These women inhabit an island surrounded by water, and a large island it is too; and there is no access to it but by canoes. But in this island the Amazons have neither gold nor silver, though they are reported to have great riches in the terra firma where the men live. It is a very great nation, and is said to have a King whose name appears to be Iegnis, and they told us where he lived.
Now, our commander, Ernando Rieffere,[170] desired the said King of the Scherues[171] to place at our disposal some of his subjects to carry our plunder and to show us the way, because he intended to enter the interior of the country, and to seek out those above-mentioned Amazons. The King was willing to do so, but he said that at this time of the year the land would be under water, and therefore travelling there would not do at this season. We would not, however, believe his words, but were urgent to have his Indians. He therefore gave our commander for his person twenty men to carry his plunder and victual, and to each of us he gave five Indians to serve us and carry our necessaries, for we would have to go eight days’ journey without finding an Indian.
[170] Hernando de Ribera.
[171] Xarayos. All that precedes about the Amazons is a ridiculous tale which Schmidt could not have heard from any of those poor Indians, who had not the slightest idea about the Scythian mythology or the ancient fables from which this passage of his book is taken, after the fashion for the wonderful, prevalent at this period. The source of this story in the New World is the voyage made in 1540-41 by the Spanish officer, Orellana, who was the first to navigate the great river called of the Amazons, on account of his having related that he met on its banks a tribe of women warriors.
Afterwards we came to a certain nation called Siberis, who resemble the Scherues in their language and in other respects. We advanced for eight whole days and nights in water up to the knees, and sometimes as high as the waist; nor could we by any means come out of it. When we wished to make a fire, we heaped big fagot-sticks one on another, and made a fire thereon; and it happened several times that as we were about to cook our meat, both the pot in which we had our food and the fire fell into the water, and then we had to remain without eating. We also could not find any rest either by day or night, because of the small flies, against which we could do nothing.
We therefore asked these Siberis if there were any more water, and they said we would have to wade four more days in the water, and afterwards would have to travel five other days by land; and at length we should come to a people named Orthuses,[172] and they gave us to understand that we were too few in number, and therefore we had better return. But this we would not do for the Scherues sake, for we thought rather of sending them back to their town who were accompanying us. But the said Scherues refused to go, because the King had ordered them not to leave us, but to serve us until we came again out of that country.
[172] Urtuesses; cf. Hernando de Ribera’s narrative, infra.
The aforesaid Siberis then gave us ten men, who, together with the Scherues, should show us the way to the aforesaid Orthuses; so we went along for another seven days through water up to the waist or the knee; this water was quite as hot as if it had been heated on the fire, and we were compelled to drink it, for want of any other water. Some might suppose that it was a flowing water, but this was not so, for at that time rain had fallen so heavily that the whole land was inundated, for it is a flat land; how we suffered from the effects of this water shall be told hereafter.
Thus on the ninth day, between ten and eleven before noon, we came to the place of the Orthuses, and by midday we arrived in the centre of the village, where the chief’s house stands.