LECTURES. 113 



the occasional passenger, or " gentleman companion." But we very 

 rarely find an allusion to the maps which they liad on board, and after 

 whicli they sailed — no description of the astronomical instruments used 

 by the officers, no explanation of the leading ideas of the commander, 

 and the reasons for his conduct, or of other decisive points of the sort, 

 which a historian principally wants to know, but which were kept 

 secret from the journalists. 



The study of the maps of the time, and the comparisoa of them, can 

 do much towards supplying this lacking information. If we have fixed 

 the dates of the maps, we can prove what sort of guides those comman- 

 ders were likely to have had Avith them. We can show what notions 

 they must have entertained; and, in many cases, we can guess by what 

 reasons they were influenced to act as they did. 



There is only one class of expeditions respecting which we have that 

 full and complete information which is desirable, namely , the recent ones 

 performed by the English, French, and Americans. For them we have 

 the parliamentary papers, in which the motives of the expedition are 

 discussed at large. There we hear the commanders speak themselves, 

 and give us the amplest description of their whole outfit, and instead 

 of being forbidden they are even required to give to the public all the 

 explanations necessary for understanding their proceedings ; while on 

 the construction and publication of the maps and charts, which are to 

 form a summary of the entire geographical results, especial pains are 

 bestowed. 



YI. — USE OF THE OLD MAPS WITH RESPECT TO BOUNDARY QUESTIONS AND OTHER 

 POLITICAL TRANSACTIONS. 



There are no countries in the world which have been from the very 

 beginning,_and still are, so much agitated by houndarij questions— 

 and in which, therefore, reliable maps, as the principal means of 

 settling these questions, are so much wanted — as the different colo- 

 nies, empires, and states, of America. 



Scarcely was America discovered, and scarcely had the Pope drawn 

 his famous line between the possessions of Spain and Portugal, when 

 there arose a boundary dispute of the widest extent between those 

 two powers ; one of which desired to include in its limits nearly the 

 whole of Brazil, whilst the other tried to prove that its competitor 

 ought to be almost entirely excluded from the continent, 



_ The commissioners of Spain and Portugal discussed this 'question at 

 different lengthy sessions, but without conducting it to a satisfactory 

 solution — partly because the maps and charts which were produced on 

 both sides did not agree, and partly because they found themselves 

 unable to locate their boundaries on the surface of the eartli. 

 ^ The Hispano-Portuguese boundary question forms the most essen- 

 tial element of the whole history of South America. It runs throuo-h 

 a space of 350 years. It was revived at every step which Spanish and 

 Portuguese discovery and conquest made in opposite directions. It was 

 after all, only partially and roughly settled. The question descended as 

 an Iieir-loom from the royal contending parties to their modern repub- 

 8s ^ 



