490 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



aiiu'iidt'd. Uut the Bull J) bears date Sept. 2Ô, aiid twenty days is too 

 short a time to cover the transmission of a letter twice over the extreme 

 lenofth of Spain and an application to Rome and the issue of a Bull based 

 upon it. Munoz, Herrera, Humboldt and other authorities of weight in- 

 cidontly notice tliis Bull without objecting to its authenticity, although 

 they had only the Sjianish translation, and Mr. Harrisse is well supported 

 in his belief, not only by their authority, but by internal evidence; for this 

 Bull D is in effect nothing hut such an interpretation or explication of the 

 Iiilrr cetera as woiiUl likely have resulted from the persistency of 

 the extravagant claims of Portugal. There is nothing in it to suggest 

 occasion for forgery. 



Without raising the question of the existence of an original Bull, we 

 venture to tliink that Mr. Harrisse attaches to it a meaning which it 

 will not ])ear ; l)ecause, if it had been intended to cancel any of the 

 rights granted to Portugal in ]irevious Bulls, that aspect would not have 

 failed to come to the surface in the negotiations which resulted in the 

 treaty of Tordesillas the following year, and, if Mr. TT'arrisse's contention 

 be right, it would have won the case for Spain without argument at the 

 Junta of Badajoz. but although the proceeding*: have been preserved 

 ivi great detail, this Bull was not alluded to. The Roman court could 

 not, without cause assigned, revoke a decision in a secular matter made 

 to a great Catholic power. No injustice was in fact done or attempted 

 to be done to Portugal, but Portugal was not allowed to strain the 

 meaning of the grants made to her so as to appropriate the discoveries 

 just made by Columbus for Sjmin. These discoveries were supposed by 

 all to be in the "Indies." The "West and East Indies had not then 

 been sei>arated in thought or name, nor was an intervening continent 

 then supposed to exist. The Portuguese claimed that their Bulls 

 covered the Indies, because their grant was "ad Indos," but they had 

 not then reached India by sea, though they had turned the Cape of 

 Good Hope. The Spaniards had found some part, no one knew what, 

 .>f the Indies, and the Bull' maintained them in their possession. In 

 reading these old charters one must incessantly guard against the am- 

 biguity of the word East, because the American continent being non- 

 existent in their thoughts, they constantly spoke of reaching the East 

 on a westward course. 



This Bull D, now under review, is su])])osed to bear date Sept. 

 2Ô, 1493. It commenced by saying that certain concessions had only 

 a short time before been made to Spain, referring to the Bulls B and C, 

 and then it confirmed them in all their clauses jus fully as if recited 

 word by word — the line of demarcation, therefore, was confirmed in 

 the most absolute manner. It stated thnt the grant had been miide for 



