396 AMAZONS. 
leaped from her horfe, holding two javelins in her right 
hand. The apparel of the Amazons does not cover all 
the body ; for their left tide is naked down to the ftornach ; 
nor do the fkirts of their garments, which they tie up in 
a knot, reach below their knees. They preferve•their left 
bread: entire, that they may be able to fuckle their female 
offspring; and they cut off and fear their right, that they 
may draw their bows, and caft their darts, with the greater 
eafe. Thaleftris looked at the king-with an undaunted 
countenance, and narrowly examined his perfon; which 
did not, according to her ideas, coine up to the fame of 
his high exploits: for the barbarians have a.great vene¬ 
ration for a majeftic perfon, edeeming thole only to be 
capable of performing great aft ions on whom nature has 
conferred a dignified appearance. The king having afked 
her whether the had any thing to defire of him, (he re¬ 
plied, without fcruple or hefitation, that die was come 
with a view to have children by him, fhe being worthy to 
bring him heirs to his dominions. Their offspring, if of 
the female fex, die would retain herfelf; and, if of the 
male fex, it Ihotild be delivered to Alexander, He then 
afked her, whether fhe would accompany him in his wars ? 
But this die declined, alleging, that die had left nobody 
to take care of her kingdom. She continued to folicit 
Alexander, that lie would not fend her back without con¬ 
forming to her willies ; but it was not till after a delay of 
thirteen days that he complied. She then returned to her 
own kingdom.” 
Judin alfo repeatedly mentions this vifit of Thaledris to 
Alexander; and in one place he fays, that die made a 
march of twenty-five days in order to obtain this meet¬ 
ing with him. The interview between Alexander and 
Thaleftris is likewife mentioned by Diodorus Siculus. The 
learned Goropius, as he is quoted by Dr. Petit, laments, 
in very pathetic terms, the hard fate of Thaleftris, who 
was obliged to travel fo many miles, and to encounter ma¬ 
ny hardlhips, in order to procure this interview with the 
Macedonian prince ; and, from the circumftances, is led 
to confider the whole account as incredible. But Dr. 
Petit, with equal erudition, with equal eloquence, and 
fuperior force of reafoning, at length determines, that 
her journey was not founded upon irrational principles, 
and that, full credit is due to thofe grave and venerable 
hiftorians by whom this tranfadtion has been recorded. 
The Amazons are reprefented as being armed with bows 
and arrows, with javelins, and alfb with an axe of a par¬ 
ticular conftrutlion, which was denominated the axe of 
the Amazons. According to the elder Pliny, this axd 
was invented by Penthifilea, one of their queens. On mar 
ny ancient' medals are reprefentations of the Amazons, 
armed with thefe axes. They are alfo faid to have had 
bucklers in the fhape of a half moon. Yet, that there 
fhould have been women, who, without the afliftance of 
men, built cities and governed them, railed armies and 
commanded them, adminiftered public affairs, and extend¬ 
ed their dominion by arms, is undoubtedly fo contrary to 
all that we have feen and known of human affairs, as to 
appear in a very great degree incredible, as is therefore 
by many confidered as fabulous; but fhat women may 
have exifted fufficiently rebuff, and fufticiently courage¬ 
ous, to have engaged in warlike enterprifes, and even to 
have been fuccefsful in them, is certainly not impoffible, 
however contrary to the ufual courfe of things. Infup- 
port of this fide of the queflion, it may be urged, that 
women who have been early trained to warlike exercifes, 
to hunting, and to an hard and laborious mode of living, 
may be rendered more ftrong, and capable of more vigo¬ 
rous exertions, than men who have led indolent, delicate, 
and luxurious, lives, and who have feldom been expofed 
even to the inclemencies of the weather. The limbs of 
.women, as well as of men, are ftrengthened and rendered 
.more robuft by frequent and laborious exercife. A nation 
of women, therefore, brought up and difeiplined as the 
ancient Amazons are reprefented to have been, would be 
Superior to an equal number of effeminate men; though 
they might be much inferior to an equal number of hardy 
men, trained up and difeiplined in the lame manner. 
That much of what is laid of the Amazons is fabulous, 
there can be no reafonable doubt j but it does not there¬ 
fore follow, that the whole is without foundation. The 
ancient medals and monuments on which they are repre¬ 
fented are very numerous, as are alfo the teftimonies of 
ancient writers. It feents not rational to fuppofe that all 
this originated in fiction, though it may be much blended 
with it. The abbe Guyon fpeaks of the hiftory of the 
Amazons as having been regarded by many periods as fa¬ 
bulous, “ rather from prejudice than from any real and 
folid examination;” and it mud be acknowledged, that 
the arguments in favour of their exiftence, from ancient 
hiftory, and from ancient monuments, are extremely pow¬ 
erful. 
Inftances of heroifm in women have occalionally oc¬ 
curred in modern times, fomewhat refembling that of the 
ancient Amazons. The times and the manners of chi¬ 
valry in particular, by bringing great enterprifes, bold 
adventures, and extravagant heroifm, into fafliion, infpired 
the women with the fame tafte. The women, in confe- 
quence of the prevailing paflion, were now feen in the 
middle of camps and of armies. They quitted the foft 
and tender inclinations, and the delicate offices, of their 
own fex, for the toils and the toilfoine occupation of ours. 
During the crufades, animated by the double enthufiafm 
of religion and of valour, they often performed the moll 
romantic exploits; obtained indulgences on the field of 
battle, and died, with arms in their hands, by the fide of 
their lovers or of their lmibands. 
In Europe, women have attacked and defended fortifica¬ 
tions; princeffes have commanded armies, and obtained 
viftories. Such was the celebrated Joan de Montfort, 
difputing for her duchy of Bretagne, and fighting her¬ 
felf. Such was that ftill more celebrated Margaret of 
Anjou, that adtive and intrepid general and foldier, whofe 
genius fupported a long time a feeble hulband; which 
taught him to conquer; which replaced him upon the 
throne; which twice relieved him fromprifon; and, op- 
preffed by fortune and by rebels, which did not bend till 
after fhe had decided in perfon twelve battles. 
The warlike fpirit among the women, confident with 
ages of barbarilm, when every thing is impetuous becaufe 
nothing is fixed, and when all excels is the excels of force, 
continued in Europe upwards of 400 years, fiiewing itfeif 
from time to time, and always in the middle of convul- 
fions, or on the eve of great revolutions. But there were 
eras and countries in which that fpirit appeared with par¬ 
ticular luftre. Such were the difplays it made in the 15th 
and 16th centuries in Hungary, and in the iflands of the 
Archipelago and the Mediterranean, when they were in¬ 
vaded by the Turks. 
Among the ftriking inftances of Amazonian conduct in 
modern ladies, may be mentioned that of Jane of Belle¬ 
ville, widow of M. de Clifton, who was beheaded at Paris,, 
in the year 1343, on a fufpicion of carrying on a corre- 
fpondence with England and the count de Montfort. This 
lady, filled with grief for the death of her late hulband, 
and exafperated at the ill treatment which fhe confidered 
him as having received, lent oft" her fon fecretly to Lon¬ 
don ; and, when herapprehenfions were removed with re- 
fpe£l to him, fhe fold her jewels, fitted out three fliips, and 
put to fea, to revenge the death of her hufband upon all the 
French with whom Ihe fheulu meet. This new corfair 
made feveral defeents upon Normandy, where fhe ftormed 
caftles ; and the inhabitants of that province were fpec- 
tators more than once, whilft their villages were all in a 
blaze, of one of the fineft women in Europe, with a fword 
in one hand and a torch in the other, urging the carnage, 
and eyeing with pleafure all the horrors of war. 
We read in Mezeray, under the article of the Croifade 
preached by St, Bernard in the year 1147, “ That many 
women did not content themfeives with taking the crofs, 
but that they alfo took up arms to defend it, and compofed 
fquadrons 
