-5 Ofigitinl Di/c-overy ef Jmeriea, 



made ; but thf publifhers of his works thought the paflnge in Hartman Schedl fo important, 

 that they inferted it in the hiftory. We alfo find the following particulars in the remarks made 

 by Petrus Mateus on the canon law, two years before the expedition of Columbus : " Prima 

 riavig/iticrifs, If^. — The firfl Chriftian voyages to the newly difcovered iflands became frequent 

 under the reign of Henry, fon of John, King of Lufitania. After his death Alphonfus V. pro- 

 fecuted the defign; and John, who fucceeded him, followed the plan of Alphonfus, by the af- 

 fiflance of Martin Bohem, a very (kilful navigator; fo that in a fliort time the name of Lufi- 

 tania became famous over the whole world." Cellarius, one of the moft learned men of his 

 age, fays exprefsly, " Behaimeus ncn moilo, ^f. — Boehm did not think it enough to fun'ey the 

 ifland of Fayal, which he firfl; difcovered, or the other adjacent idands which the Lufi- 

 tanians call Azores, and we, after the example of Bochm's companions, call Flemifh 

 iflands, but advanced ft.111 farther and farther fouth, until he arrived at the remoteft flrait, 

 through which, Ferdinand Magellan, following his track, afterwards failed, and called it 

 after his own name." All thefe quotations, which cannot be thought tedious, fiiice they 

 ferve to prove a fa£l almoft unknown, feem to demonftrate, that the firft difcovery of 

 America is due to the Portuguefe, and not to the Spaniards ; and that the chief merit 

 belongs to a German aftronomer. The expedition of Ferdinand Magellan, which did not 

 take placejjefore the year 1519, arofe from the following fortunate circumflance : This 

 perfon, being in the apartment of the King of Portugal, faw there a chart of the coaft of 

 America, drawn by Behem, and at once conceived the bold proje£l of following the fteps 

 of this great navigator. Jerome Benzon, who publiftied a defcription of America in 1550,' 

 fpeaks of this chart; a copy of which, fent by Behem himfelf, is preferved in the archives of 

 Nurenberg. The celebrated aftronomer Riccioli, though an Italian, yet does not feem 

 willing to give his countryman the honour of this important difcovery. In his Geographia 

 Reformata, book iii. p. 90, he fays, "Chriftopher Columbus never thought of an ex- 

 pedition to the Weft Indies until his arrival in the ifland of Madeira, where, amufing 

 himfelf in forming and delineating geographical charts, he obtained information from 

 Martin Boehm, or, as the Spaniards fay, from Alphonfus Sanchez de Huelva, a pilot, 

 who had chanced to fall in with the ifland afterwards called Dominica." And in 

 another place : " Let Boehm and Columbus have each their praife ; they were both ex- 

 cellent navigators ; but Columbus would never have thought of his expedition to America, 

 had not Boehm gone there before him. His name is not fo much celebrated as that of 

 Columbus, Americus, or Magellan, although he is fuperior to them all." 



But the moft pofitive proof of the great fervices rendered to the crown of Portugal by 

 Behem, is the recompenfe beftowed on him by King John, who in 1485 knighted him 

 in the rooft folemn manner, in the prefence of all his court. I have before me a German 

 paper, extrafled from the archives of Nurenberg, to the following purport : " In the year 

 J 48 5, on the 18th of February, in Portugal, in the city of AUafavas, and in the church of 

 St. Salvador, after the mafs, Martin Behem of Nurenberg was made a knight, by the 

 hands of the moft puifTant Lord John the Second, King of Portugal, Algarve, Africa, and 

 Guinea ; and his chief Squire was the King himfelf, who put the fword in his belt ; and 

 the Duke of Bcgia was his fccond Squire, who put on his right fpur ; and his third Squirt 

 was Count Chriftopher de Mela, the King's coufin, who put on his left fpur ; and his 

 fourth Squire was Count Martini Marbarinis, who put on his iron helmet ; and the King 

 himfelf gave him the blow on tJie flioulder ; which was done in the prefence of all die 



princes. 



