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Rh Malacca and Maluco, the "islands in which cloves grow, belonged to the Emperor on account of the Demarcation Line," and that he could prove it. They replied that they knew he was speaking the truth, but it could not be helped because the Emperor "could not navigate through the sea within the demarcation of the king of Portugal. Magellan said to them: 'If you would give me ships and men I would show you navigation to those parts, without touching any sea or land of the king of Portugal.'"

As has been already remarked, to get at the land of spices was the prime object of all the age of discovery. As the papal grants to Portugal of the exclusive use of the eastern route to the Indies made it an object for Ferdinand and Isabella to promote the projects of Columbus to reach the land of spices and thus led to the discovery of America, so the establishment of the Demarcation Line, coupled with the same unfailing attraction exerted by the land of spices, after the new world was found not to be the Indies, led Charles V. to welcome Magellan's plan to find an all Spanish route to these precious islands and to prove that they belonged to Spain, and thus opened the way for another of the greatest exploits in the history of the race. The value of the spice trade and the consequent strength of this inducement may