343
APPENDIX.
and have been anxious to arrogate to himself the fame of its discovery. It has been asserted, that, on his return from his voyage to the Brazils, he prepared a maritime chart, in which he gave his name to that part of the main-land ; but this assertion does not appear to be well substantiated.
It
would rather seem that his name was given to that part of the continent by others, as a tribute paid to his supposed merit, in consequence of hav ing read his own account of his voyages.* It is singular that Fernando, the son of Columbus, in his biography of his father, should bring no charge against Vespucci of endeavoring to sup plant the admiral in this discovery.
Herrera has been cited as the first to
bring the accusation, in his history of the Indies, first published in 1 6 0 1 , and has been much criticised in consequence, by the advocates of V e s pucci, as making the charge on his mere assertion.
But, in fact, Herrera
did but copy what he found written by Las Casas, who had the proceed ings of the fiscal court lying before him, and was moved to indignation against Vespucci, by what he considered proofs of great imposture. It has been suggested that Vespucci was instigated to this deception at the time when he was seeking employment in the colonial service of
* The first suggestion of the name appears to have been in the Latin work already cited, published in St. Diez, in Lorraine, in 1 5 0 7 , 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 shall 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 1 8 3 7 , says : " I have been so happy as to discover, very recently, the name and the literary relations of the mysterious personage who (in 1 5 0 7 ) was the first to propose the name of America to designate the new conti nent, 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 Waldseemuller, 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 Waldsee
muller, under the assumed name of Hylacomylas, had a wide circulation, went through repeated editions, and propagated the use of the name America through out the world.
There is no reason to suppose that this application of the
name was in any wise suggested by Amerigo Vespucci. entirely gratuitous on the part of Waldseemuller.
It appears to have been