of the heavens turns. To realise this easily,
it is only necessary to look through a small hole at the pole star
itself, when the stars are rising. If one then looks through the same
aperture at the same star when dawn is paling the stars, it will be
seen that it has changed its place; but how can it be in this newly
discovered country that the star rises at the beginning of twilight in
the month of June to a height of only five degrees above the horizon,
and when the stars are disappearing before the sunrise, it should be
found by the same observer to be in the fifteenth degree? I do not at
all understand it, and I must confess the reasons the Admiral gives
by no means satisfy me. Indeed, according to his conjectures, the
terrestrial globe is not an absolute sphere, but had at the time of
its creation a sort of elevation rising on its convex side, so that
instead of resembling a ball or an apple, it was more like a pear, and
Paria would be precisely that elevated part, nearest to the sky.
He has also persisted in affirming that the earthly paradise[8] is
situated on the summit of those three mountains, which the watcher
from the height of the crow's nest observed in the distance, as I have
recounted. As for the impetuous current of fresh water which rushed
against the tide of the sea at the beginning of that strait, he
maintains that it is formed of waters which fall in cascades from the
heights of these mountains. But we have had enough of these things
which to me seem fabulous. Let us return to our narrative.

[Note 8: Speaking of the earthly paradise, Columbus describes it
as _adonde ne puede llegar nadie, sabro par voluntad divina_. Vespucci
it was who thought it would be found in the New World; _se nel mondo e
alcun paradiso terrestre_.]

Seeing his course across that vast gulf had, contrary to his
expectation, been arrested, and fearing to find no exit towards the
north through which he might reach Hispaniola, the Admiral retraced
his course and sailing north of that country he bent towards the east
in the direction of Hispaniola.

Those navigators who later explored this region more carefully believe
that it is the Indian continent, and not Cuba, as the Admiral thought;
and there are not wanting mariners who pretend that they have sailed
all round Cuba. Whether they are right or whether they seek to gratify
their jealousy of the author of a great discovery, I am not bound to
decide.[9] Time will decide, and