To This
Ocean The Name Of The South Sea Was Given.
In the mean time, the Portuguese had visited all the islands of the Malay
Archipelago, as far as the Moluccas.
Portugal had received from the Pope a
grant of all the countries she might discover: the Spaniards, after the
third voyage of Columbus, obtained a similar grant. As, however, it was
necessary to draw a line between those grants, the Pope fixed on 27-1/2 deg.
west of the meridian of the island of Ferro. The sovereigns, for their
mutual benefit, allowed it to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verd islands:
all the countries to the east of this line were to belong to Portugal, and
all those to the west of it to Spain. According to this line of
demarcation, supposing the globe to be equally divided between the two
powers, it is plain that the Moluccas were situated within the hemisphere
which belonged to Spain. Portugal, however, would not yield them up,
contending that she was entitled to the sovereignty of all the countries
she could discover by sailing eastward. This dispute gave rise to the first
circumnavigation of the globe, and the first practical proof that India
could be reached by sailing westward from Europe, as well as to other
results of the greatest importance to geography and commerce.
During the discussions which this unexpected and embarrassing difficulty
produced, Francis Magellan came to the court of Spain, to offer his
services as a navigator, suggesting a mode by which he maintained that
court would be able to decide the question in its own favour. Magellan had
served under Albuquerque, and had visited the Moluccas: and he proposed, if
the Spanish monarch would give him ships, to sail to these islands by a
westerly course, which would, even according to the Portuguese, establish
the Spanish right to their possession. The emperor Charles, who was at this
period king of Spain, joyfully embraced the proposal, although a short time
previous, Solis, who had sailed in quest of a westerly passage to India,
had, after discovering the Rio de la Plata, perished in the attempt.
It is maintained by some authors that Magellan's confidence in the success
of his own plan arose from the information he received from a chart drawn
up by Martin Behaim, in which the straits that were afterwards explored by
Magellan, and named after him, were laid down; and that he carried the
information he derived from it to Spain, and by means of it obtained the
protection of Cardinal Ximenes, and the command of the fleet, with which he
was the first to circumnavigate the world.
As this is a point which has been a good deal discussed, and as it is of
importance, not only to the fame of Magellan, but to a right understanding
of the actual state of geographical knowledge, with respect to the New
World, at this era, it may be proper briefly to consider it.
The claim of Behaim rests entirely on a passage in Pigafetta's journal of
the voyage of Magellan, in which it is stated that Magellan, as skilful as
he was courageous, knew that he was to seek for a passage through an
obscure strait: this strait he had seen laid down in a chart of Martin
Behaim, a most excellent cosmographer, which was in the possession of the
king of Portugal. In describing the nature of the maps and charts which,
during the whole of the middle ages, were drawn up, we observed that it was
very usual to insert countries, &c. which were merely supposed to exist.
The question, therefore, is - allowing that a strait was laid down in a
chart drawn up by Behaim, whether it was a conjectural strait or one laid
down from good authority? That Behaim himself did not discover such a
strait will be evident from the following circumstances: in the Nuremberg
globe, formed by Behaim, it does not appear: there is nothing between the
Azores and Japan, except the fabulous islands of Aulitia and St. Brandon;
no mention of it is made in the archives of that city or in his numerous
letters, which are still preserved. The date of the Nuremberg globe is
1492, the very year in which Columbus first reached the West Indies: Behaim
therefore cannot be supposed to have contributed to this discovery. It is
said, however, that he made a long voyage in 1483 and 1484: but this voyage
was in an easterly direction, for it is expressly stated to have been to
Ethiopia; probably to Congo, and the cargo he brought home, which consisted
of an inferior kind of pepper, proves that he had not visited America.
Besides, if he had visited any part of America in 1483 or 1484, he would
have laid it down in his globe in 1492, whereas, as we have remarked, no
country appears on it to the west of St. Brandon. We may, therefore, safely
conclude that he did not himself discover any passage round the south point
of America.
But all the other great discoveries of the Portuguese and Spaniards (except
that of Diaz in 1486) were made between 1492, the date of the Nuremberg
Globe, and 1506, the date of the death of Behaim, and between these
periods, he constantly resided at Fayal. It is much more probable that he
inserted this strait in his chart on supposition, thinking it probable
that, as Africa terminated in a cape, so America would. That Magellan did
not himself believe the strait was laid down in Behaim's chart from any
authority is evident, from a circumstance mentioned by Pigafetta, who
expressly informs us, that Magellan was resolved to prosecute his search
after it to latitude 75 deg., had he not found it in latitude 52 deg.. Now, as
Behaim undoubtedly was the greatest cosmographer of the age, and had been
employed to fit the astrolobe as a sea instrument, it is not to be supposed
that, if he had good authority for the existence of a passage round South
America, he would have left it in any chart he drew, with an uncertainty of
23 degrees.
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