It is a singular fact that, without attributing to himself any share in the command, and even while distinctly stating that he was there under orders "to aid in making discoveries," [Footnote 190] he does not name the chiefs under whose authority he was placed.
[Footnote 190: M. Von Humboldt supposes him to have been the astronomer of the expedition. Crit. Exam, vol. iv. p. 189, and following. In several instances the other mariners failed to mention the name of their captains.]
But, in spite of this reticence, we gather from the deposition of Alonzo de Hojeda in the lawsuit brought against the crown by the son of Columbus in 1508, that Vespucius served on the squadron of Hojeda. [Footnote 191]
[Footnote 191: He states that on this voyage (May 20th, 1499, to June, 1500) he took with him Juan de la Cosa, pilot, Morigo Vespuche, and other pilots. (Crit. Ex; vol. iv. p. 188.)]
A comparison between the narratives left by both leads to the conclusion that the first voyage of Americus, so inaccurately dated, must be identified with that of Alonzo. [Footnote 192]
[Footnote 192: Crit. Exam. vol. iv. pp. 195-200.]
But, instead of accompanying the latter during the entire expedition, Vespucius, after exploring the coast of Paria with him, left him at Hispaniola at the end five months. Then, having been absent only from May 5th to October 15th, 1499, he must have returned to Spain in time to embark in the December of that year with the expedition Vicente Yanez Pinzon. [Footnote 193]
[Footnote 193: Crit. Exam. vol. iv. p. 290.]
This expedition, which ended in September, 1500 agrees in a host of details with the second voyage of Vespucius. [Footnote 194]
[Footnote 194: Crit. Exam. vol. iv. pp. 293-316; vol. v. pp. 61-69, 212-213. M. Von Humboldt shows that the circumstances of each of the two first voyages of Vespucius bear too distinctive a character to render admissible the idea that they were but one voyage, that is, the voyage which the Florentine is accused of calling the second, while its elements, divided by him with more or less art, furnished fallaciously the material for a first supposed voyage, bearing the false date of 1497. The first voyage was confined entirely in the northern hemisphere, the second extended to southern regions.]