Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-06-03
NAMING OF AMERICA
Why a Contractor of Supplies
Was H0nored.
SUGGESTED BY A GERMAN
Efforts of Descendants to Get Pen
sion From Congress.
THE RAILWAYS OF MANCHURIA
Immense Amount Of Supplies and
Equipment Ordered in This Coun-
try-Kuroki's Tribute.
THE RAILWAYS OF MANCHURIA
RY WILLIAM f. CURTIS.

Special Correspondence OF The Star ana the oh'e's'
Record Herald.
NEW YORK, June 2, 1907.
Mr.. John Boyd Thatcher OF Albany n. T.
who has written a great deal OF early
American history, seems to nave peen the
only man among the 1oOooO'Ooo people III
this great hemisphere who remembered that
the 5th of May, 1907, was the 4ooth ami
versary of the christening of America MT.
Thatcher was in Paris at the time, and
called the attention of the newspapers or
that city to the fact
"The new world" he said in an interview
published over there, was first named
America in little book written by Mar
tin Waldseemuller and printed at Saint
Die, in the Vosges mountains, on the TN
of the kalends of May, in the year 1907 me
7th of the kalends of May, when corrected
by the Gregorian calendar, becomes May D.
There was an element of universally ABOUT
the incident of naming, for it was Ger
man who proposed the name, 1T was an
Italian to whom the honor was paid SPAN
was the country in whose service ne sailed
the book was printed in France and the
language employed was Latin, the UNIVERSAL
medium of mental exchanges.
1t has been demonstrated beyond doupt
by many historians, including so able and
disinterested authority as Baron Won
Humboldt, that Americas Vespucclus never
knew or expected or hoped that he was TO
he immortalized by having the new world
hear his name and he has been entirely
ahsolved from all attempts to rob Columbus
of the honor and glory that to him be-
long. >,
Contractor for Supplies.
Little is known of Americas Vespuccius
until 1895, when, as manager of the mouse
of Juanoto Berardi at Seville he obtained
a contract for supplying the vessels used
nv Columbus on his third voyage, and on
the 18th of January 1896, according to the
records of the council of the Indies. now
preserved in Seville, he was paid the sum
of coo maravedis from the treasury Of
Ferdinand and Isabella. In 1905, with a
letter of introduction from Columbus. ne
repaired to the court of King Ferdinand,
who employed him as a sort of supercargo
in fitting out fleets for the Indies. In 1oO6
lie went on an expedition to the new world
with Juan de la Cosa, who Gas the pilot or
Columbus on his first voyage. They cruiSed
along the coast of the Spanish main and
visited several of the islands of the West
Indies. In 1908 he was made chief quarter
master or purchasing agent for the council
of the Indies with salary equivalent to
81, 900 year. He died at Seville in 1912,
a highly respected citizen, never dreaming
that the new continent was forever to bear
his name. Like Columbus, he always sup
posed that the newly discovered lands were
the coast of India.
VespucciuS, like Columbus, was a prolific
writer, and, being man of education, his
descriptions of his voyages and of the
places he visited are more accurate and in
telligent than those of other explorers of
that day. They are mostly in the form Of