Note 218 — Chapter VII

The famous bull of partition became the basis of the treaty of Tordesillas, by which the Castilian and Portuguese governments determined the boundary line of their respective discoveries; a line that secured the vast empire of Brazil to the latter, which from priority of occupation should have belonged to their rivals. See the “History of Ferdinand and Isabella,” Part I. chap. 18; Part II. chap. 9,—the closing pages of each.