necessary to this enterprise. In the mean time, he himself set out for Panao, a town distant ten leagues east from the city of Huanuco, to fulfil a commission which the viceroy had entrusted to his zeal and activity, namely, to contract with the inhabitants of that place for the opening of a commodious road, sixteen leagues in length, from Pozuzu to Port del Mayro; and for the throwing of a bridge across the river Pozuzu; undertakings which were indispensably necessary to the fortifying of the above port. This they engaged to do in the space of three years, for the small expence of four thousand piastres. Father Sobreviela now returned to Huanuco, whence he proceeded on the 14th, provided with all the necessary implements for the opening of a passage to Playa-Grande, and accompanied by a hundred and fourteen Indians belonging to the frontier. By the indefatigable exertions of these Indians, in levelling the precipices, draining the morasses, and cutting through the mountains, a commodious and spacious road was made; and on the 18th, the company reached the town of Playa-Grande.[1]
It being father Sobreviela’s intention to regulate the internal affairs of the converted tribes subjected to his jurisdiction, at the same time that he should labour fervently to convert those who were still in a barbarous state, his first care, on his arrival at Playa-Grande, was to visit the temple, to assemble the inhabitants, to examine the progress they had made in their religious exercises, and to exhort them to a strict observance of the holy writ, and to fidelity to their sovereign. Being sensible of how much importance it was that the vassals subject to one prince should all of them explain themselves in the same language, seeing that thus they would be cemented by a soft bond of fellowship, and, although belonging to several tribes, would form but one distinct nation, he expatiated with them on the conveniences and benefits which would result from their acquiring a proficiency in the Castillian tongue. He also pointed out to them the means which would best conduce to agricultural improvements, as it related to their own natural productions, and to the new seeds which he distributed among them. Having fulfilled the duties and obligations of pastor, he now gave them fresh proofs of his paternal
- ↑ In accomplishing this undertaking, aud making the necessary observations for the direction of the labourers, the reverend father had to be conveyed from spot to spot in a hammock. This mode of travelling, which, in the language of the inhabitants of the mountainous territory, is styled caminar en buando, is somewhat hazardous. In passing through the thick forests, for instance, the traveller who from necessity adopts this conveyance, incurs the risk of having his head broken by its encounter with a tree, in the course of the rude shocks to which he is momentarily subjected; or, which is still worse, of having his eye perforated by a thorn.
