The Life and Voyages of Christopher Columbus (Volume II)

Pregunta 2.
    [303]: Este testigo escrivió úna 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 embió señalado con la dieba carta, en una carta de marear, los rumbos y víentos por donde habia llegado á la Paria, e que este testigo oyó decir como pr. aquella carte se habían hecho otras e por ellas habian venido Pedro Alonzo Merino (Niño) e Ojeda e otros que despues han ido á 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 mostró muchas cosas de marear, y ellos por imitacion é industria del dicho Almirante las aprendian y aprendieron, e seguendo ag°. 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 René. 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 Waldseemüller, of Fribourg, an eminent cosmographer, patronized by René, duke of Lorraine; who no doubt put in his hands the letter received by him from Amerigo Vespucci. The geographical works of Waldseemüller, 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 Waldseemüller.
    [307]: An instance of these errors may be cited in the edition of the letter of Amerigo Vespucci to king René, inserted by Grinæus 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 España, 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.