chiefly on the following reasons, namely: The honor to Vespucci resulted chiefly from his third voyage in 1501, and not from his first voyage in 1497, which last mentioned is the only one possible to have claimed precedence over Columbus in the discovery of the continent. Furthermore, neither Columbus nor Vespucci ever suspected that a new continent had been found; and to precede Cabot in reaching Asia, Vespucci, even if relying on his first voyage, must have dated it somewhat earlier in 1497 than he did; while to precede Columbus he must have dated it before 1492, when, as they both believed, Columbus had touched Asia at Cuba. Then, again, there is no evidence whatever that Vespucci ever claimed the honor of discovery. He was on intimate terms with the admiral and his friends, and is highly spoken of by all, especially by Fernando Colon, who was extremely jealous in every particular which might affect his father's honor. Moreover, it is certain that Vespucci did not himself propose the name 'America;' it is not certain that he even used the term Mundus Novus or its equivalent in his letters; and it is quite possible that he never even knew of his name being applied to the New World, since the name did not come into general use until many years after his death, which occurred in 1512. The most serious charge which in my opinion can be brought against Vespucci is neglect—perhaps an intentional deception for the purpose of giving himself temporary prominence in the eyes of his correspondent—in failing to name the commanders under whom he sailed; and with exaggeration and carelessness in his details. But it is to be remembered that his writings were simply letters to friends describing in familiar terms the wonders of his voyages, with little care for dry dates and names, reserving particulars for a large work which he had prepared, but which has never come to light. "After all," says Irving, "this is a question more of curiosity than of real moment ... about which grave men will continue to write weary volumes, until the subject acquires a fictitious importance from the mountain of controversy heaped upon it." Cancellieri, Notizie di Colombo, pp. 41-8; Humboldt, Exam. Crit., tom. iv. and v., and Preface to Ghillany; Navarrete, Col. de Viages, tom. i. p. cxxvi.; Major's Prince Henry, pp. 380-8; Kohl's Hist. Discov., p. 496; Harrisse, Bib. Am. Vet., pp. 65-6; D'Avesac, Martin Hylacomylus, Paris, 1867; Muñoz, Hist. Nuevo Mundo, p. x.; Stevens' Notes, pp. 24, 35, 52 et seq.; Viages de Vespucio, in Navarrete, tom. iii. p. 183; Carta del Excmo. Sr. Vizconde de Santarem, in Navarrete, tom. iii. pp. 309-34. Ludd, Speculi Orbis, Strasburg, 1507, adopts Waldsee-Müller's suggestion so far as to speak of the 'American race,' or people, gentis Americi. Major, Prince Henry, pp. 380-8, explains the connection between this and other works of the time influenced by the St Dié clique. See also Stevens' Notes, p. 35.
[1508.] Pinzon and Solis, with Pedro Ledesma as pilot, were sent by Spain for the third time to search southward for the strait which they, as well as Columbus and Bastidas, had failed to find farther north and west. Sailing from San Lúcar June 29, 1508, they touched at the Cape Verde Islands, proceeded to Cape St Augustine, and followed the coast south-west to about 40° south latitude, returning to Spain in October, 1509. Viages Menores, in Navarrete, tom. iii. p. 47. Kohl, Die beiden ältesten Karten von Am., p. 110, joins this voyage to the preceding one of 1506.
Another of the uncertain French voyages to Newfoundland is reported to have taken place in 1508, under the command of Thomas Aubert, from Dieppe. Viages Menores, in Navarrete, tom. iii. p. 41; Kohl's Hist. Discov., pp. 203-5.
In 1508 the governor of Española sent Sebastian de Ocampo to explore Cuba. He was the first to sail round the island, thus proving it such, as Juan de la Cosa probably imagined it to be eight years earlier. Aa, Naaukeurige Versameling, tom. vi. p. 1; Herrera, Hist. Gen., dec. i. lib. vii. cap. i.; Stevens' Notes, p. 35.