Some of the tales of Amazons describe them as having dark skin. In Africa, King
Musa I of Mali was protected by black female
royal guards on his famous and influential
hajj to
Mecca in 1332.
[26] Johann Schiltberger wrote in 1440 about a group of non-Caucasian Tatar Amazons,
Mongol giantesses led by a vengeful princess.
[27] Columbus returned to Spain with the story of an island in the
Lesser Antilles called "Matinino" (perhaps modern
Martinique[28]) that was inhabited only by women, a tale told to him by many of the natives of the
West Indies. Columbus did not call the Matinino women "Amazons", but the comparison was drawn by his contemporaries.
[29]
When encountering natives in the
New World, Spanish explorers were occasionally told of a tribe composed entirely of women. One such tale was related to Cortés about a group of Amazons supposedly living in a province called Ciguatán.
Juan de Grijalva was told of Amazons during his 1518 expedition through the
Tabasco region of Mexico.
Nuño de Guzmán followed tales of a nation of women who lived in riches on or near the sea, women with whiter skin who were accounted goddesses by the natives. He described how they used bows and arrows, and lived in many towns.
[30] Polk characterized Guzmán as driven by lust for sex and riches—his greed and sadism were well