teps.... 1. Americus called the regions visited by him _beyond the
equator_ a 'New World,' because they were unknown to the ancients; 2.
Giocondo made this striking phrase, _Mundus Novus_, into a title for
his translation of the letter, which he published at Paris (1504)
while the author was absent from Europe, and probably without his
knowledge; 3. The name _Mundus Novus_ got placed upon several maps as
an equivalent for _Terra Sanctae Crucis_, or what we call Brazil; 4.
The suggestion was made that _Mundus Novus_ was the Fourth Part of the
Earth, and might properly be named America, after its discoverer; 5.
The name America thus got placed upon several maps as an equivalent
for what we call Brazil, and sometimes came to stand alone for what we
call South America, but still signified _only a part of the dry land
beyond the Atlantic to which Columbus had led the way_."

That there was no evil intention on Vespucci's part is amply proved by
the fact that, while he himself lived four years after the
_Introductio_ was published, a certain contemporary of his, one
Ferdinand Columbus, who was most acutely interested in seeing justice
done the name and deeds of his father, survived Vespucci twenty-seven
years. He not only saw this book, but owned a copy, which, according
to an autograph note on the flyleaf, he had bought in Venice in July,
1521, "for five _sueldos_." This book is still contained in the
library he founded at Seville, and as it was copiously annotated by
him, it must have been carefully read; yet, though he has the credit
of having written a life of his father, Christopher Columbus, he makes
no mention whatever of the "usurpation" by Vespucci.

Ferdinand Columbus knew the Florentine, and was an intimate friend of
his nephew, Juan Vespucci; yet the question seems never to have arisen
between them as to the great discoverers' respective shares of glory.
The explanation lies in this fact: that Vespucci's name had been
bestowed upon a region far remote from that explored by his father,
who had never sailed south of the equator. Notwithstanding the good
feeling that prevailed between them, however, long after Ferdinand's
death, when the name America had become of almost universal
application, the veteran Las Casas, in writing his great history,
marvels that the son of the old Admiral could overlook the "theft and
usurpation" of Vespucci. The old man's indignation was great, for he
was a stanch friend of Columbus, a