VESPUCCI

VESPUCCI, AMERIGO, was born at Florence, 9th March, 1451, of a distinguished family, and was educated by his uncle, a man of great scientific reputation, and made great proficiency, especially in astronomy and geography, and the sciences connected with navigation. He was destined by his family to commercial pursuits, which had at this time contributed so greatly to the prosperity of the republic. In 1493 he left Florence, and arrived at Seville at the time that Columbus was preparing to set out on his first voyage of discovery; the success of which awakened the emulation of Amerigo, and determined him to exchange the pursuits of commerce for the fascinating prospects of discoveries in the New World.

On the 10th of May, 1497, (according to the account of Bandini, but Spanish writers place the date two years later,) he commenced his first voyage, and left Cadiz with five vessels under the orders of D'Ojead. He reached America after thirty-seven days' sailing, and coasted along the continent more than 400 leagues. After a voyage of thirteen

months, he returned to Spain, and anchored at Cadiz the 15th October 1498.

The year following he revisited America, and after sailing along the coast under the tropics, he returned by the island of St. Domingo, where Ojeda had some encounters with the Europeans who six years before had come to the island with Columbus. The fleet then steered northwards and discovered several islands, which Amerigo, by a poetical exaggeration, raised to the number of a thousand. In 1501 he entered the service of Emmanuel, king of Portugal, and again visited America, sailing along the coast of Brazil to Patagonia. He made a fourth voyage to America in 1503, with the view of attempting the discovery of a western passage to Malacca; in this, however, he was unsuccessful, and returned with the loss of one of his ships. About this time the vast continent discovered by Columbus began to be called America, from his Latinized name Americus; and he lived to enjoy the usurped honour for several years. His death took place in 1516, while he was in the service of Emmanuel, king of Portugal, who caused the remains of his vessels to be preserved in the cathedral of Lisbon, and heaped honours on his family. He left a journal of four of his voyages, which was printed at Paris in Latin, in 1552, and from which translations were afterwards published in the Italian and French languages.