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Columbus afterwards explored and made public. What I have advanced in this para-graph is from documents of undoubted veracity in the archives of the republic ofNuremberg *.
“ I have obtained further information from the archives belonging to the family ofBehaim, among which are a likenefs of Martin Behaim , and a terreftrial globe made byhim, on which but a fmall portion of the American continent is laid down, but manyiflands of that divifion of the earth fpread through a great extent of fea, though withoutany denomination. Authentic documents exift alfo among them, by which it appearsthat Martin married Jane de Macedo, the daughter of a Portuguefe captain, and that hedied in the year 1506, leaving behind him a fon who returned to the poffeffions of hisfamily at Nuremberg .
“ Moreover, the Emperor Maximilian I. an admirer of the venturefome expeditionsof Martin , thus expreffes himfelf regarding our navigator: ‘ No citizen of the empireever travelled more than Martin Bohem, or explored more diftant regions.*
“ Johannis Metalius Metellus, in his Speculum Orbis Terrse, towards the end ofthe work makes mention of an hydrographic table preferved by Emmanuel King ofPortugal , in his mufeum, in which the fite of the Molucca Iflands is marked.
“ A memorable paflage alfo occurs in a book of Cardinal iEneas Sylvius, on theState of Europe under the Emperor Frederic III . cap. 44. corroborative in a degree ofwhat I have advanced. The paflage runs thus:
‘ In the year of our Lord M,CCCC.LXXXIII. John II. King of Portugal , a man ofgreat fpirit,fitted out certain galleys, furnijhed with all neceffaries, and fent them beyondthe columns of Hercules on a voyage of difcovery towards Ethiopia . He moreovergave the command of thefe to two captains, Jacob Cam, a Portuguefe, and Martinbehaim ’ &c.
This laft paflage is an extratt from the chronicle of Schedel, and was not infertedby the profeffed author of the book in queftion until long after the death of Pius II .an event which happened in 1464. I fhall here prefen t the entire paflage from thenianufcript written by Schedel himfelf, preferved in the library of the city of Nurem-berg. In the edition of Roburger, who printed this work in 1793, when MartinBehaim refided in Nuremberg , it occurs page ccxc.
“ The Infant Henry obferving how narrow the limits of the kingdom of Portugal ,and folicitous of extending them, by the perfuafion of certain geographers was induced5 ° the exploration of the Spanifh Ocean, and difcovered many different iflands neverinhabited before by man. Among others, he failed to a famous ifland, which hefound, much to his fatisfa&ion, though wholly unpeopled by men, was extremelyAffile, covered with wood, abounding in fprings, and well adapted to the fupport offnan. Hither he fent men of different nations for the purpofe of putting it in culture.Among other articles which it was fuited to produce was fugar, which is now madebere in fuch abundance that it has become more plenteous than heretofore throughouta d Europe : the name of this ifland is Madera, whence the denomination of Maderafugar. He likewife difcovered many other iflands, which he caufed to be peopled withChriflians ; for example, thofe of St. George, Fayal, and Pico, of one of which, pro-ductive of wheat, he made a grant to certain Germans to be peopled with Flemings,bi aftertime, that is to fay, in the year 1483, John II. King of Portugal , a man ofgreat fpirit, fitted out certain galleys, furnifhed with all neceffaries, and fent them to
> T * F°l. nimirum no vol. membran. de Patriciorura Noriberg. orlg. et fol. 285. T. I. AnnaliumN °nb. MS.
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