74 Original D'ifcovery of Atntr'tca, 



1 fliall not here enter into an examination of the reveries of fome hiftorians, on tlie voyage* 

 of tlic Carthaginians, the Atlantis of Plato, the bold expedition of Mador Prince of Wales, 

 and fon of Owen Guinnedd, of which Hakluyt has preferred fome account, nor on tlie 

 voyages of Bacchus, or tlic land Ophir of Solomon. Conjediurcs of this kind, whether true 

 or fah'c, cannot leflen the glory of Columbus, were there not proof that he received, jull before 

 his expedition, the charts and journal of a learned aftronomer who had been in America. 



Garcilaflb de la Vega, born at Cufco in i'eru, has given us an hiftory of his country, in 

 which, to take from Columbus the merit of the difcovery of America, and to give the 

 honour cf it to the Spaniards, he aflures us, that this navigator had been informed of the 

 exillcncc of another continent by Alonzo Sanchez de Huelva, who, in his voyage to the 

 Canaries, had been driven by a gale of wind to the Antilles; but that his chief information 

 was procured from a celebrated geographer of the name of Martin Bchenira. Garcilaflb 

 fays nothing more of this Behcnira : and fince we know of no Spanifli geographer of 

 this name, GarcilalTo has been fufpeded of making a facrifice of truth to the defire of 

 wreftlng from a Gcnoefe the glory of difcovering the New World. 



On looking over with attention a lill of all the learned men of the fifteenth century, I 

 find the name of Martin Behem, a famous geographer and navigator. The chriftian name 

 is the fame with that mentioned by Gsrcilaflb, and I find that the fyllables ira added to his 

 name are owing to a particular circumltance, namely, the honour conferred on him by 

 John II. King of Portugal. It is then poflible that this Martin Behem is the fame perfon 

 as Martin Bchenira mentioned by Garcilaflb ; but this vague conje£lure will receive the 

 ftamp of truth by the following detail : 



The literary hiftory of Germany gives an account of a MartinBehem, Beheim orBehin,who 

 was born at Nurenberg, an Imperial city of the circle of Franconia, of a noble family, fome 

 branches of which are yet extant. He was much addi£led to the ftudy of geography, aftronomy, 

 and navigation from his infancy. At a more mature age, he often thought on the pofllbility 

 of the exiftence of the Antipodes, and of a weftern continent. Filled with this great idea, 

 he paid a viCt in 1459 '° Ifabella, daughter of John I. King of Portugal, and Regent of 

 the duchy of Burgundy and Flanders. Having informed her of his deGgns, he procured a 

 veflTel, in which he made the difcovery of the ifland of Fayal in 1460. He there eftablilhed a 

 colony of Flemings, whofe defcendants yet exift in the Azores, which were for fome time 

 called the Flemifh Iflands. This circumftance is proved, not only by the writings of cotem- 

 porary authors, but alfo by the manufcripts preferved in the records of Nurenberg, from the 

 Latin of which the following is tranflated : " Martin Behem tendered his fervices to the 

 daughter of John King of Lufitania, who reigned after the death of Philip of Burgundy, 

 furnamed the Good ; and from her procured a (hip, by means of which, having failed 

 beyond all the then known limits of the "Weftern Ocean, he was the firft who in the 

 memory of man difcovered the ifland of Fayal, abounding with beech trees, which the 

 people of Lufitania call Faye ; whence it derived its name. After this he difcovered the 

 neighbouring iflands, called by one general name, the Azores, from the multitude of hawks 

 which build their ncfts there (for the Lufitanians ufc this term for hawks, and the French 

 too ufe the word cflbs or efores in their purfuit of this game) ; and left colonies of the 

 FIcmilh on them, when they began to be called Flemlfti Iflands, &c." Although this record 

 i« contrary to the generally received opinion that the Azores were difcovered by Gonfalva 

 Velbo, a Portuguefe, yet its authenticity cannot be doubted : it is coniirmed by feveral co- 

 temporary 



