182 RETURN OF COLUMBUS. PART by important consequences to the Portuguese, who derived from it their pretensions to the noble em- pire of Brazil. ^^ Thus this singular misunderstanding, which men- aced an open rupture at one time, was happily adjusted. Fortunately, the accomplishment of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope, which occurred soon afterwards, led the Portuguese in an opposite direction to their Spanish rivals, their Brazilian possessions having too little attractions, at first, to turn them from the splendid path of discovery thrown open in the east. It was not many years, however, before the two nations, by pursuing opposite routes of circumnavigation, were brought into collision on the other side of the globe ; a circumstance never contemplated, appar- ently, by the treaty of Tordesillas. Their mutual pretensions were founded, however, on the provis- ions of that treaty, which, as the reader is aware, was itself only supplementary to the original bull of demarcation of Alexander the Sixth. ^^ Thus this bold stretch of papal authority, so often ridicul- ed as chimerical and absurd, was in a measure 28 Navarrete, Coleccion de Via- more than one congress, in which ges, Doc. Diplom.,no. 75. — Faria all the cosmographical science of y Sousa, Europa Portuguesa, torn, the day was put in requisition, the ii. p. 463. — Herrera, Indias Occi- affair was terminated a Vainiabh dentales, dec. 1, lib. 2, cap. 8, 10. by the Spanish government's re — Mariana, Hist, de Espaila, torn, linquishing its pretensions, in con ii. pp. 606, 607. — LaClede, Hist, sideration of 350,000 ducats, paid de Portugal, torn. iv. pp. 60-62, by the court of Lisbon. See La Zurita, Anales, tom. v. fol. 31. Cl^de, Hist, de Portugal, tom. iv. 29 The contested territory yas pp. 309, 401, 402, 480. — Mariana, the Molucca islands, which each Hist, de Espaila, tom. ii. pp. 607, party claimed for itself, by virtue 875. — Salazar de Mendoza, Mo- of the treaty of Tordesillas. After narquia, tom. ii. pp. 205, 206.
