WARLIKE WOMEN 459 



and travellers who were so unfortunate as to be 

 detained there during one of these fights were glad 

 to keep themselves shut up until the stony storm 

 had abated ; and with reason, for there had been two 

 instances, within a few years, of a white man being 

 barbarously murdered by the Indians of Chasuta. 



There is, therefore, no necessity for supposing 

 that the Spaniards mistook men for women, either, 

 according to the Abbe Raynal, because they were 

 beardless, or, according to Wallace, because they 

 were long-haired; for (i) American savages are 

 generally beardless ; and (2) the Spaniards had 

 been for two whole years among Indians who wore 

 their hair long, as they clo to this day throughout 

 the forest of Canelos, the scene of Orellana's 

 wanderings with Gonzalo Pizarro ; nay, the prin- 

 cipal tribe among them, afterwards preached to by 

 the most famous of the Quito missionaries and 

 martyrs, F. Rafael Ferrer, were so notorious for the 

 length to which they allowed their hair to grow as 

 to have got the name of Encabellados. Moreover, 

 on the Amazon itself, at the village of the chief 

 Aparia, we read that "at this time four tall Indians 

 came to the captain, dressed and adorned with orna- 

 ments, and with their hair reaching down to the waist." 



As to the account given to Orellana by an Indian 

 whom he captured some way farther down the river, 

 about the whole country being subject to warlike 

 women who were very rich in "old and silver, and 



J O 



had five houses of the sun plated with gold, while 

 their own dwellings were of stone and their cities 

 were fortified, Orellana merely repeats it as it was 

 told to him, evidently, however, believing it himself; 

 nor ought we to accuse him of credulitv when we 



