Indians.  At Veragua he was informed of gold mines at no great distance, and sent his brother up the country in search of them.  On his return, Don Bartholomew brought down a considerable quantity of gold, which he had procured from the natives for toys of little value.  Being encouraged by the prospect of gold, he proposed to have left his brother in this place with 80 Spaniards to settle a colony, and even began to build houses for that purpose; but, being opposed by the Indians, and his own men becoming mutinous, he was obliged to relinquish his intention.

From Veragua he stood over towards Hispaniola; but his caravels were so much worm-eaten and shattered by storms that he could not reach that island, and was forced to run them on shore in a creek on the coast of Jamaica, where he shored them upright with spars, and built huts on their decks for his men, all below being full of water.  He remained in this place almost a year, suffering many hardships.  At length he found means to send a canoe over to Hispaniola with intelligence of his forlorn condition, and procured a vessel to transport him and his men to that island, whence he went to Spain.  This was his last voyage; after which he spent the remainder of his life at Valadolid, where he died on the 8th of May 1506, aged 64 years.  His body was carried to Seville, as he had ordered in his will, and was there honourably interred in the church of the Carthusians, called De las Cuevas, with a Latin epitaph commemorating his great actions.

[1] Trinidad, which is now subject to Britain, is on the coast of Cumana,
    or the Spanish main, on the north-eastern shoulder of South America,
    between Lat. 10 deg. and 10 deg. 50’ N. Long. 61 deg. and nearly 62 deg.  W.—­E.

* * * * *

CHAPTER III.

THE VOYAGES OF AMERICUS VESPUCIUS TO THE NEW WORLD[1].

INTRODUCTION.

The relation which is here offered to the public, we believe for the first time in the English language, is only an abridged account of four voyages made by Americus Vespucius to the New World, as written by himself, in which he expresses his intention of publishing a more extensive work, wherein all the events of these four voyages were to be related at large.  The information he has conveyed in the present article is by no means satisfactory; yet it constitutes an original document respecting the early discoveries of the southern continent of the New World, and is therefore essential to the principles and arrangement of our work.  Ample opportunities will occur in the sequel, for inserting more extended accounts of the countries which were visited lay this early navigator, whose singular good fortune has raised him an eternal monument infinitely beyond his merit, by the adoption of his otherwise obscure name for designating the grand discovery of the immortal Columbus.