IN SOUTH AMERICA. 



235 



An inhabitant of St. Joachim de Omaguas informed us that we fhould probably find 

 at Coari, an old man whofe father had feen thefe Amazons, but arriving there, we 

 found the individual alluded to was dead ; we however converfed with his fon, who 

 feemed to be feventy years of age, and who was the chief of his tribe in the village. 

 He affured us that his grandfather had in reality feen them pafs by at the entrance of 

 the Cuchiura river, that they came from the Cayame which falls into the Amazons 

 on the fouthern fide, between the Tefe and the Coari, and that he had fpoken with 

 four of them, one of whom had an infant at the breaft : he moreover told us the names 

 of each of them, and added that on leaving CuchiuraJ they croffed the Great River 

 and proceeded towards the Black River. I omit here feveral particulars related, un- 

 likely in themfelves, but -which at bottom were of little import. Below Coari, the 

 natives every where related to us the fame fa6ts, varied indeed by circumftances, but 

 which agreed in the main. 



The Topayos efpecially, of whom in their place more exprefs mention will be made, 

 as well as of certain green ftones called Amazons* ftones, relate that they inherit them 

 from their forefathers who obtained them from the Cougnantainfecouima, a word fig- 

 nifying in their language, women without hufbands, among whom as they fay they are 

 found in abundance. 



A native inhabitant of Mortigura, a miflionary fettlement in the vicinage of Para,. 

 offered to fhow me a river, by failing up which I might, he affured me, afcend to within 

 a fhort diftance of the country at this very time inhabited by Amazons. This river is 

 called Irijo, and fmce this converfation paffed I failed by its mouth, which is between 

 Macapa and the North Cape. According to this man, it is neceffary, in order to reach 

 the country inhabited by thefe Amazons, to travel for feveral fucceffive days weftward, 

 through woods, and crofs a mountainous country. 



An old foldier once belonging to the garrifon of Cayenne, but now fettled near the 

 falls of the river Oyapoc, affured me that being one of a detachment fent into the inte- 

 rior in 1726, for the purpofe of exploring the country, they had penetrated into a part 

 inhabited by the Amicouanes, a nation with long ears. The region inhabited by thefe 

 people lies beyond the fources of the Oyapoc, and in the neighbourhood of a river 

 which falls into the Amazons. Among this nation he noticed that their wives and daugh- 

 ters wore necklaces formed of the green ftones I have before mentioned, and enquiring 

 whence they procured them, he was anfwered from the women without hulbands, 

 whofe territories were feven or eight days journey further towards the weft. This 

 nation of Amicouanes inhabit an elevated country at a diftance from the fea, where 

 the rivers do not yet admit of navigation ; it follows therefore that little likelihood 

 exifts of this tradition having paffed hither from the inhabitants of the Amazons, with * 

 whom they have no intercourfe, the Amicouanes knowing of no other nations but 

 thofe their immediate neighbours, from among whom the Frenchmen belonging to the 

 detachment feleded their guides and interpreters. 



It is neceffary to obferve, that not only the teftimonials adduced, but alfo others 

 paffed by in filence, and thofe of which mention is made in relations given in 1726, 

 and fmce then by two Spanifti governors * of the province of Venezuela, are alike in 

 unifon with refped to the faft of the exiftence of Amazons ; but what is no lefs deferv- 

 ing of remark, while thefe different accounts defignate the point of retreat of thefe 

 American Amazons, fome towards the eaft, others the north, and others again the 

 weft, thefe feveral diredions converge in one common center, that is, the mountains 



* Don Diego Portales lately a refident of Madrid, and Don Francifco Torralva who was his fucceffor. 



VOL. XIV. H H in 



