[111] Gomara, Historia general de las Indias, Medina, 1553, and Anvers, 1554, cap. xxxvii, folio 31; and Herrera, Historia general, Madrid, 1601, dec. 1, lib. 6, cap. 16. Later writers have reiterated it. Cf. Humboldt, Examen critique, ii. 152, who is doubtful; Lelewel, iv. 106, who says he reached Labrador; Kunstmann, Entdeckung Amerikas, p. 45. Watson, in his Bibliography of the pre-Columbian Discoveries, cites also the favorable judgment of Belleforest, L’histoire universelle, Paris, 1577; Morisotus’ Orbis maritimi, 1643; Zurla’s Marco Polo, 1818; C. Pingel in Grönlands Historisk Mindesmaeker, 1845; Gaffarel, Étude, 1869; and De Costa, Columbus and the Geographers of the North, 1872, p. 17.
[112] America not discovered by Columbus, p. 164. Estancelin, in his Recherches sur les voyages et découvertes des navigateurs Normands en Afrique, dans les Indes orientales, et en Amérique; suivies d’observations sur la marine, le commerce, et les établissemens coloniaux des Français, Paris, 1832, claims that Pinzon, represented as a companion of Cousin, was one of the family later associated with Columbus in his voyage in 1492. Léon Guérin, in Navigateurs Français, 1846, mentions the voyage, but expresses no opinion. Parkman, Pioneers of France, p. 169, does not wholly discredit the story. Paul Gaffarel, Étude sur les rapports de l’Amérique et de l’ancien continent avant Colomb, Paris, 1869, and Découverte du Brésil par Jean Cousin, Paris, 1874, advocates the claim. Again, in his Histoire du Brésil Français, Paris, 1878, Gaffarel considers the voyage geographically and historically possible. (Cf. also a paper by him in the Revue politique et littéraire, 2 mai, 1874.) It is claimed that the white and bearded men whom, as Las Casas says, the natives of Hispaniola had seen before the coming of the Spaniards, were the companions of Cousin. Cf. Vitet’s Histoire de Dieppe, Paris, 1833, vol. ii.; David Asseline’s Antiquitéz et chroniques de Dieppe, avec introduction par Hardy, Guérillon, et Sauvage, Paris, 1874, two vols.; and the supplemental work of Michel Claude Guibert, Mémoires pour servir à l’histoire de Dieppe, Paris, 1878, two vols. Cf. Sabin, vol. xii. no. 47,541; Dufossé, Americana, nos. 4,735, 9,027.
[113] The ordinary designation of Hartmann Schedel’s Registrum huius operis libri cronicarum cū figuris et ymagībus ab inicio mūdi, Nuremberg, 1493, p. 290. The book is not very rare, though much sought for its 2,250 woodcuts; and superior copies of it bring from $75 to $100, though good copies are often priced at from $30 to $60. Cf. Bibliotheca Spenceriana; Leclerc, no. 533; Carter-Brown, vol. i. nos. 12, 18; Huth, iv. 1305; Sunderland, no. 2,796; Harrisse, Bibl. Amer. Vet., no. 13; Muller, Books on America, 1872, no. 1,402; Cooke, no. 2,961; Murphy, no. 2,219, with a note by that collector.
[114] Cf. Von Murr, Memorabilia bibliothecarum Norimbergensium, vol. i. pp. 254-256: “nec locus ille de America loquitur, sed de Africa.”
[115] Watson’s Bibliography of pre-Columbian Discoveries of America, p. 161, enumerates the contestants; and Harrisse, Bibl. Amer. Vet., nos. 13, 14, epitomizes the authorities. The earliest reference, after Schedel, seems to be one in Guillaume Postel’s Cosmographicæ disciplinæ compendium, Basle, 1561, in which a strait below South America is named Behaim’s Strait; but J. Chr. Wagenseil, in his Sacra parentalia, 1682, earliest urged the claim, which he repeated in his Historia universalis, while it was reinforced in Stüven’s or Stuvenius’ De vero novi orbis inventore, Frankfort, 1714. (Copy in Harvard College Library; cf. Carter-Brown, vol. iii. no. 195.) The first important counter-argument appeared in E. Tozen’s Der wahre und erste Entdecker der Neuen Welt, Christoph Colon, gegen die ungegründeten Ausprüche, welche Americus Vespucci and Martin Behaim auf diese Ehre machen, vertheidiget, Göttingen, 1761. (Sabin, xii. 489.) Robertson rejected the claim; and so, in 1778, did C. G. von Murr, in his Diplomatische Geschichte des Ritters Behaim, published at Nuremberg (2d ed., Gotha, 1801; Jansen’s French translation, Paris, 1801 and Strasburg, 1802; also appended to Amoretti’s Pigafetta; English in Pinkerton’s Voyages, 1812). A letter from Otto to Benjamin Franklin, in the American Philosophical Society’s Transactions, 1786, ii. 263, urged the theory. Dr. Belknap, in 1792, in the Appendix to his Discourse on Columbus, dismissed it. Cladera, in his Investigaciones históricas sobre los principales descubrimientos de los Españoles, Madrid, 1794, was decidedly averse, replying to Otto, and adding a translation of Von Murr’s essay. (Leclerc, nos. 118, 2,505.) Amoretti, in his Preface to Pigafetta’s Voyage, Paris, 1801, argues that Columbus’ discoveries convinced Behaim of his own by comparison. Irving says the claim is founded on a misinterpretation of the Schedel passage. Humboldt, in his Examen critique, i. 256, enters into a long adverse argument. Major, in his Select Letters of Columbus, and in his Prince Henry, is likewise decided in opposition. Ghillany, in his Geschichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim, is favorable. Gaffarel, Étude sur les rapports de l’Amérique et de l’ancien continent avant Colomb, Paris, 1869, is sceptical.
It seems to be a fact that Behaim made a map showing the straits passed by Magellan, which Pigafetta refers to; and it is also clear that Schöner, in globes made earlier, also indicated a similar strait; and Schöner might well have derived his views from Behaim. What we know of Behaim’s last years, from 1494 to 1506, is not sufficient to fill the measure of these years; and advocates are not wanting who assign to them supposed voyages, on one of which he might have acquired a personal knowledge of the straits which he delineated. Such advocates are met, and will continue to be answered, with the likelier supposition, as is claimed, of the Straits in question being a happy guess, both on Behaim’s and Schöner’s part, derived from the analogy of Africa,—a southern extremity which Behaim had indeed delineated on his globe some years before its actual discovery, though not earlier than the existence of a prevalent belief in such a Strait. Cf. Wieser, Magalhâes-Strasse.
[116] Las Casas is said to have had a manuscript by Columbus respecting the information derived by him from Portuguese and Spanish pilots concerning western lands.
[117] These were accounted for by the westerly gales, the influence of the Gulf Stream not being suspected. Humboldt, Cosmos, English translation, ii. 662; Examen critique, ii. 249.
[118] See Major’s Preface to his Prince Henry. Cf. H. H. Bancroft, Central America, i. 373, for the successive names applied to the Atlantic.
[119] Cf. Les voyages merveilleux de Saint-Brandan à la recherche du paradis terrestre. Légende en vers du XIe siècle, publiée avec introduction par Francisque-Michel, Paris, 1878; and references in Poole’s Index, p. 159.