20 



THE MODERN AMAZONS. 



66 ther fide of the fource of the Ojapoe. Here he Taw 

 " the beforementioned green pebbles about the necks 

 " of the women and children, and learnt by queftion- 

 K ing them, that they obtained them from the women 

 €i without men, whofe dwellings were from feven to 

 " eight days journey farther on to the wefh 



" In all thefe feveral teftimonies there prevailed a 

 Ci perfect harmony in regard to material points. For, 

 " if fcrne placed the abode of the Amazons to the eafr, 

 ff others to the north, and others again to the weir, 

 S ( yet all thefe various directions converge to the fame 

 <c point, namely, to the hills which lie in the midrt 

 cc of Guiana, in a region, whither as yet neither the 

 tc Portuguefe of Peru, nor the French of Cayenne, 

 M hive ever adventured. I mufi:, notwithftanding, 

 6( conieis, continues la Condamine, that I doubt 

 " whether rhe Amazons frill actually dwell in thefe 

 c<r regions, fo long as we receive no determinate ac- 

 " count of them through the Indians who refide in the 

 6C neighbourhood of the European colonies of Guiana, 

 66 It is' poffble, indeed, that they .afterwards altered 

 c: the place of their abode : yet it is more probable, 

 46 that, if they really did exift yonder, they have fince- 

 " been fubjugated by forne other nation: or, weary of 

 cc their folitary condition, they abandoned the mode 

 fC of life purfued by their mothers, and again affo- 

 cc ciated with the other fex. Should we then meet 

 " with no more traces at prefent of this female repub- 

 4 i lie, yet that will by no means demonfoate that it 



" never has exifted." 



Thus far la Condamine. The later! accounts on 

 this iubjecl are given us by the abbe Gilii, in his hif- 



3 tox y 



