Page:Essays in Historical Criticism.djvu/226

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206
ESSAYS IN HISTORICAL CRITICISM

that is preserved is on the so-called Cantino Map, of 1502, where it cuts off the portion of the newly discovered Brazil, east of the mouth of the Amazon, as belonging to Portugal.[1]

The Demarcation Line next plays a part of controlling importance in the history of the first voyage around the world. The most telling argument that Magellan advanced in favor of his expedition, and as it seems to me, beyond doubt the decisive one with Charles V., was that the Moluccas or the Spice Islands, the pearl of the precious Indies, lay within the Spanish half of the world. This appears clearly in the account of Maximilianus Transylvanus, a source of the highest value on this point, as he was son-in-law to a brother of Christopher Haro.[2] He tells us that Magellan and Christopher Haro an India merchant having been unjustly treated by the king of Portugal, came to Spain; "and they both showed Cæsar[3] that it was not yet quite sure whether Malacca was within the confines of the Spaniards or the Portuguese, because, as yet, nothing of the longitude had been clearly proved, yet it was quite plain that the Great Gulf and the people of Sinae lay within the Spanish boundary. This, too, was held to be most certain, that the islands which they call the Moluccas, in which all spices are produced, and are thence exported to Malacca, lay within the Spanish western division, and that it was possible to sail there; and that spices could be brought thence to Spain more easily, and at less expense and cheaper, as they came direct from their native place."[4] According to Correa, Magellan told the officials of the House of Commerce in Seville, that

  1. Harrisse calculated the longitude of the line on this map where it is labelled, "Este he omarco dantre castella y Portuguall," as 62° 30′ west of Paris. Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, II, 108. Mr. Winsor gives a sketch of the map.
  2. Through his relationship to Haro and the fact that he heard the reports of the survivors of Magellan's expedition he had every facility for getting at the facts. See Guillemard's Magellan, 140.
  3. Charles V.
  4. Letter of Max. Transylvanus to the Archbishop of Salzburg, quoted from the version given by Lord Stanley in his First Voyage Round the World, 181. This statement quite likely came from Haro himself. A Spanish version of Max. Transylvanus' letter is in Navarrete, IV, 249–284.