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14th, 11°. Therefore, after the middle of March, it can be observed only in the evening twilight, and, on account of its great distance, it will not have a quarter part the brightness it had when first discovered in 1819, so that it may not be seen in Europe or in the United States; because after the perihelion, when it approaches the nearest to the earth, it will be too far to the south. It is however strongly recommended to search for it with good night glasses, particularly as it was observed in January 1819, in the evening twilight, only 5° above the horizon. After the perihelion, in southern climates, it will be visible by the naked eye, and from the 24th of May to the 27th of July, its brightness (independent of the effect of the twilight) will be much greater than it was when discovered by Mr Pons in 1819; and it is hoped that its apparent path will be carefully traced at the new observatory at the Cape of Good Hope, as also at Port Jackson, and at other places in the southern hemisphere.

While the astronomers of Europe are thus making, almost every year, important discoveries, which will render the present age forever memorable in the history of science; it is rather a mortifying consideration, that, in America, nothing can be done to assist in the laudable work; since there is not a well furnished observatory on the whole continent, from Canada to Cape Horn; and while Great Britain alone can boast of more than thirty public and private observatories of considerable note, we have not in the whole United States one that deserves the name. It is moreover a subject of regret that the general government, instead of holding out inducements to individuals to procure from abroad the accurate and expensive instruments, necessary for nice astronomical observations (and which can only be made by the delicate hand of a Troughton or a Reichenbach) should virtually impose a fine of several hundred dollars, under the name of duties, upon the person who imports them; and this penalty must be further increased, if he should wish also to procure the voluminous transactions of the Royal Societies of London, Paris, Petersburg, and Berlin, with other similar works, where the treasures of the science of astronomy are to be found. This oppressive tax upon the literature and science of our country, or (as it has been very justly termed on the floor of Congress) this bounty upon ignorance, seems not to comport with the nature of our government, which is founded upon the principle that New Series, No. 9. 5

the people are virtuous and intelligent; and it would therefore seem to be the dictate of a wise policy to encourage, in every possible manner, the means of instruction; with the full persuasion that it is upon the general diffusion of knowledge among the citizens that the safety of our excellent institutions of government must depend.

ART. IV.-A description of the Island of St Michael, comprising an account of its geological structure; with some remarks on the other Azores or Western Islands. Originally communicated to the Linnean Society of New England. By John W. Webster, M. D. Cor. Sec. L. S. N. E. 8vo. pp. 243. Boston, 1821.

THE discovery of the Azores forms a very important link in the chain of events, which led to the discovery of the Western World. It was a reward in hand to the enterprise and courage, which had ventured so far on the broad expanse of the Atlantic, and an earnest of the immortal honor which awaited the bold adventurer, who should follow its waves still nearer to the setting sun. The various objects, which the winds drove on shore upon these islands, afforded so many indications of other land at no great distance to the west, that several navigators were induced to set sail from them in quest of discoveries in that direction, even as early as forty years before Columbus' first voyage. These attempts, it is well known, were unsuccessful; they serve however to show what were the opinions and expectations upon the subject at that day. Ferdinand Columbus, in his account of his father's life and exploits, mentions these circumstances among the motives which induced the great discoverer to sail westward in search of land, and the same are repeated by Herrera, Munoz, Robertson, and Bossi. Whatever may be said of a western passage to India, as the ultimate object of which he was in pursuit, there cannot now be a doubt that his immediate one was that which he first attained, and it is probable that he represented the other as the most important, because he knew it would be so regarded by those whose aid he sought, and also most likely to gain credit. It is not however in this connexion only that the discovery of these islands is an interesting and important event; it was the first considerable

maritime enterprise in modern times; the first movings of that adventurous, exploring, commercial spirit, which has since so fully developed itself, and formed the great characteristic distinction between the present and former ages of the world. We should have been pleased, therefore, if our author had thought this part of his subject deserving of a more particular and fuller notice than he has given it, and we have proofs enough throughout his work, that he could have cleared it of the obscurity in which he finds it involved, if he had made the attempt. The authority upon which we think most reliance should be placed is that of the globe of Martin Behaim. It is one of the earliest accessible records of the event, and was made by a man well versed in all good learning, especially in geography, who was an inhabitant for some years of one of the islands in question, and the son-in-law of Huerter, the planter of the Flemish colony in Fayal. This globe, as appears by an inscription upon it, was made at the request of the sage and venerable magistrates of the noble and imperial city of Nuremberg according to the discoveries and directions of the chevalier Martin Behaim, learned in the art of cosmography, having himself sailed one third round the world.' And it was left by the said Martin Behaim in 1492 to the city of Nuremberg as a testimony of his remembrance and respect, when he was about to leave it, and return to his wife, who dwelt on an island seven hundred German miles distant.' The eastern continent is delineated upon it in conformity to the descriptions of Ptolemy, Pliny, Strabo, and the other ancient geographers, with such additions and corrections as he was enabled to make from the information furnished by Marco Polo and Mandeville, and the islands on the coast of Africa and the Azores from his own and other modern discoveries. Written descriptions of many of these places are given on the globe itself. We quote that which relates to the question under consideration, from Murr, who, in his life of Behaim, has furnished a most minute and faithful account of the subject of his biography, accompanied with an engraving of the globe, and copies of all the geographical and historical memoranda upon it. In the year 1431,' says Behaim, two vessels with provisions. for two years were sent out to discover the countries beyond St James of Finisterre; which vessels sailed about five hundred German miles toward the west, and finally discovered there ten islands and landed on them, where they found

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nothing but a desert, in which there was no trace of man or quadruped, but a multitude of birds so tame, as not to fly at the approach of a person. The year following the king sent out sixteen ships with animals of every kind to be left on the islands.' This account agrees very nearly with that of Candido Lusitano, quoted by our author from the Quarterly Review, which fixes the period of their discovery August 15, 1432, and St Mary as the island first discovered. We think these two authorities sufficient to establish the fact, the first for the reasons before given, and the last as that of the biographer of prince Henry, under whose direction all the voyages of discovery of that day were undertaken, who must have looked into the original documents which relate to these events, for the materials of his biography. We would here remark, that the writer, of whom we speak, who is named Candido Lusitano in the Review just mentioned, was a friar of the order of the Oratorio, whose real name was Francis Joseph, and that his Vida do Infante Don Henrique,' which was first published in the Portuguese language, 1758, has since been translated into French and German, although it is there supposed to exist only in the original. It now remains to reconcile this account with that of Dr Robertson and others, which fixes the discovery of the Azores in the year 1449. This apparent discordancy vanishes upon a close examination of the passages which record the event, some of which evidently refer to the time of colonization, and others to the first discovery; and it is through inattention to this circumstance, that the early history of these islands has been involved in obscurity. Antonio Galvano is commonly quoted among the authorities in favor of 1449, and with what truth the following passage from his account of the discoveries of the world,' will decide. In the year 1449, the king Don Alphonso gave license unto his uncle Don Henry to inhabit the islands of the Azores, which were long before discovered.' This is fully explained by a reference to that period of the history of Portugal. King Edward, who succeeded John, his father, in 1433, had but a short and inefficient reign, during the whole of which his brother, prince Henry, was engaged in extending his discoveries along the coast of Africa, and therefore nothing was done for the settlement of the Azores. At his death in 1438, his successor, Alphonso V, was in his minority, during which no decisive measures could be taken in re

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gard to them, and it was not until he came of age in 1449, that a formal grant of them was made to Don Henry, nor is there any reason whatever for believing that a colony was permanently established there before that time. It is however quite probable, that Van der Berg, the Flemish captain, may have touched at one of these islands in 1439, as he is reported to have done by some historians, and that they may have been visited by many adventurers between 1432 and 1449. As to the account of Thuanus, which says that they were discovered by Bethencourt sixty-eight years before Columbus sailed for the new world, and consequently in 1424, it is too plainly erroneous to need an answer, the Bethencourt of whom he speaks having been dead sixteen years at least. The error arose, without doubt, from his confounding these islands with the Canaries, of which Bethencourt took possession the beginning of the fifteenth century. It would be equally easy to remove the uncertainties from the history of the other islands, but our attention at this time will be more properly directed to our author, and we will refresh our readers and ourselves with something from him, as soon as we have noticed one more error in the earlier accounts, which is, that Martin Behaim was the discoverer of Fayal. This island, it is universally agreed, was discovered as early as 1460, and inhabited in 1466. Job de Huerter, whose daughter Behaim afterwards married, planted the first colony there, who were all Flemings, and from them the Azores were often called the Flemish isles. Martin Behaim did not leave Nuremberg, the place of his nativity and of his business, which was traffic, until after 1479, as appears by a letter of his own of that year, and consequently could not have discovered Fayal in 1460. The mistake comes from his connexion with Huerter, and was so clearly proved to be such by Murr, whose book appeared in 1778, that we were much surprised to find it persisted in by Mr Otto in his memoir on the discovery of America, written eight years after, and published in the second volume of the American Philosophical Transactions, especially as he claims the attention of the learned, on account of the researches he had been making into the German and Spanish Chronicles. If this were the only error Mr Otto had made in his memoir, it would be trifling, but when he follows Riccioli, and Cellarius, and Stüven, in tearing the laurels from the brows of Columbus to place them on those of Behaim, we should be

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