472 NOTES OF A BOTANIST 
originally a community of Vestals, who, having fled 
in a body from their nunnery, carrying with them 
their ornaments of gold and green stones, estab- 
lished themselves in the forests of the plain ? Or 
they may have accompanied one of those emigra- 
tions, led by chieftains who had revolted from the 
rule of the Inca, of which we read in the early 
historians. In either case they were probably at 
first respected by neighbouring savage tribes as a 
religious community ; and they would gradually 
learn the use of the bow and other weapons, more 
as implements of the chase than of offence and 
defence ; for we do not read that they were ever 
assaulted by other Indians. I put forward this as 
mere conjecture, my object in what precedes having 
been principally to vindicate the earlier travellers 
and historians, Spanish and English, from the 
charges of gross credulity, or even wilful falsehood, 
which have been wantonly brought against them. 
Is it to be wondered at that unlettered, or at best 
imperfectly educated, adventurers should have be- 
lieved, and repeated as true, nearly every report 
they heard, when we find a man of so philosophic 
a turn of mind as Raleigh telling the most extra- 
vagant tales — ^just as they were told to him, no 
doubt, and not adding anything thereto, yet evi- 
dently believing them himself in the main ? 
No one has declared his convictions of the exist- 
ence of a nation of Amazons more forcibly and 
eloquently than Acufia, and, without endorsing them 
fully myself, I close this long digression with his 
own words, recommending them to the candid 
consideration of my readers: — 
" The proofs that give assurance that there is a 
