Note 1 — Chapter III

Our geographies were wont to credit this nobleman with having given his name to the continent, but modern research has shown this to be an error. The country was already called by the native inhabitants Amarca, or America, which Vespucci very appropriately retained in his written account of the New World, the first that was given to the scholars of that day. From this fact his name became associated with that country, and he became known as "Amerigo" Vespucci, which was very appropriate, though his real name was Albertigo. Later writers, without stopping to investigate, declared that the continent had been named for him, and in that way others accepted the mistake as a fact. The truth is the name of "America" is older and grander than that of any of those who followed in the train of Columbus, and was that appellation given it by the ancient Peruvians, the most highly civilized people on the Western Continent at the coming of the Great Discoverer.—AUTHOR.