on also attaches to his name
because it was chosen as an appellation for the New World, which
Columbus was the means of revealing to Europe; but for this (as will
be shown in a succeeding chapter) he was not accountable.

Professor Fiske, following Vespucci's ardent defender, the Viscount
Varnhagen, deduces from the vague generalizations in this letter that
the voyage was made chiefly along the Honduras, Yucatan, Mexican, and
Florida coasts, as far north, perhaps, as Chesapeake Bay. The
cannibals attacked by the Spaniards were found, he says, in the
Bermudas--where no Indians were ever seen, so far as known, and no
cannibals inhabit, save, perhaps, the great Shakespeare's "Caliban."
He accounts for the lost voyage by declaring that it may have been
taken with Pinzon and Solis, who were said to have been on the coast
of Honduras in 1506. There is no certainty as to that date, and the
voyage may as well have been made in 1497-1498, as indirectly shown by
a passage in Oviedo's history, as follows: "Some persons have
attributed the discovery of the bay of Honduras to Don Christopher
Columbus, the first admiral; but this is not true, for it was
discovered by the pilots Vicente Yanez Pinzon, Juan Diaz de Solis, and
Pedro de Ledesma, with three caravels; and that was before Vicente
Yanez had discovered the river Amazon."

The Amazon and a portion of the Brazil coast were discovered by Pinzon
in January, 1500; and as the historian has proved to his own
satisfaction that the gallant Vicente Yanez was in Spain during the
years 1505 and 1506, it is probable that Oviedo is right. It is also
probable, or at least possible, that Vespucci was with Pinzon on that
Honduras voyage as consulting navigator, having been sent by the king,
as he says, to "assist," in his capacity of astronomer and
cosmographer. In this capacity, in fact, he went on all his voyages,
for he rarely, if ever, held command. Captains, commanders, chief
mates, and admirals there might be in plenty, but such a pilot and
navigator as Vespucci was hard to find.

It is not unreasonable to presume that they were together, for the one
was a skilful sailor, the other a great navigator, and both renowned
for their hardihood and daring. King Ferdinand had no more loyal
servants than these two, and as they had served him faithfully in
their respective professions, the one on land, the other at sea, and
inasmuch as both were intimately acquainted with Columbus and his
plan