The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Vol. II)

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Mention is made of the elder Colombo in Zurita's Annals of Arragon, (L.
xix. p. 261,) in the war between Spain and Portugal, on the subject of the
claim of the Princess Juana to the crown of Castile. In 1476, the king of
Portugal determined to go to the Mediterranean coast of France, to incite
his ally, Louis XI, to prosecute the war in the province of Guipuzcoa.

The king left Toro, says Zurita, on the 13th June, and went by the river
to the city of Porto, in order to await the armada of the king of France,
the captain of which was Colon, (Colombo,) who was to navigate by the
straits of Gibraltar to pass to Marseilles.

After some delays Colombo arrived in the latter part of July with the
French armada at Bermeo, on the coast of Biscay, where he encountered a
violent storm, lost his principal ship, and ran to the coast of Galicia,
with an intention of attacking Kibaldo, and lost a great many of his men.
Thence he went to Lisbon to receive the king of Portugal, who embarked in
the fleet in August, with a number of his noblemen, and took two thousand
two hundred foot soldiers, and four hundred and seventy horse, to
strengthen the Portuguese garrisons along the Barbary coast. There were in
the squadron twelve ships and five caravels. After touching at Ceuta the
fleet proceeded to Colibre, where the king disembarked in the middle of
September, the weather not permitting them to proceed to Marseilles.
(Zurita, L. xix. Ch. 51.)

This Colombo is evidently the naval commander of whom the following
mention is made by Jaques George de Chaufepie, in his supplement to Bayle,
(vol. 2, p. 126 of letter C.)

"I do not know what dependence," says Chaufepie, "is to be placed on a
fact reported in the _Ducatiana_, (Part 1, p. 143,) that Columbus was
in 1474 captain of several ships for Louis XI, and that, as the Spaniards
had made at that time an irruption into Roussillon, he thought that, for
reprisal, and without contravening the peace between the two crowns, he
could run down Spanish vessels. He attacked, therefore, and took two
galleys of that nation, freighted on the account of various individuals.
On complaints of this action being made to king Ferdinand, he wrote on the
subject to Louis XI; his letter is dated the 9th December, 1474. Ferdinand
terms Christopher Columbus a subject of Louis; it was because, as is
known, Columbus was a Genoese, and Louis was sovereign of Genoa; although
that city and Savona were held of him in fief by the duke of Milan."

It is highly probable that it was the squadron of this same Colombo of
whom the circumstance is related by Bossi, and after him by Spotorno on
the authority of a letter found in the archives of Milan, and written in
1476 by two illustrious Milanese gentlemen, on their return from
Jerusalem. The letter states that in the previous year 1475, as the
Venetian fleet was stationed off Cyprus to guard the island, a Genoese
squadron, commanded by one Colombo, sailed by them with an air of
defiance, shouting "Viva San Giorgia!" As the republics were then at
peace, they were permitted to pass unmolested.

Bossi supposes that the Colombo here mentioned was Christopher Columbus
the discoverer; but it appears rather to have been the old Genoese admiral
of that name, who according to Zurita was about that time cruising in the
Mediterranean; and who, in all probability, was the hero of both the
preceding occurrences.

The nephew of this Colombo, called by the Spaniards Colombo el mozo,
commanded a few years afterwards a squadron in the French service, as will
appear in a subsequent illustration, and Columbus may at various times
have held an inferior command under both uncle and nephew, and been
present on the above cited occasions.

No. VIII.

Expedition of John of Anjou.

About the time that Columbus attained his twenty-fourth year, his native
city was in a state of great alarm and peril from the threatened invasion
of Alphonso V of Aragon, king of Naples. Finding itself too weak to
contend singly with such a foe, and having in vain looked for assistance
from Italy, it placed itself under the protection of Charles the VIIth of
France. That monarch sent to its assistance John of Anjou, son of Rene or
Renato, king of Naples, who had been dispossessed of his crown by
Alphonso. John of Anjou, otherwise called the duke of Calabria, [286]
immediately took upon himself the command of the place, repaired its
fortifications, and defended the entrance of the harbor with strong
chains. In the meantime, Alplionso had prepared a large land force, and
assembled an armament of twenty ships and ten galleys at Ancona, on the
frontiers of Genoa. The situation of the latter was considered eminently
perilous, when Alphonso suddenly fell ill of a calenture and died; leaving
the kingdoms of Anjou and Sicily to his brother John, and the kingdom of
Naples to his son Ferdinand.

The death of Alphonso, and the subsequent division of his dominions, while
they relieved the fears of the Genoese, gave rise to new hopes on the part
of the house of Anjou; and the duke John, encouraged by emissaries from
various powerful partisans among the Neapolitan nobility, determined to
make a bold attempt upon Naples for the recovery of the crown. The Genoese
entered into his cause with spirit, furnishing him with ships, galleys,
and money. His father, Rene or Renato, fitted out twelve galleys for the
expedition in the harbor of Marseilles, and sent him assurance of an
abundant supply of money, and of the assistance of the king of France. The
brilliant nature of the enterprise attracted the attention of the daring
and restless spirits of the times. The chivalrous nobleman, the soldier of
fortune, the hardy corsair, the bold adventurer, or the military partisan,
enlisted under the banners of the duke of Calabria. It is stated by
historians, that Columbus served in the armament from Genoa, in a squadron
commanded by one of the Colombos, his relations.

The expedition sailed in October, 1459, and arrived at Sessa, between the
mouths of the Garigliano and the Volturno. The news of its arrival was the
signal of universal revolt; the factious barons, and their vassals,
hastened to join the standard of Anjou, and the duke soon saw the finest
provinces of the Neapolitan dominions at his command, and with his army
and squadron menaced the city of Naples itself.

In the history of this expedition we meet with one hazardous action of the
fleet in which Columbus had embarked.

The army of John of Anjou, being closely invested by a superior force, was
in a perilous predicament at the mouth of the Sarno. In this conjuncture,
the captain of the armada landed with his men, and scoured the
neighborhood, hoping to awaken in the populace their former enthusiasm for
the banner of Anjou; and perhaps to take Naples by surprise. A chosen
company of Neapolitan infantry was sent against them. The troops from the
fleet having little of the discipline of regular soldiery, and much of the
freebooting disposition of maritime rovers, had scattered themselves about
the country, intent chiefly upon spoil. They were attacked by the infantry
and put to rout, with the loss of many killed and wounded. Endeavoring to
make their way back to the ships, they found the passes seized and blocked
up by the people of Sorento, who assailed them with dreadful havoc. Their
flight now became desperate and headlong; many threw themselves from rocks
and precipices into the sea, and but a small portion regained the ships.

The contest of John of Anjou for the crown of Naples lasted four years.
For a time fortune favored him, and the prize seemed almost within his
grasp, but reverses succeeded: he was defeated at various points; the
factious nobles, one by one, deserted him, and returned to their
allegiance to Alfonso, and the duke was finally compelled to retire to the
island of Ischia. Here he remained for some time, guarded by eight
galleys, which likewise harassed the bay of Naples. [287] In this
squadron, which loyally adhered to him until he ultimately abandoned this
unfortunate enterprise, Columbus is stated to have served.

No. IX.

Capture of the Venetian Galleys, by Colombo the Younger.

As the account of the sea-fight by which Fernando Columbus asserts that
his father was first thrown upon the shores of Portugal, has been adopted
by various respectable historians, it is proper to give particular reasons
for discrediting it.

Fernando expressly says, that it was in an action mentioned by Marco
Antonio Sabelico, in the eighth book of his tenth Decade; that the
squadron in which Columbus served was commanded by a famous corsair,
called Columbus the younger, (Colombo el mozo,) and that an embassy was
sent from Venice to thank the king of Portugal for the succor he afforded
to the Venetian captains and crews. All this is certainly recorded in
Sabellicus, but the battle took place in 1485, after Columbus had
_left_ Portugal. Zurita, in his annals of Aragon, under the date of
1685, mentions this same action. He says, "At this time four Venetian
galleys sailed from the island of Cadiz and took the route for Flanders;
they were laden with merchandise from the Levant, especially from the
island of Sicily, and, passing by Cape St. Vincent, they were attacked by
a French corsair, son of captain Colon, (Colombo,) who had seven vessels
in his armada; and the galleys were captured the twenty-first of August."
[288]

A much fuller account is given in the life of king John II of Portugal, by
Garcia de Resende, who likewise records it as happening in 1485. He says
the Venetian galleys were taken and robbed by the French, and the captains
and crews, wounded, plundered, and maltreated, were turned on shore at
Cascoes. Here they were succored by Dona Maria de Meneses, countess of
Monsanto.

When king John II heard of the circumstance, being much grieved that such
an event should have happened on his coast, and being disposed to show his
friendship for the republic of Venice, he ordered that the Venetian
captains should be furnished with rich raiment of silks and costly cloths,
and provided with horses and mules, that they might make their appearance
before him in a style befitting themselves and their country. He received
them with great kindness and distinction, expressing himself with princely
courtesy, both as to themselves and the republic of Venice; and having
heard their account of the battle, and of their destitute situation, he
assisted them with a large sum of money to ransom their galleys from the
French cruisers. The latter took all the merchandises on board of their
ships, but king John prohibited any of the spoil from being purchased
within his dominions. Having thus generously relieved and assisted the
captains, and administered to the necessities of their crews, he enabled
them all to return in their own galleys to Venice.

The dignitaries of the republic were so highly sensible of this
munificence, on the part of king John, that they sent a stately embassy to
that monarch, with rich presents and warm expressions of gratitude.
Geronimo Donate was charged with this mission, a man eminent for learning
and eloquence; he was honorably received and entertained by king John, and
dismissed with royal presents, among which were jenets, and mules with
sumptuous trappings and caparisons, and many negro slaves richly clad.
[289]

The following is the account of this action as given by Sabellicus, in his
history of Venice: [290]

Erano andate quatro Galee delle quali Bartolommeo Minio era capitano.
Queste navigando per l'Iberico mare, Colombo il piu giovane, nipote di
quel Colombo famoso corsale, fecesi incontro a' Veniziani di notte,
appresso il sacro Promontorio, che chiamasi ora capo di san Vincenzo, con
sette navi guernite da combattere. Egli quantunque nel primo incontro
avesse seco disposto d'opprimere le navi Veniziane, si ritenne pero del
combattere sin al giorno: tuttavia per esser alia battaglia piu acconcio
cosi le seguia, che le prode del corsale toccavano le poppe de Veniziani.
Venuto il giorno incontanente i Barbari diedero 1' assalto. Sostennero i
Veniziani allora 1' empito del nemico, per numero di navi e di combattenti
superiore, e duro il conflitto atroce per molte ore. Rare fiate fu
combattuto contro simili nemici con tanta uccisione, perche a pena si
costuina d'attaccarsi contro di loro, se non per occasione. Affermano
alcuni, che vi furono presenti, esser morte deile ciurme Veniziane da
trecento uomini. Altri dicono che fu meno: mori in quella zuffa Lorenzo
Michele capitano d'una galera e Giovanni Delfino, d'altro capitano
fratello. Era durata la zuffa dal fare del giorno fin' ad ore venti, e
erano le genti Veneziane mal Initiate. Era gia la nave Delfina in potere
de' nemici quando le altre ad una ad una si renderono. Narrano alcuni, che
furono di quel aspro conflitto participi, aver numerato nelle loro navi da
prode a poppe ottanta valorosi uomini estinti, i quali dal nemico veduti
lo mossero a gemere e dire con sdegno, che cosi avevano voluto, i
Veniziani. I corpi morti furono gettati nel mare, e i feriti posti nel
lido. Quei che rimasero vivi seguirono con le navi il capitano vittorioso
sin' a Lisbona e ivi furono tutti licenziati.... Quivi furono i Veniziaui
benignamente ricevuti dal Re, gli infermi furono medicati, gli altri
ebbero abiti e denari secondo la loro condizione.... Oltre cio vietd in
tutto il Regno, che alcuno non comprasse della preda Veniziana, portata
dai corsali. La nuova dell' avuta rovina non poco afflisse la citta, erano
perduti in quella mercatanzia da ducento mila ducati; ma il danno
particolare degldi nomini uccisi diede maggior afflizione. _Marc. Ant.
Sabelico, Hist, Venet., decad. iv. lib. iii._

No. X.

Amerigo Vespucci.

Among the earliest and most intelligent of the voyagers who followed the
track of Columbus, was Amerigo Vespucci. He has been considered by many as
the first discoverer of the southern continent, and by a singular caprice
of fortune, his name has been given to the whole of the New World. It has
been strenuously insisted, however, that he had no claim to the title of a
discoverer; that he merely sailed in a subordinate capacity in a squadron
commanded by others; that the account of his first voyage is a
fabrication; and that he did not visit the main-land until after it had
been discovered and coasted by Columbus. As this question has been made a
matter of warm and voluminous controversy, it is proper to take a summary
view of it in the present work.

Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, March 9th, 1451, of a noble, but
not at that time a wealthy, family; his father's name was Anastatio; his
mother's was Elizabetta Mini. He was the third of their sons, and received
an excellent education under his uncle, Georgio Antonio Vespucci, a
learned friar of the fraternity of San Marco, who was instructor to
several illustrious personages of that period.

Amerigo Vespucci visited Spain, and took up his residence in Seville, to
attend to some commercial transactions on account of the family of the
Medici of Florence, and to repair, by his ingenuity, the losses and
misfortunes of an unskillful brother. [291]

The date of his arrival in Spain is uncertain, but from comparing dates
and circumstances mentioned in his letters, he must have been at Seville
when Columbus returned from his first voyage.

Padre Stanislaus Canovai, Professor of Mathematics at Florence, who has
published the life and voyages of Amerigo Vespucci, says that he was
commissioned by king Ferdinand, and sent with Columbus in his second
voyage in 1493. He states this on the authority of a passage in the
Cosmography of Sebastian Munster, published at Basle in 1550;[292] but
Munster mentions Vespucci as having accompanied Columbus in his first
voyage; the reference of Canovai is therefore incorrect; and the
suggestion of Munster is disproved by the letters of Vespucci, in which he
states his having been stimulated by the accounts brought of the
newly-discovered regions. He never mentions such a voyage in any of his
letters; which he most probably would have done, or rather would have
made it the subject of a copious letter, had he actually performed it.

The first notice of a positive form which we have of Vespucci, as resident
in Spain, is early in 1496. He appears, from documents in the royal
archives at Seville, to have acted as agent or factor for the house of
Juanoto Berardi, a rich Florentine merchant, resident in Seville; who had
contracted to furnish the Spanish sovereigns with three several armaments,
of four vessels each, for the service of the newly-discovered countries.
He may have been one of the principals in this affair, which was
transacted in the name of this established house. Berardi died in
December, 1495, and in the following January we find Amerigo Vespucci
attending to the concerns of the expeditions, and settling with the
masters of the ships for their pay and maintenance, according to the
agreements made between them and the late Juanoto Berardi. On the 12th
January, 1496, he received on this account 10,000 maravedis from Bernardo
Pinelo, the royal treasurer. He went on preparing all things for the
dispatch of four caravels to sail under the same contract between the
sovereigns and the house of Berardi, and sent them to sea on the 3d
February, 1496; but on the 8th they met with a storm and were wrecked; the
crews were saved with the loss of only three men. [293] While thus
employed, Amerigo Vespucci, of course, had occasional opportunity of
conversing with Columbus, with whom, according to the expression of the
admiral himself, in one of his letters to his son Diego, he appears to
have been always on friendly terms. From these conversations, and from his
agency in these expeditions, he soon became excited to visit the
newly-discovered countries, and to participate in enterprises, which were
the theme of every tongue. Having made himself well acquainted with
geographical and nautical science, he prepared to launch into the career
of discovery. It was not very long before he carried this design into
execution.

In 1498, Columbus, in his third voyage, discovered the coast of Paria, on
Terra Firma; which he at that time imagined to be a great island, but that
a vast continent lay immediately adjacent. He sent to Spain specimens of
pearls found on this coast, and gave the most sanguine accounts of the
supposed riches of the country.

In 1499, an expedition of four vessels, under command of Alonzo de Ojeda,
was fitted out from Spain, and sailed for Paria, guided by charts and
letters sent to the government by Columbus. These were communicated to
Ojeda, by his patron, the bishop Fonseca, who had the superintendence of
India affairs, and who furnished him also with a warrant to undertake the
voyage.

It is presumed that Vespucci aided in fitting, out the armament, and
sailed in a vessel belonging to the house of Berardi, and in this way was
enabled to take a share in the gains and losses of the expedition; for
Isabella, as queen of Castile, had rigorously forbidden all strangers to
trade with her transatlantic possessions, not even excepting the natives
of the kingdom of Aragon.

This squadron visited Paria and several hundred miles of the coast, which
they ascertained to be Terra Firma. They returned in June, 1500; and on
the 18th of July, in that year, Amerigo Vespucci wrote an account of his
voyage to Lorenzo de Pier Francisco de Medici of Florence, which remained
concealed in manuscript, until brought to light and published by Bandini
in 1745.

In his account of this voyage, and in every other narrative of his
different expeditions, Vespucci never mentions any other person concerned
in the enterprise. He gives the time of his sailing, and states that he
went with two caravels, which were probably his share of the expedition,
or rather vessels sent by the house of Berardi. He gives an interesting
narrative of the voyage, and of the various transactions with the natives,
which corresponds, in many substantial points, with the accounts furnished
by Ojeda and his mariners of their voyage, in a lawsuit hereafter
mentioned.

In May, 1501, Vespucci, having suddenly left Spain, sailed in the service
of Emanuel, king of Portugal; in the course of which expedition he visited
the coast of Brazil. He gives an account of this voyage in a second letter
to Lorenzo de Pier Francisco de Medici, which also remained in manuscript
until published by Bartolozzi in 1789. [294]

No record nor notice of any such voyage undertaken by Amerigo Vespucci, at
the command of Emanuel, is to be found in the archives of the Torre do
Tombo, the general archives of Portugal, which have been repeatedly and
diligently searched for the purpose. It is singular also that his name is
not to be found in any of the Portuguese historians, who in general were
very particular in naming all navigators who held any important station
among them, or rendered any distinguished services. That Vespucci did sail
along the coasts, however, is not questioned. His nephew, after his death,
in the course of evidence on some points in dispute, gave the correct
latitude of Cape St. Augustine, which he said he had extracted from his
uncle's journal.

In 1504, Vespucci wrote a third letter to the same Lorenzo de Medici,
containing a more extended account of the voyage just alluded to in the
service of Portugal. This was the first of his narratives that appeared
in print. It appears to have been published in Latin, at Strasburgh, as
early as 1505, under the title "Americus Vesputius de Orbe Antarctica per
Regem Portugalliae pridem inventa." [295]

An edition of this letter was printed in Vicenza in 1507, in an anonymous
collection of voyages edited by Francanzio di Monte Alboddo, an
inhabitant of Vicenza. It was re-printed in Italian in 1508, at Milan,
and also in Latin, in a book entitled "Itinerarium Portugalensium." In
making the present illustration, the Milan edition in Italian [296] has
been consulted, and also a Latin translation of it by Simon Grinaeus, in
his Novus Orbis, published at Basle in 1532. It relates entirely the
first voyage of Vespucci from Lisbon to the Brazils in 1501.

It is from this voyage to the Brazils that Amerigo Vespucci was first
considered the discoverer of Terra Firma; and his name was at first
applied to these southern regions, though afterwards extended to the
whole continent. The merits of his voyage were, however, greatly
exaggerated. The Brazils had been previously discovered, and formally
taken possession of for Spain in 1500, by Vincente Yanez Pinzon; and
also in the same year, by Pedro Alvarez Cabral, on the part of Portugal;
circumstances unknown, however, by Vespucci and his associates. The
country remained in possession of Portugal, in conformity to the line
of demarcation agreed on between the two nations.

Vespucci made a second voyage in the service of Portugal. He says that
he commanded a caravel in a squadron of six vessels destined for the
discovery of Malacca, which they had heard to be the great depot and
magazine of all the trade between the Ganges and the Indian sea. Such
an expedition did sail about this time, under the command of Gonzalo
Coelho. The squadron sailed, according to Vespucci, on the 10th of May,
1503. It stopped at the Cape de Verd islands for refreshments, and
afterwards sailed by the coast of Sierra Leone, but was prevented from
landing by contrary winds and a turbulent sea. Standing to the
southwest, they ran three hundred leagues until they were three degrees
to the southward of the equinoctial line, where they discovered an
uninhabited island, about two leagues in length and one in breadth.
Here, on the 10th of August, by mismanagement, the commander of the
squadron ran his vessel on a rock and lost her. While the other vessels
were assisting to save the crew and property from the wreck, Amerigo
Vespucci was dispatched in his caravel to search for a safe harbor in
the island. He departed in his vessel without his long-boat, and with
less than half of his crew, the rest having gone in the boat to the
assistance of the wreck. Vespucci found a harbor, but waited in vain
for several days for the arrival of the ships. Standing out to sea, he
met with a solitary vessel, and learnt that the ship of the commander
had sunk, and the rest had proceeded onwards. In company with this
vessel he stood for the Brazils, according to the command of the king,
in case that any vessel should be parted from the fleet. Arriving on
the coast, he discovered the famous bay of All Saints, where he
remained upwards of two months, in hopes of being joined by the rest
of the fleet. He at length ran 260 leagues farther south, where he
remained five months building a fort and taking in cargo of
Brazil-wood. Then, leaving in the fortress a garrison of 24 men with
arms and ammunition, he set sail for Lisbon, where he arrived in June,
1504. [297] The commander of the squadron and the other four ships were
never heard of afterwards.