In the Reign of King John the first, of Portugal, his Son, Prince Henry, [First Discoveries.] having employ'd several Persons on Discoveries, John Gonzales, and Tristan Vaz found the Island of Madera, in the Year 1419, and others soon after those of the Azores, and Cabo Verde, and ran along the Coast of Guinea and Africk. Afterwards, in the Reigns of King Edward, and Alonso the V. those Discoveries were continu'd, till under King John the II. they proceeded as far as the Cape of Good Hope, and a Hundred Leagues beyond it, along the Coast, call'd Rio del Infante. The honour of this Discovery is due to that famous Seaman Bartholomew Diaz, if we may believe the Manuscript Memoirs of Duarte Resende, for the Historian Barros. This rais'd Emulation in the Spanish Nation, already engag'd in such Voyages, as having Discover'd the Western Islands, call'd Antilles, or Caribbee Islands. This Discovery occasion'd a Controversy about the Right to them, Portugal pretending to, and Spain defending its Possession. After much Contention, the Difference was adjusted by Ruy de Sousa, and Don John his Son, and Arias de Almada, Commission'd by Portugal, who in the Year 1404. agreed with the Spanish Embassador, That, since this inferior Globe, consisting of Earth and Water, answers to the Degrees into which the Celestial Sphere is divided, it should be equally parted between the two Kings, by a Meridian Line drawn through the North and South Poles, and compassing the Land and Sea, so as to cut them into two halves. It was appointed, That the Share to the Eastward should belong to the Crown of Portugal, and the other to the Westward, to that of Castile; and that it should be so mark'd down on the Sea Charts; the Line passing through a fixt Point on the Earth, which was to be the Boundary of both Nations. This was by mutual Consent settled 360 Leagues West from Cabo Verde, and so the Line, or Meridian, fell upon the Country we call Brazil, about the most Westerly part of the Mouth of the River Maranhao, which disembogues there to the Northward. This Line cuts through that Country, and to the Southward runs off beyond the River of Plate, from whence the Spaniards begin to reckon their Degrees of Longitude Westward, and the Portugueses Eastward, 180 belonging to each of them, for as much as the whole Circumference of the Earth contains three hundred and sixty Degrees.