For this Americus Vespucius could not have been responsible. He deserves, then, to preserve in the estimation of posterity the esteem accorded to him by all his contemporaries. He was loved and respected during his life, and from this fact we shall in conclusion draw a new testimony.
VI.
In the first place, Americus Vespucius possessed the friendship of Christopher Columbus. At the commencement of our article we saw Vespucius going to Toro, (where was assembled the court of Castile,) recommended by the admiral to his son Diego. We give the letter entire:
SEVILLE, Feb. 5, 1505.
"My Dear Son: Diego Mendez [Footnote 227] left here Monday, the 3d of this month. Since his departure I have talked with Amerigo Vespuchy, who is going to court, called thither by business concerning navigation. He has always shown a desire to please me; and he is a very able man. Fortune has shown herself adverse to him as to many others. His labors have not proved so profitable to him as should have naturally been the case. He is going to court in my behalf, and with an ardent desire of effecting something useful to me, if occasion should offer. While in this place I cannot specify in what way he can serve us, not knowing how they stand affected toward him, but he is quite determined to do all in his power for my good. You will see for yourself how you can best employ him, for he will speak and set everything at work; I want it to be done secretly, that nothing may be suspected. I told him everything I could concerning our interests." [Footnote 228]
[Footnote 227: A faithful servant of Columbus.]
[Footnote 228: Crit. Exam. vol. iv. pp. 29,30, and Washington Irving, vol. iv. App. No. 9.]
He who expressed himself thus concerning Americus had known him not merely a day or two, but for long years.
But let us admit that he was the dupe of a consummate hypocrite. The traitor was to be unmasked when death should relieve him of the obstacle who had been a source of such insupportable impatience to him. Witnesses there were, however, to denounce him. Let us hear them:
Sebastian Cabot, a worthy rival of the most illustrious navigators of his day, had been summoned from England to Spain about the year 1512, to succeed Americus as corrector of geographic tables. Three years later he took occasion to bear testimony to his expertness in the determination of latitudes.