CARTOGRAPHY OF THE GREAT DISCOVERIES 95 



incidentally, closely resembles one of Rodrigues' charts. The 

 distance between the Asian mainland and the Moluccas has 

 been reduced, and the total result is to put them 172° 30' W. 

 of the Tordesillas demarcation line, that is, seven and a half 

 degrees within the Spanish sphere. This being the result aimed 

 at by the Spaniards, it possibly explains the retention of 

 the eastern prolongation of Asia. In the west the width of the 

 Atlantic along the tropic is very accurate, but the width of the 

 Pacific is of course reduced to accord with the position assigned 

 to the Moluccas by about 11°. It would be interesting if this 

 chart could be compared with one supporting the Portuguese 

 case; no such map, however, appears to have survived. 



Other features of Ribero's map are the approximately 

 correct length of the Mediterranean; the distortion of north- 

 east Africa, probably due to accumulated errors arising from 

 neglect of the magnetic declination, which left a grossly 

 exaggerated distance between the Red Sea and the Mediter- 

 ranean; and the representation of the eastern coasts of North 

 and South America as continuous. The Rio de la Plata is 

 shown in detail, with three main affluents. The conspicuous 

 error here is the exaggerated extent in longitude of the north- 

 east coast of South America, the perpetuation of an early 

 mistake which persisted right through the seventeenth century. 

 It is possible that it arose from this section having been charted 

 originally on a larger scale than the adjoining Caribbean area. 

 A small portion only of the western coastline is shown, based 

 on the Balboa and Pizzaro exploits. The portions resulting 

 from Magellan's voyage are the coastline south of the Rio 

 de la Plata and the Straits of Magellan, the islands 'de los 

 ladrones', rather curiously placed in 12° 30' north latitude 

 instead of 2° N., and an uncompleted group of islands represent- 

 ing the southern Philippines and the north coast of Borneo. 



Ribero's placing of the Moluccas 7J° within the Spanish 

 sphere represents the last position taken up in the dispute by 

 Spain, who had begun by claiming that the meridian ran 

 through the Ganges delta. In the year the chart was made the 

 Spanish crown, in view of all the uncertainties, sold its claim 

 to the Portuguese — a good bargain since it was untenable. 



What effect had all this activity of the seamen and chart 



