910.9 I 377 



I 



A Geographical Commemoration 



THREE notable explorers have just been commemorated by the 

 nations to which they belonged : the Portuguese Vasco da 

 Gama, the Italian Vespucci, and the Eussian Deschnev. They are 

 the real or supposed discoverers of the routes to " east and western 

 Ind " and of the north-east passage. Here are a few notes on them, 

 giving the results of recent investigation. 



Vespucci 



The third Congress of the Italian Geographical Association was held 

 at Florence during the week beginning April 12th. The proceed- 

 ings of the Congress included the celebration of the 400th anniver- 

 sary of the discoverers Toscanelli and Vespucci, and were accom- 

 panied by much festivity. Vespucci's title to our recognition is 

 that he has been regarded by some as the discoverer of the New 

 World, and indeed the name America is supposed to be a slight 

 modification of his own forename. As to that forename, however, 

 there has been some dispute, for there have not been wanting people 

 to take opposite views and to say that Vespucci's forename was really 

 Alberrico, and that he changed it himself, or had it changed by his 

 friends, to Amerrigo or Amerrico in order to make it resemble 

 more closely the name Amerrique, which is said to have been the 

 aboriginal name of a tribe of Indians living in Nicaragua and there 

 found by Christopher Columbus. The whole question was very 

 exhaustively discussed by the late Jules Marcou, who was a strong 

 opponent of the claims of Vespucci, and had at the time of his death 

 just completed a fresh paper on the subject, which, it is to be hoped, 

 will see the light. Fortunately and appropriately at the present 

 juncture the explorer's register of baptism has just been discovered 

 in the Church of San Giovanni at Florence. It reads : " Zunedi a 

 di 18 Mars 1452, AmerigJio et Mattco, di Mcssere Nastagio, di Messere 

 Amerigho Vespucci, iJO'polo Se Lucia Ognissanti." Besides the date, 

 there follow from this two facts of some importance : first, that the 

 future explorer had a twin brother ; secondly, that he was christened 

 Amerigo, a form of name not so much unlike America. 



Vespucci's father was a notary in Florence, and the young 

 Amerigo became a clerk in the great merchant house of the Medici, 



2 D 



