PREVIOUS GREAT CONTROVERSIES 291 



plorers voyaged along the northern shore of the great lake which Burton had 

 discovered, and proved conclusively that it had no outlet connecting with the 

 Nile basin. 



In March, 1873, Lieut. Cameron, heading another Livingstone relief expe- 

 dition, met followers of the latter bearing Livingstone's body to the coast. 

 Cameron, however, continued on his way, explored the shores of Tanganyika, 

 and not only corroborated Stanley and Livingstone regarding the non-exist- 

 ence of an outlet toward the Nile, but advanced the opinion that the great lake 

 was a part of the Congo system. This was made absolutely certain in 1874, 

 when Stanley made his celebrated journey from Bagamoyo to Victoria Nyanza 

 and Tanganyika, thence by Nyangwe, on the Lualaba, down the Congo to the 

 sea, verifying all that Cameron had conjectured. 



Thereupon no more was heard from Burton as to the Lake Tanganyika's 

 being the source of the Nile. 



Farther back in history are records of other explorers failing to convince 

 the world of their deeds. 



It is the irony of fate that though Columbus discovered America this con- 

 tinent should be called not after him but after Amerigo Vespucci. According 

 to the latter's own story, which is the only authority the world has for the 

 assertion, Vespucci was the first to discover the mainland of North America, 

 having reached here in 1497, several months before either the Cabots or 

 Columbus. Columbus's discovery was what started Amerigo Vespucci to voy- 

 age westward. The firm in which he was a partner fitted out Columbus's later 

 expeditions and it was with one of these that Vespucci sailed, just as it was 

 with Peary that Cook first sailed to the Arctic. However, this continent is 

 named America and not Columbus. 



Another notable instance of a real discoverer losing credit for his achieve- 

 ment is that of Verrazzano. That he really discovered the Hudson River in 

 1524 is a historical fact, proved by his log and by letters of his which are still 

 extant. How far up the river he sailed is a matter of doubt, but it is certain 

 that he sailed into New York Bay suf^ciently far to see and describe Manhattan 

 Island. Husdon explored the river that bears his name eighty-five years later, 

 in 1609. The reason that Hudson received the credit for it is to found in the 

 fact that the early settlers were Dutch and English. They knew all about 

 Hudson; few if any of them had ever heard of Verrazzano. Eager to claim 

 credit for a man of their own race, historians dismissed Verrazzano with a 

 line, while they told the full story of Hudson's discovery. 



