Notes on the earliest discoveries in America. 825 
right) contended for the very opposite to their former arguments. 
e line, however, had been fixed on and oo by the Pope 
in 1494, and therefore could not be altere 
regular joint decision could be reached, the Portuguese declin- 
ing to subscribe to the verdict of the Spaniards, inasmuch as it 
deprived them of the Moluccas. So each party published and 
proclaimed its own decision, after the Congress broke up in con- 
sion on the last day of May, 1524. It was, however, tacitly 
understood that the Moluccas fell to Spain, while Brazil, to the 
extent of two hundred leagues from Cape St. Augustine, fell to 
the Portuguese. The calculation of longitude was the pons 
‘morum of the Congress, the very problem that had deceived 
Columbus and other experienced navigators a quarter of a cen- 
tury before. At this time let it be remembered, no geographer 
had given any hint of the fan-like shape of North America, but 
all maps represent it as a narrow strip of land, like that from 
However, much good resulted from this first geographical 
Congress, The extent and breadth of the Pacific were appre- 
ciated, and the influence of the Congress was soon after seen in 
were define , all the di 
Coveries actually made, up to 1524, were tolerably well laid 
down, but there was a deal of imposition left in the imaginary 
es of those parts of the North American coast which had not 
i been explored, that is, between Florida and Nova Scotia. 
Portugal, probably with a view of blinding the eyes of each 
other, or footing ious the outside barbarians of England, 
Tance, and Holland, who, though children of the Father, and 
€ 
uel to Colima, that had been surveyed by the Spaniards up to 
this time, were well laid down, both as to latitude and longitude, 
