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.
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