378 A VOYAGE TO Book VÍ. 



Some have indeed doubted, whether the Maranon 

 and the Amazons were the same river -, and many 

 seem to be strongly persuaded, that they were really 

 ditierent. But this opinion proceeds only from the 

 river's not having been completely reconnoitred till 

 the close of the last century. 



This particular of the Amazons is confirmed by 

 all writers, who have given a succinct account of 

 the river, and Orellana's expedition : and though 

 this proof is abundantly suflicient, if not of its reality, 

 at least of its probability, it is additionally confirm- 

 ed by the tradition still subsisting among the natives, 

 which we may believe on the authority of one of 

 the most eminent geniu-es the province of Quito 

 ever produceds I mean Don Pedro Maldonado, who 

 was a native of the town of Riobamba, but lived at 

 Quito, and whose performances are vi'cll known in 

 the republic of letters. In 1743, this gentleman and 

 M. de la Condamine agreed to return to Europe in 

 company, by the way of the river Maranon ; and 

 among their other inquiries towards a complete know- 

 jcdge of it, and the countries through which it flows, 

 they did not forget the famous Amazons; and were 

 informed by some old Indians, that it was an un- 

 doubted truth, that there had formerly been several 

 communities of women, who formed a kind of re- 

 public, without adi:)itting any men into the govern- 

 ment : and that one of these female states still sub- 

 sisted; but had withdrawn from the banks of the river 

 to a considerable distance up the country ; adding, 

 that they had often seen some of these female war- 

 riors in their country. M. de la Condamine, in the 

 narrative of his voyage down this river, printed at 

 Paris in the year 1745, and who had all the rational 

 curiosity of his fellow-traveller Don Pedro Maldo- 

 nado, relates some of the facts told hira by the In- 

 dians, concerningthe Amazons whom they had seen, 

 Bui 1 ¿liali only here insert what h'r^torians have said 



oa 



