Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

recorded although the maps themselves have long since
disappeared. Among maps of this kind was one in the
possession of D. Fernando, the son of King Manuel, in
1528, and which had been brought to the famous monastery
of Alcobaca 120 years before, i.e., in 1408; another,
which D. Pedro, the brother of Prince Henry, had brought
from Venice in 1428, and upon which, according to
Galvao,1 was shown the " Fronteira de Africa " not only,
but also a " Cola do dragon " or dragon's tail, which has
been absurdly identified with the strait discovered by
Magellan ; the copy of Fra Mauro's famous map, for which
King Affonso, in 1459, had paid 62 ducats; the map
which had been prepared under the eyes of the learned
Diogo Ortiz de Vilhegas of Calzadinha for the guidance of
Pero de Covilha in the east; the map of the world, fourteen
palmas or about 10 feet in diameter, which H. Muntzer,
in 1495, saw hanging on a wall of the royal mansion in
which he resided as the guest of Joz d'Utra; and lastly,
the map which Toscanelli is believed to have forwarded to
King Affonso in 1474 in illustration of his plan of reaching
China and Japan (Cipangu) by sailing across the
Western Ocean.

In addition to maps and charts a person of Behaim's
social position and connections might readily have had
access to the reports of contemporary explorers. He
might have learnt much from personal intercourse with
seamen and merchants who had recently visited the newly-
discovered regions or were interested in them. His
contemporary, the printer, Valentin Ferdinand, was thus
enabled not only to consult the MS. Chronicle of
Azurara,2 and the records of Cadamosto3 and Pedro de
Cintra,4 but also to gather much valuable information
from Portuguese travellers who had visited Guinea.
Foremost among these was Joao Rodriguez, who resided
at Arguim from 1493-5, and there collected information
on the Western Sahara. To Ferdinand we owe, moreover
, the preservation of the account which Diogo Gomez
gave to Martin Behaim of his voyages to Guinea.5

t

The islands of the Atlantic as delineated by Behaim and
Portuguese Pilots.

Having thus pointed out the materials available for
the compilation of a map fairly exhibiting the results of

1 Galvao, 'Tratado' (Lisbon, 1562), p. 67 of the Hakluyt Society's
reprint, Antonio Ribeiro dos Santos, ' Memoria sobre dois antigos mappas
geographicos' (' Memorias de Litteratura Portugueza,' VIII., Seg. ed.
Lisbon, 1856, p. 275).

a Gomes Eannes d'Azurara, the author of the ' Chronica do descobri-
mento e conquista de Guine,' only published in 1841, and of other
historical works, died about 1474. He had been appointed Keeper of the
R. Archives (Guarda in6r da Torre do Tombo) in 1454.

3 Luigi Ca da Mosto, a Venetian merchant, was born about 1432.
He is generally credited with the discovery of the Cape Verde Islands.

4 An account of his Guinea voyage has been preserved to us by Ca da
Mosto.

4 See p. 2.

Portuguese discoveries up to the time of Behaim, I shall
next inquire into the extent to which these results have
been considered in preparing the design for the globe.
The readiest and most intelligible way to do this is to
place, side by side, three maps of each group of islands,
drawn on the same scale, the first according to Behaim,
the second according to the " Ginea Portugalexe" of
1485, above referred to, or, in the case of the Canaries,
by Andrea Benincasa (1476), and the third according to
modern surveys. The result is shown on Map 4. The
little maps there placed side by side prove two things,
first, the surprising accuracy of the surveys made by
Portuguese pilots, secondly, the utter incompetency of
Behaim as a cartographer. Even the Azores, where he
was at home, and concerning which we might suppose
him to be well informed, are no more correctly delineated
than the other island groups. Fayal, where he is supposed
to have observed the stars (see p. 50) is placed by him in
lat. 42° N., and at a distance of 2,000 sea-miles from
Lisbon, when its true latitude is 38° 40' N., and the
distance less than 900 miles. The chain, which extends
for 400 miles towards the W.N.W., is given an extension
of 960 miles. In like manner the Canaries stretch
through 850 miles instead of 280, whilst the Cape Verde
Islands are placed 660 miles to the west of the Cape after
which they are named, when the actual distance is only
330 miles.

A Map of Western Africa from Materials available

in 1492.

In order to enable the reader to judge readily of the
extent to which Behaim has availed himself of the knowledge
acquired by the Portuguese concerning the interior
of Africa, I have compiled, from readily available contemporary
sources, a map designed to illustrate the
question (Map 5). The coast-line from Lisbon as far
as Montenegro, where Cao set up his second pillar in
1482, is an exact reduction of the map of " Ginea
Portugalexe " referred to on p. 26. No parallels are shown
on the original. I have therefore assumed Lisbon to lie
in 39° N., and a degree to be equal to 75 rnilhas (see
p. 26), and marked the degree in the margin on the
right side. The coast to the south of Montenegro,
as far as Dias' furthest, I might have copied from the
rough map of Henricus Martellus, but I felt justified
to avail myself of the chart of Juan de la Cosa. This
map, although dated 1500, and consequently drawn after
the return of Vasco da Gama from India, in spite of
its ample but fanciful nomenclature along the east coast
of Africa, does not yet embody the results of that voyage.
Even the landfall of Vasco da Gama, the Bay of St.
Helena, is not shown upon it.

The information on inner Guinea available for my
purpose is not very ample, but its utilisation by a
competent cartographer would have much improved the
map of that part of Africa. Azurara had already learnt a