e may be able to give
to each prince that which is his."

Without going further into the affairs of court at this period--merely
pausing to remark that after the death of Philip the old king soon
extricated his kingdom from the state of embarrassment into which it
had been plunged--we cannot but note that Amerigo Vespucci must have
been a man of weight and influence to be selected for such a mission.
It was a visit to the court previous to this which Columbus had in
mind when he gave him the letter to his son Don Diego. The biographer
of Columbus, Mr. Irving, has tried to make it appear that he was used
by Columbus to further his own ends, for he says: "Among the persons
whom Columbus employed at this time in his missions to the court was
Amerigo Vespucci. He describes him as a worthy but unfortunate man,
who had not profited as much as he deserves by his undertakings, and
who had always been disposed to render him a service. His object in
employing him appears to have been to prove the value of his last
voyage, and that he had been in the most opulent parts of the New
World, Vespucci having since touched upon the same coast, in a voyage
with Alonzo de Ojeda."

Now, this amiable apologist, in his persistent efforts to thrust
Amerigo Vespucci into positions subordinate to Columbus, defeats his
own purpose and disparages his own hero, for by his very words can he
be discredited. He himself says: "The incessant applications of
Columbus [at court], both by letter and by the intervention of
friends, appear to have been listened to with cool indifference. No
compliance was yielded to his requests, and no deference paid to his
opinions.... In short, he was not in any way consulted in the affairs
of the New World."

And this was at about the time that Amerigo Vespucci was intrusted
with most important business at court by the board of trade of
Seville; about the time that he was called to court and highly
honored by the king; just before the time that he was made captain of
a fleet, with a salary of thirty thousand maravedis per annum. There
was, in truth, no man in the employ of Spain more highly regarded than
Vespucci for his talents, for his honesty, for his loyalty to the
government. At the settlement of accounts pertaining to the fleet
which had been intended for South America, more than five million
maravedis passed through his hands--and he was never charged with
having diverted a single centavo to himself.

Nothin