was shipwrecked near Bahia in 1510, and, falling
into the hands of the Tupinamba Indians, was doomed to furnish a
cannibal feast. At the moment when his life was about to be taken,
Paraguassu, the daughter of the chief, interposed and secured the
victim's release. However much is fiction, however much is truth in this
part of the story, it is certain that Diogo married the Indian maiden
and that she became the mother of children whose descendants hold
influential rank in Brazil to this day. Paraguassu was moreover an
enlightened woman and a benefactress, and is greatly honored by
Brazilians. In the Chapel of Graca, in the Cathedral at Bahia, the
following epitaph perpetuates her memory: "Tomb of Dona Catharina
Alvares Paraguassu, Lady that was of the Capitania of Bahia, which she
and her husband Diogo Alvares Correa gave to the King of Portugal,
having built this chapel of Nossa Senhora da Graca, which she gave, with
the ground annexed, to the Patriarch Sao Bento, in the year 1582." To
the influence of Paraguassu is to be attributed much of the power gained
by her husband over the Indians, which enabled him to promote the early
colonization of Bahia. Paraguassu may therefore be regarded as one of
the great pioneers in the civilization of South America.

In any account of the women of Brazil the story of the Amazons should
find place. The early explorers of the Amazon country have generally
accepted, or at any rate given prominence to, the Indian narrative of
these female-warriors. They are said to have formed a powerful body and
to have ruled over a large territory and proved invincible in battle. In
appearance tall, robust, and fair they wore their long hair twisted
about their heads; their costume was simply a dress of animal skin which
they tucked about their loins; their weapons were bows and arrows.
Humboldt relates the Indian account that these warrior women once a year
admitted to their company for a limited time the men of the neighboring
tribe, who at the expiration of their period of leave were sent away
with presents. All the male children born to these women were killed in
infancy, the female children being brought up by their mothers. The
origin of this tribe of female-warriors is clouded with mystery. One
explanation is that they abandoned the men of their tribe and sought to
establish a settlement in the region of the Jamunda River, but being
followed by their disconsolate husbands and despairing lovers, p