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
_Item_: having agreed that we should bring good maps on which we would
show our voyages westward, and they theirs eastward, they produced
a map, upon which were shown only a few points and principal capes,
and those lately inserted thereon; so that their voyages could not
be ascertained. Neither was it possible to verify in such a map what
they compressed in it. As the said distance of degrees given by them
was not true, as would be quite apparent if they brought a good map,
and one made some time before, in which their said navigation should be
contained, and as they had no just excuse to palliate such contention,
they said that they brought the said maps only to locate the Cabo Verde
islands, which by the very same map was proved to be contrary to the
truth and was not a sufficient excuse, since the said islands were not
located on this map, as is evident from the judicial records. Therefore
because of all the above reasons, and because it might not be possible
to verify later what had passed, they would not permit the judges and
notaries of the case to examine the said map. More than this, having
decided afterwards upon the location of the said islands, we were in
agreement with a map on which they had located them. As the decision
was not unanimous they locked up the said map and would not produce
it again, although they were requested to do so by us. And therefore,
they voted afterwards upon the location of the said islands contrary
to their own determination of them in the said map, and contrary to
what we voted in the said case. They did this contrary to all reason
and right, as was proved afterwards by a globe that they showed, on
which both the island of Sant Antonio and that of La Sal were exactly
where we located them, as is evident from the judicial records of
this case. Consequently they acted contrary to what they had declared
and voted. In the same way it was proved by the said globe [the first
one] that the voyage eastward from the said island of La Sal to the
Malucos, was greater than they had declared at first; and the said
globe did not conform with the map they had shown first, nor even with
another globe they produced. It is adduced from all the above by,
evidence and clear demonstration, that the said distance of degrees
asserted by them is untrue. Therefore they sought and tried to delay
these negotiations, alleging that maps and globes were insufficient
instruments from which to ascertain the truth, and that the demarcation
could not be determined by them. They begged insistently that other
methods of eclipses and fixed stars be sought, not taking into
account, as we have said, that these are causes for great delay; for
the consideration of such eclipses, and the movement of the moon,
and its visual conjunction with any fixed star, and all other like
mathematical considerations can at present be of no advantage to us,
_because of our being limited to such a brief period as two months_,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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