Bovadilla Was Afterwards Lost At Sea, On His Return To
Spain.
On the 9th of May 1502, Columbus sailed again from Spain with 170 men.
He
arrived before San Domingo on the 29th of June, but the new governor
Nicholas de Ovando would not permit him to come into the harbour, for
which reason he was constrained to sail to the westwards. After struggling
with adverse currents and long calms for some time, he had to contend
against an almost continued storm of sixty days, and then discovered the
island of Guana ja, to the northward of Cape Honduras, in Lat. 19 deg. N.
He sent his brother on shore at this place, where he met with a canoe
eight feet wide and as long as a Spanish galley. This canoe was covered
with mats, and had men, women, and children on board, who had abundance of
commodities for barter; such as long webs of cotton of several colours;
short cotton shirts or jerkins without sleeves, curiously wrought; small
cotton cloths used by the natives to conceal their nakedness; wooden
swords edged with flints; copper hatchets, and horse-bells of the same
metal; likewise plates of copper, and crucibles, or melting pots; cocoa
nuts; bread made of maize or Indian corn, and a species of drink made from
the same. Columbus exchanged some commodities with these Indians; and
inquiring at them where gold was to be found, they pointed towards the
east, on which he altered his course in that direction. The first land he
came to was Cape Casinas in the province of Honduras, where his brother
landed and took formal possession. The natives of this coast wore short
cotton jackets without sleeves, and clouts before them. They behaved very
peaceably to the Spaniards, whom they supplied with plenty of provisions.
Sailing several days to the eastwards from thence with contrary winds, he
arrived at a great cape or head-land, whence the coast trended to the
southwards, and called this place Cabo de Garcias a Dios, or Cape thanks
to God, because the east winds which had hitherto obstructed his voyage
would now serve for navigating that part of the coast. He accordingly
explored that coast, touching at Porto Bello, Nombre de Dios, Belen
and Veragua, trading with the Indians. At Veragua he was informed of
gold mines at no great distance, and sent his brother up the country in
search of them. On his return, Don Bartholomew brought down a considerable
quantity of gold, which he had procured from the natives for toys of
little value. Being encouraged by the prospect of gold, he proposed to
have left his brother in this place with 80 Spaniards to settle a colony,
and even began to build houses for that purpose; but, being opposed by the
Indians, and his own men becoming mutinous, he was obliged to relinquish
his intention.
From Veragua he stood over towards Hispaniola; but his caravels were so
much worm-eaten and shattered by storms that he could not reach that
island, and was forced to run them on shore in a creek on the coast of
Jamaica, where he shored them upright with spars, and built huts on their
decks for his men, all below being full of water. He remained in this
place almost a year, suffering many hardships. At length he found means to
send a canoe over to Hispaniola with intelligence of his forlorn condition,
and procured a vessel to transport him and his men to that island, whence
he went to Spain. This was his last voyage; after which he spent the
remainder of his life at Valadolid, where he died on the 8th of May 1506,
aged 64 years. His body was carried to Seville, as he had ordered in his
will, and was there honourably interred in the church of the Carthusians,
called De las Cuevas, with a Latin epitaph commemorating his great
actions.
[1] Trinidad, which is now subject to Britain, is on the coast of Cumana,
or the Spanish main, on the north-eastern shoulder of South America,
between Lat. 10 deg. and 10 deg. 50' N. Long. 61 deg. and nearly 62 deg. W. - E.
* * * * *
CHAPTER III.
THE VOYAGES OF AMERICUS VESPUCIUS TO THE NEW WORLD[1].
INTRODUCTION.
The relation which is here offered to the public, we believe for the first
time in the English language, is only an abridged account of four voyages
made by Americus Vespucius to the New World, as written by himself, in
which he expresses his intention of publishing a more extensive work,
wherein all the events of these four voyages were to be related at large.
The information he has conveyed in the present article is by no means
satisfactory; yet it constitutes an original document respecting the early
discoveries of the southern continent of the New World, and is therefore
essential to the principles and arrangement of our work. Ample
opportunities will occur in the sequel, for inserting more extended
accounts of the countries which were visited lay this early navigator,
whose singular good fortune has raised him an eternal monument infinitely
beyond his merit, by the adoption of his otherwise obscure name for
designating the grand discovery of the immortal Columbus.
Various early editions of the voyages of this navigator are mentioned in
the Bibliotheque Universelle des Voyages[2], a recent work of much
research, published at Paris in 1808. In the titles of these he is named
Americo Vespucio, and Alberico Vespucio. In the NOVUS ORBIS of Simon
Grynaeus, from which our present article is translated, he is called
Americus Vesputius. In another portion of that work, containing some
very slight notices of these four voyages, his name is altered to
Albericus[3]. A modern author, we know not on what authority, names him
Amerigo Vespucci[4]. In all these publications, the authors or editors
have used their endeavours to deprive the illustrious Columbus of the
well earned glory of being the discoverer of the New World, and to
transfer that honour most undeservedly to Americus, whose name has long
been indelibly affixed to this new grand division of our globe.
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