ABSTRACT
Gaspar de lemos> had returned to Portugal from Brazil some time during the summer of 1500, 1 bringing with him letters to the king from members of Cabral’s fleet and particularly one from Pedro Vaz de Caminha. In this letter Caminha states that Cabral and his council advised the king to send another fleet to make further discoveries, because Cabral could not delay his voyage to India to do so. In addition to these letters news had certainly been received from Spain that Vicente Yañez Pinzon had reached Palos in September of that year and reported that he had visited the South American shore and had brought back a cargo of brazil-wood. It was therefore decided by the Portuguese that an expedition should be sent to continue the discovery of Cabral and to claim this land as within their sphere. 2 The selection of the leader for this voyage was not an easy matter. Many of the navigators who had knowledge of the Atlantic Ocean and to whom this enterprise might be entrusted had gone with Cabral’s fleet. There were others, but they probably wished to share in the profits of the voyage to India. It was undoubtedly at the suggestion of Bartolomeo Marchioni that the name of his fellow countryman, Amerigo Vespucci, was proposed. Vespucci may also have agreed to finance this expedition, at least in part, in the hope of securing brazil-wood.
