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.
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