e following and last day of the time set. If they did not do so
they would be to blame ... we protest that we shall vote, etc.

The licentiate Acuna immediately handed in a negative vote on the
question of continuation, as is seen in the Records of Possession. The
notification of Acevedo and the confirmation of Acuna are also the
same as in the said Records.

May 31. _Ibid_. In reply to the deputies of Castilla; those of
Portugal presented a writ to the following effect: that the case was
far from being in a state to pass a definitive sentence upon it. Only
three preliminary points had been touched upon, and discussion of
the principal things passed by. Therefore they were to agree upon
the distances by virtue of certain observations; to place, by common
consent, the lands and seas on a blank globe; and to draw the line of
demarcation. The difference in our globes proved nothing. Also they
[the Castilians] had altered their only globe and map, based on the
voyages of Juan Sebastian del Cano. Therefore believing that all the
globes and maps were in error, we have proposed certain astrological
methods. Meanwhile we cannot vote, etc.

Don Fernando Colon read immediately the following vote and opinion
of the Castilian deputies:

_Opinion of the Spanish Astronomers and Pilots_ [184]

The first thing required and presupposed in this matter of defining
and determining the present case of the ownership of the Malucos is to
ascertain where the divisional line passes; and secondly the location
of the above-mentioned Malucos. As to the first--the location of the
said line--we their Majesties' deputies declare: We have voted already
for many reasons and causes that this line must pass west of the island
of Sant Antonio, the measurement commencing from this place, as we
have demonstrated by our words and drawings during the procedure of
this case; and we declare the same now by our vote and decision. As to
the second, we assert that the Malucos fall many degrees within their
Majesties' demarcation. In verification of this assertion it is to
be noted, that, since the sphere has a circumference of three hundred
and sixty degrees, this number should, of necessity, correspond to the
distance, demonstrated by the deputies of the King of Portugal, to be
comprised between the meridian of the island of La Sal and the Malucos,
plus our assertion of the distance westward to the same Malucos. And as
this number of degrees not only is not