The New Student's Reference Work/Americus Vespucius

Amer'icus Vespu'cius or Amerigo Vespucci (vĕs-pōōt' chē) (1451–1512), an Italian navigator, who in the era of Columbus, about the close of the fifteenth century, made several voyages to the northern coast of South America, and, it is alleged, made one voyage to North America, sailing along the coast of Florida as far north as Chesapeake Bay. There is doubt cast upon some of these voyages, though it is said that at least one of them was made in company with Columbus, while Vespucius wrote and published in his day narratives of all of them. What at least is certain is that the newfound continent came to bear the Florentine navigator's name, though this was not by his own seeking nor from any wish on Vespucius's part to detract from the honor due to Columbus in naming the New World America. What otherwise is known of Vespucius is that he was for a time in the commercial office of the Medici in Florence, and later on became a merchant at Seville, whose business it was to furnish supplies and to fit out vessels engaged in foreign trade. See Fiske's Discovery of America, Thatcher's Continent of America and Harrisse's Discovery of North America.