m five were wounded, took a canoe from the island and,
with three male and four female prisoners that we gave them,
returned to their own country, very merry and greatly
astonished at our power. We also set sail for Spain, with
two hundred and twenty-three prisoners, and arrived at the
port of Cadiz on October 15, 1498, where we were well
received and found a market for our slaves. This is what
happened to me on this, my first voyage, that may be
considered worth relating."

FOOTNOTES:

[10] These "serpents" were iguanas, and were seen and described by
Christopher and Bartholomew Columbus, long before Vespucci made his
voyages.

[11] The fierce islanders, so accurately described by Vespucci, were
doubtless the Caribs, and the numerous islands were probably Grenada
and the Grenadines, perhaps including St. Vincent, in the north, where
descendants of those Caribs live to-day.

VII

VESPUCCI'S "SECOND" VOYAGE

1499-1500

That letter from Vespucci to the friend of his youth, Soderini,
purporting to narrate the events of his first voyage, has proved a
prolific source of doubt and perplexity. Although it was written
before Columbus died, and although it was published while most of the
actors therein mentioned were yet living, its authenticity was
unchallenged until nearly a century after its appearance. Herrera, it
is believed, was the first to accuse Vespucci of "artfully and
wilfully falsifying in his narrative, with a view to stealing from
Columbus the honor of being the discoverer of America." This charge
was made public in his work on the West Indies, published in 1601, and
ever since Vespucci has been stigmatized as an impostor.

There is no official record of the voyage he claimed to have made in
1497-1498, and historians are silent as to his actions, in fact,
during the period between 1496 and 1504. This signifies little,
according to the historian Gomara, who says: "Learning that the
territories which Columbus had discovered were very extensive, many
persons proceeded to continue the exploration of them. Some went at
their own expense, others at that of the king, all thinking to enrich
themselves, to acquire honor, and to gain the royal approbation. But,
as most of these persons did nothing but discover, memorials of them
all have not come to my knowledge, especially of those who went in the
direction of Paria, from the year 1495 to the year 1500."

Some