[s. B. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 517 



The doubt was solely as to the number of these leagues in a degree. 

 To write of leagues of Eneiso, of Ferrer, or of anybody else, is to intro- 

 duce uncertainty and en-or into the early history of this continent. It 

 is most important to build up our history on a solid basis land to follow 

 the tracks of the early voyagers along our shores with some degree of 

 certainty. If then, the argument of this chapter be followed and 

 accepted, the reader of the old narratives will have to do with only one 

 league — the marine league used by Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and 

 French sailors ; not only at the time under review but for an in- 

 definitely long period before and an indefinitely long time after. In 

 the following table I give its equivalent value in English measures and, 

 in order to show the limit of variation between the different authorities, 

 I give also the value as taken by Captain Fox (on the authority of Rear 

 Admiral Eogers of the U.S. Naval Observatory) for his calculations 

 upon the landfall of Columbus. There is a difference of twelve feet in 

 the mile. This will serve to show the close approximation of all the 

 estimations made, and to explain the slight variations among them. 



1 Roman or Italian mile = 1,618 yards = 4,854 feet English. 

 4 " " miles = 6,472 " =19,416 •' " 



or, according to Captain Fox, 

 1 Roman or Italian mile = 1,614 yards ^ 4,842 " " 



4 " " miles = 6,456" " =19,368 " " 



4 miles = 1 marine league of the early navigators. 



The reader is again referred to Appendix E for a detailed table of 

 the different views held concerning the subject of this chapter. These 

 opinions are ranged in descending order, from Aristotle with a degree 

 of 111-11 to Columbus with a degree of 45-33 of our modern nautical 

 miles. The figures are given in Greek stades, Italian miles, and nauti- 

 cal miles. The equivalents in our nautical miles are printed for con- 

 venient reference in black faced type in the central columns. 



IX. — The Lines or Demaecation on the Ocean. 



It has been shown that the line of demarcation, about which so 

 much has been written during the past four hundred years — and so 

 eloquently — is not the line of Pope Alexander. It is the line of the 

 Spanish and Portuguese plenipotentiaries at Tordesillas, in A.D. 1494 

 the following year. They selected as their terminus a quo a group of 

 islands — ^the Cape Verde Islands — extending over three degrees of 

 longitude, without indicating which one they proposed to measure 

 from and, in after years, in consequence, some measured from Bonavista, 

 the eastern island, some from Fogo, the centre island, and some from San 



