Ptolemy and the other geographers believed that the world was spherical and that the other hemisphere was as round as the one in which they lived, its centre lying on the island of Arin, which is below the Equator between the Arabian and Persian gulfs; and that the boundary passes over Cape St. Vincent in Portugal to the west, and eastward to China and the Seres. I do not in the least question the roundness of that hemisphere, but I affirm that the other hemisphere resembles the half of a round pear with a raised stalk, as I have said, like a woman's nipple on a round ball.
-Christopher Columbus
October 14, 1492
related: reconquista 84627
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2 comments:
"… There can be no mistake in this because I took the readings on a quadrant."
maybe he was using one of those gag pear-shaped quadrants. sucker.
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