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Amerigo Vespucci.

Citushing,

C. Cushing [April, ART. XVIII.Viaggi dAmerigo Vespucci, con la Vita, l'Elogio e la Dissertazione giustificativa di questo celebre Navigatore, del Padre Stanislao Canovai delle Scuole Pie, pubblico Professore di Matematica. Opera postuma. Firenze, 1817, 8vo, pp. 392.

IT is a most remarkable circumstance, as illustrating the situation of Italy in modern times, and as affording us a monitory example, that, although England, France, and Spain, three powers who partitioned among themselves the greatest part of America, all derived the title to their transatlantic possessions, from the voyages and discoveries of Italian navigators, not a single colony was planted on this continent, nor a single rood of territory gained, by the inhabitants of Italy. Columbus, a Genoese, acquired for Spain a colonial dominion great enough to satiate the most craving ambition, but, reaping no personal advantage from his labors excepting an unprofitable fame, after having been ignominiously driven from the world he made known to Europeans, died in poverty and disgrace. Cabot, a Venetian, by sailing in the service of England, conferred on that nation a claim, the magnitude and importance of which he never lived to comprehend. Verazzani, a Florentine, explored this country for the benefit of France, and sailing hither a second time for the purpose of establishing a colony, perished at sea. Vespucci gave his name to the new world, and thus rendered his reputation as everlasting as that new world itself, without acquiring thereby any advantage for his native country. And so unhappily was this country split into diminutive states, and debilitated by intestine disorders, that, whilst her sons were toiling in other lands, as aliens and exiles, and lavishing their nautical skill and intrepidity upon thankless foreigners, whilst her merchants were the factors and her seamen the pilots of the whole earth, she herself, that had once been the mistress of nations, never attempted to enter into the glorious competition for empire, which was agitating the rest of Europe. Even the Eternal City, so far from seeking or having the power to seek colonial acquisitions, was too weak to defend her territories against the encroachments of domestic enemies, or to secure her liberties from foreign invaders, at the very time that her ecclesiastical head was exercising a prerogative seldom enjoyed by her proudest emperors, enfeoffing a favourite vassal with whole provinces in America, as if they had

been a petty barony, and bartering away nations more numerous, and kingdoms more wide, and rich and magnificent, than all the conquests of Alexander. Nothing could more clearly indicate the advantages of our federal government: for if the jealous states of Italy, which, notwithstanding the superior genius of her people, were individually so powerless, had been united into one stable league, they would not have been from that day to this the prey of contending factions, and the slaves of every military monarch beyond the Alps; and if the revolutionary spirit which now pervades Italy, pointing to the union of countries already one in language, interests, character and ancient fame, should produce the consolidation of Lombardy, Tuscany, Rome, Naples, Sicily and Sardinia into a federal republic, Italy, perhaps, would renew the long line of her national glories, and assume a rank amongst her contemporaries, which she has never held since the dissolution of the Western Empire.

Not the least distinguished of those Italians, whose fame is inseparably connected with the history of our country, is Amerigo Vespucci. This celebrated navigator, from whatever cause, acquired the honor of communicating his name to the new world. If he did not deserve this glorious pre-eminence, it is too late to remedy the injustice, now that the universal consent of mankind for three hundred years has sanctioned it. Reluctantly as the name of Vespucci may be suffered to remain, it is impossible to substitute that of Columbus. The circumstances, however, which occasioned this quarter of the globe to be denominated America, form an interesting subject of inquiry, for pursuing which the work before us affords considerable aid. The subject is involved in obscurity, chiefly in consequence of the want of authentic documents, although very much by reason of the great acrimony, with which the controversy has been managed: Vespucci having been accused of employing the worst artifices for the purpose of depriving Columbus of his merited honour, and the cause of Vespucci being espoused, with more zeal than discretion, by many of his countrymen, of whom the most recent and noted is Padre Canovai. The Eulogy and Dissertation were first published in 1788; but the whole was afterwards revised by the author, and enlarged with the addition of the Life and Voyages. Canovai exhibits considerable research, erudition and ingenuity, but very little judgment; he is pro

lix beyond all endurance, abounding with digressions and repetitions; and he weakens our faith in his statements by displaying, without disguise, the polemical spirit of a champion. We have likewise examined a Life of Vespucci, published in 1745 by Bandini ;* an Eulogy in 1787 by Lastri ;† and Researches concerning his Discoveries in 1789 by Bartolozzi; all of them printed at Florence. After briefly nar rating the life of Vespucci, we will advert to the arguments adduced on both sides, and endeavor to make as fair a statement of the question, as our means of information will permit. Bandini, Lastri and Bartolozzi, and indeed most of those books, which we have had occasion to inspect in the prosecution of our inquiry, we met with in that rich historical repository, the library of the late professor C. D. Ebeling, which was not long since presented to the university at Cambridge, by the munificence of Mr. Thorndike of Boston. And we gladly embrace this opportunity to say, that we have seldom looked into any subject connected with the history or geography of our country, without deriving ample satisfaction from the rare and valuable books belonging to this collection. In the number which it contains of Latin, Italian, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese works, which throw light on our national antiquities, we do not believe it is equalled by any thing else of the kind in America. Such a library is the rightful property of the land, which it was designed to illustrate; and as nothing would have been more painful than to see it dispersed at the death of its original owner or transferred into any collection in Europe, we cannot too highly praise the generous and patriotic spirit, by which it was rescued from the hands of foreigners and deposited in a place, where it could promote the cause of liberal knowledge in the United States. We have been informed that, at the time when it was purchased by Mr. Thorndike, the Hanoverian ministry were attempting to buy it for the University at Göttingen, and the Prussian for that of Berlin.

• We have been unable to procure the original of Bandini, and have used in its stead a German translation, printed in 1748, at Hamburg.

Of this curious book only a hundred copies were printed, one of which belongs to the Ebeling library.

Some of the rare books in this library, 'quinquaginta annorum indefessa opera, summo studio, maximoque impendio collecta,' we had intended to enumerate; but we found it impossible to do this in the compass of a note, without giving a very inadequate and unjust representation of the value of the collection.

Amerigo Vespucci was born at Florence, March 9, 1451. His father, Anastasio, was a man of narrow fortune, although of noble blood; and Bandini enumerates many persons of civil or literary distinction, who belonged to the family.* Amerigo was educated by his paternal uncle, Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, who was a scholar of some note in the fifteenth century, and deserves to be remembered as the instructer of Pietro Soderini, afterwards Gonfaloniere of Florence, and as the intimate friend of the celebrated Marsilio Ficino. Nothing is known with certainty concerning the early part of Amerigo's life: it is probable, however, from the nautical skill which he subsequently displayed, that he was employed in maritime commerce: but about the year 1492, when he was more than forty years of age, he went to Spain to carry on some mercantile enterprize for Lorenzo di Pier Francesco de' Medici ; and here it is that his life begins to assume historical importance. Vespucci resided in Seville when Columbus returned from his first voyage with such splendid success; and being wearied with the vicissitudes of commerce, as he himself informs us, he determined to gratify his curiosity by making a voyage to the newly discovered islands in the West. That he soon had an opportunity to do this, and embraced it, is questioned by none of those, who deny him to have been the discoverer of America; but the date of his first voyage, his companions in it, and his own station, are matters of great uncertainty. Those who defend the claims of Vespucci assert, that he was appointed one of the principal pilots or masters of four ships sent to pursue the discoveries begun by Columbus; that he sailed from Cadiz in this fleet May 10, 1497, and in thirty seven days discovered the conti

* Bandini, Vita e Lettere d' Amerigo Vespucci, G. tr. p. 7 et seqq. †The house of Vespucci is shown at Florence, having over the door the following inscription: Americo Vespuccio, Patricio Florentino, sui et Patria Nominis Illustratori, Amplificatori Orbis Terrarum, in hac olim Vespuccia Domo a tanto Domino habitata Patres Sancti Johannis a Deo Cultores gratæ Memoriæ Causa P. C. A. S. мnccxIx' Lastri, Elogio d'Am. Vespucci, in notis; Bandini, Vita e Lettere, G tr. p. 5.

Bartolozzi, Ricerche istorico-critiche, p. 79.

§ Canovai pretends, p. 221, (and our own Purchas says the same, Pik grimage, p. 718,) on the authority of Munster's Cosmographia, p. 1108, that Vespucci accompanied Columbus in his second voyage in 1493; but Vespucci himself clearly intimates the contrary by his silence, as well as by a passage in his letter to Soderini, ed. Canovai, p. 28. Mi disposi,' he says, 'di andare a vedere questa parte del mondo e le sue maraviglie. E a questo mi st offerse tempo e luego molto opportuno: che fu.' &c. And then he goes on to describe his voyage in 1497.

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nent or main land, near the mouth of the river Orinoco; and that, therefore, as Columbus did not reach the main land until July 1498, Vespucci is to be considered the first discoverer of the continent of America. All this, of course, is denied by those who support the pretensions of Columbus.

However, as their opponents continue, as soon as the Spaniards came in sight of the shore, they sent out a boat to examine it, where they saw many naked savages, who fled at their approach. They coasted along towards the northwest, and in two days arrived at a good harbor, in which they landed, and endeavored to persuade the natives, who crowded to the shore, to accept little bells, glass and other trinkets, but with little success. The next morning, however, the savages came again to the shore, with their wives and children, and swam out to the boats, testifying considerable confidence in the strangers. They were described as perfectly naked, of a middle stature and well proportioned, their bodies of a reddish color, and destitute of hair, excepting on the head, where it was long and black. They were very swift in running and expert in swimming. They frequently went to war with each other on account of some petty feud, which the children inherited from their fathers, using bows and arrows or javelins for arms, but fighting without any system or regularity. No king, cazique or fixed government was discernible among them; and when any act requiring concert was to be performed, the old men went about from family to family to persuade them to unite their forces. The difference in their languages was very great, there seeming to be a new one every hundred leagues; but all of them spoke little and in a low voice. They had no particular hours for eating, but sat down on the ground and took food whenever they were prompted by hunger. They used little animal food, living chiefly on the root of the cassada. Their houses were of a conical shape, made of the limbs of trees covered with palm leaves, and were so large as sometimes to contain six hundred individuals. Every seven or eight years they changed their habitation, thinking it unhealthy to live longer in the same place. Their only riches consisted in ornamental feathers and strings of fish-bones intermixed with green and white beads for they had little or no traffic with each other; and made no account of the gold and gems, which the country produced. No signs of religion could be discerned among