Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 01).djvu/191

 The licentiate Acuña immediately handed in a negative vote on the question of continuation, as is seen in the Records of Possession. The notification of Acevedo and the confirmation of Acuña are also the same as in the said Records.

May 31. Ibid. In reply to the deputies of Castilla, those of Portugal presented a writ to the following effect: that the case was far from being in a state to pass a definitive sentence upon it. Only three preliminary points had been touched upon, and discussion of the principal things passed by. Therefore they were to agree upon the distances by virtue of certain observations; to place, by common consent, the lands and seas on a blank globe; and to draw the line of demarcation. The difference in our globes proved nothing. Also they [the Castilians] had altered their only globe and map, based on the voyages of Juan Sebastian del Cano. Therefore believing that all the globes and maps were in error, we have proposed certain astrological methods. Meanwhile we cannot vote, etc. Don Fernando Colon read immediately the following vote and opinion of the Castilian deputies:

The first thing required and presupposed in this matter of defining and determining the present case of the ownership of the Malucos is to ascertain where the divisional line passes; and secondly the location of the above-mentioned Malucos. As to the first—the location of the said line—we their Majesties' deputies declare: We have voted already for many