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line 100 leagues west and south of any of the islands of the Azores or the Cape Verde Islands
should belong to Spain, although territories under Christian rule as of Christmas 1492 would
remain unchanged. Portugal or its lands were not mentioned, so Portugal couldn’t claim newly
discovered lands even if they were east of the line. Another bull, Dudum siquidem, entitled
Extension of the Apostolic Grant and Donation of the Indies and dated from September 1493,
gave all main lands and islands then belonging to India to Spain, even if east of the line. The
Portuguese protested and entered into direct negotiations with Spain to resolve the differences.
More treaties ensued but without longitude determination, more boundary disputes came as well.
2 CIA Factbook for Brazil
3 It is estimated that only 1 in 25 natives peoples survived small pox and other diseases
European explorers brought with them to the New World.
4 BBC, History of the World in 100 Objects, 2010
5 ibid
6 Mapping New Spain, Indigenous Cartograhpy and Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas,
Barbara Mundy, 1996
7 The Viceroy in Mexico City, concerned about cloud cover on the nights of the eclipse, sent his
cosmographers to observe in several remote locations, as insurance against failure. Ironically, the
Viceroy’s cosmographers were quite correct with their observations, while Velasco and his team
of experts experienced difficulties, resulting in errors. See Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography
and the New World, Maria Portuondo, 2009 and Mapping New Spain, Indigenous Cartograhpy
and Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas, Barbara Mundy, 1996, both from University of Chicago
Press.
8 An instrument, sometimes called a nocturlabe, used to determine the time from midnight
using stars in the Big Dipper as a clock.
9 Mapping New Spain, Indigenous Cartograhpy and Maps of the Relaciones Geograficas,
Barbara Mundy, University of Chicago Press, 1996
10 Secret Science: Spanish Cosmography and the New World, Maria Portuondo, 2009
11 Members of the Society of Jesus, founded by Ignatius de Loyola, a knight from a prominent
Spanish Basque family, in 1541. The Jesuits are today the largest single Roman Catholic religious
order
12 California: A History, Kevin Starr, Random House, 2005
13 Indigenous Agency within 17th and 18th Century Jesuit Missions..., Catherine M.
Semones, 2010
14 In 1583 the Italian Matteo Ricci, S.J. arrived in China with the first contingent of Jesuits.
Later, French Jesuits did most of the geodetic work. They worked continuously in China until the
suppression of the Jesuits in 1760’s.
15 The Jesuits in China were enthusiastic about Galileo’s work, invited the astronomer
to visit and to send telescopes. Johannes Schreck, S.J., the 7th elected member of the Italian
scientific academy (Galileo was the 6th) and a former student of Galileo’s at the University at
Padua, requested some of Galileo’s observations so he could revise inaccuracies in the Chinese
calendar. Galileo pointedly ignored Schreck, because he had issues with Grassi and Scheiner,
two anti-Copernican Jesuit critics in Europe, and was not disposed to assist the ones in China,
while he was being attacked in Italy. Ironically, Schreck was able to contact Johannes Kepler,
requesting the same information. Kepler, a Protestant, quickly responded and continued to send
Schreck astronomical data. Schreck died before he finished the calendar reform and the Jesuits
were prohibited from continuing Copernican teachings after Galileo’s injunction in 1616. See
Galileo in China, P. M. d’Elia, S.J., 1960
16 The Great Jesuit Surveys of the People’s Republic of China, 1705-1759, C.A. Norton, Dept
of Geomatics, University of Alaska-Anchorage
17 Americanized Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 9, 1890
18 The use of very long chains for distance measurement is noted in several works including
Memoirs of Father Ripa During Thirteen Years Residence at the Court of Peking in the Service
of the Emperor of China.
19 China on Paper: European and Chinese Works from the late 16th to the Early 19th
Centuries, The Getty Research Institute Publications Program, 2007
20 The Pius Fund was initiated in the late 1690’s to finance Jesuit and Franciscan missions
in Las Californias through private donations. It was long-lived, even after the Jesuits were
expelled from New Spain, and Spain herself left the Americas. It was an issue in the terms of the
Guadalupe-Hidalgo Treaty at the end of the Mexican War and a resulted in a dispute that brought
Mexico and the U.S. before the Hague in 1902, in search of a resolution.
21 Father Kino was born near Trent in 1644, in what is now Italian Tyrol, about 30 miles north
of where my own grandfather was born. His family name was Latinized from the original Italian
version of Chini. Kino entered the Jesuit Novitiate at Landsberg, Bavaria at the age of 20. He
completed his Bachelor’s Degree at the University of Ingolstadt, Bavaria in 1670, and completed
his Master’s Degree there in 1677. That same year he is ordained a priest. In 1678 he received the
modern equivalent of a PhD in astronomy and natural sciences from Freiburg University; Kino
then ministered full time at a parish church in Oettingen, Germany for several years.
Hebert E. Bolton, PhD in the preface of his translation of Kino’s book on the Pimería Alta,
describes what happened along the way: “Had he chosen to do so Kino might have enjoyed
an honorable position, and perhaps even won fame in Europe, for during his student career at
Freiburg and Ingolstadt he greatly distinguished himself in mathematics. In 1676, when the Duke
of Bavaria and his father, the Elector, went from the electoral court at Munich to Ingolstadt, they
engaged Kino in a discussion of mathematical sciences, with the result that he was offered a
professorship in the University of Ingolstadt. But he preferred to become a missionary...To this,
perhaps, he was inclined by family tradition, for he was a relative of Father Martini, famous
missionary in the East and author of many works on China.”
He was assigned to the Mexican missions that year, although he had requested posting to China,
according to American Jesuits, published in 1934. While waiting 2 years for a ship to Mexico, he
ministered & taught in Spain. At age 39 after reaching Baja California, he took his final vows as
a Jesuit priest. Over his career he established 24 missions, many of which remain in use today.
Kino’s life was the subject of a life-long study by the late Dr. Hebert E. Bolton, PhD (1870-1953),
history professor and Chair of the History Department for 22 years at the University of California,
Berkeley. Other researchers who have written extensively on Kino and related topics are the late
Father Ernest J. Burrus, S.J. (1907-1991) who over a twenty-four year period produced more than
forty volumes of historical documentation and commentary on Kino and the history of the Jesuits
in North America. Dr. Ronald L. Ives, PhD, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona,
wrote extensively on Kino and his explorations, as well as collaborating often with Father Burrus
in his research on Kino.
22 Padre on Horseback, A Sketch of Eusebio Kino, Apostle to the Pima, Herbert E. Bolton,
1932
23 Alta and Baja California were established as separate territories for missionaries, but were
not administered separately until much later.
24 The Spanish Borderlands, Hebert E. Bolton, Yale University Press, 1921
25 The present mission church of San Xavier in Tucson dates from 1783.
26 Pioneering Padre on Horseback: Eusebio Kino Part II, S. Bedini, Professional Surveyor
Magazine, 2000
27 Magnetic Declination Charts for Historical Epochs, from www.staff.science.
uu.nl/~gent0113/magdec
28 Adam Aigenler, S.J. was professor of mathematics and Hebrew at Ingolstadt University,
while Kino was a seminarian there. His various tables, including solar declination, were widely
used. Aigenler himself left Europe for missionary work in China in 1672. While waiting for a
China-bound ship in Portugal, he wrote a Portuguese grammar, having previously written one
for Hebrew. He died enroute to China on-board ship, near Goa, India in August of 1673, tending
fellow passengers infested with plague.
29 The book Kino had in his saddle bag was Father Aigenler’s Tabula Geographico-
Horologio Universalis Within it, among other things, were the solar declination tables Tabella
Declinationum Solis ab Ǣquatore.
30 The High Latitudes of Early Spanish Maps, Ronald L. Ives, PhD. Dr. Ives further pointed out
that solar declination changes slightly from year to year. The introduction (in Catholic countries
only) of the Gregorian Calendar in 1572 accounted for the 10 day error that had crept into the
Julian calendar. He also noted that Aigenler’s tables listed the earth’s axial inclination at 23½°,
when in reality it is somewhat smaller than that.
31 Kino’s Historical Memoir of Pimería Alta, Herbert E. Bolton, Clark Co., 1919
32 Navigation Methods of Eusebio Francisco Kino, Ronald L. Ives, PhD, Arizona and the
West,
Vol. II, No. 3, Autumn 1960, pp. 213-43
33 The High Latitudes of Early Spanish Maps, Ronald L. Ives, PhD
34 The first practical pocket chronometers, suitable for longitude determination on overland
reconnaissance surveys, began appearing in Europe around 1780, invented by English
clockmaker John Arnold.
35 The Castilian League, Fred Roeder, LS, American Surveyor, April, 2009
36 The Mark of Burgos is a vara standard cut into the side of the cathedral at Burgos, Spain.
37 For a thorough discussion of the lengths of the league and vara, see Bud Uzes’ book
Chaining the Land.
38 W. & L. E. Gurley, Manual of the Principal Instrument Used in American Engineering and
Surveying (Troy, N.Y., 1874)
39 At one time the Spanish used the southwestern most of the Canary Islands, Isla del Hierro,
the so called “Meridian Island”, as their prime meridian, according to Father Polzer, referenced
below. At other times the largest of the Canary Islands, Santa Cruz de Tenerife is referenced as
the prime meridian.
40 As per the Ordenanzas del Consejo real de las Indias, a lengthy codification of laws
governing cosmographers working for the Spanish crown, published in 1585
41 Jesuit Mission of Northern Mexico, Charles W. Polzer, S.J., 1991
42 Franciscans is the popular name of the priests and brothers of the Order of
Friars Minor, founded by St. Francis of Assisi in 1209.
43 The Russians established Fort Ross in 1812, as their southernmost base on
the Pacific Coast. Mission San Rafael Arcángel was founded in 1817, the last and
northernmost mission created before Mexican independence. It is located 54 miles
southerly from Fort Ross. Mission San Francisco Solano, located in San Rafael, CA,
was founded in 1827, after Mexico’s independence.
44 Font carried two sets of tables, one by an unnamed Franciscan and those of
Jorge Juan y Santacilia (1713-1773) a Spanish geodesist and astronomer. Juan was
a naval officer who was appointed by the King to accompany the Paris Academy’s
expedition to measure a meridian arc in Peru in the 1730’s. In 1757 he founded
Spain’s national observatory.
45 The Anza Expedition of 1775-1776: Diary of Pedro Font, University of
California, 1913
46 A graphometer is graduated semicircle with a pair of sighting vanes at either
end, and a movable alidade with another pair of sights at either end. The form was
introduced in Paris, 1597. Many graphometers have an inset magnetic compass. See
the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History website.
47 We are indebted again to Herbert Bolton for translating the diaries of both
Father Font and Colonel de Anza into English and popularizing the history these
explorers made.
U
The Nevada Traverse Vol. 39, No. 2, 2012 41