[Note to page 126.]

Colonel Fernando de los Rios says that the demarcation between the crowns of Castile and Portugal began at three hundred and seventy leagues to the west of the Cape Verde islands, whereas the Bull of Pope Alexander VI of 1493 drew the line at one hundred leagues (or 400 miles) to the west of the Cape Verde islands. The reason of this discrepancy is that, D. Joan II of Portugal had appealed against this bull, and had requested to have the line drawn more to the west, so that it should not interfere with the Portuguese settlements in Africa. The King of Portugal had sent ships with geographers to visit all the coast of Africa, if it Were possible; after this the King of Spain, desirous of peace, came in to this arrangement, and instructions were sent to the Portuguese and Spanish Ambassadors at Rome to draw up a new agreement before the Pope, with the consent of the King of Spain to the meridian of separation being placed 1,080 miles further west beyond the 400 miles at which it had been drawn. This was confirmed in the town of Tordesillas, on the 7th of June, 1494.