23 DISCOVERIES OF 1467. 



some old pilot whose name or nation is not even 

 mentioned, and that some German authors had 

 ascribed the honour of the discovery of America 

 to their country uian Martin Behaim, a native of 

 Nuremberg. This early geographer studied under 

 the celebrated John Muller, better known by the 

 name of Regiomontanus. He accompanied Diego 

 Cam in his voyage of discovery along the coast of 

 Africa in 1483, and settled on the island of Fayal, 

 where he established a colouy of Flemings, having 

 obtained a grant of it from the regent of Portugal. 

 In 1492 he returned to Nuremberg, to visit his 

 native country and family ; and there made a map 

 of the globe, which is still preserved in the library 

 of that city. Of this map Dr. Robertson procured 

 a copy, as published by Doppelmayer, from which, 

 he observes, " the imperfection of cosmographical 

 knowledge is manifest. Hardly one place is laid 

 down in its true situation. Nor can I discover from 

 it any reason to suppose that Behaim had the least 

 knowledge of any region in America."* He states, 

 indeed, that he delineates an island, to which he 

 gives the name of St. Brandon; but that he sus- 

 pects it to be a mere imaginary island which had 

 been admitted into some ancient maps on no better 

 authority than the legend of the Irish St. Brandon 

 or Brendan, whose story is so childishly fabulous 

 as to be unworthy of any notice ; and he concludes 

 that the account of his having discovered any part 



* Robertson's Hist, of Amer. vol. i. p. 368. 



