<P> The first and fourth voyages are perhaps fabulous, but the second and third are certain . </P> <P> A letter published in 1504 purports to be an account by Vespucci, written to Soderini, of a lengthy visit to the New World, leaving Spain in May 1497 and returning in October 1498 . However, modern scholars have doubted that this voyage took place, and consider this letter a forgery . Whoever did write the letter makes several observations of native customs, including use of hammocks and sweat lodges . </P> <P> About 1499--1500, Vespucci joined an expedition in the service of Spain, with Alonso de Ojeda (or Hojeda) as the fleet commander . The intention was to sail around the southern end of the African mainland into the Indian Ocean . After hitting land at the coast of what is now Guyana, the two seem to have separated . Vespucci sailed southward, discovering the mouth of the Amazon River and reaching 6 ° S, before turning around and seeing Trinidad and the Orinoco River and returning to Spain by way of Hispaniola . The letter, to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de' Medici, claims that Vespucci determined his longitude celestially on August 23, 1499, while on this voyage . However, that claim may be fraudulent, which could cast doubt on the letter's credibility . </P> <P> The last certain voyage of Vespucci was led by Gonçalo Coelho in 1501--1502 in the service of Portugal . Departing from Lisbon, the fleet sailed first to Cape Verde where they met two of Pedro Álvares Cabral's ships returning from India . In a letter from Cape Verde, Vespucci says that he hopes to visit the same lands that Álvares Cabral had explored, suggesting that the intention is to sail west to Asia, as on the 1499--1500 voyage . On reaching the coast of Brazil, they sailed south along the coast of South America to Rio de Janeiro's bay . If his own account is to be believed, he reached the latitude of Patagonia before turning back, although this also seems doubtful, since his account does not mention the broad estuary of the Río de la Plata, which he must have seen if he had gotten that far south . Portuguese maps of South America, created after the voyage of Coelho and Vespucci, do not show any land south of present - day Cananéia at 25 ° S, so this may represent the southernmost extent of their voyages . </P>

The new world was named for the italian sailor