The Naming of America. 203 



THE NAMING OF AMERICA. 



BY PKOFESSOR J. D. BtTTLER, LL. D. 



The name America has been called a monument of ingrati- 

 tude. It is said to be a misnomer, and worse than that, to owe 

 its origin to fraud. 



Our continent owes its name to Americus, the baptismal 

 name of the Florentine navigator, Vesputius. Concerning 

 him some specimens of popular opinion are these. 



It is charged that, " after returning from Brazil, he made a 

 chart in which he gave his name to that part of the main land. 

 The date of his first voyage, as he gives it, is unquestionably 

 false." So says Appleton's Cyclopedia. The whole narrative 

 of that voyage Irving pronounces a "fabrication." Morse, 

 father of the telegraphic inventor, says, "Americus had so in- 

 sinuated that the glory of discovering the new world belonged 

 to him, that the bold pretensions of a fortunate impostor rob- 

 bed Columbus." Morse quotes the Scotch Kobertson as au- 

 thority. A thousand others have done likewise. Eobertson 

 accuses Americus " with premeditated usurpation of rights," etc. 

 One of the most elaborate of British encyclopedias says, that 

 " as the employment of Americus afforded him opportunity, so 

 while drawing charts he distinguished the new discoveries by 

 the name of America, as if it were Amerigo's land, so that the 

 true discoverer, notwithstanding the complaints of the Span- 

 iards, was defrauded of the honor that belonged to him.'' 

 Delapluine of Philadelphia — father of our Madisonian pio- 

 neer, charges Americus with imposing his name on the conti- 

 nent by stratagem, and says he gained his end by waiting till 

 after the death of Columbus before putting forward his own 

 pretensions. 



