THE NAME AMERICA. 673 



Amerrigo, according to bis own signature, and has taken all the forms 

 and combinations imaginable between Albericus and Morigo. 



To conclude, 1 shall quote a sentence ti'ken from the life of Louis Pas- 

 teur: "All new discoveries bring into the ideas generally used until then, 

 a change which is accepted by some with joy, while others resist, be- 

 cause it deranges all their old habits." (j1/. Pasteur^ Histoire (Vun savant, 

 etc., p. 34:1, Paris, 1883) ; which applies exactly to this case. Almost all 

 Americans and all the Spaniards have accepted with joy the idea that 

 the New World was not named for Vespucci, who has no claim whatever 

 to such an honor, but that the beautiful name of Amerrique belongs to a 

 tribe of Indians and to a range or sierra of the central part of the conti- 

 nent, discovered and first explored by Cristoforo Colombo. A few Amer- 

 icanists, disturbed in their old habit of proclaiming in books, in pam- 

 phlets, or in speeches, that the new continent has been called after Amer- 

 igho Vespucci, do not like it, for it is disagreeable to them to see all they 

 have published or said replaced by something more rational and natural, 

 of which they.had not the smallest idea, or even thought of for one instant, 

 and their resistance is natural enough. I expected it from the time I 

 wrote my first paper on the Origin of the Name America, published in 

 March, 1875, in the Atlantic Monthly ; and nothing that has been said 

 b3' a few critics and reviewers in the United States, in Italy, and in Ger- 

 many has surprised me. But time will show who is right and 1 trust 

 fully to the good sense of the people. 



The name of the New World was taken from the mountain range and 

 Indian tribe at the center of the continent, and brought into general use 

 by the people who had been there, and the people will now see who has 

 the correct view as to the origin of the name. 

 H. Mis. 142 43 



