sometimes replaced by “_El Almirante_.” The essay on the autograph in the _Cartas de Indias_ is translated in the _Magazine of American History_, Jan., 1883, p. 55. Cf. Irving, app. xxxv. Ruge, _Geschichte des Zeitalters der Entdeckungen_, p. 317; _Massachusetts Historical Society Proceedings_, xvi. 322, etc.] The expectation which had sustained Columbus in his voyage, and which he thought his discoveries had confirmed, was that he had reached the western parts of India or Asia; and the new islands were accordingly everywhere spoken of as the West Indies, or the New World. [Illustration: COLUMBUS AT HISPANIOLA. Fac-simile of engraving in Herrera, who follows DeBry.] [Illustration: HANDWRITING OF COLUMBUS. Last page of an autograph letter preserved in the Colombina Library at Seville, following a photograph in Harrisse’s _Notes on Columbus_, p. 218.] The ruling Pope, Alexander VI., was a native Valencian; and to him an appeal was now made for a Bull, confirming to Spain and Portugal respective fields for discovery. This was issued May 4, 1493, fixing a line, on the thither side of which Spain was to be master; and on the hither side, Portugal. This was traced at a meridian one hundred leagues west of the Azores and Cape de Verde Islands, which were assumed to be in the same longitude practically. The thought of future complications from the running of this line to the antipodes does not seem to have alarmed either Pope or sovereigns; but troubles on the Atlantic side were soon to arise, to be promptly compounded by a convention at Tordesillas, which agreed (June 4, ratified June 7, 1494) to move the meridian line to a point three hundred and seventy leagues west of the Cape de Verde Islands,—still without dream of the destined disputes respecting divisions on the other side of the globe.[70] [Illustration: ARMS OF COLUMBUS. As given in Oviedo’s _Coronica_, 1547, fol. x., from the Harvard College copy. There is no wholly satisfactory statement regarding the origin of these arms, or the Admiral’s right to bear them. It is the quartering of the royal lion and castle, for Arragon and Castile, with gold islands in azure waves. Five anchors and the motto, “A [_or_ POR] CASTILLA Y A [_or_ POR] LEON NUEVO MUNDO DIO [_or_ HALLO] COLON,” were later given or assumed. The crest varies in the Oviedo (i. cap. vii.) of 1535.] Thus everything favored Columbus in the preparations for a second voyage, which was to conduct a colony to the newly discovered lands. Twelve hundred souls were embarked on seventeen vessels, and among them persons of consideration and name in subsequent history,—Diego, the Admiral’s brother, Bernal Diaz del Castillo, Ojeda, and La Cosa, with the Pope’s own vicar, a Benedictine named Buil, or Boil. [Illustration: FRUIT-TREES OF HISPANIOLA. This is Benzoni’s sketch, edition of 1572, p. 60.]