The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1890-01-20
a CURIOUS VOLUME.
Third Letter Of AmerIous vespuc-
cius, the Explorer.
Correspondence Of the Press.l

ContinenJ OF NORTH America, or rather
both the continents, were discovered by
Alberico Vespuccius, or, as he is better
known, Americas Vespuccius, is now an
acknowledged fact. He was an Italian
gentleman of high education and adven-
turous spirit, who at an early age resigned
q remunerative commercial position in
order to crafty his taste for travel and
excitement. OF his life we know but
little. It has been found that in 1890
he was a student of high promise in
Florence. In 1893 he came to Spain as
a commercial representative of his
cousin, Lorenzo Pietro Francisco de
Medici, whose family was world re-
nowned. Later on he entered the serv-
Ice of the king of Portugal.
He made at least four great transat-
lsntic voyages during his career in
Spain and Portugal. OF the first two
nothing is left but hearsay, excepting
dates and names.
The first began May 90, 1897, or May
10, 1897, or May 20, 1899, and was I'M
dertaken for the king of Spain.
The second was started under the
same auspices ON or about May 16, 1897,
from the port of Cadiz.
In these he probably discovered Cuba
and the larger isles of the West Indies.
His third, and the one on which his
fame will ever rest, was undertaken for
the king of Portugal, and started from
Lisbon on May IA, 1901. 1t consumed
sixteen months, during which time YES
puccius gathered a vast amount Of in
formal a!i, and. it must be added, misin-
form; u u.
ST., 81 his return to Portugal
he wrp,N. celebrated letter, of which
por;i,f.. 49, given below, and which
has ,.,,, t,..t soFe been published in En-
glia. - original is lost. At the time
he y q. i lie had it translated from
Itali,,;. inch he spoke, to Latin, the
litcra-,.. ,suage of the world at that
time Within few weeks after its re-
ceptioi, by Lorenzo de Medici, it was
given TO Jehan Lambert, the greatest
illumination, engrosser and printer of his
age, for reproduction and preservation.
How many copies were made is I'M
! known. There are two or three in this
country, and less than dozen in Europe.
The finest one extant is that owned by
Edmund A. Bonaventure, a famous
bibliophile of New York city, from which
the illustrations are taken. The leaves
of the manuscript are of the heaviest
parchment, and the colors are as brilliant
today as when first applied by the brush.
Another but much poorer copy, recently
sold at Frankfort-on-theM Main, brought
$500.
The book opens with an illuminated
title page in gold, ultramarine and scar
lat = -
Then follow nine pages of closely writ
ten matter, in which the queer Latin of
the Sixteenth century is made half unin-
telligible by senseless contractions, alb
breviations and arbitrary symbols. The
difficulty encountered in reading this old
black letter cannot be appreciated by any
one unless he tries to decipher the pages.
At the close of the letter is what is
called a tail piece, a symbolic design
which, while it may have conveyed a
clear idea to its maker, is more than in
comprehensive today. So far as the
story is concerned let Alberico Vespuc-
cius speak for himself:
In former days it was my fortune to
write unto thee fully concerning my re-
turn from those regions which with the
fleet. and by The suggestion and COM
mard of bis most serene majesty the
king Of Portugal, we have sought out
aud discovered. These regions it is al
lowdlile TO style the New World. Since
among our ancestors there was no knowl-
edge concerning those things, the matter
will prove most novel to all who hear it.
For this thing differs from the opinion of
our antiquaries, since the greater part
of them declare that beyond the equinoc-
tial line (equator) and toward the south
there is no continent, but a sea as large
as that which they have termed the At
lantic. and if any OF them have admitted
that continent is there, they have de-
MED for many reasons that the land is
habitable. But my last voyage has
shown that this opinion of theirs is false
and altogether contrary to truth, since
in those parts towards the south have
found a continent inhabited with more
numerous peoples and animals than is
Europe, Asia, or Africa, and moreover an
atmosphere milder and more agreeable
than IN any other region known by us,
as you will perceive later on, where we
describe the chief points. The matters
more worthy of notice and memory
which were seen or heard by me in this
new world will appear below.
II 4 -. N
in the year 1901, we departed from Lis
bon by The command of the king with
three ships ON an suspicious voyage ia
order to discover the new lands towards
the west. We sailed towards the south,
the course of which voyage was as fol-
lows:
Our course lay through the Fortunate
Islands, as they were formerly called, but
now are styled the Great Canary Islands,
which are in the third climate and on the
confines of the inhabited west. Thence
through the ocean, we skirted the whole
shore of Africa and part of Ethiopia,
as far as the Ethiopian promontory, as it
is called by Ptolemy, but by us Cape
Verde, and from Ethiopia and the Man
dingha land IA deg. within the torrid zone
from the equinoctial line (equator) toward
the north, which region is inhabited by
black races. There, our strength being
refreshed, and with necessaries for our
voyage, we raised anchor, spread our
sails to the wind, and directing our course
through the vast ocean for a short dis
lance toward the Antarctic pole, we then
bent our course to the westward through
the wind which is called the Vulturnus
(southeast wind), and from the day on
which we departed from the above mem
toned promontory we sailed for the space
of two months and three days before any
land appeared, but in the vastness of the
sea what we suffered, what perils of ship
wreck, what torments of body we sus-
tanned, and under what anxieties Of
mind we labored, leave to the imagina-
ton of those who through experience Of
many affairs can best understand what it
is to seek out uncertain things and
investigate things of which they
may be ignorant. That you may un-
derstand everything in a word, know
that out of sixty-seven days in which
we sailed, we had forty-four continuous
DAYS of rain, thunder and lightning,
days so dark that we could neither see
the sun by day nor serene sky at
night. From which it happened that so
great fear came upon us that we had al
ready cast aside all hope of life But in
these so many and SO great tempests Of
the sea and of the sky, it pleased the
Most High to show unto us the CONT