eatest navigator of his time, and a recognition of
this fact is found in his appointment by King Ferdinand, a few years
later, as the chief pilot of his kingdom.

Not alone King Emanuel and his court recognized the genius of
Vespucci, but the people of Portugal and of Florence. He was received
in Lisbon with transports of enthusiasm, and one of his ships, which
had worn itself out in the voyage, was dismantled, "and portions of it
were carried in solemn procession to a church, where they were
suspended as precious relics." His fame extended far and wide, and in
Florence, the city of his birth, public ceremonies were held, and
honors bestowed upon his family.

He returned to Lisbon in September, 1502, and eight months later, at
the urgent request of the king, started on another voyage in
continuation of the last, in the hope of finally finding a strait
through the continent by which India might be reached. About this time
two events took place which are worthy of note. His patron, Lorenzo,
died in June, 1503, and a year later a Latin version of his letter to
him was published under the title _Mundus Novus_, or New World.

We must not lose sight of this title and this publication, for (as
will be more fully explained in a succeeding chapter) they had much to
do with the future defamation of Vespucci. He, it will be observed,
was pursuing his voyage to, or from, that "New World," while that
little quarto of only four leaves, with its significant title, was
being printed and circulated in Europe. Both Vespucci and Columbus
were then absent from Europe, and both engaged in a desperate struggle
with adverse elements, at the time this pamphlet was published: the
one on the coast of Brazil, the other on his last voyage to the West
Indies, in which he suffered shipwreck and nearly perished of
starvation.

Both Columbus and Vespucci were innocent of promulgating this title,
or this pamphlet, except that the latter had used the term "new world"
as possibly applying to his discoveries in the south Atlantic. But,
while they were perilling their lives in the service of their
sovereigns, each striving for a common goal, though neither envious of
the other, capricious Fame was weaving a web in which both were to be
enmeshed, and from which Vespucci was not to escape until after the
lapse of centuries.

The inscription in this pamphlet states: "The interpreter Giocondo
translated this letter from the Italian into the Latin languag