Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 01).djvu/212

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208
THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS
[Vol. 1

Malaca, and from Malaca to the Malucos, we still assert that the Malucos fall within the demarcation of our lord the Emperor. For according to these maps corrected recently in this way, the demarcation or line of demarcation falls near Gilolo, an island near the Malucos. This is so on the plane surface of their map. When this plane surface is reduced to a spherical one, because of the rotundity of the sea where these voyages are made—the latter being in addition along parallels other than that of the equinoctial and where the degrees are less than those of the equinoctial, (the same league being assigned to the different degrees)—so that when this reduction is made, five degrees are gained, or nearly this number, which we have measured and proved to be so, then it comes to pass, from their own map, that the line of demarcation falls outside the Malucos, and the Malucos are in the territory of the Emperor our sovereign.

Item: let us suppose, for instance, that when the Catholic Sovereigns and King Don Juan of Portugal ordered the demarcation of the seas to be made, by commanding a line to be drawn from the Arctic to the Antarctic pole at a distance of three hundred and seventy leagues from the Cabo Verde islands, they had ordered also the demarcation made on the eastern side, which his Majesty orders us to do now—though at that time neither Persia, Arabia, nor the Cabo Buena Esperanza [Good Hope] was discovered—it is quite certain that this north and south line must pass on the eastern side through the mouth of the river Ganges. This is a fact, because Ptolemæus with great care described and located the cape of Catigara in accordance with the long experience of