Note (return) — Chapter XIII · VOYAGE ROUND THE WORLD, BY COMMODORE ROGGEWEIN, is 1721-1723.1 (continued 2)

Of all the Asiatic islands, Ceylon is perhaps the fairest and most fertile. It lies to the S.E. of the peninsula of India on this side of the Ganges, between the latitudes of 5° 30' and 9° N. and between the longitudes of 79° 45' and 82° 12' E. so that it extends 70 marine leagues from N. to S. and 49 leagues from E. to W. It is so fertile and delicious, that many have believed it to have been the seat of the terrestrial paradise; and the natives certainly believe this, for they pretend to shew the tomb of Adam, and the print of his foot on the mountain named the Peak of Adam,1 one of the highest mountains in the world. On another mountain there is a salt-lake, which the inhabitants affirm was filled by the tears shed by Eve, while she wept incessantly an hundred years for the death of Abel.