Untitled - The Alfred Russel Wallace Website

province
WARLIKE WOMEN 473
of the Amazons on the banks of this
river are so strong and convincing that it would
be renouncing moral certainty to scruple giving
credit to it. I do not build upon the solemn ex-
aminations of the sovereign court of Quito, in
which many witnesses were heard, who were born
in these parts and lived there a long time, and who,
of all matters relating to the countries bordering
on Peru, as one of the principal, particularly affirmed
that one of the provinces near the Amazon is
peopled with a sort of warlike women, who live
together and maintain their company alone, with-
but at certain seasons
out the company of men ;
of the year seek their society to perpetuate their
race. Nor will I insist on other information, ob-
tained in the new kingdom of Grenada, in the royal
city of Pasto, where several Indians were examined ;
but I cannot conceal what I have heard with my
own ears, and concerning the truth of which I have
been making inquiries from my first embarking on
the Amazon ;
and
am compelled to say that I have
been informed at all the Indian towns in which I
have been, that there are such women in the
country, and every one gave me an account of
them by marks so exactly agreeing with that which
I received from others, that it must needs be that
the greatest falsehood in the world passes through
all America for one of the most certain histories." 1
1
I'oyages and Discoveries in South Aiiu)-i.,t, liy Christopher