Case file · Folklore / legend
Orellana's battle with the 'Amazons'
On 24 June 1542 Francisco de Orellana's men fought a people near the mouth of the Nhamundá river whose fighters, the friar Gaspar de Carvajal wrote, were led by tall, fair women warriors.
1542 CE · -2.19, -56.71 · status: legend
The account
Carvajal's chronicle compared them to the Amazons of Greek myth, and the name passed to the whole river. Later colonists linked the story to the Icamiabas, said to live without men near a lake in the Nhamundá hills.
The sceptical view
Carvajal may have seen women fighting alongside men, or long-haired male warriors; the Greek frame was imported by the Spaniards. No women-only society has been documented.