His audience listened with willing ears to the
tales of the traveller; and in an age of wonders, when the
mysteries of the East and the West were hourly coming to light,
they might be excused for not discerning the true line between
romance and reality. *11
[Footnote 10: Condamine, who, in 1743, went down the Amazon, has
often occasion to notice the perils and perplexities in which he
was involved in the navigation of this river, too difficult, as
he says, to be undertaken without the guidance of a skilful
pilot. See his Relation Abregee d'un Voyage fait dans
l'Interieur de l'Amerique Meridionale. (Maestricht, 1778.)]
[Footnote 11: It has not been easy to discern the exact line in
later times, with all the lights of modern discovery. Condamine,
after a careful investigation, considers that there is good
ground for believing in the existence of a community of armed
women, once living somewhere in the neighbourhood of the Amazon,
though they have now disappeared. It would be hard to disprove
the fact, but still harder, considering the embarrassments in
perpetuating such a community, to believe it. Voyage dans
l'Amerique Meridionale, p. 99, et seq.]
He found no difficulty in obtaining a commission to conquer and
colonize the realms he had discovered. He soon saw himself at
the head of five hundred followers, prepared to share the perils
and the profits of his expedition. But neither he, nor his
country, was destined to realize these profits.
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