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:
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