2. In attempting to find a new way to Asia, the Portuguese then began to explore the west coast of Africa.
3. When at last they got well down the African coast it was thought that such a route was too long.
4. Columbus (1492) then attempted to find a shorter way to Asia by sailing westward across the Atlantic Ocean, and landed on some islands which he supposed to be the East Indies.
5. The explorations of men who followed Columbus proved that a new continent had been discovered and that it blocked the way to India.
6. The attempts to find a southwest passage or a northwest passage through our continent led to the exploration of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts.
7. The new world was called America, after the explorer Americus.
8. The voyage of Magellan proved that the earth is round.
CHAPTER II
THE SPANIARDS IN THE UNITED STATES
%11. The Spaniards explore the Southwest.%—Now it must be noticed that up to 1513 no European had explored the interior of either North or South America. They had merely touched the shores. In 1513 the work of exploration began. Balboa then crossed the Isthmus of Panama. In 1519 Cortes (cor'-tez) landed on the coast of Mexico with a body of men, and marched boldly into the heart of the country to the city where lived the great Indian chief or king, Montezuma. Cortes took the city and made himself master of Mexico. This was most important; for the conquest of Mexico turned the attention of the Spaniards from our country for many years, and finally led to the exploration of the Southwest. But the first explorers of what is now the United States came from Cuba in 1528.