470 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
able bigness, which, with their claws and wings, do 
wound the passengers shrewdly ; yea, and often- 
times deprive them of life." ^ 
Van Heuvel cites various accounts which he 
found still current in Guayana, all tending to collo- 
cate the warlike women on a site just beyond the 
sources of the Essequibo, Marony, and Oyapock, 
which lie apparently very near to each other, and 
also to the sources of the Trombetas and Nhamunda, 
the two latter rivers running in a contrary direction 
to the three former, i.e. southwards, or towards the 
Amazon. 
I might adduce a great deal more evidence to 
show the universality of the traditions in Tropical 
America of a nation of w^omen, whose permanent 
habitation was from T to 2" north of the Equator, 
and in long. 54° to 58^ W. ; and whose annual 
rendezvous w^ith their lovers was held on a site in 
lat. about 5° S., long. 65' W. 
Those traditions must have had some foundation 
in fact, and they appear to me inseparably connected 
with the traditions of El Dorado. I think I have 
read nearly all that has been written about the 
Gilded King and his city and country ; and, com- 
paring it with my own South American experience, 
I can hardly doubt that that country was Peru — 
possibly combined (or confused) with Mexico. The 
lake called the Mansion of the Sun, because the 
^ The whole of this curious relation is given in Purchas's Collection of 
Voyages., Bk. vi. ch. xvii., and is placed immediately after that of the voyage 
made by Robert Harcourt to Guayana in i6oS. Purchas says of it : "I found 
this fairly written among Mr. Hakluyt's papers, but know not who was the 
author." But Van Heuvel adduces ample proof of its having been written by 
P'isher, cousin of Harcourt, whom the latter left behind him at the third town 
on the jNIariwin, with instructions to complete the exploration of the river, 
which he himself had unsuccessfully attempted. 
