206 Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Ai-ts, and Letters. 



injustice to Columbus. It is true he printed "America" in 

 capitals on the southerly portion of the new found region 

 which extends no further north than the equator, but he 

 intended to call only a portion of that region by that name, 

 for "beneath the word America the word ^rofiwce, " Provincia," 

 is subjoined. America, as then and thus designated, was a 

 smaller part of the West Indies than the West Indies now are 

 of America. 



Thus much of honor may have been deserved by Americus, 

 who possibly first discovered the American main land, and at 

 all events was the first explorer of more of it than even Colum- 

 bus. 



Moreover, on the Vienna map, above the name America so 

 that it may well apply to the north shore of South America 

 and the West Indies, we read this epigraph : " In the yoar 

 1497 this land with the islands adjacent was discovered by 

 Columbus, a Genoese by order of the King of Castile." 



The original text is, Anno, 1497, hajc terra cum adjacentibus 

 insulis inveuta est per Columbum, Januensem ex mandato 

 regis Castellae. America, provincia. 



On this map, as on all before it and on legions afterward, 

 the two portions of America are widely sea-severed. The 

 truth is they were long regarded by no means as Siamese 

 twins, but as belonging to different continents. 



Men find what they seek. Columbus voyaged for India, 

 thought his first landing was there, and forced his crew to 

 swear they thought so too by threatening to cut out their 

 tongues, (H. Stevens, " Historical and Geographical Notes.") 

 Like too many others, he forgot that voting asses to be horses 

 never made long ears short. 



Columbus called his finding the main land or islands of In 

 dia beyond the Ganges {Insulw Itidicc supra Oangem.) Mani- 

 fold memorials of his mistake we see to this day. Witness our 

 aborigines from pole to pole called " Indians ; " witness the 

 archipelago between the Americas now as in the beginning, 



