Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 379 



on this head, leaving every one to give what degree 

 of credit he pleases to (he adventure of Oieilana, and 

 the actual existence of the Amnzons. 



Some who are firmly persuaded of the rruth of the 

 adventure of the Amazons with Orellana, and be- 

 lieve that their valour might be equal to that of the 

 men, in defence of their country and families, will 

 not hear of a female republic separated from the in- 

 tercourse of inen. They say, and not without suf- 

 ticicnt reason, that the women who so gallantly op- 

 posed Orellana were of the Yurimagua nation, at that 

 time the most powerful tribe inhabiting the banks of 

 the Maranon, and particularly ceiebrated for their 

 courage. It is, therefore, say they, very natural to 

 think, that the women should, in some degree, inherit 

 the general valour of their husbands, and join them in 

 opposing an invader, from whom they imagined they 

 had every thing to fear, which might inflame their 

 ardour; as likewise from an emulation of military 

 glory, of which there are undeniable irvstaiices in the 

 other parts of the Indies. 



The third and last name is that of the Orellana, 

 deservedly given to it in honour of Francisco de Orel- 

 lana, the first who sailed on it, surveyed a great part 

 of it, and had several encounters with the Indians 

 who lived in its islands or along its banks. Some 

 have been at a g'-eat deal of pains to assign certain 

 distances through its long course, and to appropriate 

 to each of these one of the three names. Thus they 

 call Orellana all that space from the part where this 

 ofncer sailed down in his armed ship till it joins the 

 Maranon. The name of Amazons begins at the in- 

 flux of another river, at the mouth of which Orellana 

 met with a stout resistance from the women or Ama- 

 zons; and this name reaches to the sea : and lastly, 

 the name of Maranon comprehends the river from its 

 source s cousiderable v/ay beyond the Pongo down- 

 wards 



