This Gave Much Dissatisfaction To The Court Of Portugal, Which
Alleged That It Was Wronged By The Pope, And The Meridian Of Separation
Ought To Be Drawn Much Farther Westwards[7].
About this time, advice was brought of Martin Alonso Pinzon having arrived
with the caravel Pinta in one of the ports of Galicia, after escaping with
much difficulty from several dreadful storms.
He died soon after; and some
say it was of grief, for a reprimand he received from court for his
disobedience to the admiral, and deserting him during the voyage; and
because their majesties refused to see him, unless introduced by Columbus.
After the sixty days assigned by the king of Portugal were elapsed[8],
their Catholic majesties sent Garcia de Herrera, one of the gentlemen of
their household, to require the court of Portugal to refrain from
encroaching on the limits granted by the Pope to the crown of Castile and
Leon. Their majesties afterwards sent Don Pedro de Ayala and Garcia Lopez
de Carvajal, to say that they were willing to admit all honourable means
of continuing in friendship with the king of Portugal, but they were
satisfied nothing belonged to his crown in the ocean, except Madeira, the
Azores, and the Cape Verde islands, as far as Guinea and the gold mines.
They even offered to submit the difference between the crowns on this
subject to the decision of persons nominated on both sides, with power to
the arbitrators to name an umpire, if they could not agree, or to have the
matter at issue debated at the court of Rome or any other neutral place,
as their majesties had no wish to invade the rights of others, or to
permit the infringement of their own. The Portuguese court proposed to
divide the ocean by a straight line, or parallel drawn west from the
Canaries, leaving all to the north of that line to the crown of Castile
and Leon, and all to the south to belong to Portugal. At length, after
tedious negotiations, a congress took place at Tordesillas, in which,
after long debates, it was agreed on the 7th June 1473[9], that the
meridianal line of division should be established 370 leagues farther west
than that mentioned in the Popes bull from the islands of Cabo Verde;
all to the west of which was to belong to Spain, and all eastwards to
Portugal; yet leaving it lawful to the subjects of Spain to sail through
the seas thus allotted to Portugal, following their direct course; but
neither party to trade or barter beyond their own limits.
Before leaving Barcelona, the admiral placed his sons Don James and Don
Ferdinand as pages in the service of prince John; and having received his
commission of admiral and viceroy, extending as large as the papal grant,
he repaired to Seville to expedite his second voyage to the new world. He
here applied himself to procure able pilots, and to review the men who
were to embark in the expedition, in the presence of the controller
Soria.
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