care, by distributing toys among the women, and agricultural implements among the men. The latter were most acceptable presents to Indians, whose sole felicity consisted in possessing a bit of iron, by the help of which they might break up the ground that served to clad and nourish them.
On the 2d of August, father Sobreviela caused three canoes to be got ready by the Indians of Playa-Grande, and embarked at eight in the morning, accompanied by father Joseph Lopez, secretary of visitation, on the river Patayrrondos. At noon they reached the river Monzon, and at half past nine in the evening the Huallaga, following the course of this navigation to the confluence of the river Tulumayo, which flows into it at the right bank. The progress made this day was eight leagues, which were accomplished in six hours, the rest of the time being taken up by the necessary stops, and the difficulties encountered in the navigation. On the 3d, at day break, the Indians betook themselves to their oars; and on the evening of the 5th the company reached an inlet, on the left bank of which, at a place named la Cruz, they passed the night. Deducting the time spent in repasts, &c. a distance of twenty leagues was performed in eight hours.[1] On the 4th the canoes were put afloat at the same hour as on the preceding day, and, with their accustomed velocity, reached on the 5th in the evening the port of Pampa-hermosa, at two leagues distance from which, by a pleasant and spacious road, is an Indian town containing a population of 270 souls. Here father Sobreviela employed himself until the 8th in the same way as at Playa-Grande; and also in contriving to bring the population nearer to the banks of the Huallaga, and in making other small settlements at the confluence of the river Uchisa, to the end that, throughout the whole of the course of the Huallaga, navigators might at all times find habitations in which to repose.
On the 9th, instead of the canoes of Playa-Grande, others were provided at Pampa-hermosa, and the company setting out at nine in the morning, reached at four in the afternoon the port of Sion, having performed a distance of fifteen leagues. The 10th and 11th were employed by father Sobreviela in his customary visits, and in numbering the inhabitants of Sion, whose population was found to amount to 205 souls. On the 12th the Indians of Sion, belonging to the tribe of
- ↑ According to this computation, the navigation performed was between two and three leagues an hour; a remarkable celerity, when it is considered that Monsieur Condamine did not make a greater progress in his rapid passage through the strait of Manseriche, notwithstanding he navigated on rafts, which, presenting a smaller superficies to the resistance of the water than canoes, partake less of the impulse and velocity of the currents.
