SPAIN, Espana, the ancient Hispania, a country in Europe, part of which was long held by Arabs.
the East Indies Spain holds the Philippine Islands. 1519 the Spaniards laid claim to the 13anda (United), or five (really ten) Nutmeg Islands, and the _Moluccas, or five Clove Islands, as falling,. within the line of their sovereignty laid down by the Pope in 1493. From 1505 the Court of Spain had earnestly engaged in the project of finding a way to the Spice Islands from the west, an 1 in 1508 Pinzon and De Solis sailed in search of them, and explored the coasts of South America to the 40th degree of south latitude. It was not, however, until 1515 that the Pacific was dis covered, when Nunez dc Balboa, who in 1510 had been placed in command of the Spanish colony of Santa Maria on the Gulf of Darien, having gone on an expedition into the Sierra de Quarequa, suddenly from one of its peaks beheld a boundless sea outstretched below him. From the narrow isthmus on which he stood, it extended east, and west, and south, until it was lost in space. This was the true discovery of America, that it was not, as Columbus believed to his dying clay, the easternmost coast of Asia, or the West Indies, but a separate continent ; and as this new world, with the vast waste of ocean beyond it, swam into his eyes, and all its moral significance flashed upon his inind, kneeling down upon the scarped summit from which he gazed, Balboa raised his hands to heaven in silent wonder and gratitude at the immensity of the revelation which had been made to him. Then, descending with all his men to the shore of the great South Sea, and wading up to his waist in its waters with his drawn sword, he claimed possession of the infinite expanse in the proud names of Aragon and Castile. In October 1515, De Solis was ag,ain sent out to d:scover the Spice Islands from the west, and in January 1516 entered the Rio de la Plata, originally named Rio de Solis ; its present name not having been given to the river until 1525, when Diego Garcia found some plates of silver, probably from the inines of Potosi, iu the hands of the wild Indians on its banks. De Solis, having anchored in the tnouth of the river, went on shore to explore the country inland, when he and eight of his men were set upon and massacred by the natives, and roasted and devoured by them in sight of his ships ; whereupon the disheartened expedition returned to Spain. In 1517, Ferdinand Magellan, who, according to De Barros, had been present at the capture of Malacca, proceeded to Valladolid, and gave it as his opinion that the Spice Islands fell within the Spanish boundary, and undertook to take a fleet thither by the south of the American continent. Accordingly, in 1519, Charles v. gave him five ships for the purpose. Every one of them was accompanied by a Portuguese pilot ; and the Santiago was commanded by J0a0 Serra°, an old Portugnese, on whose knowledge of the east, and especially of the Moluccas, of which they were in search, Magellan placed great reliance. On the 2Ist of October 1520, St. Ursula's day, he reached the cape, which he called Cabo de las Virgines, at the entrance of the strait now called after Magellan, but which he named San Vittoria, in affectionate honour of his own flagship. From many fires having been seen on the land south of the strait, he named it Tierra del Fuego. On the 27th of November he emerged from the strait into the open Pacific Ocean, and the cape which terminated the strait on his left (on Terra del Fuego) Ile named Cabo Deseedo (the Desired), now called Cape Pillar. On the 6th of •March
1521 he discovered the beautiful islands to which, from the thievish propensities of their inhabitants, he gave the name of the Ladrones (Thieves); and on the 16th, the islands he called the Archi pelago de San Lazar°, a name afterwards changed by Villalobos, in honour of Philip it. of Spain, to that of the Philippines. On one of these island; Magellan was slain in a Airmish with the natives, brought on by his proselytizing zeal, whereon Joao Serra° and Duarte (Odoardo) Barbosa were elected joint commanders of the expedition. (On Serrao's death, Caraballo was elected commander in-chief.) On the 8th July 1521 they anchored before the city of Borneo ; and on Wednesday, 6th November 1521, they at last descried the long sought-for Molucea Islands, the object for the dis covery of which, by a western route, their daring adventure was undertaken. On the 8th they anchored at Tidore. In the following December, of the two remaining ships of the expedition, it was resolved to send the Trinidad back to Spain by Panama and the Strait of Magellan, and to take the Vittoria home, under Sebastian del Cano, by the Cape of Good Hope. In order to escape the observation of the Portuguese, her course WaS steered so far south as the 42d parallel of lati tude, but, with all their caution, they approached. within five leagues of the Cape on the 6th of May 1522. On the 9th of July, when they reached the Cape de Verd Islands, they,were obliged to put in at Santiago, where, to prevent the picions of the Portuguese being roused, they said that they had come across from America. It was here they discovered that in sailing round the worlrl they had lost a day, for while by the Vit toria's log it was Wednesday the 9th of July, at Santiago it was Thursday the 10th. On the 6th of September the Vittoria arrived at San Lucar, the only survivor of the ftoble fleet which hacl sailed from the same port on the 20th of September 1519. The circumnavigation of the world, which had originated in the dispute between Spain and Portugal about the possession of the Moluccas, was completed, and the sphericity of the earth demonstrated, against the authority of Comas Indicopleustes, which had ruled geographers for nearly a thousand years. Charles v. received Del Cano with the highest distinction, and conferred on bim a life pension and a coat of arrns, which bore branches of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg, with a globe for the crest, and the motto, 'Primus circumdedisti me.' In regard to the dispute as to the respective rights of Portuccal and Spain to the Spice Islands, the kin°. of g'pain was confirmed in the possession of the'Philippine Islands, but the Moluccas were finally surrendered to the king of Portugal, under the agreement that the king of Portugal lent the king of Spain 350,000 ducats in respect of any claims which the latter might have on the Moluccas, in the possession of which the king of Portugal was not to be disturbed until the money was repaid, which was never clone. By a decree of the Cortes, dated 19th October 1868, the monetary system is as follows :-100 centimes = 1 peseta = 9/d. Gold coins-100, 50, 25, 20, 10, and 5 pesetas. Silver coins-1, 2, 5 pesetas, and 20 and 25 centimes. Bronze coins-1, 2, 5, tid 10 centimes. 100 pesetas = £3, 19s. 2d. ; 10 I esetas = 7s. 11d. • and the other coins in propor 'on. A 25 peseta' gold piece is nearly equal to a vereigm.— IV. A. Browne, The Merchant's Hand ok; Sir George Birdwood's Researches; Marsden's listory 'If Sumatra, p. 9.