GULF OF MEXICO 



of his friend, Juanito Beranii, who contracted to 

 supply and equip 12 vessels of 900 tons each for the 

 Spanish Crown. In 1497, at the request of the 

 king, Vespucci joined the expedition to the New 

 World. In his own words, "the King, Don 

 Fernando of Castile, being about to dispatch four 

 ships to discover new lands toward the west, I 

 was chosen to aid in making discovery" (Thacher 

 1896, p. 69). He never explained his exact 

 duties aboard the ship, but judging from his 

 previous experience in commercial methods he 

 probably went as a sort of supercargo to supervise 

 the distribution of food, to weigh the gold, and to 

 keep accurate tally of the Crown's share which, 

 according to the royal decree of 1495, was one- 

 third of the total gold obtained by the expeditions. 



Vespucci started from Cadiz on May 10, 1497. 

 After reaching the Canary Islands in about 10 

 days, the fleet sailed west and quarter-southwest 

 for 37 days (27 days according to the Latin text 

 of Vespucci's letter) until land was sighted a 

 thousand leagues from the Canaries. Making 

 allowance for an error of 1° latitude and about 8° 

 longitude, Thacher (1896) estimated that the 

 landfall would be off the coast of Honduras in the 

 vicinity of Cabo Gracias a Dios. It is interesting 

 to note that the ships passed between the islands 

 of the Caribbean without noticing them. A safe 

 harbor was found after 2 more days of sailing 

 northward. Vespucci describes how, skirting the 

 coast, he saw villages one of which, consisting of 

 40 houses, was built, like Venice — upon the water. 

 It was near this village that a fierce encounter 

 with Indians took place in which 15 or 20 natives 

 were killed. The place is probably on the shores 

 of Campeche Bay, north of Tabasco. 



Continuing for 80 leagues farther along the 

 coast, the expedition came to a place inhabited 

 by different people. It was called the Province 

 of Lariab, a name which later on caused a great 

 deal of confusion and argument since in the Latin 

 edition of Vespucci's letter the name was trans- 

 lated "Parias," a mistake that led many to 

 believe that the explorer referred to the Gulf of 

 Paria off the Venezuelan coast discovered by 

 Columbus in 1498 during his third voyage. 

 According to Thacher, the word "Lariab" is a 

 compound word of Quiche dialect which means 

 "there are many." It is assumed that the expres- 

 sion was used by the natives, who misunderstood 

 the question addressed to them by Spaniards about 



the name of their province and answered that 

 there were many people in the land. Vespucci 

 states that this land, which is probably near 

 Tampico in Mexico, is "within the torrid zone, 

 close or just under the parallel described by the 

 Tropic of Cancer where the pole of the horizon 

 has an elevation of 23° at the extremity of the 

 second climata." (Quoted from Thacher, 1896.) 

 The term "clima" (plural "climata") of ancient 

 Greek cartographers denotes parallel zone or belt, 

 the width of which, according to Hipparchus, is 

 determined by astronomical observations on the 

 basis of the longest day of the year. 



The rest of the letter (Vespucci, 1926 edition) 

 caused endless arguments among geographers. 

 Vespucci states that from Lariab they navigated 

 in sight of land and covered 870 leagues, still 

 going in the direction of the "maestrale." This 

 course, corresponding to northwest, would have 

 brought the expedition over the continent nearly 

 to the coast of California. Harrisse (1900) 

 ignores the western component of the direction of 

 "maestrale" and considers only its northerly 

 meaning. He states that plotting 870 leagues 

 along the American coast would bring Vespucci's 

 ships as far north as Cape Hatteras. According 

 to Vespucci's narrative, the expedition turned 

 east toward Bermuda from this place and returned 

 to Cadiz on October 15, 1498. 



Humboldt (1836-39) expresses doubt whether 

 Vespucci ever made this voyage and denies him 

 the credit of discovery of the new continent. 

 According to Humboldt, at the time of his sup- 

 posed voyage Vespucci was engaged in equipping 

 the third expedition of Columbus and could not 

 possibly have taken part in the explorations he 

 describes. Obvious inconsistencies in the text 

 of Vespucci's informal letters are unfortunately 

 augmented by errors in translation. The accusa- 

 tions that Vespucci was a fake (see Winsor 1886, 

 v. 2, pp. 129-136; Harrisse 1895) are answered, 

 however, by pro-Vespuccian writers (Varnhagen, 

 1865, 1869a, 1869b, 1870), and final settlement 

 of the question awaits further historical research. 



Bremer (1940) advances an entirely new theory 

 that the honor of the discovery of the Gulf of 

 Mexico belongs to a Portuguese by the name of 

 Caspar Corte Viall who, shortly before 1500, sailed 

 to the west and upon returning to Portugal spread 

 the news of the existence of a new continent and 

 islands in the western ocean. In support of his 



