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:_ it is well-known that the Portuguese themselves confessed that
the said Maluco islands were so far to the eastward that they fell
within their Majesties' territories. And this was so apparent that one
of the deputies acting now in this cause for the said King, by name
Master Margallo, in a philosophical book written by him, and but lately
out of press, in showing the division between Castilla and Portugal,
proves that the said Malucos fall and are within their Majesties'
limits. And too, when they were discovered by the Castilian fleet,
the King of Portugal desiring to have information regarding their
location and boundary, considered himself perfectly assured when all
those whom he ordered to assemble for this purpose concluded that they
lay within the Castilian boundaries. And therefore the more than great
caution exercised up to that time in not permitting sea charts to be
taken from his realms was thereafter observed much more strictly,
and many maps were burned, destroyed, and seized, and an order was
sent forth that the routes in all maps should be shortened. And those
maps they do give out for purposes of navigation, to those who must
sail toward India, they give on account, so that they must be returned
to the treasury in order that there might be no information in other
places as to the longitude of this route. And all the abovesaid is
confirmed more clearly, because, notwithstanding the great caution
exercised in Portugal in not allowing maps to be taken outside of the
kingdom, certain Portuguese and Castilians have taken and possessed
some maps. We, the said deputies of their Majesties, wishing to
become better informed concerning these maps, in order to pronounce
better and more truly upon this case, for the greater assurance of
our consciences, and for the purpose of securing the most indubitable
knowledge in regard to this matter, summoned before us certain pilots
and men, skilled both in navigation and in making maps, globes, and
mappamundos. These men have always tried to inform themselves with
great care, concerning the distances and routes of the said voyage,
both of those who made the voyage, and of those who delineated and
located the lands comprehended in the voyage. They stated under oath
and before two notaries and the secretary of this case, that they knew
that the said navigation and the location of these lands comprised
more degrees than was declared and demonstrated by the said deputies
of the King of Portugal, by their globes and maps. So much greater
was the distance that it was evident they were now trying to shorten
the said voyage again by more than twenty-five degrees of longitude
of the distance until now declared by them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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