Page:Essays in Historical Criticism.djvu/231

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THE DEMARCATION LINE
211

Sumatra, while Portugal was acknowledged to have the rightful possession of Brazil for two hundred leagues west of the eastern extremity.[1]

In 1526 another vain attempt was made at a settlement, and in the mean time war between the representatives of the two nations had broken out in the Moluccas. By 1529 the two royal houses had become united by a double marriage and a second Spanish expedition had been unfortunate, so to settle the difficulties Charles V. by the treaty of Saragossa gave up his claim to the Moluccas to Portugal for 350,000 ducats, but retained the right of redemption.[2] On the other hand, if the line should ever be accurately fixed and the Moluccas be found within Portugal's division, Spain was to repay the 350,000 ducats. Meanwhile a new Demarcation Line, more accurately described, was to be drawn seventeen degrees or 297 leagues east of the Moluccas. The Pope was to be asked to sanction this treaty.[3]

Spain relinquished the Moluccas but retained the Philippines which were then of no value, and they became the western extremity of their Empire, "las Islas del poniente."[4] As long as Spain held her continental colonies in the New World the Philippines were in Spanish eyes a part of America and in their commercial relations an appendage to New Spain or Mexico. In 1844 the Philippines were transferred

  1. "Conforme a esta declaracion se marcan, y devan marcar, todos los globos y mapas, que hazen los buenos cosmografos, y maestros, y a de passar poco mas o menos la raya de la reparticion del nuevo mundo de Indias por las puntas de Humos, o de buê Abrigo, como ya en atra parte dixe, y assi parecera muy claro que las yslas de las especias, y aun la de Zamotra caen y pertenecen a Castilla. Pero cupo-le a el la tierra, que llaman del Brasil, donde esta el Cabo de Sant Augustine. La qual es de punta de Humos a punta de buen Abrigo, y tiende costa ocho cientas legues norte sur, y dozientas por algunas partes leste oeste." Gomara, I, leaf 141, reverse.
  2. Navarrete, IV, 393.
  3. He seems to have done so: "Accordados os Reis desta maneira derão conta ao Papa Clemente VII. que além de o approuvar o louvou muito." Colleção de Noticias para a Hist. e Geog. das Nações Ultramarinas, Lisboa, 1825, III, Parte I. Noticia do Brazil, 7.
  4. To the Portuguese, on the other hand, the Azores have been the Western Islands, and the Philippines the Eastern Islands.