At last, in the year 1513, a view
of the Grand Ocean having been attained from the mountains of Darien, the
supposition that the New World formed part of India was abandoned. To this
ocean the name of the South Sea was given.
In the mean time, the Portuguese had visited all the islands of the Malay
Archipelago, as far as the Moluccas. Portugal had received from the Pope a
grant of all the countries she might discover: the Spaniards, after the
third voyage of Columbus, obtained a similar grant. As, however, it was
necessary to draw a line between those grants, the Pope fixed on 27-1/2 deg.
west of the meridian of the island of Ferro. The sovereigns, for their
mutual benefit, allowed it to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verd islands:
all the countries to the east of this line were to belong to Portugal, and
all those to the west of it to Spain. According to this line of
demarcation, supposing the globe to be equally divided between the two
powers, it is plain that the Moluccas were situated within the hemisphere
which belonged to Spain. Portugal, however, would not yield them up,
contending that she was entitled to the sovereignty of all the countries
she could discover by sailing eastward. This dispute gave rise to the first
circumnavigation of the globe, and the first practical proof that India
could be reached by sailing westward from Europe, as well as to other
results of the greatest importance to geography and commerce.
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