320 A BRIEF SURVEY OF HUMAN HISTORY

pioneers claimed a monopoly of exploitation of the new lands
discovered by them, the reactions of which we shall describe
in a later chapter. A Papal Bull confirmed their respective
claims in 1493 : an imaginary line was drawn by Pope
Alexander VI through the Atlantic, 300 miles west of the
Azores and Cape Verde Islands, the East being the share
of the Portuguese and the! Wast of the Spaniards. The
Demarcation Line was shifted in 1494, 800 miles farther
to the west, so that, in 1500, when Brazil was discovered by
the Portuguese it was found to lie within their purview.

Here we must digress a little to note the conditions of
civilisation in the new continent. Mexico and Peru were
conquered respectively by Cortez and Pizarro in 1519-21 and
1531-32, They were both adventurers who were prone to
practise every type of villainy, " ignorant, fanatical, lustful
of blood and gold," as Professor Hearnshaw has described
them. Mexico and Peru were both seats of an ancient civili-
sation "which seems to have had many affinities with the
so-called ' hdiolithic' civilisation which prevailed in the Medi-
terranean world some thousand years B.C. " The opportunity,
writes Professor Hearnshaw, .was unique to gain an insight
into ideas and institutions widely divergent from those of
Christendom, but it was forever lost; for the savage in-
vaders thought only to plunder, slay and destroy.1 One
incident may be cited for illustration. Through treachery
Pizarro made Atahualpa, the Inca leader, captive, and de-
manded for his ransom a room full of gold ' as high as he
could reach.' The demand was fulfilled, but not the pro-
mise. Pizarro took both Atahualpa's gold and life. The
Incas oŁ Peru were far advanced in civilisation. The great
cities of their empire were filled with splendid palaces and

1. A First Book of World History, p. 149.