wishes. They sent orders that the prisoners should be instantly set at liberty and treated with all distinction they wrote a letter to Columbus, couched in terms of gratitude and affection, expressing their grief at all that he had suffered, and inviting him to court: they ordered that two thousand ducats should be advanced to defray his expenses. Columbus appeared in court in Granada on the 17th of December, and was received by the sovereigns with unqualified favour and distinction. They expressed their indignation at the proceedings of Bobadilla, which they disavowed as contrary to their instructions, and promised that he should be immediately dismissed from his command.* The person chosen to supersede him was Don Nicholas de Ovando. His government extended over the islands and Terra Firma of which Hispaniola was to be the metropolis.† * Irving's Columbus, vol. 2, p. 57 to 60. † Id. p. 67 to €9. CHAPTER X. Of the voyage of Americus Vespucius with Alonzo de Ojeda and of other voyages from Spain, made along the coast of South America in 1499 and 1500. Americus Vespucius was born in Florence on the 9th of March 1451, of a noble but not at that time a wealthy family. His father's name was Anastatio; his mother's was Elizabetta Mini. He was the third of their sons, and received an excellent education under his uncle, Georgio Antonio Vespucci, a learned friar of the fraternity of San Marco, who was instructor to several illustrious personages of that period. Americus visited Spain and took up his residence in Seville to attend to some commercial transactions on account of the family of the Medici of Florence, and to repair, by his ingenuity, the losses and misfortunes of an unskilful brother. The date of his arrival in Spain is uncertain.* In the Life of Americus by Lester and Foster, it is stated that his departure for Spain took place some time in 1490.† He seems to have gone to Barcelona,‡ and to have been there engaged in mercantile business before the 30th of January 1492. Soon after this time he went to Seville.|| After the return of Columbus from his first voyage, Ferdinand and Isabella contracted with Berardi to * Irving's Columbus, vol. 2, p. 247, Appendix No. 10. Id. p. 74. || Id. p. 75. furnish and equip four armaments to be forwarded at different times to the new world, and Americus is found to be busily occupied, in connexion with him, receiving payments and entering into obligations in his behalf and name. Some have thought that he was only the agent of Berardi in these transactions; but there is ground for supposing that he may have been a partner in the house, as after the death of Berardi, Americus continued to manage the affairs of the armaments and was paid large sums of money by the government for equipments previously effected. It has been suggested by some historians that Americus accompanied Columbus upon his second voyage, but there is no evidence to sustain the opinion, and his own accounts tend to contradict it.* While providing for the dispatch of the four caravels, Americus, of course, had occasional opportunity of conversing with Columbus; he soon became anxious to visit the newly discovered countries. Having made himself well acquainted with geographical and nautical science, he prepared to launch in the career of discovery, and soon carried this design into execution.† Mr. Lester argues that Americus made a voyage in 1497, but says, after all, it is unimportant to come to any decision on this point. Even if Americus had discovered the main land before Columbus, by a few months, he admits this could take nothing from the name and fame of that great man. "He, at any rate, arrived at the continent, without assistance from any source but his own strength of mind, and to him, * Life of Vespucius, p. 75. † Irving's Columbus, vol. 2, p. 248, Appendix No. 1. whatever may have been the good fortune of any of his cotemporaries, belongs the glory of the grand discovery of a new world. The first glimpse that he obtained of the luxuriant islands of the Western ocean rendered him immortal, and all subsequent discoveries followed his own almost as a matter of course."* There is, however, no evidence that Americus proceeded on any voyage to the west until May 1499, when he accompanied Alonzo de Ojeda who sailed from Port St. Mary opposite Cadiz with four vessels. Ojeda pursued the route of Columbus in his third voyage, being guided by the chart he had sent home, as well as by the mariners who had been with him. The part of the continent reached by Ojeda was south of the part discovered by Columbus. It is supposed to have been the coast of Surinam. Hence he ran along the coast of the gulf of Paria, passing the mouths of many rivers, but especially those of the Esquivo and the Oronoco, and seeing none of the natives until arriving at Trinidad. He passed through the strait of the Boca del Drago, and then steered along Terra Firma, landing occasionally, until he arrived at Curiana or the gulf of Pearls. Hence he stood to the opposite island of Margarita. This, as well as several adjacent islands, he visited and explored; after which he returned to the main land and touched at Cumana and Maracapana. Sailing again, he touched at the island of Curazao, and proceeding along the coast he arrived at a vast deep gulf, on the eastern side of which was a village of peculiar construction. From resemblances to the Italian city, *Life of Americus Vespucius, p. 103. Ojeda gave to the bay the name of the gulf of Venice, and it is called at the present day Venezuela or Little Venice. Continuing to explore this gulf Ojeda penetrated to a port or harbour to which he gave the name of St. Bartholomew, but which is supposed to be the same at present known by the original Indian name of Maracaibo. Proceeding along the western shores of the gulf of Venezuela and standing out to sea and doubling Cape Maracaibo, Ojeda pursued his coasting voyage from port to port and promontory to promontory of this unknown continent until he reached that long stretching head land called Cape de la Vela. Then he changed his course and stood across the Caribbean sea for Hispaniola. After stopping there, he resumed his voyage and visited various islands, whence he carried off numbers of the natives. He at length arrived at Cadiz in June 1500, with his ships crowded with captives whom he sold as slaves. Yet when all the expenses of the expedition were deducted but five hundred ducats remained to be divided between fifty-five adventurers.* Another armament which departed from Spain, a few days after that of Ojeda, had a better pecuniary result. Pedro Alonzo Nino who had been with Columbus to Cuba and Paria, sailed from the little port of Palos in a small bark about the beginning of June 1499. Guided by the chart of Columbus, Nino reached the southern continent, a little beyond Paria, about fifteen days after the same coast had been visited by Ojeda. Proceeding to the gulf of Paria, he * Irving's Columbus, vol. 2, p. 25 to 30. Id. p. 214, 15, Appendix No. 2, and p. 248 to 260, Appendix No. 10. Voyages of Companions of Columbus, p. 3 to 27. |