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>. «» i i* j ft

^0?&II|«9 V

OF IBE IWT^L SOCIETY OF CANADA

p»I4Siriil8*«^, tJTiRATOR^ A!^^

SECTION II

ETC.

LINES OF DBMARCATION

ALEXANDER VI.

AND THE

tjeeAtV of torpesii^las

By SAMUEL EDWARD DAWSpNXit.0. (L«v,i)

Section II,, 1899.

[467]

Trans. H. S. C.

Y II. — The Line of Demarcation of Pope Alexander VI. in A. 1). 1493

and that of the Treaty of Tordesillas in A.D. 1494; with an
inquiry concerning the Metrolorjy of Ancient and Mediieval

Times.

By Samuel Edward Dawsom. Lilt. D. (Laval).

(Read May 20, 1899.)

contf<:nts.

I. — Intro(lnct< )ry 4(iS

II. — I'ublic Iiitcriiiitioiial f.iiw in A. D. l-l!i:! 470

III.— The Form of V.\\)i\] lUills 4S1

IV. —The I)(Mimmitioii of A. D. 14!).'! 4S4

v.— Tlu' First Liiu' 4<.)1

VI.—TliL' Treaty of TortlosiliuH in 14i>4 and tli'.' Hubstitutoil Lini' 4i)G

VII.— The ]*uint oi Di'parturo ."ilK)

VIII. — Ancient and Media'val Measures of Lcnfjtli .")02

IX. — Tho Linoi- of lA-niareation on tlie Ocean and tlu'ir ^■^lpl)oHl■cl contact

with tlie Nortlieaft CoaHt of America o]7

APPENDICES.

A.— The Kull of Demarcation of A. D. 14!);{ {fnler cdn-a), collated with the

supproKsed draft ; with an English translation 029

B. — The lUiU of A. 1). UiJ.') (Krliniac (Irrolinnis) jjraiitinif to Si)ain, west of
the Line, the name rights as had been granted previonsly to
Portugal in the east ; with an English translation .V].")

C. — The lUdl of Extension of September L'o, 149H ; with an English translation o.'JS

D.— The written opinion of ^lossen Jaunie Ferrer npon the Line of Demarca-
tion, presented A. I). 149o to the Spanish Sovereigns 541

E. — A table of opinions held by the greater Cosmographers of ancient and
media'val times concerning the circumference of the Earth and the
length of a Degree upon the Equator 545

Sec. II., 1«)9. 30.

468

KOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

1. — Introduction,

"While during the last five years scholars in the north have been dis-
cnpsing the voyages of the Cabots ; in the south, an acrimonious con-
troversy was carried on by politiciuns 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 statesmansliip 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, tlie 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 centiu'ics 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 Associatien 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 Avhat 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 v^as involved war was not then so imminent as it was

[S. E. DAW.SOS]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

469

Not

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 n 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 obsers'ed, that the "argument proves too much ; for the whole
of the present United States fell \,-ithin the Spanish demarcation and,
from where Cabot's voyage ended, the whole coast of the Atlantic was
first discovered, and ceremonial possession \\"as taken, for Spain. The
British take their title in Guiana from the Dutch, and the United
States take their title from the Britisli ; so that it is not easy to build
an argument on discovery and upon the Bull of 1-493 without involving
scmo 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
Ime 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 ])apiil Bulls of 1493 and
the Treaty of Tordesillas of 1491 are v.'itliin 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 dithcult. 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 ; and 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 bom Q
Burgundian subject and served in the council of Charles the Bold,
for passing over into equally confidential and important employmients

470

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

under his mortal enemy, Louis XI. of France ; but Cabot, an Italian,
bom in Venice, is judged as if lie had been a captain in tlie French
navy who had sought employment from the Emperor of Germany.
Tliis is a misk"iulii]g anaciiruiiism, fur the present exaggerated antag-
onism of nationalities is of comparatively recent growth and received
its chief impetus in the religioua wars which followed in the sixteenth
century.

The s!aine tendency to anachronism has alfected tlie interpretation
of the old cliartj;. If the early sailors had possessed sullioient know-
ledge they would have made more accurate maps ; but they had neither
the information nor the instruments necessary, therefore the secret of
longitude Avas hidden from them. All their longitudinal distances
were calculated by dead reckoning ; and tlie log line, even, was not in
use until 1521, but their maps are now ofccn 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 comi>ass bearings, and ours
are always drawn to the true meridian. The conditions of the age in
M-hich tlioy 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
p]quator 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 u detailed
exanduation of the Bulls of Pope Alexander VI. and the pretensions
based upon them. The distances spccilied 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 Xora Scotia. All these
subjects are of interest, since they bear upon the true interpretation of
the early maps and the elucidation of the liistorical geography of our
Atlantic coast.

II. — International Law in 1493.

It has been stated by writers of great weight that Gro ius 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 Grotiu3, pub-
lished at Paris in 1625. It does not mean that international law did

[S. B DAWSOX]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION^

471

not exist before Grotius, or that he originated its principles. The most
cursory ghince at his great work, De Jure Belli, will show tliat all his
ilIiis;trations wore flrawn 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 SynodicaJ Canons
recorded in ecclesiastical history and upon the Divine law as revealed
in the Bil)le. 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
lo the time of Edward III. the Lord Chancellor was always an ecclesi-
astic. In commenting on tliis point, Sir Henry Maine observes^ that "it
" is astonishing how small a proportion the additions made to inter-
" national 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 Cicero* 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
" imiverse, 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." It 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 tlie
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

472

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

only as n frcogrnphcr and as judge in a ourt in a secular matter ; nor
have we even to discuss his autliority ; ecause 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 wai 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 thorn 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,^
" 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 Romana to deal \vith 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 Maine* that Benthara was so
impressed with the confusion attending the modern views of right to
territoriefl 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, "it 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 ^he monarch whose servants had
"fulfilled the conditions required by man jurisprudence for the ac-

[«. B- DAWBON]

THE LINKS OK DKMAKCATION

478

*' quisition 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 delimitatio of " spheres of inlluence,"
such ai during the last few years, have r, ^Ited in the partition of the
continent of Africa. The doctrine of " Hinterland," is the old prin-
ciple under u 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 Faahoda incident
crops up to demonstrate the absence of any governing principle.

It has been argued that the perfect equality of eucl: sovereign
state, without regard to its size or strength, is a modem 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
}\is 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 un 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

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

lands and that nominal Christian princes did so also, though their
morals were often not sr, 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 ot 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 v/ould not even be subject
to his spiritual autliority 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 ^r-eat 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 ; ti,.at 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 cofisting laws and
proliibitive tariffs. If the Chinese and Japanese had admitted our
6hi])s 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 Eome, because of the
universality of the claims of the Roman See. Tiie 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 qui>- true that current opinion in the middle
ages upon geography was cnide and absurd, it is also true that the

[s a DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMAlirATION 473

doctrine of the sphericity of the earth, as tauglit 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. lie holds the Homan
Church responsible for the sputterings of Cosmas Indicopleustes. But
that irritable religionist was not a churchman by training, and, although
in late life he becume a monk in Egypt, he was a mercliant, a traveller
and a sailor for the greater part of his life — he was never a priest. His
travels wore extensive and his observations upon what he actually s'aw
wore valuable ; but his Chrislian Topixjraphi/ 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 lloman times. The
l''picureans laughed at it a.s 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 ])eon pagans. In Chapter VII.
of Plutarch's treatise. On Oie Apparent Face in the Moon's Orb, the
theory is ridiculed by one of the speakers. Xo 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. Augustine'' merely states that even " if it be supposed or
" scientifically demonstrated that the world is of a round and spherical
" fonn, 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 op' \ion wus 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 oiu's 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 ^Vl^ite's thesio,
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 birth ; 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 Ar-od, laymen loft so slight a record in the world of letters.

476

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

There was nothing to prevent them becoming scholar3 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 Mundi 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. It 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 Kabida, Fray Hernando Talavenx (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 jjrac-
tical common sense folk," of all classes ; supported by the men, and
they are not all dead yet, \vho 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."

It 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 Toseanelli at Florence,
and we read of a globe before 1497 upon which John Cabot taught
his son the properties of the sphere. It may readily be supposed that
all the globes then in existence axe not spoken of in the books. It is
not necessary to think, moreover, with Mr. Harrisse" 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

[b. e. dawsos]

THE 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
ad'viance 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
Ijarriers 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 l-i09,
was dedicated to Pope Alexander V. Pope Nicholas V. 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 IV.
^Eneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., wrote a work on cosmography
and a copy still exists with annota,tions 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. For these and many other reasons a question
of cosmography could, at that time, be decided better at Rome than
onywhere 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
" 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. 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 " 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

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

f I

The authority is usually referred to and in a republic A70uld read — in
virtue of the authority committed to me by tho peoijle, etc., etc. It is
merely the substitution of tho will of tho majority for Divine Providonco.
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 latrr on, and we learn from Herrera that,
when Msking 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 teiTitory 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
circumstanccp are recited in the Bull. In those days, title by discoveiy
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 Etiropean 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"
vras not formulated until the conference at Berlin, in 1884, when Ger-
many waked up to the fact 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
YII. to Cabot three years later. He granted })ower to "sail to all parts,
" eountreys, 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 g'ves 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 tho same villages,
" townes, etc., and firme 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

[8. K. DAWBON]

THE LINKS OF iJEMARCATION

479

+ho light of many occurrences in tlie Pacific and in eastern seas, it
n ight be well to examine our own consciences without dissenbling be-
fore throwing stones at Pope Alexanrlir on this account.

While arguing for the validity of the Bull of liOS the Venezuelan
counsel have greatly overstated the submissivenoss of the English nion-
archs of those days and the historical instances of Mr. Ha-risse, whose
Diplomatic History of America seems to have been prepared for the
case, have led them into error. Wliile it '•■ true that the Bull Lauda-
biliter i.s authentic, it is necessary to read it in its own terms, when
it will appear, as Dr. Lingard ' long ago observed, that the Pope
" Adrian, by this instrument, avoids the usual language of feudal
'"' grants ; ho merely signifies his acquiescence in the king's project ;
" he is willing that Henry should enter Ireland and be acknowledged as
"Lord hy the natives." The submission of Heairy 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 adnutted to have been a private one by those wlio 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
Ilenry himself, it was invalid as against the realm of England.

An intimate knowledge of the laws and ceremonial language of
Spain has probably prevented Senor liafaal Seijas from incorporating
Mr. Ilarrisse's sixth chapter in the "case."' 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 fee.t of Ilis 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. Ilarrisse'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.

It 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
tliem 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 Canossa memory — and William had received
a consecrated banner for his expedition from Gregory's predecessor.

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

480

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

" Your legaU', Hubert, religious fatlier, lias admonif-lud uie on your part to
" do homage to you and your succesHor!*, and to think Ixtter of the money which
" my prcdecesHors were accustomed to Hend to tiie liomun Cluirch. Of these
" demands, one I have granted ; tiie other I have refused. Homage 1 would not
" nor will I do. For I ilid not promise it myself ; nor caii 1 learn that it W5us ever
" done by my predecessors to yours," etc., etc.

Then he promises to send the usual money.

The next letter is from tho barons of England to Pope Boniface
VII 1., (tlie writer of the " Unam S'anctam,") 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 Homan Court.

" T(i the m(jst holy father in Christ, the L(jrd P)onifac(>, liy divine Providence,
" chief bishop of tlie Holy lioman Church, John, Furl of Warren, and one hun-
" dred antl live other barons, send greeting.

'• It is wfll known to us and to many others, nio.«t holy father, that the
" kingdom of ."Scotland never did, nor iloes, by any right whatever, belong, in
" temporals, to the Roman Church. Nor have the Kings of Knglantl, on account
" of the indepi'ndent pre-emini'iice of their royal dignity, and a custom at all
" times inviolably observed, ever ^'leaded, or been bound to plead, witli respect to
" their right to the kingdom aforesaitl, or to their other temporal rights, before
" any ecclesiastical or secular judge Mhatsoever," 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 tho argument as to the submission
of the English kings based by the Venezuelan counsel on Mr. Ilarrisse's
book falls to the ground. Ono more letter, and this, from the very
King Eerdinand the Catholic, who sent the embassy of obedience to
which Mr. Harrisso devotes a chapter, will suilice to show the dilfer-
ence between obedience in temporal and in spiritual matters. Eer-
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 lirst to
be examined and receive the royal placet before publication ; accord-
ing tc the fund'amental laws of these kingdoms. The King writes to
his vice-roy and after reciting the circumstances, he ijontinues :

" All this has not a little excited our anger and indignation ; and we are
" equally surprised at and displea.sed 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

THL LINES OF DEMARCATION

481

" \on must also use all possible dili>;oiici> to wize titc inesscnper who prc-
" scntcd tlio «iid Brief; if yon can got Imld of liini. lie must ivtruut tlu' prosonta-
" tion which he made yon of tlic Brief, and rononnce it by a formal act; after
" which you will have him immediately hanfjed," etc., etc.

These letters cover the period of the greatest hei-^ht of papol
power, and it is stra:ige that a Veupzuelan statesman familiar with
tlie fundamental law cf Spain, could have fallen into such an error.
Mr. liarrisse has evidently not turned his attention .to this branch of
liistory for lit wrote in 1893 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
sur])rising statement. Claims were in p^st ages sometimes made by
popes an'^ extremists, whom Dante {De Monarchia) calls ''decretalists,"
btit no such general claims as these extending to all kingdoms were made
and, lieyond doul^t, no sucli acts of homage were ever performed.

Although the remarks immediately preceding may seem to lead
away from the main subject, tliey do not in reality. It is necessary
to clear away these misconceptions concerning the early documents of
our history. Tlio Venezuelan dispute was not settled by the Bull or
by the principle of discovery ; but by the occurrences of the Dutcli
occupation. In 1875, the dispute between Spain and Germany for
the Caroline islands was referred to Pope Leo Xlll., 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, lie based his award upon re-
peated acts of occupation by Spain down to the very moment the dis-
pute arose. In 1-193, circumstances were verj' different, and while we
must take exception to such statements as the preceding, concerning
the submission of hhiropean 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.

fger
act

III. — The Outward Form.

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

482

KOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

case whctlier the subject were u do,<,miatic deliverance upon a matter
of faith, a direction on a question of discipline, the creation or modi-
ilcation of an ir.stitution, or a decision in a secular matter as in the
present case. It is inaccurate to call Uiese American Bulls "privileges
" issued in tne particular form of the small Bulls, called by the ponli-
" fical chancery tiluli or gracious acts.''"* This is to confuse thiuga
essentially different. A privikije in canon law is, by its very name,
n private or particular law, according a favour to some person or in-
stitution ; as, for instance, to a monastery or church " Dicitur lex,
" moh" qiiia privilcf/iiim est let; sed quia quamcUu dwet instar Ictjis
" ohservari debet; dicifiir privata quia non facil jus quoad omnes." A
liluhis is sonicthing still different, and is a presentation or right to a
benefice or a churcn. A privilege or title might, indeed, be in the
form of a BiUl ; but whether the liull 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 ; inteniational 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. Ilarrisse's explanation of the
word litterae. lie says,^" in relation to the Bulls described later as A
and B, "The pontifical privileges were often accompanied by a second
'" VUiera, shorter than the first, and of which it was, in fact, the noti-
"fication," and again referring to the Bull Eximiac, he says, ^^ "This
"' lillera was not exactly an abridgement of the primary Bull, resenib-
" 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-
" eery drafted anew important Bulls in condensed form, which were
"' transcribed in full in its registers, and were legalized not simply as
" true copies but as authentic originals."'- 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"" "carried round on maritime
'■ expeditions" to be shown while both th.. larger and "condensed orig-
" inals" were retained in the archives. This very singidar error seems
to have been suggested by a clause in the Bull Eximiae as follows :

" But foiusnmch as it would be very difficult for the preseut k'ttei-s to be car-

' rit'd 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. B. DAWGON]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

483

" provided with the seal of gonie pci-Hon ciulowed with eccU'siastiL'iil dijfiiity, or
" with that of an occloBiafitical court, tiic same iinqm'stioiicd liiitli shall he jjivt'ii,
" in a court of juHticc, (jr without, or anywhere dfj, as to thene presents if they
" were shown or exhibited."

This clause is customary in Bulls or Briefs whicii nro intended for
wide circulation and will be found also in Inter cetera. It is so common
that in some Bulhria, the first words alone are given ''Verum i.imen
difficile foret, etc., etc.,'' with a note on the margin to the etl'oet that
"faith is to be given to copies." A clause almost in the same words
occurs at the end of the encyclical of the present pope couc ning 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 ineino-
riam;" then it continues on with the muin subject matter. It is
written on paper, in a modem 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 bo seen on reference to ap-
pendix A. "Alexander, episcopiis, serutts servorum Dei, etc., etc." It
is written on parchment and (until recently) was in an antique style
of characters. It is dated according to the old Roman calendar ; but
the essential note is that the seal is of lead (it migiit be of gold)
stamped on one side with the effigies of SS. I'oter unci I'aul and, on
the other, with the 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.

It is of the essence of a law of any kind, and before all others of
these pontifical laws which bind the conscience, tli'at they shall be pub-
lished or proniulgated. 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. It will be seen later how thia 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-cei^tain 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., ISSH). .n.

484

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

canonista tlmt a Hull was siilliciently promulgated by being affixed to
the gates of tlie Vatican iiiul proelaimed in tlie piazza of the'^ Calnpo di
Fiori at Home. This \v;is said to he [)iihlica;ti()n i/t nrhe el orhi. That
WBS disputed hy others ; hut, without wandering into a disputed ques-
tion, it may eDnfidently he allirmed that a Bull unpubjishod and un-
known to the ]K'rsons whom it was intended to bind wantcxl that essen-
tial rpiality which l)rought it into life and force.

Now, while a Bull was in this inchoate state, it miglit be entered
on tile secret register of the Vatican and might be complete in form ;
but, before promulgation, it was still open to modilicatiou. It migiit
bo found on linal examination tluit the instrument was not drawn in
precise accordani'e witli tlie will or instructions of th(- Tope; or some
omission or error might he ])ointed out liy the ])erson who had petitioned
for it. In such a cuse (and it is not at all an uncommon one) w new
Bull would be drafted ^w] it also would be entered at its proper date
npon the ivgister. while the first would never ap])ear. This, as will be
shown, Wiis what occuiTcd in 119;], and recent researches having, after
three hundred and fifty years, unearthed tho first draft, a controversy
has arisen most ])erplexing to students.

These documents, JiuUs or Uriel's, are known, iind always cited by
the (irst words afti r the salutation. The -present paper is chiefly con-
cerned with two — the Hxiinhtr dcvotionis, dated May 3, and the Inter
cetera dated i\Iay 4 — 'Ijoth of VW^. It will at once be seen therefore
that it is paradoxical to write of two Bulls Inter cetera as issued on two
successive dnys of the sanu^ year covaring the same subject matter. It
is lilce 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. It has been brought forward very prominently of
late and magnified rather than explained.

IV. — The Demarcation of 1493.

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

[S. B. DAWBON]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

488

nstical authority ; the original was deposited in the archives of the
Iiulies at Seville where it remained until within very recent years ; it
has l)eeii printed in all the llnllt^ria; refernHi to and cited in all the
books. For three huiulri>d years, no suspicion of any other Inkr cetera
arose in the minds of the numlterless ollioials, annalists and historians,
who administered American affairs or wrote on American auhjects.

In tho year 1T!)T, Juan iJaptisUi Munoz, who had heen entrusted
l)y the King of S])ain 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 o[)en, found, at Sinuinca.>j, u document in the forni of
a Bull commencing with the same words lulvr cetera, but dated May 3,
(quinto nonas Mail) the day before the historic Bull, whic,. bore date
quarto nonas Mali. The two documents were, for the greater pai't of
their contents, in identically the same words. In appendix A is printed
the full text of the liLstorio Bull of Muy I, and all the words which are
not in the Simaucas document are printed in italics. On the other
hand, all the words in the Simancas draft which were omitted in the
Bull as pronudgated are given in the footnotes, with references to the
places from whence they were dro])ped. The reader has, therefore,
]>mctio;dly l)oth Bulls before him.

The discovery of the Sinuincas document gave rise to much specu-
lation. Hiunboldt gave'"' a partial collation of the two Bulls and ex-
])ressed surprise without oU'ering an explanation. Washington Irving
referred to both and did not attempt to reconcile them, but he gave
the dates, erroneously, as May 3 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 Jlistoriral Report, Prof. Bourne
gives a partial collation of the two, and Mr. Harrisse in his Diplomatic
Ilislori/ has brought the difficidty into strong light, and has moreover
increased it by treating the unpromulgated Bull as the primary one
and as a valid and etricacious 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. Intel' cetera of May 3 — the Simancas, unpub-

lished Bull.
B. Eximiae devotionis of May 3.

486

ROYAL GOCIETY OF CANADA

■ I

C. Ififrr cetera of May 4 — the promulgated B\ill of
(Icmiiircittion — the historic Bull.

And the fourth may be lettered D.

It is a FJiill known only in a Spanish translation made sixty years
nftor its supposed date and entitled Extension de la concesion y donacion
Apostolirn de las Indias.

These four documents, if all thrown together, are conflicting, but
B carefuJ examination will olirninato A as an unpromulgatwl document
wliicli iH'ver luid a valid and legal exiritenee, and show that 1) does not
aflVct 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 n 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 (', 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 jxpert lawyers of the Curia Romana
would not he 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 lUdl, when afllxed to the gate of the Vatican and proclaimed on the
piazza of the C^ampo di Fieri, was sufficiently promulgated to bind the
consciences of all Catholics, no one has yet ventured to assert that a lUdl
never published at all, at Home or anywhere else, had any elhcacy
wiiatever. One well known instance there used to be of a Bull being
published annually in that way at Rome, becuuse it was not admitted
to publication elsewhere in Europe ; but that was a very exceptional
case which proves the rule and the arguments from it have no validity
here, for this was a decision, not on dogma or discipline, but iu a boundary
question, wliich 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 case, 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 dnted 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

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487

in another Bull was oinittod. Tlie case is not i«irallt'l to tluit of the
preparation ol' dofrmatio IJiills, but is parallel rather to a copy of the
judjnnent of some hifjh civil court in which errora may be found on
examination before pulilioation and the Spanish envoy on looking into
the first document eould easily see that what his master had specially
asked for was not tliere.

With regard to the H.rimiae dcvolionis (Mr. Harrisso's B) he in un-
doubtedly right in taking it to be a real RuU; but it is misleading to call
it a "privilege," and it is a Httcra in no otlier sense than other written
communications are lillcnif. Tlie historians he refers to (without men-
tioning their names) wlio take tiie Bull to be "a simple invoice sent
"with Bulls A atul (', wlien tliey wei- sent to Spain," must Imve 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 primury Bull ;" it might, he
thinks, be called "a jiapal i^ull for common use." Ft certainly was very
far from being any one of these things. It was simply a deliverance
of the Roman court in the usual form of a Bull and, as will appear on
rending it in appendix B, it had a clear and distinct meaning, and the
sentence in it "proitf In noslrif) liide confertis lillrrift phnuix rontinrlitr"
refers to the line of demarcation intended to be in Bidl A but omitte>l
When the Bull was redrawn, the next day, as Bull C the clause omitted
was inserted, for tliat n-i.ssing clause of demarcation ^vr.s the essential
motive of the whoh; transaction. The Roman chancery was as Mr.
Ilarrisse observes evidently hurried beyond its usual leisurely pace.

The date of this Bidl (H) is May 3 — tlie same date as that of the
unpublished Bull. It is not met av ith in the ordinary books, and has
tlierefore, 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, ho 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 Eximiae devotionis; while the italicised

488

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

passages contain tho inserted matter which was in effect the cardinal
j)oint of tho wliole movement. Tho two documents A and B, iu fact
overlap ; while tho two docnnicnts B and C are supplement'ary and
form a logical and consistent wliole. The Bnll 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 in 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 tlie whole mass of prior legislation for Portugal,
which extended over lit'ty years and was very voluminous, was enacted .
for Spain in a few sentences — by a device very common in drawing up
legislation. This, Mr. Harrisse has not observed for he says, "appar-
" ently within the twenty-four houiis which followed the publication
"of the two Bulls, Alexander VL, May 4, ]ml)lished a third— Bull 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
in a village municiiiality ; for it was is.suing 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 BuIIaria,
referred to in innumerable documents and the theme of numerous
writers for three hundred years while what Mr. TTarrisse calls the "prim-
ary Bull" mouldered unknown in the archives of Simancas.

In continuntion of his remarks upon this Bull C, Mr. Harrisse
says, "We know by tlie Coder Diplomaticus tlint there was attacla'd to
" that Bull a leaden seal fastened with silk strings, red and saffron
" colour." Beyond doubt, for these as has been shown, are the marks
of a genuine l?ull and, in a Bull of grace, the seal is always attached
with strings of coloured silk. Following the Codex further, we find
that Peter viarcia. Bishop of Barcelona, on July 19, 149:3, testified that
he "had held, handled, seen and diligently examined these apostolic
" letters of our most Holy Father and Lord in Christ. Alexander VI..
" by Divine Providence Pope, from which hung his true Bull of lead
" with threads of silk of a red and saffron colour, according to the style
" of the Roman court, sound and entire in their marks, not vitiated,
" nor erased, nor in any part suspicious, but free from any doubt what-
" ever." Then he proceeds to give a copy of tlie 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 secretary 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

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THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

489

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

If tlie Bulls B and C are considered together it will be seen that no
injustice was done to Portugal. The vei-y mention of her rights en bloc
in the Eximiac devotionis and the grant of the same riglits to Spain in
a different sjjhere confirmed them. Nothing was awarded to Spain,
but what she had diseover_*cl and what she might discover beyond a
certain line. The monarchs were not misled by the formal phrases
which scandalize modern writers as being "aiTOgant and presumptuous."
The decision is in the fonn of an absolute gift "We of our own motion,
" and not ut 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 Vt32, King George II. granted the charter of
Georgia to his petitioners, "of our special grace, certain knowledge,
" and more motion," while the territory granted had been discovered
and was disputou by S])ain. What the Pope really did was to confirm
each power in what it actually Had and to allot "spheres of influence"
in which they might pursue their discoveries without quarrelling — pre-
cisely as an international congress might do at the present day. No
moro account was taken of the Caribs and Indians than is taken now
of Africans, I'hilijjpinos, Chinese or liawaiians. Of course, they get
the blessings of religion and civilization ; but those also were promised
in the Bulls and, in short, in view of recent movements towards a court
of international arbitration, the whole proceeding has a modern air —
there is as much fundamental justice in one case as in tlie other.

Finally there is a fourth document (see appendix C) which we liave
lettered D. Mr. llarrisse states that it is "known at present only in a
"' Spanish translation made Aug. 30, 1554, by one Gracian, doubtless
"Diego Graci'an de Aldrete, then secretary of Philip II. for foreign
" languages." It is given in Navarrete as Bula de la extension de la con-
cesion y donacion apostolira de las Indias. There is, indeed, a Latin
version in Solorzano, but Mr. Harrissc is doubtless correct in supposing
it to bo a translation from the Spanish, necessary in a treatise written
in Ijatin. The most careful researches at Simancas, Seville and at
Kome, have failed to find any trace of an original of the Bull. Not-
withstanding the frequency of forgeries of apostolical letters, said by
Mr. llarrisse to have existed in the time of Alcjxander VI., he thinks
that there was a valid original Bull. The letter cited by him does not
bear on the point. It 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 sUitements
made and say that, if they are true, the Bull (of May 4) should be

490

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

V\-

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 apjjlication to Rome and the issue of a Bull based
upon it. Munoz, Herrera., Hiunboldt and other authorities of weight in-
oidently notice tliis Bull without objecting to its authenticity, althougli
they haxil only the Sjianish 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
Inlcr 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 resuiied 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. l)ut although the proceedings have been preserved
iri 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. No 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 Columbiis for Spain. These discoveries were supposed by
all to l)e in the "Indies." The West and East Indies had not then
been seixarated in thought or name, nor was an intervening continent
then su))posed to exist. The Portuguese claimed that their Bulls
covered the Indies, ))ecause 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 tlio 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 reach ng 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 maui n*. It stated that the grant had been made for

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THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

491

lands to the west and south and continued to the followiujf elTeot (aud
here is the point of contention) — that since it niay happen that, in sailing
to the west and south, the Spanish sailors may discover land in eastern
parts and lands which may helong to India, the Bulls of grant (B and
C) are extended in all their clauses to cover such lands, whether thoy
are or seem to be in the western, southern or eastern parts or in India.
Then followed a noii obslaiitiir 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 }.iven to the Spanish raonarchs that the Spanish demarcation
might reach westwards round the world to the Ai'abian gulf, "if our
■' f<hips f/o there first."

This view of the Bula de la extension is the one held by Navarrete.
Tt is expressed as follows by Munoz, ''to remove every doubt with re-
"irard to those countries of the Indies to which the King of Portiigal
"might lay claim by virtue of former Bulls, the Holy Father declared
" on the 2Gth of the following month of September, that all countries
"' of the Eastern Indies which the Spaniards might find in case they
" were not already in (Christian hands, should be included in the grant
" made to the Catholic sovereigns." The principle laid down by the
Pope was, as between the two powers, eminently just ; for Portugal
was claiming by virtue of lier Bulls, lands which none of her sailors
had ever seen. The Pope swept away these pretensions and made his
grant to fallow discovery and possession. lie drew no line in the East,
and therefore the papal i)artition of the world is, as will be shown more
fully — SI popidar myth. The reader will find this Bula de la extension
ill appendix ('. It is givcMi in the Latin version of Solorzano Pe Indin-
riiii} Jure, Madrid, 1629.

V. — The First Link of Demarcation.

Tt was the opinion of Colnmbus and certainly, in 1493, no other
opinion upon the subject v/as of equal weight, that on sailing we-stwards
across a meridian alwut one hundred leagues west of the Azores, he
had entered the New World, and he recorded in hifi journal that at that
point the needles of all his composes had cross'^d over from eagerly
variation to one point west of north. We cannot, at this day, realize

492

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

the profound impression then made on the minds of that small com-
pany, alone on nn unknown ocean where no keel h^ad ever before sailed,
when the compass, their sole hope for retracing their course, began,
as they thought, to fail them. Curiosity and wonder filled the mind
of the admiral and oonsternktion 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 sot forth his views as follows : —

" When I sailed from Spain to the Indies, I found that as soon as
" T iiad passed a hundred leagues westward of the Azores, there was a
"very great change in the sky and the stars, in the tempeiiature of the
"air and in the water of the sea ; and T have been very diligent in oh-
'•' serving these tilings. 1 remarked that from north to south, in traver?--
'■ ing these hundred leagues J'rom the said islands, tiie needle oi the eoiu-
" pass which hitherto had turned to the northeast, turned a full quarter
" of the wind to the northwest, and tlvis took place from the time we
" reached that line."

lie tlien went on to describe the Snrgasso sea and other remark-
able a})pearances wliich, under the tension of his first voyage, made, an
indelible impression u])on 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 Colnmbus returned from his first voyage
and, driven by stress of weather into the Tagus, he vvent, in res]wnse 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, las indeed he
well might be, for, as every one then thought, the Indies, which in fifty
years of continuous elfort 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 Rome, then tlie
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-

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THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

493

jeehire amounts to certainty that Columbus indicated the line of one
hundred leagues west of the Azores as a natural and equitable boundai7.
There was, as pointed out by Humboldt, a reasonable motive "for seek-
" injT 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 secmui voyafie. when the pilots, by reason of severe
storms, had lost their reckoninij, he thought in that way to ascertain
his longitude. Mr. JIarrisse 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-
archs call it "the line whicli we have caused to be traced." The Spanish
envoys were instructed to inform the Pope that the discoveries had
been made without encroacliing on the possessions confirmed to Portu-
gal. In view of the existing treaty between the two crowns and the
Pulls granted at tlic instance of Portugal the request of Spain was
politic and reasonable aiul it was urged with promptness and vigour.

The line fixed by Alexander VT. was therefore a scientific line ;
based upon the very first observation ever made of magnetic variation,
and to cite ITumbnldt^''' again, " the Po]io actually rendered, witlmut
" knowing it, an essential service to nautical astronomy and the physical
"science of terrestrial magnetism."' 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 ver 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 tiiem 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.

494

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

Nor was there any vagueness about the decision that the regions
" westwards and southwards" of a line drawn from pole to pole should
belong to Spain. Those words covered, and were meant to cover, a
danperons though unreasonable pretension of the King of Portugal
niiulo known to Columbus and made manifest in subsequent disputes —
namely, tlial 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 qualihet insnlarum,'' 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 ol)jcct 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 Avest of the specified line, for as has been shown, the
Bulls to Portugal were not revoked but confirmed by the Eximiae
ilevofionifi. 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 Iiidos," 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 bo settled by the principle th'alt
lands in the possession of any Christian prince were excepted from the
sco])o 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 1-193, 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 (1491) whicli 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.

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THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

498

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 ;
i'or the great revolt against Rome was rapidly approacliing and tlie
storm was soon to break. The Bull bound Spain and Portugal, as
regards eaeli other, for they were parties to such references. As to how
far it mig'ht be held by canon law to bind other nations is not neces-
sary here to inquire. ITenry VIT. did not hesitate to send Cabot west
of the line, and Francis I. sent Verazzano, and England and France
founded claims to parts of America u]ion their voyages ; but, however
that may be, the treaty of Tordesillas in 149-1, abrogated the line estab-
lished by the Pope and laid down anotiier and this last line, and not
I'ope 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.
150(), it was confirmed by Pope Julius IE., it had been drawn by Spain
and I'ortugal as if they alone had any concern with the matter. It 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 tlie discoveries of Verazzano, because the grant
was limited by its express words to "islands and mainlands," "per
" nuncios et capitaneos vesU'os inventae" 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 quem was fixed.
The fact of discovery was to fix the latter, for the grant to 8[)ain would
travel eastwards witii every discovery until her sailors came to lands in
the possession of some Christian prince. There can be no doubt upon
tills point if the Bulls are carefully read — the westward progress of
Spain was to be limited only by the eastward progi*ess 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 assimiption 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.

496

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

VI. — The Treaty of Tordesillas in 1494.

Up to the year 149 1 the Portuguese had made no discoveries be-
yond the Cape of Good Hope. In seventy years of continued ettort
alonif the coast of Africa they had succeeded in reaching tlie turning
))oint towards the east and soutli of Asia. It \W\s not until 1497 that
Vnsco de Crama led the way to India by sea — up to 1491 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 1179, 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 prep'aring with confidence to open up the eastern trade when
the return of Colum})US from his first voyage dissipated her dreams of
monopoly ; for lie was su])posed to have touched the eastern shore of
the long coveted land of spices. It 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 Portugul, and the same statement was
made at Home wlien Spain ai)plied for a Bull of conlinnation. It was
made with truth ; for, whatever theories a few scliolars 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 cast.

The objectivo point of botli nations still lay open to further dis-
coveries, though from opposite directions, for neither "usque ad Indos"
or "versus Indiani" carried 'an inclusive grant of the coveted regions
tc either party. As Mr. Ilarrisse 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

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THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

497

waa supposed to have touched. It is especially to be observed here that
if the supposed Bula de. la extension y donacinn of Sept. 25, 1493, httd
possessed the meanin<i atti'il)uted to it by Mr. Harrisse and others, it
would have obviated discussion ; for the rejrions in dispute would have
boon conceded to Spain. From the fact that no such Bull was alluded
to in the tedious preliminary discussions, we may fairly arj^ue that
either there was no such Bull or that it had no meaninj; beyond that
attril)utcd to it in the previous chapter.

Three envoys from each nation met at Tordcsillas, and on June 7,
1494, signed tlie 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 Bmzil
and the Spanish provinces in South America. The result was that
without mention of any Bulls a lino of demarcation was fixed much
further westwards. But it w^ds not 370 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 Tsland.s, 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 H., on January
y4, 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 1501-3. It
will therefore be seen that the division of the world into two parts was
a development of the treaty of Tordcsillas, and that this "arrogant ])re-
" 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 Po 'tugal
were a mass of pretentious and contradictory documents issued from
time to time on 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.
I'hey were in fact docisions 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., 'N'ov. 3,
1514, in reaffirming all the grants to Portugal, did not imply that these

498

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

rights had been abrogated. Tlie change in the location of the line had
been homologated by Julius II, and that remained as estublished by
the treaty. It has remained, as appears in the first part of this papo:*,
to be cited in the Vonozuoljin argument, and Mr. Bourne is in error in
suf)poping that it was abrogated by tlic Hull of Loo X. and the rigiit l)y
discovery substituted tlien. Tlio right by discovery and occupation is
an inheritance from the Honmn civil law and existed all the while.
It was the real law running under all the Bulls. The form of donati n
was transitory and superficial.

The line of the treaty was an arbitrary line, based on no nttempt
at a rational or scientific principle. It was a mere compromise and it
is worthy of remark tlmt Columbus, in the deed of entail made at
Seville (Feb. 21, 1198), 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 u 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 tlie
farthest East, relieved from the apprehension of interference from
Spain.

The return of El Cunu, Magellan's lieutenant, iu 1531, by way of
the Cape of Cood Hope, again awakened the Portuguese from their
dreams of monopoly and showed them that their success in shifting the
line westwards on the Atlantic wsis likely to lose them the Spice Islands
(Moluccas) in tlie Pacific, flow the ide^a of continuing the line round
the globe first arose does not clearly appear. It 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
i\]] a? 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,
1524, 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,

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THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

''tQQ

nil as naval assessors for S|)ivin. Portugal also sent pilots, amongst
them some who had sailiKi in the Kast. It will bo necessary to revert
again to this convention ; the point to bo noticed here is that the pilots
and sailors and nstronomers were assessors to give professional informa-
tion and that there were really two separate processes or inquiries. One
related to the location of the lino of demarcation, the other to tiie
facts of prior possession or discovery. The Moluccas were the chief
subject of dispute und while tlio Spaniards claimed that they had dis-
covered them, without sailing over Portuguese waters, the Portuguese
insisted that they had been there first. It 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 Em[)oror insisted
that, even if Portugal had discovered the islands (whicli he denied),
that it would not give a title without possession t)akon, and that no one
could truly say that he had found anything which he had not takon pos-
session of. This is the precise statement of law in the British case against
Venezuela (p. loO), " thlit it is not the finding of a thing but the taking
" by the finder that gives the title," so that here we have the l^'mporor
Charles A^. anticipating (Jrotius by a hundred years, and Bluntschli
and the British foreign ofilce by four hundred years, 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 assei't 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 her
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. II., 18W. :^2.

BOO

ROYAL yOCIETY OF CANADA

I :

all that time disputing al>out anothor lino — one of tlioir own making.
Last of all when, in 1885, the present Pope arbitrated upon the dispute
concerning the Carol iiu' islands, situated uo^ir the western edge of the
grant supposed to have been made by his predeces.sors, lie made not
the least reference to that, but decided consistently with his prede^
cessors nccording to llie underlying principle of law,

Vn. — Tuv. Point of Dkparture.

The commissioners at Tordesillaa made no improvement on the Bull
of Pojjc Alexander in point of clearness ; for their distance of three
hundred and seventy leagues was made to common(;e from th ; Cape
Vei'de Islands generally, and that group extends over three degrees of
longitude. Tliose islands are distant about 320 miles from Cape Verde
in Africa. Tliey are barren and when discovered by the Portuguese
in A.D. 1456, were uninliabitod. 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 are
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 tlie
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 Simnish 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 Navarrcte, Vol. II.
A translation is appended (Appendix D) and ia Avorth 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, ofr
anybody else, had made a partition of the world ; for he fiays that the
eastern lands "on the Arabian ttulf 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.

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801

Two years later, A.D. 1497, Vasco de Gaina led the first Portu-
^nioae expedition to India and, following: in his track, a awani' of ad-
venturous sailors and soldiers voiy quickly opened up al". tli. tern
regions. India, China, Siam, Malacca, .Java, Borneo, Suiiwitra 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 cominunicato
to foreigners a map of their discoveries in the East. Still, the news of
the wonderful riclies of those lands spread over western Kurope. The
ships returned with cargoes, land successful captains made establisli-
nients, and successful sailors brought home marvellous tales. From
all this Spain was excluded ; for on the west, to the north and south,
stretched the interminable barrier of Ameri«i, and all search for an
opening through it had been in vain. Secure in her monopoly Portu-
gal was therefore anxious only to stretch hor demarcation area west-
Ward over Brazil.

Among the Portuguese adventurers who had returned from the
farthest East was Ferdinand Magellan — the greatest sailor oi those
days. In resentment for personal affronts he renouncwl his allegi&nce
and passed over to Spain. His knowledge and expericiico led a Spanish
expedition through the strait, which still bears hi» 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 ti. 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 w-ar in 1521 ; although their people were kindred
in speech. They resorted to negotiation instead. It is very re-
markable that there was no blustering. Perhaps it was the absence
of newspapers — perhaps it was the want of free representative institu-
tions; it is sutTicient to say that the convention, called the Junta of
Badajoz, met in 1524, as explained in previous pages, kind endeavoured
to settle the question.

The Portuguese then saw their error in shifting westward the
Pope's line of deniarciation ; for the principle of prolonging the line of
Tordesillas round the globe had become establislied. 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

S02

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

sphere of influence. The Portuguese envoys shifted their ground at
liadajoz 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 stipuliation that tlie ex-
pedition, contemplated in the treaty of Tordesilks, was to assemble at
the Canaries, and from thence, proceed to the Cape Verde Islands to
eoinmcnee the westward measurement. The islands, they argued, be-
ing mentioned in tlie plural, were to be taken as a group, and Sal and
Bonavista (written Boavista) the most eastern islands were the most im-
porttmt. We have, in British America, an interest in two islands of
this group for two localities on the east coast of Newfoundland — Fogo
and Bonavista — Avere from the earliest days named after them. But
without stopping to discuss that fact we find the Portiiguese envoys,
in 1524, insisting on Bonavista being the proper point of western de-
parture. Tlie 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 Avas to bring the Spice Islands within their line, they had
the better argument, for San Antonio is the second in size and in popu-
lation. The Portuguese protracted the negotiations and, as they
thouL;.ht 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 abor'.,
territory on the Rio de la Plata, and the two nations again exchanged
bases ; for Portugal argued for San Antonio and Spain for Bonavista.
It may therefore be safely concluded that Pope Alexander VI. and the
Koman Curia were better geographers and international lawyers than
the political envoys, either at Tordesillas or Badajoz.

VIII. — Ancient and Medieval Measuees of Length. ^^

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.

[S. B. DAWSOn]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

SOS

To the statesmen of the sixteenth century the ownership of the
Mohiccas and the western limit of Brazil depended upon the solution
of this question. To sailors land 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 tlie
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, wr 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. tliis 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.

It 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 31,600 nautical or geo-

804

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

1 1

graphical miles. In statute miles it is variously calculated from 24,874
10 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
ot 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 7niUe passmim of the Roman soldier. In the
Latin countries tlie measure persisted ; and even in England, nearly
until the end of tlie reign of Elizabeth, the mile was 5000 feet or 1000
places ; and was only 14G 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 -.^^xUiiued to be the measure used
by writer? 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 and 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,, wore continually re-
ferred to with deference. It is difficult to realize the persistent weight
of the authority of Ptolemy. Not until 1569 did Gerard Mercator
lead the way in revolt and all ti'aces 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 ccntu^-y. 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
eqxiator varied in proportion, from 1111 % to 500 stades respectively.
In Appendix E, I have given a comparative ta])le of the length of the
equator and of a degree thereof as held by the chief geographical writers,
from Aristotle do'wn 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.

[8. E. DAW80N]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

eo6

Putting aside Aristotle find Arclii modes, 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? Hnd 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 earth 216,000 stades ; the precise equivalent of
OUT 21,600 nautic&l miles. This, if true, would be exceedingly interest-
ing ; but after examining Lelewel's authorities, I have not ventured
to include Pytheas in the table.

The science of the (Jreeks loomed very large to the eyes of the cos-
mographers of the fourteenth and fifteepth 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 stftdes 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" Avithout any qualification and without any apparent fear
of being misunderstood ; plainly intending in all their argiunents, the
Olympic stade of 600 Greek feet, which was tlie length of the foot-race
course at the Olympic games. In the third century of our era, after
the work of the geographers was over, there did come into use, in I'^gypt
and in the Asiatic provinces of Kome, 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, tlirough them, into the speculations of Columbus.

The idea of different stades having been used by the Greek eos-
m.ographers 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 253,000 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
Eoman 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

506

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

century. Under the influence of this perennial fountain of error the
subject became an arena of confusion. Without we&rying the reader
by going over this maze of unsettled opinion it will be sufficient to
refer to the pages of LelcAvel ; for althougli, 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
arc bewildering dissertations on the different stades and miles of ancient
authors. We read of very small stades 10 or 12J to a mik', of Pliik'-
terian stades 7^ to a mile which later became 7 to a mile, of stades 5 to
a mile, of Posidonian sbades 500 to a degree, of stades of latitude, and
of stades 502 ^|^ 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.
T'hus the absurdity is plainly apparent of taking these maps as seriously
fis if they had been comjuled 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
suit the speculative notions of men groping during 2000 years io dis-
cover the true circumference of the earth and the corresponding length
of a degree of longitude. These "fancy stades," as D'Avezac called
them, are "will o' the wisp" lights to beguile the student of historical
geography.

The '•esearches of Colonel Leake cleared away this fog and his
views were su])pnrted l)y Uckert, MuUer, St. Martin and later writers
so that it may be now be consid«red 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 = 00075 English feet.

10 " " " = (i0(i7-5 "

and

1 nautical mile = 0075 -5
1 admiralty knot =0080-5 " "

or by Clarke'H measurement = 0087*11 " "

Therefore 10 Olympic stades = 1 miiiutt^ of tlie equator,
and 000 ' " " = 1 degree " "

The Greek and modern standards then, though not absolutely
equivalent, are sufficiently so for all j)ractical 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

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807

admiralty knot; and. a.< hel'oro stated, tlio precise circumference of the
earth lias not even yet heen 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 continue<l 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 pnf^sns — the p'ace : not the (jraduff, or
step — a distinction sometimes overlooked ; because, as the word passed
through llie French into the English language it became synonymous
with step : whereas the Roman passus was a double step equal to five
Roman feet. Tn the British army the step is two and a half feet and
the passiifi is five feet : bul the Roman soldier had a slightly shorter
step iuid his thousand paces were equivalent to only 4,854 English feet.
] am not forgetting that, along the Rhine, there existed in the army,
in the later years of the l-'mpire, a longer foot — the Drusian foot — equal
to 13 •! English inches ; but the standard in law and the measure along
the roads M-as 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 ^= UXX) passns = 4854 English feet.

1 Old Englisli milo = 1000 paces = "lOOO " "

1 modern statiit(> mile =5280 " "

75 liomau miles {7o'0!)) = I degree.

Tt is instructive to observe that even the old English mile is based
ii])on 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 diiTerence was only 14G 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 151)5) 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 ZVorks 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.

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ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

The expression slattitc mile suggests the existence of rtn older cus-
tomary iiiilo hut, 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 miade its appear-
ance in 35 Eliz. cap. vi, a statute making certain regulations concern-
ing huilding houses within three miles of Tjondon. Tncidentnlly to its
ohject 'and, as if some necessity existed for the definition, the nule in-
tended is said to consist of eight furlongs. Tlie mile of 5000 feet con-
tains only 7| furlongs, 3 perches and 2 palms ; but the new mile is
divisible into 8 furlongs, into 320 perches, poles or rods, and int(j ITGO
yards ; which native l"]iiglish measures, while they form convenient
divisors of the statute mile of .^^HO feet, cannot be harmonized with the
lioman mile of 5000 feet.

If, then, the Koman 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 Verazzuho
were Italians, in the service of England and France respectively, and
their voyages were the found'ations of the claims of these nations in
Xorth America. The earliest literature of uuirine adventure is in Span-
ish, Portuguese, Italian and Latin, and the integer of distance is,
throughout, the Koman 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. It was a measure used in Celtic G^ul in the time of Ammianus
Marcellinus and seems to have been originally 1500 passus in length.

[8. E. DAWSON]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

809

It was in use, in early times, by the sailors of the Mediterranean, as ft
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 Avere understood by all, at the
simple ratio of eight stades to a mile and four miles to a league. Notions
concerning "fimcy stades" and "fancy leagues'' are anachronistic stumb-
ling blocks in the way of a student. The early writers did indeed
speculate much as to Jiow 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 elenients — the a and h 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
— the degree depende<l upon the circumference of the earth, and it is
evident that tlie 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 tlie 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 day, 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-maJcers,
as well as the seamen, give their distances, their sailing directions, in
leagues — just only leagues — without a qualifying adjective. In late
works, however, we read of leagues 1-1 ^|e, 15, 1G%, 16 ^Ig, 17 ^jj and
21 '^la to a degree, "Merveilleux precede" ' writes D'Avezac, "qui, pour
" assurer I'exactitude du mesurage, cree la mesure meme d'apres I'objet
" bien ou mal mesure."

It is in this respect that ^Ir. 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. 92) :

" Ferrers above st-ated data result in four different lengths for his
"'league, viz., 21-353, 21-813, 21-fi25 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

810

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

to Ferrei-'s statement (Appendix D) will sliow that lie (Ferrer) did not
give a valuation of 21-875 (21 '|«) but a valuation of 21-025 (21 »|,)
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 whicli concerns this inquiry is that on the latitude of the Cape
Verde Islands, which he states to lie 15°, and lie gives the corresponding
length of a degree on that parallel as 20 "I, leagues ; whereas a correct
calculation from the data of Eratosthenes (w'hich he gives correctly
enough) would make it 21 ^jg (21-129) leagues. These are not four
valuations of tlie league, but four v-aluations of the degree. It will be
seen from the table (Appendix E) thnt 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 thre'. distinct pers(jns, whereas they are one, to
wit, Aurelius Theodosius Macrobi us, and, above all, he wias wrong in
assiuning the 500 stades of Ptoloniy and the 700 stados 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 whiat 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 Enciso, 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 ^|a leagues." Mr. Harrisse
in this case thinks that "logic requires" him to select 16 ^[g leagues as
the proper quantity. That is open to question, but here again, what
value can such data as these have upon whicli 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 Enciso and Ferrer ;
"■ that is at the rate of 32 stades for one league." This throws an ad-
ditional vagueness over the matter. It 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

[8. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 811

wero t'XplodiMl hy D'Avozac. forty years afio, in his discussion with
Yarnhagen.

The utter inai>i)iicat)ility of inathemntical re'asoning in questions
siicli as these is further shown at p. 190, wliere Mr. Harrissc se' "orth
his mode of measuring tlie ('antino map and, after submitting it to
mnthomatical methods, he coneludes "that no reliance is to be placed
'* on tlie Mietrology of tliat map." Again, at p. 210, the Ribeiro map
in put til rough a similar trigonometrical course and the conclusion is
"that no reliance is to I)e placed, scientifically speaking, on the carto-
" graphical statements of the period." The wonder is that the attempt
was evcT made ; l»ut, now that Mr. Han-isse h'as given it up we may, at
least, ho])e tiuit lesser authorities will cease their anachronistic etTorts
to Sicfi]e oil' tlicse crude and tentative maps of the old navigators tts if
they were admiralty charts or publications of the IT. S. Geodetic
Sur\'ey,

The Snma th (feof/raphia of Fernandez de Enciso was published
al Seville in 1519 and does, iiideed, give the circumierence of the earth
as GOOO leagues. It was an estimation in round numbers, for it was
equivalent to 24,000 Itdlian miles, and is found not only in Enciso but
in some other authorities. Tliat. divided by 360, gives 16 ^jj leagues to
a degree or 16-666 as Mr. Harrisse states (p. 105). The reason, there-
fore, of Mr. Harrisse's sifttement that "Enciso's equatorial degree con-
" tained 18'0489 of his leagues" is not a)i]>nrent and a careful perusal of
the intriciate calculations from pp. 193 to 197, in which Ferrer's leagues,
and Enciso's leagues, and our marine leagues, are mingled with Greek
stadea 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 fattil to clear reasoning. No doubt the league
both of Enciso and of Ferrer consists of '^2 stades ; but Ferrer counted
21 "Is and Enciso 10 '■^\s of them to a degree. The quantities are irre-
concilable and cannot be combined to form a third league. It is cer-
tain tliat neither Enciso or any one else had a league of 18-04:98 to a
degree for there is not only his own statement as given above ; but his
calculation of the distance between the port of Iligueras 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 "^l.,
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

Blfi

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

that part of liis hook whicli may ho called sciontilic, for it is in connec-
tion with a windrose and contains i)ractical instnictions 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
" tod a half and that is the distance you will have gone." There is no
uncertainty about that statement ; but Varnhagen and other advocates
of "fancy leagues," in order to get leagues to suit their theories, started
an idrti that latitudinal and longitudinal degrees on a great 'circle of the
earth were of diiferent length. Enciso disposes of that idea. His
sailing directions continue tlius : "Also, if your course is one point the
" distance sailed will be 17 •''l^ leagues and departure 3 ^1, leagues for the
'•' degree. If your course be two ])oints, count tlie distance sailed 19 *|o

LEAGUES OF DEl'ARTURK

' 17)4 11% 7«i d^

Figure 1.

" leagues and departure 7 ^|2 leagues. If three points count the distance
" saHed as 21 ^Is leagues and the departure 11 ''[e leagues. If the course
"be four points count the distance as gi'*!, leagues and the departure
" 17 % leagues." The above diagram (Fig. 1) will show the mean-
ing graphically .

[8. K. DAWHON]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

B18

Kefeienco to a Traverse Table, in any work on navigation, will
show these figures to be correct. Kor comparison, the stateinont in
tabulnr form is as follows : —

One degree of Lutitude 17^ leiiRueH, by
EncJHo's wiiulroHt", is eiimil

Nortb by West ; Courses 1 point W

North-northwoHt ; Course 2 points W

Northwest by Nortb ; Coui-se li points W. .
Nortb we^^t ; Coui-He 4 points W

Leagues.

Latitude
One Degree.

17i
17i
17i
17i

Longitude or

Distance

Departure.

Sailed.

•M

17}

19*

11?

21 J

I7i

24?

Enciso's Suma is a rare book. There are four editions of it, A.D.
ir>19, 1530, 1530, 154(5, all of which are in the Lenox Library and
through tlie courtesy of the librarian, Mr. Wilberforcc Eamcs, 1 am able
to give the following tracing of the upper half of the windrose.
(Fig. 2).

Figure 2.

Close inspection will show a misprint o^'er the north point. A
stroke is dropped and it reads XVI instead of XVII ; but it is clearly
a misprint for the text underneath gives the distance at length dezisicte
leguas e media seventeen leagues and a half. The error is corrected in
the later editions. It is apparent by Fig. 1, for the course of four points

014

UUYAI, KOCIKTY OF CANADA

io \')" and tlio tri(iMj(lc is right nnghid. \u)v the preceding reaaoiirf it
ia evident timt Kneiso knew that the true length of ii (h-^^ree waw 17 *||,
leHf,ni('H, alth(»iij,'h the rnte of Hi ^|;, IciiK'"-'* whh still held by many when
hf wrote. It will, I trust, he noteil that all these sailoPH and coHmo-
gtiii|therH knew that Ihc world was a sphere and in speculating upon the
length of degrees of latitude and longitudes thtiy meant, as we do, de-
grees upon groat eireles unless tluty mention Bonie Bpecific latitude they
are nu-asuring upon.

I eonie now to incjuirc why the round numlH'r of 6000 leagues, or
24,000 Woman miles, should Juive heen accepted as the measun; of the
eire :ifer(;nee of the eartli, and I lind the answcjr in a letter of Amerigo
Vespu(;(!i to Mcfliei us follows : " The reason why 1 count 1^5 "l^
'• leagues to a degree is that according to I'tolemy and Alfragan the
"world is 24,000 luih'S in circumference which is equal to 6000
" htagucrt whi(4i divided hy '.U>0 is ecjual to 16 '■'|.,, leagues, a result whi(4i
" I have many times tested hy the point of pilots und have found it
"sound and true." 'VUg n^ason is, therefore, to he traced hack to
Ptohnny ; though hy way of Alfiiigan, and it must bo observed there-
fore, tlial it is a (insek, not an Arabian measurtiment.

It. has beeri stated already that, when tin; Arabs overran the l*]rtstern
Human l']m|»iro, they found in use a stade (Egyptian, royal, (u- I'hile-
terian) of whi(4i 7 '|. W(!nt t(> a Udiuun inih;. They did mti know that
this measure did not arise until after I'tolemy's time and they divided
the 500 stades of IMolcmy's degree by 7']., and thus made; it 66 "l-,
Roman miles, which, iii le'agues of four to a mile, was equal to 16 *|;,
leiignos ; and this leads to a. ('f)nsidenitinn of the (iffect the Aral)ian
learning had on the eosmologioal ideas of the period now in review.

JJuring the long ages of confusion in the West, vvhile wave after
wave of bar' submerged the Roman civilization and the lamp of

lenrninf ' ..dy in the seclusion of the cloister, the Arabians culti-

vater'' .uid sciences at the chief centres of their power — Bagdad,

Cain, Jordova. The works of Aristotle, Archimedes, and I'tolemy,

among other authors, were translated into Arv'ibic for the great school
of geography and astronomy founded lat Bagdad, and about A.l). 883,
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. (J reek science first reached Western Europe
through Arabic tmnslations. The works of Massaudy and otlxn*
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

[»■ M. dawhonJ

THK LINKH OK DEMARCATION

Bies

rcHiiltcd in an cHtitnntion of r>f; ^|., milos to n do^Tci! and won; c'coijtod
fie true by l-'riar Itacctn and Canliniid D'Ailly and othurs (tf tlio favmirito
authorH of ('olurnbnR, who, dividing,' lliat, (i^^iin! I>y four, arrived at tho
coneluHion lie ndhcrcd io all IiIh lifo ilia I, tho lonj^lh of a dogreo was
14 'I, Iftof^iic'H, and ho oven nsHertcd that ho had vorififd it on one of hia
voynfrvn to (hiinca. It, Inw not. licon ahsolnlcly proved that thcfio Ara-
bian niib'K wcro ('(luivaliMiL to Ilonian iiiilcH ; but the inquiry Ih long
and it iw .sulH(;i(!nt now to say that thoy wcrv taken to be equivalent,
and in tho belief that tho earth was much snuiller l.liaii il is, the ad-
miral diHcovcred Anieriea and thought it waH India. In that way arose
the belief, to which the admiral and his son adhered, in a degree o^ M *|«
leagueH.

The dilferent estimations of the lenj^th of a de;^ree at the elose of
the (iftoenlh eeritnry eaii nearly all be traced UiU'k to some manipulation
of I'toleniy'.s lii-ure.s. if his 500 stades bo divided by eight — the true
divisor- — we have another (!stirrint(! often met with, viz., (53 '1^, miles to
a degree or liV'l^ leaguen. 'i'liis again, in current writing was rounded
oil" to (!() miles and IT) leagues and given out also as Ptolemy's m(!asure-
ment. Jaimo Ferrer aloiKj followed Kmtostlienes and valued the de-
gree at 700 stades and. dividing by eight, he made it H7 'j. miles ; this
divided again by four made 21 'I, leagues in rt-'ality, though by some
error it is 21 ''!^ in his opinion (App. D); but even he could not throw
oil' the influeiKie of I'tolemy and Us {)ointed out already was driven to
sii{)poso that i'tolemy's 500 stades were longer and were equivalent to
the 700 of Kraiosthenes. There was in fact no settled estimate and we
find in the opinion of Duran, Cabot Und Vespucci, at liadajoz, that l\wy
quote I'tolemy for a length of (52 '1^ miles while themselves valuing a
degree at 70 miles.

It is an anachronism to expect, in the writers of pre-scientific days,
that precision of statement demanded by modem science and the reader
must he ])ropared to meet with occasional piassago:^ vvhich conflict with
the general trend of the authorities. It is certain that Oomara held
to the valuation of 17 '|^ leagues ; but he also quotes Ptolemy loosely,
for he says (in lOden's translation) "lie (Ptolemy) assigned likewise to
" every degree three score miles which make seventeen Spanish leagues
'*' and a half." Here are two manifest slips, because Ptolemy's degree
was G2% miles and 17*1;, leagues were 70 miles. This lost valuation
is beyond question ; for Fernan Columbus, in his official opinion at
Badajoz, says expressly that "Castillian or marine leagues" are Icur
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., MM. 33.

S16

ROYAL SOCIETY OP CANADA

" pliilosophers reckoned 15 leagues or 60 miles to a degree " This
passage show^s how loosely Ptolemy wias quoted, and also that the belief
in 17 Mo leagues to a degree had then been established at sea.

That which had been hidden from the learned throughou't the
ages, was revealed to the pmctical mariner unskilled 'in book lore ; but
skilled to watch the elevation or sinking of the ])ole-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 gluss. Therefore, wlien tlie length
of voyages extended -- n- thousands of miles, the elaborate measure-
ments of the Greeks and Arabians were found to be wrong and the
valuation of 17 ^|. leagues or 70 miles avUs accepted by sailors in ad-
A^ance of scholars. It was not far out of the way; since 70 Italian miles
are equal to 64-3 English statute miles and ()!)•! of these la^it miles are
now reckoned to be the lengtli of a degree of a great circle.

We may then conclude, with Navarrete and D'Avezac, that, at
least as early as A.D. 1517, tlie valuation of 17 % leagues had come into
general use. Humboldt unhesitatingly quotes the leagues of Torde-
sillas nt that rate. Ilerrera would seem to know of no other ; for at
the very outset of his •TIxMory, he gives the circumference of the earth
as fi.300 leagues. Magellan, writing in A.D. 1519, to King Ferdinand,
stated that the island of San Antonio is 23° east of the line of demar-
cation. Tie gave the latitude at 17°, proving tbat he was reckoning at
the rate of 17 *|o leagues to an equatorial degree. At the convention
of T'adajoz, in A.D. 1521, Ruy 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 o])inioii of tlie Spanish pilots and experts, the Spanish judges
clung to the 62 '|.j miles of Ptolemy; because they thought that the
Portuguese were stretching out the distance tc 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 17 % 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. It 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. It persists all through the nautical authorities, not only in
Spain, but in Fmnce ; for we find that Champlain, in A.D. 1632, when
giving instructions for making charts, laid down the rule that the scale
must be 17 ^\., leagues to a degree.

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

[8. B. DAWBON]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

817

The doubt was solely as to the number of these leagues in a degree.
To writo of leagues of Enciso, of Ferrer, or of anybody else, is to intro-
duce uncertainty and error into the early history of this continent. It
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. Tf then, the argument of this chapter be followed and
accepted, the reader of the old narnatives will have to do with only one
league — the marine league used by Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and
l^Veneh sailors ; not only at the time under review but for an in-
definitely long period before, and an indefinitely long time after. In
tl;p following treble I give its equivalent value in English measures and,
ill order to show the limit of variation between the different authorities,
T 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
u])on the landfall of Columbus. There is a difference of twelve feet in
tJic mile. This will serve to show theclose approximation of all the
estimations made, and to explain the slight variations among them.

1 Eoman or Italiiin mile = 1,<>]8 yards = 4,H.")4 feet English.
4 " " miles = 0,472 " " = 1!),41(> ■' "

or, according to (^aptain Fox,
1 Roman or Italian mile = 1,1)14 yards = 4,842 " "

4 " " miles = (),4ri(i " " = 1<),;5()8 " "

4 miles = 1 nuirino league of the t'arly navigators.

Tlie reader is again referred to x\ppendix E for a rietailed table of
Die 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 eqiiivalcnts in our nautical miles are printed for con-
venient reference in black faced type in the central columns.

IX. — The Lines of Demarcation on the Ocean.

It has been shown that the line of demarcation, about which so
muo'i has been written during the past four hundred years — and so
eloquently — is not the line of Pope Alexander. It 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

Ill

818

ROYAL 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 mathematica'l 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 253,000 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. It 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 woiild repeat that the real latitude
of the island of San Antonio is 17° 12' nortli, and would add that, on
that parallel, degrees of longitude are 57 "32 of our nautical miles in
length. It 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 Itahan 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 : 1180-3 .

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

[8. B. DAWSOn]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

819

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

1180-2 -^ 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 San 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 lino of Tordesillas passes 7° 24' seawai'd 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 Ribeiro, Ferrer, Eneiso,
Oviedo, Cantino and the Badajoz experts, transferred to our admiralty
charts, and they show lines of west longitude from 42° 30' to 49° 25',
so that in any of these worlds the line would have passed seawards, by
nearly four degrees, of Cape Race ; but, what is more remarkable, the
unexpected result apjiears that Jaime Ferrer with a world of 252,000
stades, and Eneiso with a world of 201,600 stades, should have come
out to within one mile of each other as mathematically calculated by
Mr. Harrisse. It 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 modem data, should have
arrived within three miles of the same conclusion. Stated .n Italian
miles the lines are as follows : in the present paper with a degree of
75 miles at 45° 40' ; Eneiso in Mr. Harrisse's map with a degree of
66'6G 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
Itahan miles) are divided by 75, 87-5 or 66-6, the quotient is the same
within a limit of only 3 minutes of longitude.

B20

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

."^ui'S

.\>«(.4*

H"y

•^^'P'*='fei

oy»«f

S-JfjSg SL

m
^

Fig. 3. Ribkiro, Spanish. A. D. 1527.

1. ■•

[b. b. dawson]

THE LINES OP DEMARCATION

B21

The second point of our inquiry, namely, where ujwn our coast
did those old navigators think that the line touched ? cannot be
found miathematieally, for it would seem from these calculations on
"spheres" that the same result is reached from widely different data.
That method is plainly inapplicable. It 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 witliin la very small
distance the place where the line of Tordesillas touched our coast —
in the current opinion of the neriod when the people were alive who
had the practical settlement t.

The Spanish view is scv lorth 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. Hi"- and has been ascribed to Peraan Columbus,
but Mr. Harrisse thinks it to be the work of Nuno Garcia de Toreno.
Mr. Harrisse lu.. ^he greater probability on his side ; but it makes little
difference, since both Ribeiro land 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

FiQ. i. Nunc Garcia, Spanish, A. D. 1527.

622

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

and have been moved up and included in this extract to show how the
line is marlxed 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
wliat may be taken as Nova Scotia and the point of Cape Breton. It
corresponds as nearly as ])ossible to the meridian of (jO° 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. It is traced from Winsor's Narr. and Grit. History, Vol.
TI, p. 43. In this ma]) the opening between Cape Breton and New-
foundland is indicated, as it is also on earlier ma]>s, 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.

. c/0

OCCANUS OCClOfNTALIS

D£
PORTUGUAIL

.^>

• <

-^ ^^g>*-^^'»if*«>

•'»» t

HAS ANTILHAS

«v..

*<^-4

y I iivVx-cx. o.<w.'i y\ o oVi aXJi ^

Fig. 5. Canting Map, Portugdesk, A. D. 1502.

[8. B. Dawson]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

523

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 tne Cantino map of A.D. 1503, which has been
beautifully reproduced in Mr. Harrisse's work on the Corie. Reales.
Fig. 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
majis above cited. The longitude of this map is, therefore. Just as
erroneous (and no more so) as that of the Spanish maps, and it vriW
also be observed that every one of the Antilles is north of the tropic of
Cancer : whereas, in reality, every one of them lies to the south of it.
The latitude, therefore, of that part of tho map is from eight to ten
degre s out of the truth.

Fig. 6 is the second Portuguese map referred to above. It 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, i.s 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 co'.it
of America, and always has been. The very same name has clung tt
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 maps ; but if *ho question be —
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

024

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

e^.

i 0'

ttra fuejo^' desuhe
par iwrtvme*

Fie. 6. PORTDGUESB MAP, A. D. 1514-20.

[8. «. OAWSON]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

B2e

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 Mohiccas round the Cape of Uood
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 ?

Elb^nvhere, I have endeavoured to point out the injustice to the
memory of Sebastian Cabot in calling him f^lse 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 Reale, 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 him ; 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
" Portugial." 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. Ho 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 Pig. (i, 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 ne^r 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 proT^arations
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

828

ROYAL 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 tliat, 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 ft 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 witliin the 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. It was close to the lino of demar-
cation and, on the map of Sebastian Cabot of 1544, it was at Cape
Breton. This la.st point has. been sufficiently elucidated by the present
writer in previous papers in these Transactions. It only remains to
obseiTC that converging lines of inquiry concentrate the interest of
geographical hL^storians ujmn 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. Tlie tendency is in the reverse direction.

[a K. dawbon]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

627

NOTES.

1 Maine— Ancient Law, p. 101.

2 Cicero— de Leglbus, Bk. ii, chap. 4.

3 Bryce— Holy Roman Empire, p. 244.

4 Maine — Ancient Law, p. 249.

5 St. Augustine— de Clvltate Dei, xvi.

6 Harrlsse— Diplomatic History, p. 76.

7 Lingard— History of England, vol. 2, p. 178.

8 Harrisse— Diplomatic History, p. 17.

9 Andre- Manuel de Droit Canon, od verb.

10 Harrisse— Diplomatic History, p. 18.

11 Harrisse— Diplomatic History, p. 19.

12 Harrisse— Diplomatic History, ih.

13 Harrisse— Diplomatic History, ih.

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

15 Humboldt— Examen Critique, HI., p. 52 note.

16 Humboldt— Cosmos, H., 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 Societ6 de Gfiographie ; 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 Keale Commissione Oolombiana,
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.

Ai.KXANDKH episcopuB, scrvus servorum Dei, earissimo in Christo Alio
Ferdinando regi et carisslmse in Christo ttllaB Helisabeth reginae Castellre,
I^egionis, Aragonuni, Sicilinr ot Granatin illustribus, salutem et apostolicara
benedictionem. Inter cetera divinte majestati beneplacita opera et cordis
nostri desiderabilla illud profecto potissimum exlstit, ut fides catholica et
Christiana religlo nostris praesertim temporlbus exaltetur ac ubllibet amplle-
tur et dilatetur, anlmarumque salus procuretur, ac barbarje nationes depri-
mantur et ad fidem ii)siiin' reducantur. Unde cum ad liauc sacrum Petri
Sedem, divina favente dementia, merltis licet imparibus, evocati fuerinius,
cognoscentes vos tanquam veros catholicos reges et principes, quales semper
fuisse novimus, et a vobis prseclare gesta toti pene jam orbi notissima demon-
strant, ne dum id exoptare, sed omni conatu, studio et diligentia, nullft
laborious, nullis impensis nulllsque parcendo periculis, etiam proprium san-
guinem effundendo, efiicere, ac omnem animum vestrum omnesque conatus
ad hoc jam dudum dedicasse, quemadmodum recuperatio regni Granata; a
tyrannide Saracenorum hodiernis temporibus per vos cum tanta divini
nominis gloria facta, testatur ; digne ducimur non immerlto et debemus ilia
vobis vtiatn 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 christlani propagationem prosequi valeatis.
Sane accepiraus quod vos, qui dudum animo proposueratis aliquas insulas et
terras flnnas remotas et incognitas ac per alios hactenus non repertas qurerere
et invenlre, ut illarum incolas et habitatores ad colendum Redemptorem
nostrum et fidem catholicam profltendam reduceretis, hacteuus in expugna-
tione et recuperatione ipsius regni Granatae plurimum occupati, hujusmodi
sanctum et laudabile propositum vestrum ad optafum flnem perducere nequi-
vistis. Sed tandem, sicut Domino placuit, regno praedicto recuperato,
volentes desiderium adimplere vestrum, dilectum fllium Christoforum Colon,
virum utiqiic dignuvi tt plurimum commcndandum ac tanto ticgotio aptum, cum
navigiis et hominibus ad similia instructis, non sine maximis laboribus et
periculis ac expensis destinastis, ut terras /irtnas ct insulas remotas et incog-
nitas hujusmodi per mare, ubi hactenus navigatum non fuerat, diligenter
inquirerent. Qui tandem, divino puxilio, facta extrema diligentia,' in mari
Oceano navigantes, certas insulas remotissimas et etiam terras flrmas, quae
per alios hactenus repertae non fuerant, invenerunl; in quibus quamplurimse
genteF pacifice viventes et, ut asseritur, nudi incedentes, nee carnibus
vesceui. s, inhabitant ; et, ut praefati nuntii vestri possunt opinari, gentes
ipsae in insulis et terris praedictis habitantes credunt unum Deum creatorem
in coelis esse, ac ad fidem catholicam amplexandum et bonis moribus im-

1 lasort Christianam.

2 Insert, per partes occidentales ut dicitur, Tersui Indos.

pi^» If 1 J ^11

mm^mtiim.i

830

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

buendum satis apti videntur; spesque habetur quod, si erudirentur, nomen
salvatoris domiui nostri Yhesu Christi in terris et insulis prsedictis facile
induceretur. Ac praefatuE Christoforus in una ex principalibus insulis
prsedictis jam unam turrim satis munitam, in qua certos Cliristianos, qui
secum iverant, In custodiam, et ut alias insulas et terras finiius remotas et
incognitas inquirerent, posuit, construi et ediflcari fecit ; in quibus quidem
insulis et terris jam repertis aurum, aromatha et aliae quam plurimse res
pretiosas diversi generis et diversas qualitatis reperiuntur : unde omnibus
diligenter et praesertim fldei catholicae exaltatione et dilatatione, prout decet
catholicos reges et principes, consideratis, more progenitorum vestrorum
clar£B memoriae regum, terras flrmas 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 flnem perducatur, et ipsum nomen Salvatoris nostri in partibus
illis iriducatur, hortamur vos plurimum in Domino, et per sacri lavacri sus-
ceptionom, qua mandatis apostolicis obligati estis, et viscera miserioordiae
domini nostri Yhesu Christi attente requirimus, ut cum expeditionem hujus-
modi omniuo prosequi et assumere prona mente orthodoxae fldei zelo inten-
datis, populos in hujusmodi insulis et terris degentes ad christianam
religioncm^ suscipiendam inducere velitis et debeatis, nee pericula, nee labores
ullo unquam tempore vos deterreant, firma spe fidutiaque conceptis quod
Deus omnipotens coiiatus vestros feliciter prosequetur. Et ut tanti negotii
provintiam, apostolicse gratiae largitate donati,' Uberius et audatius assuma-
tis, motu proprio, non ad vestram vel alterius pro vobis super hoc nobis
oblatte petitionis instantiam, sed de nostra mera Uberalitate et ex certa
scientia ac de apostolicce potestatis pl.3nitudine, <i)inien' insulas ft terras finiias
inventas et iineiiietidas, detectae et detegeudas, versus oecidentem et meridiem,
fabricando ct constituendo unam lineam, a polo artico, scilicet septemtrione, ad
pfilum, anturtieum, scilieet meridiem, sice terrae flrmae et imfulae inventae et
inveniendue sint versus Indiam aut versus alium qnamcumque partem: quae linea
distet a qualibet insuhirum quae vulgariter nuncupantnr de los Azores et Gabo-
verde centum leueis versus oecidentem ct meridiem, ita quod omnes insulae et
terrae flrmae repertac et repcricndae, detectae et detegendae, a praefata linea versus
oecidentem et meridiem per alium regem aut principem christianum non fuerint
actuulitir possessae usque ad diem nativifatis domini nostri Yhesu Christi
proxime praeteritum, a quo incipit annus praesens MCGGGLXXXX. tcrtius, quando
fuerint \)er nuutios et eapitaneos vestros inventae aliquae praedictarum insularum,
auctoritate omnipotentis Dei nobis in beato Petro concessa ac vicariatus
Yhesu Christi qua fungimur in terris, cum omnibus illarum dominiis* civita-
tibus, castris, locis et villis, juribusque et jurisdictionibus ac pertiuentiis
universis, vobis haeredibusque et successoribus vestris, Castellae et Legionis
regibus, in peipetuum' tenore praeseutium, donamus, concedimus, et assigna-
mus, vosque et haeredes ac successores praefatos" illarum dominos cum plena'
libera et omnimoda potestate, auctoritate et jurisdictione facimus, constitui-
mus et depulamus ; decernentes nihilominus per hujusmodi donationem,
concessionem et assignationem' nostram nulli ciiristiano principi, qui actuali-
tcr pntff(das insulas out terras firmas possederit usque ud praedictum diem mttini-
tatis domini nostri Thcsu Ghri'sti, jus quaesltum, sublatum Intelligi posse aut
auferri debere. Et insuper mandamus vobis, in virtute sanctae obedientiae
ut, sicut etiam poUicemini, et non dubitamus pro vestra maxima devotione
et regia magnanimitate vos esse facturos, ad terras firmas et insulas praedictas
viros probes et Deum fimentes, doctos, peritos et expertos ad instruendum
incolas et habitatores prsefatos in fide catholica et in bonis moribus Imbuen-

1 SubBtitute, profeasiouem (for religionem .

^ SubBtitute, donatia (for donati).

" SubBtitute, ct aingulaa terras et insul&B priedictas Bio incognitas et hactenus per nuncios restroi
repertas et reperiondas in puBterum quie sub dominio actuali temporali aliquorum dominorum
Christianorum constitutm non sint.

♦ Insert, cum.

' Insert, auctoritate apoatolica.

" Insert, de iUii investimus, illarnmqae.

' Insert, et.

^ Insert, et investituram.

[s. B. Dawson]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

831

diim, destinare debeatis, omnem debitam dillgentlam In praemissis ad-
hibentes ; ac quibuscumque personis^ cujuscumque dignitatis, ctiain iinpcridlis
ct icgalis, status, gradus, ordinis vel conditionis, sub excommunicatlonls
latae sententioa poena, quam eo ipso, si contrafecerint, incurrant, districtius
inhibemus, ne ad insulas et terras^ finnas invrntas ct invcnicndas, dctectas ct
ihifijciulas, tcr.sus occiilcutcm ct tiicridivm, fahricando ct constitucndo lincam a
ixilo iirtico ad itohnii (iiitarticitni, sice terrac flrmac et insulae invcntao et in-
rruiiiidar siiit rcrsiin Indium aut versus aliam quamcumque partem, quae linea
distct a qiKiliUvt iitsiiluriim quae vulyriter tiuncupantur de los Axorcs et Cabo-
rcrdv cutinii Irucis rrrsus oecidcutem ct meridiem, ,ut praefertur, pro mercibus
habendis vel quavis alia de causa accedere praesumant absque vestra ac ha3i'e-
dum et successorum vestrorum praedictorum licentla speciali ; ' non obstpn-
tibus constitutionibjs et ordinationibus apostolicis* ceterisque contrariis
quibuscumque; in illo a quo imperia et doralnationes ac bona cuncta pro-
cedunt, coniidentes, quod dirigente Domino actus vestros, si hujusmodi sanc-
tum et laudabile proiioxituiir' prosequamini, brevi tempore, cum felicitate et
gloria totius populi christlani, vestri labores et conatus exitum felicissimum
consequentur. Verum, quia difficile foret prassentes litteras ad singula quae-
que loca in quibus expediens fuerit deferri, volumus, ac motu et scientia
similibus decernimus, quod illaruni transumptis, manu publici notarii inde
rogati subscriptis et sigillo alicujus personae in ecclesiastica dignitate con-
stitutEB, seu curiae ecclesiasticas, munitis, ea prorsus fides in juditio et extra
ac alias ubilibet adbibeatur, quae praesentibus adliiberetur, si essent exhibitae
vel ostensae. Nulli ergo omnino hominum liceat banc paginam nostras com-
mcndationis, hortationis, requisitionis, donationis, concessionis, assigna-
tionis," constitutionis, deputationis, dcvreti, mandati, inhibitiouis' ct volun-
tatis,^ infringere, vel ei ausu temerario contraire. Si quis autem hoc atten-
tare praesumpserit, indignationem omnipotentis Del ac beatorum Petri et
Pauli apostolorum ejus se noverit incursurum.

Datum Romae, apud sanctum Petrum, anno incarnationis dominlcae
MCCCCLXXXXIII. quarto nonas mail, pontiflcatus nostri anno primo.

1 Insert, etiani.

■! IiiBort, pra'ditaa pnntiiiiam per vostros n. .tios sen ad id missus inventic ot recepfaj ftierint.

•' liiBoit — I'.t i|uia etiam iionnuUi I'ortunnlliiB regcs in piirtilnis Africa-, Giiinc're I't X[incra! auri
alinb iiiiiila?. Bimilitor, ctiam ox ooucoBsiono apoBtolica I'is faet« ropcrcrunt et acquisiverunt iit per
■edom apOBtolieam I'is ilivorsa privili'^ia, i;ratia!. liliortatos, inmiinitatps, excntionCB et iiidiilta concessa
fiieriint. Nob, toIus ac liairi'dibus (t siilici'Borilnii vestris pra^litis, iit iiisiilia et tcrria per vos
repertis, et repcricndis Iniju- nndi, niniii1>nB et singulis ^'ratiis, privilociia, excntionibua libprtatiliiii
faciiltatiliuB. immiinitatibus ot indiiltis liujusmodi. (luoruiii omniain ti'nores ac si de verbo ad verbum
pripsentibiis iniercri ntur. liaberi voliiiniis pro sufliciontcr expn'ssis et insertis, uti, potiri et gaiidcro
libero I'tiioitc possitis "■■ '"beatis in oinnil)U8 et per omnia, pirinde ao si Tobis ac liaTedibiis et siib-
ceBBori))tis priedictis . liter concessa fuissent, motu, aiictoritate, scientia, et apostoliea; potestatig

plenitudiue einiilibus, de specialis dono gratiic. indulxCmuB. illai|ue in omnibiis ct per omnia ad ros
hajredcB ac siibcessores vestros prajdictos extendimus pariter ct ampliamus.

* Insert — Nee non omnibi's illis, qua^ inlitteris desupcr editisconociBa sunt non obstare.

^ SubBtitute, negotium (for propositum).

" Insert, investiturte, facti.

' Insert, indulti extcuaiouis, ampliationia.

Inaor,, etducreti.

Sec. II.., 1890. 34.

B32

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

TRANSLATION.

im>

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 v.hatever, 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 wont
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 Islanda
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. f. dawron]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

E33

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 v/e exercise upon earth, by the tenor of the pre-
sents give, concede, and assign for ever to you, and to the kings of 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
quasitiiw, 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 obed*>.ace 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 lattir sriitciitiac, 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-lajids 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,

B34

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

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.)

'.'

[S. K. DAWSOn]

TIIK LINES OF DEMARCATION

833

APPENDIX B. (BULL B).

The following is a copy of. the Bull " Eximiae dvvotionis " taken from the
" Fonti ItaUani," Part III. By this Bull the Pope granted to Spain, over the
territories discovered for the Spanish crown, the same r'ghts 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 hlnc with-
out enumeration (juoad the territories discorered for Spfiin and in doing this
the rights of Portugal and the contents of the previous Bulls are of necessity
confirmed, ttiioiid the territories discovered for Portugal.

This Bull is to be. found also in Solorzano, I)e Imliurum Jure, and in Rai-
naldi, Annales Ecelcsiastici. 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 was taken from Hey-
wood's Doeumenta i^eleela. He thinks Rainaldi gave this Bull a place before
the Bull Inter cetera by mistake; but Rainaldi made no mistake. This Bull
is dated May 3, and Rainaldi never knew of the suppressed Inter ertera draft
of the same day. ine 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 i3 moroly the technical
framework of formal verbiage always found in such documents.

Alkxa.ndeu episcopus, servus servorum Dei, carissimo in Christo Alio
Ferdinando legi ct carissimse in Christo filite Helisabeih reginae Castellse,
Legionis, Aragonum et Cranataa illustribus, salutem et aposlolicam benedic-
tionem.

Eximiaa devotionis sinceritas et Integra fides, quibus nos et Romanam
reveremini Ecclesiam, non indigne mereniur ut ilia vobis favorabiliicr con-
cedamus, per quaj sanctum et laudabile propositum vestrum et opus incep-
tum in quaerendis terris et Insulis remotis ac incognitis in dies melius et
facilius ad honorem omnipotentis Dei, et imperii christiani propagationem,
ac fldei catholicas exaltatlonem prosequi valeatis. Hodie siquidem omnes
et singulas terras tirmas et insulas reraotas et incognitas versus partes occi-
dentales et mare Ocetinum 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 temporal! aliquorum
dominorum christianorum constitutae non essent, cum omnibus illarum
dominiis, civitatibus, castris, locis, villis, juribus et jurisdictionibus
universis, vobis haeredibusque et successoribus vestris, Castellae et
Legionis regibus, in perpetuum, motu proprio et ex certa scientia
ac de apostolicae potestatis plenitudine douavimus, concessimus (jt
assignii.vimus, prout in nostris inde confectis litteris plenius coutinetur.
Viun nutini (ilias ni)nniillis I'urtinjalliac reijibus qui in partibus Afixac, Ouineae
ct Miticrc aiiri, ac alias insulas ctiam in similibus eonccssione ct donatione
apostoUca cis facta repererunt et acquisiierunt, per Scdcm apostolicam divcrsa
privilcgia gratiue, libertates, immunitatcs cxcmptioncs, facilitates, litterac ct in-

836

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

dulta coiiccssa fuerint; nos volentes etiara, prout dignum et conveniens exls-
tlt, vos haeredesque et successores vestros prsedlctos non mlnoribus gratils,
praerogativis, et favoiibus prosequi, motu simlli, non ad vestram vel alterlus
pro vobis super hoc oblatse petitionem Instantiam, sed de nostra mera
liberalltate ac eisdem scientia et apostolicae potestatls plenitudine, uohis ac
hacrcdibus vt sucvvssoribiis icstris pracdictls, nt in insulis ct tcrris per vos seu
nomine vestro hactcnus repertis hujusmodi ct rvpcricndis in postcrum omnibus ct
singulis gratiis, priiilcyiis, exemptionibus, libertatibus, facultatibus, inununita-
tibufi, llttiris ct indultis rcuibus I'ortiKjalliac concrssis hujusmodi, quorum omnium
tcnorcs ac si de vrrbo ad vcrbum prucsrniibus inscrrrcntur habcri volumus pro
sufftcientcr exprcssis et insertis, uti, potiri ct gauderc libite et licite possitis et
dfbeatis in omnibus ct per omnia pcrindc ac si ilia omnia vobls ct hacrcdibus et
succcssuribus vestris pracfatis spcciulitcr concessa fuissint, auctoritalc apos-
tolica tcnorc pracscntium dc spctialis dono yratiae indulycmus, illaque in omni-
bus et per omnia ad vos haeredesque uc sucetssores vestrus praedietos exlendimus
paritcr et ampliamus, ac eisdem modo et forma perpetuo coucedimus, non
obstantibus constitutionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis, nee non omnibus
lllis quae in litteris Portugalliae reglbus concessls hujusmodi concessa sunt,
non obstantibus ceterisque contrarlis quibuscumque. Verum, quia difficile
foret prsBsentes litteras ad singula quseque loca in quibus expediens fuerft
defferrl, volumus, ac motu et scientia slmilibus decernimus, quod illarum
transumptis, manu publici notaril inde rogati subscriptis et sigillo alicujus
persouae in ecciesiastica dignitate constituLse, seu curite ecclesiasLiea?, uiuui-
tis, ea prorsus tides indubia in juduio et extra ac, aiias ubilibut adhibeaLur,
quae prsDicntibus udhiberetur, si easent exhibitae vel osLei]S£e. Nulll ergo
omuiuo hominum liccat iiunc pagluam uostrae exhurtationis, requisitiouis,
donationio, assignationis, inveytuura3, facLi, constiluiionii:, depuiationis,
maudati, inhibitionis, nostrorum indulti, extensionis, ampiiatioms, conces-
siouis, voluntatis et decreti infringere, vel el ausu temerario contralre. Si
quis autem hoc atieniare pieriuinp.st;i'it, iiidignationem oiunipoteuiis Uei ac
beatorum Petri et Pauli apostalorum ejus se noverit incursurum. Datum
Romse, apud sancium Peirum, auuo mcarnationis dominii.aB mii.esimo quad-
riugeuiesimo nonagesimo tertio, quiuto uouas mail, pontilicatus nostri
anno primo.

TRANSLATION.

Alexander, Bishop, Servant of the Servants of God; to the illustrious
eovereigns, our very dear sou 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 Kings 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
(uily in our letters drawn up for that purpose.

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

[S. B. DAWaONj

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

B37

•j'

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 behalt
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 ami 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 concedel 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 succei^sors aforesaid, and we grant tiieni, iu 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.

838

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

APPENDIX C. (BULL D).

Bull said to have been Issued by Alexander VI. and dated September 25,
1493, as printed in tlie " Fonti Italian!." No trace of any original having
been found, it was coiled into that collection from Solorzano " De Indiarum
Jure," Madrid, 1029. The Latin version is supposed to be a re-translation by
Solorzano from a Spanish version made by one of the secretaries of Philip
IL, A.D. 1554.

Alexanueu eplscopus, servus servorum Dei, charisslmo in Christo lillo
Ferdinando regl et charissimoe in Christo lillEC Helizabeth regince Castellre,
Lcgionis, Aragonum et Granatse, illustribus, salutem et apostolicam bonedic-
tionem. Dudum siquidem onines et singulas Insulas et terras flrmas inventas
et invenlondas versus occidentem et meridiem, qme sul) actua'.i (lominu) tem-
poral! aliquorum dominorum christianorum constitutae non essent, vobis
heredibusque et successoribus vestris Castellae et Legionis regibus in perpe-
tuum motu proprio et de certa scientia ac de apostol!c8B potestatis plenitudine
donavimus, concessimus et asslgnavimus : vosque ac heredes et successores
prefatos de illis investimus ; illarumque domlnos cum plena, libera et onuii-
mnda 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 voiumus pro sulttcieuLer expressis,
plenius continetur. Cum autem contingere posset quod nuntii et capitanei aut
vassalli vestri versus occidentem et meridiem navigautes, ad partes orieutalee
aiiplit'aicnt, ac insuliis et teinis linnas, qiin' iiuli! luis.-^eiit \cl I'.^h^oiil, reperi-
rent, nos volentes etiam vos favoribus prosequi gratiosis, motu et scientia ac
potestatis apostolicae plenitudine similibus, donationcm, c()nces.=,iouem, assig-
nationem et litteras prfedictas, cum omnibus et singulis in eisdeia litteris
contentis clausulis ad omnes et singulas insulas et terras flrmas inventas et
inveniendas, ac detectas et detegendas, quas, navigando aut itineranilo versus
occidentem aut meridiem hujusmodi sint vel fuerint aut apparuerint, rAve in
partibus occidentalibus vel meridionalibus et orientalibus et ludi.;; exiatant,
auctoritate apostolica, tenore praeseutium in omnibus et per omnia, perinde
ac si in litteris praedictis de eis plena et expressa mentlo facta fuisset, extcn-
dimus pariter et ampliamus. Vobis et haeredibus et successoribus vestris priB-
dictis per vos, vel alium seu alios, corporalem insularum ac terrarum prasdic-
tarum possessionem propria auctoritate libere apprehendendi ac peipetiio re-
tinendi, illasque adversus quoscumque impedientes etiam defendendi, plenam
et liberam facultatem concedentes, ac quibuscumquo personis etiam ciijus-
cumque dignitatis, status, gradus, ordinis vel conditionis, sub excommiinica-
tionis latfE sententiae, pena, quam contrafaclentes eo ipso incurrant, dis-
trictius inhibentes, ne ad partes prcEdictas ad navigandum, piscaudum, vel
inquirendum insulas vel terras flrmas, aut quovis alio respectn seu colore,
ire, vel raittere quoquomodo praesumant, absque expressa vel speciali vestra
ac haeredum et successorum praedictorum licentia. Non obstantibus constitu-
tionibus et ordinationibus apostolicis, ac quibusvis donationlbus, conces-
sionibus, facultatibus et assignationibus per nos vel praedecessores nostros,
quibuscunque, regibus vel principibus, infantibus, aut quibusvis aliis porsonis,
aut ordinibus et militiis de praedictis partibus, maribus, insulis atque terns,
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, efllcacio-
ribus et insolitis, etiam quascunque sententias, censuras et penas in se con-
tinentibus, quje suum per actualem et realem possessionem non essent sortitoe
affectum, licet forsan aliquando illi quibus donationes et concessiones hujus-
modi factor fuissent, aut eorum nuntii, ibidem navigassent. Quos tenores
illarum etiam praesentibus pro sufllcicnter expressis et insertis habentes,
motu, scientia et potestatis plenitudine similibus omnino revocamus, ac quoad

i
'f

[e, E. DAweos]

thp: lines of demarcation

S39

terras et Insulas per eos actualiter non posscssas pro infectls haberl volumus,
necnon omnibus lllis quaj in litterls prajdictis volulmus non obstare, cete-
rlsque contrarlls quibuscunque.

Datum RomiE, apud sanctum Petrum, anno Incarnationls domlnlcae mll-
lesimo quadringentesimo nonageslmo tertio. Sexto kalendas octobrls, pontl-
flcatus nostrl anno secundo.

TRANSLATION.

Ai-EXANDEii, 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 fuFl, 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
re.iited 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 is^nds and mainlands which are, or were, to that quarter
pertaining ; wishiuti 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
(latre sentential) which transgressors by the very act will incur, from pre-
suming to go, or send, to the said part, to navigate, flsh, 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.

640

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANA DA

Moreover, holding that the tenor of those letters are sufficiently expressed
nnd Inserted In these presents, we revoke them altogether by similar will,
Knowledge and apostolic power and wc will them to be hold 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 pontlflcate.

[S, B. BAWKOS]

THE LINES OF DEMARCATION

641

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 Tordesillas, signed Juno 7, 1494. Extracted from
Navarrete Colrcrion dc los Viairs, vol. 2, p. 111. Translated with the aid of an
offlcial expert translator of Spanish.

January 27, 1495.

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 nie some ln.stniccL)nd ii. which
your Highnesses make linown the decision regarding the partition your High-
nesses have made with the most illustrious Itlng 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 sereno 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 wil,
our Arctic and tlie opposite Antarctic one. And liltewlse 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 circle£ put in its proper place as in the
trviitinc on the ft)hf)r and in the ni!u (Jiiiis learned men direct and divide into
degrees. And, in order that the distance may more clearly bo 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 Lhia ligure : —

and all thiit is crossed by yellow lines will be what
belongs lo 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,
tweuty-ihree 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

042

KOYAI, HOCIKTY OF CANADA

.170 U'tiKiioB f(|U!il to l\vcnty-llirc(> (h'KrccH, or W,' „ Iciikuoh to fiicli <l(>s<rf>o on
that puralU'l. Very hooii aflor (Kob. 2H) tliuir MaJoHlieH wi-ott> uh followb :

Mv Tin: KiN(i a.m» tiik Qukkn— To Jaimk Kkiihku, Tiiiaii Hr. .?i:(r.

Tin; Ki.Nd and tiik Ciiii:i;N. .lalniu I'Vrror. Wo huw your lottor and the

Incldsmc joii mmiI iim lln'rclii, wliifli HCfiiiH to uh very K')'"!. We coiiHlder
your liiiviiiK' Hfiil It UH a Ht'i-vicf; l)iil for iho iindcrHlaiKlliiK <if II, It Ih iiccch-
Hury you sliould ho here, and, for our Hcrvico, lliat you nhould j)ut youi' foni-
luK Into cITcci ^Jo ihai you Hliall l)i< Ikm'c at lali'Ht oil thu Ih'Ht of May. In
which you will do uh service.

I'Voin Madrid on th<' listh day of l''chruary. 111)5.

I iiii; Ki.Nci— 1 tiik Quke.n.
Ily ordiM- of tho KliiB and Qucon.
.loan dc la I'arra.

Thcro Is no dato attached to tlio following formal opinion, hut, taknn in
connection with the preceding lottera, It nniat have been prcBcnted sometime
durinj; lli(> liiHt half of I llt,^.. It alHo 1h in Navairoto (Vol. li. p. I III) aa fol-
lowH. 'I'he (alculatiunu und the nauthal ...tcnicnlH in KictloiiH 1 to t! do not
ImpresH tho reader with a IiIkIi o|ilnlon of ^'crrcr'n attainniontu; but thai, may
partly be accounted for by errors in copying or prinilng.

The oi)lnlon and Judgment of Mossien .laume Fern^r regarding the Treaty
made Ixlwccn the Mo.st Catholh; SoverelguK and tho King of Portugal ; In
which Ih nhown tliat the author was a great coHuiograiJlicr and a wonderful
ex|)ert on tho sea.

1. The manner of dctcMiuinlnh the terminus or end of the tiircc hniidred
and seventy leagues, Hlarting from the Islands of t'ape Verde on a \v(>slerly
lino Is an follows :

2. First, It muBt be noted that tho Haid (!ape Verde and Us IslandH lie
fifteen (IfgreeH from tlie ((iiuilor, and it is likewise to bo noted liial, the sjiid
'MO leagues, slarllng from thc! said islands, comprise to tlie west ei^;hleen
degices, and each di'grec! on that parallel contains twenty leagU(!S and llve-
elglUhs. Moreover, II Is ne(<'ssary to make a Htralght lino, in latitude (sic)
from pole to polo only in tliis our hemisphere, intersecting the said i>arall(d
exactly at the end of the said eighteen degree.i; and everything lying within
this line on the hd't hand, turning towards tin? side of (iuim!a, will belong to
the King of roitugal, vud I hi; oilier part by the West as far as it turns by tho
l^ist inwards the Arabian (Jiilf will belong to the; Klng;i our Ijords, If their
ships first sail thither. .And (his is what I understand by the treaty inadt; by
your Highiiess(!s with the King of rortugal.

■1. And a truth it is and a chief principle in cosmography that in Bailing
on one same paralhd th(> said ti^rminus can luiver bcs ascertaJned by means of
the e'.m'atlon of tlie I'o!(v-star (I'olus niuiidi); and tlie reason is this, that in
Balling always by the same parallid tht; said I'ole-star (I'oius) maintains tlio
same elevation through all the circumference of the said parallel. And that
Is true.

4. KovertheleKs, I say, th:it it Is possible and a very cfsrtain thing that
tbo said terminuH and exticmity of the said .'i70 leagues can bo ascortjilned by
the North star by the following rule and practical method.

It Is neccKsary for the vc^ssel leaving tlu; (Jape Verde islands In search of
tho said terminus to h^ave the western parallel or line upon tho left hand and
to take her course by the nuarter of the West towards the Northwont, and to
ronliniie to sail in that direction until the Pole-star rises eighteen degrees
and one-third, and then tho said vessel will bo exactly on the aforesaid line
which paBses from polo to pole at tho extremity of the 370 leagues. And from

[h. r. dawhunI

TIIK LINKS or I»KM.\HC.\TI(»N

043

tlusro II Ih iiotf'HH.iry timl tlio Hiild vcmHol ilmiini) mid tako hor coiirHo iiloiiK
Kiiltl line III the (lirt'ciloii (if llic Aiitiirciic |»olt- iiji to Unit, point, wlifii> dm
Ari-tlc pcili' Ih llflci'n iIckiims in <'l<>viill(in, iiiui iIhmi at, dial oxact. nul will Ito
tii(! nnd (if the iinc (ir iiaralici wlilcli passcH tliidiiuli llic said C'ap<i Verde and
al, tlio end and Inic Icrnilniis ol' tlm Haid .''.TO li>aj;ii<m; wlilcli tcrmlmiH is very
fiearly indicated liy tiie eievatlon of the North H(ar according tn tlio
aforesaid rule.

fi. And liecaiiHe ttic sailing rliart. Ih not wliolly iiHefiil and does not huIIIco
for the niatheniatical (h-in(»iiHtratl(iii of thi; ahove nilo, a world map in Hphuri-
eal I'oriii in neccKisary, divided Into two lieinisplieres liy Itn lines and dcKrees,
,111(1 the hill' lion of Ihe land. Islands and sea, each In Its own place wlilcli
World map , <nt down tonelher with these exin'essloiiH of my meanliiK 'i'i<l
(ipinion, tli«! mor(> clearly to (lemonsli'ate tlH> li'iiih.

And 1 say tliat to iindeistand the ahove nilo and practical method It ifi
liec(>ssaiy to lie a cosmof^rapher, ai'ii limcl ician and iiavJKaliM', or to niider
Hiaiid I lie art; iind he v;lio docs not iiosscss all I riest^ three sciences, cannot
poHsliily understand (the rule) nor (can he Hiieceod) liy any othor way or rule
if lie Is not experl In the tlirei- said sciences.

C. And for a further exposltlori of tlio abovo rulo It mu.st ho Known that
the (piarter of I ho wind (point of flie compass) fh(! vessel takes as Us course,
HfiirtliiK from the ('ai)o Verde Islands at tin; (uid of tlie ;!70 htsiKues, will Do
dlHlanl from the wc-stern paralhd oi" line seventy-four leaK'K^s at the ratit of
twenty per cent, and hecaiise the said (luarter (of the winrt-rOBO or comiiaHH)
Inclines towards th<! North sailiiiK liy it tlit> diff(<reiit ( increasiiiK) (devatioii
of the pole star is clearly apparent, and IIk! said s(^veiity-four leaKUCs com-
lirlse tlirc(\ dcKrc'es and a Ihird of latifud(^ V((ry nearly.

7. 11 Is, moreover, to he noted tliat jiursiiinK Ihe above rule If i;i nec(>s-
Rury to nive to I'ach decree seven luindi'('d stadia, accordiiiK to Sti-abo, Alfra-
Kano, TeodocI, Macrobl. Amiirosi and Ihiristhenes ( lOr.alostheiies) ; since
I'tolemy gives only llv(> luiiidicd stadia to a deKreo. And 1 say further that
there Is another metliod of llnding tln> said lermlnuH aoeonllng to the practlco
and Hcit'iico of mariners, and It Is as follows.

X. First, i(*t file .sovereigns our lords and the King of Portugal tako twenty
mariners, fen for each sldo, tho host to ho found, and cons(-IentIous men, and
let them start in oiio voBSol from tlui (!aiie Verde islands on a westcM'ly lin(\
anil l<;t eiicli one. of tlu! said iiiarin<>rs note with great cart; on his chart, (>V(!ry
six hours, tho course tho vessel mak(>s according to his judgiiKMif; tind, hav-
ing lieen hound under oath, U-t none of them communicatf iiis opinion to
aiioth(>r until tho llrst of tlu; mariners who In his judgiiKMit llnds himsi'lf at
t!ie said ttM'ininus shall state so to two captains -men of repiilation, put on
hoard the said V(>ssei liy the will and accord of \ht\ said sovi'eigns. y\nd let
tho said captains then tako tho opinions iind Judgments of tho othor marinors
and, if tho rest agioo with th(( llrst who llnds himself at tlui ternunus, let them
lake his docislou lus conelusivo and lliial as to the said tormluus; and if they
do not agroo with the llrst, lot them tako tho oiilnion and Judgment of tho
majority, and after agroclng, let them chang<! tlu! course on a straight lino
towards tlio Antarctic ])ole, and everything they Iind on the loft hand towards
Guinea shall belong to tho King of i'ortiigal Jii the manner above stated.

This second melliod is uncHM'tain and j ay be erroneous because it la
b.asod on the simple and sole judgment and .^pinion of mariners, and the llrst
rulo Is very certain, (that one) by the elevation of the North star, as Is shown
abovo.

9. And if in this my decision and o])inlon any error appear, I will always
defer to the correctfon of those wlio know and understand more than I,
esiiecialiy to tho Admiral of the Indies, who at the present time knows more
than any othor person in this subject, for ho is greatly learned in the theory
and admirably practical, as his famous achievements demonstrate ; and I
believe that JJivine I'rovidonce 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 tho navigation of the Admiral of the Main-land.
Ptolemy in the eighth book dc nilu orhis says at chapter five:

B44

ROYAL SOCIKTY OP CANADA

That the true circumference of the earlli at the equator 1h 180,000 atadea,
at the rate of Ilv(! hundred KtadcH to a (l(!>,'ree acconllng to IiIk calculation,
and counting ol^ht Htades) per mile, are 22,r)00 mllcH, whlon are 5,025 leagues
at the rate of four miles per lejiKne In (!iiKtilli;iii rcckfjuluK, each ihtKree com-
ing to llfleen IcaKuen and two hum'red and Iwenty-Ilvc; jiarlH of three hundred
and sixty. And In tlni Hume itook, chiiijtcr live, hf,> nayH that the circle of the
tropics Is l(;i,t;71^ Htadi'H, which are 'M,7>Si iiiiic-H, and 5, MO IcaKues, making for
each decree fouiteen U.-agues and one hundred and six i)artK (jf three hundrcMl
and sixty. Moi-eover, accoiding to SIraho, Allragano, AniJH'osI, Macrold,
Teodosi and Eurlsthencs, the said clrcuinf<!ience of the earth Is 25:i,000 stiides,
the which 252,000 stadeB, at the rate of eight KtadeH per mile, are .'il,r)00
miles, and at four mllis per league, are 7,871") leages. Item : — Hy the circle of
the tropics the (drciimference Is 7,204 leagues and sevf^nty-two tliousand partK
of oiu! hundred and idghty thousand; and 1 decided It hy the rule of thr(!e,
saying If 22, .'00 miles at the etjuntor accr)rdlng to Ptolemy give me 7,H7."j for
the said (iquator, what will 20,581 miles of th( circle of tli.j tropics give me ?
And In this w;iy you will arrive at the above 7,201 and a half leagiu:s almost,
afcfjrdlng to the said learned men.

The said clrclt; uf the IrtJiiic.s is shorter tliaii tlie e(juino<:tlal circle by
CiKty^ leafiues, which is, at foui' lulleH jier ieaguf!, 2,082 niiics, ac(:ordliu< t(J the
above calculation :-;iimmeil up and jirovcd throughout. That Is, however, cal-
culating according as tlie al.rjve-nHUitioned l(;arne(l men direc^t, 700 stadeu to
a degree; although IHolemy allows no more than 500 stades to a degrc^e, as
above said In the filready mentioned book, di: slln orhis.

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 tro|)lcs fsach degree has
twenty leagties and four parts of three hundred and sixty, according tf) the
so''' learned men.

12. Starting from Capf; Verde on u westerly line the t(irminus three hun-
dred ar,d sevf'iity leagu<fS compi'lses elghtet'ii degr<!es. Inasmuch as the said
line (jr i)arallel Is fifteen <l(!grees distant fi'om the ecjuatoi-, and therefore the
degrees ('acli of tlieni contains twenty leagues and five parts of eight, accord-
ing to the said learned men.

13. From Cape Verde to the (Jrand Canary Island ar(! 2.12 leagues of four
miles iKM' leagll(^ ami It lies from the said Canary on a meridian ;ilinost at a
third of the " lebelx" or southwestern quarter, and Is distant fifteen degrees
from the equat-)r, and the middle Islanrl of those which He in front of Capo
Verdo lies in the quarter of the West towards the Northwest 117 l(;agueH
(away), which are equal to five degrees and two-thirds; and from this middle
Island (.'(jmmences the terminus of thr; ;',70 leagues towards the West which
terminus is elglitecn degrees towards the West from the .said middle Island,
and on that parallel (;acli degree is twenty leagmjs and live parts of (dght,
counting 700 stades to a degree;, according to the above cited learned men,
although I'tohimy uses a different calculati(jn.

11. And according to Ptolemy, each degree of the equator contains fifteen
leagues and two-thirds, and of the troplc.s fourtf.'cn leagues and one-third, atid
on the parallel of Capo Verdo fourteen leagues and two-thirds, aid therefore
the .'170 leagues upon that parallel are imderstood as extending to the West
twenty-five riegrcos and one >.hlrd nearly.

15. And the Admiral says in his letter that Cape Verde Is nine and a
quarter degrees distant from the e(iuator. According to Ptolemy, I see him
allowing fifteen and two-lhirdK leagues to a degree ; nevertheless. I >ieclde
with the other learned men as to the distance of tlie said islands from tne
equator. The division into stades, although the number given hy Ptolemy is
different from that given b^ the above cited learned men, Straho, Alfragano,
Macrohl, Teodosi, and ICurisi.henes, 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.

[h. k. dawhon]

THK LINES OF DEMARCATION

S4S

API'KNDIX K.

The table on the next page has been drawn up on tlie universally acfoptod
baslH of tlu! olil uavlKiitorK and KooKraphorn, viz., 8 Htados equal to 1 Roman
mile, and 4 itomaii niiltiH ecpial to 1 Italian loaKue. To attempt mattinuiatleal
exaotnoHS woubl fill It with ronfuKlnp; fractions and make It UHcleHS In rnadInK
tlH> old authoPH. Ah an Illustration of the near approximation of those
efiuivalcntH let tin; l.int Wx-.m lie tal<(!n in the tliird column. If tlic LlO.lOO
Italian mil(!H be niultlpli(Ml by 1,018 yards and divided by 2,02!) yards and
thus rfMlu(c<l into nauticiil milcH, th<! res\ilt would be 10,208 nautieal miles
against the 10,:i20 naullral miles of the ri!ekr)niiiK in the table by means of
stades. The (lifference Is thus only fifty-two miles in the whole clrcumfer-
enee of tlu? earth. This will give the measure of the disc rf'pnncy or non-
C'fiuivalence of the quantitif;s.

Nf)TES TO AIM'KNUIX K.

a. Kr!itontlii-iic« iiiaili' till' ciri'iiiiifiTiiici. lo ln' 'J.'.u.dMO utntliH, iitid aild^d a.onii Nt.'ulitH fur I'oMviiiiiricc^ of
liiviHinii Ity ;{(iif into fli-^rt-i'H witlintit t'ractioiiH.

h, .liiiini) l''i:iicT (iii'i' Apiii'ijilix 11) iH ir|iiii ti(l, ;iM lln' "ipinioM in ^i viii in N',iv:irrct<>, to li.ivi' ulaticl lli.it
II <l«j/r*'*- ol' ^Uy t'qiiator in 'i\ ^ 1<-iikiii-h ; Imt if Un* rlrctinif'T'-nfM' of I^IU Ii'Mkiu-m. \i\ vcji alno in
till- K.'inii' o|iiiiion, lie iliviilcil liy :iiiii, III" ri'Hiill will In; 21 j li'iiKii''«. Tlii:n) in, tliiTrforc, nil
error in tin- text or in I'N-rrer'H arilliiiH-tic.

C. PoHidoiiiuM, — 1 have followed MoiiH. DWvezai; mill Sir (ieorKe Cornitwall 1/ewiH in \i,\'\\\\j^ ;'.4(),000
RtiuleK at, the ineaHiiri' of the eartli'H iiiininfereiice ilxeil upon liy I'oHiiloniiiH. In inoit liookn
it JH kI ven an IMU.OiMi, on the aiilliorily ol St r alio. It m eertain. however, that liin II rut i>|iiiiiiiti
wiiH in favoiii of ;2-lii.iiiiii HtaiteH. TliiK Htatemeni in made by hiH arlinirer tJleomeneH, who
knew of no other llM'ireH. liiHlnriaiiH reiMiiicile the <;(iiiHiclilif^ Htiiteinentu hy iiHHtMniii^ that
he elian^ed hin opinion in later life.

d. I'ythcaH of MiiHHilia wan a iiaviKalor jexiilonr or nierehant], who ahoiit the time of Alexander tho
(Ireat vinili d the north of lOiirope, He panMeil outside the I'illarn of llereuhH, and H.-iihil in
the nriti>ih Heats. I'olyliiiiH and Slr.'iho itonHiilered hiiii to he an imp-oHtrir. who palnn-il otf hirt
imaginary ailventureh for truth ; hiit the <^)e;it (ireek Keoj/rapheiM accepted hiH HiatenieiitH ho
far an to make up their ma|iH on hin information. Sir (ieorKC f'ornewall l,ew'iH | .l/ftniri'imi/
(if the AnciintH, p. 4ii7J. following hin naturally Hceptical tiniiperamenl. ii.; inclined lo reject
liiK voya^cH ; while, on the other hand, the uncritical optimiHiii of Lelewel aeceptn them
fully. Till' truth liiH. proh.-ilily. hetween thcHe extremcH ; for (pertain it in that Pytliean was a
man of ureal enterprine and uiiUHuai powern of oliHervalion. lie llxecl tlie hitltiile of
MaHhilia. hy iniaiiH ot' a ^iioiiioii. at 4:'.° '.',' :'<«", and hh it in in reality ^'',° 17' Du", it in a very
«• niark:ihle (diservalion to have hi-en made T2i'i yearn a^o, and there are very few latitmlcH
HO nearly correct in all the .-incie'it aiilhorH. ilipparehuH accepted the latitude of .^laHHilia an
llxe<l hy I'ytheiiH ; hut when he niiuHelf calciilatid hy the ^noiiion Ihe latitude of lly/.antiiim
hit (Ixed it to he the name aH .MaKmlia, two de^frecH out of lie truth. The " iniiiOHlor " had
liiade a more correct determination than the Hrccient of the < ireek aHtronomeiH. I'ylhciitt,
when in the llritiiei HeaH, Maw thetiden which, on e wencoantof hritain. are very hii^h in
the i-HtijaricH of the riverH, and are phenonieiia iiio.it Htrikini^ lo one from the lideh-HH Hliorcs
of the .Miiliterranean. lie. moreover, coi reclly attriliiiteil them to the inlluenci' of the moon.
The particular iiiterei-t ol I'ythcaH, in relation to the Huliject of Huh paper, in the hclicf

of I,elewel that he CHtim:ited a lieyrec to Im' lino HtadeH — almost the exact e(|uivalent of Ho

f^co^ruphieul niih-H. P\ lliciiK doen not. however, appear to have made any direct Htatenient to
that efrecl. It in an inference from hin cHtimatioii of the diHlanue hetween ( Ircus in liio and
Thule in tido, which w.ih also yiven aH nix ilayn' Hail diieittly north, or :)UIM) Htaden. Tho
fl^iikcH are rouniled out too much to he made the h.aniK of HcriouH calculation.
«. MttKollaii Kiivi! lliiH opinion to KiiiK Ferdinand jiiHt liefore Hailing on his ynat voyage in A.I). l.'ilH,
/. KncUo.— Se" iinte, p. ■'•! 1. for a dlHcuHHioii of KnciMo'H opinioiiH.

g. Thll ''' '. ii Vact, tin- opinion of holli SpaniHh and I'ortiin.'cHe navi|<,'ilorH and iliploniatistn whenever
': IciiKuen uf the treaty of TordeniliuH caiiiii up for dmcUHuioii HuhHci|Uciit to the convention
'<adujo/..

S46

ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA

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