472 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 



originally a community of Vestals, who, having fled 

 in a body from their nunnery, carrying with them 

 their ornaments of gold and green stones, estab- 

 lished themselves in the forests of the plain ? Or 

 they may have accompanied one of those emigra- 

 tions, led by chieftains who had revolted from the 

 rule of the Inca, of which we read in the early 

 historians. In either case they were probably at 

 first respected by neighbouring savage tribes as a 

 religious community ; and they would gradually 

 learn the use of the bow and other weapons, more 

 as implements of the chase than of offence and 

 defence ; for we do not read that they were ever 

 assaulted by other Indians. I put forward this as 

 mere conjecture, my object in what precedes having 

 been principally to vindicate the earlier travellers 

 and historians, Spanish and English, from the 

 charges of gross credulity, or even wilful falsehood, 

 which have been wantonly brought against them. 

 Is it to be wondered at that unlettered, or at best 

 imperfectly educated, adventurers should have be- 

 lieved, and repeated as true, nearly every report 

 they heard, when we find a man of so philosophic 

 a turn of mind as Raleigh telling the most extra- 

 vagant tales just as they were told to him, no 

 doubt, and not adding anything thereto, yet evi- 

 dently believing them himself in the main ? 



No one has declared his convictions of the exist- 

 ence of a nation of Amazons more forcibly and 

 eloquently than Acuna, and, without endorsing them 

 fully myself, I close this long digression with his 

 own words, recommending them to the candid 

 consideration of my readers: 



"The proofs that give assurance that there is a 



