FROM THE TRANSACTIONS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

S E C O N D SERIES—1899-1900 

VOLUME V SECTION II 

ENGLISH HISTORY, LITERATURE, ARCHAEOLOGY, ETC. 

"THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 
- I ' , I ® . - C , ' H t 

OF 

P O P E A L E X A N D E R VI. 
AND THE 

TREATY OF TORDESILLAS 

A.D. 1493 and 1494 

By SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSON Lit.D. (Laval) 

FOR S A L E BY 

J. HOPE & SONS, OTTAWA | Ï H E COPP-CLARK CO., TORONTO 

" 1899 





SECTIOS J!., 1899. [ 4 6 7 ] TRAKS. ß . S. C. 

VII—The Line of Demarcation of Pope Alexander VI. in A. D. 1493 
and that of the Treaty of Tordesillas in A.D. 149J/.J with an 
inquiry concerning the Metrology of Ancient and Mediaeval 
Times. 

By SAMUEL E D W A R D D A W S O N , Litt. D . (Laval). 

(Read May 26,1899.) 

C O N T E N T S . 

I.—Introductory 468 
II.—Public International Law in A. D. 1493.. 470 

III.—The Form of Papal Bulls 481 
IY._The Demarcation of A. D. 1493. 484 

V.—The First Line L 491 
VI.—The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494 and the substituted Line. 496 

VII.—The Point of Departure 500 
VIII.—Ancient and Mediaeval Measures of Length { 502 

IX.—The Lines of Demarcation on the Ocean and their supposed contact 
with the Northeast Coast of America 517 

A P P E N D I C E S . 

AliMrhe Bull of Demarcation of A. D. 1493 (Inter cetera), collated with the 
suppressed draft; with an English translation 529 

B.—The Bull of A. D. 1493 (Eximiae devoiioriis) granting to Spain, west of 
the Line, the same rights as had been granted previously to 
Portugal in the east; with an English translation 535 

1 C.—The Bull of Extension of September 25,1493; with an English translation 538 
D.—The written opinion of Mossen Jaume Ferrer upon the Line of Demarca-

tion, presented A. D. 1495 to the Spanish Sovereigns 541 
Eji-A table of opinions held by the greater Cosmographers of ancient and 

mediaeval times concerning the circumference of the Earth and the 
length of a Degree upon the Equator 545 

Sec. II., 1899. 30. 

ÖSacfcfißecf 



4 6 8 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

1.—IiTTEODTJCTIOlT. 

While during the last five years scholars in the north have been dis-
cussing the voyages of the Cabots ; in the south, an acrimonious con-
troversy was carried on by politicians concerning the coasts of Vene-
zuela and Guiana, the scenes of the discoveries of Columbus, Hojeda 
and Pinzon. The question has now been settled^ but it would seem 
that civilization has not gained as much, during the last four hundred 
years, as might have been expected, inasmuch as political recklessness 
nearly resulted in bringing on a war between the United States and 
Great Britain. Patient statesmanship averted that crime and the con-
troversy was at last referred to a tribunal of arbitration and a great 
calamity to civilization was prevented. 

The diplomatic documents cited in support of the claim of Vene-
zuela go back to the very earliest years of the discovery of the New 
"World. With the direct question of the boundary between Venezuela 
and British Guiana, now happily settled, the present paper is not con-
cerned; but indirect questions were raised, interesting to every student 
of early American history, and therefore, of early Canadian history, for 
the history of Canada strikes its roots as deep down into the centuries as 
does the history of any part of the continent. Before Columbus 
touched the mainland near the Boca de la Sierpe, Cabot had coasted the 
shores of Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. 

The main object of this paper is to elucidate the line of demarca-
tion drawn in 1493 between the Old World and the New by Pope 
Alexander VI. and its modification by treaty the following year. Not 
much has been written upon this subject in English. There is a very 
excellent article by Prof. Edward G. Bourne in the Report of 'the 
American Historical Association for 1891, and a recent volume by Mr. 
Henry Harrisse (Diplomatic History of America, London, 1897), full of 
research, as all his books are; but beyond these the student must have 
recourse to other languages than English if he should seek information 
of value concerning what has been called, somewhat hastily, that "ab-
surd act of assumption." We shall find, on closer inquiry, that we have 
no right to a patent for the idea of an international tribunal of arbitra-
tion. There was one in permanent session in 1493; and, by its de-
cision, war was then averted between the two foremost nations in 
Christendom. We shall see, moreover, that although the ownership of 
half the world was involved war was not then so imminent as it wa|s 



[ s . E . DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 4 6 9 

recently between England and the United States; not because of any-
thing in dispute between them, but on account of a petty territory 
claimed by a third government, and in assertion of a speculative pro-
position in international law of recent invention and doubtful author-
ship. 

The case for Venezuela was based primarily on the Bull of Pope 
Alexander and upon discovery. Without entering into the controversy 
it may be observed, that the argument proves too much ; for the whole 
of the present United States fell within the Spanish demarcation and, 
from where Cabofs voyage ended, the whole coast of the Atlantic was 
first discovered, and ceremonial possession was taken, for Spain. The 
British take their title in Guiana from the Dutch, and the United 
States take their title from the British; so that it is not easy to build 
an argument on discovery and upon the Bull of 1493 without involving 
seme considerable portions of the United States. 

While these questions may however be considered as settled it will 
interest the student to recall the fact that, in these northern seas, the 
line of demarcation was supposed to cut our coast and that Nova Scotia 
and Newfoundland fell to Portugal. This has been incidentally referred 
to in previous papers; but, inasmuch as the papal Bulls of 1493 and 
the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1494 are within the scope of our history, 
it is not lost labour to inquire what these documents were and what was 
their meaning. 

Nothing is more trite than to insist upon the importance of treat-
ing each period of history from its own point of view; but nothing is 
more dififrcu.lt. In recent controversies on early American history it 
has been often forgotten that Western Europe was Roman Catholic 
when America was discovered, and that, although the secular head of 
the Holy Roman Empire had lost his relative importance, the authority 
of its spiritual head was still unchallenged. Latin was, in effect, a 
living language—the living language of the services of the Church and 
a living language for all educated men throughout Europe. The 
Romance languages themselves had not diverged so widely as now, either 
from each other or from their common source; land the barriers of 
nationality were not raised nearly so high then as they are at the present 
day. Those who gibbet Sebastian Cabot as a scoundrel and traitor for 
changing his service, forget that the great sailors of his day changed 
masters without reproach and that soldiers and statesmen frequently 
did the same. No one blames Philippe de Comines, who was born a 
Burgundian subject and served in the council of Charles the Bold, 
for passing over into equally confidential and important employments 



4 7 0 BOY A L SOCIETY OF C A N A D A 

under his mortal enemy, Louis XI. of France; but Cabot, an Italian, 
born in Venice, is judged as if be bad been a captain in the French 
navy who had sought employment from the Emperor of Germany. 
This is a misleading anachronism, for the present exaggerated antag-
onism of nationalities is of comparatively recent growth and received 
its chief impetus in the religious wars which followed in the sixteenth 
century. 

The same tendency to anachronism has affected the interpretation 
of the old charts. If the early sailors had possessed sufficient know-
ledge they would have made more accurate maps; but they had neither 
the information nor the instruments necessary, therefore the secret of 
longitude was hidden from them. All their longitudinal distances 
were calculated by dead reckoning; and the log line, even, was not in 
use until 1521, but their maps are now ofcen measured in millimetres 
as if they were the products of an admiralty survey. Elaborate argu-
ments have been founded upon the trend of their coast lines, without 
considering that their maps were drawn to compass bearings, and ours 
are always drawn to the true meridian. The conditions of the age in 
which they lived made it possible for the sailors of all the western 
nations to calculate their distances by a uniform customary league ; 
but that league was not the admiralty league of three minutes of the 
Equator nor the English land league of three statute miles. 

The present paper then, although it may have been suggested 
by the Venezuelan controversy, will not discuss the boundary of British 
Guiana. Its object is to throw light upon our own history by a detailed 
examination of the Bulls of Pope Alexander VI. and the pretensions-
based upon them. The distances specified in the Bull and in the treaty 
lead to a discussion of the nautical measures of length in use at that 
time and the Portuguese names still clinging to our coasts bear witness 
to the belief that the line of demarcation cut the northeastern coast of 
America, somewhere in the present province of Nova Scotia. All these 
subjects are of interest, since they bear upon the true interpretation of 
the early maps and the elucidation of the historical geography of our 
Atlantic coast. 

I I . — I N T E R N A T I O N A L L A W I N 1 4 9 3 . 

It has been stated by writers of great weight that Grotius laid the 
foundation of international law as it is now understood. This means 
that, in the application of the principles of international law, references-
seldom go further back than to the exhaustive work of Grotius, pub-
lished at Paris in 1625. It does not mean that international law did 



[A. E DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 471 

not exist before Grotius, or that he originated its principles. The most 
cursory glance at his great work, De Jure Belli, will show that all his 
illustrations were drawn from Greek, Roman and Jewish history, and it 
will be found, on perusal, that his principles are derived from natural 
law or the law of nature as laid down by the Roman lawyers, upon the 
Roman civil law as found in the Corpus Juris, upon the works of the 
more philosophical of the Christian Fathers, upon the Synodical Canons 
recorded in ecclesiastical history and upon the Divine law as revealed 
in the Bible. Grotius does not, himself, pretend to anything else. He 
was born in 1583, ninety years after the discovery of America, and to 
attempt therefore, to pass judgment on the Bull of 1493 in the light of 
our present notions, is an absurd anachronism. Grotius goes further, 
and, while justly claiming the merit of his work, refers to authors who 
had preceded him who, as he says, were "partly Divines and partly 
Doctors of Law." If, therefore, we put aside the conventional law or 
treaty law of nations, it will be seen that modern international law is 
founded on the Roman law and on the Canon law, which latter was 
carried over all Europe by the Roman Church ; for even in England up 
to the time of Edward II I . the Lord Chancellor was always an ecclesi-
astic. In commenting on this point, Sir Henry Maine observes1 that "it 
" i s astonishing how small a proportion the additions made to inter-
na t i ona l law since Grotius's day bear to the ingredients which have 
"been simply taken from the most ancient stratum of the Roman 
" Jus Gentium." This Jus Gentium is the law of nature applicable to 
all human beings, and therefore to nations collectively, and is elo-
quently said by Cicero2 to be "That law which was neither a thing con-
" trived by the genius of man, nor established by any decree 'of the 
"people; but a certain eternal principle, which governs the entire 
"universe, wisely commanding what is right and prohibiting what is 

"wrong Therefore, the true and supreme law, whose commands and 
" prohibitions are equally authoritative, is the right reason of the 
" Sovereign Jupiter." 

These things being so, it is somewhat flippant for the 'London 
Times to characterize the citation of the Bull of 1493, in the Venezuela 
dispute, as "comical" or "absurd." I t was good law pro tanto, for 
where else was there, at that time, a court so competent, by learning or 
tradition, to decide questions which, in their essence, depended on the 
Roman or Canon law as the Court of Rome ? Nor could there, a priori, 
be conceived one more likely to be impartial; for the Pope had no 
sailors through whom he could discover and claim for himself new 
lands. Flings at the private character of Alexander VI. are only pre-
texts for avoiding argument. We have to do with him in this paper 



4 7 2 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

only as a geographer and as judge in a court in a secular matter; nor 
have we even to discuss his authority; because he was, at least in this 
case, a court of consensual jurisdiction. The popes could see, as 
Grotius afterwards saw, "such license of going to war as even barbarous 
"nations may be ashamed of, that men take arms greedily for light 
" causes, or none at all." .No one at that time impugned their authority, 
and why should they have recused themselves from an office, or shirked 
a duty, so clearly incumbent on them in their quality as head of the 
Christian commonwealth ? 

The conception was, indeed, lofty and most Christian. The heart 
of every earnest thinker must go forth in sympathy to the man who, 
in the isolation of an autocratic throne, has, in these latter days, 
dreamed such a dream as the institution of a court of supreme inter-
national appeal. Such a position the popes did in fact occupy at the 
period of the discovery of America and, as is pointed out by Bryce,3 

they were excellently fitted for it, by the respect which the sacredness 
of their office commanded; by their control of the tremendous 

" weapons of excommunication and interdict; above all by their ex-
" emption from those narrowing influences of place, or blood or personal 
"interest which it would be their chiefest duty to resist in others." 
For reasons beyond the scope of our argument this was soon to cease; 
but in A.D. 1493, Christendom was still conceived to be an organized 
body of Christian states, of which the Pope was the spiritual head. 
There was, therefore, an innate fitness in the lawyers and doctors of 
the civil and canon law at the Curia Romania to deal with broad ques-
tions of natural and divine law or universal justice extending over inde-
pendent nations. The proceedings at Eome were, in matters of inter-
national interest, not arbitrary but formal and technical; for there 
were resident representatives there of all the powers of Christendom. 
During the period of their power the popes had often helped the weak 
against the strong and had often strenuously laboured for that "truce 
of God," which, even in present times, can alone avert the impending 
Armageddon. We learn from Sir Henry Maine4 that Bentham was so 
impressed with the confusion attending the modern views of right to 
territories by discovery and occupancy, that he went out of his way to 
eulogize this very Bull of Pope Alexander; and Maine himself adds that, 
although praises of any act of papal authority may seem grotesque in 
a writer like Bentham, " i t may be doubted, whether the arrangement 
"of Pope Alexander is absurder in principle than the rule of public 
" law which gave half a continent to the monarch whose servants had 
"fulfilled the conditions required by Boman jurisprudence for the ac-



[ s . E . DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 4 7 3 

" quisitioii of property in a -valuable object which could be covered by 
" the hand." 

Modern diplomacy is not in a position to regard as "comical" or 
"ridiculous" the attempt of the Pope, in 1493, to draw a line of de-
marcation through the ocean in the interests of peace between the only 
powers which were then concerning themselves with discovery and 
extension, for, translated into the very latest diplomatic form of speech, 
it was nothing else than the delimitation of "spheres of influence," 
such as, during the last few years, have resulted in the partition of the 
continent of Africa. The doctrine of "Hinterland," is the old prin-
ciple under a new name. It is the principle which pervaded the old 
charters of the American colonies and made them to extend their 
claims from sea to sea. As it was then, so it is now ; enormous regions 
are being marked off upon the map, regions whither white travellers 
have barely penetrated and containing immense numbers of people who 
have never seen a European. These are being allotted to one power or 
another, without any more rational grounds then were the Western or 
Eastern Indies in 1493 ; and from time to time a Eashoda incident 
crops up to demonstrate the absence of any governing principle. 

I t has been argued that the perfect equality of each sovereign 
state, without regard to its size or strength, is a modern principle of 
international law. That however is doubtful, for it seems in the case 
oi weak nations to depend rather upon the mutual jealousies of the 
greater states. Grotius although, as before stated, he mentioned in 
his preface the names of some of his predecessors in the field of inter-
national law, did not mention Francis a Victoria, a learned theologian 
of Salamanca, who in two chapters of his work, Relectiones Theologicce, 
published first at Lyons in 1559, and then at Salamanca in 1565, went 
far beyond Grotius and even surpassed the writers of the present day 
in his humane and liberal views. The book is very rare, but Hallam 
(Hist. Lit. Vol. 2) gives an account of it and there is a more detailed 
analysis in Salomon's L'Occupation des Territoires sans Maitre. The 
chapters bearing on the present question are those entitled de Indis and 
de Jure Belli, and the fact that such views were at that date publicly 
expressed by an ecclesiastical professor of high repute, is worthy of 
serious attention. He maintained that the Spaniards had no more right 
to the Indies by discovery than the Indians would have had to Spain if 
they had discovered Spain—that, by public and private law, the Indians 
were as justly owners of their own lands as if they were Christians— 
that the Indians did not lose their rights because they were unbelievers, 
since they had not had the opportunity of knowing the true faith— 
that Jews and Saracens who were hostile to Christianity retained their 



474 BOY A L SOCIETY OF CANADA 

lands and that nominal Christian princes did so also, though their 
morals were often not so good as those of the Indians, and moreover, 
that God bestowed his gifts, as he made his sun to rise and his rain to 
fall, upon the evil and the good. Proceeding with relentless logic, the 
learned professor demonstrated that the Pope could have no possible 
right over the lands of these people, since the dominion of Christ him-
self was spiritual, and, if they were heathen, then still less would be 
the power of the Pope over them; for they would not even be subject 
to his spiritual authority and that no just war could be waged against 
them on that account. These views, as to the power of the Pope in 
matters purely temporal, held as they were in the great Spanish univer-
sity of Salamanca, will be referred to later on ; but at present it must 
be observed that he still made out to justify the Bull of Pope Alexander, 
but by two arguments so modern and "up to date," that they might 
emanate from a Mission Board at New York, or a board of directors at 
London. If, he argues, these Indians allow the missionaries freely to 
preach the gospel and meet their efforts only by indifference, they stand 
in their right; but if they resist with violence or persecute the 
neophytes, there will be a just cause of war. That is the argument for 
the Mission Boards, but the other is no less happy. Every Christian 
nation, he argued, has an absolute right of commerce with every other 
Christian nation and to sail its ships along their coasts; that right 
exists therefore towards every pagan, nation as well, and, if resisted, 
there is also a just cause of war. Now we can see the right of the 
British ships to open the ports of China and the American ships the 
ports of Japan ; but the learned professor of three centuries ago is still 
in advance of us, for we evade his conclusions by coasting laws and 
prohibitive tariffs. If the Chinese and Japanese had admitted our 
ships under similar laws one would like to call back the shade of this 
most excellent ecclesiastic and ask his opinion, whether a prohibitive 
tariff was not a prohibitive law. 

The reference of such territorial questions to the Pope was more-
over rational ; since geographical knowledge was nowhere cultivated 
with so much curiosity and intelligence as at Rome, because of the 
universality of the claims of the Roman See. The Canon law required 
the attendance of bishops, at definite intervals, at the Court of Rome, 
and they were bound to make certain reports through their metro-
politans. By these channels the Popes became, on geographical 
matters, the best informed men in Europe. 

Upon this subject there has been a great deal of ad captandum 
writing; for, while it is quite true that current opinion in the middle 
ages upon geography was crude and absurd, it is also true that the 



[s. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 11 

doctrine of the sphericity of the earth, as taught by the Greek geo-
graphers, was held by the greater minds within the Church and never 
authoritatively rebuked. Herein is the essential unfairness of books like 
President Andrew D. White's Warfare of Science. He holds the Roman 
Church responsible for the sputterings of Cosmas Indieopleustes. But 
that irritable religionist was not a churchman by training, and, although 
in late life he became a monk in Egypt, he was a merchant, a traveller 
and a sailor for the greater part of his life—he was never a priest. His 
travels were extensive and his observations upon what he actually saw 
were valuable; but his Christian Topography was written in Greek, in 
the time of Justinian. To make the Roman Church responsible for 
his extravagances is not fair disputation. The belief in the sphericity 
•of the earth was by no means general in Greek and Roman times. The 
Epicureans laughed at it as a vagary of Pythagoras, and those who, in 
all ages, are called "common-sense people," did not believe it any more 
than Cosmas,—though they might have been pagans. In Chapter YII. 
of Plutarch's , treatise, On the Apparent Face in the Moon's Orb, the 
theory is ridiculed by one of the speakers. No doubt in the middle ages, 
as in ancient times, the belief was common that the world was flat; 
but it was not a doctrine of the church. The passage so often cited 
from St. Augustine5 merely states that even "if it be supposed or 
" scientifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and spherical 
" form, it does not logically follow that the other side of the world is 
" peopled, seeing that nobody has been there to see and that it may be 
" all water or, if indeed land, may be bare of inhabitants." The logic 
is unanswerable and the general opinion was that there were no anti-
podes ; though Columbus, than whom there never was a more fervent 
Catholic, held to the contrary. There were two systems current. One 
held, with Pomponius Mela to the notion of a southern hemisphere 
separated from ours by an ocean impassable from heat, and the other 
held with Ptolemy, the belief in a southern continent extending from 
Africa to Eastern Asia and inclosing the Indian Ocean. During the 
dissolution and re-crystallization of society there was very little oppor-
tunity to think about science and, for the masses, the times were in-
deed dark ; but, and the exception is fatal to President White's thesis, 
such science as there was existed in the cloister alone; and that of 
necessity was the case, for there, in those turbulent days, was the sole 
refuge for a quiet thinker and in the church was the only career for a 
man of great intellect but of humble bir th; because the highest posi-
tion in it was not limited by class or race or family. Thus it came 
about that the church attained such power and that with the exception 
of our own Alfred, laymen, left so slight a record in the world of letters. 



4 7 6 BOY A L SOCIETY OF CANADA 

There was nothing to prevent them becoming scholars had they been 
so inclined. Albert the Great, Bishop of Bollstadt, lectured publicly 
at Cologne, and recorded in his writings his belief in the existence of 
antipodes. So did Friar Bacon and, from his writings, Cardinal 
d'Ailly adopted similar opinions. The Imago MuncLi of d'Ailly was the 
abiding solace of Columbus in his passionate struggles and it was also 
the chief source of his cosmological knowledge; since from it, chiefly,, 
he gathered his knowledge of the theories and conclusions of the Greek 
and Arabian geographers. I t is not true that the theories of Columbus-
were antagonized especially by churchmen. On the contrary, the-
Dominican monks 'at Salamanca were in advance of the lay pro-
fessors in their scientific views. Those who mainly assisted Columbus 
to obtain access to the Catholic sovereigns were Fray Juan Perez (Fran-
ciscan) Prior of La Rabida, Fray Hernando Talavera (Dominican) 
Prior of Prado and Confessor to the Queen, Fray Diego Deza, Pro-
fessor of Theology at Salamanca, and Cardinal de Mendoza, who was-
a minister of the Crown. It was not the scholars nor the churchmen,. 
qua churchmen, who opposed Columbus; but the "clear headed prac-
tical common sense folk," of all classes; supported by the men, and 
they are not all dead yet, who have an infallible gift for finding their 
own notions in the Scriptures. Writing in 1498, from St. Domingo to 
the King and Queen, Columbus expresses, his gratitude; "all others," he 
writes, "who had thought of the matter, or heard it spoken of, unani-
"mously treated it with contempt, with the exception of two friars,, 
"who always remained constant in their belief in its practicability." 

I t is no part of the object of this paper to discuss the beliefs and. 
dogmas of the church ; but it is due to geographical science to say that 
it is simply untrue that Pope Alexander, as President White asserts,. 
(Warfare of Science, Appleton, 1876, p. 19) laid down "a line of de-
"marcation upon the earth as upon a flat disk," and it will be seen, 
as we proceed, that it is also untrue that " this was hailed as an exercise 
" of divinely illuminated power in the church" (p. 20). Globes were 
not in the least uncommon then. The year Columbus sailed, Martin 
Behaim made a large globe still to be seen at Nuremburg. Long before 
that (in 1474) Columbus had sent a globe to Toscanelli at Florence, 
and we read of a globe before 1497 upon which John Cabot taught 
his son the properties of the sphere. I t may readily be supposed that 
all the globes then in existence are not spoken of in the books. I t is 
not necessary to think, moreover, with Mr. Harrisse6 that the Pope was 
probably basing his partition upon a plane chart, when he sent the Bull 
to the Spanish monarchs. It was quite unnecessary, because the line was-
clearly enough indicated—north and south, from pole to pole, one 



[s . E. DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 477 

hundred leagues from the Azores or other Portuguese islands. The 
new discovery of necessity destroyed the value of all previous charts 
and it was not in the least necessary that the Pope, or his lawyers, 
should waste any portion of the very short time spent in preparing the 
Bull in measuring off a hundred leagues upon a chart of any kind. As 
for President White's "flat disk," the very words of the Bull, "from the 
"Arctic pole to the Antarctic pole," preclude the notion. 

Again the popes were, in geographical questions, of necessity in 
advance of their age; for, during the thirteenth and fourteenth cen-
turies, they had been sending envoys—simple monks for the most 
part—to the far east to the Tartar emperors, who had. broken down the 
barriers of Mohammedan exclusiveness, and in that way their knowledge 
of the world had been greatly extended. Moreover, they favoured geo-
graphical study. The first translation of Ptolemy into Latin, in 1409, 
was dedicated to Pope Alexander Y. Pope Nicholas Y. commanded the 
first translation of Strabo, and the first printed edition was dedicated 
to Pope Paul II. In 1478, the first complete edition of Ptolemy was 
published and it was printed at Rome and dedicated to Pope Sixtus IY. 
iEneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., wrote a work on cosmography 
and a copy still exists with annotations on the margin in the admiral's 
own handwriting. The Decades of Peter Martyr are mostly letters to 
popes to keep them informed of the discoveries being made by Spanish 
and Portuguese sailors, f o r these and many other reasons a question 
of cosmography could, at that time, be decided better at Rome than 
anywhere else. 

Whatever be their form, the true nature of these Bulls is an award 
and not a donation; for they are all drawn subject to a right by dis-
covery. The respective "spheres of influence" of Spain and Portugal 
were delimited; but the grant to Spain is made "upon condition that 
f| no other Christian king or prince has actual possession of the islands 
"land mainlands found or that shall be found" before the Christmas 
last past. 1 Nor need the learned President take exception to the words, 
| of our own free will and certain knowledge and in the plenitude of 
"our apostolic power." There are similar words in all documents of 
that nature by others than popes, for instance, in the patent and rati-
fication of privileges to Columbus (April 23, 1497), after stating in the 
preamble that the power of the sovereigns is derived from 8 God alone, 
"whose place they supply in temporal affairs," the grant reads "of our 
" own proper motion, certain knowledge and royal absolute power." 
The wording is nearly identical and so is the material form; for it is a 
lay Bull, "sealed with a leaden seal hanging by threads of coloured silk.'' 
The principle is the same in the wording of such documents even now. 



478 BOY A L SOCIETY OF CANADA 

The authority is usually referred to and in a republic would read—in 
virtue of the authority committed to me by the people, etc., etc. It is 
merely the substitution of the will of the majority for Divine Providence. 

In despite of the form of donation it will appear that, even in 
those days, the title went by discovery. The reason of the request for 
the special Bull is shown later 6n, and we learn from Herrera that, 
when asking for it, the Catholic sovereigns did not compromise their 
prerogative; but stated that "most learned scholars in Spain thought 
" that the application for a grant of territory already in their possession 
"was unnecessary." No other decision was open to the Pope, seeing 
that Spain gave clear proof of discovery and of possession taken. These 
circumstances are recited in the Bull. In those days, title by discovery 
required a formal taking possession in the name of the sovereign with 
ceremonies, frequently of a religious character, as well as by unfurling 
and saluting a flag. There has been very little change in succeeding 
years. As the European nations began to overflow and unoccupied 
regions were seized, the extent of territory covered by a settlement grew 
narrower, but the presently existing doctrine of "effectual occupation" 
was not formulated until the conference at Berlin, in 1884, when Ger-
many waked up to the fafct that the world had been almost occupied 
while she had been busy in consolidating her national unity. There 
is not so much "presumption" in the Bull as in the charter of Henry 
VII. to Cabot three years later. He granted power to "saile to all parts, 
" countreys, and seas of the East, of the West and of the North, to 
" seeke out, discover and finde whatsoever isles, regions, etc., of the 
"heathen and infidels whatsoever they be and in what part of the 
"worlde soever they be." Then Henry gives the grantees power to 
" subdue, occupy and possess all such townes, cities, castles and isles of 
" them found, which they are to occupy and possess as our vassals, etc., 
" giving unto us the rule, title and jurisdiction of the same villages, 
"townes, etc., and flrme land so found," and in the same lofty style 
Henry disposes of the regions to be discovered as if they were his 
property or his by right of his Crown. An unprejudiced comparison 
will compel the admission that Pope Alexander was the less "arrogant 
and presumptuous" of the two ; for he at least assigned a defensible 
reason; namely, the conversion of the infidels and the carrying of the 
gospel into all lands. This, in fact, it was his proper function to see to ; 
for he was at the head of the only mission board then in existence. 
For centuries after it was not thought that a non-Christian people were 
capable of sovereignty and proprietorship. Indeed, the question is 
hardly settled yet in the case of pagan nations. I am not discussing 
the principle; I am simply asserting that it still survives, and that in 



[S . É. DAWBON] THE LIN"ES OF DEMARCATION 4 7 9 

the light of many occurrences in the Pacific and in eastern seas, it 
might be well to examine our own consciences without dissembling be-
fore throwing stones at Pope Alexander on this account. 

While arguing for the validity of the Bull of 1493 the Venezuelan 
counsel have greatly overstated the submissiveness of the English mon-
archs of those days and the historical instances of Mr. Harrisse, whose 
Diplomatic History of America seems to have been prepared for the 
case, have led them into error. While it is true that the Bull Lauda-
Uliter is authentic, it is necessary to read it in its own terms, when 
it will appear, as Dr. Lingard7 long ago observed, that the Pope 
"Adrian, by this instrument, avoids the usual language of feudal 
" grants; he merely signifies his acquiescence in the king's project; 
" he is willing that Henry should enter Ireland and be acknowledged as 
"Lord ly the natives." The submission of Henry cited as having 
occurred at Avranches is not accepted as historical by English authori-
ties ; but even if the circumstance actually occurred, as stated, the 
agreement is admitted to have been a private one by those who assert 
that it was made. Being then, at the utmost, secret and made without 
the consent of the barons, whatever binding effect it might have upon 
Henry himself, it was invalid as against the realm of England. 

Art intimate knowledge of the laws and ceremonial language of 
Spain has probably prevented Senor Rafaal Seijas from incorporating 
Mr. Harrisse's sixth chapter in the "ease."' He could not take so seri-
ously the' oration of filial allegiance and submission in which the en-
voys of Ferdinand and Isabella, on an errand of congratulation to the 
newly elected Pope, "lay at the feet of His Holiness, all they possess on 
" earth and on the seas; not only their kingdoms, treasures, fleets and 
"armies, but also their sons and royal persons." This must be taken 
to mean only obedience in spiritual matters. Mr. Harrisse's ideas of 
the relations between the temporal and spiritual powers would have 
shocked every lawyer and statesman in Spain and nine-tenths of the 
clergy also. 

I t would lead me from my theme to discuss a subject so vast in its 
literature and so important. I shall, however, enable the reader to 
form, for himself, an opinion as to the extent of the submission in 
strictly temporal matters of the monarchs of those days by letting 
them speak for themselves. The following is an extract from a letter 
by William I., who had just conquered England, to Pope Gregory VII.— 
the great Hildebrand of Ganossa memory—and William had received 
a consecrated banner for his expedition from Gregory's predecessor. 

" To Gregory, the most excellent Pastor of the Holy Church, "William, by 
" the grace of God, King of England and Duke of Normandy, sends health and 
" friendship. 



4 8 0 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

" Your legate, Hubert, religious father, has admonished me on your part to 
" do homage to you and your successors, and to think better of the money which 
" my predecessors were accustomed to send to the Roman Church. Of these 
" demands, one I have granted; the other I have refused. Homage I would not 
" nor will I do. For I did not promise it myself ; nor can I learn that it was ever 
" done by my predecessors to yours," etc., etc. 

Then he promises to send the usual money. 
The next letter is from the barons of England to Pope Boniface 

VIII., (the writer of the "Unam Sanctam,") who had declared that 
Scotland was a fief of the Holy See and had summoned Edward I. to 
desist from invasion and plead the matter in the Eoman Court. 

" To the most holy father in Christ, the Lord Boniface, by divine Providence, 
" chief bishop of the Holy Roman Church, John, Earl of Warren, and one hun-
" dred and five other barons, send greeting. 

" I t is well known to us and to many others, most holy father, that the 
" kingdom of Scotland never did, nor does, by any right whatever, belong, in 
" temporals, to the Roman Church. Nor have the'Kings of England, on account 
" of the independent pre-eminence of their royal dignity, and a custom at all 
" times inviolably observed, ever pleaded, or been bound to plead, with respect to 
" their right to the kingdom aforesaid, or to their other temporal rights, before 
" any ecclesiastical or secular judge whatsoever," etc., etc. 

The barons then go on to say that even if the king were disposed 
to plead they would not permit him to do so; as it would be to " the 
"manifest disherison of the rights of the Crown of England and sub-
" version of the laws, charters and customs inherited from their 
"fathers." 

In the face of these two letters the argument as to the submission 
of the. English kings based by the Venezuelan counsel on Mr. Harrisse's 
book falls to the ground. One more letter, and this, from the very 
King Ferdinand the Catholic, who sent the embassy of obedience to 
which Mr. Harrisse devotes a chapter, will suffice to show the differ-
ence between obedience in temporal and in spiritual matters. Fer-
dinand was King of Naples, as well as of Aragon, and the Pope had 
served upon his vice-roy at Naples, a Brief without sending it first to 
be examined and receive the royal placet before publication; accord-
ing to the fundamental laws of these kingdoms. The King writes to 
his vice-roy and after reciting the circumstances, he continues : 

" All this has not a little excited our anger and indignation ; and we are 
" equally surprised at and displeased with you ; that, considering the importance 
" of the case and the prejudice which our royal dignity suffered from the act of 
" the apostolical messenger, which is a violence against all right, never practised 
" against any king or viceroy of my kingdom," etc., etc. 

Then, after expressing his indignation that the Pope's messenger 
had not been instantly hanged, the King goes on to show how the act 
might be cancelled, as follows :— 



[ s . B. DAWSONJ T H E L I N E S O F D E M A R C A T I O N 4 8 1 

" You must also use all possible diligence to seize the messenger who pre-
" sented the said Brief; if you can get hold of him, he must retract the presenta-
" tion which he made you of the Brief, and renounce it by a formal act; after 
" which you will have him immediately hanged," etc., etc. 

These letters cover the period of the greatest height of papal 
power, and it is strange that a Venezuelan statesman familiar with 
"the fundamental law of Spain, could have fallen into such an error. 
Mr. Harrisse has evidently not turned his attention to this branch of 
history for he wrote in 1892 in his Discovery of America (p. 54). 

Nay, whenever a new pope was elected all the Christian kings had 
"again to do homage for their possessions, old and recent." It is a 
surprising statement. Claims were in past ages sometimes made by 
popes and extremists, whom Dante (De Monarchia) calls "decretalists," 
but no such general claims as these extending to all kingdoms were made 
and, beyond doubt, no such acts of homage were ever performed. 

Although the remarks immediately preceding may seem to lead 
•away from the main subject, they do not in reality. I t is necessary 
to clear away these misconceptions concerning the early documents of 
our history. The Venezuelan dispute was not settled by the Bull or 
by the principle of discovery; but by the occurrences of the Dutch 
occupation. In 1875, the dispute between Spain and Germany for 
.the Caroline islands was referred to Pope Leo XIII., and he decided for 
Spain; but he did not go upon the title by discovery, nor did he even 
allude to the Bull of his predecessor. He based his award upon re-
peated acts of occupation by Spain down to the very moment the dis-
pute arose. In 1493, circumstances were very different, and while we 
must take exception to such statements as the preceding, concerning 
the submission of European princes generally, or English princes 
specially, in temporals to the Eoman See, we must concede to the Pon-
tiffs a position as international judges if upon no higher ground than 
upon the ground of consensual jurisdiction. 

I I I . — T H E O U T W A R D P O E M . 

Before proceeding to consider the papal Bulls bearing on this 
question, it is necessary to dwell for a moment upon the outward form 
of these documents; because, in Protestant countries, vague notions 
often prevail concerning them and also because, in his Diplomatic 
History, Mr. Harrisse has treated these American Bulls so incau-
tiously as to throw new stumbling blocks in the way of a student of 
American history. 

The official decisions of the popes were for the most part set forth 
in two forms of equal authority—Bulls and Briefs—and this was the 



4 8 2 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

case whether the subject were a dogmatic deliverance upon a matter 
of faith, a direction on a question of discipline, the creation or modi-
fication of an institution, or a decision in a secular matter as in the 
present case. I t is inaccurate to call these American Bulls "privileges 
"issued in the particular form of the small Bulls, called by the ponti-
"fical chancery tituli or gracious acts."8 This is to confuse things 
essentially different. A privilege in canon law is, by its very name, 
a private or particular law, according a favour to some person or in-
stitution ; as, for instance, to a monasteiy or church " Dicitur lex, 
" non9 quia privilegium est lex, sed quia quamdiu duret instar legis 
" observari debet; dicitur privata quia non facit jus quoad omnes." A 
titulus is something still different, and is a presentation or right to a 
benefice or a church. A privilege or title might, indeed, be in the 
form of a Bull; but whether the Bull was a small one or not, would 
depend upon the bulk of the subject matter, and, on the other hand, 
a small Bull might be of exceeding importance. The Bulls referred to 
in this question are public laws ; international decisions involving an 
inchoate right to half the world. They cannot be called "privileges,"' 
still less "titles and to call them "small Bulls" in any sense is an 
error, as the reader will see on reference to them in the appendix. A 
still greater confusion is caused by Mr. Harrisse's explanation of the 
word litterae. He says,10 in relation to the Bulls described later as A 
and B, "The pontifical privileges were often accompanied by a second 
" littera, shorter than the first, and of which it was, in fact, the noti-
"fication," and again referring to the Bull Eximiae, he says, 11 "This 
" littera was not exactly an abridgement of the primary Bull, resemb-
" ling, for instance, the abstracts of testaments, grants, bills of sale, 
" or conveyances which our recorders deliver constantly." This is 
very misleading, for the word littera is general and covers all written 
communications. Nor is it correct to say that the " pontifical chan-
"cery drafted anew important Bulls in condensed form, which were 
" transcribed in full in its registers, and were legalized not simply as-
" t rue copies but as authentic .originals."12 That would be equivalent to 
a legislature passing two acts covering the same subject, a long and a 
short one, and making both original and authentic. Moreover, there 
could be no "papal Bulls for common use"13 "carried round on maritime 
" expeditions" to be shown while both the larger and "condensed orig-
i n a l s " were retained in the archives. This very singular error seems 
to have been suggested by a clause in the Bull Eximiae as follows : 

" But forasmuch as it would be very difficult for the present letters to be car-
' ried to all such places as may be expedient, we will," etc., etc., "that to copies 

" of these presents, signed by a public notary, employed for that purpose and 



[ s . E. DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 4 8 3 

" provided with the seal of some person endowed with ecclesiastical dignity, or 
" with that of an ecclesiastical court, the same unquestioned faith shall be given, 
" in a court of justice, or without, or anywhere else, as to these presents if they 
" were shown or exhibited." 

This clause is customary in Bulls or Briefs whieh are intended for 
wide circulation and will be found also in Inter cetera. I t is so common 
that in some Bullaria, the first words alone are given "Verum tamen 
difficile foret, etc., etc.," with a note on the margin to the effect that 
"fa i th is to be given to copies." A clause almost in the same words 
occurs at the end of the encyclical of the present pope concerning the 
Jubilee which appeared in the newspapers a few months ago. 

These two forms of expressing the decision of a pope vary in out-
ward appearance. A Brief commences with an abridged formula. The 
name of the Pope is prefixed and the "words, "ad perpetuam rei memo-
riamf' then it continues on with the main subject matter. I t is 
written on paper, in a modern style of handwriting, dated according 
to the modern calendar and sealed in red wax with the "fisherman's 
ring." 

A Bull, although it possesses no greater authority, is more formal 
in its salutation and more solemn; as will be seen on reference to ap-
pendix A. " Alexander, episcopus, servus servorum Dei, etc., etc." - It 
is written on parchment and (until recently) was in an antique style 
of characters. I t is dated according to the old Soman calendar ; but 
the essential note is that the seal is of lead (it might be of gold) 
stamped on one side with the effigies of SS. Peter and Paul and, on 
the other, with ithe name of the reigning pope. The seal is attached 
by strings of various significant colours. There- are other points of 
difference, but the above are the most striking. 

I t is of the essence of a law of any kind, and before all others of 
these pontifical laws which bind the conscience, that they shall be pub-
lished or promulgated. A secret law is not a law in any sense of the 
word. Until it is promulgated it does not exist as a law and binds no 
one. I t will be seen later how this fundamental principle has been 
entirely overlooked, and this is the more surprising, inasmuch as, by the 
laws of all Catholic countries in those days, every Bull, Brief or public 
letter of the popes had to be presented to ceiitain royal officers and 
receive the royal placet or exsequatur before being published or even 
communicated to any other person whomsoever. The extract given on 
page 480 from a letter to his vice-roy by King Ferdinand the Catholic, 
will set this matter in a very clear light. In that way monarchs guarded 
their prerogatives; for a Bull not promulgated in a country did not 
bind there. To get over this difficulty it was maintained by some 

Sec. II., 1899. 31. 



4 8 4 BOY A L SOCIETY OF C A N A D A 

canonists that a Bull was sufficiently promulgated by being affixed to 
the gates of the Vatican and proclaimed in the piazza of the" Campo di 
Piori at Rome. This was said to be publication in urle et orbi. That 
was disputed by others ; but, without wandering into a disputed ques-
tion, it may confidently be affirmed that a Bull unpublished and un-
known to the persons whom it was intended to bind wanted that essen-
tial quality which brought it into life and force. 

Now, while a Bull was in this inchoate state, it might be entered 
on the secret register of the Vatican and might be complete in form ; 
but, before promulgation, it was still open to modification. I t might 
be found on final examination that the instrument was not drawn in 
precise accordance with the will or instructions of the Pope; or some 
omission or error might be pointed out by the person who had petitioned 
for it. In such a case (and it is not at all an uncommon one) a new 
Bull would be drafted and it also would be entered at its proper date 
upon the register,-while the first would never appear. This, as will be 
shown, was what- occurred in 1493, and recent researches having, after 
three hundred and fifty years, unearthed the first draft, a controversy 
has arisen most perplexing to students. 

These documents, Bulls or Briedis, are known, and always cited by 
the first words after the salutation. The present paper is chiefly con-
cerned with two—the Eximiae devotionis, dated May 3, and the Inter 
cetera dated May 4—-both of 1493. It will at once be seen therefore 
that it is paradoxical to write of two Bulls Inter cetera as issued on two 
successive days of the same year covering the same subject matter. It 
is like quoting two statutes on the same subject, of the same chapter, 
of the same regnal year, identical in their wording, save in two or three 
sentences. One of the chief objects of this paper is to clear up this 
apparent difficulty. I t has been brought forward very prominently of 
late and magnified rather than explained. 

I V . — T H E DEMARCATION OE 1 4 9 3 . 

On May 4, 1493, Pope Alexander VI. promulgated the Bull, 
known from its first words as Inter cetera, in which he delimited, by a 
line drawn from pole to pole, what would now be called the "spheres 
"of influence" of Spain and Portugal. The BulLwas sent to Spain by a 
special messenger. I t was received by the Catholic sovereigns and acted 
upon. A copy was despatched to Columbus, then preparing for his 
second voyage, and another to Fray Buil, who was going with him to 
superintend the missions. I t became the subject of. innumerable dis-
cussions. Copies were made at the time and authenticated by ecclesi-



[ s . E. DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 
21 

astieal authority; the original was deposited in the archives of the 
Indies at Seville where it remained until within very recent years ; it 
has been printed in all the Bullaria; referred to and cited in all the 
books. For three hundred years, no suspicion of any other Inter cetera 
arose in the minds of the numberless officials, annalists and historians, 
who administered American affairs or wrote on American subjects. 

In the year 1797, Juan Baptista Munoz, who had been entrusted 
by the King of Spain with the task of writing a history of the New 
World, and to whom the archives of the kingdom had, for the first 
time, been thrown open, found, at Simancas, a document in the form of 
a Bull commencing with the same words Inter cetera, but dated May 3, 
(quinto nonas Maii) the day before the historic Bull, which bore date 
quarto nonas Maii. The two documents were, for the greater part of 
their contents, in identically the same words. In appendix A is printed 
the full text of the historic Bull of May 4, and all the words which are 
not in the Simancas document are printed in italics. On the other 
hand, all the words in the Simancas draft which were omitted in the 
Bull as promulgated are given in the footnotes, with references to the 
places from _ whence they were dropped. The reader has, therefore, 
practically both Bulls before him. 

The discovery of the Simancas document gave rise to much specu-
lation. Humboldt gave15 a partial collation of the two Bulls and ex-
pressed surprise without offering an explanation. Washington Irving 
referred to both and did not attempt to reconcile them, but he gave 
the dates, erroneously, as May 2 and May 3 respectively. Munoz 
quoted the historical Bull containing the line, but he gave May 3 as the 
date. In his paper in the American Historical Report, Prof. Bourne 
gives a partial collation of the two, and Mr. Harrisse in his Diplomatic 
History has brought the difficulty into strong light, and has moreover 
increased it by treating the unpromulgated Bull as the primary one 
and as a valid and efficacious document. He calls it a "privilege," and 
says, "apparently within the twenty-four hours" after its publication, 
Alexander published the other. One of the chief objects of this paper 
is to show that the Simancas Bull, having never been published, never 
had the breath of legal life and also, by comparing the two documents, 
to explain the duplication by internal evidence. 

The Bulls which Mr. Harrisse in his Diplomatic History brings 
under review, are four in number; he has lettered three of them as 
follows, for ready reference : 

A. Inter cetera of May 3—the Simancas, unpub-
lished Bull. 

B. Eximiae devotionis of May 3. 



4 8 6 BOY A L SOCIETY OF CANADA 

C. Inter cetera of May 4—the promulgated Bull of 
demarcation—the historic Bull. 

And the fourth may be lettered D. 
It is a Bull known only in a Spanish translation made sixty years 

after its supposed date and entitled Extension de la concesion y donacion 
Apostolica de las Indias. 

These four documents, if all thrown together, are conflicting, but 
a careful examination will eliminate A as an unpromulgated document 
which never had a valid and legal existence, and show that D does not 
affect the argument, in the first place, because no original, copy has 
ever been found or proved to have existed, and second, because, even 
if it were a valid document, it adds nothing to the real Bull, being only 
an explication of what had already been enacted. There will then 
remain B and C, and these will be found, not only to harmonize, but 
to supplement each other and to form, when taken together, a logically 
consistent whole, such as the expert lawyers of the Curia Jtomana 
would not be ashamed of. 

While it may be held by extremists, in opposition to the great 
majority of canonists, and the unanimous opinion of civil lawyers, that 
a Bull, when affixed to the gate of the Vatican and proclaimed on the 
piazza of the Campo di Piori, was sufficiently promulgated to bind the 
consciences of all Catholics, no one has yet ventured to assert that a Bull 
never published at all, at Eome or anywhere else, had any efficacy 
whatever. One well known instance there used to be of a Bull being 
published annually in that way at Rome, because it was not admitted 
to publication elsewhere in Europe ; but that was a very exceptional 
ease which proves the rule and the arguments from it have no validity 
here, for this was a decision, not on dogma or discipline, but in a boundary 
question, which Spain had applied for and, of necessity, it had to be 
notified to the parties concerned who were fitting out expeditions and 
extending discoveries into all seas. In this ease, local publication was 
of the very essence of the matter; but the Simancas document lay un-
known and unsuspected for three hundred years until Munoz found it 
in 1797. It does not in the least validate the document to say that 
when the present pope opened the archives of the Vatican, both Bulls 
were found on the secret register of Alexander VI. There was, no 
doubt, an intention to issue that dated May 3, but the entry of the 
next day cancelled it and that without mention, because the first draft 
was never uttered. In fact the very thing the Catholic sovereigns had 
asked for, to wit, the line of demarcation, had been entirely lost sight 
of and, therefore, the instrument was of necessity drafted anew. The 
subject matter of the petition was then inserted and matter duplicated 



[S. E. DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 487 

iD another Bull was omitted. The case is not parallel to that of the 
preparation of dogmatic Bulls, but is parallel rather to a copy of the 
judgment of some high civil court in which errors may be found on 
examination before publication and the Spanish envoy on looking into 
the first document could easily see that what his master had specially 
asked for was not there. 

With regard to the Eximiae devotionis (Mr. Harrisse's B) he is un-
doubtedly right in taking it to be a real Bull; but it is misleading to call 
it a. "privilege/' and it is a littera in no other sense than other written 
communications are litterae.. The historians he refers to (without men-
tioning their names) who take the Bull to be "a simple invoice sent 
" with Bulls A and C, when they were sent to Spain," must have wan-
dered from some shipping business into the regions of history and canon 
law. Mr. Harrisse explains that it was not like an "invoice" or an 
abstract of a "grant"' or "testament" or ''bill of sale" or "conveyance." 
It was not "exactly an abridgment of the primary Bull ;" it might, he 
thinks, be called "a papal Bull for common'use." It certainly was very 
far from being any one of these things. I t was simply a deliverance 
of the Roman court in the usual form of a Bull and, as will appear on 
reading it in appendix B, it had a clear and distinct meaning, and the 
sentence in it "prout in nostris inde confectis litteris plenius continetur," 
refers to the line of demarcation intended to be in Bull A but omitted. 
When the Bull was redrawn, the next day, as Bull C the clause omitted 
was inserted, for that missing clause of demarcation was the essential 
motive of the whole transaction. The Roman chancery was as Mr. 
Harrisse observes evidently hurried beyond its usual leisurely pace. 

The date of this Bull (B) is May 3—the same date as that of the 
unpublished Bull. It is not met with in the ordinary books, and has 
therefore, been given in appendix B. Mr. Harrisse has. given it in an 
English version. In appendix A of this paper is, as has been said, a 
copy of Bull C—the historic Bull. If the reader will omit all the 
words in italics and read into it all the words in the footnotes, in their 
places as marked, he Will reconstruct the text of the rejected draft. 
He will see that the draughtsman erred in two directions, first, by making 
mention of the rights of Portugal which were to form, and did form 
the subject matter of a separate Bull (B) and, second, by omitting the 
judgment of the Pope delimiting the territories of the two crowns. 
The re-drafting of the Bull made the correction in both directions ; 
for upon a careful comparison, it will appear that the matter dropped 
from the first draft (Bull A) which is all shown in the footnotes in ap-
pendix A, refers solely to the rights of Portugal and is nothing else 
than what is given in Bull B JEximiae devotionis j while the italicised 



4 8 8 BOY A L SOCIETY OF CANADA 

passages contain the inserted matter which was in effect the cardinal 
pomt of the whole movement. The two documents A and B in fact 
overlap; while the two documents B and C are supplementary and 
iorm a logical and consistent whole. The Bull C distinguishes the 
respective spheres of action of the two crowns, and the Bull B gathers 
up all the rights, which in previous Bulls had been conceded to Portu-
gal m its sphere, and by one enactment without detailed recital con-
fers them upon Spain to be enjoyed solely in her own then definitely 
assigned sphere. In that way the two powers would be kept from com-
ing into collision and the whole mass of prior legislation for Portugal 
which extended over fifty years and was very voluminous, was enacted 

h p a i n m a f e w sentences—by a device very common in drawing up 
legislation. This, Mr. Harrisse has not observed for he says, "appar-
e n t l y within the twenty-four hours which followed the publication 

of the two Bulls, Alexander V I , May 4, published a th i rd-Bul l C". 
and then he proceeds to call it the second Inter cetera. This is under-
rating the Roman Chancery! Such blundering would not have passed 
m a village municipality; for it was issuing two enactments of the 
same title and mainly in the same language within twenty-four hours. 
This Bull C is the only Bull of demarcation recorded in all the Bullaria, 
referred to m innumerable documents and the theme of numerous 
writers for three hundred years while what Mr. Harrisse calls the "prim-
ary Bull" mouldered unknown in the archives of Simancas. 

In continuation of his remarks upon this Bull C, Mr. Harrisse 
says, "We know by the Codex Diplomaticus ¡that there was attached to 
^ that Bull a leaden seal fastened with silk strings, red and saffron 
" colour." Beyond doubt, for these as has been shojvn, are the marks 
of a genuine Bull and, in a Bull of grace, the seal 'is always attached 
with strings of coloured silk. Following the Codex further, we find 
that^ Peter Garcia, Bishop of Barcelona, on July 19, 1493, testified that 
he "had held, handled, seen and diligently examined these apostolic 
* l e t t e r s o f o u r most Holy Father and Lord in Christ, Alexander VI., 
"hy Divine Providence Pope, from which hung his true Bulk of lead 
" with threads of silk of a red and saffron colour, according to the style 
I I I the Roman court, sound and entire in their marks, not vitiated, 
" n o r erased, nor in any part suspicious, but free from any doubt what-
" ever." Then he proceeds to give a copy of the Bull (as in appendix 
A). It was then at Barcelona and the Bishop had an official copy made 
and verified in the presence of certain named ecclesiastics and especially 
of an apostolic notary who was secretairy of the Bishop of Seville. 
This copy was again collated with the original at Seville on Dec. 30, 
1502, in the presence of witnesses. The whole is certified to by a 



[B. E. DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 4 3 9 

notary apostolic with formalities unnecessary to repeat. There can, 
therefore, be no doubt as to which document is the "primary Bull." 

If the Bulls B and C are considered together it will be seen that no 
injustice was done to Portugal, The very mention of her rights en bloc 
in the Eximiae devotionvs and the grant of the same rights .to Spain in 
a different sphere confirmed them. Nothing was awarded to Spain, 
but what she had discovered and what she might discover beyond a 
certain line. The monarchs were not misled by the formal phrases 
which scandalize modern writers as being "arrogant and presumptuous" 
The decision is in the form of an absolute gift "We of our own motion, 

and not at your solicitation, nor upon petition presented in your name," 
when every one knew that the Bull was issued at the request of Spain 
In like manner in 1732, King George II. granted the charter of 
Georgia to his petitioners, "of our special grace, certain knowledge, 
"and mere motion," while the territory granted had been discovered 
and was disputed by Spain. What the Pope really did was to confirm 
each power in what it actually had and to allot "spheres of influence" 
m which they might pursue their discoveries without quarrelling—pre-
cisely as an international congress might do at the present day. No 
more account was taken of the Caribs and Indians than is taken now 
of Africans, Philippinos, Chinese or Hawaiians. Of course, they get 
the blessings of religion and civilization; but those also were promised 
m the Bulls and, in short, in view of recent movements towards a court 
of international arbitration, the whole proceeding has a modern a i r -
there is as much fundamental justice in one case as in the other. 

Finally .there is a fourth document (see appendix C) which we have 
•lettered D. Mr. Harrisse states that it is "known at present only in a 
'•Sipanish translation made Aug. 30, 1554, by one Gracian, doubtless 
"Diego Gracian de Aldrete, then secretary of Philip II. for foreign 
" languageg." It is given in Navarrete as Bula de la extension de la con-
cesión y donacion apostólica de las Indias. There is, indeed, a Latin 
version in Solorzano, but Mr. Harrisse is doubtless correct in supposing 
it to be a translation from the Spanish, necessary in a treatise written 
in Latin. The most careful researches at Simancas, Seville and at 
Pome, have failed to find any trace of an original of the Bull. Not-
withstanding the frequency of forgeries of apostolical letters, said by 
Mr. Harrisse to have existed in the time of Alexander VI., he thinks 
that there was a valid original Bull. The letter cited by him does not 
bear on the point. I t was written by the Catholic sovereigns from 
Barcelona, Sept. 5, to Columbus, then at Seville, preparing to start on 
his second voyage. They wrote to ask his opinion on certain statements 
made and say that, if they are true, the Bull (of May 4) should be 



4 9 0 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

amended. But the Bull D bears date Sept. 25, and twenty days is too 
short a time to cover the transmission of a letter twice over the extreme 
length of Spain and an application to Rome and the issue of a Bull based 
upon it. Munoz, Herrera, Humboldt and other authorities of weight in-
cidently notice this Bull without objecting to its authenticity, although 
they had only the Spanish translation, and Mr. Harrisse is well supported 
in his belief, not only by their authority, but by internal evidence; for this 
Bull D is in effect nothing but such an interpretation or explication of the 
Inter cetera as would likely have resulted from the persistency of 
the extravagant claims of Portugal. There is nothing in it to suggest 
occasion for forgery. 

Without raising the question of the existence of an original Bull, we 
venture to think that Mr. Harrisse attaches to it a meaning which it 
will not bear; because, if it had been intended to cancel any of the 
rights granted to Portugal in previous Bulls, that aspect would not have 
failed to come to the surface in the negotiations which resulted in the 
treaty of Tordesillas the following year, and, if Mr. Harrisse's contention 
be right, it would have won the case for Spain without argument at the 
Junta \of Badajoz, but although the proceedings have been preserved 
in great detail, this Bull was not alluded to. The Roman court could 
not, without cause assigned, revoke a decision in a secular matter made 
to a great Catholic power. .Ko injustice was in fact done or attempted 
to be done to Portugal, but Portugal was not allowed to strain the 
meaning of the grants made to her so as to appropriate the discoveries 
just made by Columbus for Spain. These discoveries were supposed by 
all to be in the "Indies." The West and East Indies had not then 
been separated in thought or name, nor was an intervening continent 
then supposed to exist. The Portuguese claimed that their Bulls 
covered the Indies, because their grant was "ad Indos," but they had 
not then reached India by sea, though they had turned the Cape of 
Good Hope. The Spaniards had found some part, no one knew what, 
of the Indies, and the Bull maintained them in their possession. In 
reading these old charters one must incessantly guard against the am-
biguity of the word East, because the American continent being non-
existent in their thoughts, they constantly spoke of reaching the East 
on a westward course.' 

This Bull D, now under review, is supposed to bear date Sept. 
25, 1493. It commenced by saying that certain concessions had only 
a short time before .been made to Spain, referring to the Bulls B and C, 
and then it confirmed them in all their clauses as fully as if recited 
word by word—the line of demarcation, therefore, was confirmed in 
the most absolute manner. It stated that the grant had been made for 



[s. B. DAWSONJ THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 491 

lands to the west and south and continued to the following effect (and 
here is the point of contention)—that since it may happen that, in sailing 
to the west and south, the Spanish sailors may discover land in eastern 
parts and lands which may belong to India, the Bulls of grant (B and 
C) are extended in all their clauses to cover such lands, whether they 
are or seem to be in the western, southern or eastern parts or in India. 
Then followed a non olstantur clause, evidently aimed at the excessive 
claims of Portugal, not revoking the Portuguese Bulls, but quashing 
the strained meaning put into them. The document then stated that, 
as by chance at some time or other, persons may have navigated these 
seas, nothing but actual and real previous possession was to avail in 
setting a bar to Spain in extending her discoveries on a western course. 
This principle of right by actual possession was adopted in the treaty 
of Tordesillas, and the reader will find in appendix D, Jaime Ferrer's 
opinion given to the Spanish monar'chs that the Spanish demarcation 
might reach westwards round the world to the Arabian gulf, "if our 
" ships go there first." 

This view of the Buia de la extension is the one held by Navarrete. 
It is expressed as follows by Munoz, "to remove every doubt with re-
" gard to those countries of the Indies to which the King of Portugal 
" might lay claim by virtue of former Bulls, the Holy Father declared 
" on the 26th of the following month' of September, tbJat all countries 
"of the Eastern Indies which the Spaniards might find in case they 
I were not already in Christian hands, should be included in the grant 
"made to thè Catholic sovereigns." The principle laid down by the 
Pope was, as between the two powers, eminently just ; for Portugal 
was claiming by virtue of her Bulls, lands which none of her sailors 
had ever seen. The Pope swept away these pretensions and made his 
grant to follow discovery and possession. He drew no line in the East, 
and therefore the papal partition of the world is, as will be shown more 
fully—a popular myth. The reader will find this Buia de la extension 
in appendix C. It is given in the Latin version of Solorzano De India-
rum Jure, Madrid, 1629. 

Y . — T H E FIHST L I N E OF DEMARCATION. 

It was the opinion of Columbus and certainly, in 1493, no other 
opinion upon the subject was of equal weight, that on sailing westwards 
across a meridian about one hundred leagues west of the Azores, he 
had entered the New World, and he recorded in his journal that at that 
point the needles of all his compasses had crossed over from easterly 
variation to one point west of north. We cannot, at this day, realize 



4 9 2 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

the profound impression then made on the minds of that small com-
pany, alone on an unknown ocean where no keel had ever before sailed, 
when the compass, their sole hope for retracing their course, began, 
as they though't, to fail them. Curiosity and wonder filled the mind 
of the admiral and consternation the hearts of the men at crossing the 
threshold of a mysterious region where hidden and unknown forces 
commenced to operate. In a letter to the Catholic sovereigns, written 
in 1498, the admiral set forth his views as follows 

" When I sailed from Spain to the Indies, I found that as soon as 
§ I had passed a hundred leagues westward of the Azores, there was a 
" very great change in the sky and the stars, in the temperature of the 
" air and in the water of the sea; and I have been very diligent in ob-

serving these things. I remarked that from north to south, in travers-
ing these hundred leagues from the said islands, the needle of the com-

" pass which hitherto had turned to the northeast, turned a full quarter 
" of the wind to the northwest, and this took place from the. time we 
" reached that line." 

He then went on to describe the Sargasso sea and other remark-
able appearances which, under the tension of his first voyage, made an 
indelible impression upon his mind. Whether, in the light of our present 
knowledge, his views were correct or not, is beside the question. He 
held them to the last day of his life and we must take account of 
them. 

With this fixed opinion Columbus returned from his first voyage 
and, driven by stress of weather into the Tagus, he went, in response to 
an invitation he dared not disobey, to visit the King of Portugal whom 
he found full of chagrin at the success of the expedition, as indeed he 
well might be, for, as every one then thought, the Indies, which in fifty 
years of continuous effort the Portuguese had not reached, by the south 
and east around Africa, had been reached on a course almost directly 
to the west. In that interview Columbus learned that the King in-
tended to lay claim to the whole of the supposed Indies and adjacent 
seas in virtue of Bulls issued at various dates from 1443 to 1484 as well 
as under existing treaties between the two kingdoms. This interview 
took place on March 10. The news went direct- to Eome, then the 
centre of all intelligence, and reached there on April 11, before Colum-
bus got to Barcelona to report in person to the Spanish sovereigns. 
He arrived at Palos on March 15, and from thence he sent an express 
to their Majesties with the news. He could not have failed to warn 
them of the claims made by the King of Portugal under the Papal 
Bulls, nor could he have failed to suggest so obvious a precaution as 
that of obtaining, at the earliest moment, a decision of the Pope to 
confirm Spain in the possession of the newly discovered lands. Con-



[ s . E. DAWSON] T HE LINES OF DEMARCATION 4 9 3 

¡jecture amounts to certainty that Columbus indicated the line of one 
hundred leagues west of the Azores as a natural and equitable boundary. 
There was, as pointed out by Humboldt, a reasonable motive "for seek-
" ing to convert a physical into a political boundary line.'' He be-
lieved that lines of variation ran parallel to the meridians ; for on his 
return from, his second voyage, when the pilots, by reason of severe 
storms, had lost their reckoning, he thought in that way to ascertain 
his longitude. Mr. Harrisse is doubtless right in maintaining that 
Portugal had no' share in fixing the line of one hundred leagues. Fer-
nan Columbus said that his father had suggested the line and everything 
points that way. In the charter of privileges to the admiral the mon-
arehs call it "the line which we have caused to be traced." The Spanish 
envoys were instructed to inform the Pope that the discoveries had 
been made without encroaching on the possessions confirmed to Portu-
gal. In view of the existing treaty between the two crowns and the 
Pulls granted at the instance of Portugal the request of Spain was 
politic and reasonable and it was urged with promptness and vigour. 

The line fixed by Alexander VI. was therefore a scientific line; 
based upon the very first observation ever made of magnetic variation, 
and to cite Humboldt16 again, " t hg Pope actually rendered, without 
" knowing it, an essential service to nautical astronomy and the physical 
" science of terrestrial jjiagnetism." By directing attention to this new 
fact he gave a stimulus to continued investigation. He was, therefore, 
abreast with the latest physical discovery of his day, and he was ahead of 
many, who during the Cabot discussions of the last few years, have been 
tracing imaginary courses over the ocean while ignoring the prime factor 
of terrestrial magnetism. 

Upon careful reading there does not appear to be any vagueness 
of language in the Bull. The Pope evidently distinguished between 
what he knew and what he did not know. He stated the distance west-
ward in leagues—a measure of length absolute in itself and familiar to 
all mariners. He did not attempt to decide the circumference of the 
earth or to fix the length of a degree. He and his officials had too keen 
a sense of logic to regulate the length of a league, which was a known 
and certain quantity, by the-speculative length of a degree which was 
an unknown and uncertain quantity. He did not, moreover, attempt 
to fix the latitude and longitude of the Azores or Cape Verde Islands. 
He was content to leave them wherever they might be and to measure 
westwards in a definite direction with a definite measure from a definite 
point—to wit, the most westward of either of the two groups of islands 
in the Atlantic then held by right of discovery as possessions of 
Portugal. 



4 9 4 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

Nor was there any vagueness about the decision that the regions 
I westwards and southwards" of a Jine drawn from pole to pole should 
belong to Spain. Those words covered, and were meant to cover, a 
dangerous though unreasonable pretension of the King of Portugal 
made known to Columbus and made manifest in subsequent disputes— 
namely, that everything south of Cape Bojador whether west or east, 
belonged to Portugal. The words "westwards and southwards" cut 
that notion clearly out. Moreover the line was not to pass a hundred 
leagues west of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands as if they were on 
the same meridian. The Pope did not decide that, nor did he know 
whether or not all the islands of those groups had been discovered. 
The line was to be one hundred leagues westward of any one of the 
islands whatsoever of those two groups. Both groups were held by the 
King of Portugal—a. Christian prince ; and a line one hundred leagues 
" a qualibet insularum," as Eden translates, "from any of the islands," 
would be reasonable and allow a wide margin. The distance being 
westwards would commence to be measured from the most western of 
either of the groups. 

The main object of the Bull Inter cetera was to turn the enter-
prises of the two nations in opposite directions by giving each a free 
scope east and west of the specified line, for as has been shown, the 
Bulls to Portugal were not revoked but confirmed by the Eximiae 
devotionis. For if the Pope had revoked these Bulls he could not have 
referred to them as specifically setting forth the powers he was granting 
to Spain in the regions discovered by her sailors. The grants to Portu-
gal extended "ad Indos," and the grant to Spain was "versus Indiam" 
—the expeditions of the former power were to be made east and south, 
and of the latter west and south; one would reach India on the west 
side and the other on the east side. The Pope did not decide any line 
in the remote East, that was left to be settled by the principle tbajt 
lands in the possession of any Christian prince were excepted from-the 
scope of the Bull. That point did not become practical until Magel-
lan's expedition reached the Philippine Islands and El Oano brought 
home the news. Meantime, in 1493, Portugal was chiefly concerned to 
get more extended limits upon the Atlantic, because, for aught any one 
then knew, some great southern continent might exist, such as Pom-
ponius Mela had indicated, and of that Portugal wanted to have as large 
a share as possible. The principle is the same as that of the line of the 
treaty of Tordesillas laid down in the following year (1494) which was 
in effect (see appendix D) that the Catholic monarchs might claim any-
thing discovered in sailing to the East on a westward course even as 
far as Arabia—if only the Spanish ships arrived there first. 



[ s . E. DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION 31 

The foregoing is an attempt to read the Bull in the light of its 
own time. It was the last of its kind and marked the close of an era; 
for the great revolt against Rome was- rapidly approaching and the 
storm was soon to break. The Bull bound Spain and Portugal, as 
regards each other, for they were parties to such references. As to how 
far it might be held by canon law to bind other nations is not neces-
sary here to inquire. Henry VII. did not hesitate to send Cabot west 
of the line, and Francis I. sent Verazzano, and England and Prance 
founded claims to parts of America upon their voyages; but, however 
that may be, the treaty of Tordesillas in 1494, abrogated the line estab-
lished by the Pope and laid down another and this last line, and not 
Pope Alexander's line, is the one spoken of in the books as the " line of 
" demarcation ;" it is not the papal line at all, and although, in A.D. 
1506, it ,was confirmed by Pope Julius II., it had been drawn by Spain 
and Portugal aseif they alone had any concern with the matter. I t will 
be of interest to state here that there has been found in the secret 
archives of the Vatican a document entitled De Canadia et Nova 
"Francia," setting forth an elaborate argument that the Pope's de-
cision did not apply to the discoveries of Verazzano, because the grant 
was limited by its express words to " islands and mainlands," " per 
"nuncios et capitaneos vestros inventad i.e., discovered by Spanish 
ships. The argument is ingenious, but it is also sound and applies as 
well and with more force to the voyages of the Cabots. The Papal line 
of demarcation was a terminus a quo—no terminus ad quern was fixed. 
The fact of discovery was to fix the latter, for the grant to Spain would 
travel eastwards with every discovery until her sailors came to lands in 
the possession of some Christian prince. There can be no doubt upon 
this point if the Bulls are carefully read—the westward progress of 
Spain was to be limited only by the eastward progress of Portugal. Mr. 
Harrisse is correct in writing of the "alleged" partition of the globe by 
Pope Alexander. The globe got divided somehow in the diplomacy 
between Spain and Portugal. It was a lay arrangement. The Pope 
drew a line on the Atlantic and gave the two nations a fair start, as it 
were back to back. As for the far East it was only the assumption of the 
disappointed kings of Portugal that the popes had granted to them 
unknown and undiscovered lands. The Bull awarded territories, when 
they were discovered in certain specified directions, upon the condition 
that when they were discovered they were also found unoccupied by 
any Christian prince. 



4 9 6 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

V I . — T H E T B E A T Y OF TOEDESILLAS I N 1 4 9 4 . 

Up to the year 1494 the Portuguese had made no discoveries be-
yond the Cape of Good Hope. In seventy years of continued effort 
along the coast of Africa they had succeeded in reaching the turning 
point towards the east and south of Asia. It wias not until 1497 that 
Vasco de Gama led the way to India by sea—up to 1494 all the discov-
eries had been southwards. Successive popes had, upon solicitation, con-
firmed these discoveries and had also adjudged to Portugal the seas and 
lands discovered or to be discovered from Cape Bojador southward and 
eastward as far as the Indies, "usque ad Indos." Spain had admitted 
these claims by treaty in 1479, and had bound herself to refrain from 
interference. Portugal, in the meantime, had sent agents overland to 
Arabia and India who had reported upon the wealth of these regions, 
and was preparing with confidence to open up the eastern trade when 
the return of Columbus irom'his first voyage dissipated her dreams of 
monopoly • for he was supposed to have touched the eastern shore of 
the long coveted land of spices. I t was a bitter disappointment to the 
King and he at once laid claim to more than the Bulls or the treaty 
would warrant. Columbus in the interview at Valparaiso assured King 
John that he had strictly followed the orders of his sovereigns and had 
avoided the regions conceded to Portugal, and the same statement was 
made' at Pome when Spain applied for a Bull of confirmation. I t was 
made with t ru th ; for, whatever theories a few scholars may have held, 
no one before Columbus seriously attempted to go to the Indies by the 
west, and all the Bulls, as well as the treaty, had been drawn solely in 
contemplation of voyages by the south and east. 

The objective point of both nations still lay open to further dis-
coveries, though from opposite directions, for neither "usque ad Indos" 
or "versus Indiam" carried an inclusive grant of the coveted regions 
to either party. As Mr. Harrisse properly points out, the Pope had not 
concerned himself with the other side of the world in laying down his 
line of demarcation ; but it was, in fact, left to be decided by discovery. 
With commendable desire to avoid war the two nations entered into 
negotiation, and the first proposition of- Portugal was that the line 
Should run east and west along the parallel of latitude of the Canary 
Islands, and that the activities of Spain should be confined to the 
regions north of that line. This was to attribute to the word "south-
ward" of the Portuguese Bulls an absolute meaning that it would not 
bear. An attempt was also made to strain the meaning of "usque ad 
Indos," and make it cover the Indies whose eastern margin Columbus 



[ s . E. DAWSON] T HE LINES OF DEMARCATION 4 9 7 

was supposed to hare touched. It is especially to he observed here that 
if the supposed Bula de la extension y donation of Sept. 25, 1493, had 
possessed the meaning attributed to it by Mr. Harrisse and others, it 
would have.obviated discussion; for the regions in dispute would have 
been conceded to Spain. Prom the fact that no such Bull was alluded 
to in the tedious preliminary discussions, we may fairly argue that 
either there was no such Bull or that it had no meaning beyond that 
attributed to it in the previous chapter. 

Three envoys from each nation met at Tordesillas, and on June 7, 
1494, signed the famous treaty which during three hundred years was 
a subject of dispute; first, in the East, with reference to the Moluccas, 
and then in the West, with reference to the boundary between Brazil 
and the Spanish provinces in South America. The result was that 
without mention of any Bulls a line of demarcation was fixed much 
further westwards. But it Was not 270 leagues farther west, as often 
stated, for the line of the Pope was a hundred leagues west of the 
Azores, and the line of the treaty was 370 leagues west of the Cape 
Verde Islands, so that the six degrees of longitude between these two 
groups must be deducted from the apparent additional extension. The 
treaty was confirmed twelve years later by Pope Julius II., on January 
24, 1506. Then the treaty line was legally substituted for the line 
of Alexander VI.; though, in fact, no other line than the treaty line has 
been found on any map ; even on those made as early as 1501-2. I t 
will therefore be seen that the division of the world into two parts was 
a development of the treaty of Tordesillas, and that this "arrogant pre-
" sumption"—the cause of so much indignant writing—is not properly 
laid to the charge of Pope Alexander. 

Much of the literature on this subject would lead the general 
reader to suppose that the Bulls of concession to Spain and Portugal 
were a mass of pretentious and contradictory documents issued from 
time to time oh no settled plan. On the contrary they will be found 
consistent with each other throughout the series, and from the first to 
the last, the principle of a primary right by discovery is a key to their 
true interpretation. They are sometimes diffuse as are the legal docu-
ments of other courts on account of the technicalities with which they 
are drawn. It is misleading to associate with them the least notion of 
infallibility, as if they touched upon any question of faith or morals. 
They,, were in fact decisions of a court of appeal: Every one of them 
was issued upon a petition by one power or-the other—there were only 
two nations then engaged in discovery—and the rights of both were 
considered with care. The last of the series, that of Leo X., Nov. 3, 
1514, in reaffirming all the grants to Portugal,-did not imply that these 



4 9 8 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

rights had been abrogated. The change in the location of the line had 
been homologated by Julius II, and that remained as established by 
the treaty. It has remained, as appears in the first part of this paper, 
to be cited in the Venezuelan argument, and Mr. Bourne is in error in 
supposing that it was abrogated by the Bull of Leo X. and the right by 
discovery substituted then. The right by discovery and occupation is 
an inheritance from the Roman civil law and existed all the while. 
It was the real law running under all the Bulls. The form of donation 
was transitory and superficial. 

The line of the treaty was an arbitrary line, based on no attempt 
at a rational or scientific principle. I t was a mere compromise and it 
is worthy of remark that Columbus, in the deed of entail made at 
Seville (Feb. 31, 1498), as well as in his last will, ignored the treaty 
and cited the line of the Bull in its own terms. There was a stipula-
tion in the treaty that within ten months a joint expedition should 
measure off these leagues of western extension, from the Cape Verde 
Islands to the dividing line, and if land were found the line was to be 
marked by a tower or pyramid. That expedition never sailed. The 
coast of America was soon recognized as a bar to the Eastern Indies 
and the Portuguese pressed on their discoveries and conquests to the 
farthest East, relieved from the apprehension of interference from 
Spain. 

The return of El Cano, Magellan's lieutenant, in 1531, by way of 
the Cape of Good Hope, again awakened the Portuguese from their 
dreams of monopoly and showed them that their success in shifting the 
line westwards on the Atlantic was likely to lose them the Spice Islands 
(Moluccas) in the Pacific. How the idea of continuing the line round 
the globe first arose does not clearly appear. I t was not in the Bull 
nor is it expressly in the treaty ; but in the negotiations which arose 
immediately upon the return of El Cano, it was taken for granted by 
nil as if it existed by necessary implication in both documents while 
in fact no terminus ad quern can be found in either. 

Collisions between the Spanish and Portuguese in the far East 
began to grow sharp and threatened to bring on war when a convention, 
known as the "Junta of Badajoz," assembled at that city on April 11, 
1534, to decide upon the partition of the world between the two powers, 
for no others were considered in the matter. Sebastian Cabot was 
there as an expert pilot for Spain. He could have told them, and per-
haps did tell them, that the flag of England had been already planted 
on the coast of the western continent. If he did tell them of Baccal-
laos, no record remains of it. Fernan Columbus was there also, and 
El Cano and Stephen Gomez, and Nuno Garcia, and Diego Ribeiro, 



[E. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 4 9 9 

all as naval assessors for Spain. Portugal also sent pilots, amongst 
them some who had sailed in the East. I t will be necessary to revert 
again to this convention ; the point to be noticed here is that the pilots 
and sailors and astronomers were assessors to give professional informa-
tion and that there were really two separate processes or inquiries. One 
related to the location of the line of demarcation, the other to t"he 
facts of prior possession or discovery. The Moluccas were the chief 
subject of dispute and while the Spaniards claimed that they had dis-
covered them, without sailing over Portuguese waters, the Portuguese 
insisted that they had been there first. I t is, therefore, evident that 
the doctrine of right by discovery was strongly held by both sides. The 
argumentation is very modern in its method. The Emperor insisted 
that, even if Portugal had discovered the islands (which he denied), 
that it would not give a title without possession taken, and that no one 
could truly say that he had found anything which he had not taken pos-
session of. This is the precise statement of law in the British case against 
Venezuela (p. 150), " that it is not the finding of a thing but the taking 
" by the finder that gives the title," so that here we -have the Emperor 
Charles V. anticipating Grotius by a hundred years, and Bluntschli 
and the British foreign office by four hundred yeans, in a most im-
portant doctrine of international law; and the Emperor went on to 
appeal to the principles of "general law and natural reason." We may, 
therefore, see that the only new principle in this branch of international 
law is a definition of "possession" in a stricter sense, made as late as 
1888 at Berlin. The Badajoz Junta was without result. The Portu-
guese would do nothing but assert that the islands were theirs and 
call upon Spain to give them up first and then try to prove the con-
trary, while the Spaniards maintained that they had the islands by 
possession, but would give them up if Portugal would establish lier 
right by an action under the stipulations of the treaty. 

In 1680, disputes arose about the treaty line on the other side of 
the world—on the River Plate in South America—and another con-
vention met, with no better result. The matter was settled in 1750, 
not by reason or law, but in consequence of a marriage between the two 
royal houses. 

It remains now to observe that the only rational line drawn on the 
ocean was that drawn by Pope Alexander VI., and that his line was al-
most immediately superseded by another, decided upon by the only two 
nations seriously occupied at that period in making discoveries. The 
new line was drawn without reference to the Pope and although during 
the past four hundred years the papal line of demarcation has been the 
theme of much indignant writing, the Spaniards and Portuguese were 

Sec. I t , 1899. 82. 



802 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

all that time disputing about another line—one of their own making. 
Last' of all when, in 1885, the present Pope arbitrated upon the dispute 
concerning the Caroline islands, situated near the western edge of the 
grant supposed to have been made by his predecessors, he made not 
the least reference to that, but decided consistently with his predec-
essors according to the underlying principle of law. 

V I I . — - T H E P O I N T OF D E P A R T U R E . 

The commissioners at Tordesillas made no improvement on the Bull 
of Pope Alexander in point of clearness; for their distance of three 
hundred and seventy leagues was made to commence from the Cape 
Verde Islands generally, and that group extends over three degrees of 
longitude. These islands are distant about 320 miles from Cape Verde 
in Africa. They are barren and when discovered by the Portuguese 
in A.D. 1456, were uninhabited. They were of considerable import-
ance while the Portuguese were extending their discoveries southwards 
along the coast of Africa and, in the old narratives of voyages, they aTe 
often mentioned. 

At first, while the islands of the West Indies were supposed to be 
outlying portions of the East Indian archipelago, and still more, after 
A.D. 1500, when Cabral discovered Brazil, the Portuguese claimed the 
most western island of the group, San Antonio, as the initial point for 
the western measurement. In that way the western limit of their de-
marcation area was made to include a greater stretch of the continent 
now known as South America. The Spaniards were not so certain 
about it, however, and in A.D. 1495, the Spanish sovereigns consulted 
Don Jaime Ferrer on the meaning of the treaty and he gave his opinion 
that Fogo, the central island, should be the point of departure. His 
opinion is still extant in full, and may be found in Navarrete, Vol. II. 
A translation is appended (Appendix D) and is worth careful perusal, 
The question submitted was chiefly in regard to some practical method 
of measuring the 370 leagues upon the Atlantic ocean ; but incidentally, 
it becomes clear that Ferrer, in 1495, had no idea that the Pope, oir 
anybody else, had made a partition of the world; for he says that the 
eastern lands "on the Arabian Gulf side will belong to the sovereigns, 
" our masters, should their vessels first navigate there." This single 
sentence demonstrates beyond cavil that Pope Alexander had not 
attempted to divide the world; and that the doctrine of right by dis-
covery was the prevailing doctrine of international law then, as now. 
1+ also indicates that the development of the idea of a partition line in 
the far East had not, up to 1495, set in. 



[ s . E. DAWSON] T HE LINES OF DEMARCATION SOI 

Two years later, A.D. 1497, Yasco de Gama led the first Portu-
guese expedition to India and, following in his track, a swarm of ad-
venturous sailors and soldiers very quickly opened up all the eastern 
regions. India, China, Si am, Malacca, Java, Borneo, Sumatra and the 
archipelago of islands were visited to an unknown extent; for the Portu-
guese were very reticent and made it a capital offence to communicate 
to foreigners a map of their discoveries in the Bast. Still, the news of 
the wonderful riches of those lands spread over western Europe. The 
ships returned with cargoes, and successful captains made establish-
ments, and successful sailoirs brought home marvellous tales. Prom 
all this Spain was excluded; for on the west, to the north and south, 
stretched the interminable barrier of America, and all search for an 
opening through it had been in vain. Secure in her monopoly Portu-
gal was therefore anxious only to stretch her demarcation area west-
ward over Brazil. 

Among the Portuguese adventurers who had returned from the 
farthest East was Ferdinand Magellan—the greatest sailor of those 
days. In resentment for personal affronts he renounced his allegiance 
and passed over to Spain. His knowledge and experience led a Spanish 
expedition through the strait, which still bears his name, and across 
the great South Sea to the coveted Spice Islands in the East. In 1521, 
one of his captains, Sebastian El Cano, returned by. way of the Cape 
of Good Hope. The world had been circumnavigated—the farthest 
East had been reached by sailing on a western course, and for the 
second time, the Portuguese hope of a monopoly of eastern trade was 
shattered. 

We have seen in our enlightened age the United States on the 
brink of war with Great Britain because they supposed the latter held 
against a Spanish power an inconceivably minute and valueless portion 
of one half of what was in dispute in 1521. But Spain land Portugal 
did not go to war in 1521; although their people were kindred 
in speech. They resorted to negotiation instead. I t is very re-
markable that the^e was no blustering. Perhaps it was the absence 
of newspapers—perhaps it was the want of free representative institu-
tions; it is sufficient to say that the convention, called the Junta of 
Badajoz, met in 1524, as explained in previous pages, laud endeavoured 
to settle the question. 

The Portuguese then saw their error in shifting westward the 
Pope's line of demarcation ; for the principle of prolonging the line of 
Tordesillas round the globe had become established and the further 
west the line was placed upon the Atlantic, the greater would be the 
•extent of territory in the far East to be brought within the Spanish 



8 0 2 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

sphere of influence. The Portuguese envoys shifted their ground at 
Bad'ajoz and claimed the most eastern islands of the Cape Verde group 
as the proper point of departure ; hoping thus to gain the Spice Islands 
in the East. They took their stand upon the stipulation that the ex-
pedition, contemplated in the treaty of Tordesill&s, was to assemble at 
the Canaries, and from thence, proceed to the Cape Verde Islands to 
commence the westward measurement. The islands, they argued, be-
ing mentioned in the plural, were to be taken as a group, and Sal and 
Bonavista (written Boavista) the most eastern islands were the most im-
portant. We have, in British America, an interest in two islands of 
this group for two localities on the east coast of Newfoundland—Eogo 
and Bonavista—were from the earliest days named after them. But 
without stopping to discuss that fact we find the Portuguese envoys, 
in 1524, insisting on Bonavista being the proper point of western de-
parture. The Portuguese contention was by no means well founded, 
because these two eastern islands are the smallest of the group and do 
not contain four per cent of the population. The Spanish envoys con-
tended for San Antonio—the most western point—and, although their 
main motive was to bring the Spice Islands within their line, they h ad 
the better argument, for San Antonio is the second in size and in popu-
lation. The Portuguese protracted the negotiations" and, as they 
thought to gain more by delay, they made difficulties until the con-
ference separated without arriving at a decision. As a matter of fact, 
ascertained many years later when accurate estimation of longitude 
could be made, the Spice Islands and Philippines did fall within the 
Spanish demarcation. One hundred years later a dispute arose about 
territory on the Rio de la Plata, and the two nations again exchanged 
bases | for Portugal argued for San Antonio and Spain for Bonavista. 
I t may therefore be safely concluded that Pope Alexander VI. tad the 
Eoman Curia were better geographers and international lawyers than 
the political envoys, either at Tardesillas or Badajoz. 

V I I I . — A N C I E N T A N D M E D I E V A L M E A S U R E S OF L E N G T H . 1 7 

At first sight nothing could appear more easy than to determine 
the line of demarcation fixed by the treaty of Tordesillas. A locality 
from whence to start, a definite direction in which to sail, and a definite 
distance to be attained, were all specified, apparently, plainly enough; 
nevertheless it has been the subject of interminable disputes and re-
cently in the Venezuelan dispute when the question was supposed to 
have become academic, it once more came to the surface of practical 
political debate. 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 
439 

To the statesmen of the sixteenth century the ownership of the 
Moluccas and the western limit of Brazil depended upon the solution 
of this question. To sailors and scholars it involved the great riddle 
of the age, "the secret of longitude;" for on the unquiet ocean, these 
leagues of Tordesillas could not be measured, nor marked, save by 
astronomical methods requiring a knowledge of the length of a great 
circle of the earth and consequently of the length of a degree of the 
equator. 

Now, so far as the absolute distance is concerned, to wit, the three 
hundred and seventy leagues of the treaty, the circumference of the 
earth had no more to do with it than the circumference of the moon. 
The difficulty was solely in the practical measurement of distances at sea 
which the necessity of the case required to be resolved into degrees of 
longitude. The only method then known was by dead reckoning, and 
the deceptive character of that mode is manifest in the simple fact that, 
at the convention of Badajoz in 1524, the maps shown differed by forty-
six degrees. We now know, within a few miles, the circumference of 
the earth and all are agreed as to the length of a degree, but so hard is 
it to realize the difficulties of past ages that many writers, down to even 
recent periods, have transposed and applied to marine leagues, the un-
certainties which really existed with regard to degrees only. This is 
confusing to the student, for all the old navigators reckoned in leagues 
and whether we are following the journals of Columbus, or Cartier, or 
Champlain, it is necessary, if we wish to be exact, to have clear notions 
concerning this general standard of sea distances. By unguarded 
language on this subject, Mr. Harrisse is entangling our early history 
anew ; for in his Diplomatic History, he writes of leagues of Enciso, 
leagues of Ferrer, leagues of Columbus, as if they differed in length, 
instead of writing of degrees of Enciso, of Ferrer, of Columbus ; for, 
while the leagues were the same, the degrees differed in the number 
of leagues they contained, and when Mr. Harrisse takes varying and 
erroneous quantities and makes them perform trigonometrical functions, 
the confusion is made worse; since the sine, cosine, tangent or square 
of an erroneous quantity acquires no value from being found in mathe-
matical tables—rather the contrary, because to square a mistake is to 
raise it to a higher power of error. 

I t is beyond the scope of this paper to discuss the numerous 
national and provincial land leagues or miles. The inquiry will be 
confined to the marine league of Columbus and other sailors during 
the period of the great expansion of European nautical enterprise. For 
ready reference, it is convenient here to remind the reader that the 
circumference of the earth is now taken to be 21,600 nautical or geo-



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

graphical miles. In statute miles it is variously calculated from 24,874 
to 25,020 miles, for, as the earth is not a perfect sphere, these measure-
ments are only close approximations. For the same reason, the length 
of a degree on the equator is estimates at from 69-1 to 69-5 statute 
miles. In current speech the latter measure is sometimes given, though 
the former is more nearly correct. 

All the countries of Western Europe which fell under the influence 
of Rome retained permanent traces of the itinerary measures of the 
Empire in the mile, or mille passuum of the Roman soldier. In the 
Latin countries the measure persisted; and even in England, nearly 
until the end of the reign of Elizabeth, the mile was 5000 feet or 1000 
places ; and was only 146 feet longer than the Roman mile. In the 
eastern part of the Empire the Greek stadium was the standard and so 
continued until the Mohammedan invasion. The Roman geographers 
borrowed their science from the Greeks and used in their writings the 
Greek standard measure, and this continued to be the measure used 
by writers on cosmography throughout the middle ages ; for after the 
time of Ptolemy no original work was done, save by the Arabians, until 
long after the period now under review. The stade is continually cited 
in the literature of the age of Columbus tod it is a very convenient 
measure, for it bore an accepted and simple ratio to the mile and league 
of those days. Ptolemy was the chief authority, but the works of 
Aristotle, Eratosthenes, Strabo and other Greeks, as well as the Roman 
writers, Pliny, Macrobius and Pomponius Mela, were continually re-
ferred to with deference. I t is difficult to realize the persistent weight 
of the' authority of Ptolemy. Not until 1569 did Gerard Mereator 
lead the way in revolt and all traces of the great error of Ptolemy, as 
to the length of the Mediterranean Sea, did not disappear from the 
maps until the beginning of the last century. For 1500 years Ptolemy 
reigned supreme and, therefore, it is not lost labour to study the Greek 
geographers, if we wish to understand the age of Columbus. 

The true circumference of the earth was not known to the Greeks, 
and they made different estimates; from Aristotle, 400,000 stades, to 
Ptolemy, 180,000 stades. The estimated length of a degree of the 
equiator varied in proportion, from 11111 | | to 500 stades respectively. 
In Appendix E, I have given a comparative table of the length of the 
equator and of a degree thereof as held by the chief geographical writers, 
from Aristotle down to the date of the convention at Badajoz. The 
figures are given in Greek stades, and Italian leagues and miles. In a 
separate column is the translation of these figures into nautical miles 
of the present day.. The compilation has been made in order to assist 
the student in grasping quickly the value of these ancient measures. 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 
439 

Putting aside Aristotle and Archimedes, they fall into three schools— 
those who follow Eratosthenes and reckon 700, those who follow 
Ptolemy and reckon 500 stades to a degree, and those who follow the 
Arabian measurements. The true length of a degree is 600 stades ; 
so that one school erred by one hundred stades in excess and another 
by 100 stades in defect. Lelewel states very confidently that Pytheas 
of Marseilles estimated the degree at 600 stades ; thus making the 
circumference of the eiarth 216,000 stades ; the precise equivalent of 
our 21,600 nautical miles. This, if true, would be exceedingly interest-
ing ; but aiter examining Lelewel's authorities, I have not ventured 
to include Pytheas in the table. 

The science of the Greeks loomed very large to the eyes of the cos-
mographers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, and they enter-
tained the opinion that the Greeks knew the true circumference of the 
earth and that if the great geographers of antiquity differed in the num-
ber of stades at Which they estimated it, the difference was caused by 
their use of stades of various lengths. There was nothing in the Greek 
writings to suggest any such opinion. The Greek authors used the 
word "stades" without any qualification and without any apparent fear 
of being misunderstood; plainly intending in all their arguments, the 
Olympic stade of 600 Greek feet, which was the length of the foot-race 
course at5 the Olympic games. In the third century of our era, after 
the work of the geographers was over, there did come into use, in Egypt 
and in the Asiatic provinces of Roane, a stade of which seven and a half 
went to the Roman mile. This stade, called the Phileterian stade, 
affected the measures of the Arabs and its influence appeared in the 
writings of Alfragan and passed thence into the works of Bacon and 
D'Ailly and, through them, into the speculations- of Columbus. 

The idea of different stades having been used by the Greek cos-
mographers is first met with, says Humboldt, in a memoir by Jaime 
Ferrer to the Spanish sovereigns relative to the line of demarcation. 
This is an exceedingly interesting document and, as it throws strong 
light upon the nautical science of the period in review, a translation is 
given at Appendix D. Ferrer said that the 252,000 stades of Eratos-
thenes, the 180,000 of Ptolemy and the measurements of Strabo, Alfra-
gan and Macrobius were the same in sum | but that the stades of 
Ptolemy were larger. (See App. D). Ptolemy, at that time, was an 
authority not to be gainsaid and yet Ferrer held, with Eratosthenes, 
that in a degree of a great circle, there were 700 stades of eight to a 
Roman mile. This heroic method of reconciling the ancient authors 
gained ground in an uncritical age and was advocated later by Delisle, 
Freret, Gosselin and many others, down to the early years of the present 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

century. Under the influence of this perennial fountain of error the 
subject became an arena of confusion. Without wearying the reader 
by going over this maze of unsettled opinion it will be sufficient to 
refer to the pages of Lelewel; for although, in his work on Pytheas, 
he distinguishes only two kinds of stades, the Olympic of eight to a mile 
and the Italic of eight and one third to a mile, in his larger work there 
are bewildering dissertations on the different stades and miles of ancient 
authors. W.e read of very small stades 10 or 12J to a mile, of Phile-
terian stades 7-J to a mile which later became 7 to a mile, of stades 5 to 
a mile, of Posidonian stades 500 to a degree, of stades of latitude, and 
of stades 502 1|2 to a degree. Then we may read of miles of longitude, 
of Venetian miles 60 to a degree, of miles 80 and 85 to a degree. In 
one map he finds seven different valuations of miles—50, 55, 67, 83, 
86 and 90 to a degree, and he naively remarks that this inequality of 
miles to a degree is common to nearly all the maps of the middle ages. 
Thus the absurdity is plainly apparent of taking these maps as seriously 
as if they had been compiled by scientific survey, and of making 
measures in common and daily use, such as the stade and the mile, 
shift and vary proportionately to the errors on the early maps and to 
6uit the speculative notions of men groping during 2000 years to dis-
cover the true circumference of the earth and the corresponding length 
of a degree of longitude. These "fancy stades," as D'Avefeac called 
them, are "will o' the wisp" lights to beguile the student of historical 
geography. 

The researches of Colonel Leake cleared away this fog and his 
views were supported by Uckert, Muller, St. Martin and later writers 
so that it may be new be considered as established that the stade of the 
Greek writers was equivalent to 600 Greek feet, equal to 606-75 English 
feet. From this arises a convenient and very nearly accurate ratio for 
converting, at sight, the Greek stades into our own familiar nautical 
miles, as follows :— • 

1 Olympic stade /== 606*75 English feet. 
10 1 I = 6067-5 " " 

and 
1 nautical mile • 6075-5 " " 
1 admiralty knot = 6086-5 " " 

or by Clarke's measurement = 6087*11 " " 
A Therefore 10 Olympic stades 1 minute of the equator, 

and 600 " " = 1 degree " " 

The Greek and modern standards then, though not absolutely 
equivalent, are sufficiently so for all practical purposes. The difference 
between ten Greek stadia and our accepted nautical mile is not greater 
than that between the nautical mile of customary computation and the 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 439 

admiralty knot; and, as before stated, the precise circumference of the 
earth has not even yet been ascertained with absolute accuracy. 

Although the Greek itinerary standard was the stadium, or foot-
race course at Olympia, it was repeated in the stadia of all other Greek 
cities in Europe or Asia Minor, erected for the athletic games, of which 
the Greeks were so fond; and, in fact, wherever Greek influence ex-
tended the stade continued to be the established standard. 

The Roman standard itinerary measure was characteristic of the 
world-conquerors. The mile is the mille passuum—the thousand paces— 
of the legionary soldiers, and, as they subdued Western Europe, the 
Roman power was consolidated by a perfect system of roads, and their 
milestones recorded the distances and familiarized the people for many 
centuries with a general standard of length which overrode the local 
measures of the shifting and semi-barbarous' tribes of the West. The 
integer of this standard is the passes—the pace; not the gradus, or 
step—a distinction sometimes overlooked; because, as the word passed 
through the French into the English language it became synonymous 
with step ; whereas the Roman passus was a double step equal to five 
Roman feet. In the British army the step is two and a half feet and 
the passus is five feet; but the Roman soldier had a slightly shorter 
step and his thousand paces were equivalent to only 4,854 English feet. 
I am not forgetting that, along the Rhine, there existed in the army, 
in the later years of the Empire, a longer foot—the Drusian foot—equal 
to 13-1 English inches ; but tihe standard in law and the measure along 
the roads was the Roman mile, related to the Roman foot of 11-65 Eng-
lish inches. The following is a short table of these standards : 

1 Roman mile = 1000 passus = 4854 English feet. 
1 Old English mile = 1000 paces = 5000 " 
1 modern statute mile =5280 " 

75 Roman miles (75-09) = 1 degree. 

It is instructive to observe that even the old English mile is based 
xipon the idea of a thousand paces. "Our ancestors," as Professor De 
Morgan remarked, "if they had not the old Roman mile, thought they 
" had it." The difference was only 146 feet ; for the Roman foot being 
11-65 English inches, 63 Roman are equivalent to 61 English feet. 
Capt. John Davis, of Arctic fame, one of the most skilful sailors of 
Queen Elizabeth's reign gives in his Seaman's Secrets (a treatise on 
navigation published in 1595) the following table: —10 inches = 1 
foot ; 5 feet = 1 pace; 1000 paces = 1 mile; 3 miles = 1 league; 
20 leagues = 1 degree. The editor of Davis's Works in the Hakluyt 
Series adds a note to say that this must be misprint as a mile is 5,280 
feet ; but it is no misprint but an accurate statement of measures then 
in common use. 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

The expression statute mile suggests the existence of an older cus-
tomary mile but, while the shorter measures are often mentioned in the 
statutes of the early parliaments, they make no references to miles, nor 
do they define a mile in any way. Our statute mile first made its appear-
ance in 35 Eliz. cap. vi, a statute making certain regulations concern-
ing building houses within three miles of London. Incidentally to its 
object and, as if some necessity existed for the definition, the mile in-
tended is said to consist of eight furlongs. The mile of 5000 feet con-
tains only furlongs, 3 perches and 2 palms; but the new mile is 
divisible into 8 furlongs, into 320 perches, poles or rods, and into 1760 
yards; which native English measures, while they form convenient 
divisors of the statute mile of 5280 feet,- cannot be harmonized with the 
Roman mile of 5000 feet. 

If, then, the Roman mile persisted in England down to the last 
year of the reign of Elizabeth, with only the slight modification above 
noted, there is little cause for wonder that it should have persisted in 
its integrity in the countries round the Mediterranean where the 
Romance languages are spoken; and these were the countries wherein 
the great navigators were born and from which issued the expeditions 
of early discovery to the East and West Indies. Cabot and Yerazzano 
were Italians, in the service of England and France respectively, and 
their voyages were the foundations of the claims of these nations in 
North America. The earliest literature of marine adventure is in Span-
ish, Portuguese, Italian and Latin, and the integer of distance is, 
throughout, the Roman mile known as the Italian mile and its multiple 
the Italian league—the marine league of the Mediterranean. 

The student of the early narratives meets continually with the 
league as a measure common to all. Whether it be Columbus, Vespucci, 
Magellan, Cabot, Diaz, De Gama, Galvano, Cartier, Ramusio or Oviedo, 
it is always the marine league in which their distances are calculated 
and Hakluyt in his translations carried them over without explanation, 
qualification or change. Sometimes we meet with miles, but they are 
the Italian or Roman miles. I am leaving out of the question the 
Swiss, Danish and German miles and leagues, because these nations 
took no part in early discovery and did not fall under the Roman power; 
but among the great maritime nations of Europe during the period 
under review, the marine league was a standard as universal as was the 
stade in Greek civilization and Greek geography. 

The word league (Low Latin leuca and leuga) is Celtic and signifies 
a stone, in some Celtic tongues a flat stone, and was probably a road 
mark. I t was a measure used in Celtic Gaul in the time of Ammianus 
Marcellinus and seems to have been originally 1500 passus in length. 



[ s . X. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEM A RC A.TION 6 0 9 

It was in use, in early times, by the sailors of the Mediterranean, as a 
sea measure exactly equivalent to four Roman or Italian miles. The 
writers of the period of expansion had, therefore, no need to qualify or 
translate their nautical distances, for they were understood by all, at the 
simple ratio of eight stades to a mile and four miles to a league. Notions 
concerning "fancy stades" and "fancy leagues"'are anachronistic stumb-
ling blocks in the way of a student. The early writers did indeed 
speculate much as to how many leagues went to a degree ; but not as 
to the length of a stade, a mile or a league. These latter were their 
standards, in which they were trying to work out the length of a great 
circle of the earth and of its three hundred and sixtieth part, to wit,— 
a degree. They were the known elements— the a and 6 of the problem; 
the length of a degree was the x and y—the unknown quantity. The 
league was an absolute measure—any man might pace it off on any road 

¡¡¡j-the degree depended upon the circumference of the earth, and it is 
evident that the 370 leagues of the treaty of Tordesillas would extend 
to a far greater western longitude on the shrunken globe of Columbus 
than on the expanded globe of Jaime Ferrer's imagination. 

As "fancy stades" of 1111 % 833 % 700 and 500 to a degree were 
invented by geographers, from Don Jaime Ferrer down to recent times, 
in order to harmonize the theories of Aristotle, Archimedes, Eratos-
thenes and Ptolemy as to the earth's circumference, so, these being ex-
ploded, similar illusions sprang up concerning leagues and, even in the 
present ¿ay, are befogging the nautical history of the fifteenth and six-
teenth centuries. None of the old authors or navigators suspect they 
are dealing with a variable measure. The Pope and the treaty-makers, 
as well as the seamen, give their distances, their sailing directions, in 
leagues—just only leaguesr—without a qualifying adjective. In late 
works, however, we read of leagues 141|6, 15,. 16

1|2, 16
 2|g, 17

 1|2 and 
216 |8 to a degreej "Merveilleux procédé" writes D'Avezac, "qui, pour 
I assurer l'exactitude du mesurage, crée la mesure même d'après l'objet 

bien ou mal mesuré." 

It is in this respect that Mr. Harrisse's Diplomatic History will be 
apt to mislead the unwary reader, and the danger is the greater because 
of the mathematical top-dressing which gives a semblance of solidity to 
what is really a quicksand of hypotheses. Thus we read—(p. 93) : 

" Ferrer's above stated data result in four different lengths for his 
"league, viz., 21-353, 21-813, 21-625 and 21-875 to the degree of the 
" equator of his sphere. For reasons given in our notes we select from 
" among these four valuations 21 -875 to his equatorial degree upon which 
" to base our calculations." Mr. Harrisse selected the right valuation 
according to Eratosthenes, but, not according to Ferrer, for a reference 



802 R OYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

to Ferrer's statement (Appendix D) will show that he (Ferrer) did not 
give a valuation of 21-875 (217|a) but a valuation of 21-625 (21

5|8) 
leagues for his equinoctial degree. Ferrer's arithmetic was wrong accord-
ing to his datum, and his other measurements are also wrong. The only 
one which concerns this inquiry is that on the latitude of the Cape 
Verde Islands, which he states to be 15°, and he gives the corresponding 
length of a degree on that parallel as 20 5|s leagues; whereas a correct 
calculation from the data of Eratosthenes (Which he gives correctly 
enough) would miake it 21 J|8 (21 -129) leagues. These are not four 
valuations of the league, but four Valuations of the degree. I t will be 
seen from the table (Appendix E) that Ferrer, in following Eratosthenes, 
made the globe one-sixth larger than it is, and in his statement (App. 
D, para. 10) it .will also be seen that he knew very little about the ancient 
oosmographers; for he enumerates among his learned men "Ambrosi, 
Macrobi, Teodosi," as three distinct persons, whereas they are one, to 
wit, Aurelius Theodosius Macrobius, and, above all, he Was wrong in 
assuming the 500 stades of Ptolemy and the 700 stades of Eratosthenes 
to express a degree of the same absolute length—to be in short identical 
concrete quantities. Of what value are the sines or tangents of such 
quantities as these ? Or what mathematical results can be based upon 
the statements of an authority who did not reason correctly, even from 
his own erroneous data ? 

Again, with regard to En-ciso, we read (at p. 105) that "in Enciso's 
"sphere, the value of the equatorial degree was 16*666 leagues," and 
lower down "Enciso's equatorial degree contained 18-0498 of his 
"leagues," and (at p. 192) the windrose in Enciso's Suma, "seems to 
" have been calculated on the basis of 17 1|2 leagues." Mr. Harrisse 
in this case thinks that "logic requires" him to select 16 2|3 leagues as 
the proper quantity. That is open to question, but here again, what 
value can such data las these have upon which to base a mathematical 
argument ? 

It would be wrong, however, to suppose that Mr. Harrisse thinks 
he is dealing with real leagues. It is the inaccuracy of writing "leagues" 
of Enciso or Ferrer, etc., when he means "degrees" which is misleading. 
In a note at p. 193, he says, " The probability is that the league, which 
" is always a unit usual and fixed, was the same for Eneiso and Ferrer ; 
" that is at the rate of 32 stades for one league." This throws an ad-, 
ditional vagueness over the matter. I t is like saying that it is probable 
that the three angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, and 
then going on to argue impartially, by trigonometrical methods, on both 
hypotheses—that they are and that they are not thus equal. The effect 
is confusing and tends to reopen the theories of "fancy leagues" which 



[B . E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 
439 

were exploded, by D'Avezac, forty years ago, in Ms discussion with 
Yamhagen. 

The utter inapplicability of mathematical reasoning in questions 
such as these is further shown at p. 190, where Mr. Harrisse sets forth 
his mode of measuring the Cantino map and, after submitting it to 
mathematical methods, he concludes "that no reliance is to be placed 
"on the metrology of that map." Again, at p. 210, the Ribeiro map 
is put through a. similar trigonometrical course and the conclusion is 
" that no reliance is to be placed, scientifically speaking, on the carto-
" graphical statements of the period." _ The wonder is that the attempt 
was ever made ; but now that Mr. Harrisse has given it up we may, at 
least, hope that lesser authorities will cease their anachronistic efforts 
to scale off these crude and tentative maps of the old navigators as if1 

they were admiralty charts or publications of the U. S. Geodetic 
Survey. 

The Suma de Geographic/, of Fernandez de Enciso was published 
at Seville in 1519 and does, indeed, give the circumference of the earth 
as 6000 leagues. It was an estimation in round numbers, for it was 
equivalent to 24,000 Italian miles, and is found not only in Enciso but 
it! some other authorities. That, divided by 360, gives 16 2|s leagues to 
a degree or 16-666 as Mr. Harrisse states (p. 105). The reason, there-
fore, of Mr. Hamsse's statement that "Enciso's equatorial degree con-
" tained 18-0489 of his leagues" is not apparent and a careful perusal of 
the intricate calculations from pp. 193 to 197, in which Ferrer's leagues, 
and Enciso's leagues, and our marine leagues, are mingled with Greek 
stades and French metres fails to make it clear. The mixing up of 
absolute quantities such as leagues with shifting and unknown quanti-
ties such as degrees is fatal to clear reasoning. No doubt the league 
both of Enciso and of Ferrer consists of 32 stades; but Ferrer counted 
217|g and Enciso 16

 2|3 of them to a degree. The quantities are irre-
concilable and cannot be combined to form a third league. I t is cer-
tain that neither Enciso or any one else had a league of 18-0498 to a 
degree for there is not only his own statement as given above ; but his 
calculation of the distance between the port of Higueras and the island 
of San Thome, which he gives at 117 degrees and equivalent to 1950 
leagues, and if one be divided into the other the quotient is again 16 2|3 
leagues to a degree. The distances, at that time were inconceivably 
erroneous but the fact of this distance being over-estimated does not 
affect the ratio between the two quantities given. 

Returning to the Suma of Enciso it must be observed that, when it 
was written, a more correct estimate of the length of a degree was very 
generally accepted and to this Enciso bears most decided testimony in 



512 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

that part of his book which may be called scientific, for it is in connec-
tion with a windrose and contains practical instructions for navigation, 
to the effect that in sailing on a direct northern course until the pole 
star is elevated one degree, "that degree is equal to seventeen leagues 
"and a half and that is the distance you will have gone." There is no 
uncertainty about that statement; but Yarnhagen and other advocates 
of "fancy leagues," in order to get leagues to suit their theories, started 
an idea that latitudinal and longitudinal degrees on a great circle of the 
earth were of different length. Enciso disposes of that idea. His 
sailing directions continue thus : "Also, if your course is one point the 
" distance sailed will be 17 3j4 leagues and departure 3

 1|2 leagues for the 
"degree. If your course be two points, count the distance sailed 19 l |6 

LEAGUES OF DEPARTURE 

FIGURE 1. 

" leagues and departure 7 1|2 leagues. If three points count the distance 
" sailed as 211 |8 leagues and the departure 11

 5|s leagues. If the course 
"be four points count the distance as 243j4 leagues and the departure 
" 171 |2 leagues." The above diagram (Pig. 1) will show the mean-
ing graphically . 



[B . E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 
439 

Reference to a Traverse Table, in any work on navigation, will 
show these figures to be correct. For comparison, the statement in 
tabular form is as follows — 

One degree of Latitude 17 J leagues, by 
Enciso's windrose, is equal Latitude One Degree. 

LEAGUES. 

Longitude or 
Departure. 

Distance 
Sailed. 

North by West ; Course 1 point W m 17| 
North-northwest ; Course 2 points W m n 19* 
Northwest by North ; Course 3 points W.. H« 21J 
Northwest ; Course 4 points W 17 i 17£ 24| 

Enciso's Suma is a rare book. There are four editions of it, A.D. 
1519, 1530, 1530, 1546, all of which are in the Lenox Library and 
through the courtesy of the librarian, Mr. Wilberforce Eames, I am able 
to give the following tracing of the upper half of the windrose. 
(Fig. 2). 

Close inspection will show a misprint over the north point. A 
stroke is dropped and it reads XVI instead of X V I I ; but it is clearly 
a misprint for the text underneath gives the distance at length dezisiete 
leguas e media, seventeen leagues and a half. The error is corrected in 
the later editions. I t is apparent by Pig. 1, for the course of four points 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

ia 45° and the triangle is right angled. For the preceding reasons it 
' is evident that Enciso knew that the true length of a degree was 17 1L 

leagues, although the rate of 16 2|3 leagues was still held by many when 
he wrote. I t will, I trust, be noted that all these sailors and cosmo-
gr&phers knew that the world was a sphere and in speculating upon the 
length of degrees of latitude and longitude they meant, as we do, de-
grees upon great circles unless they mention some specific latitude they 
are measuring upon. 

I come now to inquire why the round number of 6000 leagues, or 
24,000 Roman miles, should have been accepted as the measure of the 
circumference of the earth, and I find the answer in a letter of Amerigo 
Vespucci to Medici las follows : % The reason why I count 16 2|3 
" leagues to a degree is that according to Ptolemy and Alfragan the 
" world is 24,000 miles in circumference which is equal to 6000 
1 leagues which divided by 360 is equal to 16 2|3 leagues, a result which 
" I have many times tested by the point of pilots and have found it 
" sound and true." The reason is, therefore, to be traced back to 
Ptolemy; though by way of Alfragan, and it must be observed there-
fore, that it is a Greek, not an Arabian measurement. 

It has been stated already that, when the Arabs overran, the Eastern 
Roman Empire, they found in use a stade (Egyptian, royal, or Phile-
terian) of Which 7 1|2 went to a Roman mile. They did not know that 
this measure did not arise until after Ptolemy's time and they divided 
the 500" stades of Ptolemy's degree by 71|2, and thus made it 66

 2|3 
Roman miles, which, in leagues of four to a mile, was equal to 16 2|3 
leagues; and this leads to a consideration of the effect the Arabian 
learning had on the cosmological ideas of the period now in review. 

During the long ages of confusion in the West, while wave after 
wave of barbarians submerged the Roman civilization and the lamp of 
learning burned only in the seclusion of the cloister, the Arabians culti-
vated the arts and sciences at the chief centres of their power—Bagdad, 
Cairo and Cordova. The works of Aristotle, Archimedes, and Ptolemy, 
among other authors, were translated into Arabic for the great school 
of geography and astronomy founded at Bagdad, and about A.D. 833, 
the Caliph Almamoun ordered several measurements to be made of an 
arc of the meridian, the only attempt at a really scientific solution of 
the problem from the time of the Greeks until the beginning of the 
eighteenth century. Greek science first reached Western Europe 
through Arabic translations. The works of Massaudy and other 
Arabian geographers, passed into Spain through the Moors, and the 
Celestial Movements of Alfragan were translated into Latin and became 
well known to the learned. The measurements under Almamoun had 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 439 

resulted in an estimation of 56 2|3 miles to a degree and were accepted 
as true by Friar Bacon and Cardinal D'Ailly and others of the favourite 
authors of Columbus, who, dividing that figure by four, arrived at the 
conclusion he adhered to all his life that the length of a degree was 
14 x|6 leagues, and he even asserted that he had verified it on one of his 
voyages to Guinea. I t has not been absolutely proved that these Aia-
bian miles were equivalent to Roman miles; but the inquiry is long 
and it is sufficient now to say that they were taken to be equivalent, 
and in the belief tihat the earth was much smaller than it is, the ad-
miral discovered America and thought it was India. In that way arose 
the belief, to which the admiral and his son adhered, in a degree of 14 | | 
leagues. 

The different estimations of the length of. a degree at the close of 
the fifteenth century can nearly all be traced back to some manipulation 
of Ptolemy's figures, If his, 500 stades be divided by eight—the true 
divisor we have another estimate often met with, viz., 62 % miles to 
a degree or 15 5|s leagues. This again, in current writing was rounded 
off to 60 miles and 15 leagues and .given out also as Ptolemy's measure-
ment. Jaime Ferrer alone followed Eratosthenes and valued the de-
gree at 700 stades and, dividing by eight, he made it 87 % miles; this 
divided again by four made 2 1 l e a g u e s in reality, though by some 
error it is 21 B|s in his opinion (App, D); but even he could not throw 
off the influence of Ptolemy and as pointed out already was driven to 
suppose that Ptolemy's 500 stades were, longer and were equivalent to 
the 700 of Eratosthenes. There was in fact no settled estimate and we 
find in the opinion of Duran, Cabot tod Vespucci, at Badajoz, that they 
quote Ptolemy for a length of 62 J]2 miles while themselves valuing a 
degree at 70 miles. 

I t is an anachronism to expect, in the writers of pre-scientific days, 
that precision of statement demanded by modern science and the reader 
must be prepared to meet with occasional passages which conflict with 
the general trend of the authorities. I t is certain that Gomara held 
to the valuation of 17 ^ leagues; but he also quotes Ptolemy loosely, 
for he says (in Eden's translation) "He (Ptolemy) assigned likewise to 
" every degree three score miles which make seventeen Spanish leagues 

a n d a half." Here are two manifest slips, because Ptolemy's degree 
yas 62 % miles and 17 % leagues were 70 miles. This last valuation 
is beyond question; for Fernan Columbus, in his official opinion at 
Badajoz, says expressly that "Castillian or marine leagues" are four 
miles in length. Again in a passage in the Fifth Decade of Peter' 
Martyr we find that author complaining that sailors counted the 175 
leagues, from Borneo to Malacca as ten degrees, whereas "the ancient 

Sec. II., 1899. 33. 



802 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

" philosophers reckoned 15 leagues or 60 miles to a degree." This 
passage shows how loosely Ptolemy was quoted, and also that the belief 
in 17 1|2 leagues to a degree had then been established at sea. 

That which had been hidden from the learned throughout the 
ages, was revealed to the practical mariner unskilled in book lore ; but 
skilled to watch the elevation or sinking of the pole-star on a northern or 
southern course, and skilled also to estimate the dead reckoning of his 
little vessel by the aid of his sand glass. Therefore, when the length 
of voyages extended over thousands of miles, the elaborate measure-
ments of the Greeks and Arabians were found to be wrong and the 
valuation of 171|2 leagues or 70 miles was accepted by sailors in ad-
vance of scholars. I t was not far out of the way; since 70 Italian miles 
are equal to 64-3 English statute miles and 69-1 of these last miles are 
now reckoned to be the length of a degree of a great circle. 

We may then conclude, with Eavarrete and D'Avezac, that, at 
least as early as A.D. 1517, the valuation of 17 1[2 leagues had come into 
general use. Humboldt unhesitatingly quotes the leagues of Torde-
sillas at that rarte. Herrera would seem to know of no other; for at 
the very outset of his History, he gives the circumference of the earth 
as 6,300 leagues. Magellan, writing in A.D. 1519, to King Ferdinand,' 
stated that the island of San Antonio is 22° east of the line of demar-
cation. He gave the latitude at 17°, proving that he was reckoning at 
the rate of 17 1|2 leagues to an equatorial degree. At the convention 
of Badajoz, in A.D. 1524, Euy de Villegas stated that he had measured 
a degree with that result, and Thomas Duran, Sebastian Cabot and 
Juan Vespucci, not only concurred in that valuation, but added that it. 
was the usual estimate of Spanish and Portuguese sailors. While this 
was the opinion of the Spanish pilots and experts, the Spanish judges 
clung to the 62 xj2 miles of Ptolemy; because they thought that the 
Portuguese were stretching out the distance to 70 miles for the pur-
pose of including the Spice Islands within their line. 

In A.D. 1529, at the treaty of Saragossa, the ratio of 171|2 leagues 
was admitted on both sides; for the Spaniards had" recognized the fact 
that, as each party had' 180 degrees, the length of a degree made no 
difference. I t had to count on both sides, and in after years, whenever 
the treaty came up for discussion the same ratio was made the basis of 
argument. I t persists all through the nautical authorities, not only in 
Spain, but in France; for we find that Champlain, in A.D. 1-632, when 
giving instructions for making charts, laid down the rule that the scale 
must be 17 1|2 leagues to a degree. 

The reader will see, from these remarks, that the old writers deal 
with only one league, that which was a multiple of the Koman mile. 



[s. B. DAWSON] THE LINES O F DEMARCATION 3 1 7 

The doubt was solely as to the number of these leagues in a degree. 
To write of leagues of Enciso, of Ferrer, or of anybody else, is to intro-
duce uncertainty and error into the early history of this continent. I t 
is most important to build up our history on a solid basis and to follow 
the tracks of the early voyagers along our shores with some degree of 
certainty. If then, the argument of this chapter be followed and 
accepted, the reader of the old narratives will have to do with only one 
league—the marine league used by Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and 
French sailors ; not only at the time under review but for an in-
definitely long period before and an indefinitely long time after. In 
the following table I give its equivalent value in English measures and, 
in order to show-the limit of variation between the different authorities, 
I give also the value as taken by Captain Fox (on the authority of Rear 
Admiral Rogers of the U.S. Naval Observatory) for his calculations 
upon the landfall of Columbus. There is a difference of twelve feet in 
the mile. This will serve to show the. close approximation of all the 
estimations made, and to explain the slight variations among them. 

1 Roman or Italian mile = 1,618 yards = 4,854 feet English. 
4 " " miles = 6,472 " =19,416 " 

or, according to Captain Fox, 
1 Roman or Italian mile = l ,6i4 yards = 4,842 " " 
4 " " miles = 6,456 " =19,368 " " 
4 miles = 1 marine league of the early navigators. 

The reader is again referred to Appendix E for a detailed table of 
the different views held concerning the subject of this chapter. These 
opinions are ranged in descending order, from Aristotle .with a degree 
of 111-11 to Columbus .with a degree of 45-33 of our modern nautical 
miles. The figures are given in Greek stades, Italian miles, and nauti-
cal miles'. The equivalents in our nautical miles are printed for con-
venient reference in black faced type in the central columns. 

I X . — T H E LINES OE DEMARCATION ON THE OCEAN. 

It has been shown that the line of demarcation, about which so 
much has been written during the past four hundred years—and so 
eloquently—is not the line of Pope Alexander. I t is the line of the 
Spanish and Portuguese plenipotentiaries at Tordesillas, in A.D. 1494 
the following year. They selected as their terminus a quo a group of 
islands—the Cape Verde Islands—extending over three degrees of 
longitude, without, indicating which one they proposed to measure 
from and, in after years, in consequence, some measured from Bonavista, 
the eastern island, some from Fogo, the centre island, and some from San 



518 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

Antonio, the western island | according to the shifting political neces-
sities which from time to time arose. For reasons stated on a previous 
page, the western island must be considered to be the legal point of 
departure, and it—San Antonio—is in 17° 12' of north^ latitude and 
25° 5' 7" of west longitude. 

Upon reflection, it will appear that there , are only two inquiries 
concerning the location of the line of demarcation which can yield any 
result of historical interest. First, where does this line fall under 
present conditions of nautical science ? and second, where was it sup-
posed to fall by the Spaniards and Portuguese governments, under the 
conditions existing at the time of the treaty, or as near as possible to 
it ? This latter problem may be solved by the aid of maps; but 
not by weaving a tissue of hypotheses out of Jaime Ferrer's errors or 
by performing mathematical processes on globes of imaginary dimen-
sions. If the distances had been, stated in degrees the case would be 
different, but the Pope and the plenipotentiaries avoided degrees and 
laid down the distance in leagues. The degree is a relative term of 
length having no intrinsic value but depending on the circle of which 
it is the three hundred and sixtieth part. It is the same on a library 
globe as on the globe of the earth—the league is a definite concrete 
quantity independent of globes or circles. The terrestrial globe of 
Ferrer was 252,000 stades in circumference; Enciso had two sizes in 
his Suma, one (which Mr. Harrisse adopts) of 192,000 stades, and an-
other which he gave out to practical sailors of 201,600 stades; Colum-
bus imagined a globe of 163,200 -stades only, and to that he clung all 
his life. I t is manifest that' 370 leagues measured upon four globes so 
different in magnitude would extend over greatly different numbers of 
degrees, and when all these varying quantities are combined with 
others aa problematical and turned round in a mathematical kaleido-
scope, the effect is bewildering. 

Returning to the first question, I would repeat that the real latitude 
of the island of San Antonio is 17° 12' north, and would add that, on 
that parallel, degrees of longitude are 57-32 -of our nautical miles in 
length. I t has been shown, on previous pages, that four Roman or old 
Italian miles, of 1618 English yards each, were reckoned to a league, 
and therefore, the 370 leagues of Tordesillas multiplied by four were 
1480 Italian miles. As the English nautical mile contains 2029 Eng-
lish yards, the following sum in simple arithemetic will tell us what 
these leagues are in our familiar measure:— 

yds. yds. Ital. miles. Eng. naut. miles. 
2029 : 1618 : : 1480 : 1180-2 

The 370 leagues are, therefore* equivalent to 1180 of our marine 
miles, omitting the fraction. 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 439 

It has been stated that on the parallel of San Antonio a degree of 
longitude is 57-32 nautical miles. We hare, therefore, to divide one 
quantity by the other, thus— 

1180-2 -h 57-32 = 20° 35', 
and the equivalent in longitude is therefore 20° 35'. To find this point 
on our charts the longitude west from Greenwich of the starting point 
must be added and the longitude of Ban Antonio is 25° 5', and 

25° 5' + 20° 35' = 45° 40' west longitude ; 
so that if we draw a line on an admiralty chart at the meridian of 
45° 40', it will be the true line of the treaty of Tordesillas' and we shall 
find that the line of demarcation, if calculated on true data, would 
never have touched any point on the continent of North America. Cape 
Eace is its most eastern point and is in longitude 53° 4' W. So the 
true line of Tordesillas passes 7° 24' seaward of it and cuts the coast of 
Greenland in Davis' Strait. The Dominion of Canada is thus shut 
up in the Spanish demarcation and only the neglected John Cabot, 
over whose unknown tomb memory has raised no trophies, has saved 
us from the full force of the primary count in the Venezuelan argument. 

Coming now to the second point of our inquiry, it must be ad-
mitted that, to all intents and purposes, this line of Tordesillas did at 
the period under review, cut our coasts ; since both the Spaniards and 
Portuguese thought it did and governed themselves accordingly. As 
explained before, the present paper is not concerned with South 
America ; but the map in front of Mr. Harrisse's History contains the 
results of his calculations on the "spheres" of Riibeiro, Ferrer, Enciso, 
Oviedo, Cantino and the Badajoz experts, transferred to our admiralty' 
charts, and they show lines of west longitude from 42° 30' to 49° 
so that in any of these worlds the line would have passed seawards, by 
nearly four degrees, waf Cape Race ; but, what is more remarkable, the 
unexpected result appears that Jaime Ferrer with a world of 252,000 
stades, and Enciso with a world of 201,600 stades, should have come 
out to within one mile of each other as mathematically calculated by 
Mr. Harrisse. I t is also worthy of remark that the present writer, 
working upon the world as now known of 216,000 stades in circum-
ference, by simple arithmetic and with modern data, should have 
arrived within three miles of the same conclusion. Stated in Italian 
miles the lines are as follows : in the present paper with a degree of 
75 miles at 45° 40' ; Enciso in Mr. Harrisse's map with a degree of 
66;66 miles at 45° 38', and Ferrer on the same map with a degree of 
87-5 miles at 45° 37'. This is a very surprising result of mathematical 
reasoning. It means in effect that whether 370 leagues (equal to 1480 
Italian miles) are divided by 75, 87-5 or 66-6, the quotient is the same 
within a limit of only 3 minutes of longitude. 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

c i i h M » 



[E. B. DAWSON] THE LINES OP DEMARCATION 621 

The second point of our inquiry, namely, where upon our coast 
did those old navigators think that the line touched ? cannot be 
found mathematically, for it would seem from these calculations on 
"spheres" that the same result is reached from widely different data. 
That method is plainly inapplicable. I t is necessary, therefore, to 
turn to the maps of the period—those maps which, mathematically 
measured, will mislead the student; but which will yield valuable in-
formation to whoever will read them in the light of their own age, 
The topographical features upon them will show within a very small 
distance the place where the line of Tordesillas touched our coast— 
in the current opinion of the period when the people were alive who 
had the practical settlement of it. 

The Spanish view is set forth in two maps, both copied from the 
official map of Spain. One is by Diego Ribeiro and is dated A.D. 1529, 
the other is dated A.D. 1527, and has been ascribed to Fernan Columbus, 
but Mr. Harrisse thinks it to be the work of Nuno Garcia de Toreno. 
Mr. Harrisse has the greater probability on his-side ; but it makes little 
difference, since both Ribeiro and Garcia were celebrated pilots and 
were among the experts on behalf of Spain at the Badajoz conference. 
Both of them were distinguished chart makers and Ribeiro was one 
of the commissioners for compiling and supervising the standard map— 
(Padron Real). Fig. 3 is an extract from the well known map at 
Weimar made by him. The two flags are on the South American coast 

V \ 
-3, H ü 

FIG. 4. N U N O GARCIA, SPANISH, A . D . 1527. 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

and have been moved up and included in this extract to show how the 
line is marked on the map—the Portuguese to the east and the Spanish 
to the west of the dividing line between them. The reader's attention 
is called to the fact that the line cuts the coast far west of Cape Race 
and westward of the islands on the south coast of Newfoundland. It 
passes west of nearly the whole region of Baccallaos and just clears 
what may be taken as Nova Scotia and the point of Cape Breton. I t 
corresponds as nearly as possible to the meridian of 60° W. on our charts 
which passes through Cabot Strait close to the island of St. Paul. 

Fig. 4 is an outline extract of the map by Nuno Garcia, or Fernan 
Columbus. I t is traced from Winsor's Narr. and Grit. History, Yol. 
II, p. 43. In this map the opening between Cape Breton and New-
foundland is indicated, as it is also on earlier maps, and the line of de-
marcation passes through it. These two maps are conclusive evidence 
that, on the Spanish official map, the division was close to the point of. 
Cape Breton and cut off all Newfoundland into the Portuguese demar-
cation. That then was the Spanish view of the question, and it is im-
portant to remember that the true longitude of the line has been shown 
to be 45° 40'. The longitude, therefore, on both these maps is 14° 20' 
out of the truth ; so far as that part of the coast, is concerned. 



[B . E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 439 

Turning now to the other side, there will be found only two maps 
of undoubted Portuguese origin in which the line is shown. The'first 
in order of date is the Oantino map of A.D. 1502, which has been 
beautifully reproduced in Mr. Harrisse's work on the Oorte Beales. 
Pig. 5 is an outline tracing of a portion of this map. The coast of 
America at that early date is not continuous and much distorted; but 
it is plainly manifest that the dotted line on the sketch, representing 
the dividing line, passes far west -of Cape Race and cuts off all of New-
foundland to the east. This map,- therefore, concurs with the Spanish 
maps above cited. The longitude of this map is, therefore, just as 
erroneous (and no more so) as that of the Spanish maps, and it will 
also be observed that every one of the Antilles is north of the tropic of 

t Cancer; whereas, in reality, every one of them lies to the south of it. 
The latitude, therefore, of that part of the map is from eight to ten 
degrees out of the truth. 

Fig. 6 is the second Portuguese map referred to above. I t is 
anonymous and undated; but all authorities agree in assigning it to 
A.D. 1514-1520. The extract given is taken from Kohl and in it we 
have the most indubitable corroboration of the indications upon the 
three maps previously cited. The line is seen to cut off Baccalaos to 
the east. It just grazes the point of Nova Scotia and passes to the 
north at the precise point where Cabot Strait opens up in the rear of 
Newfoundland. 

Here, then, we have a most striking record of concurrence, between 
the Spanish and Portuguese authorities, as, to where, in their opinion, 
the line of Tordesillas cut our coast. We are not called upon to per-
form elaborate mathematical calculations upon imaginary worlds of 
different sizes and everyone of them wrong, nor to measure distances 
in leagues of various lengths or in degrees of different great circles, 
containing from 56 to 87 miles each. The opinion current at the 
time, which was the subject of our second question, is set forth graphi-
cally beyond possibility of doubt. As I have urged in previous papers, 
Cape Race is the cardinal point of the geography of the northeast coast 
of America, and always has been. The very same name has clung to 
it since A.D. 1502, and, in all the four cartographical witnesses above 
cited, the line passes at an approximately similar distance west of it. 
If then the question be asked, where the line of Tordesillas really was ? 
I would reply, at 45° 40' W. on our inaps ; but if the question b e -
where did the Spaniards and Portuguese suppose it to be ? I should 
answer—close to the west of the meridian of 60° on our maps. 

I have called attention to the fact that these old maps are very 
erroneous as to longitude; and sometimes as to latitude also. How 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 



[S. E. DAWBON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 5 2 6 

could they possibly be correct when, the old navigators had no means 
of correcting their dead reckoning ? Hence it was that, in measur-
ing their course south and east to the Moluccas round the Cape of Good 
Hope and over the Indian Ocean, their estimations of longitude differed 
by as much as forty-six degrees. If, as has been stated above, the 
Mediterranean Sea, which washed their feet from childhood, was always 
laid down twenty degrees too long, ought it to be cause for wonder if, 
across the unquiet western ocean, their longitude was fifteen degrees 
in error ? 

Elsewhere, I have endeavoured to point out the injustice to the 
memory of Sebastian Cabot in calling him false and venal for changing 
his service, as did so many of the great sailors of those days without 
blame. The concurrence of the line of partition on these maps clears 
the memory of that most daring of sailors, Corte Eeale, from the charge 
of "wantonly" inscribing Newfoundland on his maps "as within the 
"dominions of Portugal." He did not-make the Cantino map, and, 
if that map was based on his information, the information is confirmed 
by the Spanish maps twenty-five years later. Nor can it be said that 
the Spanish cartographers were misled by h im; for their maps were 
based on the reports of Estevan Gomez, who spent ten months along 
the east coast of America in A.D. 1525. 

There are also very weighty historical reasons which confirm the 
above conclusion as to the point of contact between the two spheres of 
influence. When John Cabot was preparing to sail to the west, King 
Ferdinand, in a letter to De Puebla (March 28, 1496), objected to the 
expedition as being in prejudice to "our rights or those of the King of 
"Portugal." Afterwards, in A.D. 1511, the King's orders to Juan de 
Agramonte, relative to Cabot, manifest a doubt as to which side of the 
line the discovery was on. He was ordered to take Breton pilots; 
thus clearly indicating the locality to be in the "Bay of the Bretons," 
in the region marked on the Portuguese chart Fig. 6, as " the land dis-
covered by the Bretons;" and he is to make a settlement there, with-
out infringing on the rights of Portugal. This last condition confirms 
the maps that the point of contact was in the King's opinion near the 
spot of Cabot's discovery as laid down subsequently in Sebastian Cabot's 
map of 1544. 

Again, in A.D. 1541, when Spanish spies reported the preparations 
for Roberval's proposed settlement, the Spanish ambassador at Lisbon 
endeavoured to incite the King of Portugal to send an expedition to 
destroy these French interlopers. The King replied that he knew 
where the French were going and that it was in his territory; but he 
declined to take action because they could do him no harm there, and 



5 2 6 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

he thought, moreover, the expedition would fail. The ambassador 
then addressed himself to the queen, who was devoted to the interests 
of the Emperor Charles V., and even suggested that, if the King would 
not defend his territories, they should be ceded to the Emperor who 
would take care of them. This expedition was to sail through Cabot 
Strait and make a settlement within it. 

The grant of the King of Portugal in 1521 to Joam Alvarez 
Fagundez was for the territory "from the line of demarcation on the 
" south to the boundaries of the land discovered by Corte Reale on the 
" north," and, if the map of Lazaro Luis of A.D. 1563 is to be accepted 
as evidence of a grant forty years before, it would seem that a part of 
the peninsula of Nova Scotia, was considered to be within thè Portu-
guese line. 

We may, therefore, feel sure, both on cartographical and historical 
grounds, that although the line of demarcation, according to the light 
of the astronomical science of the present day, would pass away out to 
sea seven degrees westward of this continent, yet as between Spain and 
Portugal, it was acknowledged to cut the coast of Nova Scotia and that 
Portugal by right of prior occupation might have held the territory of 
Baccallaos as against Spain. By right of discovery England's claim was 
prior to all ; for John Cabot touched the main continent in 1497. The 
point where he touched is indicated by the instructions of Ferdinand 
to Juan de Agramonte above cited. I t was close to the line of demar-
cation and, on the map of Sebastian Cabot of 1544, it was at Cape 
Breton. This last point has been sufficiently elucidated by the present 
writer in previous papers in these Transactions. I t only remains to 
observe that converging lines of inquiry concentrate the interest of 
geographical historians upon that point of the northeast coast of Nova 
Scotia. Those who seek for mathematical demonstration in history will 
lose their labour. The subject matter admits of probable proof alone. 
Even if the probability should amount to moral certainty, its intrinsic 
nature will be the same. An erroneous quantity propounded to a cal-
culating machine can produce nothing but an erroneous result and hypo-
theses worked out by mathematical tables acquire no higher probability 
on that account. The tendency is in the reverse direction. 



[B . E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 
439 

NOTES. 

1 Maine—Ancient Law, p. 101. 
2 Cicero—de Legibus, Bk. ii, chap. 4. 
3 Bryce—Holy Roman Empire, p. 244. 
4 Maine—Ancient . Law, p. 249. 
5 St. Augustine—de Civitate Dei, xvi., 5. 
6 Harrisse—Diplomatic History, p. 76. 
7 Lingard—History of England, vol. 2, p. 178. 
8 Harrisse—Diplomatic History, p. 17. 
9 André—Manuel de Droit Canon, ad veri. 

10 Harrisse—Diplomatic History, p. 18. 
11 Harrisse—Diplomatic History, p. 19. 
12 Harrisse—Diplomatic History, ïb. 
13 Harrisse—Diplomatic History, ïb. 

. 14 This Campo di .Fiori is the place indicated at p. 51 Diplomatic History 
as " the Floral Field." It is an open space off the Piazza Navona where acts 
of public proclamation were made. 

15 Humboldt—Examen Critique, III., p. 52 note. 
16 Humboldt—Cosmos, II., p. 657. 
17 It is impossible to make references to all the authorities from whence 

the conclusions of this chapter have been drawn. Many are cited in the text. 
Among those not so mentioned are Humboldt, Cosmos and Examen Critique ; 
Bunbury, Ancient Geography; Beasley, Dawn of Modern Geography; Smith, 
Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities and other works of the same 
class ; Bulletin de la Société de Géographie ; articles by D'Avezac and 
Varnhagen. 





APPENDIX A. 

THE BULL OF DEMARCATION (C) OF MAY 4, 1493 (INTER CETERA), 

COLLATED WITH THE SUPPRESSED DRAFT (A) OF MAY 3. 

The following is a copy of the Bull as found in the Fonti Italiani, Part 
III. of the series of volumes issued by the Reale Commissione Colombiana, 
Rome, 1894. Those words which were not in the unpromulgated Bull and 
were inserted to bring it to its final form, as published, are printed in italics. 
The words in the draft which were omitted in the final Bull are printed in 
the footnotes with references to their original places in the text. 

ALEXANDER episcopus, servus servorum Dei, carissimo in Christo filio 
Ferdinando regi et carissimse in Christo filiae Helisabeth reginae Castells, 
Legionis, Aragonum, Siciliae et Granai® illustribus, .salutem et apostolicam 
benedictioném. Inter cetera divinse majestati beneplacita opera et cordis 
nostri desiderabilia illud profecto potissimum existit, ut fides catholica et 
Christiana religio nostris praesertim temporibus exaltetur ac ubilibet amplie-
tur et dilatetur, animarumque salus procuretur, ac barbarse nationes depri-
mantur et ad fidem ipsam1 reducantur. Unde cum ad hanc sacram Petri 
Sedem, divina favente dementia, meritis licet imparibus, evocati fuerimus, 
cognoscentes vos tanquam veros catholicos reges et principes, qtiales semper 
fuisse novimus, et a vobis praeclare gesta toti pene jam orbi notissima demon-
strant, ne dum id exoptare, sed omni conatu, studio et diligentia, nullfs 
laboribus, nullis impensis nullisque parcendo periculis, etiam proprium san-
guinem effundendo, efficere, ac omnem animum vestrum omnesque conatus 
ad hoc jam dudum dedicasse, quemadmodum recUperatio regni Granatae a 
tyrannide Saracenorum hodiernis temporibus per vos cum tanta divini 
nominis gloria facta, testatur ; digne ducimur non immerito et debemus ilia 
vobis etiam sponte et favorabiliter concedere, per quae hujusmodi sanctum 
et laudabile ac immortali Deo Acceptum propositum in dies ferventiori animo, 
ad ipsius Dei honorem et imperii christiani propagationem prosequi valeatis. 
Sane accepimus quod vos, qui dudum animo proposueratis aliquas insulas et 
terras firmas remotas et incognitas ac per alios hactenus non repertas quaarere 
et invenire, ut illarum incolas et habitatores ad colendum Redemptorem 
nostrum et fidem catholicam profitendam reduceretls, hactenus in expugna-
tione et recuperatione ipsius regni Granatae plurimum occupati, hujusmodi 
sanctum et laudabile propositum vestrum ad optatum finem perducere nequi-
vistis. Sed tandem, sicut Domino placuit, regno praedicto recuperato, 
volentes desiderium adimplere vestrum, dilectum filium Christoforum Colon, 
virum utique dignurn et plurimum commendandum ac tanto negotio aptum, cum 
navigiis et hominibus ad similia instructis, non sine maximis laboribus et 
periculis ac expensis destinastis, ut terras firmas et insulas remotas et incog-
nitas hujusmodi per mare, ubi hactenus navigatum non fuerat, diligenter 
inquirerent. Qui tandem, divino auxilio, facta extrema diligentia,3 in mari 
Oceano navigantes, certas insulas remotissimas et etiam terras firmas, quae 
per alios hactenus repertae non fuerant, invenerunt; in quibus quamplurimae 
gentes pacifico viventes et, ut asserì tur, nudi incedentes, nec carnibus 
vescentes, inhabitant ; et, ut praefati nuntii vestri possunt opinari, gentes 
ipsa in insulis et terris praedictis habitantes credunt unum Deum creatorem 
in ccelis esse, ac ad fidem catholicam amplexandum et bonis moribus im-

1 Inser t Christianam. 
2 Inser t , per partes occidentales ut dicitur, versus Indos. 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

buendum satis apti videntur; spesque habetur quod, si erudirentur,. nomen 
salvatoris domini nostri Yhesu Cbristi in terris et insulis praedictis facile 
induceretur. Ac prsefatus Christoforus in una ex principalibus insulis 
praedictis jam unam turrim satis munitam, in qua certos Christianos, qui 
secum iverant, in custodiam, et ut alias insulas et terras firmas remotas et 
incognitas inquirerent, posuit, construi et ediflcari fecit ; in quibus quidem 
insulis et terris jam repertis aurum, aromatha et alias quam plurimae res 
pretiosas diversi generis et diversae qualitatis reperiuntur : unde omnibus 
diligenter et praesertim fldei catholicae exaltatione et dilatatione, prout decet 
catholicos reges et principes, consideratis, more progenitorum vestrorum 
claras memoriae regum, terras firmas et insulas praedictas illarumque incolas 
et habitatores vobis, divina favente dementia, subjicere et ad fidem catholi-
cam reducere proposuistis. Nos igitur hujusmodi vestrum sanctum et lauda-
bile propositum plurimum in Domino commendantes, ac cupientes ut illud 
ad debitum finem perducatur, et ipsum nomen Salvatoris nostri in partibus 
illis inducatur, hortamur vos plurimum in Domino, et per sacri lavacri sus-
ceptionem, qua mandatis apostolicis obligati estis, et viscera misericordiae 
domini nostri Yhesu Christi attente requirimus, ut cum expeditionem hujus-
modi omnino prosequi et assumere prona mente orthodoxae fidei zelo inten-
dati , populòs in hujusmodi insulis et terris degentes ad christianam 
religionem1 suscipiendam inducere velitis et debeatis, nec pericula, nec labores 
ullo unquam tempore vos deterreant, firma spe fidutiaque conceptis quod 
Deus omnipotens conatus vestros feliciter prosequetur. Et ut tanti negotii 
provintiam, apostolicae gratiàe largitate donati,2 liberius et audatius assuma-
tis, motu proprio, non ad vestram vel alterius pro vobis super hoc nobis 
oblatae petitionis instantiam, sed de nostra mera liberalitate et ex certa 
scientia ac de apostolicae potestatis plenitudine, omnes3 insulas et terras firmas 
inventai et invenienda», detectas et detegendas, versus occidentem et meridiem, 
fdbricando et eonstituendo unam lineam a polo artico, scilicet septemtrione, ad 
polum antarticum, scilicet meridiem, sive terrae firmae et insulae inventae et 
inveniendae sint versus Indiam aut versus aliam quamcumque partem: quae linea 
distet a qualibet insularum quae vulgariter nuncupantur de los Azores et Gaio-
verde centum leucis versus occidentem et meridiem, ita quod omnes insulae et 
terrae firmae repertae et reperiendae, detectae et detegendae, a praefata linea versus 
occidentem et meridiem per alium regem aut principem christiarwm non fuerint 
actualiter possessae usque ad diem nativitatis domini nostri Tìiesu. Christi 
proxime praeteritum, a quo incipit annus praesens MCOCGLXXXX. tertius, qua/rido 
fuerint per nuntios et capitaneos vestros inventae aliquae praedictarum insularum, 
auctoritate omnipotentis Dei nobis in beato Petro concessa ac vicariatus 
Yhesu Christi qua fungimur in terris, cum omnibus illarum dominiis4 civita-
tibus, castris, locis et villis, juribusque et jurisdictionibus ac pertinentiis 
universis, vobis haeredibusque et successoribus vestris, Castellae et Legionis 
regibus, in perpetuum5 tenore praesentium, donamus, concedimus, et assigna-
mus, vosque et haeredes ac successores praefatos" illarum dominos cum plena7  

libera et omnimoda potestate, auctoritate et jurisdictione facimus, constitui-
mus et deputamus ; decernentes nihilominus per hujusmodi donationem, 
concessionem et assignationem8 nostram nulli christiano principi, qui actuali-
ter praefata» insulas aut terras firmas possederti usque ad praedictum diem nativi-
tatis domini nostri Yhesu GJvristi, jus quaesitum, sublatum intelligi posse aut 
auferri debere. Et insuper mandamus vobis, in virtute sanctae obedientiae 
ut, sicut etiam pollicemini, et non dubitamus pro vestra maxima devotione 
et regia magnanimitàte vos esse facturos, ad terras firmas et insulas praedictas 
viros probos et Deum fimentes, doctos, peritos et expertos ad instruendum 
incolas et habitatores praefatos in fide catholica et in bonis moribus imbuen-

1 Substitute, professionem vfor religionem . 
3 Substitute, donatis (for donati). 
8 Substitute, et singulas terras et insulas prsedictas aie incognitas et hactenus per nupcios vestros 

repertae et reperiendaS in posterum quse Bub dominio actuali temporali aliquorum dominorum 
Christianorum constitute non sint. 

* Insert , cum. 5 Insert , auctoritate apostolica. 
0 Insert , de illiB investimus, illarumque. 
7 Insert , et. 
8 Insert , et inyestituram. 



[e.- B. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 8 3 1 

dum, destinare debeatis, omnem debitam diligentiam In praemissis ad-
hibentes ; ac quibuscumque personis1 cujuscumque dignitatis, etiarn imperialis 
et regalis, status, gradua, ordinis vel conditionis, sub excommunicationis 
iatsB sententi» poena, quam eo ipso, si contrafecerint, incurrant, districtius 
inhibemus, ne ad insulas et terras2 ftrmas inventus et inveniendas, detectas et 
dctegendas, versus occidentem et meridiem, fabricando et constituendo lineam a 
polo artico ad polurn antarticum, sive terrae flrmae et insulae inventae et in-
veniendae sint versus Indiam aut versus aliam quamcumque partem, quae linea 
distet a qualibet insularum quae vulgariter nuncupantur de los Azores et Oabo-
verde centum leucis versus occidentem et meridiem, ,ut praefertur, pro mercibus 
habendis vel quavis alia de causa accedere praesumant absque vestra ac haere-
dum et successorum vestrorum praedictorum licentia speciali ; » non obstan-
tibus eonstitutionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis4 ceterisque contrariis 
quibuscumque; in ilio a quo imperia et dominationes ac bona cuncta pro-
cedunt, confidentes, quod dirigente Domino actus vestros,. si hujusmodi sanc-
tum et laudabile propositum5 prosequamini, brevi tempore, cum felicitate et 
gloria totius populi christtani, vestri labores et conatus exitum fèlicissimum 
consequentur. Verum, quia difficile foret praesentes litteras ad singula quae-
que loca in quibus expediens fuerit deferri, volumus, ac motu et seientia 
similibus decernimus, quod illarum transumptis, manu publici notaril inde 
rogati subscripts et sigillo alicujus persons in ecclesiastica dignitate con-
stitutae, seu curiae ecclesiasticae, munitis, ea prorsus fides in juditio et extra 
ac alias ubilibet adhibeatur, quae praesentibus adhiberetur, si essent exhibitae 
vel osteneae. Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat hanc paginam nostrae com-
mendationis, hortationis, requisitionis, donationis, concessionis, assigna-
tions,0 constitutionis, deputationis, decreti, mandati, inhibitionis7 et volun-
tatis,8 infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. Si quis autem hoc atten-
tare praesumpserit, indignationem omnipotentis Dei ac beatorum Petri et 
Pauli apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum. 

Datum Romae, apud sanctum Petrum, anno incarnationis dominie® 
MCCCCLXXXXHI. quarto nonas mail, pontiflcatus nostri anno primo. 

1 Inser t , e t iam. 
2 Inser t , prseditaa postqnam per veatroa nuntioa seu ad id misaoa invent;» et r ecep ta fuer in t . 
3 Inaer t—Et quia etiam nonnul l i Portugall i íe reges in part ibua Africse, G-uinese et Minerce au r i 

a l ias Ínsulas, simili ter , e t iam ex concessione apostolica eis facta repererunt et acqui s iverunt et per 
sedem apostolicam eis diversa privilegia, gratiae r l ibertates, inmunitates, exentiones et indul ta concessa 
fue run t . Nos, vobis ac bseredibus et BubcesoribuB. veBtria prseditia, u t inaulis et terr is i pe rvoa 
repertis, et reperiendia hu jusmodi , omnibus et ainguliB grati is , privilegila, exentionibus l iber ta t ibus 
facul ta t ibus . immuni ta t ibus et indul t i s hujusmodi , quo rum omnium tenores ac ai de verbo ad verbum 
praesentibus inaerer ra tur , liaberi vo lumus pro Bufficìenter expressis et inserti s, uti . potiri et gaudere 
l ibere et licite posaitis ac debeatia in omnibus et per omnia, per inde ac si vobia ac bseredibus et sub -
cessoribus prredictis specialiter concessa fuiBBent, motu, auctoritate, scientia, e t apostolica potestatis 
p leni tudine similibus, de Bpecialis dono gratise. indulgemus, i l laque in omnibus et per omnia ad vos 
hseredes ac subeessores vestros prgedictos extendimus par i te r et ampliamus. 

* Inser t—Nec non omnibus iUia, quae in littoria desuper editis concessa aunt non obstare. 
6 Substitute, negot ium (for propoaitum). 
0 Inaert , inveatiiurse, fact i . 
7 Inaer t , indul t i extenaionis, ampliat ionia. 
8 Inser t , et decreti. 

Sec. II., 1899 . 34. 



5 3 2 BOY AL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

TRANSLATION. 

Alexander, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, to his very dear son 
in Christ, Ferdinand, King, and to his very dear daughter in Christ, Isabella, 
Queen, illustrious, of Castile, Leon, Aragon, Sicily, Granada, health and 
apostolic benediction. Among the works most acceptable to the Divine Ma-
jesty, and desirable to our hearts, that is certainly above all, that the 
Catholic faith, and the Christian religion, especially in our times, should be 
exalted and everywhere diffused and spread; and that the salvation of souls 
be sought after, and barbarous nations subjected, and brought over to the 
said faith. Wherefore We, having been elevated, by the favour of divine cle-
mency, although undeserving by our merits of so high a rank, to this sacred 
seat of Peter, acknowledging you, as true catholic Kings and Princes, whom 
we have always known as such and as your most illustrious actions now 
made known to all the world shew, not only that you are desirous of that, 
but that you likewise prosecute it with all vigour, earnestness, and diligence, 
sparing no fatigue, expense, or danger whatever, even to the shedding of your 
blood, and that it is long since you have dedicated all your mind and all your 
efforts to it, as the recovery of the kingdom of Granada, from the tyranny of 
the Saracens, recently effected by you, with such evident proofs of divine 
favour, clearly shews; we deem it, therefore, worthy of us, and are bound to 
grant you even spontaneously and graciously, those things, by which you may 
be enabled more fervently to follow up this holy and praiseworthy resolu-
tion and acceptable to the eternal God, to the honour of God, and for the pro-
pagation of the Christian empire. And in truth it has come to our knowledge, 
that you, who had resolved in your minds, for some time past, to seek for 
and discover some remote and unknown islands and main-lands, and by no 
others hitherto found out, in order to induce the natives and inhabitants 
of them to worship our Redeemer and to profess the Catholic faith, but had 
not until now been able to conduct this holy and praiseworthy resolution to 
its wished-for end, finding yourselves fully engaged in the conquest and re-
covery of the said kingdom of Granada ; but at length, as it pleased the 
Lord, having recovered the foresaid kingdom, and wishing to fulfil your 
desires, you despatched our beloved son Christopher Columbus, a man every 
way worthy and deserving of great praise, and capable of so great an affair, 
with vessels and men accustomed to such undertakings, with very great 
labour, danger and expense, in order that he might diligently seek out those 
main-lands and remote and unknown islands, in a sea where no person had 
navigated until now. Who, at last, with the assistance of God, having used 
extreme diligence, in navigating through the ocean, discovered certain- very 
remote islands, and also main-lands, that nobody had as yet found out; the 
inhabitants of which are numerous, live peacefully, and, as it is affirmed, go 
naked, and feed not upon flesh; and as far as your foresaid messengers can 
opine,'the people who inhabit the foresaid islands and lands, believe that 
there is in heaven a God Creator ; and appear well disposed to embrace the 
Catholic faith, and civilized manners; and there is a hope, that if they were 
instructed, the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ would be intro-
duced into the said lands and islands. And already the said Christopher 
has caused to be constructed and built in one of the principal of the foresaid 
islands a very strong tower, in which he placed certain Christians, who went 
out with him, in order that they might have the care of it, and likewise dis-
cover other remote and unknown islands and continents. In which islands 
and lands already discovered, are to be found, gold, spices, and a great many 
other precious things of divers kinds and qualities. Whence, having dili-
gently considered all these things, and especially the advancement and 
spreading of the Catholic faith, as it becomes Catholic Kings and Princes, 
you have resolved, in imitation of the Kings your ancestors of renowned 
memory with the favour of the divine clemency, to subject and reduce to 
the Catholic faith the foresaid main-lands and islands, and the natives and 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 439 

inhabitants of the same. We therefore, highly commending in the name 
of God your holy and laudable resolution, and wishing that it may be con-
ducted to the desired end, and the name of our Saviour introduced into 
those parts, exhort you warmly in the Lord, and by the holy baptism you 
have received, by which you subjected yourselves to the apostolic com-
mands, and by the bowels of the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, earnestly 
intreat you to proceed in taking up and prosecuting completely this expedi-
tion, the zeal for the orthodox faith continuing in you, you will and ought to 
induce the people, who inhabit the foresaid islands and continents, to em-
brace the Christian religion; nor let the dangers and fatigues of it ever detei 
you, possessing the firmest hope and confidence, that God omnipotent will 
happily accompany all your undertakings. And in order that you may 
undertake more freely and boldly the charge of so great an affair, given to 
you with the liberality of apostolic grace, We of our own motion, and 
not at your solicitation, nor upon petition presented to Us upon this sub-
ject by other persons in your name, but of our pure free will and certain 
knowledge, and with the plentitude of apostolic power, by the authority of 
God omnipotent granted to Us through blessed Peter, and of the vicarship 
of Jesus Christ, which we exercise upon earth, by the tenor of the pre-
sents give, concede, and assign for ever to you, and to the kings oi Castile 
and Leon, your successors, all the islands and main-lands discovered and 
which may hereafter be discovered, towards the west and south, with all 
their dominions, cities, castles, places, and towns, and with all their rights, 
jurisdictions, and appurtenances, whether the lands and islands found or 
that shall be found, be situated towards India, or towards any other part 
whatsoever; and we make, constitute and depute you, and your foresaid heirs 
and successors, lords of them, with full, free and absolute power and au-
thority and jurisdiction : drawing however and fixing a line from the arctic 
pole, viz from the north, to the antarctic pole, viz to the south; which line 
must be distant from any one of the islands whatsoever, vulgarly called the 
Azores, and Cape de Verd Islands, a hundred leagues towards the west and 
south ; upon condition that no other Christian King or Prince has actual 
possession of any of the islands and main-lands found or that shall be found, 
discovered or that shall be discovered from the foresaid line towards the 
west and south, until the day of the nativity of our Lord Jesus Christ last 
past, from which the present year one thousand four hundred and ninety-
three commences, when some of the foresaid islands were discovered by your 
messengers and captains: decreeing nevertheless, that by this our donation, 
concession and assignation, it is not intended to take or deprive of the jus 
quwsitum, any other Christian Prince, who • may have actually possessed 
the said islands and main-lands up to the aforementioned day of the nati-
vity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And moreover, we command you, by the 
holy obedience which you owe us, that (as you promise, and we doubt not 
you will perform it, in consequence of your very great devotion, and royal 
magnanimity) you appoint to the said main-lands and islands upright men 
and fearing God, learned skilful and expert in instructing the foresaid na-
tives and inhabitants in the Catholic faith, and in teaching them good 
morals, employing for that purpose all requisite diligence. And we most 
strictly forbid every person whatsoever, and of whatsoever dignity, (even 
imperial or royal,) state, degree, order, or condition they may be, under the 
penalty of excommunication latae sententiae, which they will incur by the 
very fact of transgression, to presume, either for trafficking, or for any other 
cause whatsoever, to approach, without special licence from you, and your 
foresaid heirs and successors, the islands and main-lands found, or that 
shall be found, discovered or that shall be discovered, towards the west and 
south, drawing and fixing a line from the arctic to the antarctic pole ; whe-
ther the main-lands and islands found, or that shall be found, be towards 
India, or towards any other part; which line must be distant from any one 
of the islands whatsoever, which are vulgarly called the Azores, and Cape 
de Verd, a hundred leagues towards the west and south, as has been said : 
notwithstanding the apostolic constitutions and ordinances, and all other 
things to the contrary whatsoever. We confide in Him, from whom empires, 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

dominions and all good things proceed, that the Lord directing your ac-
tions, if you prosecute this holy and praiseworthy resolution, in a short 
time, for the happiness and glory of the whole Christian world, your labours 
and your efforts will obtain a most happy accomplishment. But, as it would 
be a difficult thing to present the present letters in each of the places where 
it might be requisite, we will and decree, of our own' similar motion and 
knowledge, that the copies of them, signed by a public notary, employed for 
that purpose, and provided with the seal of some person possessed of ec-
clesiastical dignity, or a member of the ecclesiastical court, be regarded as 
equally valid in all respects in courts of justice and without, and every-
where else, as if the present letters were exhibited or shewn. Let no per-
son therefore presume to infringe, or with rash boldness to contravene this 
page of our commendation, exhortation, requisition, donation, concession, 
assignation, constitution, deputation, decree, mandate, inhibition, and will. 
For if any person presumes to do so, be it known to him that he will incur 
the indignation of the Almighty God, and of the blessed apostles Peter and 
Paul. Given in Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of the incarnation of our 
Lord, one thousand four hundred and ninety-three, on the fourth day of 
May, in the first year of our Pontificate. Gratis. (The signatures follow.) 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 
439 

APPENDIX B. (BULL B). 

The following Is a copy of, the Bull " Eximiae devotionis " taken from the 
" Fonti Italiani," Part III. By this Bull the Pope granted to Spain, over the 
territories discovered for the Spanish crown, the same rights which had, by 
a series of Bulls extending over fifty years, been granted to Portugal over 
the territories to the south along the coast of Africa and to the eastwards 
" as far as the Indies." Such rights are conferred upon Spain en bloc with-
out enumeration quoad the territories discovered for Spain and in doing this 
the rights of Portugal and the contents of the previous Bulls are of necessity 
confirmed, quoad the territories discovered for Portugal. 

This Bull is to be, found also in Solorzano, De Indiarum Jure, and in Rai-
naldi, Annates Ecclesiastici. It is not in Navarrete, nor is it often referred 
to in the books; though Herrera in one passage evidently has it in mind, 
and Barros refers to it. Mr. Harrisse says it is not now to be found in the 
Spanish Archives. He has given (Diplomatic History) the only English 
translation which has hitherto appeared. His text wàs taken from Hey-
wood's Documenta Selecta. He thinks Rainaldi gave this Bull a place before 
the BulJ Inter cetera by mistake; but Rainaldi made no mistake. This Bull 
is dated May 3, and Raina'di never knew of the suppressed Inter cctcra draft 
of the same day. ±ie gave the only Inter cetera he knew anything about, 
that dated May 4. 

The reader is requested to compare the passages omitted from the draft 
Bull and given in the footnotes in appendix A with the passages printed in 
italics in this Bull. He will find that they are almost word for word the 
same, and all that remains in the Bull beyond this is merely the technical 
framework of formal verbiage always found in such documents. 

ALEXANDEK episcopus, servus servorum Dei, carissimo in Christo filio 
Ferdinando regi et carissimsB in Christo filiae Helisabèth reginae Castella, 
Legionis, Aragonum et Granate illustribus, salutem et apostolicam benedic-
tionem. 

Eximiaa devotionis sinceritas et integra fides, quibus nos et Romanam 
reveremini Ecclesiam, non indigne merentur ut ilia vobis favorabiiiter con-
cedamus, per quae sanctum et laudabile propositum vestrum et opus incep-
tum in quaerendis terris et tnsulis remotis ac incognitis in dies melius et 
facilius ad honorem omnipotentis Dei, et imperii christiani propagationem, 
ac fidei catholic® exaltationem prosequi valeatis. Hodie siquidem omnes 
et singulas terras firmas et insulas remotas et incognitas versus partes occi-
dentales et mare Oceanum consistentes, per vos, seu nuntios vestros, ad id 
propterea non sine magnis laboribus, periculis et impensis destinatos, reper-
tas et reperiendas in posterum, quae sub actual! dominio temporali aliquorum 
dominorum christianorum constitutae non essent, cum omnibus illarum 
dominiis, civitatibus, castris, locis, villis, juribus et jurisdiction! bus 
universis, vobis haeredibusque et successoribus vestris, Castellae et 
Legionis regibus, in perpetuum, motu proprio et ex certa scientia 
ac de apostolicae potestatis plenitudine donavimus, concessimus et 
assignavimus, prout in nostris inde confectis litteris plenius continetur. 
Cum, autem alias nonnullis Portugalliae regibus qui in partibus Africae, G-uineae 
et Minere auri, ac alias insulas etiam in similibus concessione et donatione 
apostolica eis facta repererunt et acquisiverunt, per Sedem apostolicam diversa 
privilegia gratiae, libertates, immunitates exemptiones, facultates, litterae et in-



802 
ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM A D A 

Aulta concessa fuerint; nos vol elites etiam, prout dignum et conveniens exis-
tit, vos hseredesque et successores vestros praedictos non minoribus.gratiis, 
prserogativis, et favoribus prosequi, motu simili, non ad vestram vel alterius 
pro vobis super hoc oblatae petitionem instantiam, sed de nostra mera 
liberalitate ac eisdem scientia et apostolicae potestatis plenitudine, vobis ac 
haeredibus et successoribus vestris praedietis, ut in insulis et terris per vos seu 
nomine vestro hactenus repertis hujusmodi et reperiendis in posterum omnibus et 
singulis gratiis, privilegiis, exemptionibus, libertatibus, facultatibus, immunita-
tibus, litteris et indultis regibus Portugalliae concessis hujusmodi, qif-orum omnium, 
tenores ac si de verbo ad verbum pracsentibus insererentur haberi volumus pro 
sufflcienter expressis et insertis, uti, potiri et gaudere libite et licite possitis et 
debeatis in omnibus et per omnia perinde ac si ilia omnia vobis et haeredibus et 
successoribus vestris praefatis specialiter concessa fuissent, auctoritate apos-
tolica tenore praesentium de spetialis dono gratiae indulgemus, illaque in omni-
bus et per omnia ad vos hacredesque ac successores vestros praedictos extendimus 
pariter et ampliamus, ac eisdem modo et forma perpetuo concedimus, non 
obstantibus constitutionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis, nec non omnibus 
illis quae in litteris Portugalliae regibus concessia hujusmodi concessa sunt, 
non obstantibus ceterisque contrariis quibuscumque. Verum, quia difficile 
foret praesentes litteras ad singula quseque loca in quibus expediens fuerft 
defferri, volumus, ac motu et scientia similibus decernimus, quod illarum 
transumptis, manu publici notarii inde rogati subscriptis et sigillo alicujus 
personae in ecclesiastica dignitate constitutes, seu curiae ecclesiastic®, muni-
tis, ea prorsus fides indubia in juditio et extra ac, alias ubilibet adhibeatur, 
quae praesentibus adliiberetur, si essent exhibitae vel ostensse. Nulli ergo 
omnino hominum liceat liane paginam nostrae exhortationis, requisitions, 
donationis, assignations, investitura, facti, constitutionis, deputations, 
mandati, inhibitionis, nostrorum indulti, extensionis, ampliations/ conces-
s ions , voluntatis et decreti infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. Si 
quis autem hoc attentare presumpserit, indignationem omnipotentis Dei ac 
beatorum Petri et Pauli apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum. Datum 
Romas, apud sanctum Petrum, anno incarnationis dominie® millesimo quad-
ringentesimo nonagesimo tertio, quinto nonas maii, pontificatus nostri 
anno primo. 

TRANSLATION. 

Alexander, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God; to the illustrious 
sovereigns, our very dear son in Christ, Ferdinand, King, and to our very 
dear daughter in Christ, Isabella, Queen, of Castile, Leon, Aragon and Gran-
ada. Health and apostolic benediction. 

The sincerity of distinguished devotion and the soundness of faith, by 
which you reverence us and the Roman Church, justly deserve that we should 
approvingly grant you those things which may enable to follow up your holy 
and praiseworthy purpose, and the enterprise undertaken for seeking out re-
mote and unknown lands and islands, day by day tending more to the glory 
of Almighty God, the propagation of the kingdom of Christ, and the exalta-
tion of the Catholic faith. 

Now, therefore, we, of our own motion from certain knowledge and out 
of the fulness of apostolic power, have given, conceded and assigned unto you, 
and your heirs and successors, the Kirigs of Castile and Leon, in perpetuity, 
all and singular the remote and unknown mainlands and islands, situated 
towards the regions of the "West and the main ocean, which are not under 
the actual temporal dominion of some Christian master, discovered and to 
be hereafter discovered, by you or your emissaries sent for that purpose, not 
without great labour, danger and expense; together with all their lordships, 
cities, fortresses, places, farms, rights and jurisdictions, as is set forth more 
fully in our letters drawn up for that purpose. 

And since, at other times, divers privileges, favours, liberties, immuni-
ties, exemptions, faculties, letters and induits were conceded, by the apos-
tolic See, to several Kings of Portugal, who, in the regions of Africa, Guinea 



[ s . s . DAVTSONJ T H E L I N E S O F D E M A R C A T I O N 5 3 7 

and the Gold mine, have discovered and acquired other islands, under similar 
grant and concession made to them by the Apostolic See; we, desiring to 
bestow, as is worthy and becoming, also upon you and your heirs and suc-
cessors aforesaid gifts, prerogatives and favours to a not less extent, of our 
like motion, not at your instance or that of any other person on your behalf 
by petition made to us about this matter, but of our own simple liberality 
and with the same knowledge and fulness of apostolic power grant, by apos-
tolic authority according to the tenor of these presents, by a gift of especial 
grace, to you and your heirs and successors aforesaid, that, in the islands 
and lands up to the present time discovered by you or in your name and in 
future to be discovered, you may use, hold and freely enjoy all and singular 
the gifts, privileges, exemptions, liberties, faculties, immunities, letters and 
indults as granted to the Kings of Portugal, the purport of all which grants 
we ordain shall be held expressed and inserted herein, as sufficiently as if 
they were recited word by word in these presents, and that you may and 
should lawfully, in all things and in all respects, so hold them as if they 
had all been specially conceded to you and your heirs and successors afore-
said; and we extend and enlarge them, in all things and all respects, equally 
to you and your heirs and successors aforesaid, and we grant them, in the 
same manner and form, in perpetuity; notwithstanding apostolic constitu-
tions and ordinances and all those things which, in the letters granted to 
the Kings of Portugal, have been so conceded;" and notwithstanding all other 
things to the contrary. 

But, since it would be difficult for these letters to be carried to all places 
which may be expedient, we will and, with like motion and knowledge, decree 
that to copies of them, signed by the hand of a public notary employed for 
that purpose and authenticated by the seal of some official person of ec-
clesiastical dignity or of an ecclesiastical court, the sagie entire faith shall 
be given, in courts of justice and outside them and in all other places, which 
would be given to these presents if they were exhibited or shown. 

Therefore, let no man whomsoever infringe this charter of our exhorta-
tion, requisition, donation, assignment, investiture, deed, constitution, allot-
ment, concession, will and decree, or, with rash audacity, contravene it. But 
if anyone should presume to make the attempt, be it known to him that he 
will incur the indignation of Almighty God and of the blessed apostles Peter 
and Paul. 

Given at Rome, at St. Peter's, in the year of the incarnation of Our 
Lord, 1493, on the third day of May, in the first year of our pontificate. 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

APPENDIX C. (BULL D). 

Bull said to have been issued by Alexander VI. and dated September 25, 
1493, as printed in the '* Fonti Italiani." No trace of any original having 
been found, it was copied into that collection from Solorzano " De Indiarum 
Jure," Madrid, 1629. The Latin version is supposed to be a re-translation by 
Solorzano from a Spanish version made by one of the secretaries of Philip 
II., A.D. 1554. 

ALEXANDER episcopus, servus servorum Dei, charissimo in Christo fllio 
Ferdinando regi et charissimae in Christo filiae Helizabeth reginse Castellse, 
Legionis, Aragonum et Granatae, illustribus, salutem et apostolicam benedic-
tionem. Dudum siquidem omnes et singulas insulas et terras firmas inventas 
et inveniendas versus occidentem et meridiem, quae sub actuali dominio tem-
porali aliquorum dominorum christianorum constitutae non essent, vobis 
heredibusque et successoribus vestris Castellse et Legionis regibus in perpe-
tuum motu proprio et de certa scientia ac de apostolicae potestatis plenitudine 
donavimus, concessimus et assignavimus : vosque ac heredes et successores 
prefatos de illis investimus ; illarumque dominos cum plena, libera et omni-
moda potestate, auctoritate et jurisdictione. constituimus et deputavimus, 
prout in nostris inde confectis litteris, quarum tenorem, ac si de verbo ad ver-
bum praesentibus insererentur, haberi volumus pro sufficienter expressis, 
plenius continetur. Cum autem contingere posset quod nuntii et capitanei aut 
vassalli vestri versus occidentem et meridiem navigantes, ad partes orientalee 
applicarent, ac insulas et terras firmas, quae inde fuissent vel essent, reperi-
rent, nos volentes etiam vos favoribus prosequi gratiosis, motu et scientia ac 
potestatis apostolicae plenitudine similibus, donationem, concessionem, assig-
nationem et litteras praedictas, cum . omnibus et singulis in eisdem litteris 
contentis clausulis ad omnes et singulas insulas et terras firmas inventas et 
inveniendas, ac detectas et detegendas, quae, navigando aut itinerando versus 
occidentem aut meridiem hujusmodi sint vel fuerint aut apparuerint, sive in 
partibus occidentalibus'vel meridionalibus et orientalibus et Indiae existant, 
auctoritate apostolica, tenore praesentium in omnibus et per omnia, perinde 
ac si in litteris praedictis de eis plena et expressa mentio facta fuisset, exten-
dimus pariter et ampliamus. Vobis et haeredibus et successoribus vestris prae-
dictis per vos, vel alium seu alios, corporalem insularum ac terrarum praedic-
tarum possessionem propria auctoritate libere apprehendendi ac perpetuo re-
tinendi, illasque adversus quoscumque impedientes etiam defendendi, plenam 
et liberam facultatem concedentes, ac quibuscumque personis etiam cujus-
cumque dignitatis, status, gradus, ordinis vel conditionis, sub excommunica-
tionis latae sententiae, pena, quam contrafacientes eo ipso incurrant, dis-
trictius inhibentes, ne ad partes praedictas ad navigandum, piscandum, vel 
inquirendum insulas vel terras firmas, aut quovis alio respectu seu colore, 
ire, vel mittere quoquomodo praesumant, absque expressa vel speciali vestra 
ac haeredum et successorum praedictorum licentia. Non obstantibus constitu-
tionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis, ac quibusvis donationibus, conces-
sionibus, facultatibus et assignationibus per nos vel praedecessores nostros, 
quibuscunque, regibus vel principibus, infantibus, aut quibusvis aliis personis, 
aut ordinibus et militiis de praedictis partibus, maribus, insulis atque terris, 
vel aliqua eorum parte, ex quibusvis causis, etiam pietatis vel fidei aut 
redemptionis captivorum, et aliis quantumcunque urgentissimis, et cum 
quibusvis clausulis etiam derogatoriarum derogatoriis, fortioribus, efficacio-
ribus et insolitis, etiam quascunque sententias, censuras et penas in se con-
tinentibus, quae suum per actualem et realem possessionem non essent sortrtae 
effiectum, licet forsan aliquando illi quibus donationes et concessiones hujus-
modi factae fuissent, aut eorum nuntii, ibidem navigassent. Quos tenores 
illarum etiam praesentibus pro sufficienter expressis et insertis habentes, 
motu, scientia et potestatis plenitudine similibus omnino revocamus, ac quoad 



[ s . B. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION S 3 9 

térras et ínsulas per eos actualiter non possessas pro infectis haberi volumus, 
necnon omnibus illis quse in litteris prasdictis voluimus non obstare, cete-
risque contrariis quibuscunque. . . . . 

Datum Rom®, apud sanctum Petrum, anno incarnationis dominica mil-
lesimo quadringentesimo nonagésimo tertio. Sexto kalendas octobris, ponti-
flcatus nostri anno secundo. 

TRANSLATION. 

ALEXANDER, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God, to the illustrious 
sovereigns, his very dear son in Christ Ferdinand, the king, and to his very 
dear daughter in Christ, Isabella, the queen of Castile, Leon, Aragon and 
Granada—Health and apostolic benediction. 

Whereas, a while ago, we, of our mere will, certain knowledge and in 
the fulness of our apostolic power, gave, conceded and assigned, in perpetuity, 
to you and your heirs and successors, the kings of Castile and Leon, all and 
singular the islands and mainlands discovered or to be discovered, towards 
the west and south, which were not under the actual temporal dominion of 
some Christian master; with these we invest you and your heirs and suc-
cessors aforesaid; and we have constituted and appointed you as lords of 
those regions, with full, free and entire power, authority and jurisdiction, as 
set forth more fully in our letters drawn up for that purpose; the purport of 
which letters we ordain to be held as completely expressed as if they were 
recited in these present letters, word for word. 

Since, moreover, it may happen that your emissaries, captains, or vas-
sals, when sailing towards the west and south, may turn towards the eastern 
regions and find islands and mainlands which are, or were, to that quarter 
pertaining ; wishing to follow up our gracious favours to you by similar 
favours, we, of our will, knowledge and fulness of apostolic power, equally 
extend and enlarge, with apostolic authority, by the tenor of these presents, 
in everything and in all respects, the same as if in the aforesaid letters full 
and express mention had been made of them, the donation, concession, assign-
ment and letters aforesaid, with all and singular the clauses contained in the 
same letters, to apply to all and singular the islands and mainlands found 
and to be found, discovered and to be discovered, which in sailing or jour-
neying in this manner towards the west or south may be, or shall be, or shall 
appear, whether they actually are in western or in southern and eastern 
regions or in India. 

Granting to you and to your heirs and successors aforesaid, the full and 
free faculty of taking and perpetually holding, freely of your own authority, 
by yourselves or by another or others, bodily possession of the aforesaid 
islands and lands, and also of defending them against all persons who may 
obstruct; and most strictly prohibiting all persons soever, even of any dignity 
soever, or status, rank, order, or condition, under penalty of excommunication 
(latse sententiae) which transgressors by the very act will incur, from pre-
suming to go, or send, to the said part, to navigate, fish, or seek out islands 
or mainlands, under any pretext, without the special and express license of 
you and your aforesaid heirs. 

Notwithstanding constitutions and apostolic ordinances and any dona-
tions, concessions, faculties and assignments, made by ourselves or our pre-
decessors to all persons whomsover; to kings or princes, to persons of royal 
houses (infantibus), or any other persons, to regular orders and to military 
orders, for the aforesaid regions, seas, islands and lands or for any part of 
them, without regard to the causes of the grant, even if for objects of piety, 
or of religion, or of redeeming captives or to other causes of the most urgent 
nature, and with clauses of whatever kind, even derogations of derogations 
the strongest most efficacious and unusual, and containing judgments, cen-
sures and penalties of any kind which have not come into effect by means of 
actual and real possession, even supposing that, at some time, those to whom 
donations and concessions of this nature have been made or their emissaries 
may have sailed there. 



6 4 0 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

Moreover, holding that the tenor of those letters are sufficiently expressed 
and inserted in these presents, we revoke them altogether by similar will, 
knowledge and apostolic power and we will them to be held as never made, 
in so far as they refer to lands and islands not actually in possession, and 
so we have decreed notwithstanding everything in the aforesaid letters and 
all other things to the contrary. 

Given at St. Peter's at Rome in the year of our Lord 1493, on Sept. 25th, 
and in the second year of our pontificate. 



[S. E. DAWSON] T H E LINES OF DEMARCATION S41 

APPENDIX D. 

Correspondence between the Sovereigns of Spain and Jaime Ferrer con-
cerning the position and the best manner of laying down the line of demarca-
tion of the treaty of Tordeslllas, signed June 7, 1494. Extracted from 
Navarrete Coleccion de los Viajes, vol. 2, p. 111. Translated with the aid of an 
official expert translator of Spanish. 

January 27, 1496. 

To the very high and very puissant Sovereigns of Spain, &c., by the grace 
of God our very righteous lords. 

Very high and very powerful Sovereigns: Don Juan de la Nussa, Lieu-
tenant of your Highnesses, has twice shown me some instructions in which 
your Highnesses make known the decision regarding the partition your High-
nesses have made with the most illustrious king of Portugal upon the Ocean, 
starting from Cape Verde in a westerly line for a distance of three hundred 
and seventy leagues; and therefore, very high and most serene Sovereigns, 
I have examined (the subject) to the extent of my humble understanding, 
although late, and not so soon as I had wished, on account of a slight illness; 
and therefore I send to your Highnesses, by a man of mine, a figure of the 
world on a large scale on which may be seen the two hemispheres, to wit, 
our Arctic and the opposite Antarctic one. And likewise you will see the 
equinoctial circle and the two tropics of the declination of the sun, and the 
seven climates, and each one of these circles put in its proper place as in the 
treatise on the sphere and in the situ orbis learned men direct and divide into 
degrees. And, in order that the distance may more clearly be seen of the 
said three hundred and seventy leagues and how far they extend in a wes-
terly line starting from the said Cape Verde, I have intersected the said dis-
tance from pole to pole with red lines, which at the equator are twenty-three 
degrees apart, and with acute angles, the said lines correspond to the poles 
of the earth in this figure :— 

and all that is crossed by yellow lines will be what 
belongs to the most illustrious King of Portugal, 
turning in the direction of the Antarctic pole. And 
this distance of sea completes the said three hun-
dred and seventy leagues which are, as I said above, 
twenty-three degrees starting from Cape Verde in a 
westerly line. 

And if in connection with this decision (treaty of partition) your High-
nesses should command that I should go thither (to Cape Verde) I will, of my 
great and obedient love, certainly go at my own expense and without any 
pay. And in very truth my desire is that all I have in this world shall be 
at the service of your Royal Highnesses—whom may the infinite Trinity ever 
keep in guard and protection with very long and very prosperous life. 

From Barcelona, January 27, 1495. 

Their Catholic Majesties did not understand the above letter, and indeed, 
if the little figure above may be taken as an indication of what was on the 
map sent, it is not to be wondered at. Ferrer counted the distance as from 
Cape Verde, whereas it was from the islands off that cape, and he made the 



5 4 2 BOY A L SOCIETY OF CANADA 

370 leagues equal to twenty-three degrees, or 16J|,S leagues to each degree on 
that parallel. Very soon after (Feb. 28) their Majesties wrote as follows : 

B Y THE KING AND THE Q U E E N — T o JAIME FERRER, THEIR SUBJECT. 

THE KING AND THE QUEEN. Jaime Ferrer. We saw your letter and the 
inclosure you sent us therein, which seems to us very good. We consider 
your having sent it as a service; but for the understanding of it, it is neces-
sary you should be here, and, for our service, that you should put your com-
ing into effect so that you shall be here at latest on the first of May. In 
which you will do us service. 

From Madrid on the 28th day of February, 1495. 

I THE K I N G — I THE QUEEN. 

By order of the King and Queen. 
Joan de la Parra. 

There is no date attached to the following formal opinion, but, taken in 
connection" with the preceding letters, it must have been presented sometime 
during the first half of 1495. It also is in Navarrete (Vol. 2, p. 113) as fol-
lows. The calculations and the nautical statements in sections 4 to 6 do not 
impress the reader with a high opinion of Ferrer's attainments; but that may 
partly be accounted for by errors in copying or printing. 

The opinion and judgment of Mossen Jaume Ferrer regarding the Treaty 
made between the Most Catholic Sovereigns and the King of Portugal ; in 
which is shown that the author was a great cosmographer and a wonderful 
expert on the sea. 

1. The manner of determining the terminus or end of the three hundred 
and seventy leagues, starting from the Islands of Cape Verde on a westerly 
line is as follows : 

2. First, it must be noted that the said Cape Verde and its islands lie 
fifteen degrees from the equator, and it is likewise to be noted that the said 
370 leagues, starting from the said islands, comprise to the west eighteen 
degrees, and each degree on that parallel contains twenty leagues and five-
eighths. Moreover, it is necessary to make a straight line, in latitude (sic) 
from pole to pole only in this our hemisphere, intersecting the said parallel 
exactly at the end of the said eighteen degrees; and everything lying within 
this line on the left hand, turning towards the side of Guinea, will belong to 
the King of Portugal, and the other part by the West as far as it turns by the 
East towards the Arabian Gulf will belong to the Kings our Lords, if their 
ships first sail thither. And this is what I understand by the treaty made by 
your Highnesses with the King of Portugal. 

3. And a truth it is and a chief principle in cosmography that in sailing 
on one same parallel the said terminus can never be ascertained by means of 
the elevation of the Pole-star (Polus mundi); and the reason is this, that in 
sailing always by the same parallel the said Pole-star (Polus) maintains the 
same elevation through all the circumference of the said parallel. And that 
is true. 

4. Nevertheless, I say, that it is possible and a very certain thing that 
the said terminus and extremity of the said 370 leagues can be ascertained by 
the North star by the following rule and practical method. 

It is necessary for the vessel leaving the Cape Verde islands in search of 
the said terminus to leave the western parallel or line upon the left hand and 
to take her course by the quarter of the West towards the Northwest, and to 
continue to sail in that direction until the Pole-star rises eighteen degrees 
and one-third, and then the said vessel will be exactly on the aforesaid line 
which passes from pole to pole at the extremity of the 370 leagues. And from 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 439 

there it is necessary that the said vessel change and take her course along 
said line in the direction of the Antarctic pole up to that point where the 
Arctic pole is fifteen degrees in elevation, and then at that exact end will be 
the end of the line or parallel which passes through the said Cape Verde and 
at the end and true terminus of the said 370 leagues; which terminus is very 
clearly indicated by the elevation of the North star according to the 
aforesaid rule. 

5. And because the sailing chart is not wholly useful and does not suffice 
for the mathematical demonstration of the above rule, a world map in spheri-
cal form is necessary, divided into two hemispheres by its lines and degrees, 
and the situation of the land, islands and sea, each in its own place—which 
world map I put down together with these expressions of my meaning and 
opinion, the more clearly to demonstrate the truth. 

And I say that to understand the above rule and practical method it is 
•necessary to be a cosmographer, arithmetician and navigator, or to under-
stand the art; and he who does not possess all these three sciences, cannot 
possibly understand (the rule) nor (can he succeed) by any other way or rule 
if he is not expert in the three said sciences. 

6. And for a further exposition of the above rule it must be known that 
the quarter of the wind (point of the compass) the vessel takes as its course, 
starting from the Cape Verde islands at the end of the 370 leagues, will be 
distant from the western parallel or line seventy-four leagues at the rate of 
twenty per cent, and because the said quarter (of the wind-rose or compass) 
inclines towards the North sailing by it the different (increasing) elevation 
of the pole-star is clearly apparent, and the said seventy-four leagues com-
prise three degrees and a third of latitude, very nearly. 

7. It is, moreover, to be noted that pursuing the above rule it is neces-
sary to give to each degree seven hundred stadia, according to Strabo, Alfra-
gano, Teodoci, Macrobi, Ambrosi and Euristhenes (Eratosthenes) ; since 
Ptolemy gives only five hundred stadia to a degree. And I say further that 
there is another method of finding the said terminus according to the practice 
and science of mariners, and it is as follows. 

8. First, let the sovereigns our lords and the King of Portugal take twenty 
mariners, ten for each side, the best to be found, and conscientious men, and 
let them start in one vessel from the Cape Verde islands on a westerly line, 
and let each one of the said mariners note with great care on his chart, every 
six hours, the course the vessel makes according to his judgment; and, hav-
ing been bound under oath, let none of them communicate his opinion to 
another until the first of the mariners who in his judgment finds himself at 
the said terminus shall state so to two captains—men of reputation, put on 
board the said vessel by the will and accord of the said sovereigns. And let 
the said captains then take the opinions and judgments of the other mariners 
and, if the rest agree with the first who finds himself at the terminus, let them 
take his decision as conclusive and final as to the said terminus; and if they 
do not agree with the first, let them take the opinion and judgment of the 
majority, and after agreeing, let them change the course on a straight line 
towards the Antarctic pole, and everything they find on the left hand towards 
Guinea shall belong to the King of Portugal in the manner above stated. 

This second method is uncertain and may be erroneous because it is 
based on the simple and sole judgment and opinion of mariners, and the first 
rule is very certain, (that one) by the elevation of the North star, as is shown 
above. 

9. And if in this my decision and opinion any error appear, I will always 
defer to the correction of those who know and understand more than I, 
especially to the Admiral of the Indies, who at the present time knows more 
than any other person in this subject, for he is greatly learned in the theory 
and admirably practical, as his famous achievements demonstrate ; and I 
believe that Divine Providence holds him as elect to carry out its great 
mystery and service in this undertaking, which I believe is the disposition 
and preparation of that (result) which, hereafter, the same Divine Providence 
will manifest to its great glory—the salvation and good of the world. 

10. Here is shown the navigation of the Admiral of the Main-land. 
Ptolemy in the eighth book de situ orbis says at chapter five: 



802 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CAM ADA 

That the true circumference of the earth at the equator is 180,000 stades, 
at the rate of five hundred stades to a degree according to his calculation, 
and counting eight stades per mile, are 22,500 miles, whicn are 5,625 leagues 
at the rate of four miles per league in Castillian reckoning, each degree com-
ing to fifteen leagues and two hundred and twenty-five parts of three hundred 
and sixty. And in the same Book, chapter five, he says that the circle of the 
tropics is 164,672 stades, which are 20,584 miles, and 5,146 leagues, making for 
each degree fourteen leagues and one hundred and six parts of three hundred 
and sixty. Moreover, according to Strabo, Alfragano, Ambrosi, Macro bi, 
Teodosi and Euristhenes, the said circumference of the earth is 252,000 stades, 
the which 252,000 stades, at the rate of eight stades per mile, are 31,500 
miles, and at four miles per league, are 7,875 leages. Item :^By the circle of 
the tropics the circumference is 7,204 leagues and seventy-two thousand parts 
of one hundred and eighty thousand; and I decided it by the rule of three, 
saying if 22,500 miles at the equator according to Ptolemy give me 7 875 for 
the said equator, what will 20,584 miles of the circle of the tropics give me ? 
And in this way you will arrive at the above 7,204 and a half leagues almost, 
according to the said learned men. 

The said circle of the tropics is shorter than the equinoctial circle by 
670% leagues, which is, at four miles per league, 2,682 miles, according to the 
above calculation summed up and proved throughout. That is, however, cal-
culating according as the above-mentioned learned men direct, 700 stades to 
a degree; although Ptolemy allows no more than 500 stades to a degree as 
above said in the already mentioned book, de situ orUs. 

11. Item :—It is to be noted that on the equinoctial circle each degree has 
twenty-one leagues and five parts of eight, and on the tropics each degree has 
twenty leagues and four parts of three hundred and sixty, according to the 
said learned men. 

12. Starting from Cape Verde on a Westerly line the terminus three hun-
dred and seventy leagues comprises eighteen degrees, inasmuch as the said 
line or parallel is fifteen degrees distant from the equator, and therefore the 
degrees each of them contains twenty leagues and five parts of eight, accord-
ing to the said learned men. 

13. From Cape Verde to the Grand Canary island are 232 leagues of four 
miles per league, and ft lies from the said Canary on a meridian almost at a 
third of the " lebeix" or southwestern quarter, and is distant fifteen degrees 
from the equator, and the middle island of those which lie in front of Cape 
Verde lies in the quarter of the West towards the Northwest 117 leagues 
(away), which are equal to five degrees and two-thirds; and from this middle 
island commences the terminus of the 370 leagues towards the West which 
terminus is eighteen degrees towards the West from the said middle island, 
and on that parallel each degree is twenty leagues and five parts of eight, 
counting 700 stades to a degree, according to the above cited learned men, 
although Ptolemy uses a different calculation. 

14. And according to Ptolemy, each degree of the equator contains fifteen 
leagues and two-thirds, and of the tropics fourteen leagues and one-third, and 
on the parallel of Cape Verde fourteen leagues and two-thirds, and therefore 
the 370 leagues upon that'parallel are understood as extending to the West 
twenty-five degrees and one-third nearly. 

15. And the Admiral says in his letter that Cape Verde is nine and a 
quarter degrees distant from the equator. According to Ptolemy, I see him 
allowing fifteen and two-thirds leagues to a degree ; nevertheless, I decide 
with the other learned men as to the distance of the said islands from the 
equator. The division into stades, although the number given by Ptolemy is 
different from that given by the above cited learned men, Strabo, Alfragano 
Macrobi, Teodosi, and Euristhenes, they are all essentially in agrement 
because Ptolemy makes use of longer stades; so that his 180,000 stades are 
equal to the 252,000 stades of the above mentioned learned men for the 
equinoctial line as above said. 



[B. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 439 

APPENDIX E. 

The table on the next page has been drawn up on the universally accepted 
basis of the old navigators and geographers, viz., 8 stades equal to 1 Roman 
mile, and 4 Roman miles equal to 1 Italian league. To attempt mathematical 
exactness would fill it with confusing fractions and make it useless in reading 
the old authors. As an illustration of the near approximation of these 
equivalents let the last item be taken in the third column. If the 20,400 
Italian miles be multiplied by 1,618 yards and . divided by 2,029 yards and 
thus reduced into nautical miles, the result would be 16,268 nautical miles 
against the 16,320 nautical miles of the reckoning in the table by means of 
stades. The difference is thus only fifty-two miles in the whole circumfer-
ence of the earth. This will give the measure of the discrepancy or non-
equivalence of the quantities. 

N O T E S T O A P P E N D I X E . 

o. Era tos thenes made the circumference to be 250,000 stades, and added 8,000 stades for convenience of 
division by 360 into degrees without f ract ions. 

b. J a i m e Fe r re r (see Append ix D) is reported, as the opinion is g iven in Navarre te , to have stated tha t 
a degree of the equator is 21£ l eagues ; b u t if the circumference of 7875 leagues, g iven also in 
t h e same opinion, be divided by 860, the result will be 21 | leagues. There is, therefore, an 
er ror .m the t ex t or m F e r r e r ' s ari thmetic. 

Posidonius.—I have followed Mons. D 'Avezac and Sir George Cornewall Lewis in g iv ing 240 000 
stades as the measure of the ear th ' s c ircumference fixed upon by Posidonius. I n most books 
i t is given as 180,000, on the authori ty of Strabo. I t is certain, however, t ha t his first opinion 
was m favour of 240,000 stades. This s tatement is made by his admirer Cleomenes who 
knew of no other figures. His tor ians reconcile the conflicting statements by assuming tha t 
he changed his opinion in la ter l ife. 

d. Pytheas of Massi l ia was a navigator [explorer or merchant] , who about the t ime of Alexander the 
t r e a t visi ted the nor th of Europe . H e passed outside the Pi l lars of Hercules , and sailed in 
the Bri t i sh seas. Polybius and Strabo considered h im to be an impostor, who pa lmed off his 
imag ina ry adventures for t r u t h ; bu t the great Greek geographers accepted his statements so 
f a r as to make up thei r maps on his information. Sir George Cornewall l e w i s [Astronomy 
of the Ancients, p. 467], following h i s na tura l ly sceptical temperament , is inclined to reject 
h i s voyages ; while, on the other hand , the uncr i t ica l optimism of Lelewel accepts them 
ful ly . The t ru th lies, probably, between those extremes ; for cer tain i t is tha t Pytheas was a 
m a n of grea t enterpr ise and unusua l powers of observation. H e fixed the la t i tude of 
Massilia, by means of a gnomon, at 43° 3' 58", and as i t is in real i ty 43° 17' 30", i t is a very 
remarkable observation to have been made 2240 years ago, and there are very few lat i tudes 
so near ly correct in all the ancient authors . H ippa rchus accepted the lat i tude of Massil ia as 
fixed by Pytheas ; but when he himself calculated by the gnomon the la t i tude of Byzant ium 
he fixed i t to be the same as Massilia, two degrees out of the t ruth . The " i m p o s t o r " had 
made a more correct determinat ion t han t h e greatest of the Greek astronomers. Pytheas, 
when i n the Bri t ish seas, saw the t ides which, on the west coast of Britain, are very h i g h in 
the estuaries of the r ivers, and are phenomena most s t r ik ing to one f rom the tideless shores 
of the Mediterranean. He, moreover, correctly a t t r ibuted them to the influence of the moon. 

The par t icular interes t of Pytheas, in re la t ion to tlie subject of this paper , is the belief 
of Lelewel tha t he estimated a degree to be 600 stades—almost the exact equivalent of 60 
geographical miles. Pytheas does not, however, appear to have made any direct s tatement to 
t h a t effect. I t is an inference f rom h is est imation of the distance between Orcus in 61° and 
Thule in 66°, which was also given as six days ' sail directly north, or 3000 stades. The 
figures are rounded out too much to be made the basis of serious calculation. 

«. Magel lan gave this opinion to K i n g Ferd inand ju s t before sail ing on his great voyage in A.D. 1518 
/ . Enciso.—See ante, p. 511, for a discussion of Enciso ' s opinions. 
g. This was, in fact , the opinion of both Spanish and Por tuguese navigators and diplomatists whenever 

the leagues of the t reaty of Tordesillas came up for discussion subsequent to the convention 
at Badajoz . 



8 4 8 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 

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