The failure of the missions to the Manoa tribes is the more to be lamented as it contributed to the loss of the celebrated Pampa del Sacramento.[1] There is not, perhaps, in any part of the two Americas a territory more advantageously situated, or which boasts an equal fertility. It is bounded to the south by the rivers Pozuzu and Mayro; to the west by the Huallaga; to the north by the Maranon; and to the east by the Ucayali.[2] It is thus surrounded by the most capacious rivers in the world, which communicate with the North Sea, and with the principal provinces of the three viceroyalties of South America. It is intersected by several other considerable rivers, which empty themselves into the former; and describes a peninsula, from the centre of which a maritime commerce may be carried on to every part of the globe. Its greatest extent runs north and south between four degrees and a half, and nine degrees fifty-seven minutes, from the confluence of the Ucayali with the Maranon, to the river Mayro. Its breadth varies in consequence of the great windings of the Ucayali; but may in general be taken at between 302 and 305
- ↑ This great plain was discovered on the 21st of June 1726, by the converts of Pozuzu, attached to the Panatagnas missions, belonging to the provincials of the order of the Twelve Apostles: it was entitled del Sacramento, in consequence of the discovery having been made on the day of the feast of Corpus Christi. This appears by a MS. History, in the possession of the author, of the Missions of the Monks of the Seraphic Order on the Andes mountains. Father Rodriguez Tena, in his great MS. work on the above missions, ascribes this name to friar Simon Xara, by whom the plain was explored in 1732.
- ↑ We have before us several manuscripts belonging to the libraries of the convent of San Francisco, and of the college of Ocopa, which differ from us as to the eastern boundaries; some of them contending, that by the Pampa del Sacramento should be understood the immense plain which runs eastward between the Cordillera of Brazil and the Andes mountains. In such a case it would extend at least 600 leagues north and south, and 300 west and east, comprehending one hundred and eighty thousand square leagues of a level superficies, fertile, and intersected by rivers, which might contain with ease the one hundred and thirty millions of souls allotted to Europe by the German writer Susmilk, leaving sufficient ground for forests and pastures. It is certain, however, that the most ancient manuscripts understand by the Pampa del Sacramento the peninsula which we have described, assigning to it the same boundaries. The midland which runs eastward of the Ucayali, to the river Mamore, is the territory on which the ancients placed the empire of Enim, or Gran Paru. That which extends from the river Madera, constitutes a part of Gran Paytiti.
