The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 01 of 55: 1493-1529; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
History
The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 — Volume 01 of 55: 1493-1529; Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
Demarcation line of Alexander VI; Missions -- Philippines; Philippines -- Discovery and exploration; Philippines -- History -- Sources
First let us examine this first method, and then the second. As to the
first we must place the line of demarcation three hundred and seventy
leagues from the island of San Antonio. This number of leagues is
equal to twenty-two degrees and almost nine miles. Reckoning degrees
from that parallel and from the island of San Antonio there is a
distance of one hundred and eighty leagues to Cape Verde which equals
ten degrees. Therefore it is thirty-two degrees from Cape Verde to
the line of demarcation. We assert then, that by graduating these
degrees in this manner, the Malucos fall within the boundaries of
our lord the Emperor, however we may make the demarcation. For if we
wish to determine it after the customary models and where voyages
have been made up to this time, to wit, calculating five hundred
and forty leagues from Cape Guardafuui to Cape Comori, five hundred
and sixty leagues from Cape Comori to Malaca, and four hundred and
twenty leagues from Malaca to the Malucos, in which way the voyage
is always made, not only do the Malucos fall within his Majesty's
demarcation but also Malaca and Zamatra. And if, perchance, we wish to
determine the demarcation in accordance 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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