I

Difference from European time.When the clock strikes twelve in Madrid,[1] it is 8 hours, 18 minutes, and 41 seconds past eight in the evening at Manila; that is to say, the latter city lies 124° 40′ 15″ to the east of the former (7 hours, 54 minutes, 35 seconds from Paris). Some time ago, however, while the new year was being celebrated in Madrid, it was only New Year’s eve at Manila.

Magellan’s mistake in reckoning.As Magellan, who discovered the Philippines in his memorable first circumnavigation of the globe, was following the sun in its apparent daily path around the world, every successive degree he compassed on his eastern course added four minutes to the length of his day; and, when he reached the Philippines, the difference amounted to sixteen hours. This, however, apparently escaped his notice, for Elcano, the captain of the only remaining vessel, was quite unaware, on his return to the longitude of his departure, why according to his ship’s log-book, he was a day behind the time of the port which he had reached again by continuously sailing westward.[2][3]

Change to the Asian day.The error remained also unheeded in the Philippines. It was still, over there the last day of the old year, while the rest of the world was commencing the new one; and this state of things continued till the close of 1844, when it was resolved, with the approval of the archbishop, to pass over New Year’s eve for once altogether.[4] Since that time the Philippines are considered to lie no longer in the distant west, but in the far east, and are about eight hours in advance of their mother country. The proper field for their commerce, however, is what is to Europeans the far west; they were colonized thence, and for centuries, till 1811, they had almost no other communication with Europe but the indirect one by the annual voyage of the galleon between Manila and Acapulco. Now, however, when the eastern shores of the Pacific are at last beginning to teem with life, and, with unexampled speed, are pressing forward to grasp their stupendous future, the Philippines will no longer be able to remain in their past seclusion. No tropical Asiatic colony is so favorably situated for communication with the west coast of America, and it is only in a few matters that the Dutch Indies can compete with them for the favors of the Australian market. But, Future in American and Australian trade.on the other hand, they will have to abandon their traffic with China, whose principal emporium Manila originally was, as well as that with those westward-looking countries of Asia, Europe’s far east, which lie nearest to the Atlantic ports.[5][6]

Commercially in the New World.When the circumstances mentioned come to be realized, the Philippines, or, at any rate, the principal market for their commerce, will finally fall within the limits of the western hemisphere, to which indeed they were relegated by the illustrious Spanish geographers at Badajoz.

The Pope’s world-partitive.The Bull issued by Alexander VI,[7] on May 4, 1493, which divided the earth into two hemispheres, decreed that all heathen lands discovered in the eastern half should belong to the Portuguese; in the western half to the Spaniards. According to this arrangement, the latter could only claim the Philippines under the pretext that they were situated in the western hemisphere. The demarcation line was to run from the north to the south, a hundred leagues to the south-west of all the so-called Azores and Cape de Verde Islands. In accordance with the treaty of Tordesillas, negotiated between Spain and Portugal on June 7, 1494, and approved by Julius II, in 1506, this line was drawn three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands.

Faulty Spanish and Portuguese geography.At that time Spanish and Portuguese geographers reckoned seventeen and one-half leagues to a degree on the equator. In the latitude of the Cape de Verde Islands, three hundred and seventy leagues made 21° 55′. If to this we add the longitudinal difference between the westernmost point of the group and Cadiz, a difference of 18° 48′, we get 40° 43′ west, and 139° 17′ east from Cadiz (in round numbers 47° west and 133° east), as the limits of the Spanish hemisphere. At that time, however, the existing means for such calculations were entirely insufficient.

Extravagant Spanish claims thru ignorance.The latitude was measured with imperfect astrolabes, or wooden quadrants, and calculated from very deficient tables; the variation of the compass, moreover, was almost unknown, as well as the use of the log.[8] Both method and instruments were wanting for useful longitudinal calculations. It was under these circumstances that the Spaniards attempted, at Badajoz, to prove to the protesting Portuguese that the eastern boundary line intersected the mouths of the Ganges, and proceeded to lay claim to the possession of the Spice Islands.

Spain’s error in calculation.The eastern boundary should, in reality, have been drawn 46½° further to the east, that is to say, as much further as it is from Berlin to the coast of Labrador, or to the lesser Altai; for, in the latitude of Calcutta 46½° are equivalent to two thousand five hundred and seventy-five nautical miles. Albo’s log-book gives the difference in longitude between the most eastern islands of the Archipelago and Cape Fermoso (Magellan’s Straits), as 106° 30′, while in reality it amounts to 159° 85′.

Moluccan rights sold to Portugal.The disputes between the Spaniards and the Portuguese, occasioned by the uncertainty of the eastern boundary—Portugal had already founded a settlement in the Spice Islands—were set at rest by an agreement made in 1529, in which Charles V. abandoned his pretended rights to the Moluccas in favor of Portugal, for the sum of 350,000 ducats. The Philippines, at that time, were of no value.