THE AMERICANISTS IN CONGRESS. 687 



first congress in Nancy — " not systems but facts " — liave become 

 the programme of the Americanists ; doubly valuable in a time 

 when the imagination is too ready to fly heedlessly over wide 

 tracts which disclose their features only to toilsome searchers. 

 Previous congresses have made numerous and important contri- 

 butions to the structure which we are raising. From meteorology, 

 geography, and the descriptive sciences, to comparative philology 

 and the history of art and religion, the various branches of knowl- 

 edge have offered their treasures. The circle of studies that help 

 to the investigation of the New "World is ever widening, and our 

 extended knowledge of East Asian history and literature is open- 

 ing to us new means of access to the last of these problems." 



Minister Gossler was followed by Signor Guido Cora, who 

 spoke of the discovery in the Vatican archives of important 

 original documents of the time of Columbus. 



Dr. Reiss, of Berlin, was chosen president of the congress, and 

 the vice-presidents were Freiherr von Audrian-Werburg, of Vi- 

 enna ; Cora, of Italy ; Fabi(^, of Spain ; Gaf arel, of France ; Morse, 

 of the United States ; Netto, of Brazil ; and Schmidt, of Copen- 

 hagen. At the close of this introductory meeting the president 

 spoke of the condition of Americanistic research and the part 

 which different countries had taken in it. 



The first of the regular papers was by Signor Cora, and was on 

 the name of America. The author was not ready to pronounce 

 decisively upon the origin of the name, for various recent investi- 

 gations had left it uncertain whether it was derived from some 

 word of native origin or was imported. Seiior Fabid remarked 

 that the opinion should not be rejected that the name was derived 

 from Amerigo Vespucci, for it had been taken from the maps of 

 that traveler, which were signed with his name.* M. Gaf arel 

 spoke concerning the American navigation which was carried 

 on principally by Frenchmen, early in the sixteenth century. 

 The whale-fishery had brought Basques, Bretons, and Normans 

 through the northern seas to Canada, as was shown by many 

 names of points along the coast. In the discussion, M. de la 

 Espada tried to prove that M. Gafarel had exaggerated the part 

 which those discoverers, particularly the Basques, had played. 

 The whale-fishery was not then very extensively prosecuted ; but 



* M. Jules Marcou says, in the " Bulletin of the Paris Geographical Society," that " it 

 is beyond question that one edition of Vespucci's letter on his third voyage has the name 

 Amerigo in the place of the Christian name ; nineteen editions had Albericus, and subse- 

 quent Italian editions had Alberico. The one with Amerigo on the title-page was published 

 in 1506, but M. Marcou suggests that this was never intended to be a variation of Alberico, 

 but rather the adaptation of Amerrique, a name already known and applied to the New 

 World, to Vespucci's name to distinguish him, as we say now ' Chinese Gordon,' to distin- 

 guish the particular Gordon by suggesting one of his greatest feats." 



