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APPENDIX.
how unsuitable the reference to former intimacy, intended for Soderini, was, when applied to a sovereign.
T h e person making this remark can
hardly have read the prologue to the Latin edition, in which the title of your majesty " is frequently repeated, and the term " illustrious king " employed.
It was first published also in Lorraine, the domains of René,
and the publisher would not probably have presumed to take such a liberty with his sovereign's name.
It becomes a question, whether Vespucci ad
dressed the same letter to king R e n é and to Piere Soderini, both of them having been educated with him, or whether he sent a copy of this letter to Soderini, which subsequently found its way into print.
T h e address to
Soderini may have been substituted, through mistake, by the Italian pub lisher.
Neither of the publications could have been made under the
supervision of Vespucci. T h e voyage specified in this letter as having taken place in 1497, is the great point in controversy.
It is strenuously asserted that no such
voyage took place ; and that the first expedition of Vespucci to the coast of Paria was in the enterprise commanded by Ojeda, in 1499.
The
books of the armadas existing in the archives of the Indies at Seville, have been diligently examined, but no record of such voyage has been found, nor any official documents relating to it.
Those most experienced in
Spanish colonial regulations insist that no command like that pretended by Vespucci could have been given to a stranger, till he had first received letters of naturalization from the sovereigns for the kingdom of Castile, and he did not obtain such till 1 5 0 5 , when they were granted to him as preparatory to giving him the command in conjunction with Pinzon. His account of a voyage made by him in 1497, therefore, is alleged to be a fabrication for the purpose of claiming the discovery of Paria ; or rather it is affirmed that he has divided the voyage which he actually made with Ojeda, in 1499, into two ; taking a number of incidents from his real voyage, altering them a little, and enlarging them with descriptions of the countries and people, so as to make a plausible narrative, which he gives as a distinct voyage ; and antedating his departure to 1497, so as to make himself appear the first discoverer of Paria. In support of this charge various coincidences have been pointed out between his voyage said to have taken place in 1497, and that described in his first letter to Lorenzo de Medici in 1499.
These coincidences are
with respect to places visited, transactions and battles with the natives, and the number of Indians carried to Spain and sold as slaves. But the credibility of this voyage has been put to a stronger test.