ceremonial by singing the "Te Deum." Afterwards men walked home grave and
yet happy, having seen the symbol of a great work, something to be thought
over for many a generation. Other marks of approbation for Columbus were
not wanting. The agreement between him and the sovereigns was confirmed.
An appropriate coat of arms, then a thing of much significance, was
granted to him in augmentation of his own. In the shield are conspicuously
emblazoned the Royal Arms of Castile and Leon. Nothing can better serve to
show the immense favour which Columbus had obtained at court by his
discovery than such a grant; and it is but a trifling addition to make,
in recounting his now honours, that the title of Don was given to him and
his descendants, and also to his brothers. He rode by the king's side; was
served at table as a grandee; "All hail!" was said to him on state
occasions; and the men of his age, happy in that, had found out another
great man to honour.


GRANT BY THE POPE.

The more prosaic part of the business had then to be attended to. The
Sovereigns applied to the Pope Alexander the Sixth, to confer on the
crowns of Castile and Leon the lands discovered and to be discovered in
the Indies. To this application they soon received a favourable answer.
The Pope granted to the Princes of Castile and Leon, and to their
successors, the sovereign empire and principality of the Indies, and of
the navigation there, with high and royal jurisdiction and imperial
dignity and lordship over all that hemisphere. To preserve the peace
between Spain and Portugal, the Pontiff divided the Spanish and Portuguese
Indian sovereignties by an imaginary line drawn from pole to pole, one
hundred leagues west of the Azores and the Cape de Verde Islands.