6 6 



1% THE MODERN AMAZONS, 



" and nations, and only permitted that fex to come 

 " near them at certain ieaions of thf year, for t|*e lake 

 " o: a connexion with them, but when that was over 

 *? they fent them off without delay. Their male c&jyU 

 < s dren they either killed or lent to their fathers, 

 (c but the daughters they educated for keeping up the 

 " complement of their ftate. All thefe women are the 

 fubjecrs of an opulent queen, who maintains a very 

 fplendid court, conhTting entirely of ladies." 

 Accurate and circurniiantial as this account may be, 

 yet we cannot directly accept it for true, becaufe 

 Oviedo himfelf did not fee thefe female men, but what 

 he relates he had from hearfay alone. And the cafe h 

 exactly the fame with pere la Condamine, who like- 

 wife gives us an account of them : 



6 c We Informed ourfelves carefully, fays he, of all 

 * ( the Indians of various nations, whether it were true, 

 that they [the Amazons] lived in a Hate of fepara- 

 tion from men, and only allowed them to make their 

 approaches once a year. They uniformly replied, 

 that they had received this account from their fore 

 fathers, and added feveral particulars, which all 

 have a tendency to confirm, that fuch a republic of 

 <c women does really exift in thefe parts, and that 

 tc they had retired deeper into the country, from the 

 €€ more wefrern diiiricls, either on the Rio Negro, or 

 S€ on one of the other rivers which on. that fide fall 

 u into the Maragnon. 



* 6 An Indian, of the Omaguis, told us, that we 

 * fi might probably meet with an .old man at Koari, 

 V whofe father had feen the Amazons. At Koari, 

 €C however, we learnt that this Indian was dead ; but 



<*<, 



a 

 a 



(6 



" we 



