g can so abundantly testify to the respect in which Vespucci was
held as his relations with King Ferdinand. While he has the unique
honor of being almost the only man that Columbus never quarrelled
with, it is also to his credit that he acquired, and retained to the
last, the respect and confidence of the king. Ferdinand was always
mistrustful of Columbus, and with good reason, but never refused
Vespucci a favor--if he asked one--or hesitated to give him an
audience. The reason was, most probably, that, aside from his
deceitfulness (which was a quality the crafty Ferdinand could tolerate
in no one but himself), Columbus was constantly importuning him for
further honors and emoluments; while Vespucci rarely, if ever, craved
glory or riches for himself. Nothing came of Vespucci's intercession
at court for Columbus, and soon the latter dropped out of sight. He
died in 1506, utterly neglected by the court and king, and in such
obscurity that he was unnoticed in the local annals of the day.

In the mean time, Amerigo Vespucci was at the height of his career,
trusted by the sovereign and honored by all with whom he came in
contact. On the return of King Ferdinand to absolute power in Spain,
through the death of his son-in-law Philip and the regency for his
insane daughter Juana, he called Vespucci and La Cosa to court in
order to consult with them respecting nautical affairs and future
discoveries. In February, 1508, Vespucci, Pinzon, and Solis, who,
together with La Cosa, were then the most highly honored navigators in
Spanish employ, were charged with the safe conduct to the king's
treasury of six thousand ducats in gold, for which service they
received six thousand maravedis each.

Another consultation was held with the king, whose favorable opinion
of Vespucci was so strengthened that the year following he created for
him the office of pilot-major, as the most eminent navigator in his
kingdom. This position was given him in March, 1508, and from that
time till his death, in February, 1512, he received a salary of
seventy-five thousand maravedis per annum. He was charged to examine
and instruct all pilots in the use of the astrolabe "to ascertain
whether their practical knowledge equalled their theoretical, and also
to revise maps, and to make one of the new lands which should be
regarded as the standard.... He was to correct the errors carried into
the charts by the teachings and the maps of Columbus and others. The
ina