long and distressing voyage they arrived, and very
early in their intercourse with the natives they discovered that they
were cannibals, but nevertheless they established a friendly intercourse
with some of the tribes; and after coasting along South America as far
as lat. 52 deg., finding neither port nor inhabitants, and suffering from
intolerable cold, they returned to Lisbon in 1502.

Early in the next year Amerigo sailed again with six ships; but having
stood too near the coast of Africa, after passing the Cape de Verds by
the orders of the commander, four of the vessels were lost, but Amerigo
with the other two reached a port which they called All Saints.[3] There
they remained five months, in friendship with the natives, with whom
some of the party travelled forty leagues into the interior. They
erected a small fort, and left twelve men with guns and provisions, and
having loaded their two ships with Brazil wood, monkeys, and parrots,
they returned to Lisbon early in 1504.

[Note 3: This cannot be Bahia; for they say, that after coasting 260
leagues they were in 18 deg.S.; now Bahia is in 12 deg. 40', or nearly; the
difference being 120 leagues; it must therefore be a port to the
northward.]

But as Brazil, as it now began to be called, did not promise that ample
supply of gold which the Spaniards had discovered in their new
countries, and which the Portuguese gained with less hazard from Africa,
and from the East, the country ceased for a time to excite the attention
of government, and the first actual settlements were made by private
adventurers, who, on account of their trade, were desirous of having
some kind of agents among the people. The first persons employed for
this purpose were criminals, a sort of settlers that may do well in an
unpeopled country, where there is nothing to do but to reclaim the land,
but that must do ill where there are many and savage natives, because
they either become degraded to the savage level themselves, if they
continue friends, or, if not, they are apt to practise such cruelties
and injustice as disgust the natives, render colonisation difficult, and
if they teach any thing, it is all the worst part of the life of
civilised nations.

But in 1508, Amerigo Vespucci having returned to the service of Spain,
the King resolved to take possession of the new land which had been
discovered; and founding his claims on the grant of Alexander VI., he
sent Vincent Yanez Pincon and Juan