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by tlic munificence of one of these Italian families, to equip a small flotilla, 

 and make several voyages in the seas explored by Christopher Columbus. 

 These voyages were probably undertaken for commercial purposes; but 

 Vespucci gave them the appearance of having been made in the cause of 

 geography by publishing, in the form of a letter, the description of new lands 

 which he claimed to have discovered before Christopher Columbus, to whom 

 he made no allusion. This letter, written in Italian and of which a great 

 many copies were printed, was widely circulated throughout Italy, the 



Fig. 206. Signature at the foot of an Autograph Letter of Christopher Columbus, addressed from 

 Seville to the noble Lords of the Office of St. George, and dated " A dos dias de Abril 1502." 

 Preserved iu the Municipal Archives at Genoa. 



inhabitants of which were much pleased at the success of one of their country- 

 men, and at once gave to the New World the name of America in his honour. 

 The latter, after the death of Columbus in 1506, continued his voyages along 

 the American coast, and stoutly maintained that if Columbus had discovered 

 the islands of that continent, he was the first to have found the continent 

 itself. His statements were believed, and the name of America was finally 

 given to a continent which he had merely explored in company with several 



