The Former Philippines Thru Foreign Eyes — John Shaqi
The Former Philippines Thru Foreign EyesComyn, Tomás de
History
The Former Philippines Thru Foreign Eyes
Comyn, Tomás de
Philippines
[Commercially in the New World.] When the circumstances mentioned
come to be realized, the Philippines, or, at any rate, the principal
market for their commerce, will finally fall within the limits of
the western hemisphere, to which indeed they were relegated by the
illustrious Spanish geographers at Badajoz.
[The Pope's world-partitive.] The Bull issued by Alexander VI, [7]
on May 4, 1493, which divided the earth into two hemispheres, decreed
that all heathen lands discovered in the eastern half should belong
to the Portuguese; in the western half to the Spaniards. According to
this arrangement, the latter could only claim the Philippines under
the pretext that they were situated in the western hemisphere. The
demarcation line was to run from the north to the south, a hundred
leagues to the south-west of all the so-called Azores and Cape
de Verde Islands. In accordance with the treaty of Tordesillas,
negotiated between Spain and Portugal on June 7, 1494, and approved
by Julius II, in 1506, this line was drawn three hundred and seventy
leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands.
[Faulty Spanish and Portuguese geography.] At that time Spanish and
Portuguese geographers reckoned seventeen and one-half leagues to a
degree on the equator. In the latitude of the Cape de Verde Islands,
three hundred and seventy leagues made 21° 55'. If to this we add
the longitudinal difference between the westernmost point of the
group and Cadiz, a difference of 18° 48', we get 40° 43' west, and
139° 17' east from Cadiz (in round numbers 47° west and 133° east),
as the limits of the Spanish hemisphere. At that time, however,
the existing means for such calculations were entirely insufficient.
[Extravagant Spanish claims thru ignorance.] The latitude was measured
with imperfect astrolabes, or wooden quadrants, and calculated from
very deficient tables; the variation of the compass, moreover, was
almost unknown, as well as the use of the log. [8] Both method and
instruments were wanting for useful longitudinal calculations. It was
under these circumstances that the Spaniards attempted, at Badajoz,
to prove to the protesting Portuguese that the eastern boundary line
intersected the mouths of the Ganges, and proceeded to lay claim to
the possession of the Spice Islands.
[Spain's error in calculation.] The eastern boundary should, in
reality, have been drawn 46 1/2° further to the east, that is to
say, as much further as it is from Berlin to the coast of Labrador,
or to the lesser Altai; for, in the latitude of Calcutta 46 1/2°
are equivalent to two thousand five hundred and seventy-five nautical
miles. Albo's log-book gives the difference in longitude between the
most eastern islands of the Archipelago and Cape Fermoso (Magellan's
Straits), as 106° 30', while in reality it amounts to 159° 85'.
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