The freedom of the seas : $b or, The right which belongs to the Dutch to take part in the East Indian tradeGrotius, Hugo
Philosophy
The freedom of the seas : $b or, The right which belongs to the Dutch to take part in the East Indian trade
Grotius, Hugo
Freedom of the seas; Law of the sea
ostenditur;[17a] unde Grammatici[18a] invenire et occupare pro
verbis ponunt idem significantibus; et tota Latinitas quod adepti
sumus, id demum invenisse nos dicit, cui oppositum est perdere. Quin
et ipsa naturalis ratio, et legum diserta verba, et eruditiorum
interpretatio[19a] manifeste ostendit, ad titulum dominii parandum
eam demum sufficere inventionem quae cum possessione coniuncta est,
ubi scilicet res mobiles apprehenduntur, aut immobiles terminis atque
custodia sepiuntur;[20a] quod in hac specie dici nullo modo potest.
Nam praesidia illic Lusitani nulla habent. Quid quod ne reperisse
quidem Indiam ullo modo dici possunt Lusitani, quae tot a saeculis
fuerat celeberrima. Iam ab Horati tempore:[21a]
_Impiger extremos currit mercator ad Indos
Per mare pauperiem fugiens._
Taprobanes pleraque quam exacte nobis Romani descripsere?[22a] Iam
vero et ceteras insulas ante Lusitanos non
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as Gordian[17] points out in one of his letters. For that reason
the Grammarians[18] give the same signification to the expressions
‘to find’ and ‘to occupy’; and all Latinity applies the phrase
‘we have found’ only to the thing which ‘we have seized’; and the
opposite of this is ‘to lose’. However, natural reason itself, the
precise words of the law, and the interpretation of the more learned
men[19] all show clearly that the act of discovery is sufficient
to give a clear title of sovereignty only when it is accompanied
by actual possession. And this only applies of course to movables
or to such immovables as are actually inclosed within fixed bounds
and guarded.[20] No such claim can be established in the present
case, because the Portuguese maintain no garrisons in those regions.
Neither can the Portuguese by any possible means claim to have
discovered India, a country which was famous centuries and centuries
ago! It was already known as early as the time of the emperor
Augustus as the following quotation from Horace shows:
“_That worst of evils, poverty, to shun
Dauntless through seas, and rocks, and fires you run
To furthest Ind_,”[21]
And have not the Romans described for us in the most exact way the
greater part of Ceylon?[22] And as far as the other islands are
concerned, not only the neighboring
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finitimi tantum Persae et Arabes, sed Europaei etiam, praecipue
Veneti noverant.
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