uments preserved in the archives
of the Indies at Seville are very significant. On April 9, 1495, the
sovereigns issued their letter of credentials to Juan Aguado, whom
they were about sending to Hispaniola to inquire into the charges
against Columbus. On that very day they signed the contract with
Berardi [Vespucci's partner], whereby the latter bound himself to
furnish twelve vessels, four to be ready at once, four in June, and
four in September. On the next day they issued the decree throwing
open the navigation to the Indies and granting to all native
Spaniards, on certain prescribed conditions, the privilege of making
voyages to the newly found coasts.

"On the 12th they instructed Fonseca to put Aguado in command of the
first four caravels, ... and it started off in August. The second
squadron of four, which was to have been ready in June, was not yet
fully equipped in December, when Berardi died. Then Vespucci,
representing the house of Berardi, took up the work, and sent the four
caravels to sea February 3, 1496. They were only two days out when a
frightful storm overtook and wrecked them, though most of the crews
were saved. The third squadron of four caravels was, I believe, that
which finally sailed May 10, 1497. While it was getting ready, Vicente
Yanez Pinzon returned from the Levant, whither he had been sent on
important business by the sovereigns in December, 1495. Columbus, who
had returned to Spain in June, 1496, protested against what he
considered an invasion of his monopoly, and on June 2, 1497, the
sovereigns issued a decree which for the moment was practically
equivalent to a revocation of the general license accorded to
navigators by the decree of April 10, 1495. Observe that this
revocation was not issued until after the third squadron had sailed.
The sovereigns were not going to be balked in the little scheme which
they had set on foot two years before, and for which they had paid
out, through Vespucci, so many thousand maravedis. So the expedition
sailed, with Pinzon chief in command and Solis second; with Ledesma
for one of the pilots, and Vespucci as pilot and cosmographer."

In the foregoing the historian accounts for the sailing of Pinzon and
Vespucci in company, on that "debatable voyage" described in chapter
VI. In the year 1499 both Pinzon and Vespucci were to sail--though in
separate fleets--for the coasts of the continent which Columbus had
accidentally revealed in his voyage of 1498