The Free Sea

injury.
Dispute
of the
Spaniards,
principles
which
constantly
flourish,
these;
regarding
the whole
sea
where
the king's
possession
is
by right.

set no limit to their license, who think that which is bought with human blood is cheap, who defend injuries with injuries, and whose manifest crimes must necessarily be condemned by the consenting judgment of good men and not acquitted by the verdict of their own souls. To this double forum we also bring a new case: not, by Hercules, about rain-water drips or a projecting beam, such as are common among private individuals, and not even of that sort that is frequent among peoples—regarding the law of land on a boundary, or the possession of a river or island—but about nearly the entire ocean, about the right of navigation, and about the freedom of trade. These are the matters in dispute between us and the Spaniards: Does the immense and vast sea belong as an accession to a single kingdom, and not even the greatest? Does any people have the right to prohibit willing peoples from selling, buying, exchanging, or finally traveling between themselves? Could anyone give away what was never his, or claim what was already another's? Does a manifest long period of