462 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
southward of it, above the Rio Negro, and some- 
where between the rivers Coari and Teffe. In the 
very year of Orellana's encounter with the Amazons 
(1541), Cabeza de Vega headed an expedition which 
ascended the Plata and the Paraguay in search of 
gold. From the latter river he sent Hernando de 
Ribeiro ahead, in a brigantine, with fifty-two men, 
to explore the lake of Xarayes, a large tract of 
country periodically inundated, lying to eastward of 
what was afterwards the Province of Moxos. From 
the Xarayes Indians Ribeiro received information 
of the Amazons, whose country he was told lay two 
months' journey to the northward ; and, disregard- 
ing the warning of the chief of the Xarayes, that it 
w^ould be impracticable to traverse the forests at that 
season of floods, he and his party proceeded on foot 
for eight days, with the water up to their middle. 
This brought them to another nation, the Siberis ; 
and a journey thence of nine days (the first four 
being still wading through the water) to the nation 
of Urtueses, who told them there was yet a month's 
journey to the Amazons, with much flooded ground 
to traverse. From this point they were compelled 
to regress by their provisions giving out ; and the 
plantations of the Urtueses having been devastated 
for two successive years by some insect, no more 
food was to be had ; but those Indians reiterated 
the assurance of the existence of a nation of women, 
governed by a woman, and possessing plenty of 
both white and vellow metal, their seats and utensils 
being made of them. They lived on the western 
(eastern ?) side of a large lake, which they called the 
Mansion of the Sun, because the sun sank into it 
(Southey's History of Brazil, pp. 156-159). 
