Amerigo Vespucci

Amerigo Vespucci, by Frederick A. Ober

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Amerigo Vespucci, by Frederick A. Ober This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
Title: Amerigo Vespucci
Author: Frederick A. Ober
Release Date: December 3, 2006 [EBook #19997]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK AMERIGO VESPUCCI ***

Produced by Suzanne Shell, Richard J. Shiffer and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

[Transcriber's Note: Every effort has been made to replicate this text as faithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and other inconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious error by the publisher is noted at the end of this ebook.]

AMERIGO VESPUCCI
BY
FREDERICK A. OBER
HEROES OF AMERICAN HISTORY
ILLUSTRATED
[Illustration]
HARPER & BROTHERS PUBLISHERS NEW YORK AND LONDON 1907
Copyright, 1907, by HARPER & BROTHERS.
All rights reserved.
Published February, 1907.
[Illustration: AMERIGO VESPUCCI]

CONTENTS
CHAP. PAGE
I. YOUNG AMERIGO AND HIS FAMILY 1
II. AMERIGO'S FRIENDS AND TEACHERS 15
III. VESPUCCI'S FAVORITE AUTHORS 32
IV. IN THE SERVICE OF SPAIN 45
V. CONVERSATIONS WITH COLUMBUS 59
VI. VESPUCCI'S DEBATABLE VOYAGE 76
VII. VESPUCCI'S "SECOND" VOYAGE 101
VIII. WITH OJEDA THE FIGHTER 126
IX. CANNIBALS, GIANTS, AND PEARLS 138
X. FAMOUS FELLOW-VOYAGERS 148
XI. ON THE COAST OF BRAZIL 165
XII. THE "FOURTH PART OF THE EARTH" 179
XIII. THE FOURTH GREAT VOYAGE 194
XIV. KING FERDINAND'S FRIEND 209
XV. PILOT-MAJOR OF SPAIN 221
XVI. HOW AMERICA WAS NAMED 237

ILLUSTRATIONS
AMERIGO VESPUCCI Frontispiece
A CONJECTURAL RESTORATION OF TOSCANELLI'S MAP Facing p. 20
MARCO POLO " 40
OJEDA'S FIRST VOYAGE " 130
ROUTES OF THE DISCOVERERS " 166
NORTH AMERICA FROM THE GLOBE OF JOHANN SCH?NER " 244

AUTHORITIES ON AMERIGO VESPUCCI
XVIth CENTURY. Vespucci's letters to Soderini and L. P. F. de' Medici, reproduced in this volume.
XVIIth CENTURY. Herrera, in his Historia General (etc.), Madrid, 1601; "probably followed Las Casas, whose MSS. he had."
XVIIIth CENTURY. Dandini, A. M., Vita e Lettere di Amerigo Vespucci, Florence, 1745.
Canovai, Stanislac, Elogia di Amerigo Vespucci, 1778.
XIXth CENTURY. Navarrete, M. F. de, Noticias Exactas de Americo Vespucio, contained in his Coleccion, Madrid, 1825-1837.
Humboldt, Alexander von, Examen Critique de l'Histoire de la G��ographie de Nouveau Continent, Paris, 1836-1839.
Lester, C. Edwards, The Life and Voyages of Americus Vespucius, New York, 1846; reprinted, in de luxe edition, New York, 1903.
Varnhagen, F. A., Baron de Porto Seguro, Amerigo Vespucci, son Caract��re, ses ��crits (etc.), Lima, 1865; Vienna, 1874. A collection of monographs called by Fiske "the only intelligent modern treatise on the life and voyages of this navigator."
Fiske, John, The Discovery of America, Boston, 1899; contains an exhaustive critical examination of Vespucci's voyages to which the reader should refer for more extended information.

AMERIGO VESPUCCI[1]

I
YOUNG AMERIGO AND HIS FAMILY
1451-1470
Cradled in the valley of the Arno, its noble architecture fitly supplementing its numerous natural charms, lies the Tuscan city of Florence, the birthplace of immortal Dante, the early home of Michael Angelo, the seat of the Florentine Medici, the scene of Savonarola's triumphs and his tragic end. Fame has come to many sons of Florence, as poets, statesmen, sculptors, painters, travellers; but perhaps none has achieved a distinction so unique, apart, and high as the subject of this volume, after whom the continents of the western hemisphere were named.
Amerigo Vespucci was born in Florence, March 9, 1451, just one hundred and fifty years after Dante was banished from the city in which both first saw the light. The Vespucci family had then resided in that city more than two hundred years, having come from Peretola, a little town adjacent, where the name was highly regarded, as attached to the most respected of the Italian nobility. Following the custom of that nobility, during the period of unrest in Italy, the Vespuccis established themselves in a stately mansion near one of the city gates, which is known as the Porta del Prato. Thus they were within touch of the gay society of Florence, and could enjoy its advantages, while at the same time in a position, in the event of an uprising, to flee to their estates and stronghold in the country.
While the house in which Christopher Columbus was born remains unidentified, and the year of his birth undecided, no such ambiguity attaches to the place and year of Vespucci's nativity. Above the doorway of the mansion which "for centuries before the discovery of America was the dwelling-place of the ancestors of Amerigo Vespucci, and his own birthplace," a marble tablet was placed, in the second decade of the eighteenth century, bearing the following inscription:
"To AMERICO VESPUCCIO, a noble Florentine, Who, by the discovery of AMERICA, Rendered his own and his Country's name illustrious, [As] the AMPLIFIER OF THE WORLD. Upon this ancient mansion of the VESPUCCI, Inhabited by so great a man, The holy fathers of Saint John of God Have placed this Tablet, sacred to