Isabel Godin was the first known woman to travel the entire
length of the Amazon river. She was born Isabela Grameson y Bruno in 1728 in
the Ecuadorian town of Cajabamba.
She was married to one Frenchman, Jean Godin - who, some years earlier had been a junior member of an expedition from France sent to Ecuadorian Peru (Ecuador not actually being a country at the time) to take measurements in order to settle a long debate about the shape of the Earth.
Jean later settled in Quito and married Isabel. Following news of the death of his father, France was calling him and he set out to make the long journey home, leaving his wife and children, with the full intention of making arrangements for them to follow him as soon as practicable.
Isabel was pregnant at the time with their third child.
17 years later, that child died of small pox. She never met her father. Jean had not been heard of nor had he returned since that time.
Isabel was 41 at the time. She had not
see her husband for some 17 years.
It was small pox that killed them all, leaving Isabela with neither her man nor any of their offspring.
Since
her husband had departed 17 years earlier, Isabela Godin had had tragedy after
tragedy meet her. One by one each of her three children had died. She was
pregnant with her youngest daughter when Jean left her 17 years earlier. She
never met her father.
It
was small pox that killed them all, leaving Isabela with neither her man
nor any of their offspring.
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