Original Difccvery of America, 75 



temporary writers, and efpecially by Wagenfeil, one of the mod learned men of the lad 

 century ; who, after having travelled into Africa, and throughout all Europe, was made 

 Doftor of Laws at Orleans, and chofen Fellow of the Academies of Turin and Padua, al- 

 though he was a German by birth. The particulars are to be found in his Univerfal 

 Hiftory and Geography. I have moreorer received from the records of Nurenberg a note 

 written in German, on parchment, which contains the following facts : " Martin Beham, 

 Efquire, fon of Mr. Martin Beham, of Scoperin, lived in the reign of John If. King of 

 Portugal, in an ifland which he difcovered, and called the Ifland of Fayal, one of the 

 Azores, lying in the Weflern Ocean." 



After having obtained from the Regent Ifahella a grant of Fayal, and refided there about 

 twenty years, during which time he was bufied in making frefli difcoveries in geography, by 

 fmall excurfions which need not be mentioned, Beheni applied in 1484 (which was eight 

 years before Columbus's expedition) to John II. King of Portugal, to procure the means of 

 undertaking a great expedition towards the fouth-weiV. This prince gave him fome fhips, 

 with which he difcovered that part of America which is now called Brazil ; and he even 

 failed to the Straits of Magellan, or to the country of fome favage tribes whom he called 

 Patagonians, from the extremities of their bodies being covered with a fkin more like a 

 bear's paws than human hands and feet. This faft is proved by authentic records, pre- 

 ferved in the archives of Nurenberg, one of which in particular deferves attention : " Martin 

 Behem, traverfing the Atlantic Ocean for feveral years, examined the American illands, and 

 difcovered the Strait which bears the name of Magellan, before either Chriftopher Columbus 

 or Magellan failed thofe feas ; whence he mathematically delineated on a geographical chart, 

 for the King of Lufitania, the fituation of the coaft around every part of that famous and 

 renowned Strait long before Magellan thought of his expedition." This aflertion is fupported 

 by Behcm's own letters, written in German, and preferved in the archives of Nurenberg, in a 

 book which contains the birth and illuftrious anions of the nobility of that city. Thefe letters 

 are dated in i486, that is, fix years before the expedition of Columbus. This wonderful dif- 

 covery has not efcaped the notice of cotemporary writers. The following pafiage is tranflated 

 from the Latin chronicle of Hartman Schedl: "In the year 1485, John II. King of Portugal, 

 a man of a magnanimous fplrit, furniflied fome galleys with provifions, and fent them to 

 the fouthward, beyond the Straits of Gibraltar. He gave the command of this fquadron 

 to James Canus, a Portuguefe, and Martin Behem, a German of Nurenberg in Upper 

 Germany, defcended of the family of Bonna: a man very well acquainted with the fituation 

 of the globe ; blelled with a conflitution able to bear the fatigues of the fea ; and who, by 

 aftual experiments and long failing, h.id made himfelf perfe£lly mailer with regard to the 

 longitudes and latitudes of Ptolemy in the weft. Thefe two, by the bounty of Heaven, 

 coafting along the Southern Ocean, and having crolTed the Equator, got into the other 

 hemifphere, where, facing to the eaftward, their (liadows projected towards the fouth 

 and right hand. Thus, by their induftry, they have opened to us another world, 

 hitherto unknown, and for many years attempted by none but the Genoefe, and by 

 them in vain. Having fmiflied this cruifc in the fpace of twenty-fix months, they returned 

 to Portugal with the lofs of many of their feamen by the violence of the climate," 



This pafiage becomes more interefting from being quoted in a book on the ftate of 

 Europe during the reign of the Emperor Frederick III. by the learned hiflorian iEiiea$ 

 Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II. This hiftorian died before the difcoveries of Bchcm were 



L a nude ; 



