One of the Victorian era's least known explorers was the Greek archeologist Pelagia Lagaras.

The eldest child and only daughter of a wealthy greek landowner, Pelagia chafed at the prospect of her younger brothers being chosen over her for the best education and, because she was a woman living (in the late 1870s), in a man's world; the bulk of the family inheritance.

She was as well built physically and far more intelligent than her siblings, yet the only 'academic' study they allowed her to do was on the myths of the ancient greeks - something at which she excelled.

Her favourite subject was the Amazons, a tribe of warrior women who lived on the banks of what is now the River Don and she dreamed of finding proof that they really had existed - proof that woman was the equal of her fellow man and therefore entitled to equal rights...

So when one day in 1885 a distant relative came home after serving in the French Foreign Legion bearing lurid tales of a nomadic tribe of African women who used captive men as slaves, using the strongest of them as beasts of burden; Pelagia immediately connected them to the legend of the OTHER amazon tribe - the one that lived in North Africa...

Carefully she gathered together her research and dug deep into her private fund of money and announced in a bold article in the newspapers (to be published the day after her ship had sailed), that she was going to find one of the lost amazon tribes.

It is known that she arrived safely at Tunis and that she hired camels and a guide for her journey and that is all the civilized world knows about the Lost Explorer Pelagia Lagaras.

Her article in the newspaper was never published. The editor thought it was hoax.

And as for Pelagia herself? There were stories bandied about the camel trains of North Africa about a mob of fierce black women who would occasionally raid settlements or trade with the locals. Some even told of a huge, muscluar white woman being used like a horse...

But of course, they're just stories...

THE END