More on the Blemye in Guyana

 

Blemye in Hondius map of Guyana 1598. See below link to the full map

My most recent posts have focused on South America once again, and taken a look at "hominds" sighted here after its discovery. The idea of these posts is to see if there is evidence of "primitive humans" (i.e. Neanderthals) inhabiting South America before the European explorers caused mayhem, killing off tens of millions natives (and perhaps also unknown hominids) with the diseases, war and enslavement they brought to the New World.

I have mentioned Piri Reis 1513 map, depicting a "headless" (acephali) or Blemye in Northern South America.

I have also posted about Sir Walter Raleigh's 1595 account on similar creatures in Guyana.

Closer in time I have mentioned ape-men in Guyana, reported in the eighteenth and ninetheenth centuries.

All of them from English Language sources. Now I am checking the Spanish sources (Columbus sailed along the coast of South America one hundred years before Sir Walter sighted the coasts of Guyana), which may offer more information on the subject:

Spanish Accounts

Before proceeding, I have not found the original source by Vera e Ibargoyen (or Ibargoien) quoted by Ojer below. I did find a "Memoria" or report written by him about his expedition, but it does not mention any Blemyes (full text available at [2]).

Having said that, I copy a text below that states that during his expedition into Guyana, in 1593, the Guariaramacoto natives told Vera e Ibargoyen that towards the south, in the Orinoco mountain ranges lived a "nation that spoke the Ypurgota language" whose sholders were so high that they were level with their heads (Vera e Ibargoyen in Ojer, 1966:150 [1]).

Soon European map makers would include these headless beings in their maps, as can be seen in a map by Jodocus Hondius, which depicted a Blemye in Guyana (his Nieuwe caerte van het Wonderbaer ende Goudrjcke Landt Guiana (1598), below is a detail of the map, which can be seen in full online, clicking on the previous link.

Sources

[1] Ojer, P. (1960) La Formación del Oriente venezolano. Caracas. Biblioteca de Estudios Universitarios:



[2] Colección de documentos inéditos relativos al descubrimiento, conquista y colonización de las posesiones españolas en América y Oceanía... (Google eBook). Imprenta de M.B. de Quirós, 1866. Which contains: Memoria Del Descubrimiento Del Dorado Por El Maestre De Campo Domingo De Ibargoien Y Vera, Lugarteniente Por S. M., T En Nombre De Antonio Berrio Gobernador. pp. 561

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Patagonian Monsters - Cryptozoology, Myths & legends in Patagonia Copyright 2009-2011 by Austin Whittall ©