a decree confirming similar discoveries in the same direction. There
was at least one precedent for such action. A former pope had granted
to Portugal all the lands it might discover in Africa, south of
Cape Bojador, and the Spanish crown had assented by treaty to this
arrangement. Ferdinand and Isabella could now refer to this precedent,
in asking for a grant to them of their discoveries on the western side
of the Atlantic. The pope now reigning was Alexander II. He had not long
filled the papal chair. He was an ambitious and prudent sovereign--a
native of Spain--and, although he would gladly have pleased the king of
Portugal, he was quite unwilling to displease the Spanish sovereigns.
The Roman court received with respect the request made to them. The
pope expressed his joy at the hopes thrown out for the conversion of
the heathen, which the Spanish sovereigns had expressed, as Columbus had
always done. And so prompt were the Spanish requests, and so ready the
pope's answer, that as early as May 3, 1493, a papal bull was issued to
meet the wishes of Spain.

This bull determined for Spain and for Portugal, that all discoveries
made west of a meridian line one hundred leagues west of the Azores
should belong to Spain. All discoveries east of that line should belong
to Portugal. No reference was made to other maritime powers, and it does
not seem to have been supposed that other states had any rights in such
matters. The line thus arranged for the two nations was changed by their
own agreement, in 1494, for a north and south line three hundred and
fifty leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands. The difference between
the two lines was not supposed to be important.

The decision thus made was long respected. Under a mistaken impression
as to the longitude of the Philippine Islands in the East Indies, Spain
has held those islands, under this line of division, ever since their
discovery by Magellan. She considered herself entitled to all the
islands and lands between the meridian thus drawn in the Atlantic and
the similar meridian one hundred and eighty degrees away, on exactly the
other side of the world.

Under the same line of division, Portugal held, for three centuries and
more, Brazil, which projects so far eastward into the Atlantic as to
cross this line of division.

Fearful, all the time, that neither the pope's decree, nor any diplomacy
would prevent the king of Portugal from attempting to seize lands at the