Preface to Volume I


The history of the Philippine archipelago is fitly introduced by
presenting a group of documents which relate to Pope Alexander VI's
Line of Demarcation between the respective dominions of Spain and
Portugal in the recently-discovered New World. So many controversies
regarding this line have at various times arisen, and so little on the
subject has appeared in the English tongue, that we have thought it
well to place before our readers the more important of the documents
relating thereto, of which a brief synopsis is here given.

They begin with Alexander's Bulls--two dated on the third and one
on the fourth day of May, 1493. The first of these (commonly known
as _Inter cætera_) grants to. Spain all the lands in the West,
recently discovered or yet to be discovered, which are hitherto
unknown, and not under the dominion of any Christian prince. The
second (_Eximiæ devotionis_, also dated May 3) grants to Spain the
same rights in those discoveries which had formerly been conferred
on Portugal in Africa. These grants are superseded by the Bull of
May 4 (_Inter cætera_), which establishes the Demarcation Line,
and grants to Spain all lands west and south thereof which were not
already in the possession of any Christian prince. Still another Bull
(dated September 25 of the same year) authorizes Spain to extend her
sovereignty also over lands which shall be discovered to the East,
including India--thus practically annulling both the Demarcation Line
and previous concessions to Portugal. The latter power's remonstrances
against this infringement of her former rights lead to the Treaty of
Tordesillas (June 7, 1494), in which, by mutual agreement between the
sovereigns, a new line of demarcation is established to be drawn two