Griffin (1540s, Peru)

In the 15th century, there were reports of a gigantic creature described as a 'condor-griffin'. Pedro Cieza de León, a Spanish conquistador and chronicler, noted that in Perú during the 1540s there were 'some very big condors that almost look like griffins some attack lambs and small guanaco in the fields'. The Andean Condor has been known to steal children and guanacos (llamas), and the local Tehuelche culture has a myth in which a demigod plucks the feathers from the condor's head as punishment for stealing children. The general Patagonia area was also home to Argentavis magnificens, the largest condor ever known to science - which would have had a 7 meter wingspan. If one of these extinct giants had survived into the 15th century then it could easily account for Cieza de León's report.
Source: La Crónica del Perú by Pedro Cieza de León