Page:European treaties bearing on the history of the United States and its dependencies.djvu/198

This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
188
Doc. 16. Spain—Portugal

be given for the said time; and, if said Emperor and King of Castile wishes to take in exchange the said hundred thousand ducats at the said May fair of this said year in order to avail himself of their use, he shall pay the said King of Portugal exchange at the rate of five or six per cent., the rate which his treasurer, Hernand Alvarez, is accustomed to exact from fair to fair. The aforesaid sale is made by the said Emperor and King of Castile to the said King of Portugal on condition that, at whatever time the said Emperor and King of Castile or his successors should wish to return and should return all of the said three hundred and fifty thousand ducats without any shortage to the said King of Portugal or his successors, the said sale becomes null and void and each one of the said sovereigns shall enjoy the right and authority which be now holds and claims to hold, both as regards the right of possession or quasi-possession, and as regards the proprietorship, howsoever and in whatever manner they belong to him, as if this contract were not made, and in the manner in which they first held possession and claimed to hold it, and this contract shall cause no prejudice or innovation.

2. Item, it is covenanted and agreed by the said attorneys, in the names of their said constituents, that, in order to ascertain what islands, places, lands, seas, and their rights and jurisdiction, are sold henceforth and forever by the said Emperor and King of Castile, by this contract under the aforesaid condition, to the said King of Portugal, a line must be determined from pole to pole, that is to say, from north to south, by a semicircle extending northeast by east nineteen degrees from Molucca, to which number of degrees correspond almost seventeen degrees on the equinoctial, amounting to two hundred and ninety-seven and one-half leagues east of the islands of Molucca, allowing seventeen and one-half leagues to an equinoctial degree. In this northeast by east meridian and direction are situated the islands of Las Velas and  [1] Santo Thome, through which the said line and semicircle passes. Since these islands are situated and are distant from Molucca the said distance, more or less, the deputies determine and agree that the said line be drawn at the said two hundred and ninety-seven and one-half leagues to the east, the equivalent of the nineteen degrees northeast by east from the said islands of Molucca, as aforesaid. The said deputies declare that, in order to ascertain where the said line should be drawn, two [model] charts of the same tenor shall be made, conformable to the [model] chart in the India House of Trade at Seville, and by which the fleets, vassals, and subjects of the said Emperor and King of Castile navigate. Within thirty days from the date of this contract two persons shall be appointed by each side to examine the aforesaid chart and make the two copies aforesaid conformable to it. In them the said line shall be drawn in the manner aforesaid; and they shall be signed by the said sovereigns and sealed with their seals, so that each one will keep his own chart; and the said line shall remain fixed henceforth at the point and place so designated. This chart shall also designate the spot in which the said vassals of the said Emperor and King of Castile shall situate and locate Molucca, which during the time of this contract shall be regarded as situated in such place, although in truth it is situated more or less distance eastward from the place that is designated in the said charts. The seventeen degrees eastward shall be drawn from the point where Molucca is situated in said charts. For the good of this contract the said King of

  1. The word of is omitted from the translation. Cf. Doc. 15, note 23.