Benzoni, Jerom

, a Milanese, was born about 1519. His father, who was not rich, having suffered by the war, sent him on his travels, to seek his fortune in Italy, France, Spain, and Germany. He did not find what he sought, but became so captivated with the accounts recently received from the new world, that he determined to go there. Accordingly in 1541, he went to Spain, and embarked for America, where he remained fourteen years. In 1556, he returned to his country, rich only in the observations he had made, and which he communicated to the public, in a “History of the New World,” in Italian, Venice, 1565, 4to, reprinted 1572, 8vo, and afterwards translated into Latin, French, German, and Flemish. ²