THE NAME AMERICA. 663 



As to the chiisiciiiiig- of the IS^ew World with the name Americus, in 

 honor of Americus Vespucius, the Vosgiau Gymnasium Las gone out 

 of all rules, not only in giving the Christian name of a traveller or navi- 

 gator to a great country, but also in spelling his name, transforming 

 Amerige or Amerif/o into Americ. It is a well known rule that names 

 given to any great country newly discovered are either the family 

 name, if in honor of the discoverer, or theChristiannameof some mem- 

 bers of royal reigning families. %Ve can quote: "Straicof Magellan, 

 Hudson Bay, Vancouver Island, Juan Fernandez Island, Colombia and 

 Columbia, Washington, Van Diemen Land or Tasmania; Cook, Laper- 

 ouse, Torres, and Davis Straits ; Baffin Bay, Parry Islands, Kerguelen 

 Islands, Heard Islands, Crozet Islands, Tristan do Cunha Island, Ker- 

 madec Island, Bougainville Island, Lord Howe Island, Fernando do 

 Noromha Island, Grinnell Land, Wilkes Land, etc.; and on the other 

 side: Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Georgia, Victoria, Philippine 

 Islands, Queen Charlotte Islands, Charlestown, Charles River, Cape 

 Charles, Jamestown, James River, Isabel Island, Port Adelaide, Terre 

 Louis Philipi)e, Franz Joseph Land, etc. 



If the explanation of the Vosgian Gymnasium is accepted the only 

 exception to the rule is a continent covering a hemisphere, — that is to 

 say the greatest geographical fact existing, and that in the face of a fact 

 admitted by everybody, even the Vosgian Gymnasium in the Ptoleme 

 of J513, that Cristoforo Colombo discovered the New World. 



The name Amerigho, or Amerigo, or Amerige, which are the three 

 variations in spelling known until 1507, would give in Latin : Amerigo- 

 nivs, Amerighius, Amerigo, or even Amerige, but not Americus. Jean 

 Basin, in making such a lapsus lingw, must have been influenced and 

 entirely directed bj' the aboriginal name of Amerrique, which reached 

 Europe four years before, and had time to spread as a nanie of a coun- 

 try and a tribe of Indians rich in gold, for in 1503 Colombo and his one 

 hundred and fifty seamen returned from Cariai and Carambaru on the 

 Mosquito Coast. Being assured by some one, perhai)s directly by Ves- 

 pucci himself, or indirectly through Laurent Phrisius (Fries) of Metz, 

 an attache to the service of the Due of Lorraine ; the canon Jean Basin, 

 — an enthusiast like all poets, and a master in the art of eloquence and 

 fine writing, — perceiving the analogy between the christian name of 

 Vespucci, Amerigho, and more especially Amerige, and the somewhat 

 l^opular name of Amerrique, Basin thought that a part of the New World 

 was already named after the Christian name of Vespucci, and instead 

 of proposing to c;ill the New World Vespuccia, as he ought to have 

 done, he called it America. A poetical creation due to a too great im- 

 aginative power. Beside the erroneous notion of the discovery of the 

 New World by Vespucci, Basin committed another error, that the name 

 Amerrique must be derived from Amerige, creating a confusion which 

 was absolutely inexplicable, without the knowledge we have now of 

 the existence of a tribe of Indians called Amerriques, inhabiting a coun- 



