Hitherto I had held no communication with any of the people of this country, although I very earnestly desired it. I therefore sailed along the coast westwards; and, the farther I advanced, the fresher and more wholesome I found the water; and, when I had proceeded a considerable distance, I reached a spot where the land appeared to be cultivated.... I then anchored at the mouth of a river; and we were soon visited by a great number of the inhabitants, who informed us that the country was called Paria, and that farther westward it was more fully peopled. I took four of these natives, and proceeded on my westward voyage; and, when I had gone eight leagues farther, I found on the other side of a point, which I called the Needle,[58] one of the most lovely countries in the world, and very thickly peopled. It was three o’clock in the morning when I reached it; and, seeing its verdure and beauty, I resolved to anchor there, and communicate with the inhabitants. Some of the natives came out to the ship in canoes, to beg me, in the name of their king, to go on shore. And, when they saw that I paid no attention to them, they came to the ship in their canoes in countless number; many of them wearing pieces of gold on their breasts, and some with bracelets of pearl on their arms. V.――COLUMBUS THINKS HIMSELF NEAR THE EARTHLY PARADISE. [From the same narrative. It was generally believed, in the time of Columbus, that the Garden of Eden, or earthly paradise, still existed somewhere on the globe. Irving’s Columbus (appendix) gives an account of these views.]