consideration of the great advantage which will accrue to the service of
Your Majesty, to the extension of the Catholic Church, and to the
increase of our holy faith, from the conversion of the gentiles of the
southern land, which is the principal obligation to which Your Majesty
and your crown are pledged, he now earnestly begs (great as have been
his former importunities) to solicit Your Majesty’s consideration to
that which is here set forth. At the instance of the fathers of the
Seraphic order of St. Francis, and in particular of the father Fray Juan
de Silva, he has composed a treatise dedicated to his most serene
highness the Infant Don Ferdinand,[8] from which a judgment may be
formed of the temperature, productions, and population of the southern
hemisphere, and every other point desirable to be understood with
respect to its most extensive provinces and kingdoms. He has done this
with a view to its discovery, and the spiritual and evangelical
conquest, and bringing in to our holy faith and Catholic religion of its
numberless inhabitants, who are so long waiting for this divine and
celestial benefit at the hand of Your Majesty. It is a subject upon
which the father Fray Juan de Silva has bestowed the most serious
attention, and for which he is most anxiously solicitous; for all his
order desire to be engaged in this mighty enterprise, which is one of
the greatest that the Catholic Church ever has or ever can undertake,
and the accomplishment of which it is the duty of all us her faithful
sons to pray should be accelerated as much as possible. For the English
and Dutch heretics, whom the devil unites for this purpose by every
means in his power, most diligently continue the exploration, discovery,
and colonization of the principal ports of this large part of the world
in the Pacific Ocean, and sow in it the most pernicious poisons of their
apostasy, which they put forth with the most pressing anxiety in advance
of us, who should put forth the sovereign light of the gospel. This they
are now perseveringly doing in that great continent in which are the
provinces of Florida, and they will afterwards proceed to do the same
with New Spain, and then with New Mexico, the kingdom of Quivira, the
Californias, and other most extensive provinces. For which purpose, and
for other reasons connected with their machinations against our kingdom,
they have already colonized Virginia. To further the same object also,
they have fortified and colonized Bermuda, and continue most zealously
and rapidly sowing the infernal poison of their heresy, and infecting
with it the millions upon millions of excellent people who inhabit those
regions. From Virginia also they are advancing most rapidly inland, with
the most ardent desire to deprive the Catholic Church of the inestimable
treasure of an infinite number of souls; and to found in that land an
empire, in which they will at length possess much better and richer
Indies than our own, and from which position they will be able to lord
it absolutely over all our territories, and over all our navigation and
commerce with the West Indies. This is a most grievous case for us, and
most offensive to our Lord God and His Church, and this kingdom has
reason to dread from so mischievous a state of things very great
injuries from the hands of these enemies, and no less punishment from
the divine indignation for having allowed these basilisks to locate
themselves in such a position; from whence, before we of the Catholic
Church arrive with the preaching of the gospel with which we are
commissioned, they draw to themselves and infect with the depravity of
their apostasy that countless number of gentiles which inhabit the said
provinces, and which cover a greater surface of land than all Europe.
But as the said treatise of the southern hemisphere has not yet been put
into a form to be communicated, which will soon be done, I have resolved
herein to relate to Your Majesty, although very briefly, some of its
contents; in order, meanwhile, to afford the necessary information
concerning these southern lands, whither it is proposed to set on foot
so great and mighty an undertaking as the evangelical and spiritual
conquest of the said hemisphere.
In order to understand the question, it must be premised that the whole
globe of earth and water is divided into two equal parts or halves by
the equinoctial line. The northern hemisphere, which stretches from the
equinoctial to the Arctic Pole, contains all which has been hitherto
discovered and peopled in Asia, Europe, and the chief part of Africa.
The remaining half, or southern hemisphere, which reaches from the
equinoctial to the Antarctic Pole, comprises part of what we call
America, and the whole of that Austral land, the discovery and apostolic
conquest of which is now treated of. Now, if we except from this
southern hemisphere all that there is of Africa lying between the
equinoctial line and the Cape of Good Hope, and all that there is of
Peru from the parallel of the said equinoctial line, which passes near
Quito, down to the straits of Magellan, and that small portion of land
which lies to the south of the strait, all the rest of the firm land of
the said southern hemisphere remains to be discovered. Thus of the whole
globe, there is little less than one entire half which remains to be
discovered, and to have the gospel preached in it; and this discovery
and evangelical conquest forms the principal part of the obligation
under which these kingdoms lie for the preaching of the gospel to the
gentiles, in conformity with the agreement made with the Catholic Church
and its head, the supreme pontiffs Alexander VI and Paul III.
Some one will say, that what has been stated is contradictory to what
the Apostle understands as meant by the Psalmist with reference to the
preaching of the gospel, where he says; “Their sound is gone out into
every land, and their words unto the ends of the world.” For the
Apostle, speaking of the conversion of the gentiles, says thus: “How
shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed? and how shall
they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? or how shall they hear
without a preacher? and how shall they preach except they be sent? As it
is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of
peace, and bring glad tidings of good things.” Then shortly after the
Apostle saith: “But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound
is gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the
world.” According to which it seems that it must be affirmed, either
that then or now the preaching of the gospel has already had its course,
and its voice gone out throughout all the world, or that the gospel was
to be only preached for the most part in the northern hemisphere and in
some very small part of the aforesaid lands of Africa and Peru in the
southern, and that in the remainder of the world there is no population
or discovered land-surface uncovered by water where there could be
populations or habitations, and thus that the voice of the gospel has
already run its course as far as it can, and that in the rest of the
southern hemisphere there is no provision for it. To all this I reply,
that these words of the Psalmist were a prophecy of the preaching of the
gospel, speaking out of the past into the future with the infallible
certainty of prophecy. And although the Apostle, in quoting the said
passage of the Psalmist, seems to affirm that already in his time the
preaching of the gospel had had its course throughout the world, it is
to be understood that he speaks in the sense of the aforesaid prophecy;
that the preaching and the voice of the gospel had to run, and not that
it had already run throughout the whole of the globe, since his
quotation of the said passage of the Psalmist was made at so early a
period that the gospel was then preached only in a small part of the
northern hemisphere.
The passage of the Apostle where he so speaks may be also thus
understood: he could not say that the gentiles did not hear the voice or
word of the gospel to their conversion, because already it has gone
forth from the apostolic seminary for the conversion of all the earth;
and in order that it may reach to its boundaries, so that no portion of
the gentiles throughout the whole world should remain to which it should
not reach, and into which it should not penetrate. Moreover it may be
understood in this sense, that he speaks of the gentiles (after the
consummation of the preaching of the gospel) as placed at the divine
tribunal, and as giving to understand that those who would not be
converted should have no remission; and on this point the Apostle puts
the following question: “Haply all have not heard the word of the
gospel, else if they had heard it would they not have embraced it?” and
that they had all heard it is a certain thing, since the sound of the
gospel voice has sounded throughout all the earth; so that in all these
senses this expression of the Apostle may be understood without
opposition in any way to the strictness of its genuine and literal
meaning. And if any one should say that the nearest explanation of the
passage would be, that the sound of the preaching of the gospel might
reach to the ends of the earth in the interval which took place between
the time when the Apostles went forth to preach the gospel, after the
Redeemer had gone up to heaven, and the time when St. Paul said these
words,—the answer is, that although the preaching of the gospel may have
travelled far in the said interval, it did not extend over any great
part even of the northern hemisphere, as is very manifest; and thus the
southern hemisphere still remained, and has remained until now, without
the voice of the gospel being preached or sounded in it, always
excepting those parts of Africa and Peru which are comprehended therein,
but which, when its extent is considered, form a very small part of it.
Moreover, the equinoctial line, which is, as it were, the boundary of
the two hemispheres, may be understood to represent the ends of the
earth, to some parts of which the preaching of the gospel might reach in
the said interval. But this is not contradictory to our proposition, and
if due consideration be given to the subject it will be seen, that
Christ our Redeemer has pointed out to us with much clearness, that this
preaching of the gospel in the southern hemisphere should take place
after that in the north; for in giving charge to His Apostles, and
through them to those apostolic men who should succeed them, that they
should preach the gospel, it appears that He gave them to understand
that that charge was principally and directly given for the northern
hemisphere; for He spoke to them in this manner: “Other sheep I have,
which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear
my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd.” Now although
some Greek and Latin doctors have understood that by these two folds the
Redeemer meant, firstly, that of the Jews, who were to be brought into
the Church, and who, from the commencement of the preaching of the
gospel, would continue to be converted; and secondly, that of the
gentiles, which He pointed out thus distinctly because it was to be the
principal fold; yet the said passage is not well explained in this
manner, as time and the progress of gospel preaching have since shown;
and inasmuch as it would follow from the said interpretation that, in
some sense, the Redeemer had committed to the Apostles the preaching to
the Jews only, and, as by original intention, reserved to Himself the
preaching to the gentiles; that was not the case, since the preaching to
all the principal of the gentiles of the northern hemisphere was divided
among the Apostles, and, in fact, they continued carrying out the
injunction. The subsequent election also of the Apostle who was the
chosen vessel for preaching to the gentiles, must be understood in the
same manner. Thus our Lord and Redeemer made a distinction in this
passage between the two principal folds which were to be brought into
the pale of the Church. The first, that of all the gentiles of the
northern hemisphere, the immediate preaching to whom was enjoined upon
the Apostles; the other, that of the southern hemisphere, whose
conversion to our holy faith He appears to have reserved to Himself when
He says, that they should take care to bring within the pale of the
Church the sheep of the northern hemisphere, and that He would take upon
Himself the charge of bringing in the others as in His own person. And
it is a very certain fact that that injunction is now in course of being
carried out, from the Franciscan order having gone forth and undertaken
the extension of this great enterprise. For its seraphic and sovereign
chief, the most glorious patriarch St. Francis, possessed in his own
person so express and true an image of the Redeemer, that it might very
well be said that the fold of the southern hemisphere should be brought
in by Him in person, it being that which that exalted patriarch reserved
to himself to bring in to the pale of the Church through the medium of
the faithful sons of his institute and order. Thus it is seen in this
passage in how great esteem the Almighty Lord held this extensive and
precious fold of the southern hemisphere, which His Church hopes for;
since He says that the sheep thereof, as those which are most chosen and
drawn by His hand or by that of His seraphic and sovereign standard
bearer, are to hear His voice with the most singular affection and
devotion, receive His doctrine and faith and be most faithful to Him,
continuing always most constant and firm therein; not like those of the
northern hemisphere, amongst whom there has been so great a defection
and apostasy, so great a number of provinces of the northern hemisphere
having deserted their faith and apostatized. So that the Catholic faith,
in the purity in which the Apostles preached it, may be said to remain
only in that little portion which is governed by the head of the Church
and in these kingdoms of Spain, in which the divine providence by such
great means preserves it as a chosen seminary and as a refined and pure
plantation of religion, from which it should be transplanted to that
southern hemisphere. And thus the sovereign commission to preach the
gospel to the said southern hemisphere appertained as of necessity to
those kingdoms, as those which the Redeemer had distinguished and
preferred to the rest, in order that they should attract that
hemisphere, which is to be the most enlightened of the Catholic and
faithful fold of His Church. Whence it follows, that the principal
compact and agreement into which these kingdoms have entered with the
Church in undertaking to preach the gospel, is directed towards the
preaching to the aforesaid southern hemisphere.
Some one, however, may say in opposition to the above arguments, that
the commission which the Redeemer gave to the Apostles to preach the
gospel should be understood as being general, and therefore applying to
both hemispheres, in accordance with what He said to them before He
ascended into heaven: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel
to every creature.” As also relates St. Matthew: “All power is given to
me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost.” The same also is written by the evangelist St. Luke. The
answer to all this is, that it in no sense contradicts the distinction
which has been made between the two principal folds of the gentiles
which had to be taken from these two hemispheres; for in the passages
quoted, Christ our Redeemer speaks in the persons of the Apostles, with
all the apostolic men and preachers of the gospel who were to succeed
them until the end of the world; but that which He committed to them
bore immediate reference to the northern hemisphere, which was that
which they divided amongst themselves and where they preached, for not
one of the Apostles has been understood to have passed to the southern
hemisphere. The words also which the Redeemer added in the
abovementioned passage: “And there shall be one fold and one shepherd,”
prove that He there speaks of the fold which was to be converted from
the southern hemisphere; because, until that hemisphere be settled, the
preaching of the gospel will not have been consummated, and consequently
the making one fold of the two hemispheres under one shepherd cannot be
verified. Thus the conversion and spiritual and evangelical conquest of
the southern hemisphere has remained to be effected by the Apostolic men
of this kingdom.
Moreover, long ago, the Divine Majesty foretold this same thing by the
prophet Obadiah, who says thus: “The captivity of Jerusalem, which is in
the Bosphorus, shall possess the cities of the south, and Saviours shall
come up on Mount Sion to judge the Mount of Esau.” And where our Vulgate
puts Bosphorus the Hebrew text says Sepharat, which signifies Spain,
according to the Chaldaic paraphrast and the Sederholan of the Hebrews
and Rabbi Zonathas Abenuciel and many other Hebrews. And it is with much
propriety that, in the place of Spain, our interpreter has put
Bosphorus, for that word signifies the passage of an ox, that is to say,
a strait. Now there are in the Mediterranean three straits of this name;
one is called the Thracian Bosphorus, which is that of Constantinople,
which is the passage from the said Mediterranean to the Black Sea;
another is called the Cimmerian Bosphorus, which is the passage from the
Black Sea to the Lake Meotis; the third is the Gaditan Bosphorus, which
is the Strait of Gibraltar. When, therefore, hydrographers speak of the
Bosphorus alone without addition, it is understood to mean the principal
one in the Mediterranean, by which it communicates with the ocean, and
therefore the prophet Obadiah meant the same when he said “the captivity
of Jerusalem which is in the Bosphorus,” that is to say, which is in
Spain. But, as has been said, our translator has with much propriety and
in accordance with the intention of the prophet, given Bosphorus as the
rendering for the word Sepharat; for although the transmigration of
Jerusalem which was in Spain was to possess the cities of the south, its
conquerors had to go forth principally from that part of Spain which is
nearest to the Bosphorus or Strait of Gibraltar, as is seen to be the
case.
The literal meaning of this prophecy therefore is, that the
transmigration of Jerusalem which was in the Bosphorus, that is to say,
the Spaniards who have been the most constant of the faithful, and to
whom was transmitted the perseverance of the faith of Abraham and Jacob,
are to possess the cities of the south, that is to say, the southern
hemisphere, gaining over it a spiritual and apostolical conquest by the
preaching of the gospel. And then the saviours, who are the preachers of
the gospel and who bring salvation to the gentile, shall come up on
Mount Sion to judge the Mount of Esau, which is as much as to say, they
shall ascend to the highest climax of the sovereign virtues, from whence
they shall announce to the gentiles the true knowledge of their Creator
and Redeemer. And thus they shall judge them by condemning and
extirpating their errors, and reducing them to the purity of our holy
faith. After their conversion also, they shall judge them at the divine
tribunal of the sacrament of penitence. The prophet concludes by saying:
“And the kingdom shall be the Lord’s.” For when these Catholic kingdoms
shall have drawn to the faith this southern hemisphere and shall have
proclaimed and sung this glorious victory, the Redeemer will have made
perfect the kingdom of His Church, which now is defective in the
greatest part from not having accomplished this grand object. Hence it
may be gathered how great a service this will be to the Redeemer, and
how blessed will be the prince of this monarchy who shall undertake and
complete it. Thus it has been seen that the prophet Obadiah prophecied
to the letter the conquest and spiritual possession of the southern
hemisphere, through the medium of the preaching of the gospel by the
Spanish nation, which has preserved in its integrity the faith of the
Redeemer and of His Catholic Church.
Some have asked, as already pointed out, whether the southern hemisphere
be not all water, forming, as it were, a great part of the ocean, so as
to leave but little of the surface of the earth in it uncovered. The
reply to this is, that, according to what we are taught by sacred writ
and by philosophical reasoning, there is proportionably as great a
surface of land uncovered in the southern hemisphere as in the northern.
For the fiat of the Creator, that the waters should be collected into
certain hollows of the earth, in order that there should remain
uncovered the portion that was necessary for the production of
vegetation, as where He says in Genesis the 1st: “Let the waters under
the heaven be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land
appear,” supposes this water to have been created an entire orb, which
covered and surrounded the whole of the earth, in the same manner as we
reckon the positions of the elements; the land the lowest, in the middle
of which is the centre of the whole elementary and celestial machine,
then the water, and after that the air and igneous substance or the
fire, which reaches its culmination or convex part in the concave of the
celestial firmament. Then if, when God commanded that the waters should
be gathered together, it was to be understood solely with reference to
the northern hemisphere, the water in the southern hemisphere would
remain as it was, surrounding and covering all, and the whole sphere of
water could not be contained beneath one spherical surface equidistant
to the centre of gravity, which always seeks to be united with the
centre of the whole machine. And thus all the water of the southern
hemisphere would be more remote from the said centre than that of the
other hemisphere, without being contained in any sinus, and thus would
be much higher, and naturally could not contain itself without flowing
towards the other hemisphere, until it placed itself in equilibrium with
the said centre of gravity; as is plainly gathered from the
demonstration of Archimedes, in his work “De Insidentibus Aquæ,” and is
manifestly seen in the ebb and flow of the ocean; in which it is
observed, that when the water rises above the surface of equidistance
from its centre of gravity, it immediately outflows its ordinary limits
until it finds its level with that surface; so that the gathering
together of the waters was proportional in the two halves of the sphere
of earth and water, gathering itself into certain hollows of the earth,
which also have their means of correspondence between the two
hemispheres. For as the quiet and equilibrium of the parts of the earth
and water with respect to the centre of gravity consist in the equal
tendencies of the opposite parts towards the same centre, it follows
that the sinuses or receptacles of water in the one half are nearly
proportioned in their position and other respects to those of the other.
From all which it follows, that in the southern hemisphere there is an
uncovered surface of land correspondent, or nearly so, to that which has
been discovered in the northern hemisphere.
If any one should say in opposition to the above argument, that the
Psalmist appears to assert that the hemisphere opposite to the northern
was entirely covered with water, when he says: “Who stretcheth out the
earth above the waters, for His mercy endureth for ever;”—in which the
real meaning of the royal prophet would seem to be, that that half of
the earth which is between the equinoctial and the Arctic pole was that
which was peopled, and that, as by a miracle, all the earth was
stretched out above the waters, which covered the other half as far as
the Antarctic pole—the answer is, that the Psalmist does not intend to
say absolutely that the earth is stretched out above the waters; for
that is impossible, since these two bodies, earth and water, gravitate
towards the centre of gravity, which is that of the mass or sphere of
land and water, and thus of necessity the water upon the earth is
contained in its hollows; but, as by an allegory, he said that it might
seem to those who inhabit the one hemisphere, that the land was
stretched upon the waters which extended towards the other hemisphere,
as it is our custom in imagination to think that the antipodes are below
those to whom they are antipodes, it being in conformity to the law of
gravitation that both one and the other are alike uppermost, and the
lower part, which is the centre of gravity, towards which both incline,
is common to all.