ld follow in the track
of the great navigator. Among these was a handsome young Spaniard--one
Hojeda--who had accompanied Columbus on his second voyage. Soon after,
he fitted out an expedition, 1499, reaching the mainland of the yet
unknown continent near the Trinidad of Columbus. With him was Amerigo
Vespucci. Here they found a native village with houses built on tree
trunks and connected by bridges. It was so like a bit of old Venice
that the explorers named it Little Venice or Venezuela, which name
it bears to-day.

Nothing was publicly known of this voyage till a year after the death
of Columbus, when men had coasted farther to the south of Venezuela
and discovered that this land was neither Asia nor Africa, that it
was not the land of Marco Polo, but a new continent indeed.

"It is proper to call it a New World," says Amerigo Vespucci. "Men
of old said over and over again that there was no land south of the
Equator. But this last voyage of mine has proved them wrong, since
in southern regions I have found a country more thickly inhabited by
people and animals than our Europe or Asia or Africa."

[Illustration: AMERIGO VESPUCCI. From the sculpture by Grazzini in
the Uffizi Gallery, Florence.]

These words among others, and an account of his voyages published in
Paris, 1507, created a deep impression. A letter from Columbus
announcing his discoveries had been published in 1493, but he said
nothing, because he knew nothing, of a New World. Men therefore said
that Amerigo Vespucci had discovered a new continent, "wherefore the
new continent ought to be called America from its discoverer Amerigo,
a man of rare ability, inasmuch as Europe and Asia derived their names
from women."

CHAPTER XXIV

VASCO DA GAMA REACHES INDIA

Thus the name of America was gradually adopted for the New World, though
the honour and glory of its first discovery must always belong to
Christopher Columbus.

But while all this wonderful development westwards was thrilling the
minds of men, other great discoveries were being made to the East,
whither the eyes of the Portuguese were still straining. Portugal had
lost Columbus; she could lay no claim to the shores of America
discovered by Spaniards, but the sea-route to India by the East was
yet to be found by one of her explorers, Vasco da Gama. His achievement
stands out brilliantly at this time; for, within a few years of the
discovery of the New World, he had been able to tell