CHAP. V I I I . ]
CHRISTOPHER
COLUMBUS.
thought to be clearly and permanently defined.
281
This was an
ideal line drawn from the north to the south pole, a hundred leagues to the west of the Azores, and the Cape de Verd islands. All land discovered by the Spanish navigators to the west of this line, and which had not been taken possession of by any Chris tian power before the preceding Christmas, was to belong to the Spanish crown ; all land discovered in the contrary direction, was to belong to Portugal.
It seems never to have occurred to the
pontiff, that, by pushing their opposite careers of discovery, they might some day or other come again in collision, and renew the question of territorial right at the antipodes. In the meantime, without waiting for the sanction of the court of Rome, the utmost exertions were made by the sovereigns to fit out a second expedition.
T o insure regularity and dispatch in
the affairs relative to the New World, they were placed under the superintendence of Juan Rodriguez de Fonseca, archdeacon of Seville, who was successively promoted to the sees of Bajadoz, Palencia, and Burgos, and finally appointed patriarch of the Indies.
He was a man of family and influence; his brothers
Alonzo and Antonio were seniors, or lords, of Coca and Alaejos, and the latter was comptroller-general of Castile.
Juan Rodri
guez de Fonseca is represented by Las Casas as a worldly man, more calculated for temporal than spiritual concerns, and well adapted to the bustling occupation of fitting out and manning armadas.
Notwithstanding the high ecclesiastical dignities to
which he rose, his worldly employments seem never to have been considered incompatible with his sacred functions.
Enjoy
ing the perpetual, though unmerited, favor of the sovereigns, he maintained the control of Indian affairs for about thirty years. He must undoubtedly have possessed talents for business, to