That, Being Informed
Their Majesties Meant To Prosecute Discoveries Due West From The Canary
Islands, Without Turning To The Southwards;
The king of Portugal required
their majesties would direct their admiral not to pass these bounds to the
south, and
He should enjoin his commanders not to go beyond the same
bounds to the north. Before the arrival of Ruy de Sande, a report had
reached court that the king of Portugal proposed to send a fleet the same
way with the Spaniards, on purpose to take possession of the new
discovered lands. To counteract this hostile indication, Fonseca was
instructed to provide the fleet of Columbus with ample means of offence or
defence, and to hasten its departure. Their majesties likewise sent Lope
de Herrera, a gentleman of their court, as envoy to Lisbon, with
instructions to return their thanks to the king of Portugal for his
courtesy to the admiral, when at Lisbon, and to require him to forbid his
subjects from going to any of the newly discovered islands and continents,
which were their undoubted property. Herrera was instructed to represent
the extraordinary care which their Catholic majesties had taken, in
charging the admiral not to touch at the gold mines of Guinea, or at any
other of the Portuguese discoveries. When Ruy de Sande had delivered his
embassy, as above, he desired leave to export certain articles, needed as
he said, for an expedition which the king of Portugal intended against the
Moors, which he gave out as a cover for the intended voyage of discovery
to the west. He likewise demanded that the Spaniards should be restrained
from fishing off Cape Bojador until it were settled amicably between the
two crowns whether that were lawful.
As Lope de Herrera had set out for Portugal before Ruy de Sande had
reached the Spanish court; King John, on learning the purport of his
embassy, sent Edward Galvan to give him notice of the commission entrusted
to Sande, respecting the discoveries of Columbus; and, without permitting
Herrera to use his credentials, gave assurance that the king of Portugal
would send no ships on discovery for sixty days[6], as he meant to send an
embassy to their Catholic majesties on that particular subject. While this
dispute was in agitation, the king of Portugal complained to the pope that
their Catholic majesties interfered with his discoveries and privileges,
protesting against the bulls, as trenching upon his limits, and requiring
a different line of demarcation to prevent the troubles which might ensue
between the subjects of the two crowns. The pope answered, that he had
ordered a meridianal line from pole to pole on purpose to mark out what
belonged to each of the sovereigns; and again issued another bull on the
26th of September of the same year, in which he granted to the kings of
Spain all that should be discovered and conquered in the islands to the
east, west, and south, not already possessed by any other Christian
prince.
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