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.
