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Rh of a closed season at the Moluccas. They asserted the Spanish ownership of the Moluccas. The king of Portugal refused the terms proposed.

January 25, 1524, plenipotentiaries were appointed and by February 19, it was agreed that each side should appoint three astrologers and three pilots as scientific experts, and three lawyers as judges of documentary proofs, to meet in convention in March on the boundary of Spain and Portugal between Badajos and Yelves. Meanwhile neither side should send vessels to the Moluccas until the end of May.

At this famous assemblage, known as the Badajos Junta, we find among the Spanish experts Ferdinand Columbus and Sebastian del Cano who had accompanied Magellan, and as advisers, Sebastian Cabot and Juan Vespucci, the nephew of Amerigo.

The first session opened April 11, on the bridge over the Caya, the boundary line, and thereafter the meetings were held alternately in Badajos and Yelves, dragging along till May 31. Even the street urchins followed with curious eyes the men who were dividing the world.