NO. 4 THE ORDAZ AND DORTAL EXPEDITIONS SCHULLER 7 



vna cam panilla E otras cosas E vn jarro de estano " (" Here they 

 killed Alonso de Herrera, lieutenant of Governor Dortal ; and to this 

 place came afterwards the said Dortal and found true marks of the 

 death of the aforesaid Herrera ; and there were found among other 

 things, a little bell and a tin-cup ") .* 



This legend, of course, refers, as will be shown later, to two 

 chronologically distinct expeditions into the interior of the country. 



In 1536, about a year after Herrera's death, Governor Dortal 

 organized a second exploring expedition, 2 in the course of which he 

 discovered the domain of the female cacique Orocomay, an inde- 

 pendent community of Indian women, similar to those described by 

 Father Caspar de Carvaxal in the narrative of the discovery of the 

 River Amazonas by Francisco de Orellana in I542. 3 



This social phenomenon, not always correctly interpreted by 

 writers, 4 has not yet been observed in South America, but in the 

 " Kulturkreis " of the Carib-aruaque. 



The domain of Queen Orocomay is located on Oviedo's map 

 between the Huyapari and the Barrancas, an affluent of the Carra- 

 naca River, and is given the following legend: " P[or] aqui Estan 

 los pueblo [s] E senorio de la Reyna ( !) orocomay la qual no se 

 sirue 5 sino de mugeres " (" Here are the villages and domain of 

 Queen Orocomay, who employs only females"). 6 



During this voyage Dortal had to contend with a mutiny led by 

 Alderete and Aguilar, two of his officers ; and he was finally com- 

 pelled to return to the coast, where a new danger threatened him. 7 



1 Oviedo, loc. cit. 



2 " Y segund el mismo Hieronimo Dortal me dixo . . . ." '(" .... and 

 according to what I was told by H. Dortal himself . . . ."), loc. cit; cap. X, 

 p. 247 a . 



3 " Descubrimiento del Rio de las Amazonas, segun la relacion hasta ahora 

 inedita," etc., de Fray Caspar de Carbajal. Sevilla, MDCCCXCIV, pp. 66-67. 



[ " Zur siidamerikanischen Amazonensage." Von Dr. R. Lasch ; in " Mitteil. 

 der K. u. K. Geogr. Gesellsch. in Wien." 190, pp. 278-289. Dr. G. Friederici 

 " Die Amazonen Amerikas." Leipzig, 1910. 



5 The verb has in this combination a double meaning. 



6 Oviedo, II, libro XXIV, cap. X, p. 247". 



7 El mismo ano [i5J36, venido Ortal a quejarse de los suyos que se le 

 alzaron, e de 170 leguas tierra adentro le mandaron con los oficiales Reales 

 a la costa de la mar . . . ." ("The same year, 1536, Ortal came to complain 

 about his men who had revolted against him and obliged him, together with 

 the Royal officers, to return 170 leagues from inland to the coast") ; cf. "A 

 la Sacra Real Magestad del Emperador nuestro Sefior, los oidores de su Real 

 Audiencia de Santo Domingo a 31 de Diciembre de 1538," in " Coleccion de 

 Docs. Ineditos." Tomo I. Madrid, 1864, p. 553. * 



