ostenditur;[17a] unde Grammatici[18a] invenire et occupare pro verbis ponunt idem significantibus; et tota Latinitas quod adepti sumus, id demum invenisse nos dicit, cui oppositum est perdere. Quin et ipsa naturalis ratio, et legum diserta verba, et eruditiorum interpretatio[19a] manifeste ostendit, ad titulum dominii parandum eam demum sufficere inventionem quae cum possessione coniuncta est, ubi scilicet res mobiles apprehenduntur, aut immobiles terminis atque custodia sepiuntur;[20a] quod in hac specie dici nullo modo potest. Nam praesidia illic Lusitani nulla habent. Quid quod ne reperisse quidem Indiam ullo modo dici possunt Lusitani, quae tot a saeculis fuerat celeberrima. Iam ab Horati tempore:[21a]
Taprobanes pleraque quam exacte nobis Romani descripsere?[22a] Iam vero et ceteras insulas ante Lusitanos non
as Gordian[17] points out in one of his letters. For that reason the Grammarians[18] give the same signification to the expressions ‘to find’ and ‘to occupy’; and all Latinity applies the phrase ‘we have found’ only to the thing which ‘we have seized’; and the opposite of this is ‘to lose’. However, natural reason itself, the precise words of the law, and the interpretation of the more learned men[19] all show clearly that the act of discovery is sufficient to give a clear title of sovereignty only when it is accompanied by actual possession. And this only applies of course to movables or to such immovables as are actually inclosed within fixed bounds and guarded.[20] No such claim can be established in the present case, because the Portuguese maintain no garrisons in those regions. Neither can the Portuguese by any possible means claim to have discovered India, a country which was famous centuries and centuries ago! It was already known as early as the time of the emperor Augustus as the following quotation from Horace shows:
And have not the Romans described for us in the most exact way the greater part of Ceylon?[22] And as far as the other islands are concerned, not only the neighboring