spare ducats in the collection and study of
maps and globes and works on geography, was regarded as a proof of mild
insanity. When he paid one hundred and thirty gold pieces for a
particularly fine map made by Valsequa in 1439, even his intimate friend
Soderini called him a fool. Vespucci was himself an expert mapmaker.
This may have been a reason why, about 1490, the Medici sent him to
Barcelona to look after their interests in Spain. In Seville he secured
a position as manager in the house of Juanoto Berardi, who fitted out
ships for Atlantic voyages. In 1497 he himself sailed for the newly
discovered islands of the West, and spent more than a year in
exploration. This taste of travel seemed to have whetted his appetite
for more, for he was now acting as astronomer and geographer in the
expedition which Ojeda had organized and Juan de la Cosa fitted out, to
the coast which Colon had discovered and called Tierre Firme. In the
seven years since the first voyage of the great Admiral it had become
the custom to have on board, for expeditions of discovery, a person who
understood astronomy, the use of the astrolabe and navigation in
general, and the making of charts and maps. Vespucci was exactly that
sort of man. However queer it might seem to the young Ojeda to find in a
clerk forty years old such a fresh and youthful delight in travel, both
he and La Cosa knew that they had in him a valuable assistant. It was
generally understood that he meant to write a book about it all.

Vespucci was in fact thinking of his future book when he made that
speech about translators. He was planning to write the book not in
Latin, as was usual, but in Italian, making if necessary another copy in
Latin.

The party had sailed from Puerto Santa Maria on May 20, 1499, taking
with them a chart which Bishop Fonseca, head of the Department of the
Indies, furnished. It had been the understanding when Colon received the
title of Admiral of the Indies that no expedition should be sent out
without his authority. This understanding Fonseca succeeded in
persuading the King and Queen to take back, and another order was
issued, to the effect that no independent expedition was to go out
without the royal permission. This, practically, meant Fonseca's leave.
The Bishop signed the permit for Ojeda's undertaking with double
satisfaction. He was doing a favor for his friend, Bishop Ojeda, cousin
to this young man, and he was aiming a blow at the hated Geno