According to ancient and modern cosmographers, that part of the world called Asia has adjacent to it an immense number of islands, large and small, inhabited by divers nations and peoples, as rich in precious stones, gold, silver, and other minerals, as abounding in fruit and grain, flocks and animals; in some of these all sorts of spices are produced, which are carried thence and distributed throughout the universe. They name them commonly in their books and descriptions, and charts of navigation, the great Archipelago of Saint Lazarus, which is in the Eastern Ocean; of these islands, amongst others more famous, are the isles of Maluco, Celebes, Tendaya, Luzon, Mindanao and Borneo, which are now called the Philippines.

The Pope Alexander the Sixth having divided the conquests of the New World between the Kings of Castille and Portugal, they agreed to make the division by means of a line which the cosmographers drew across the world, in order that, the one towards the west and the other towards the east, they might follow out their discoveries and conquests, and settle peacefully whatever each might win within his demarcation.