The history of the Philippine archipelago is fitly introduced by presenting a group of documents which relate to Pope Alexander VI's Line of Demarcation between the respective dominions of Spain and Portugal in the recently-discovered New World. So many controversies regarding this line have at various times arisen, and so little on the subject has appeared in the English tongue, that we have thought it well to place before our readers the more important of the documents relating thereto, of which a brief synopsis is here given.
They begin with Alexander's Bulls—two dated on the third and one on the fourth day of May, 1493. The first of these (commonly known as Inter cætera) grants to Spain all the lands in the West, recently discovered or yet to be discovered, which are hitherto unknown, and not under the dominion of any Christian prince. The second (Eximiæ devotionis, also dated May 3) grants to Spain the same rights in those discoveries which had formerly been conferred on Portugal in Africa. These grants are superseded by the Bull of May 4 (Inter cætera), which establishes the Demarcation Line, and grants to Spain all lands west and south thereof which were not already in the possession of any Christian prince. Still another
