[s. E. DAWSON] THE LINES OF DEMARCATION 519 



It has been stated that on the parallel of San Antonio a degree of 

 longitude is 57-32 nautical miles. We have, therefore, to divide one 

 quantity by the other, thus — 



1180-2 -- 57-32 = 20° 35', 



and the equivalent in longitude is therefore 20° 35'. To find this point 



on our charts the longitude west from Greenwich of the starting point 



must be added and the longitude of San Antonio is 25° 5', and 



25° 5' + 20° 35' = 45° 40' west longitude ; 



so that if we draw a line on an admiralty chart at the meridi^an of 

 45° 40', it will be the true line of the treaty of Tordesillas, and we shall 

 find that the line of demarcation, if calculated on true data, would 

 never have touched any point on the continent of North America. Cape 

 Eace is its most eastern point and is in longitude 53° 4' W. So the 

 true line of Tordesillas passes 7° 24' seaward of it and cuts the coast of 

 Greenland in Davis' Strait. The Dominion of Canada is thus shut 

 up in the Spanish demarcation 'and only the neglected John Cabot, 

 over whose unknown tomb memory has raised no trophies, has saved 

 us from the full force of the primary count in the Venezuelan argument. 

 Coming now to the second point of our inquiry, it must be ad- 

 mitted that, to all intents and purposes, this line of Tordesillas did at 

 the period under review, cut our coasts ; since both the Spaniards and 

 Portuguese thought it did and governed themselves accordingly. As 

 explained before, the present paper is not concerned with South 

 America ; but the map in front of Mr. Harrisse's History contains the 

 results of his calculations on the ^'spheres" of Ribeiro, Ferrer, Enciso, 

 Oviedo, Cantino and the Badajoz experts, transferred to our admiralty 

 charts, and they show lines of west longitude from 42° 30' to 49° 25', 

 so that in any of these worlds the line would have passed seawards, by 

 nearly four degrees, of Cape Race ; but, what is more remarkable, the 

 unexpected result appears that Jaime Ferrer with a world of 253,000 

 stades, and Enciso with a world of 201,600 stades, should have come 

 out to within one mile of each other as mathematically calculated by 

 Mr. Harrisse. It is also worthy of remark that the present writer, 

 working upon the world as now known of 216,000 stades in circum- 

 ference, by simple arithmetic and with modem data, should have 

 arrived within three miles of the same conclusion. Stated in Italian 

 miles the lines are as follows : in the present paper with a degree of 

 75 miles at 45° 40' ; Enciso in Mr. Harrisse's map with a degree of 

 QQ-QQ miles at 45° 38', and Ferrer on the same map with a degree of 

 87-5 miles at 45° 37'. This is a very surprising result of mathematical 

 reasoning. It means in effect that whether 370 leagues (equal to 1480 

 Italian miles) are divided by 75, 87*5 or 66-6, the quotient is the same 

 within a limit of only 3 minutes of longitude. 



