Charles Davis Nov 1, 2012:

Hi Berni Sorry to be a bit late here. This is a nautical metaphor. "Cabo" here means a rope on a ship. It's the fourth definition in the first RAE dictionary (1729), known as the Diccionario de Autoridades; "Voz nautica. La cuerda entéra, que sirve en los navios". On a sailing ship you pull the "cabos" to manoeuvre the ship, which is also called "halar" (now "jalar"): "Halar. Term. nautico. Tirar por los cabos en las maniobras".

So the image, I think, is that the Catalan-speaking nations had been like a fleet sailing together as a single unit, but now each ship was pulling separately.

Here's a similar expression from an old text which illustrates this, I think:
"Y es que como vieron los de la armada que su capitán era fallescido, cada uno tiró por su cabo"
http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?pid=s0716-54552005000100012&...

Simon Bruni Oct 31, 2012:

Strange I use Chrome and it works fine. The early eighteenth-century RAEs really are incredible works for their time - I've used them quite a bit for some Golden Age Inquisition texts I did and was astonished at their thoroughness and quality.

Berni Armstrong (asker) Oct 31, 2012:

Thanks for the confidence boosting :-) Thanks for all your helpful comments and especial thanks to Simon for the link (though it only worked in Explorer, it wouldn't open in Google Chrome). I'll wait 24 hours before grading, but I'm confident we have cracked it.

Davina Hepworth Oct 31, 2012:

I think you're right. I read it as saying that, with Castile and Aragon united, Catalonia and Valencia started to pull in their own (different) directions.

Peter Hall Oct 31, 2012:

I agree with you, Berni. I think it's something like "went their own ways". For some reason I keep thinking about two dogs on leads (no offence meant, should it give any).

Simon Bruni Oct 31, 2012:

'cabo' can mean 'place' In old Castilian, 'cabo' can mean 'place', which would kind of fit with your interpretation (as in they each went off to their own place). RAE's old dictionaries are available here: http://buscon.rae.es/ntlle/SrvltGUISalirNtlle

Check sense 2 in the oldest one available, from 1729.