ant settled at Seville; and, owing
to his death, the contracting work fell upon his assistant Amerigo
Vespucci, who was very actively employed on this service from April,
1497, to May, 1498. In 1492 Vespucci came to Spain as a partner of an
Italian trader at Cadiz named Donato Nicolini, and he afterward became
the chief clerk or agent of Berardi. It was thus that Columbus first
became acquainted with Amerigo Vespucci, when the admiral had reached the
ripe age of forty-five. As for his provisions, a good deal of the meat
turned bad on the voyage, and the contract was not very satisfactorily
carried out. It is strange that this beef and biscuit contractor should
have given his name to the New World, but perhaps not more strange than
that a bacon contractor should be the patron saint of England and of
Genoa.

The admiral was most anxious to despatch supplies and re-enforcements to
his brother, and he succeeded in sending off two caravels in advance,
under the command of Hernandez Coronel, who had been appointed chief
magistrate of Espafiola. The other vessels consisted of two naos, or
ships of a hundred tons, and four caravels. After months of harassing and
unnecessary delay, they dropped down the Guadalquiver from Seville and
the admiral sailed. He touched at Porto Santo and Madeira, and reached
Gomera on May 19th. Columbus had become aware, through information
collected from the natives of the islands, that there was extensive land,
probably a continent, to the southward. He had also received a letter
from a skilled and learned jeweller named Jaime Ferrer, dated August 5,
1495, in which it was laid down that the most valuable things came from
very hot countries, where the natives are black or tawny. These and other
considerations led him to determine to cross the Atlantic on a lower
parallel than he had ever done before; and he invoked the Holy Trinity
for protection, intending to name the first land that was sighted in
their honor. But he was impressed with the importance of sending help to
the colony without delay.

He therefore detached one ship and two caravels from Gomera to make the
voyage direct. The ship was commanded by Alonzo Sanchez de Carbajal of
Baeza. One caravel was intrusted to Pedro de Arana, brother of Beatriz
Enriquez and brother-in-law of the admiral. The other had for her captain
a Genoese cousin, Juan Antonio Colombo. It will be remembered that
Antonio, the brother of Domenico Colombo and uncle of