The Line of Demarcation

<body topmargin=0 leftmargin=0 marginheight=0 marginwidth=0> <table cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 border=0 height="100%"><tr> <td valign="top" width=185 BGCOLOR="#003333" TEXT="#F7F7FF" background="040b9c00dduajq.jpg"> <div> <B> <TABLE BORDER="0" CELLPADDING="2" CELLSPACING="0" WIDTH="70" BORDERCOLORLIGHT="#C0C0C0" BORDERCOLORDARK="#808080" FRAME="BOX" RULES="ALL" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0" > <tR> <tD VALIGN=TOP HEIGHT= 76 WIDTH="66"><IMG BORDER="0" SRC="1x1.gif" HEIGHT="76" ALIGN="bottom" WIDTH="66" HSPACE="0" VSPACE="0"></tD> </tR> </TABLE></B></div> <bR> </td> <td valign="top" BGCOLOR="#FFFBF0" TEXT="#080000"> <div> <FONT SIZE="5" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" ><B>Falmouth Packet Archives 1688-1850</B></FONT>    |     <A HREF="index.htm" TARGET="_top" TITLE="Falmouth Packet Archives 16881850"><U>home</U></A></div> <div>                                                   </div> <div> The Line of Demarcation </div> <div> 1494: West Indies and The Line of Demarcation</div> <bR> <div> There is no recorded history of the West India Islands prior to their discovery by <B>Christopher Columbus</B> in 1492. <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >[Burns, A]</FONT></div> <bR> <div> By that time, the <I><B>Arawaks</B></I> had been driven out of all the islands East and South of Puerto Rico, except Trinidad, by the more warlike tribe of the <I><B>Caribs</B></I>.  The Arawaks still retained control of the Bahamas, Cuba, Jamaica, Hispaniola and Puerto Rico.  Repeated raids on the Eastern end of Hispaniola was threatening this control.  The Spaniards found among the Arawaks, a general fear of their Carib enemies, and, but for the arrival of the Spaniards, the Caribs would soon have conquered Arawak controlled islands; they may have found a more merciful end at the hands of the Caribs than the lingering death that came to them through Spanish maltreatment.   Columbus thought the Arawaks timid, honest and exceedingly liberal, and said that they exhibited great love towards all others in preference to themselves, "nor are they slow or stupid, but of very clear understanding".  "No Jewels, or other Things of Value were seen, except some little Plates of Gold they wore hanging at their noses." <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >[Herrera, op. cit., vol.1, pp 48-49.]</FONT></div> <bR> <div> In some islands, the Arawaks possessed no weapons other than canes dried in the sun, at the ends of which were fixed heads of dried wood sharpened to a point; in others, the points were made of bone or shell. </div> <bR> <div> The Arawaks lived in small communities, but there were some towns with more than a thousand houses - round houses, consisting of posts driven into the earth in a circle, with canes woven together between the posts to which they were attached by lianas, and the roofs were thatched, with vents to let out smoke at the top. Some of the houses had small open porches and the roofs were often ornamented.  The Hammocks in which people slept formed the principal furniture, often made of cotton netting, and suspended between two posts in the house. <B>Hammocks were not known in Europe before the discovery of the West Indies</B>, and sailors in particular owe a great deal to the American Indians whose invention has proved so useful.  </div> <bR> <div> The Arawaks caught ducks and other waterfowl, by entering the water with gourds over their heads, provided with eye holes through which they could see the unwary birds, which they dragged under the water by the legs until they drowned.  The Arawak's principal crops were maize, or Indian corn, and "cassava", which besides being their staple foods, were also used in the preparation of intoxicating drinks.  Their food was liberally seasoned with pepper, and they used salt.  </div> <bR> <div> They fished from canoes, using nets made from vegetable fibres, and wooden harpoons tipped with bone or flint, and also employed a "hunting fish" (the <I><B>remoro or reverso</B></I>), a kind of lamprey with powerful suckers, which, controlled by a line held by the fisherman, attached itself to large fish or turtle.  The canoes, hollowed out from single trees, varied in size, from the small craft which could be propelled by one man, to a large type propelled by as many as 80 paddlers.  Columbus saw one canoe which was 96 ft long and 8 ft broad.  </div> <bR> <div> Arawak religion was a mixture of nature worship and ancestor worship.  So strong was their belief that the Spaniards were able to lure the <I><B>Lucayans</B></I> from their homes to slavery on other islands by the promise they would meet their ancestors.  Too weak and ill-armed to resist the power of the Europeans, and so little used to hard work that they could not endure the labour of the mines imposed upon them by the Spaniards, the race quickly passed out of existence within a few decades in Hispaniola and other islands they had inhabited for centuries.  In 1507 the Arawak population had shrunk to 60,000, in another 10 years, owing to epidemics of smallpox and measles, it had fallen to 14,000.</div> <bR> <div> The Caribs differed from the Arawaks, being more aggressive - summed up by - "<I>the Caribs fed upon human flesh broiled</I>" [Labat, op. cit., pp.101-3.] The Frenchmen make the most delicate eating, while the Spaniards were the hardest to digest" [Ibid, p.236]. </div> <bR> <div> The Caribs would never endure slavery, and fought fiercely against the Spaniards, French and English.  They held Dominica against all comers until the middle of the eighteenth century, and used the island as a base from which to raid British & French colonies in neighbouring islands.  </div> <bR> <div> Still a force to be reckoned with, as late as 1796, after a savage struggle in St. Vincent, a number of them were forcibly deported to Central America. (These were the Black Caribs).  It was agreed, in the <B>Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle </B>in <B>1748</B>, that Dominica, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and Tobago, would not be occupied by either nation, but left to the Caribs; in the wars that broke out again soon afterwards, these islands were occupied by the contesting European Powers and finally became British, nearly all the Caribs being killed in battle or deported.  The Caribs had, for three centuries, resisted European pressure.</div> <bR> <div> <U>The first EUROPEANS in the West Indies were the Spaniards</U>, who came to the islands and to the mainland territories of America, in ever increasing numbers <U>after the discovery by Columbus in 1492</U> In the first instance an attempt was made to exclude even those Spaniards who were not natives of Castille, as it was Isabella, Queen of Castille, who had financed the discovery. Before long, when the Kings of Spain were also Emperors of the Holy Roman Empire and rulers of Portugal, the doors were open, to the Catholic peoples of all the countries of Europe. </div> <bR> <div> There were some Germans in the country, which is now <B>Venezuela</B> and a few Italians in other places. Numbers of Portuguese settled in the Spanish colonies, and despite restrictions against "Jews & Infidels", there were many Jews among the Portuguese immigrants. Notwithstanding, for 125 years, most of them who came to the West Indies (after 1492) were Spaniards, and mostly men, with the result that their blood mixed freely with that of the aboriginal inhabitants.  Within a couple of generations, there was a large number of locally born whites, of pure European origin, and these were known as "<I><B>Creoles</B></I>".  </div> <bR> <div> There has always been a latent hostility between the white Creoles, having lived in the West Indies for generations, and the recently arrived Europeans, many "imported officials" were<B> </B>considered aloof towards the Creoles, and this <I>was one of the reasons for the weakness of Spain in the West Indies</I>.  It is interesting to note that the revolts against Spanish rule in America were almost invariably led by white Creoles.</div> <bR> <div> The treatment of the West Indian Arawaks in the early days of Spanish settlement was a terrible one, and is of importance to later history, as it was used as one of the examples of Spanish cruelty which stimulated <B>Drake</B> and other seamen to hatred of Spain and reprisals against Spanish ships and colonies in the West Indies. [Hakluyt's <I>Discourse of Western Planting</I> (1584) - he urged the establishment of English colonies in America as a great bridle to the Indies of the Kinge of Spaine" and justified attacks on the grounds that <B>“</B><I>they have exercised moste outrageous and more than Turkishe cruelties in all the West Indies</I>" - "so many and so monstrous have been the Spanish cruelties, such strange slaughters and murders of these peaceable, mild and gentle people".</div> <div> [see the <I>Original Writings and Correspondence of the two Richard Hakluyts</I>, edited for the Hakluyt Society (1935) by E.G.R. Taylor, vol. II, pp. 239, 257.] </div> <bR> <div> There is however, no cause for complacency in this matter, as the records of other nations in the West Indies, especially in their treatment of Negro slaves, are far from clean, and<B> the Spanish </B><B><U>slave code</U></B><B> was more merciful than any other.</B></div> <bR> <div> French, Dutch and English "Corsairs" went to the West Indies in the first quarter of the 16th century, to raid Spanish settlements, few in number and of little importance from the point of view of population.  After 1630, there was a steady stream of English, Dutch and French to the new colonies established in the Lesser Antilles and Guiana.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The bulk of the population in the West Indies is descended from the Negro slaves brought from Africa during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries.</B>  The first people of African descent to be taken to the New World were a few already enslaved in Spain (and probably already converted to Christianity).  The first Negro slaves were brought to Portugal in 1441, and the trade in gold, pepper and ivory so lucrative, that Castilian sailors began, in 1453, to follow the Portuguese along the coast of Africa. [<B><U>Coincident with the fall of Constantinople in 1453</U></B>, to the Ottoman Turks, and the<B><U> closure of the overland route between Europe and the East. </U></B>There was by then an established demand for spices, almost a necessity to medieval Europe, when men had little variety in their diet, and winter food consisted chiefly of meat preserved and pickled in the autumn.</div> <bR> <div> <B>Columbus</B> (called by the Spaniards <B>Cristobal Colon</B>, probably born at Genoa between 1446 and 1451, his father's name was Colombo, of which Columbus was the Latinised form. He subsequently used what he considered the be the original Roman name of the family, Colonus, later abbreviated to Colon.) - married Dona Felipa, the daughter of one of King Henry's explorer captains, Bartholomew Monis de Perestrello, an Italian navigator and later Governor of the island of Porto Santo, one of the Madeira group, where Columbus lived for a while and where his eldest son, Diego, was born. (Dona Felipo died before Columbus left Portugal in 1792). While married and in Portugal, he made charts and maps for sale.  (<B>The travels of the Venetian explorer, Marco Polo, who returned from his famous journeys in Asia in 1295, had great influence on the mind of Columbus).  Columbus had noted as significant, the finding of strange trees, carved sticks and bodies of men with Mongolian features, which were washed ashore at the Azores. </B></div> <bR> <div> <U>This confirmed his belief that land lay to the westward of Europe</U> - and, not doubting the world was round, <U>thinking he could reach East India</U>, submitted to the King of Portugal, in 1443, a proposal that he should be given command of an expedition across the Atlantic to prove the truth of his beliefs. <B>It was the opinion of King John the Second's advisors that "it did not become such greatness to engage in an enterprise of this kind on such weak grounds". The Portuguese King secretly sent a vessel westward, the sailors returned, too afraid of the unknown to venture far. </B></div> <bR> <div> Columbus, disgusted by the Royal duplicity, left for Spain, where, from 1485 to 1492, he sought to secure the support of King Ferdinand of Aragon and Queen Isabella of Castile - who were similarly advised. <B>He then sought, in vain, to interest in his scheme the Kings of France and England</B>, to whom he sent his brother Bartholomew as his advocate; neither was willing to help, King Henry the Seventh of England had no time or money to spare for enterprise overseas, following the <B>War of the Roses.</B>   [<U>After</U> the successful voyage of Columbus, and Cabot's exploration of the north American coast, Sebastian Cabot, an Italian by birth, reported in 1497, that after leaving Florida he "<I>returned to England, where he found great tumults among the people, and preparation for warres </I><I>(sic)</I><I> in Scotland: by reason whereof there was no more consideration had to this voyage</I>". [Hakluyt, op, cit. (Navigations), vol. v, p.87.) ]</div> <bR> <div> Using materials from his wrecked <I><B>Santa Maria</B></I> to build a fort in Hispaniola, at a place called La Navidad, or Puerto Real (now called Caracol Bay) he sailed for Spain on the 4th January 1493, (taking nine of the Arawaks with him), joined the <I><B>Pinta</B></I> under Martin Pinzon, but parted company in storms, and was lucky to make the Azores, where, at the island of St. Mary, the Portuguese Governor tried to capture Columbus. </div> <bR> <div> There can be no doubt that this was in accordance with a general direction issued by the King of Portugal.  He escaped and, after another storm, arrived at the Tagus on 4th March 1493, and 11 days later, arrived at the port of Palos (in Spain).  The <I>Pinta </I>had meanwhile reached Bayonne, from which port Pinzon, believing Columbus had perished at sea, forwarded a letter to King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella announcing the discoveries and taking all the credit for himself; unfortunately for Pinzon, Columbus had just arrived in Spain and revealed the truth, and the reply from the King and Queen was such that Pinzon took to his bed, and it is said, died of a broken heart at the revelation of his treachery.</div> <bR> <div> <B>The King of Portugal</B>, owing to Columbus having been forced by stress of weather to seek shelter in the Tagus before going to a Spanish port, was aware, even before the Spanish sovereigns, of the results of the voyage, and<B> lost no time in making his claim</B> to "<B>The Indies</B>" that had been discovered!  <B>Pope Alexander VI,</B> (the Borgia) was himself of Spanish birth, and <B>the Spanish sovereigns</B>, by their overthrow of the Moorish power in Spain, <B>were regarded as champions of Christendom</B>.   The Bull "<I>Inter Caetera</I>" was accordingly issued on 3 May 1493, <B><U>granting to the Spanish King & Queen, as their personal property</U></B> and peculiar responsibility, similar rights <B>in </B><B><U>the countries discovered by Columbus</U></B> as were enjoyed by Portugal in Africa. (Ignoring entirely the rights of the native inhabitants, <I><B><U>the Pope had merely granted land which was not in the possession of any Christian Prince</U></B></I>.)</div> <bR> <div> Two months later, two other Bulls, one called "<I>Examinae devotionis</I>", the other "<I>Inter Caetera</I>", confirmed the first "Inter Caetera" Bull, and established <B><U>a boundary 100 leagues West of the Azores and Cape Verde Islands</U></B> - <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#993300" FACE="Arial" ><B>all to the East was to belong to the Portuguese, all to the West, to Spain</B></FONT>. The King of Portugal protested, and a compromise was arrived at by the <I><B>Treaty of Tordesillas</B></I>, signed on 7 June <B>1494</B>, by which <B><U>the imaginary line drawn by the Pope</U></B> should be shifted to a position 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde islands (roughly the 50th degree West of the Greenwich meridian) and approximately half way between the most westerly portions of the "Old World", (Azores, Madeira and Cape Verde islands), and the island of Hispaniola, the most easterly of the discoveries of Columbus in the "New World".</div> <bR> <div> At this time, it was not known that any land existed between the newly agreed line and the Azores, but in fact <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#993300" FACE="Arial" ><B><U>the agreement placed the eastern parts of Brazil within the Portuguese sphere</U></B></FONT>.  The Pope subsequently confirmed the arrangements made by the Treaty, in another Bull, "<I>Ea Quae</I>", of 24 Jan 1506.  </div> <bR> <div> <FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >It should be remembered that </FONT><B>the Papal grants to the Portuguese in 1455, 1456 and 1481 were </B><B><U>made in complete ignorance of the existence of America</U></B><B>.</B><FONT SIZE="2" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >  It was anticipated that the Portuguese approach to the Indies would be round the Southern projection of Africa, as indeed it turned out.  </FONT></div> <bR> <div> A few suspected, perhaps, that Columbus had not reached the Indies, <U>but no one thought of a continental barrier</U>, probably regarding the newly discovered islands as lying well to the east of "The Indies".  Columbus himself believed the islands he had discovered were part of "The Indies", and died in this belief, but even he seems, in 1502, to have distinguished between the Indies proper and the `West" Indies', which he calls "<B>las Yndias Ocidentales a Todo el Mundo Innotas</B>". </div> <bR> <div> Their discovery of `The Indies' therefore provided some grounds for the Portuguese counterclaim.  <B>There can be no doubt, in any case, that the Papal decisions averted war between Spain and Portugal both in Africa and the West Indies.</B>  But for the unexpected existence of America, which blocked Spanish progress westwards for many years, a clash must have come with the Portuguese advancing eastwards, via the Cape of Good Hope.  <B><U>The "Line" of demarcation in the Atlantic</U></B> could not alone have prevented the conflict of interests: A similar line in the Pacific would have been necessary for this purpose.<B> </B></div> <bR> <div> qf. Burns, Alan, <I>The History of the British West Indies</I> <FONT SIZE="1" COLOR="#000000" FACE="Arial" >(pp 35-38)</FONT></div> <bR> <bR> <div> Note: Comments on the above please to <A HREF="mailto:xjt60@dial.pipex.com" TARGET="_top" TITLE="mailto:xjt60@dial.pipex.com"><U>Andy Campbell</U></A>.</div> </td> </tr></table></body>