opposition to it. If however a single amendment is adopted there is no telling where the matter will end. Such a course would result in long debate, and as the treaty would have to be returned to England, no doubt it would be amended there in such a way as to force us to reject it. I hope a better result.

My family are all well and send a great Ideal of love to Mrs. Washburne and the children. Please give my kindest regards to them also, and believe me, as ever your friend.

U. S. GRANT.

HOW AMERICA WAS BAPTIZED

He

Every school child knows that the New World was not named for Columbus, whom we now honor as its discoverer, but for Americus Vespucius, a Florentine navigator who made three (or perhaps four) voyages to the mainland of South America between the years 1497 and 1505. His own accounts of his travels are the chief sources of information about him. claimed to have made a voyage in 1497, so that he would have reached the South American mainland a few days before Cabot reached North America; but historians there have always been to doubt the story of the first voyage. That he did make three voyages, and explored large stretches of the South American coasts, is beyond dispute. Certainly in his own lifetime he was not without honor, and in the latter part of his life and for many years after his death he was considered the chief explorer and real discoverer of the new continent. Columbus met him at Seville in 1505, and wrote about him to his son Diego: "a very worthy man who has always endeavored to be agreeable to me ***He is determined to do for me all he can." But in this same letter Columbus hints that Vespucius is not entirely satisfied, for he enrolls him among "the unfortunate ones who have not attained their desires."

After this meeting with Columbus, Vespucius spent eighteen months preparing for an expedition to the East Indies, but was finally prevented from sailing by Portuguese intrigues. Then for the remaining four years of his life he was "pilot major" for the king of Spain, a position in which he examined pilots, collected geographical data, and supervised the dispatch of expiditions to the New World. He died on February 22, 1512, in his sixty-first year.

Now the question is, how did it happen that this man's name was given to the new lands in the west? Did the monarchs of the civilized world assemble in solemn conclave before the baptism? No. Did the Pope, as spiritual sovereign, issue a bull and attest it by the usual heavy leaden seal? Certainly not.

Most

natural of all, did Vespucius himself set up a lobby in the seats of power, and say to those in authority: "I found that New World. It's mine, and I shall call it by my own name." Nothing of the kind. Off in a remote village in Lorraine was an enthusiastic young scholar writing a brief introduction to cosmography,

as he called it, just a few pages to open the door to the study of the world. It seemed to him an act of simple justice to call the New World after Americus, the discoverer, "a man of sagacious mind." And so it was done.

About eight and one-half centuries before this time-that is, about the middle of the seventh century-at a place not far from the point where the river Meurthe becomes large enough to deserve the name river, a pious ecclesiastic named Deodatus founded a chapel for meditation and prayer. In the course of several centuries this chapel became a cathedral, and the cluster of houses about it was named from the founder of the chapel. In its Gallicized form this became St. Dié.

About the beginning of the eleventh century St. Dié lost its purely religious character. Becoming secularized, a collegiate institution was organized under an ecclesiastical official called the grand provost. But the chapter of canons who really constituted the settlement of St. Dié acquired great political powers. Those were troublous times. St. Dié was in a borderland. In the constant wars of those days every priest needed a sword with which to defend his altar. Thus the canons of St. Dié by the time our story really begins-that is about 1500-were almost sovereign rulers, possessing even the privilege of coining their

own money.

At this time the Duke of Lorraine was René II, grandson of that René the Good who was the Maecenas of his times. The court of René the Good was the haunt of poets and singers, and so devoted to the fast disappearing arts of the Middle Ages was the old Duke that he was called the last of the troubadours. In the intervals when the grandson was not at war, he turned his attention to improving the material condition of his country, and also found time, in imitation of his grandfather, to cultivate the arts. One of his first steps was to found a learned society whose members came together for mutual benefit and for preparing and circulating scientific works. The society called itself the "Gymnasium Vosagense,' which might be freely translated as the Academy of the Vosges.

The members of the Gymnasium Vosagense, being scholars, were impressed by the fact that the explorations of Columbus and Vasco da Gama and the various expeditions sent out by Prince Henry the Navigator made imperative a revision of the maps of Ptolemy, whose work, substantially unchanged since the second century, remained the foundation of geographical knowledge. Canon Walter (Gualtier) Lud, the head of the Gymnasium and a secretary to Duke René, in 1507 set up a printing press, the first press in Lorraine. On this press it was the intention to print the new edition of Ptolemy on which the members had been working. But this ambitious plan was suddenly changed. Whether the new press proved inadequate for the work, or whether the scholars learned of another edition of Ptolemy already under way -whatever the reason, work on the text of

Ptolemy was stopped, The new plan was to prepare a world map to show the great advance in knowledge made in the preceding decade or two, and accompany it with an elementary treatise on how to study the world.

The text of the little treatise and most of the work on the map were done by one Martin Waldseemuller, a canon of St. Dié, who was undoubtedly the most learned member of the Gymnasium. Of Waldseemuller's life little is known. He was born at the little town of Radolfszell on the shores of Lake Constancesome authorities say about 1470 or 1475, others say about 1480. In 1490 he matriculated at the University of Freiburg. Apparently he studied theology, for in a memorial to Duke René, at a later date, he speaks of himself as "cleric of the diocese of Constance." Probably as early as 1505 he was at work in Strasbourg in the study of the geography and maps of Ptolemy. He appears also to have spent some time in Basle, where he collated several important manuscripts of Ptolemy and made the acquaintance of Johann Amerbach, the great printer. Whatever he did during these early years, April, 1507, found him at St. Dié, at work in Lud's printing office.

Apparently the "Cosmographiae Introductio" was the first book printed by this press, for the colophon on the last page would be meaningless if it had been preceded by other books. Here it is:

"Urbs Deodate tuo clarescens nomine praesul Qua Vogesi montis sunt juga pressit opus Pressit & ipsa eadem Christo monimenta favente Tempore venturo caetera multa premet."

Which merely means:

"The city, Deodate, which is made illustrious by thy name, where the summits of the Vosgian mountains lift themselves, has printed this work. The Lord willing, in time to come, it shall print many other monuments."

At first glance the "Introduction" might be mistaken for anything but a monument. It is a small quarto of only fifty-two leaves, one of which is printed only on one side, making a total of 103 pages. The first page is the title, which may be translated as follows:

Introduction to Cosmography

With certain necessary principles of geometry and astronomy. To which are added the four voyages of Amerigo Vespucci.

A representation of the entire world, both in the solid and projected on the plane, including also lands which were unknown to Ptolemy and have been recently discovered. Distich

Since God rules the stars and Caesar the earth,

Nor earth nor stars have ought greater than these.

Beginning on the reverse of the title and extending to the top of the fourth page, is a prose dedication to the Emperor Maximilian. The lower part of the fourth page is filled with the "order of treatment," a table of contents. The text of the essay begins on page 5 and ends on page 39. Four times in the 35 pages of the treatise on cosmography, Waldseemuller mentions the discoveries of Vespucius, as described in the four letters which follow, and twice he suggests that this new fourth continent, as he calls it, be named for Vespucius. The first time he makes the suggestion he says:

"In the sixth climatic region, towards the Antarctic, are situated the extreme part of Africa lately discovered, and the islands of Zanzibar, Java Minor, and Seula, and the fourth part of the world, (which, because Americus discovered it, it is proper to call Amerigen, that is, the land of Americus or America."

Four or five pages farther along Waldseemuller makes the suggestion a second time:

"And now indeed these parts have been more widely explored, and another, a fourth part, of which we will presently speak more particularly, has been discovered by Americus Vespucius. I do not see why it may not be permitted to call this fourth part after Americus, the discoverer, a man of sagacious mind, by the name of Amerigen, that is to say, the land of Americus or America, since both Europe and Asia have obtained their names from women. Its situation and the customs of its people will be readily understood from the four voyages performed by Vespucius, and which here follow."

This famous passage you may read in the original Latin on the preceding page. It is the first time that the word America ever appeared in print, and the first time that it was suggested as the name of the continent. This page may, therefore, be taken as the baptismal certificate of America. It is a page

to

be regarded with reverence, a page which should be placed before every school child, in fact before every citizen, as a lesson in patriotism. A philosopher would draw a moral from this object lesson. He would point to the apparent insignificance of this booklet, to the youth and zeal of its author, unknown in his day beyond the limits of his own town, to the hard early years of Vespucius, when he was only a clerk in the commercial house of the Medici in Florence. And somehow or other these facts become connected by a single thread, and the youthful German scholar, studying hard in the small French town, writes his little book to serve as a sort of setting for the narrative of the Medici's clerk, who makes his first visit to America while in the service of Spain, and his last two visits in the service of Portugal. Platitudinous sages today often repeat that the world is a small place after all, but it was surely much smaller in the days of Martin Waldseemuller and his studious friends.

THE SUMMER'S WORK Through the generosity of several members of the Women's Auxiliary Board a special cataloguer worked during the summer months on the Americana in the Gunther collection. All books and manuscripts which will not be retained in the Society's permanent collection have now been sorted, and the remainder all properly catalogued. Among a large number of books and pamphlets of little value, there are some of considerable rarity and of great interest. The Gunther collection has proved particularly rich in early Pennsylvania imprints, and in early American school books and other books for children. Perhaps the most important single book in the group is described on another page of this BULLETIN, and other items of interest will be the subject of notes in future BULLETINS. Some of the books bear fascinating titles. There

in 16 lessons", published in New York in 1829; and the beginning of the War of 1812 called forth "Hints to Young Generals, by an Old Soldier." The first edition of Webster's Dictionary is also there.

One of the most delightful items among the children's books is called "Douceurs", a sort of "mother's helper" designed "to entice the infantine pupil insensibly along the path, whose entrance must be strewed with flowers, if we expect our children to proceed along it with delight." This royal road to learning is a combination picture-book and dictionary. How any mother could have kept a straight face while she poured forth this learning upon her off-spring does not appear. For example, when the child sees the picture of a gate, the mother is instructed to say "This you understand". On another page is an arch; when the child sees this picture, mother should say"Knowing nothing about architecture, I cannot talk about the arch." But even this is better than the remarks mother is instructed to make when she sees a jack, which is defined as a device for "turning the spit on which meat is roasted." When mother sees this, she is supposed to lose her head completely and tell the child "I cannot describe one, but your papa will explain it to you."

Some of the definitions accompanying the pictures are as marvelous as the pre-digested remarks for mother. For example, a woman is defined as "a female man"; a coffee pot is ". a pot for pouring out coffee"; a fisherman is "; a man who tries to catch fish", and a powder puff is "a puff for shaking powder into the hair." It would seem clear that the compiler of these "Douceurs" wished to place no greater burden upon the mother than he did upon the children.

During the summer two successful exhibitions were held. The Grant memorabilia continued to arouse interest, and the circus and museum posters drew many new visitors. The advertisements in the street cars seem to have been particularly successful in calling attention to this unusual exhibition. The daily attendance averaged at least fifty, and on Sundays was about three times that number. Probably 2500 people visited the Society's building during July and August (whisper it, hush, that most of them were not members of the Society).

Summer vacations were not allowed to interfere with the important work of securing