Page:European treaties bearing on the history of the United States and its dependencies.djvu/22

 turning merchants. In order the more readily to obtain these favors, the applicant sometimes pointed out to the Pope how commerce tended to the spread of the Christian faith.

On January 8, 1455, doubtless in accordance with the request of King Alfonso, Nicholas V. issued the bull Romanus pontifex, which marks a definite stage in the colonial history of Portugal. By the bull Rex regum, January 5, 1443, Eugenius IV. had taken neutral ground in the dispute between Portugal and Castile concerning their rights in Africa; by the bull Dum diversas, June 18, 1452, Nicholas V. granted King Alfonso general and indefinite powers to search out and conquer all pagans, enslave them and appropriate their lands and goods. The bull Romanus pontifex, on the other hand, settled the dispute between Portugal and Castile in favor of the former, and, apparently for the first time, granted Portugal exclusive rights in a vast southerly region. It confirmed the bull Dum diversas, specified the district to which it applied--Ceuta, and the district from Capes Bojador and Não through all Guinea, and "beyond towards that southern shore"--and declared that this, together with all other lands acquired by Portugal from the infidels before or after 1452, belonged to King Alfonso, his successors, and Prince Henry, and to no others. It further declared that King Alfonso, his successors, and Prince Henry might make laws or impose restrictions and tribute in regard to these lands and seas, and that they and persons licensed by them might trade there with the infidels, except in the prohibited articles, but that no other Catholics should trade there or enter those seas or harbors under pain of excommunication or interdict.

A grant by Pope Nicholas V. dated Jan. 8, 1450, conceding to Alfonso V. all the territories which Henry had discovered, has been said to be preserved in the National Archives at Lisbon, Coll. de Bullas, maço 32, no. 1, or no. 10. ( Santarem, Prioridade, p. 26, and Azurara, Guinea, ed. Carreira and Santarem, 1841, p. 92, note 1; and, in Beazley and Prestage edition, II. 318, note 67). The editor looked up both these manuscripts and found that one is the executoria of the bull of Jan. 8, 1455 (see below, note 43), and that the other is a bull issued by Paul III. toward the middle of the following century.