414 TIGAFETTa’s voyage round the world.

currency to this tale of the difcovery of the Strait of Magellan by Behaitn. Not theilighteft indication of any fuch ftrait is vifible on the globe conftrufted by Behaim , in149 2 ; it is even altogether unlikely that after his return to Portugal , or rather to theifland Fayal, Behaim could have had any knowledge of a ftrait unthought of by anynavigator before Magellan , and confequently previous to the year 1519.

Marco Antonio Pigafetta in like manner gave currency to the tale of the difcoveryof America by Behaim in his Itinerario. (Londra , 1585, 4to.) I am ignorant whetheror no any mention be made of Martin Behaim in his Relazione di Congo e delle cir-convicine contrade, tratta dagli fcritri e raggionamenti di Odoardo Lopez, Portogheze ,per Philippo Pigafetta ; (Roma. 1591, fol. fig.) for I have not feen the book.

When therefore we read in the Gottingen Almanac that “ Criftovai Colon,a Genoefe,difcovered, in 1492, the fourth divifion of the globe, to which pofterity ungratefullyhave given the name of America , from Americo Vefpucci, a Florentine,” and that<£ the family of Behaim, at Nuremberg , lay claim to this honour, which they attribute■to one of their anceftors named Martin Behaim , relying chiefly on the teftimony ofPigafetta , a Spanilh writer of that time. At leaft it appears indifputable that thisMartin Behaim difcovered the Brazils in 1485, under the reign of John II. King of Por-tugal . He died at Lifbon in 1506.”—When, I ftty. one reads this paflage, one can butfeel furprife that, in 1778, it ffiould be pretended Pigafetta was a Spanilh writer, andthat Behaim difcovered the Brazils in 1485.

Barros, who gives an exad account of the expedition of Magellan * * * § , fays not a Angle word of Martin Behaim , or his chart.

Following chronological order, we muft now pafs to the teftimony of Herrera, aSpanilh author. This excellent hiltorian advances, on Ample hearfay, that Behaim wasa Portuguefe, born in the ifland Fayal, one of the Azores , and that it was him whoconfirmed Colon in his project f ; it is moreover merely from rumour that he afcribesin part to him the difcovery of the Strait of Magellan J.

Varenius § fixes the date of the difcovery of the Strait of Magellan , in the year1513, and attributes it to one Vafquez Nunez de Valboa. “ Magellanus,” he fays,“ firft difcovered and failed through it in the year 1520 ; though before him, that is tofay, in the year 1513, Vafcus Nunius de Valboa is faid to have had an idea of itsexiftence [| when on a voyage to this part for the purpofe of exploring the fouthernregion.” It is this fame Vafquez alfo, and not Martin Behaim, to whom Varenius adverts in the paragraph that follows in the fourteenth chapter, written to prove thatthe ocean flows conftantly from eaft to weft within the zone called the Torrid, that is,between the two tropics. This is the tranflation of the paflage : “ Thus the fea isftated to run with a ftrong current from eaft to weft through the Strait of Magellan ,whence Magellan , (of he who, as fome affirm, difcovered f before him), conjedured itto be a ftrait by which the Atlantic communicated with the Pacific Ocean .”

Jan Wuelfer afierts the fame in fpeaking of Behaim as was advanced by Wagenfed,after examining the papers of the family in the archives of Nuremberg . But the hiftoryand the globe of Behaim controvert all thefe pretended fads, and fhew that he had no

* Decada terceira, lib. v. cap. viii. ix. x. folio 139—148 Lifboa, 1628 folio.

■f Ant. de Herrera, Dec. i. lib. i. cap. ii. p. iv. Y ella opinion le (Colomb.)confirm© Martin de Bohemia ,Portugues , fu amigo, natural de la ilia de Fayal, gran cofmografo.

J Decad ii. c. xix. p. lxvi,

§ Geog. gen. c. xii. p. vii et c xiv. prod. vii. p. no. Napoli.

H “ Ulud animadvcrtifle dicitur” is the expreffion. Eng. Trans.

•% Orat. de Majoribus Occam Infulis. Nurimb. 1691, bvo. 98 — 102 Orneis de elaria qutbufdam. Norimb.p. xiii.

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