The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1872-07-19
Orlrln al fhn Nnme ssAmerios., :,

rant or the fact that the islands he
found and examined on his four Toy-
ages EalOnged TO a new quarter of the
world He and his companions ser
out from Spain with the idea that
they could reach India by sailing
west, and when they arrived at the
Bahamas they thought they had &C
complished their project, and they
called the savages whom they met
with Indians" a name which has
adhered to them ever since. Be that
as it may, Columbus, of all mod
ern explorers, was best entitled to the
honor of giving name to this con-
tinent, and it ought to have been
called Columbia after him; but an
enterprising Florentine named Ame-
rigo Vespucci visited it In 1899, that
is to say, some seven years after Co
lumbus discovered it, and returning
to I;aly published there, in 1900, an
account of his voyage, and it has
been a common belief that he gave
his own name, Latiniced after the
fashion of those days, to the conti-
nent.
It appears now, however, that this
is mistake, according to the re-
searches of DIR. Francis Lieber. In
letter to the editor of The american
Historical Record, that gentleman
says: GLOW Vespucci's name cane
to be applied to our continent was
thus: The Germans, neither among
the early discoverers nor cOHgUjStG-
d0res, nevertheless took the deepest
interest in the nascent science of cos
biography, the name for nearly that
which is now called geography, and
through this science influenced posi-
lively and practically that great age
OF maritime discovery and geOgraph-
ic exp ansion which widened com
merce from the little yet wonderful
ly influential Mediterranean to the
commerce of the Atlantic, the South
ern Ocean, and the Pacific. Behaim
globe and Mercator's Kramer plan,
without which navigation could not
have advanced, sufficiently prove this
fact Lorraine was a German prin-
cipality at the beginning of the six
teenth century, and she reigning
Duke had formed at his court an ac-
ademy O ;cosmography, OF which a
schoolmaster at Strasburg then, as
now again German city was a
member, or to which, at any rate, he
proposed the name "America" for
the Western Hemisphere, or for
North America Jhs name of this
resolute and sagacious sehoolmaster
was Waldseem uller Wood-lake-Inil-
lerl, which he transformed into a
Greco-Latin monster of name, Hy-
lacomilus; and Hylacomilus Is the
name that first wronged Columbus
by immortalizing so grandly the
name of one who followed the great
proto-Euretes at long, long dis
tance, and who has been outstripped
in the character of a discoVerer by
very many later diBcoverers.
DR.. Lieber, however, ia not salts
fed with explaining how Amerigo
Vespucci's name came to be given to
this continent by a German. He
must go on to show that the name it
selfJs Of German origin, thus "Em-
ric, or Amric, is an old German per-
sonal name. Anl means diligence or
activity; hence, Aneeise, the German
for ant, the industrious insect, by way
of excellence; and Tic our rich sig
nifes strong, abundant. Amric, there
fore, meant very industrious or active,
and as the German eonquerors of Ita-
ly carried thither German names,
which the Italians softened down,
Amrie was euphonized by them into
Amrico or America, which, In turn,
was Latanized into Americus. This,
again, was applied iu the feminine
gender, "America," to this continent
because the names of all continents
and countries are feminine IN Latin.
This is plausible enough; bpt names
and words very similar to America
had been in use in Italy centuries
before Vespucci. There was the
town of An9eriG in Umbria, that is,
in the north of Italy, the inhabitants
Of which were called "AmeTiTai," and
there was the Sabine town of AnJeJ'i-
ola. There were also the Greek words
Amerces, signifying individual, AnleT-
ica or HemerG, day; and An1eTtz0, sig
nifying to deprive one o. his share,
which word is singularly applicable
to Vespucci; all of which words were
familiar to educated Italians, so that
is by no means certain fhough it is
probable, that AmeI.oG ,Fas derived
from the German.
But it has as yet to be proved that
Columbus knew nothing of the visits
paid by tx IcelandeTs and Danes to
this continent about the year 1000,
and tie subsequent expeditions from
Norway and Wales. Il was wei
known that he had spent years IN
gathering up all the particulars und
all the traditions he could respecting
the far of Atlantis Of the ancients,
and that he visited various countries
III search of information on the SUBJ
Iect, SIS well as to procure patronage
for his undertaking The knowledge
he thus acquired was eloquently urg-
ed by him before Queen Isabella,
and was one of the causes Of her CIV
ing him her support. II, then, he
had heard of the exploits Of the
Northern nayigators In the eleventh
century, he could hardly have failed
to hear, also, that they had named
this continent, or that portion of 1T
which they coasted, extending from
Massachusetts to Carolina, Vinland,
and what is more extraordinary still,
that they met with an IriEhman who
had lived there many years, and al
SO with persons who informed them
that further south there were white
men, descendants of some who had
e. Il a