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

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[291]: Bandini vita d'Amerigo Vespucci.

[292]: Cosm. Munst., p. 1108.

[293]: These particulars are from manuscript memoranda, extracted from the
royal archives, by the late accurate historian Munoz.

[294]: Bartolozzi, Recherche Historico. Firenze, 1789.

[295]: Panzer, tom. vi. p. 33, apud Esame Critico, p. 88, Antazione 1.

[296]: This rare book, in the possession of O. Rich, Esq., is believed to
be the oldest printed collection of voyages extant. It has not the pages
numbered; the sheets are merely marked with a letter of the alphabet at
the foot of each eighth page--It contains the earliest account of the
voyages of Columbus, from his first departure until his arrival at Cadiz
in chains. The letter of Vespucci to Lorenzo de Medici occupies the fifth
book of this little volume. It is stated to have been originally written
in Spanish, and translated into Italian by a person of the name of
Jocondo. An earlier edition is stated to have been printed in Venice by
Alberto Vercellese, in 1504. The author is said to have been Angelo
Trivigiani, secretary to the Venetian ambassador in Spain. This Trivigiani
appears to have collected many of the particulars of the voyages of
Columbus from the manuscript decades of Peter Martyr, who erroneously lays
the charge of the plagiarism to Aloysius Cadamosto, whose voyages are
inserted in the same collection. The book was entitled, "_Libretto di
tutta la navigazione del Re de Espagna, delle Isole e terreni nuovamente
trovati._"

[297]: Letter of Vespucci to Soderini or Renato--Edit. of Canovai.

[298]: Navarrete, Colec. Viag., tom. i. p. 351.

[299]: Peter Martyr, decad. iii. lib. v. Eden's English trans.

[300]: En este viage que este dicho testigo hizo trujo consigo a Juan de la
Cosa, piloto, e Morego Vespuche, e otros pilotos.

[301]: Per la necessita del mantenimento fummo all' Isola d'Antiglia
(Hispaniola) che e questa che descoperse Cristoval Colombo piu anni fa,
dove facemmo molto mantenimento, e stemmo due mesi e 17 giorni; dove
passammo moti pericoli e travagli con li medesimi christiani que in questa
isola stavanno col Colombo (credo per invidia). Letter of Vespucci.--Edit.
of Canovai.

[302]: Preguntado como lo sabe; dijo--que lo sabe porque vio este testigo
la figura que el dicho Almirante al dicho tiempo embio a Castilla al Rey e
Reyna, nuestros Senores, de lo que habia descubierto, y porque este
testigo luego vino a descubrir y hallo que era verdad lo que dicho tiene
que el dicho Almirante descubrio MS. Process of D. Diego Colon, Pregunta
2.

[303]: Este testigo escrivio una carta que el Almirante escriviera al Rey a
Reyna N. N. S. S. haciendo les saber las perlas e cosas que habia hallado,
y le embio senalado con la dieba carta, en una carta de marear, los rumbos
y vientos por donde habia llegado a la Paria, e que este testigo oyo decir
como pr. aquella carte se habian hecho otras e por ellas habian venido
Pedro Alonzo Merino (Nino) e Ojeda e otros que despues han ido a aquellas
partes. Process of D. Diego Colon, Pregunta 9.

[304]: Idem, Pregunta 10.

[305]: Que en todos los viages qne algunos hicieron descubriendo en la
dicha tierra, ivan personas que ovieron navegado con el dicho Almirante, y
a ellos mostro muchas cosas de marear, y ellos por imitacion e industria
del dicho Almirante las aprendian y aprendieron, e seguendo ag deg.. que el
dicho Almirante les habia mostrado, hicieron los viages que desenbrieron
en la Tierra Firma. Process, Pregunta 10.

[306]: The first suggestion of the name appears to have been in the Latin
work already cited, published in St. Diez, in Lorraine, in 1507, in which
was inserted the letter of Vespucci to king Rene. The author, after
speaking of the other three parts of the world, Asia, Africa, and Europe,
recommends that the fourth ehall be called Amerigo, or America, after
Vespucci, whom he imagined its discoverer.

_Note to the Revised Edition, 1848._--Humboldt, in his Examen
Critique, published in Paris, in 1837, says: "I have been so happy as to
discover, very recently, the name and the literary relations of the
mysterious personage who (in 1507) was the first to propose the name of
America to designate the new continent, and who concealed himself under
the Grecianized name of Hylacomylas." He then, by a long and ingenious
investigation, shows that the real name of this personage was Martin
Waldseemueller, of Fribourg, an eminent cosmographer, patronized by Rene,
duke of Lorraine; who no doubt put in his hands the letter received by him
from Amerigo Vespucci. The geographical works of Waldseemueller, under the
assumed name of Hylacomylas, had a wide circulation, went through repeated
editions, and propagated the use of the name America throughout the world.
There is no reason to suppose that this application of the name was in any
wise suggested by Amerigo Vespucci. It appears to have been entirely
gratuitous on the part of Waldseemueller.

[307]: An instance of these errors may be cited in the edition of the
letter of Amerigo Vespucci to king Rene, inserted by Grinaeus in his Novus
Orbis, in 1532. In this Vespucci is made to state that he sailed from
Cadiz May 20, MCCCCXCVII. (1497,) that he was eighteen months absent, and
returned to Cadiz October 15, MCCCCXCIX. (1499,) which would constitute an
absence of 29 months. He states his departure from Cadiz, on his second
voyage, Sunday, May 11th, MCCCCLXXXIX. (1489,) which would have made his
second voyage precede his first by eight years. If we substitute 1499 for
1489, the departure on his second voyage would still precede his return
from his first by five months. Canovai, in his edition, has altered the
date of the first return to 1498, to limit the voyage to eighteen months.

[308]: Gomara, Hist. Ind., cap. 14.

[309]: Navigatio Christophori Columbi, Madrignano Interprete. It is
contained in a collection of voyages called Novus Orbis Regionum, edition
of 1555, but was originally published in Italian as written by Montalbodo
Francanzano (or Francapano de Montaldo), in a collection of voyages
entitled Nuovo Mundo, in Vicenza, 1507.

[310]: Girolamo Benzoni, Hist, del Nuevo Mundo, lib. i. fo. 12. In Venetia,
1572.

[311]: Padre Joseph de Acosta, Hist. Ind., lib. i. cap. 19.

[312]: Juan de Mariana, Hist. Espana, lib. xxvi. cap. 3.

[313]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. ii. lib. iii. cap. 1.

[314]: Commentarios de los Incas, Lib. i. cap. 3.

[315]: Names of historians who either adopted this story in detail, or the
charge against Columbus, drawn from it.

Bernardo Aldrete, Antiguedad de Espana, lib. iv. cap. 17, p. 567.
Roderigo Caro, Antiguedad, lib. iii. cap. 76.
Juan de Solorzano, Ind. Jure, tom. i. lib. i. cap. 5.
Fernando Pizarro, Varones Ilust. del Nuevo Mundo, cap. 2.
Agostino Torniel, Annal. Sacr., tom. i. ann. Mund., 1931, No. 48.
Pet. Damarez or De Mariz, Dial. iv. de Var. Hist., cap. 4.
Gregorio Garcia, Orig. de los Indies, lib. i. cap. 4, 1.
Juan de Torquemada, Monarch. Ind., lib. xviii. cap. 1.
John Baptiste Riccioli, Geograf. Reform., lib. iii.

To this list of old authors may be added many others of more recent date.

[316]: "Francisco Lopez de Gomara, Presbitero, Sevillano, escribio con
elegante estilo acerca de las cosas de las Indies, pero dexandose llevar
de falsas narraciones." Hijos de Sevilla, Numero ii. p. 42, Let. F. The
same is stated in Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, lib. i. p. 437. "El Francisco
Lopez de Gomara escrivio tantos borrones e cosas que no son verdaderas, de
que ha hecho mucho dano a muchos escritores e coronistas, que despues del
Gomara han escrito en las cosas de la Nueva Espana ... es porque les ha
hecho errar el Gomara." Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Hist. de la Conquest de
la Nueva Espana, Fin de cap. 13.

"Tenia Gomara doctrina y estilo ... per empleose en ordinar sin
discernimiento lo que hallo escrito por sus antecesores, y dio credito a
petranas no solo falsas sino inverisimiles." Juan Bautista Munoz, Hist. N.
Mundo, Prologo, p 18.

[317]: Vasconcelos, lib. 4.

[318]: Murr, Notice sur M. Behaim.

[319]: Barros, decad. i. lib. ii. cap. 1. Lisbon, 1552.

[320]: Investigations Historicas, Madrid, 1794.

[321]: Cladera, Investig. Hist., p. 115.

[322]: Forster's Northern Voyages, book ii. chap. 2.

[323]: This account is taken from Hakluyt, vol. iii. p. 123. The passage
about gold and other metals is not to be found in the original Italian of
Ramusio, (tom. ii. p. 23,) and is probably an interpolation.

[324]: Hakluyt, Collect., vol. iii. p. 127.

[325]: Malte-Brun, Hist, de Geog., tom. i. lib. xvii.

[326]: Idem, Geog. Unirerselle, tom. xiv. Note sur la decouverte de
l'Amerique.

[327]: Gosselin, Recherches sur la Geographic des Anciens, tom. i. p. 162,
&c.

[328]: Memoirs de l'Acad. des Inscript., tom. xxvi.

[329]: Capmany, Questiones Criticas, Quest. 6.

[330]: Archives de Ind. en Sevilla.

[331]: Capmany, Queat. Crit.

[332]: The author of this work is indebted for this able examination of the
route of Columbus to an officer of the navy of the United States, whose
name he regrets the not being at liberty to mention. He has been greatly
benefited, in various parts of this history, by nautical information from
the same intelligent source.

[333]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. i. lib. ix. cap. 10.

[334]: In the first chapter of Herrera's description of the Indies,
appended to his history, is another scale of the Bahama islands, which
corroborates the above. It begins at the opposite end, at the N. W., and
runs down to the S.E. It is thought unnecessary to cite it particularly.

[335]: See Caballero Pesos y Medidas. J. B. Say. Economic Politique.

[336]: In preparing the first edition of this work for the press the author
had not the benefit of the English translation of Marco Polo, published a
few years since, with admirable commentaries, by William Marsden, F. R. S.
He availed himself, principally, of an Italian version in the Venetian
edition of Ramusio (1606), the French translation by Bergeron, and an old
and very incorrect Spanish translation. Having since procured the work of
Mr. Marsden, he has made considerable alterations in these notices of
Marco Polo.

[337]: Ramusio, tom. iii.

[338]: Bergeron, by blunder in the translation from the original Latin, has
stated that the Khan sent 40,000 men to escort them. This has drawn the
ire of the critics upon Marco Polo, who have cited it as one of his
monstrous exaggerations.

[339]: Hist. des Voyages, tom, xxvii. lib. iv. cap. 3. Paris, 1549.

[340]: Ramusio, vol. ii. p. 17.

[341]: Mr. Marsden, who has inspected a splendid fac-simile of this map
preserved in the British Museum, objects even to the fundamental part of
it: "where," he observes, "situations are given to places that seem quite
inconsistent with the descriptions in the travels, and cannot be
attributed to their author, although inserted on the supposed authority of
his writings." Marsden's M. Polo, Introd., p. xlii.

[342]: Hist, des Voyages, torn. xl. lib. xi. ch, 4.

[343]: Another blunder in translation has drawn upon Marco Polo the
indignation of George Hornius, who (in his Origin of America, IV. 3)
exclaims, "Who can believe all that, he says of the city of Quinsai? as,
for example, that it has stone bridges twelve thousand miles high!" &c. It
is probable that many of the exaggerations in the accounts of Marco Polo
are in fact the errors of his translators.

Mandeville, speaking of this same city, which he calls Causai, says it is
built on the sea like Venice, and has twelve hundred bridges.

[344]: Sir George Staunton mentions this lake as being a beautiful sheet of
water, about three or four miles in diameter; its margin ornamented with
houses and gardens of Mandarines, together with temples, monasteries for
the priests of Fo, and an imperial palace.

[345]: Supposed to be those islands collectively called Japan. They are
named by the Chinese Ge-pen; the terminating syllable _go_, added by
Marco Polo, is supposed to be the Chinese word _kue_, signifying
kingdom, which is commonly annexed to the names of foreign countries. As
the distance of the nearest part of the southern island from the coast of
China near Ning-po is not more than five hundred Italian miles, Mr.
Marsden supposes Marco Polo, in stating it to be 1500, means Chinese miles
or li, which are in the proportion of somewhat more than one-third of the
former.

[346]: Aristot., 2 Met. cap. 5.

[347]: Pliny, lib. i. cap. 61.

[348]: Feyjoo, Theatre Critico, tom. iv. d. 10, Sec. 29.

[349]: Lib. iv. de la Chancelaria del Key Dn. Juan II, fol. 101.

[350]: Torre do Tombo. Lib. das Ylhas, f. 119.

[351]: Fr. Gregorio Garcia, Origen de los Indios, lib. i. cap. 9.

[352]: Sigeberto, Epist. ad Tietmar. Abbat.

[353]: Nunez de la l'ena. Conquist de la Gran Canaria.

[354]: Ptolemy, lib. iv. tom. iv.

[355]: Fr. D. Philipo, lib. viii. fol. 25.

[356]: Hist. Isl. Can., lib. i. cap. 28.

[357]: Nunez de la Pena, lib. i. cap. 1. Viera, Hist Isl. Can., tom. i.
cap. 28.

[358]: Nunez, Conquista le Gran Canaria. Viera, Hist. &c.

[359]: Viera, Hist. Isl. Can., tom. i. cap. 28.

[360]: Idem.

[361]: Viera, Hist. Isl. Can., tom. i. cap. 28.

[362]: Viera, ubi sup.

[363]: Theatro Critico, tom. iv. d. x.

[364]: Hist. del Almirante, cap. 10.

[365]: Torquemada, Monarquia Indiana, lib. iv. cap. 4. Origen de los Indios
por Fr. Gregorio Garcia, lib. iv. cap. 20.

[366]: Barros, Asia, decad. i. lib. i. cap. 3.

[367]: Navarrete, Colec. Viag., tom. i. Introd. p. lxx.

[368]: T. A. Llorente, Oeuvres de Las Casas, p. xi. Paris, 1822.

[369]: Herrera clearly states this as an expedient adopted when others
failed. "Bartolome de las Casas, viendo que sus conceptos hallaban en
todas partes dificultad, i que las opiniones que tenla, por mucha
familiaridad que havia seguido i gran credito con el gran Canciller, no
podian haber efecto, _se volvio a otros expedientes, &c_."--Decad.
ii. lib. ii. cap. 2.

[370]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. iii. lib. ii. cap. 4.

[371]: Idem, decad. ii. lib. ii. cap. 20.

[372]: Idem, decad. ii. lib. iii. cap. 8.

[373]: 1 Herrera, d. i. lib. vi. cap. 20.

[374]: Idem, d. i. lib. viii. cap. 9.

[375]: Idem, d. i. lib. ix. cap. 5.

[376]: Robertson, Hist. America, p. 3.

[377]: Porque como iban faltando los Indios i se conocia que un negro
trabajaba, mas que quatro, por lo qual habia gran dem anda de ellos,
parccia que se podia poner algun tributo en la saca, de que resultaria
provecho a la Rl. Hacienda. Herrera, decad. ii. lib. ii. cap. 8.

[378]: De Marsolier, Hist. du Ministere Cardinal Ximenes, lib. vi.
Toulouse, 1694.

[379]: In this notice the author has occasionally availed himself of the
interesting memoir of Mon. J. A. Idorente, prefixed to his collection of
the works of Las Casas, collating it with the history of Herrera, from
which its facts are principally derived.

[380]: Navarrete, Colec. de Viag., tom. i. p. lxxv.

[381]: Opus Epist. P. Martyris Anglerii, Epist. 131.

[382]: Opus Epist. P. Martyris Anglerii, Epist. 134.

[383]: Opus Epist. P. Martyrin Anglerii, Epist. 135.

[384]: Idem, Epist. 141.

[385]: Idem, Epist. 147.

[386]: Cura de los Palacios, cap. 7.

[387]: Bibliotheca Pinello.

[388]: Herrera, decad ii. lib. ii. cap. 3.

[389]: Idem, decad. iii. lib. iv. cap. 3.

[390]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. iii. lib. i. cap. 15.

[391]: Idem, decad. iii. lib. iv. cap. 3.

[392]: Salazar, Conq. de Mexico, lib. i. cap. 2.

[393]: Herrera, Hist. Ind., decad. iii. lib. i. cap. 1.

[394]: Idem, decad. iii. lib. iv. cap. 3.

[395]: Gosselin, Recherches sur la Geog. des Anciens, tom. i.

[396]: Feyjoo, Theatro Critico, lib. vii. Sec. 2.

[397]: Herodot., lib. iii. Virg. Georg. i. Pomp. Mela, lib. iii. cap. 10.

[398]: St. August., lib. ix. cap. 6. Sup. Genesis.

[399]: St. Basillius was called the great. His works were read and admired
by all the world, even by Pagans. They are written in an elevated and
majestic style, with great splendor of idea, and vast erudition.

[400]: St. Ambros., Opera. Edit. Coignard. Parisiis, MDCXC.

[401]: Paradisus autem in Oriente, in altissimo monte, de cujus cacumine
cadentes aquos, maximum faciunt lacum, que in suo casu tantum faciunt
strepitum et fragorem, quod ornnes incolae, juxta praedictum lacum nascuntur
surdi, ex immoderato sonitu seu fragore sensum auditus in parvulis
corrumpente. _Ul dicit Basilius in Hexameron, similiter et Ambros._
Ex illo lacu, velut ex uno fonte, procedunt ilia flumina quatuor, Phison,
qui et Ganges, Gyon, qui et Nilus dicitur, et Tigris ac Euphrates. Bart.