Part 9 (2/2)
”This island we found uninhabited. It had plenty of fresh water, and an abundance of trees filled with countless numbers of land and marine birds, which were so simple that they suffered themselves to be taken with the hand. We took so many that we loaded a boat with them. We saw no other animals, except some very large rats, some snakes, and lizards with two tails. Having taken in our supplies we departed for the southwest, as we had an order from the king that if any vessel of the fleet, or its captain, should be lost, I should make for the land of my last voyage. We discovered a harbor which we called the bay of All Saints, and it pleased G.o.d to give us such good weather that we arrived at it in seventeen days. It was distant three hundred leagues from the island we had left, and we found neither our captain nor any other s.h.i.+p of the fleet in the course of the voyage. We waited full two months and four days in this harbor, and, seeing that no orders came for us, we agreed, my consort and myself, to run along the coast. We sailed two hundred and sixty leagues farther and arrived at a harbor, where we determined to build a fortress. This we accomplished, and left in it the twenty-four men that my consort had received from the captain's s.h.i.+p that was lost.
”In this port we stayed five months, building the fortress and loading our s.h.i.+ps with dye-woods. We could not proceed farther for want of men, and besides, I was dest.i.tute of many equipments. Thus, having finished our labors, we determined to return to Portugal, leaving the twenty-four men in the fortress, with provisions for six months, with twelve pieces of cannon, and many other arms. We made peace with all the people of the country--who have not been mentioned in this voyage, but not because we did not see and treat with a great number of them. As many as thirty men of us went forty leagues inland, where we saw so many things that I omit to relate them, reserving them for my _Four Journeys_.
”This country is situated eighteen degrees south of the equinoctial line, and fifty-seven degrees farther west than Lisbon, as our instruments showed us. All this being performed, we bade farewell to the Christians we left behind us, and to the country, and commenced our navigation on a northeast course, with the intention of sailing directly to this city of Lisbon. In seventy-seven days, after many toils and dangers, we entered this port on the 18th of June, 1504--for which G.o.d be praised! We were well received, although altogether unexpected, as the whole city had given us up for lost. All the other s.h.i.+ps of the fleet had been lost, through the pride and folly of our commander, and thus it is that G.o.d rewards haughtiness and vanity.
”At present, I find myself here in Lisbon again, and I do not know what the king wishes me to do, but I am very desirous of obtaining repose. The bearer of this, who is Benvenuto di Domenico Benvenuti, will tell your magnificence of my condition, and of any other things which have been omitted, to avoid prolixity, but which I have seen and experienced. I have abbreviated the letter as much as I could, and omitted to say many things very natural to be told, that I might not be tedious.
”Allow me to commend to you Sr. Antonio Vespucci, my brother, and all my family. I remain, praying G.o.d that he may prolong your life, and prosper that exalted republic of Florence,
”Your very humble servant, ”AMERIGO VESPUCCI.
”_Lisbon, 4th September, 1504._”
This was the last letter, so far as we can ascertain, written by Vespucci concerning his voyages--or, at least, the last that has been brought to light; though it is hoped that his ma.n.u.script journals, to which he repeatedly refers, may yet be found. They are, doubtless, buried in the secret archives of either the crown of Portugal or of Spain, as at different times he alludes to them as being in the hands of the kings, from whom he hopes to receive them at their pleasure.
Both King Emanuel and King Ferdinand held Vespucci in great esteem; but, as consideration for their subjects, whether high or low, never entered their minds, they probably retained the ma.n.u.scripts for years, and eventually these precious doc.u.ments may have been buried beneath the vast acc.u.mulation of papers relating to the voyages and discoveries in both hemispheres.
Vespucci was in error respecting the remaining s.h.i.+ps of the fleet engaged in his fourth voyage, for a few months later they came back to Lisbon in a shattered condition, but, so far as known, with their crews intact. They had sailed farther to the south than Vespucci went on this voyage, probably as far as the mouth of the great river La Plata, which Solis has the credit of discovering a few years later. It had been learned by that time that the coasts brought to view by the constantly lengthening voyages into the south were situated to the west of the great line of demarcation separating the discoveries of Spain and Portugal, and hence belonged to the former. This fact has a bearing upon the departure of Vespucci and other noted captains from Portugal about this time, as, if they would pursue these explorations to their logical conclusion, they must enlist beneath the banner of King Ferdinand. Hence we find our hero, towards the end of 1504, once again in Spain, and in high favor with the king.
XIV
KING FERDINAND'S FRIEND
1505-1508
The summer of 1504 Vespucci pa.s.sed in Portugal, attending to matters connected with his last voyage, which had such an unsatisfactory ending; but in the latter part of that year we find him once again in Seville. It is presumed he was warmly welcomed by his wife, after this long absence of nearly four years; but nothing exists at all to indicate his marital relations, and so far as furnis.h.i.+ng material for his biographers is concerned, he might as well have remained single all his life. In point of fact, Amerigo Vespucci, though sterling in his friends.h.i.+ps, ardent and even affectionate, was a true celibate. He was wedded to Science, his whole nature was absorbed by the pursuits to which he had, perhaps fortuitously, devoted his maturer years. If we contrast him with Columbus, in respect to the higher qualities of his character, we cannot but be impressed by the difference between these two, for, while the latter was weak, impressionable, if not pa.s.sionate, the former was strong, flawless in his morals, devoted ever to the star-eyed G.o.ddess in whose service he had enlisted for life.
He was humane, generous, unselfish, while Columbus, though of more heroic proportions than his rival, was at times selfish, ungenerous, cruel--as witness his treatment of the Pinzons, his claiming the reward for the discovery of land, which rightly belonged to Rodrigo de Triana, his ma.s.sacres of Indians in Hispaniola and enslavement of the survivors. Against Amerigo Vespucci no such charges of immorality, cruelty, and bigotry can be brought as against Columbus, and the sole accusation against him, of falsifying the date of his ”first” voyage, has not been sustained by the evidence.
His eulogist, Canovai, says of him, in somewhat extravagant terms: ”Behold the transport of that lively emulation which springs from the indisputable consciousness of talents, and is nourished by the pure and delicate essence of virtue, which s.h.i.+nes uncontaminated in every footstep of the hero. It seems enmity, but is laudable strife; it seems envy, but is a generous ambition. If Columbus had found rivals and enemies resembling Amerigo, I should not see, as now, the magnificent scene of his triumph so suddenly changed into mourning and horror, the gloomy night of ignominy and mockery succeed the brief light of ephemeral happiness, and that invincible leader, who redoubled the power and dominions of ungrateful Castile, groaning under the weight of infamous chains, while he asks for nothing but liberty to carry her arms to the most distant sh.o.r.es of the West.
”Go now, and turning your eyes from the atrocious metamorphosis, exclaim it is chance--it is fate; arbitrary sounds and sterile syllables, with which no distinct idea can ever be a.s.sociated. Alas!
are there not imperceptible threads by which a regulating hand guides us through a crooked labyrinth from causes to effects, and prepares in silence the events of the universe? Prostrated by implacable vengeance, and despoiled of the exclusive right to discoveries and honors, Columbus pines in inaction; but no new columns of Hercules, beyond which the pilot dares not pa.s.s, stand erect before the sh.o.r.es of Mexico. Amerigo Vespucci reunites the web of fortunate events.
Amerigo succeeds Columbus!”
In simpler diction, Columbus brought all his troubles upon himself. He dared much, but he demanded more than he was, by merit of mere achievement, ent.i.tled to receive. He was constantly warring for his alleged rights--with the king, with Fonseca, with his fellow-explorers, and especially with such commanders of s.h.i.+ps or expeditions as might by their discoveries belittle his accomplishments. Hence resulted untold misery to the natives of the New World, consequent upon the crus.h.i.+ng despotism he inaugurated in order to gain gold with which to vindicate himself to his sovereigns.
Hence came Bodadilla and Ovando, sent out to investigate his doings, one of whom despatched him in fetters to Spain, and the other hastened the extinction of the Indians, already begun by Columbus himself.
The aggressive insistence of Columbus in the matter of honors and privileges, which were in their nature but temporary, are in decided contrast to the modesty and simplicity of Vespucci, who indeed was ambitious to acquire an honorable name which should be ”the comfort and solace of his old age,” but who, ”by his quiet and un.o.btrusive manners, made friends even among his rivals.” He was scrupulously regardful of the rights of others, treating the helpless natives with especial tenderness. This statement may seem to be disproved by the fact that on two of his voyages he took home gangs of Indians to be sold as slaves; but it is not known that he himself was responsible for this, as he was not the real commander of the expeditions, though the actual scientific head and navigator.
He was as deeply devout as Columbus himself, always rendering thanks to the Almighty for His favors, but was by no means a fanatic in religion. While Columbus ascribes his discoveries to the especial favor of some particular saint, on occasions, or his deliverance from danger to the direct interposition of Providence, Vespucci makes no such superst.i.tious claims for himself, though acknowledging his dependence upon G.o.d and expressing grat.i.tude for divine support. He believed, evidently, in the precept of the Golden Rule--”Do unto others as you would have them do to you”; and this, alas, cannot be said of Christopher Columbus. Though he married late in life, and had no children of his own, Vespucci ”was full of affectionate feeling for his family, as his care and attention to the education and advancement of his nephew, and his memory of relatives in Florence, from whom he had been so long absent, amply testify.”
Finally, the structure which Columbus fain would have raised has crumbled to ruins, while that built by Vespucci, who labored without thought of himself, or hope of reward, has been strengthened by the lapse of time, and will stand so long as the world endures. Vespucci humbled himself, and was exalted, for the name bestowed upon the hemisphere which these two were instrumental in revealing to Europe was suggested by utter strangers to the Florentine--men of penetrating mind, who perceived an eternal fitness in calling it _America_.
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