GEORGE M ARC 'GRAVE 257 



Thus a great injustice was done Marcgrave, whose work was done over with 

 much eclat by Caille and La Condamine. (Liehtenstein.) 



In this opinion De Crane also joins, and he intimates further that 

 Huygens also merely rediscovered some of the things which Marcgrave 

 had observed. 



De Crane, followed by Van Kampen and Driesen, who undoubtedly 

 copy him, alleges that the reason why Golius never published these 

 MSS. was that they were written in cipher. This, however, seems to be 

 an error, since it is not confirmed by De Laet or by any other writers 

 on Marcgrave's life so far as I can ascertain. The internal evidence 

 bearing on Marcgrave's cipher MSS. will be taken up later. However, 

 with regard to the astronomical tables of the third section, Lalande 

 makes the following interesting statement : 



I have also found among the MSS. of M. de l'Isle notice of some observa- 

 tions ... of several other astronomers, observations which have never been 

 published. Among such are those which Marcgraf made in 1639 and 1640 in the 

 isle de Vaaz in Brazil, which are filed in the archives; but the original remains 

 at Cadiz with the MSS. of M. de Louville and some others which M. Godin had 

 brought there and which are thought to have been in the hands of D. Antonio 

 de Ulloa. 



Elsewhere Lalande also notes that Flamsteed had examined Marc- 

 grave's observations on the Ecliptic. These references would seem 

 plainly to indicate that these MSS. were not in cipher. 



De Crane alleges that the copy is on deposit in the archives of the 

 French Marine, and Van Kampen thinks that these papers fell into 

 Spanish hands (how he does not say) and that they were made use of 

 by Godin and de Ulloa in their work of measuring a degree of longitude 

 on the plateau of Ecuador in 1835. However, careful search on the 

 part of the present writer has failed to reveal any notice of them in 

 de TJlloa's account of his travels in South America. 



One of these MSS. alone has come down to us. Barlasus (1647) 

 seems to have preserved, and Piso in the 1658 folio has published, 

 Marcgrave's " Tractatus Topographicus et Meteorologicus Brasilia? cum 

 Eclipsi Solaris" (of 1640). While this is based on Marcgrave's own 

 observations, still it is known that to give him more extended data 

 Count Maurice had ordered all the Dutch ship masters in Brazil to 

 make careful notes and even drawings of the eclipse and turn them over 

 to Marcgrave. 



It is interesting to note Marcgrave's own statement of his work 

 found in his preface to the Progvmnastica as quoted bv De Laet (1648 

 folio). 



A work much desired but up to the present time attempted by no one, 

 happily begun by the assistance of the illustrious hero, Johann Moritz, Count of 

 Nassau-Siegen, Prefect of the lands and seas of Brazil, and by God's help after 



vol. lxxxi. — 18. 



