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Portuguefe made themfelves matters of the Brazils, and infilled on, comprehendingthis country within the eaft of the line, the line of demarcation was extended thirtydegrees westward from the firfl: meridian of Ptolemy .
VI. While Spain in the weft was extending her conquefts, and her chiefs multi-plying' their cruelties and crimes, the Portuguefe, under Vafco de Gama, in 1497,doubled the Cape of Good Hope * * * § , difcovered in 1455 by Cadamofto a Venetian navi-gator. They coafted along the eaftern lhores of Africa and the iflands which liebetween that portion of the world and Afia, and arrived at Calicut , which then was themart for fpices. After wars and battles, as well with the natives as with the Moors,who had invaded a confiderable portion of this country, they extended their voyage tothe Molucca iflands ; and here, in 1510, they formed an eftablifhment, and engrofledalmoft an exclufive traffic in pepper and cloves, fpices chiefly exported from thefeiflands f.
VII. The duke of Albuquerque was at this time governor and viceroy of the Portu-guefe eftablifhments in India , and by his genius and intrepidity had rendered abortivethe machinations of the Venetians, who, being at that time the allies of Soliman theMagnificent, exerted all their means to preferve in its channel, by the Red Sea , thecommerce which the Portuguefe were anxious to tranfport to Lifbon j. In the fuiteof this viceroy it was that Magellan remained five years in India §. He was a Portu-guefe gentleman, had cultivated the fciences, but efpecially thofe branches which relateto navigation (a ftudy then much in vogue among the nobility of Portugal ), and hadundertaken this voyage that he might make himfelf known at court, and fecure to him-felf an employment fuited to his genius. From Calicut he went to Sumatra , where hecaptured a Have. It does not appear that he extended his voyage to the Moluccas , not-withflanding the afiertions of Angera, Ramufio, and other writers (|; for if he hadproceeded to them he would have known that they are under the equinoctial line, andconfequently would not have gone in fearch of them to the fourteenth degree of northlatitude, as he is feen to have done in his chart. From the Indies he returned toLifbon. In the mean time Albuquerque fent to the Moluccas Francis Serano, a friendand relation of Magellan , with directions to conftruct a fort there; but this he wasunable to effedt, as, from an infenfate pride, each of the kings of the iflands contendedfor its being built on his own territory; and as Serano himfelf, anxious to fubduethem all at once, aCted rather as a fovereign than a peace-maker, which title heafiTumed. In courfe of the work will be feen in what manner he became the victim ofhis ambition.
VIII. I am ignorant what pretentions Magellan may have had to favours from court;but his whole condudt feems to drew that he was equally intrepid and w r ell informed,notwithflanding the aflertions of the Jefuit Mafiei who charges him with pofielfing a
* This cape was laid down in 1450 by Brother Mauro, camaldule of the convent of Murano nearVenice , on a map of the world which I faw in 1790, and which, as is faid, is ftill there to be fe£n.French Tr.
f At leaft if credit be due to our author, who, at page 1761 dates his having met, in 1521, with Pedrode Lorofa, and learnt from him, Como ja fedizi anni /lava ne la India, ma x in Malucho, e land erano cheMaluchoJiava difcoperto afcofamente. “ That he had then been iixteen years in India , but ten in theMoluccas , as long back as which they had been difcovered, though the difcovery had been kept fecret.”French Tr.
f Robertfon. Loco citato, fed. iv.
§ Petri Anglerii, Opus Epift. Epift. 7 ^ 7 ’
j| Hii’oire Generate de Voyages, tom. i. p. 126. Edit, de Paris.
if Hift. Rer. Ind. lib. viii.
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