purpose to take possession of the new discovered lands.  To counteract this hostile indication, Fonseca was instructed to provide the fleet of Columbus with ample means of offence or defence, and to hasten its departure.  Their majesties likewise sent Lope de Herrera, a gentleman of their court, as envoy to Lisbon, with instructions to return their thanks to the king of Portugal for his courtesy to the admiral, when at Lisbon, and to require him to forbid his subjects from going to any of the newly discovered islands and continents, which were their undoubted property.  Herrera was instructed to represent the extraordinary care which their Catholic majesties had taken, in charging the admiral not to touch at the gold mines of Guinea, or at any other of the Portuguese discoveries.  When Ruy de Sande had delivered his embassy, as above, he desired leave to export certain articles, needed as he said, for an expedition which the king of Portugal intended against the Moors, which he gave out as a cover for the intended voyage of discovery to the west.  He likewise demanded that the Spaniards should be restrained from fishing off Cape Bojador until it were settled amicably between the two crowns whether that were lawful.

As Lope de Herrera had set out for Portugal before Ruy de Sande had reached the Spanish court; King John, on learning the purport of his embassy, sent Edward Galvan to give him notice of the commission entrusted to Sande, respecting the discoveries of Columbus; and, without permitting Herrera to use his credentials, gave assurance that the king of Portugal would send no ships on discovery for sixty days[6], as he meant to send an embassy to their Catholic majesties on that particular subject.  While this dispute was in agitation, the king of Portugal complained to the pope that their Catholic majesties interfered with his discoveries and privileges, protesting against the bulls, as trenching upon his limits, and requiring a different line of demarcation to prevent the troubles which might ensue between the subjects of the two crowns.  The pope answered, that he had ordered a meridianal line from pole to pole on purpose to mark out what belonged to each of the sovereigns; and again issued another bull on the 26th of September of the same year, in which he granted to the kings of Spain all that should be discovered and conquered in the islands to the east, west, and south, not already possessed by any other Christian prince.  This gave much dissatisfaction to the court of Portugal, which alleged that it was wronged by the pope, and the meridian of separation ought to be drawn much farther westwards[7].

About this time, advice was brought of Martin Alonso Pinzon having arrived with the caravel Pinta in one of the ports of Galicia, after escaping with much difficulty from several dreadful storms.  He died soon after; and some say it was of grief, for a reprimand he received from court for his disobedience to the admiral, and deserting him during the voyage; and because their majesties refused to see him, unless introduced by Columbus.