WARLIKE WOMEN 473 



province of the Amazons on the banks of this 

 river are so strong and convincing that it would 

 be renouncing moral certainty to scruple giving 

 credit to it. I do not build upon the solemn ex- 

 aminations of the sovereign court of Quito, in 

 which many witnesses were heard, who were born 

 in these parts and lived there a long time, and who, 

 of all matters relating to the countries bordering 

 on Peru, as one of the principal, particularly affirmed 

 that one of the provinces near the Amazon is 

 peopled with a sort of warlike women, who live 

 together and maintain their company alone, with- 

 out the company of men ; but at certain seasons 

 of the year seek their society to perpetuate their 

 race. Nor will I insist on other information, ob- 

 tained in the new kingdom of Grenada, in the royal 

 city of Pasto, where several Indians were examined ; 

 but I cannot conceal what I have heard with my 

 own ears, and concerning the truth of which I have 

 been making inquiries from my first embarking on 

 the Amazon ; and am compelled to say that I have 

 been informed at all the Indian towns in which I 

 have been, that there are such women in the 

 country, and every one gave me an account of 

 them by marks so exactly agreeing with that which 

 I received from others, that it must needs be that 

 the greatest falsehood in the world passes through 

 all America for one of the most certain histories." 1 



1 I'oyages and Discoveries in South Aiiu)-i.,t, liy Christopher <]' Acu^na, 

 London, 1698. 



