ABSTRACT
The pope, as head and arbiter of all European Christendom at this time, issued a papal bull in 1493 providing that the world not already governed by Christian princes be divided by an imaginary line running from pole to pole one hundred leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands. In 1494, by the Treaty of Tordesillas, the monarchs of Spain and Portugal changed the line to 370 leagues west of the Cape Verde Islands, an action that later permitted Portugal to claim a part of Brazil. The Falkland Islands remained in the area under Spanish control. The islands of Sanson and Patos lie northwest of West Falkland Island and are a part of the Falkland group. British discoveries at the end of the sixteenth century, alleged and substantiated, form the basis for later claims to the Falklands. Richard Hawkins’s mention of being in about 48° south latitude is of little help, as the Falklands lie between 51° and 53°.
