=150. Belief that Asia could be reached by sailing westward.=—While the Portuguese were pushing on down the west coast of Africa in their search for a route to India, the minds of some men were occupied with the thought that the same object could be attained more easily by sailing directly west from Europe. The earth was known to be round and was thought to be smaller than it actually is. Asia was known to be bounded by a sea on the East. Why not reach India by sailing around the globe? Perhaps, they thought, the east coast of Asia was but a little way from the west coast of Europe or Africa. Skippers who ventured to the Azores, the Canaries, and other islands not far from Europe, brought back stories of foreign objects washed up on the beaches, or of land dimly descried on their voyages. The belief that land existed beyond the horizon was commonly held, and Columbus does not deserve the credit of originating the idea. Nor can his discovery of the New World in 1492 be regarded as one of those acts without which the history of the world would be very different. The Portuguese were certain to touch America sooner or later in circumnavigating Africa, for they planned to steer due south from Guinea to the latitude of the Cape, to avoid the calms and currents of the coast, and an equatorial current carried their ships westward. Under these conditions the Portuguese Cabral, on his way to India around the Cape, actually did land on the coast of what is now Brazil, in 1500. =151. Discovery of America (1492); partition of the world outside Europe between Spain and Portugal.=—Columbus, however, certainly deserves the fame which has been given him, for the courage he showed in turning theory into action; and the consequences of the discovery, however we apportion the credit for it, make it one of the turning-points in the world’s history. Europe was disappointed, it is true, in the hope that a shorter route to India had been found. Balboa proved by the discovery of the “South Sea,” or Pacific Ocean (1513), that the new land was a continent by itself, and the great distance between America and Asia became known by the voyage of Magellan around the earth (1519-1522), “doubtless the greatest feat of navigation that has ever been performed.” Time was needed to prove that America offered more than Asia to build up European commerce, and the full measure of its possibilities was not realized until the nineteenth century. At the time Portugal seemed to have gained more than Spain. The non-Christian world was divided between these two powers, by a papal decree, which gave to Portugal Africa and Asia (except the Philippines) and to Spain the Americas (except Brazil). So long as other European states obeyed papal authority and feared the might of Spain and Portugal, they were bound to respect this division; and the first period of discoveries was followed by a series of voyages, carried on especially by English and