ALSO IN _H. H. Bancroft, History of the Pacific States, volume 1, chapter 2._ _J. Winsor, Christopher Columbus, chapter 12-14._ AMERICA: A. D. 1494. The Treaty of Tordesillas. Amended Partition of the New World between Spain and Portugal. "When speaking or writing of the conquest of America, it is generally believed that the only title upon which were based the conquests of Spain and Portugal was the famous Papal Bull of partition of the Ocean, of 1493. Few modern authors take into consideration that this Bull was amended, upon the petition of the King of Portugal, by the [Treaty of Tordesillas], signed by both powers in 1494, augmenting the portion assigned to the Portuguese in the partition made between them of the Continent of America. The arc of meridian fixed by this treaty as a dividing line, which gave rise, owing to the ignorance of the age, to so many diplomatic congresses and interminable controversies, may now be traced by any student of elementary mathematics. This line ... runs along the meridian of 47° 32' 56" west of Greenwich. ... The name Brazil, or 'tierra del Brazil,' at that time [the middle of the 16th century] referred only to the part of the continent producing the dye wood so-called. Nearly two centuries later the Portuguese advanced toward the South, and the name Brazil then covered the new possessions they were acquiring." _L. L. Dominguez, Introduction to "The Conquest of the River Plate" (Hakluyt Society Publications. No. 81)._ AMERICA: A. D. 1497. Discovery of the North American Continent by John Cabot.