there which it took many years to fill. On his third voyage, in
1498, he discovered the island of Trinidad and the pearl islands off
the coast of Cumana; but he did not proceed, as he should have done,
along the coast of Terra Firma, and hence Ojeda, Vespucci, and La Cosa
slipped in, guided by the very chart made by him and so treacherously
furnished them by Fonseca.

[Illustration: ROUTES OF THE DISCOVERERS]

While doubts may be entertained as to the "first" voyage of Vespucci,
none can exist as to that made by him in 1499-1500, as we have the
sworn testimony to that effect by Ojeda himself, who, when called to
give the same, in the great suit brought by Diego Columbus against the
crown, declared that he had with him on that voyage both La Cosa and
the Florentine. This testimony was given in 1513, a year after
Vespucci's death, and its object was to show that the coast of Terra
Firma, so called, had been first seen by Columbus. By establishing the
fact of his priority, it disposed of any claim Vespucci or his
friends may have made, as he and Ojeda were sailing with the
track-chart of Columbus as their guide. Thus they picked up the route
pursued by the Admiral, and extended it several degrees, Bastidas and
La Cosa, the next year, carrying it still farther.

In December, 1499, in June of which year Ojeda and Vespucci had set
out together, Vicente Pinzon sailed along the Brazilian coast to a
point eight degrees south of the equinoctial line. He returned to
Spain in September, 1500, and in April of that year Pedro Alvarez
Cabral, in command of a Portuguese fleet bound for the Spice Islands,
over the route discovered by Da Gama, accidentally came in sight of
land on the coast of the country since known as Brazil, in latitude
sixteen degrees south of the line. Unable to prosecute explorations
there, as he was bound for the East, around the Cape of Good Hope and
along the west coast of Africa, Cabral sent a vessel of his fleet back
to Portugal with the news, and proceeded on his way.

Casting about for a navigator eminently qualified as pilot and
cosmographer to pursue the exploration indicated by Cabral, along the
coast of the country he had so strangely revealed, King Emanuel of
Portugal made up his mind that Amerigo Vespucci was the man he wanted.
Just when he came to this decision, and when Vespucci shifted his
allegiance from Spain to Portugal, is not exactly known, but it was
probably late in the year 1500, after