BEHEM, BEIIEIM, BOEIIME, BEIIIN, or BEIIIN• IRA, MARTIN, a navigator and geographer of the fifteenth century, to whom the credit of discovering America has been ascribed, in preference to the claims of Christopher Columbus.
Behem was born at Nuremberg, in Germany, of a noble family, some branches of which are yet extant. From infancy he betrayed a peculiar predilection for the study of astronomy and navigation ; and on at taining a maturer age, he began to conceive, that an tipodes and a western continent might possibly exist. Nothing could be more favourable for instilling a spirit of enquiry, than his being the pupil of the ce lebrated John Muller, or Regiomontanus. Records arc preserved in the archives of Nuremberg, proving, that, under these impressions, he offered his services for a voyage of discovery, to Isabella, daughter of John I. king of Portugal, and regent of the duchy of Bur gundy and Flanders. This princess accordingly pro vided him with a vessel, in which he traversed the western seas, and in 1460 discovered the island of Fayal ; so named from the beech trees, called fnye in Portuguese, with which it abounded. He next discovered neighbouring islands called by him Azores, from the number of hawks seen on them.
Behem obtained a grant of the island of Fayal from Isabella, and establishing a colony on it, resided there about twenty years, during which time he was occu pied in'making further discoveries. In 1481, eight years before the enterprises of Christopher Columbus, he solicited John II. king of Portugal, to provide him with the means of undertaking a great expedition to the south-west. This application also proving suc cessful, Behem embarked, and discovered that part of the coast of America now called Brazil, and advan cing still more to the southward, reached the straits of Magellan, or the country of some savage tribes, whom he called Patagonians. He is said to have be stowed that appellation upon them, from the extremi ties of their bodies being covered with skin, bearing greater resemblance to the paws of a bear than to hu man hands and feet. James Canus, a Portuguese, was associated with Behem in this second voyage, which having occupied above two years, the naviga tors returned to Portugal after losing many of their men.
If these facts be undoubted, we ought to ascribe the discovery of the American continent and the Straits of Magellan to Martin Behem, instead of Co lumbus and Magellan. The first did not sail until 1492, and the second not before 1519, a long time after Bchem's expedition.
As a reward for the discoveries made by Bchem, he was knighted by his patron the king of Portugal ; and in an interest.sig account of the ceremony on the occasion, we are told that the Duke of Begia put on, his right spur, the count Christopher de Mela his left : his iron helmet was put on by the count Mar tini Mabarinis ; and the king himself girded on his sword. This dignity, however, some have supposed, was cooferred for the discovery of the kingdom of Congo in Africa, because the gold and precious arti cles carried from thence to Portugal would make a much greater impression, than merely ascertaining the existence of another continent.
In the year 1492, Behem undertook a journey to his native city Nuremberg. While residing there, he constructed a remarkable terrestrial globe yet in pre servation, from the writings of Ptolemy, Strabo, and Pliny, of the ancients, and from the accounts of Mar co Polo and Sir John Mandeville, travellers of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. The track of the navigator's own discoveries is also laid down, which plainly exhibits, that the western lands mark ed on the globe, mean the coast of Brazil and straits of Magellan.
After having performed several other interesting voyages, Behem died at Lisbon, in July 1506.
We cannot disguise, that tbere are historians who have treated the discoveries, ascribed tothis navigator, as so many fictions of the Germans, arising from their desire of claiming the first voyages to the new conti nent. Yet it is acknowledged, even by those who most keenly controvert the point, that Behem effect ed a settlement in Fayal ; that he was the intimate friend of Columbus ; that he framed a chart of the seas before unknown ; and that Magellan possessed a globe constructed by him. All the disputed facts ere ably discussed in a memoir by M. Otto, to which we shall refer. American Philosophical Transac tions, vol. ii. p. 263. (c)