VESPUCCI, or VESPUCIUS AMERICO, was born at Florence, on the 9th March 1451, of a noble fam ily. He was the third son, and was educated under his paternal uncle, a learned friar. He went to Se ville to look after some commercial concerns, and he appears to have been in that city when Colum bus returned from his first voyage. According to the statement of Vespucci himself, he sailed from Cadiz with four caravels, and after touching at the Canaries, arrived in 37 days at the coast of Paria. If this be true, he was the first discoverer of the American continent, and anticipated Columbus by a whole year, but there seems to be very little doubt that this account is an entire fiction. He sailed, indeed, in May 1499, but only as a passenger in the expedition fitted out by Ojeda. Touching at the Carribees, the expedition visited the Gulf of Paria, and afterwards Hispaniola. At the invitation of the king of Portugal, he took the command of three vessels, which sailed in 1501, and reached a point five degrees south of the line. He set out again in May 1503, with the view of going to the East In dies, but he was driven into All Saints bay, on the coast of Brazil, to which he gave its name. In
1507, he returned to Seville, into the service of the king of Spain, who appointed him, in 1508, pilot major, with an annual pension of 71,000 maravedis, and it is said, that in this capacity, he inserted his own name, or that of Sznerigo's land, in the maps of the new world which he projected. This, how ever, is not believed by Mr. Washington Irving, who ascribes to future geographers the application of Vespucci's name to the new world. Vespucci remained at Seville, and retained his office till his death, on the 22d February 1512, though it has been stated that he died in 1516, and was buried in one of the Azores. For a full and interesting ac count of this navigator, see Washington Irving's Life of Columbus, vol. iv. p. 157-191. APP. No. IX. See also the Faintly Library, vol. xi. where there is a fine portrait of him.