V E S 
371 
V E S 
©f discovery. With this view he had the command of three 
vessels, and sailed in May, 1501, making land 5° south of the 
equinoctial line, which must have been Brazil, though he 
has not mentioned it. Herrera, however, asserts, that at this 
time he was with Ojedo in the gulf of Darien, and the dis¬ 
covery of Brazil is attributed by the Portuguese to Cabral in 
the year 1500. But it appears from the testimony of Peter 
Martyr, a contemporary writer, that Vespucci really sailed in 
the service of Portugal some degrees to the south of the line. 
In May, 1503, he proposed in another voyage pursuing his 
course to the East Indies, but was thrown on the coast of 
Brazil, and moored in the bay of All-Saints, to which he 
ve name; and from thence he returned to Lisbon in 1504. 
ing again taken into the service of Spain, he resided at 
Seville in 1507, with the title of pilot-major, and a yearly 
pension, in consideration of marking out the tracks to be 
followed by navigators, with the power of examining all 
pilots. This employment afforded him an opportunity of 
connecting his own name with new discoveries; and as he 
drew charts for mariners, he distinguished the newly disco¬ 
vered countries by the name of “ America,” as if it were 
“ Amerigo’s land;" so that the true discoverer, notwith¬ 
standing the complaints of the Spaniards, was defrauded of 
the honour that belonged to him. Vespucci, however, can¬ 
not vie in the public estimation with Columbus. He is sup¬ 
posed to have died in 1516, and to have been buried on one 
of the Azores. Vespucci drew up a compendium of his four 
voyages, which was first published by Simon Grineus, in his 
« Novus Orbis,” at Basil, in 1537, and afterwards in Ra- 
musio’s Collections. The Italian originals were afterwards 
discovered and published by Bandini. Tiraboschi. Gen. 
Biog. 
VE'SSEL, s. [vas, Latin.] Any thing in which liquids 
or other things are put. 
For Banquo’s issue have I filled my mind; 
Put rancours in the vessel of my peace. 
Only for them. Shakspeare. 
The containing parts of an animal body.-—Of these elements 
are constituted the smallest fibres; of those fibres the vessels; 
of those vessels the organs of the body. Arbuthnot. —Any 
vehicle in which men or goods are carried on the water. 
*— [yaisseau, French ; phaselus, Latin.] 
Now secure the painted vessel glides; 
The sun-beams trembling on the floating tides. Pope. 
Any capacity; any thing containing. 
I have my fill 
Of knowledge, what this vessel can contain. Miltonv. 
Half a quarter of a sheet of paper, [perhaps from the Latin 
fasciculus, ox fasciola, quasi vassiola. Lemon..—In theo¬ 
logy.] One relating to God’s household.—If the rigid 
doctrines be found apt fo cool all those men’s love of God, 
who have not the confidence to believe themselves of the 
number of the few chosen vessels, and to beget security and 
presumption in others who have conquered those difficulties. 
Hammond. 
To VE'SSEL, v. a. To put into a vessel; to barrel.— 
Take earth and vessel it; and in that set the seed. Bacon. 
VESSEL BAY, oil the east shore of Lake Champlain, 
sets up to the north-east, in the township of Charlotte, in 
Vermont. 
VE'SSETS, s. A kind of cloth commonly made in 
Suffolk. Bailey . 
VESSJESGONSK, a small town of European Russia, in 
the government of Tver, on the river Mologa; 190 miles 
north of Moscow. Population 2000. 
VE'SSICNON, s. [among horsemen.] A windgall, or 
soft swelling on the inside and outside of a horse’s hoof. 
Diet. 
VEST, s. An outer garment. 
Over his lucid arms 
A military vest of purple flow’d. Milton. 
To VEST, v. a. To dress; to deck; to enrobe. 
The verdant fields With those of heav’n may vie, 
With ether vested, and a purple sky. Dry den. 
To dress in a long garment. 
Just Simeon, and prophetic Anna, spake, 
Before the altar and the vested priest. Milton. 
To make possessor of; to invest with: it has with before 
the thing possessed. 
Had I been vested with the monarch's power. 
Thou must have sigh’d, unlucky youth, in vain. Prior. 
To place in possession: with in before the possessor.— 
Empire and dominion was vested in him, for the good and 
behoof of others. Locke. 
VESTA, in Mythology, one of the principal deities of the 
Pagans. Those who have diligently investigated the religion 
of the Pythagorean philosophers pretend, that by Vesta they 
meant the universe, to which they ascribed a soul, and which 
they worshipped as the sole divinity, sometimes under the 
name of to -urciv, the whole, and sometimes under the appel¬ 
lation of /a.oi/o(, unity. 
VE'STAL, s. [yest.alis, Latin.] A virgin consecrated to 
Vesta; a pure virgin. 
Women are not 
In their best fortunes strong ; but want will perjure 
The ne’er-touch’d vestal. Shakspeare. 
VE'STAL, adj. [vestalis, Latin.] Denoting pure vir¬ 
ginity. 
Her vestal livery is but sick and green, 
And none but fools do wear it. Shakspeare. 
VESTALS, or Vestales, virgins in ancient Rome, con¬ 
secrated to the service of the goddess Vesta; and particularly 
to watch the sacred fire in her temple. 
Numa first instituted four Vestals; and Plutarch tells us, 
Servius Tullius added two more; but Dionysius Halicarnassus 
and Valerius Maximus ascribe this augmentation to Tar- 
quinius Priscus; which number, six, lasted as long as the 
worship of the goddess Vesta. The Vestals made a vow of 
perpetual virginity; their employment was, the sacrificing 
to Vesta, and keeping up the holy fire in her temple. If 
they violated the vows of chastity, they were punished with 
remarkable severity; being shut up, or buried, in a deep 1 
pit, or cavern, in a place called “ agger et sceleratus cam¬ 
pus,” with a lighted lamp, and a little water and milk, and 
there left to be devoured by hunger. If they let out the fire, 
they were whipped by the pontifex maximus; and the fire- 
■was rekindled by the sun-beams. It is said, that they always 
lighted it anew on the first of March in every year, whether 
it had gone out or not. 
To be secure of their virginity, at their admission, it was 
provided, that they should not be under six, nor above ten 
years old. They were chosen by lot, out of twenty virgins, 
carried by the pontiff to the comitia, for that purpose. 
They were only consecrated for thirty years; after which 
time they were at liberty to go out, and be married. If they 
continued in the house after that time, they were only to be 
assistants, in point of advice, to the other Vestals. 
The first ten years they were to employ in learning their 
functions; the ten following they were to exercise them';- 
and the last ten to teach them to others. 
Their order was very rich; both on account of the endow¬ 
ments of the emperors, and of legacies of other persons. 
The Vestals had a particular place allotted them at the 
amphitheatres and games of the Circus. Their vehicle was- 
the carpentum, or pilentum. The veil in which they sacri¬ 
ficed was called suffibulum. 
At first, they were nominated by the kings; but after the 
extinction of monarchy, by the pontifex maximus, or high- 
priest. The eldest of them was called maxima, as the first 
pontiff was maximus. 
They had divers privileges; disposed of their effects by 
testament, in their father’s life-time; and whenever they met 
a criminal going to execution, they had a power to pardon- 
him. Whenever they went abroad, they had the fasces car¬ 
ried 
