WARLIKE WOMEN 467 



The accounts heard by Raleigh on the Orinoco, 

 in 1595, of a nation of female warriors existing on 

 the Amazon, seem to combine both the above- 

 specified sites. " I made inquiry," says he, "among 

 the most ancient and travelled of the Orinokoponi 

 [the Indian inhabitants of the Orinoco] respecting 

 the warlike women, and will relate what I was in- 

 formed of as truth about them, by a Cacique who 

 said he had been on that river [the Amazon], and 

 beyond it also. Their country is on the southside 

 of the river, in the province of Tobago [Topayos], 

 and their chief places are in the islands on the south 

 side of it, some 60 leagues from the mouth. They 

 accompany with men once in a year for a month, 

 which is in April. . . . Children born of these 

 alliances, if males, they send them to their fathers ; 

 if daughters, they take care of them and bring them 

 up," l etc. Another report he heard was that " there 

 is a province in Guyana called Cunun's, which is 

 governed by a woman ' -plainly a Cuiia-puyara. It 

 is to be noted that these reports were heard near 

 the mouth of the Orinoco, or some 2000 miles away 

 from the supposed country of the Amazons, from 

 Indians who had them from one another and not 

 from the Spaniards ; and that the Cumin's is for 

 the first time indicated by name in this relation of 

 Raleigh's. We. have the most complete account 

 of the river and district of Cunun's, and of the ex- 

 tant traditions respecting the Amazons, in Acuna's 

 description of his voyage clown the Amazon in 1639. 

 He mentions four nations who inhabit on the river 

 Cunun's, the Cunurfs (Indians) being nearest the 

 mouth, and the Guacaras the highest up ; while 



1 Caylcy's Life of K n, '</;/, \-\>. 1114-195. 



