), set eyes upon the
great South Sea. It soon became only too certain that the Portuguese
had won in the race for the land of cloves, pepper, and nutmegs. But,
in the absence of knowledge of the true dimensions of the earth and
with an underestimate of its size generally prevailing, the information
that the Spice Islands lay far to the east of India revived in the
mind of Magellan the original project of Columbus to seek the land
of spices by the westward route. That he laid this plan before the
King of Portugal, there seems good reason to believe, but when he saw
no prospect for its realization, like Columbus, he left Portugal for
Spain. It is now that the idea is evolved that, as the Moluccas lie so
far east of India, they are probably in the Spanish half of the world,
and, if approached from the west, may be won after all for the Catholic
king. No appeal for patronage and support could be more effective,
and how much reliance Magellan and his financial backer Christopher
Haro placed upon it in their petition to King Charles appears clearly
in the account by Maximilianus Transylvanus of Magellan's presentation
of his project: "They both showed Caesar that though it was not yet
quite sure whether Malacca was within the confines of the Spaniards
or the Portuguese, because, as yet, nothing of the longitude had been
clearly proved, yet, it was quite plain that the Great Gulf and the
people of Sinae lay within the Spanish boundary. This too was held
to be most certain, that the islands which they call the Moluccas,
in which all spices are produced, and are thence exported to Malacca,
lay within the Spanish western division, and that it was possible to
sail there; and that spices could be brought thence to Spain more
easily, and at less expense and cheaper, as they come direct from
their native place." [10]

Equally explicit was the contract which Magellan entered into with King
Charles: "Inasmuch as you bind yourself to discover in the dominions
which belong to us and are ours in the Ocean Sea within the limits of
our demarcation, islands and mainlands and rich spiceries, etc." This
is followed by an injunction "not to discover or do anything within
the demarcation and limits of the most serene King of Portugal." [11]

Las Casas, the historian of the Indies, was present in Valladolid when
Magellan came thither to present his plan to the King. "Magellan,"
he writes, "had a well painted globe in which the whole world was
d