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
in examining and determining this matter. From this [the short time]
it is seen that it was not the intention of those sending us that such
expedients should be sought or pursued. It can be well said from the
above that he who has a poor proof, shows in detail the witnesses to
that fact, and therefore, we shall demonstrate in the following more
fully and specifically that the said distance is not what they assert,
and that all reason, every document, and all experience contradict it.
First it is proved that they have on their part, lessened the number
of degrees, for the voyage from Guinea _to_ Calicut is shown to be
greater than they assert or show, because from the time those lands
were discovered until now, the said Portuguese have been shortening
and lessening the said distance. [This assertion is proved by the
various discoveries eastward made by the Portuguese navigators from the
time of the Infante Don Enrique, (Prince Henry the Navigator) namely,
Cadamosto, the Venetian; Antonieto, the Genoese; Pedro Zinzio; Diego
Cano; Bartolomé Diaz; and Vasco da Gama. [185] The distances navigated
by these men are given as they themselves recorded them.] Therefore
with apparent reason the _Itinerario Portugallensium_, translated
from Portuguese into Latin by Archangelo Madrignano, and which was
printed in 1508, [186] in chapter sixty, reckons a distance of three
thousand eight hundred leagues, or fifteen thousand miles from Lisbona
to Calicut, and declares in the last chapter that it is a three months'
voyage from Calicut to Zamotra.
_Item._ the said distance is proved to be much greater, as we assert,
because of certain persons who traveled through and navigated the
lands and seas eastward from the sea Rojo [Red Sea] and recorded
their voyages at a time when there was no suspicion of a discussion
like the present. [Gerónimo de Santisteban, a Genoese, is given as
an example. He sailed from Aden to Calicut in thirty days, and in
eighty-three days from Calicut to Zaumotra (Sumatra), a distance of
about fourteen hundred leagues. "With this number agree Marco Paulo
(Marco Polo) and Juan de Mandevilla (John Mandeville) in the self-same
voyages and travels made by them, as is stated very diffusely in their
books." The three-year voyage of King Solomon's ships, as recorded in
"the third book of the Kings" [187] to "Ofir and Zetin whence they
brought the gold to build the Temple," and which places "all writers
upon the sacred scriptures assert" to be "toward the most eastern
part of India," agree with the same figures.] From all the above,
therefore it is inferred that the navigation from the said Mar Rubro
[Red Sea] to the eastern part of India is a much greater distance
than the Portuguese say.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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