The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 278 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55.

The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55 eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 278 pages of information about The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55.

Second, how should the islands of Cabo Verde be properly situated and located.

Third, from which of the said islands should they begin to measure the three hundred and seventy leagues for the demarcation.

The Castilians agreed with the Portuguese to employ the spherical surface and still not to exclude the plane surface and other measurements.  The second point appears not to have been discussed.  As to the third, the Castilians disagreed with the Portuguese, saying that the three hundred and seventy leagues were to begin from the island of Santo Anton, the most western of the islands of Cabo Verde.  The Portuguese claimed that they ought to begin from the islands of La Sal and Buena Vista, the most eastern of the group.  It seems (the original having been destroyed) that each party was striving to have the islands of Maluco fall on his side of the demarcation—­thus contending for the contrary of what they claimed in the year 1494, when each party, ignorant of the differences which would arise about the Malucos, was striving to have the coast of Brasil fall on its side of the demarcation.

Item:  From the Castilian and Portuguese sea-charts it appears that the said line of demarcation was neither drawn nor determined; because, in the model sea-charts deposited in the India house of trade in Sevilla, this line or meridian is found drawn from pole to pole so as to cut our hemisphere three hundred and seventy leagues from the island of Sancto Anton, the last of the Cabo Verde islands.  It also cuts the coast of Brasil about two degrees from the equinoctial line through the land of Humos, the tropic of Capricorn, the Cape of Dospermitas, and the river of Sant Salvador.  According to these charts, the line of demarcation of the king of Portogal includes three hundred and ninety leagues through which the line of demarcation passes inland, and for a distance of six hundred leagues down along the coast.  Within the line of demarcation of the kings of Castilla fall all of Tierra Nova [Newfoundland], of the Bacallaos, and of Labrador.  In the Portoguese sea-charts, this line of demarcation is so drawn as to cut Brasil farther north than the great river of Orellana or Amazonas, two degrees from the equinoctial line, and thirty-eight degrees south, through the low submerged districts, so that it cuts the land seven hundred leagues inland and almost one thousand three hundred leagues along the coast, including within the demarcation of Portogal all of Tierra Nova, Bacallaos, and Labrador.

[Here follows some matter which we omit, as superfluous—­an account of Portuguese settlements in Brazil, decisions of the Junta of Badajoz, and the Treaty of Zaragoza.]

After the execution of the said deed, one of the first and chief instructions in the settlements and discoveries made, as well as on the merchant vessels and fleets despatched, is that no one shall go beyond the line of demarcation of the king of Portogal, and the boundaries specified in the said contract.  A similar injunction forbidding men to go beyond the boundaries of demarcation of the king of Portogal was made after the execution of the demarcation deed, in the year fourteen hundred and ninety-four.

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 03 of 55 from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.