In the mean time, the Portuguese had visited all the islands of the Malay Archipelago, as far as the Moluccas.  Portugal had received from the Pope a grant of all the countries she might discover:  the Spaniards, after the third voyage of Columbus, obtained a similar grant.  As, however, it was necessary to draw a line between those grants, the Pope fixed on 27-1/2 deg. west of the meridian of the island of Ferro.  The sovereigns, for their mutual benefit, allowed it to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verd islands:  all the countries to the east of this line were to belong to Portugal, and all those to the west of it to Spain.  According to this line of demarcation, supposing the globe to be equally divided between the two powers, it is plain that the Moluccas were situated within the hemisphere which belonged to Spain.  Portugal, however, would not yield them up, contending that she was entitled to the sovereignty of all the countries she could discover by sailing eastward.  This dispute gave rise to the first circumnavigation of the globe, and the first practical proof that India could be reached by sailing westward from Europe, as well as to other results of the greatest importance to geography and commerce.

During the discussions which this unexpected and embarrassing difficulty produced, Francis Magellan came to the court of Spain, to offer his services as a navigator, suggesting a mode by which he maintained that court would be able to decide the question in its own favour.  Magellan had served under Albuquerque, and had visited the Moluccas:  and he proposed, if the Spanish monarch would give him ships, to sail to these islands by a westerly course, which would, even according to the Portuguese, establish the Spanish right to their possession.  The emperor Charles, who was at this period king of Spain, joyfully embraced the proposal, although a short time previous, Solis, who had sailed in quest of a westerly passage to India, had, after discovering the Rio de la Plata, perished in the attempt.

It is maintained by some authors that Magellan’s confidence in the success of his own plan arose from the information he received from a chart drawn up by Martin Behaim, in which the straits that were afterwards explored by Magellan, and named after him, were laid down; and that he carried the information he derived from it to Spain, and by means of it obtained the protection of Cardinal Ximenes, and the command of the fleet, with which he was the first to circumnavigate the world.

As this is a point which has been a good deal discussed, and as it is of importance, not only to the fame of Magellan, but to a right understanding of the actual state of geographical knowledge, with respect to the New World, at this era, it may be proper briefly to consider it.