of which they claimed America, and contended for the exclusion of the Spaniards from the Western ocean. This controversy was decided by the pope who, on the seventh of May 1493, out of his own "mere liberality and certain knowledge, and the plenitude of apostolic authority," granted to Spain the countries discovered, or to be discovered, by her, to the westward of a line to be drawn from pole to pole a hundred leagues west of the Azores; (excepting such countries as might be in the possession of any other christian prince, antecedent to the year 1493) and to Portugal her discoveries to the eastward of that boundary.
Much respect was at that period paid to this decision and grant of the pope. Its sanctity, however, was, most probably considerably increased, in the opinion of Henry, by his particular situation. He set a high value on the friendship of the king of Spain, and was then actually negotiating with him, the marriage which afterwards took place between his eldest son and the princess Catharine, daughter of that monarch. Ferdinand was jealous to excess of all his rights, and Henry was not inclined to interrupt the harmony subsisting between them, by asserting claims to the countries discovered by Cabot, which were obviously within the limits to which the pretensions of Spain extended. In addition to this consideration, the state of his own kingdom restrained this cau-
