references are so
ungallant, and so incorrect, as to give all the credit to
Ferdinand, while poor Isabella is not mentioned!]

[Footnote 541: Harrisse, _op. cit._; _Additions_, p. 45.]

[Footnote 542: Harrisse, _Jean et Sebastien Cabot_, Paris,
1882, p. 15.]

[Sidenote: Portuguese claim to the Indies.]

North of the Alps and Pyrenees the interest in what was going on at the
Spanish court in 1493 was probably confined to very few people. As for
Venice and Genoa we have no adequate means of knowing how they felt
about the matter,--a fact which in itself is significant. The interest
was centred in Spain and Portugal. There it was intense and awakened
fierce heart-burnings. Though John II. had not given his consent to the
proposal for murdering Columbus, he appears to have seriously
entertained the thought of sending a small fleet across the Atlantic as
soon as possible, to take possession of some point in Cathay or Cipango
and then dispute the claims of the Spaniards.[543] Such a summary
proceeding might perhaps be defended on the ground that the grant from
Pope Eugenius V. to the crown of Portugal expressly included "the
Indies." In the treaty of 1479, moreover, Spain had promised not to
interfere with the discoveries and possessions of the Portuguese.

[Footnote 543: Vasconcellos, _Vida del Rey Don Juan II._,
Madrid, 1639, lib. vi.]

[Sidenote: Bulls of Pope Alexander VI.]

But whatever King John may have intended, Ferdinand and Isabella were
too quick for him. No sooner had Columbus arrived at Barcelona than an
embassy was despatched to Rome, asking for a grant of the Indies just
discovered by that navigator in the service of Castile. The notorious
Rodrigo Borgia, who had lately been placed in the apostolic chair as
Alexander VI., was a native of Valencia in the kingdom of Aragon, and
would not be likely to refuse such a request through any excess of
regard for Portugal. As between the two rival powers the pontiff's
arrangement was made in a spirit of even-handed justice. On the 3d of
May, 1493, he issued a bull conferring upon the Spanish sovereigns all
lands already discovered or thereafter to be discovered in the western
ocean, with jurisdiction and privileges in all respects similar to those
formerly bestowed upon the crown of Portugal. This grant was made by the
pope "out of our pure liberality, certain knowledge, and plenitude of
apostolic pow