derstood that the earth is a
round body, but saw no necessity for its being strictly spherical or
spheroidal. He now suggested that it was probably shaped like a pear,
rather a blunt and corpulent pear, nearly spherical in its lower part,
but with a short, stubby apex in the equatorial region somewhere beyond
the point which he had just reached. He fancied he had been sailing up a
gentle slope from the burning glassy sea where his ships had been
becalmed to this strange and beautiful coast where he found the climate
enchanting. If he were to follow up the mighty river just now revealed,
it might lead him to the summit of this apex of the world, the place
where the terrestrial paradise, the Garden which the Lord planted
eastward in Eden, was in all probability situated![597]

[Footnote 597: Thus would be explained the astounding force
with which the water was poured down. It was common in the
Middle Ages to imagine the terrestrial paradise at the top of a
mountain. See Dante, _Purgatorio_, canto xxviii. Columbus
quotes many authorities in favour of his opinion. The whole
letter is worth reading. See Navarrete, tom. i. pp. 242-264.]

[Sidenote: Relation of the "Eden continent" to "Cochin China."]

As Columbus still held to the opinion that by keeping to the west from
that point he should soon reach the coast of Cochin China, his
conception of the position of Eden is thus pretty clearly indicated. He
imagined it as situated about on the equator, upon a continental mass
till then unknown, but evidently closely connected with the continent of
Asia if not a part of it. If he had lived long enough to hear of Quito
and its immense elevation, I should suppose that might very well have
suited his idea of the position of Eden. The coast of this continent,
upon which he had now arrived, was either continuous with the coast of
Cochin China (Cuba) and Malacca, or would be found to be divided from it
by a strait through which one might pass directly into the Indian ocean.

[Sidenote: The Pearl Coast.]

[Sidenote: Arrival at San Domingo.]

It took some little time for this theory to come to maturity in the mind
of Columbus. Not expecting to find any mainland in that quarter, he
began by calling different points of the coast different islands. Coming
out through the passage which he named Dragon's Mouth, he caught distant
glimpses of Tobago and Grenada to starboard, and turning