regions of the eaft defcribed by the ancients. His firm belief of his own fyftem led him to take that course, and to pursue it without deviation. The Spaniards are not the only people who have called in question Columbus's claim to the honour of having difcovered America. Some German authors afcribe this honour to Martin Behaim, their countryman. He was of the noble family of the Behaims of Schwartzbach, citizens of the firft rank in the Imperial town of Nuremberg. Having ftudied under the celebrated John Muller, better known by the name of Regiomontanus, he acquired fuch knowledge of cofmography, as prompted him to explore those regions, the fituation and qualities of which he had been accustomed to investigate and defcribe. Under the patronage of the Duchefs of Burgundy he repaired to Lifbon, whither the fame of the Portuguese difcoveries invited all the adventurous fpirits of the age. There, as we learn from Herman Schedel, of whofe Chronicon Mundi a German tranflation was printed at Nuremberg A. D. 1493. his merit as a cofmographer raised him, in conjunction with Diego Cano, to the command of a fquadron fitted out for difcovery in the year 1483. In that voyage, he is faid to have difcovered the kingdom of Congo. He fettled in the ifland of Fayal, one of the was a particular friend of Columbus. Herrera, dec. dec. 1. lib. I. c. 2. Magellan had a terrestrial globe made by Behaim, on which he demonftrated the courfe that he purposed to hold in fearch of the communication with the South Sea, which he afterwards difcovered. Gomara Hift. c. 19. Herrera, dec. 11. lib. ii. c. 19. In the year 1492, Behaim vifited his relations in Nuremberg, and left with them a map drawn with his own hand, which is ftill preserved among the archives of the family. Thus far the ftory of Martin Behaim feems to be well authenticated; but the account of his having discovered any part of the New World appears to be merely conjectural. In the first edition, as I had at that time hardly any knowledge of Behaim but what I derived from a frivolous Differtation de vero Novi Orbis Inventore, published at Francfort, A. D. 1714. by Jo. Frid. Stuvenius, I was induced, by the authority of Herrera, to fuppofe that Behaim was not a native of Germany; but from more full and accurate information, communicated to me by the learned Dr. John Reinold Forfter, I am now fatisfied that I was miftaken. Dr. Forfter has been likewife fo good as to favour me with a copy of Behaim's map, as published by Doppelmayer in his Account of the Mathematicians and Artifts of Nuremberg. From this map, the imperfection of cofmographical knowledge at that period is manifeft. Hardly one place is laid down in its true fituaROBERTSON. Tom. I. Ꮓ tion. Nor can I difcover from it any reason to suppose that Behaim had the least knowledge of any region in America. He delineates, indeed, an ifland to which he gives the name of St. Brandon. This, it is imagined, may be fome part of Guiana, fuppofed at firft to be an ifland. He places it in the fame latitude with the Cape Verd Ifles, and I fufpect it to be an imaginary ifland which has been admitted into fome ancient maps on no better authority than the legend of the Irifh St. Brandom or Brendan, whose story is fo childifhly fabulous as to be unworthy of any notice. Girald. Cambrienfis ap. Miffingham Florilegium San&torum, p. 427. The pretenfions of the Welfh to the difco very of America feem not to reft on a founda tion much more folid. In the twelfth century, according to Powell, a difpute having arisen among the fons of Owen Guyneth, king of North-Wales, concerning the fucceffion to his crown, Madoc, one of their number, weary of this contention, betook himself to sea in queft of a more quiet fettlement. He fteered due weft, leaving Ireland to the north, and arrived in an unknown country, which appeared to him fo defirable, that he returned to Wales, and carried thither feveral of his adherents and companions. This is faid to have happened about the year 1170, and after that, he and bis colony were heard of no more. But it is to be obferved, that Powell, on whofe tefti mony the authenticity of this ftory refts, publifhed his hiftory above four centuries from the date of the event which he relates. Among a people as rude and as illiterate as the Welsh at that period, the memory of a tranfaction fo remote must have been very imperfectly preferved, and would require to be confirmed by fome author of greater credit, and nearer to the æra of Madoc's voyage, than Powell. Later antiquaries have indeed appealed to the teftimony of Meredeth ap Rhees, a Welsh bard, who died A. D. 1477. But he too lived at fuch a distance of time from the event, that he cannot be confidered as a witnefs of much more credit than Powell. Befides, his verfes publifhed by Hackluyt, vol. iii. p. 1. convey no information, but that Madoc, diffatisfied with his domeftick fituation, employed himself in fearching the ocean for new poffeffions. But even if we admit the authenticity of Powell's ftory, it does not follow that the unknown country which Madoc difcovered by fteering weft, in fuch a courfe as to leave Ireland to to north, was any part of America. The skill of the Welsh in the twelfth century was hardly equal to fuch a voyage. If he made any dif covery at all, it is more probable that it was Madeira, or fome other of the western ifles. The affinity of the Welsh language with fome dialects spoken in America, has been mentioned as a circumftance which confirms the truth 1. Za 2 It is diftin This word of Madoc's voyage. But that has been obferved in fo few inftances, and in fome of these the affinity is fo obfcure, or fo fanciful, that no conclufion can be drawn from the cafual refemblance of a small number of words. There is a bird, which, as far as is yet known, is found only on the coafts of South America, from Port Defire to the Straits of Magellan. guifhed by the name of Penguin. in the Welsh language fignifies White-head. Almost all the authors who favour the pretenfions of the Welfh to the difcovery of America, mention this as an irrefragable proof of the affinity of the Welsh language with that spoken in this region of America. But Mr. Pennant, who has given a fcientifick description of the Penguin, obferves, that all the birds of this genus have black heads,,, fo that we must refign every hope (adds he) founded on this hypothefis of retrieving the Cambrian race in the New World. “ Philof. Tranfact. vol. lviii. p. 91. &c. Befide this, if the Welsh, towards the close of the twelfth century, had fettled in any part of America, fome remains of the Chriftian doctrine and rites must have been found among their defcendants, when they were discovered about three hundred years pofterior to their migration; a period fo fhort, that, in the courfe of it, we cannot well fuppofe that all European ideas and arts would be totally forgotten. Lord Lyttleton, in his notes |