THE NAME AMERICA. GG7 



eries of the Norsemen Bjarni and Leif Ericksen, at tbe end of the tenth 

 century; a small number of years when coiDpared to the past human 

 history and its great future. The fourth centenarian anniversary of 

 the greatest event for the human race will be celebrated without the 

 feeling that tbe name of the New World is derived from a third-rate 

 navigator, without any claim to such an honor and to the detriment and 

 great injustice of the great discoverer, Colombo; but that it originated 

 simi)ly from a tribe of Indians and a mountain range of the new conti- 

 nent itself. The name Amerrique is equal to and of as much poetical 

 beauty as Niagara, Ontario, Canada, Monongabela, Mississippi, Mis- 

 souri, Arkansas, Alabama, Dakota, Mexico, Nicaragua, Guatemala, 

 Cuba, Panama, Veragua, Chimborazo, Peru, Venezuela, etc. 



VESPUCCI CHANGES THE SPELLING OF HIS CHRISTIAN NAME. 



When Vespucci received a copy of tbe " Cosmograpbiai Introductio" 

 of St. D\6, at the end of 1507, he must have been more than gratified; 

 for not only in it he is qualified as tbe discoverer of the New World, 

 which very likely be wanted to be, but more, tbe name of Amerrique 

 was attributed to him, and that name was extended to tbe whole of the 

 new country. An ambitious man has seldom seen bis desires so well 

 fulfilled. 



If Vespucci had been "es mucho hombre de bien" as Colombo thought, 

 be would have taken proper steps to correct tbe very great errors com- 

 mitted by tbe Vosgiau Gymnasium, and referred to Cristoforo Colombo 

 as the true discoverer of the New World; but notwithstanding that Ves- 

 pucci lived five years more, he did nothing of the kind, and instead we 

 see he did all be could to sustain tbe scheme of naming tbe New World 

 after him, by correcting tbe orthography of his Christian name. Until 

 then he wrote Amerigho,' as is proved by bis letter of 1492, tbe earliest 

 authentic autograph of him that we possess, while his other letter of 

 the 9th of December, 150 -:, addressed to the Archbishop of Toledo, he 

 signs Amerrigo, with a double r and the suppression of the h. (See 

 page 657.) That modification in the orthography of his Christian name 

 is "tbe end of the ear which sticks out" {le bout de Voreille qui perce). 

 Seeing tbe analogy of Amerigho and Amerrique, he did all he could to 

 bring his name as near as possible to tbe aboriginal name, without 

 identifying it entirely; for a com[)lete identification might have been 

 detected at once, for there were still alive quite a number of Colombo 

 crews of one hundred and fifty seamen; and very cunningly he signed 

 himself Amerrigo, with a most attractive and prominent flourish 

 (paraph), using it until his death in 1512, as is seen in two or three 

 other signatures of him after 1508, preserved in the Casa de Contracta- 

 tion atSevilla,and all written with the double r and the dropping of the h. 



The Spanish historian J. B. Munoz, is the first who has observed tbe 

 double r in the signatures found by him in Spain ; that strange and 

 unique spelling attracted bis attention, without his being able to assign 



