Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
The fateful word on the Waldseemüller map. America finally releases its long-form birth
certificate, proving that the continent wasn't born in Indonesia or Kenya.
Unlike Columbus's dull, G-rated journals, Vespucci's letters are obsessive and vivid on
thesubjectofnativesexuality.“
They...areexcessively
libidinous,”heleers,“andthewo-
men more than the men; for I refrain out of decency from telling of the art with which they
gratify their immoderate lust.” But—luckily for us—he doesn't refrain for long! “It was to
us a matter of astonishment that none was to be seen among them who had a flabby breast,
and those who had borne children were not to be distinguished from virgins by the shape
and shrinking of the womb; and in the other parts of the body similar things were seen of
whichintheinterestofmodestyImakenomention.Whentheyhadtheopportunityofcop-
