The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 01 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 315 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 01 of 55.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 01 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 315 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 01 of 55.
with the recently corrected Portuguese maps, which reckon a much less number of leagues between the above-named places, to wit, from Cape Guardafuui to Cape Comori, Cape Comori to Malaca, and from Malaca to the Malucos, we still assert that the Malucos fall within the demarcation of our lord the Emperor.  For according to these maps corrected recently in this way, the demarcation or line of demarcation falls near Gilolo, an island near the Malucos.  This is so on the plane surface of their map.  When this plane surface is reduced to a spherical one, because of the rotundity of the sea where these voyages are made—­the latter being in addition along parallels other than that of the equinoctial and where the degrees are less than those of the equinoctial, (the same league being assigned to the different degrees)—­so that when this reduction is made, five degrees are gained, or nearly this number, which we have measured and proved to be so, then it comes to pass, from their own map, that the line of demarcation falls outside the Malucos, and the Malucos are in the territory of the Emperor our sovereign.

Item:  let us suppose, for instance, that when the Catholic Sovereigns and King Don Juan of Portugal ordered the demarcation of the seas to be made, by commanding a line to be drawn from the Arctic to the Antarctic pole at a distance of three hundred and seventy leagues from the Cabo Verde islands, they had ordered also the demarcation made on the eastern side, which his Majesty orders us to do now—­though at that time neither Persia, Arabia, nor the Cabo Buena Esperanza [Good Hope] was discovered—­it is quite certain that this north and south line must pass on the eastern side through the mouth of the river Ganges.  This is a fact, because Ptolemaeus with great care described and located the cape of Catigara in accordance with the long experience of those voyaging through the spice region, as is discussed in the fourteenth chapter of the first book of his cosmography.  He makes a distance of one hundred and eighty degrees from the Canarias to Catigara or the Metropol of the Chinese.  Therefore subtracting the thirty-two degrees—­the distance of the divisional line west [of the Cape Verde Islands], the line on the other side passes through the mouth of the river Ganges, which lies in one hundred and fifty degrees of longitude.  Therefore Malaca, Zamatra, and Maluco fall within the demarcation of his Majesty.

Item:  it can not be denied that the island of Gilolo, lying near the Maluco Islands, is the cape of Catigara, inasmuch as the companions of Magallanes journeyed westward upon leaving the strait discovered in fifty-four degrees of south latitude, sailing such a distance west and northeast that they arrived in twelve degrees of north latitude where were found certain islands, and one entrance to them.  Then running southward four hundred leagues, they passed the Maluco islands and the coast of the island of Gilolo, without finding any cape on it.  Then they took their course toward the Cabo Buena Esperanza [Good Hope] for Spain.  Therefore then the cape of Catigara can only be the said island of Gilolo and the Malucos.

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The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 01 of 55 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.