The Present State of Peru/Appendix
APPENDIX.
APPENDIX.
If by heroism, be understood that generous virtue of the soul by which man renders himself in a manner superior to his feeble nature, and approaches the divinity: if the hero be the offspring of the love which reigns between that divinity and the human heart;[1] then must this sublime title exclusively belong to those faithful imitators of our Saviour, who, in despight of sufferings, privations, and fatigues, and at the risk of their own existence, devote their lives to the happiness and prosperity of their fellow creatures.[2] Agreeably to this sentiment, Alexander, Tamerlane, and the victorious Frederick, were no other than evil geniuses born to desolate the earth. Posterity, that impartial judge of human actions, will certainly preserve their names; but will tremble lest their spirits should be re-animated, and should again produce the melancholy catastrophes which past ages have witnessed. The superb mausolea, pyramids, and obelisks, with which their ashes are covered, cannot be regarded as memorials, of gratitude and love. Sepulchres, bathed in innocent blood, and agitated by the rattling of the chains that once oppressed vanquished nations, banish the tender and pacific ideas which beneficence and humanity inspire. Rewards like these are solely due to the adventurous propragators of Christianity. Their memory, were it even possible to efface it from the fragile altars erected by our veneration, would find a fixed asylum in the breast of the sage, who, in his silent meditations, does justice to the ferocious warrior, to the pacificator, and to the virtuous citizen.
As, however, the enterprises of the latter are not accompanied with the pomp and splendour, the seductive charms of which lead man to soar to the pitch of the works of the great world, they would not have been executed, had they not been dictated and cherished by a philosophy which is purely celestial. By its means alone can such a religion of charity have been established, and so many weak mortals inspired with a zeal which has propelled them to travel over the four quarters of the globe, with the sole view of being useful to their fellow creatures.
America, amid the calamities of which it has been the theatre, has oftentimes felt the benign influence of the evangelical spirit. By the consolatory voice of its apostles, the savages have been collected together, and formed into intelligent and industrious tribes. Gentle persuasives, tender offices, example, and the repeated sacrifice of life, without any other motive than that of rendering them service, have had a more powerful effect on them than would have been produced by harsh and coercive measures. A relation of all the missions to the Andes of Peru would fully establish this truth, and would give rise to many deep and serious reflections. On the present occasion, we shall confine ourselves to the history of those of Caxamarquilla, in which are comprehended the discovery and loss of those of Manoa, and of those directed towards the banks of the famous Ucayali. The measures adopted by the court of Spain for the re-establishment of the latter;[3] the peregrinations, by the river Huallaga, which have been recently concluded by father Manuel Sobreviela, superior of the college of Ocopa; and those which, by his order, have been likewise undertaken with the same view, by the river Ucayali, by Father Narciso Girbal, demand an elucidation which will be best conveyed by a detailed account of the aforesaid missions.
The province of Caxamarquilla, or Patas, belongs to the Intendency of Truxillo. It runs, north and south, from seven to eight degrees thirty minutes south latitude. It is bounded to the north and north-east by the province of Chacapoyas; to the north-west by the junction of the river Maranon with that of Caxamarquilla; to the west by the river Conchucos; to the south by the river Huamalies; and to the east by the Andes mountains, from which it is divided by a branch of difficult ascent, separated from the great chain. The rocky territory in the vicinity of these mountains, and the plains bordering on the river Huallaga, were in the last century peopled by various tribes of barbarous Indians, who acknowledged no other superior than their elders or captains. Addicted to plunder, they attacked and ravaged the neighbouring tribes, more especially those of Condurmarca and Collay. By a lucky accident, in the year 1670, a shepherd penetrated through the thick forests which served them as a natural defence, and inspired them with a taste and an affection for the gentle manners of the converted Indians. Actuated by this sudden change in their sentiments, they entered into a mutual and pacific commerce with the latter; and, laying aside their savage ferocity, aspired to the advantages of society and religion. Under these circumstances, the minor friars, provincials of the Order of the Twelve Apostles of Lima, obtained the Viceroy's permission to undertake this spiritual conquest. It was entered on in the year 1676, by the reverend father Juan de Campos, accompanied by two lay friars, Joseph Araujo and Francisco Gutierrez.
Among the different nations of wandering Indians, dispersed over this mountainous territory, those of the Cholones and Hibitos were the most considerable in point of numbers. Father Gutierrez collected and established the former in a large town, entitled San Buenaventura de Apisoncho. The second were, by the management of father Araujo, established in another town, named Jesus de Ochanache. In both of them an exact order of moral and political government was observed. The Indians having been divided into bands and companies, regular hours were appointed for instruction and labour; and the indispensable obligation was laid on them, to contribute alternately to the maintenance of their spiritual guides. By these means they were subjected to a constant application, and the fathers supplied with whatever was necessary for their maintenance, with the exception of wine and meal.
After the death of these apostolical missionaries, disputes having arisen between the two nations, it was found necessary to divide each of them into two distinct tribes. To the Cholones were allotted the towns of Pampa-hermosa and San Buenaventura del Valle, both situated on the western banks of the river Huallaga. The Hibitos were stationed at Jesus of Mount Sion, between Pampa-hermosa and the valley, and at Jesus of Pajaten, at the confluence of the river thus named with the Aspur, which, having formed by their junction the river Catena, empty themselves westward into the above-named Huallaga. For the aid and convenience, both of the reverend fathers, and of the converted Indians, an hospital was established in the province of Caxamarquilla, at which a priest was stationed with the title of president, and whose duty it was to direct and superintend all the missionaries. By the means of these arrangements, and of the regulations adopted by the founders, the above tribes have been kept in peaceful obedience.
The Cholones Indians are corpulent, well made, and industrious. Their most common pursuits are agriculture, hunting, and fishing. Their wives cultivate cotton, which they spin and weave to clothe the family the husband nourishes. The Hibitos are less corpulent, and their wives comelier, more cleanly, and more liberal, than those of the Cholones, whose great quality is economy.
Their ordinary diet consists of wild boars, monkies, salt fish, plantains, mani,[4] yucas, and wild fruits. The dress of the Indians who inhabit the mountains differs from that of those who reside in the towns. The former simply cover themselves with a cuzma, or short cotton shirt reaching to the knees; but the latter add an outer garment, either of cotton or of coarse baize. The women wear a long cotton gown, reaching to the ancles, and confined by a band at the waist; over this garment they throw a mantle of baize. On festivals, and particular occasions, they are clad in a gown, made after the Spanish fashion; and this they likewise wear when they set out for the province of Patas, to carry to their husbands a supply of coca.[5] These Indians are in the constant habit of bathing in the rivers, before sunrise, with a view to the preservation of their health. The disease which makes the greatest havoc among them is the small pox; for which reason, as soon as the slightest symptom of its having broken out appears among them, they retire precipitately to the mountains, where they disperse themselves in every direction, and remain until they are certain that the disease has been extinguished. They are utter strangers to ambition, avarice, theft, and dissensions, which seem to be defects and vices inherent in a civilized state of society. In their stead, incontinence, and drunkenness, by which a rustic life is more particularly characterized, are very prevalent. The masato is their favourite drink.
The provincials of the Order of the Twelve Apostles maintained the above missions until the year 1754, when they were conceded to the missionaries of the college of Ocopa. The docility and intelligence which the latter found in the newly acquired tribes, suggested to them the expediency of extending their spiritual conquests. For this purpose, and with the aid of their new converts, they undertook repeated journeys, by the eastern part of the territory in their possession, to the mountains which separate that territory from the Pampa del Sacramento. The result of these expeditions, which were continued until the year 1757, and in the course of which the missionaries and their suite were sometimes obliged to travel on foot, exposed to hunger, thirst, and almost every privation, during thirty or forty days successively, was the discovery of the river Manoa. On these occasions, some of the Indian guides fell a sacrifice to the hardships and fatigues they had to encounter. The conversion of several wandering tribes, dwelling on the banks of the above river, rendered the missionaries forgetful of the continual sufferings and fatigues they had undergone, and stimulated them to new researches.
In the month of February, 1757, the reverend fathers Santa Rosa, Fresneda, and Cavello, set out, accompanied by three hundred Indians, partly Cholones, partly Hibitos. On the 4th day of March, at day break, they reached one of the Manoa towns, named Masemague. Surprized at the sudden appearance of so considerable a number of persons, the inhabitants took up arms, and an unavoidable combat ensued, in which several were killed on each side, among them father Cavello. The only advantage which the missionaries reaped from this conflict was the capture of a boy, and of two girls. The elder of these females, being soon instructed in the christian doctrine, civilized, and taught to converse in the Spanish tongue, excited a new fervour in the breast of the reverend fathers, to whom she gave precise information relative to her own tribe, and to those by which the banks of the famous Ucayali are peopled, representing to them the facility of reducing these tribes to obedience, and tendering her services as interpreter. The missionaries, animated by these persuasions, repeated their excursions in the year 1759, accompanied by twenty-eight European soldiers, partly Spaniards, and partly Portuguese. Being unaccustomed to travel on foot on so rocky a soil, the soldiery very soon revolted, and not only returned back themselves, but prevented the reverend fathers from proceeding onward.
The fervour of the latter was augmented in proportion to their disappointments and mortifications. Friars Miguel Salcedo and Francisco de San Joseph set out, towards the end of May 1760, from St. Buenaventura del Valle, with ninety Indians, seven Europeans, and the young Manoa girl, who had been baptized, and had received the name of Anna Rosa. On the 8th of July they reached the banks of the river Manoa, where they perceived two canoes filled with Indians. On their approach, Anna Rosa prevailed on an Indian, named Rungato, to land from his canoe. The caresses and affability of the missionaries soon prevailed on him to lay aside his fear, and, by the dint of a few entreaties, he was led to conduct them to his tribe, which consisted of about two hundred and twenty souls, inhabiting a small village named Suaray. Here the reverend fathers were received with every token of sincerity and pleasure, manifested by the Indians in their dances and rustic repasts; and were hailed by the gentle appellation of friends.
It appeared, by the testimony of several of these Indians, that their nation had formerly maintained an intercourse with the Spaniards. Recurring to their traditions, they dated their origin from the ancient Setebos. From the year 1657 to 1686 the latter occupied the banks of the Pachitea, and extended their boundaries to the river Ucayali, where a missionary, friar Manuel Biedma, converted a considerable number of them, and rendered their condition highly flourishing. Exposed to the attacks and inroads of their turbulent neighbours the Callisecas, a portion of these converted Indians accompanied their spiritual guides in their flight, and proceeded by the Payanzos tribes to those of Panatahua. The remainder passed from the banks of the Ucayali to those of the Manoa, a distance of twenty leagues. By the means of this ancestry, some notions of the christian religion were handed down to and propagated among them, but blended with a thousand errors and absurdities. They believe in God, the dispenser of rewards and punishments. They acknowledge Jesus Christ, and his holy mother; but they assimilate the latter with the Deity, maintaining her to be the co-author and conservatrix of the universe. They practise baptism, and sprinkle on the heads of the children newly born a quantity of lime juice, without uttering a syllable, or making any sign. Friar St. Joseph, who, with seven Europeans, remained among the Manoa Indians, after the departure of father Salcedo, represented to his Prelates how much he had to suffer from hunger, from the annoyance of insects, and from the cruelty of the Indians. Being unprovided with the necessary implements for cutting down the large shrubs on the mountains, and for tilling the land, his crops had been very unproductive. These implements were shortly after liberally supplied.
The conversion of the Manoa Indians, although inconsiderable, was extremely interesting, inasmuch as it led to that of the other tribes which are scattered over the Pampa del Sacramento, and on the banks of the Ucayali. Twenty leagues to the south of Manoa, the Sipibos, sprung from the ferocious Callisecas, by whom the Payanzos missionaries were cut off, inhabit the banks of the river Pisqui. They live, not in towns or villages, but in distinct huts, insomuch that, although their number does not exceed one thousand, they occupy more than twenty leagues of territory north and south, and from ten to twelve east and west. The implacable hatred which had subsisted between the Serebos and Sipibos, since the former were, in a bloody conflict in the year 1736, vanquished by the latter, seemed to render all union and friendly intercourse between these tribes impracticable. At length, however, after a lapse of four years, they were reconciled by the entreaties and persuasion of the reverend missionaries. Friar Juan de Dios Fresneda, without a moment's delay, seized on the favourable opportunity, and collected the Sipibos, whom he established in a town, in the vicinity of the river Pisqui, which received the name of Santo Domingo. This event was soon followed by the voluntary submission of the Conibos, one of the most irrational and extravagant tribes of the Enim empire.[6] They dwelt on the eastern bank of the Gran Paro, near its confluence with the Pachitea. In the year 1685, several Franciscan monks descended the rivers Enne and Pachitea, and reached their settlement, on which they bestowed the name of St. Michael. Father Ricter, a Jesuit belonging to the conversions of Mayanas, afterwards proceeded thither by the Ucayali; but, in imitation of those who had preceded him, confined himself to a short visit to the establishment, notwithstanding he met with a very flattering reception among these unconverted Indians, who still retained a distant recollection of the kindness and benevolence of the Franciscans. In the sequel, father Fresneda proceeded to St. Michael, to take on himself their spiritual direction.
Under these favourable circumstances the Manoa missions began to flourish, and to hold out the promise of much eventual success. In the midst, however, of these hopes, the number of the missionaries having been gradually diminished, and their operations embracing a great extent of territory, they were incapable of stifling the rancour and jealousies which subsisted among these savage tribes, who discharged their fury on their peaceable benefactors, by whom they had been united in the bonds of fellowship.
A road which had been opened from Pampa-hermosa to Manoa, to prevent any untimely accidents, was found scarcely practicable by fathers Santa Rosa, Menendez, Errans, Asnar, and Jayme, who had set out for the new conversions, and were accompanied by several lay brothers, and three soldiers. Having to pass on foot over a very extensive and rugged tract of country, the Indians of Caxamarquilla, who formed their suite, were so exhausted by fatigues, that it was deemed expedient not to risk the sacrifice of the lives of this civilized race, for the precarious benefit of the savage nations whose conversion the expedition had in view.
An ancient map, found in the archives of the college of Ocopa, having pointed out that, by the route of Pozuzu, it was possible to navigate, by the Pachitea, to the Ucayali and Manoa, after having, in the first instance, embarked at the junction of the river Pozuzu with the Mayro, two expeditions were undertaken on this very slender information. In consequence of an error in the map, the first did not reach the Manoa river within the limited time; and the effect of this delay was, that father Francis fell into the hands of the Casivos, a wandering tribe, by whom he was slain. The second expedition, which was under the direction of friar Manuel Gil, commissary of the missions, was undertaken in 1767. Notwithstanding it was more prudently managed than the preceding one, the only consequence which resulted from it was, that the missionaries collected the melancholy information of the death of all the fathers belonging to the conversions. Rungato, the Indian who, as has been already mentioned, was met with on a former occasion at the entrance into Manoa, had instigated the three nations of Setebos, Sipibos, and Conivos, to cut off all the missionaries distributed among the different tribes.
The loss of the Manoa missions has been sensibly felt, not only by the reverend fathers missionaries, but likewise by Peru, and by the monarch himself. The possession of Manoa secured to the latter a vast and fertile territory. The peregrinations of father Sobreviela, and those which just have been concluded, under his authority, by father Girbal, hold out the prospect of its being speedily restored to us. Under an enlightened governor, who is aware of all the importance of such an enterprise, the above fathers have been supplied with whatever was necessary to its accomplishment. It is with much pleasure that we engage in the task of publishing their travels, entertaining, as we do, in common with every feeling breast, a profound sense of gratitude for the benefits conferred on any portion of the human race.
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.[7] 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.[8] 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 degrees of longitude, fixing the first meridian at the Peak of Teneriffe. These dimensions being calculated, the result is a superficies of about eight thousand square leagues, a space capable of containing, without inconvenience, a population of about five millions of persons, by whom a most flourishing trade and intercourse might be carried on.
Its fecundity is equal to the prerogatives of its advantageous position. The eastern branch of the Cordillera of the Andes, which, running between the Huallaga and the Mayro, unites this peninsula with Peru, and the different mountains which, originating at the Cordillera, descend at various distances into the plain, abound in that rich metal which ennobles man, which constitutes his fortune, and which even acquires him, without effort, the sublime titles of wise, discreet, and the rest of those eminent qualities that are wont to shine with diminished lustre when viewed from beneath the humble garments of the poor. Washed down by the rains, this noble metal shines amid the sands of the rivers, combined with the hard flint which conceals the diamond, and with the precious shell in which the pearl is stored. The multitude and variety of the fishes which play on the surface of the waters, are not inferior to those of the beautiful and melodious warblers by which the air is peopled, and to the diversity of the quadrupeds which browse on the plains. It would be fortunate if the insects and reptiles were less numerous.[9] If it be certain that there exists on the earth an irrational creature on whose forehead shines the star of the morning,[10] this favoured territory is without doubt the one which gave it birth. The vegetable kingdom, vying with the others, displays its fertility in the formation of vast forests abounding in majestic trees of the finest foliage, in odoriferous flowers, in the richest fruits, and in those healing gums and balsams which, constantly distilling, exhale their ambrosial streams, and fill the air with fragrance. The spaces that are not occupied by the forests, are inhabited by the savage tribes of the Sipibos, Setebos, Panos, and Cocamas, who there enjoy the blessings which Nature has so amply provided for them.
This highly favoured portion of South America, would, in the event of Manoa being restored, and the Port del Mayro re-constructed and fortified, be in a manner surrounded by the Spanish possessions; at the same time that, every part of the banks of the Huallaga and Maranon being peopled by the missions of Caxamarquilla, Lamas, and Maynas, Manoa and the above-mentioned port would afford security to those of Mayro and Ucayali. By these means, also, the entrance into the immense territories of Enim and Paytiti would be facilitated. To ascertain the practicability of a project so useful to religion, to the monarch, and to Peru, it was indispensably necessary to follow the course of all the rivers by which the Pampa del Sacramento is intersected; to observe the difficulties which impede their navigation; to calculate the time it would require; and to remove the obstacles which the mountains present, in the tracks leading to the ports of embarkation. It was by such a plan alone that a knowledge could be obtained of the mode to be pursued, both to defend Manoa from the fierce and wanton attacks of the barbarians, and to open a ready communication with the capital of the viceroyalty, which necessarily becomes the centre of the springs that give an impulsion to, and sustain all similar enterprises.
To this great aim the peregrination which was undertaken in the middle of the last year, 1790, by the apostolical father, friar Manuel Sobreviela, guardian of the college of St. Anne of Ocopa, was directed. Being desirous to throw every possible light on a point of history and geography, little, if at all known, we brought forward the history of the missions of Caxamarquilla, to the end that, by presenting the facts from their origin, this interesting subject might be better understood. With the same design, we had some thoughts of prefacing this relation by a concise description of the Huallaga, freed from the errors which are to be found in all the maps that have been delineated, more especially as it was not in our power to publish the one we had projected, through the want of sufficient funds in the hands of the society; but the complaints we uttered on this head, having made all the impression we could have wished on the sensibility of several generous individuals who have supplied us with the means of realizing our ideas, the topographical chart which we shall very soon publish, exonerates us from this task.[11] We shall therefore simply point out the limits of the Huallaga, so as to enable the reader to follow with precision the thread of the narration of father Sobreviela.
The river Huallaga issues, with the name of Huanuco, in 10 degrees 57 minutes south latitude, from lake Chiquiacoba in the plains of Bombon, whence it flows precipitately, directing its impetuous course to the north, and receiving all the rivers noted in the geographical chart, as far as the city of Leon de Huanuco, in 10 degrees 3 minutes south latitude. In this part it makes an inflection to the east; and, passing southward of the above-mentioned city, preserves the same direction until it reaches the town of Muna, at the entrance of the mountainous territory, situated in 9 degrees 55 minutes. It now shifts its course, and runs impetuously to the north, between two high and rugged mountains, by which it is supplied with water sufficient to render it navigable. By the interposition, however, of dreadful precipices, and dangerous banks of sand, the navigation is impeded until it reaches 9 degrees 22 minutes, at the confluence of the river Monzon, which falls into it at the western bank. It now becomes more tranquil in its course, and, forming a variety of islets, widens or narrows in proportion as the branches which descend from the Cordillera, and which, describing semi-circles, insensibly lose their altitude, approach or retreat from its banks. It is now augmented in every direction by new rivers, receiving among others, to the east, the river of the Moon, in the altitude of 7 degrees 40 minutes south latitude. Continuing its rapid course to the north, it takes a bend at the town del Valle, in 7 degrees 50 minutes, and, forming two difficult passes named Sabaloyaco and Cachahuanusca, immediately before its confluence with the Huayabamba, it passes along the confines of the province of Lamas, where it changes its name of Huanuco to that of Huallaga. The river of Huayabamba flows into it at the left bank, in 7 degrees 33 minutes, with a breadth of half a mile and a fathom of depth; and in 7 degrees 10 minutes it receives, on the same side, the river Moyobamba, which supplies it with an equal quantity of water.
From the confluence of the river Moyobamba to the point by which the mountainous territory is terminated, the Huallaga throws off four branches, which form as many different passes, named Estera, Canoayaco, Chumia, and Yuracyaco. At the point where if disembogues itself, it flows gently, taking a declination to the north, through an immense and fertile territory, which it overflows to the extent of three or four miles in breadth. Pursuing its course by the province of los Maynas, in 5 degrees 4 minutes south latitude, it falls in with the Maranon,[12] by which, divided into two branches, it is received. At the junction a gulf is formed half a league in breadth, and 28 fathoms in depth. The diagonal line which results from the confluence of the two rivers, follows a space of about a league without either of them having a preponderance over the other. At length the direction of the Maranon overcomes that of the Huallaga.
Father Manuel Sobreviela, with a view to explore the navigation of the latter of these two rivers, sailed from the college of Ocopa on the 1st of July 1790, and, proceeding by Tarma and Pasco, reached, on the 7th, the pleasant city of Leon de Huanuco, distant from the above college fifty-six leagues. From Huanuco it was his intention to direct his steps to the new town of Playa-Grande, situated on the banks of the river Patayrrondos, where it is customary to embark in descending that river as far as its confluence with the Monson, distant half a league. Having embarked on the latter river, he was to proceed to the Huallaga, distant four leagues from the above-mentioned confluence. The passage overland, however, from the city of Huanuco to Playa-Grande, a distance of thirty leagues, being rendered in a manner impracticable by the difficulties which a rugged mountain opposed, it became necessary to remove these obstacles before the expedition could proceed. In the year 1787 the reverend father had begun to open a road which might facilitate the passage by mules over this mountain. To complete this undertaking, he sent notice to the governor of Panataguas, and to the sub-delegate of the province, that, in virtue of the directions of the intendant of Tarma, Don Juan Maria de Galves, they were to furnish, without delay, the succours and people 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.[13]
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 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.[14] 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 Hibitos, supplied four canoes, which set out at noon, and at half past one reached the port and town of del Valle, containing a population of 372 souls, whence our travellers proceeded to within a small distance of the great shoals of Sabaloyaco, to steer clear of the perils of which it was necessary to discharge the canoes, and to drag them overland, by the eastern bank, a distance of about half a mile. This task was performed in an hour; when the canoes again setting out, approached Cachiluanusca at four in the afternoon. To avoid this difficult pass it was necessary to direct the canoes by the right bank, or, for still greater security, to drag them along it with cords, but without discharging them. This was safely accomplished on the 13th at six in the morning, when the canoes proceeded to the mouth of the Huayabamba, and thence to the port of Pachisa, where there is a small Indian town, the inhabitants of which, one hundred in number, were brought from Pagaten, and settled at the confluence of the Huayabamba with the Huallaga, in consequence of that place being at too great a distance to be useful to navigators. At eight in the morning of the 14th the voyage was prosecuted with three canoes belonging to Pachisa, and two from Tarapoto and Cumbasa, which had been expressly stationed at Pachisa by the Lamas missionaries. After a navigation of twelve leagues, the party reached Pilloana, a hill which runs north and south on the eastern bank of the Huallaga, and which is covered to the extent of a mile with salt springs of an excellent quality. Here our travellers spent the night; and on the 15th, at eight in the morning, again set forward. At eleven o’clock they reached the confluence of the Moyobamba with the Huallaga; and, following the rapid course of the former of these two rivers, to the west, and afterwards to the south, arrived at two in the afternoon at the port of Juan de Guerra, situated on the right bank. From the port of Juan de Guerra to the towns of Tarapoto and Cumbasa, the distance does not exceed four leagues by land over a very fertile plain. These towns are separated by a small river, and contain conjointly a population of upwards of sixteen hundred souls, Spaniards, Mestizos, and Indians, all of them very robust and laborious. Their principal employment consists in the weaving of cotton stuffs of different qualities.[15] In the vicinity of Tarapoto and Cumbasa are stationed four companies of militia, to guard the frontiers, and prevent the irruptions of the surrounding barbarous tribes.
Father Sobreviela was employed until the 18th in regulating the affairs of the above-mentioned towns, which had hitherto been but little subjected to his jurisdiction,[16] and in projecting an Indian settlement in the vicinity of the Huallaga, to spare navigators the three leagues from its banks to the port of Juan de Guerra. On that day he was joined by father Girbal, rector of Cumbasa, who, stimulated by his apostolical zeal, and by the persuasions of the licentiate Don Pedro Valverde, superior of the Maynas missions, was desirous to penetrate to Manoa. At one o’clock they embarked at the port of Juan de Guerra; and at half past two reached the Huallaga, encountering shortly after the dangerous pass of Estera. Here it was necessary to drag the canoes with ropes along the western bank. In the vicinity of this pass our travellers spent the night. On the 19th they set out at break of day, and by four in the morning came to another dangerous pass named Chumia, where they were obliged to have recourse to the same expedient as on the other occasion, dragging the canoes along the right bank. A few hours after, they reached Yuracyacu, at which place they had to perform a similar manœuvre at the left bank; and at half past two in the afternoon came to the Salto (flight) de Aguirre, navigating to the right.[17] Here the hills on each side unite, and narrowing the bed of the river, form by their junction the small strait at which they finally terminate.
Puneu, in the Quechua tongue, signifies a port; and this name has been given to all the places where the hills, narrowing the beds of the rivers, terminate. Indeed these straits or narrow passages represent a port, which permits the waters to overflow the plains, and which at the same time opens a passage from one world to another altogether different. Scarcely has the traveller passed the small strait of the Huallaga, when the objects and the ideas undergo an entire change. The eyes accustomed in Peru to observe the superb and lofty mountains whose summits hide themselves in the clouds;—which survey from an eminence the deep valley situated as it were in the centre of the abyss; and which cannot turn themselves without encountering a massy hill, or a thousand other irregularities of the earth, by which their view is bounded and circumscribed; are here engaged in the contemplation of objects entirely different. Those we have enumerated above disappear by degrees, and are at length so completely annihilated, that not a small stone can be met with to bring to the recollection of the traveller the infinite masses which compose the Cordillera of the Andes.[18] Immense plains covered by trees, which present no other limit to the view than the sky bounded by the horizon at the distance of some thousands of leagues, contain lakes and seas of fresh water, the islands, roads, and ports of which are inhabited by nations whose customs, usages, and manner of thinking are totally different from ours.
The Huallaga is one of the rivers which furnish the greatest quantities of water to these bays and lakes. As soon as it frees itself from the shackles which the mountains had interposed, it diffuses itself, dilates, and flows with so even a course, that the navigation is not interrupted either by day or by night. Its banks, covered by the loftiest palms, and by rows of trees, planted at regular distances, amid the thick foliage of which the nightingale and starling build their nests, furnish the most agreeable promenades that can be imagined. The beauty of the prospect is augmented by a great multitude of canoes from the provinces of los Maynas, some of which ascend the river with cargoes of salt fish for the consumption of Lamas, while others are stationed at the banks to take in their lading of cacao, which is produced here in great abundance, and to receive the wax fabricated by small bees. These insects pierce the bark of a species of tree, the hollow trunk of which presents to them a convenient shelter for their hives.[19] The women who aid their fathers and husbands in collecting these productions on shore, have no other garment than a slight covering about the middle; and, as their hair flows loosely in the wind, resemble so many naiades or dryads. It is to be lamented, that in these delightful plains travellers should be molested by such a multitude of mosquitoes and gnats, that even the Indians are obliged to provide themselves with small awnings, suspended from the pamacaris,[20] to defend themselves from their bites. They are also prevented from bathing in the morning through the dread of the Caymans, a species of crocodiles, which, after the small strait has been passed, are very numerous.
Father Sobreviela made good his passage, without accident, at half past two in the afternoon; and at six in the evening the canoes approached the left bank opposite the confluence of the river Chipurana, in 6 degrees 33 minutes. The Chipurana enters the Huallaga at the side of the Pampa del Sacramento: the passage therefore from the Huallaga to the Ucayali may be accelerated by the navigation of that river. On the 20th, at seven in the morning, our travellers set out, and did not disembark until six in the evening. This day nothing important occurred. On the 21st at day break they again proceeded, and at noon reached the town of Yurimahuas, the first which occurs in the province of los Maynas. Here the company enjoyed the diverting spectacle of the catching of a tiger. To guard against the ferocious attacks of this animal, and to destroy him, the Indians have recourse to a snare, which consists of a narrow passage formed by stakes of a competent thickness, and six feet in length, well fastened together and fixed in the earth. The top, and one of the entrances, are secured by other stakes of the same description: in the middle of the passage there is a division. At the entrance which is left open, a stout plank, supported by a cord which is slightly secured in the front of the passage, is suspended. When the howlings of a tiger are heard, a dog is shut up in the inner division, who, finding himself in confinement, begins to howl. The tiger instantly darts forward, thinking himself secure of his prey, and being unable to find any other passage than the one where the plank is suspended, enters that way. Now entangling himself in the cord, he springs, throws down the plank, and finds himself hemmed in without being able to hurt the dog, who is protected by the division of boards. After having amused themselves until the animal becomes furious, the Indians put him to death with their clubs and arrows.
From Yurimahuas to the town of Laguna, the capital of Maynas, the distance is forty leagues. On the 22d, at day-break, father Sobreviela set out for that place with boatmen belonging to the town of Yurimahuas; and as these Indians are very expert in the above navigation, the canoes proceeded night and day without any other interruption than the necessary stops, insomuch, that on the following morning, at half past ten, they reached the port of the town of Laguna. The rains, which had fallen during several preceding days, had formed a variety of large pools of water which prevented them from landing. They were therefore obliged to direct their course to the lake of Gran Cocama, which flows, by the eastern bank, into the Huallaga, in 5 degrees 14 minutes south latitude, by a canal so extremely narrow as to admit the entrance of one canoe only, and a mile and a half in length. The lake is a league and an half in circumference; and is surrounded by a dry and elevated ground, a description of territory very rarely to be met with in these latitudes, on the summit of which the town of Gran Cocama is situated. Father Sobreviela arrived there at half past twelve o’clock, and was received by the president of the missions, as well as by the lieutenant-governor, with every token of hospitality, and with the admiration due to a traveller who had, in so short a space of time, penetrated by roads heretofore deemed impassable, into new regions, where he met with friends and fellow-labourers equally interested with himself in the glory of his nation.
The Maynas missions, which were at the commencement very numerous and flourishing, are due to the apostolical zeal of the ancient Jesuits. On their expulsion, the spiritual government of the converted tribes was confided to various religious orders, and at length to that of the secular clergy. The population of the twenty-two Indian towns which are at this time established on the banks of the Huallaga, Pastasa, Sillay, Caguapana, and Maranon, amounts to 8895 souls, under the spiritual guidance of a superior of the missions, and of nineteen rectors, who, as very small pensions are allotted to them by the government, and as they do not receive any tribute, have the advantage of the personal services of a certain number of Indians, by whom they are abundantly supplied with fish and game, and who cultivate for their use rice, sugar-canes, &c.
The temporal affairs of these tribes are entrusted to a military governor who resides at Omaguas, and whose place, in the more considerable towns, is supplied by a lieutenant-governor, and, in the smaller ones, by a casique, or Indian prince, the head of the tribe. Under these are several inferior magistrates; and it is pleasing to see a number of youths, aged from ten to twelve years, invested with the magisterial dignity, who watch over the others of the same age; correcting them for their slight excesses and misdemeanours, and giving an immediate account of the more serious ones to the resident chief magistrate. This policy, which the Jesuits introduced among these barbarous tribes, is worthy of imitation, since it tends to prevent those puerile negligences and imprudences, which might, in a maturer age, lead to the commission of crimes; at the same time that it inspires the children, from their tender years upwards, with an emulation to attain, by their good conduct, the sacred ministry of the judicature.
The Maynas towns maintain a commercial intercourse with each other, and with those of Quito and Lamas, in salt fish, cacao, the arroba of which (25 pounds) is sold at the low price of two reals; bees-wax, which is frequently found to be of as good a quality as that of the north; yuca, or casava meal, freed from its poisonous juice; and vegetable bougies.[21] They have also a few inconsiderable manufactories, and distinguish themselves in the fabrication of very beautiful coverlids and hats made of feathers, which they artfully dispose according to the diversity of their tints, imitating with the utmost nicety the coloured drawings placed before them. The customs of the inhabitants of Maynas are similar to those of the more remote tribes of the Pampa del Sacramento, with the exception of certain acquirements which are due to their shepherds.
Father Sobreviela remained in the town of la Laguna until the 26th, to take the necessary steps to hasten the departure of father Girbal, on his projected peregrination by the Ucayali; a track which, having been closed for many years, had just been partly explored by the licentiate Don Pedro Valverde, president of the Maynas missions.[22] A wish to tranquillize his flock, and to recover a few strayed sheep, had impelled him to engage valorously in an enterprise which did not present any idea to the imagination, beside that of the risk of becoming the victim of the barbarity of the ferocious Panos. Having ascended as high as Sarayacu, experience demonstrated to him the extent of what can be effected by a truly apostolical spirit. The savages humbled themselves in his presence; and, being desirous not to quit their ancient abodes, beseeched him to supply them with some one who should instruct them in their religious duties; thus expiating the death of the Franciscan monks, the particulars of which were given in the historical details relative to the missions of Caxamarquilla.
To gratify the wishes of the Panos Indians, the virtuous guardian of Ocopa stimulated father Girbal to set out with all promptitude, promising him his most cordial co-operation. His deeds proved the sincerity of his words, since, in concert with the generous Don Juan de Salinas, he afforded to the latter all the succour he could possibly administer. Having supplied him with agricultural implements, and whatever beside was necessary to distribute among the Indians, father Sobreviela took leave of his kind hosts, and on the above-mentioned 26th of August, at ten at night, set out on his return. In ascending the Huallaga, the canoes navigated at the rate of three-fourths of a league an hour. The voyage was in every part prosperous, and was concluded on the 27th of September, at the confluence of the river Monzon, and town of Playa-Grande, the port of embarkation. From Playa-Grande he travelled, by the broken ground of Monzon, to Chicoplaya, to execute an order of the supreme governor; and taking the new road constructed by Don Juan Bezares,[23] entered Chavin de Pariaca on the 9th of October. Thence directing his course to Tarma, he passed, on the 13th, the source of the Maranon, which is the lake Yauricocha, situated in the plains of Bombon, in 10 degrees 14 minutes: its length is about a league, and its breadth the one half. The Maranon, or Tunguragua,[24] where it originates, has an extension of twenty-five yards, with a proportionate depth, at the seasons when the waters diminish. At the mouth of the lake are to be seen several stone pyramids extremely well wrought, a yard and a half square. They are stationed, at the distance of a yard from each other, from one of the banks to the opposite one. They must be fragments of some bridge raised in ancient times for the passage of the Ynca; since, at an inconsiderable distance from them, runs the royal road, which has been the admiration of our historians. Several vestiges of that road, and even very extensive ones, still exist there, without time, the quadrupeds, or man, having been able to annihilate these memorials, which have perchance been preserved to belie the ancient and modern impostures of certain infatuated writers. Father Sobreviela reached Tarma on the 17th; and on the 23d, his peregrination having been prosperously concluded, arrived at the college of Ocopa.
The advantages by which it has been attended, and those that may be derived from it, are manifest. The passage from Huanuco to Playa-Grande has been expedited; the navigation of the Huallaga explored to the lake of Gran Cocama; the rocks and sand-banks noted, and the mode of steering clear of them pointed out; and, lastly, new establishments have been formed on the banks of the Huallaga, to the end that the traveller may be enabled to repose daily after his fatigues, and to find a supply of provisions. The communication between Lima and Maynas has consequently been already facilitated. A mutual commerce in the above-mentioned productions, such as coffee, cottons of various colours, almonds, cinnamon, reeds, frankincense, anil, &c. may be set on foot; and the balance will constantly be in favour of our conductors, as the traffic is carried on by barter, and the effects in those districts estimated at a very low rate. The prompt communication between Lima and Maynas, holds out another very great advantage, that of being able, in case of necessity, to forward a dispatch to Madrid in the short space of three months. This may be effected in the following manner: from Lima to Huanuco, a distance of sixty leagues, eight days; thence to Playa-Grande, the port of embarkation, distant thirty leagues, four days; thence to the river Moyobamba, distant a hundred and eleven leagues, seven days: from Moyobamba to Yurimaguas, a distance of sixty-three leagues, three days; from Yurimaguas to the lake is a distance of forty leagues, which may be navigated in a day and night; from the lake to Tefe, in the line which establishes the boundary between the Spanish and Portuguese possessions, navigating in canoes, with great celerity, night and day, eight days;[25] from Tefe to Gran Para, fifteen days. Total, forty-six days. In the interval which remains to complete the three months, there is sufficient time to reach Spain by the Azores islands. Father Manuel Sobreviela, on the authority of the information communicated to him by Don M. Molina, a distinguished merchant, asserts, in a relation of the progress of the missions of Ocopa, printed at Lima in 1790, before he set out on his expedition, that the return to Lima may be performed in pretty nearly the same time. Experience has demonstrated, however, that at least double the time is required from Para; seeing that the navigation, in following the course of the waters, is at the rate of from two to three leagues per hour; while, in navigating against the stream, three quarters of a league only can be performed in the same space of time. But this observation merely applies to an inconsiderable part of the route.
The communication the above expedition opens with Manoa, the restoration of which was its principal object, will be elucidated at the close of the peregrination of father Narciso Girbal by the Ucayali, which now follows.
We now proceed to illustrate the fertile Plains of the Sacrament, by publishing the peregrination which was undertaken, by the Maranon and Ucayali, to the Manoa tribes, by father Narciso Girbal, rector of Cumbasa. It being a continuation of that of father Sobreviela, given above, we adopt the same method, commencing by a compendious description of the latter of these rivers. We pass over the former in silence, because we have nothing new to offer, in addition to what is contained in the travels and hydrographical charts in which it has been delineated by authors of high respectability.[26]
The history of the celebrated Ucayali has been disfigured by a thousand errors, which have originated, as well in the imperfect knowledge of the territories through which it flows, as in the partiality and interest of the missionaries by whom these regions have been frequented. Having been regarded, at the time of the conquest of Peru, as the real trunk of the Maranon, and being entitled to such a pre-eminence by the copiousness of its waters, by the number and magnitude of the rivers which pay it tribute, and by the remoteness of its sources, it was stripped of this prerogative, and received the name it still bears. The same causes have induced a doubt which is the principal of its branches; and on this head opinions have been divided between the Beni and the Apurimac.[27] The latter having in its favour both history, tradition, and report, we cannot refuse our assent to its superiority over the Beni.
The Apurimac has its source in the wild heaths of Condoroma, in the province of Tinta, in 16 degrees of south latitude. It flows impetuously to the E. toward the Cordillera of Vilcanota, to the distance of three leagues, when, suddenly shifting its course to the W., it separates that Cordillera from the province of Chumbibilcas. It now enters the provinces of Aimaraes and Cotabambas, and directs its rapid course to the N. W., leaving to the E. the province of Cusco. In passing through that of Abancay, it declines to the N. E., by which direction it forms, from its primitive source, an arc that receives so many torrents on either side, as to prevent it from being longer fordable. Determining its career to the N., two leagues below the bridge of Apurimac, it forces its passage through the lofty territory of the Andes, running between mountains of incredible elevation, by which it is supplied with abundant waters. In 13 degrees 10 minutes, the river of Cocharcas, or Pampas, which descends from the heights of Huancavelica, flows into it to the W. The Apurimac continues its course, collecting the waters poured down from the mountains of Guanca; and, in 12 degrees 15 minutes, is joined to the E. by the river Quillambamba, Urubamba, or Vilcamayo,[28] the primitive name of which is changed into that of Enec y Taraba. In 12 degrees 6 minutes, it is joined to the W. by the river of Jauxa, named by the Indians Mantaro;[29] when, taking a bend to the N. E., in 11 degrees 18 minutes, the Perene incorporates itself with its mass of waters. This latter river, originating within two leagues of Tarma, divides that city, and receives various streams from the Cordillera of Bombon, and from Pasco.
From the confluence of the Perene to that of the Pachitea, forty capacious rivers empty themselves into the Apurimac. Of the two which are of particular note, the one that flows into it on the eastern side, in 10 degrees 45 minutes, is the Paucartambo;[30] and the other, which disembogues three leagues below, with such an impetuosity as to propel it against the mountains, and to cause it to change its direction to the N. W., is unquestionably the Beni.[31] After this junction it acquires the name of Apo-paru, or Gran-Paro; and continuing its impetuous course in the same direction as heretofore, in 8 degrees 26 minutes it is augmented by the waters of the Pachitea,[32] and receives the name of Ucayali. Taking a declination, in its progress, from the N. to the N. E., at the western bank, at which it receives the Pachitea, the following rivers pay it tribute: the Aguaitia, in 7 degrees 55 minutes; the Manoa, or Cuxhiabatay, in 7 degrees; the Sarayacu, in 6 degrees 45 minutes; and the Tapichi y Cano Pocati, which communicates with the Maranon in front of the town of San Regis, in 5 degrees. A bay which occupies an extent of territory of three leagues, having been formed, it divides into three branches; and finally falls in with the Maranon in 4 degrees 45 minutes, causing it to change its impetuous course, as a token of its own superiority.
Near to this celebrated confluence is situated the town of Omaguas, from which, to that of the lake, the navigation by the Maranon and Huallaga may be computed at about 70 leagues. Throughout the whole extent of this inland navigation, there do not exist any other towns, bordering on the above rivers, beside those of Urarinas and San Regis. Father Girbal having made the necessary arrangements for his peregrination, embarked on the 30th of August, four days after the return of father Sobreviela, on the lake of Gran Cocama, and reached Omaguas on the 6th of September following, having spent a day at Urarinas, and another at San Regis, and having been under the necessity of delaying his voyage for several hours, on account of the tempests which the winds are apt to excite on the waters of the Maranon. At the time when he associated himself, in his parochial district of Cumbasa, with father Sobreviela, ten of his Indian parishioners insisted on accompanying him, binding themselves by the most solemn promises to brave with him the utmost perils.[33] In despite, however, of this fidelity and attachment, father Girbal was aware, that to venture himself with them by the Ucayali, would be to expose himself to a manifest danger. They were already fatigued by the service they had performed; the climate was not congenial to them; and they had not the least knowledge of the new route that was to be followed. For these reasons he obliged them to return to their own country, thus depriving himself of the consolation of reckoning, in the prosecution of his labours, and until they should be brought to a conclusion, on a few faithful and compassionate friends. In their stead, fourteen stout Indians, belonging to the Omaguas tribe, all of them skilful navigators, were engaged; and with these Indians, in two canoes, he ploughed the Maranon on the 12th, in quest of the mouth of the Ucayali. They did not reach it until the evening of the 13th; and at that station they passed the night in the canoes.
The dawn of the morning of the 14th of September had begun to illumine the extensive and dreary forests through which flows the ancient and opulent Paro, when the sight of this immense solitude brought to the recollection of father Girbal the tragical scene of fourteen brethren put to death by the very barbarians in search of whom he had undertaken his peregrination. Oppressed by this melancholy idea, and by the reflection of the little fruit that had been derived from the spilling of so much innocent blood, he directed his clamours to Heaven from the inmost recesses of his heart, “not that he should be freed from the fatigues, hunger, thirst, and other sufferings which might supervene, and terminate in his death; but that his soul might be penetrated by a ray of that divine light which was solely capable of exciting and kindling in his breast the charity necessary to instruct, reduce, and convert this portion of infidels, surrounded by the thick gloom of paganism.” Relying on the protection of the Supreme Being, whom he implored with the humble and fervent supplications which have been cited, he began to struggle against the currents of the above-mentioned river. In proportion as he overcame them, and penetrated by its great windings, he admired the spacious banks, which afford indisputable proofs of the great quantity of water this river supplies, in inundating the plains of the Sacrament at the time of its increase. Among the multitude of fishes, amphibious creatures, and quadrupeds, which presented themselves to his view, the daring cayman, and the resolute and industrious tiger, equally claimed his attention. It is necessary to be constantly on the watch against the former of these animals, which darts on the canoes without dread or apprehension. The latter is the only one which dares to attack these ferocious amphibia, and which, imitating man in the fishing of turtles, makes his provision for several days.[34] Engaged on the one hand in the contemplation of the varied and admirable spectacle of nature; and molested on the other by the inserts, the heat of the climate, and the humidity and exposure of the spots at which he passed his nights, father Girbal continued to advance until the 25th of September, without encountering, in any part of the Ucayali, within the current, the smallest rock or shoal to impede the navigation.
On the 26th, at break of day, the reverend father continued his peregrination, not a little surprized at the proximity of the savage tribes, whose traces were multiplied every moment. He fluctuated between fear and confidence, without being able to divine the result of the first encounter. With this he was soon made acquainted, since, at eight in the morning, he perceived a-head, a flotilla of nineteen canoes, which, by the aid of the oars and currents, descended with great velocity. The clamour made by the Indians, on descrying the two canoes which ascended, was distinctly to be heard. In similar encounters, the sound of the born announces peace among, these barbarians, by whom, if they are amicably disposed, it is returned. Father Girbal ordered his crews to sound theirs, which were instantly answered by the bobotas[35] of the strangers. A mutual confidence having been thus established, the canoes approached each other, and, the endearing title of friend having been interchanged, were brought to the nearest bank, where the parties landed, the savages surrounding father Girbal, and tendering to him their arms and their poor viands. Not satisfied with the information of the eyes, they touched with the hands every part of his face, more particularly the women, who formed a part of the group. An act of this nature appears to be a mechanical movement, inspired by admiration and delight. Our soul being moved by these two passions, in the presence of a rare, or wished for object, doubts the possession, fancying it an illusion of the eyes; and calls for the information of the touch, which, united to the former sense, constitutes the sure criterion that distinguishes real bodies from phantoms.[36]
The above assemblage was composed of Indians belonging to the tribe of Conivos, who, under command of their Cacique, were on their way to Omaguas, provided with bed coverings and resins, for the purpose of bartering them, if it should be possible, for working tools, of which they stand so much in need, that a hatchet generally costs them a canoe, in the construction of which they have toiled many days.[37]
Among their slaves they had several belonging to the Mayoruna nation, inhabiting the forests that border on the river Tapichi, at its remote sources. They are otherwise named barbudos (bearded), because they have bushy beards, similar to those of the Spaniards. They derive their descent from the soldiers who were dispersed in the above forests, at the time when their captain, Pedro de Ursoa, was assassinated by Diego Lope de Aguirre. The method to which they have recourse to rid themselves of their beards, is very singular, and cannot fail to be extremely painful: they take two shells, which they employ as if they were pincers; and passing them precipitately, drag out hair after hair, making such contortions and grimaces as provoke laughter, at the same time that they excite compassion. It would appear that the ancient inhabitants of Peru had a similar custom, in divesting themselves of their slender beards; since in the museum of Lima there are several pairs of small silver pincers, which were found in their pagan temples, and which, according to the tradition of their descendants, were applied to the above purpose.
Father Girbal having partaken of the hospitalities of the Cacique, in company with several of the principal Conivos, and having made a few presents to his kind and liberal host, separated from him, full of satisfaction, to prosecute his voyage. On the 40th, a Cordillera, which, running S. E. and N. W. resembled that which forms the small strait of the Huallaga, was descried to the west. Notwithstanding the intercourse of our traveller with the Conivos had contributed not a little to tranquillize him, and had induced him to change his opinion relatively to these barbarians, still, considering that they might be alarmed by his sudden arrival in their towns, he ordered a canoe to advance, for the purpose of announcing his arrival.
On the 2d of October, the Indians by whom this canoe was navigated, brought information, that, in communicating the instructions they had received, to two of the inhabitants of Sarayacu, the latter had inquired whether they came escorted by soldiers; and that, on their receiving a reply in the negative, they had promised to impart the intelligence to their tribe. While this was passing, a canoe was descried with two men, who, as soon as the tokens of friendship had been made, approached with demonstrations of joy. These testimonies were sufficient to fix the resolution of father Girbal, who, without farther hesitation, proceeded in quest of the town, instead of waiting the expected reply. Under the guidance of the strangers, the canoes entered a large canal to the westward, contending against its current; and at the distance of a league, fell in with several other canoes, which had on board their cargoes of provisions, and had come out purposely to receive them. After many manifestations of tenderness and sincerity, the voyage was prosecuted, the canoes keeping company with each other, and navigating the canal until they reached the lake, at the distance of two leagues, at which it originated. They landed on its bank, where this first and inconsiderable population of Sarayacu is established, the town being surrounded by thick plantations of wood, to the end that the inhabitants may be under cover, and on the watch, to defend themselves from the pirates of Paro, Ene, Perene, &c. who infest the Ucayali, and plunder the Indian settlements made on its banks.
The reception was accompanied by all the splendour the wretched Panos could display. Alternating their songs, which were accompanied by the pipe and tabor, by dancings and clamorous rejoicings, they surrounded father Girbal, and conducted him to house of the chief, where, far from meeting with the customary ornaments among these savages, the trophies of death, there was merely a kind of canopy, formed of the most valuable coverings, beneath which the new guest was seated. Prostrate at his feet, they surveyed him attentively, and exerted all their faculties to discover, by his demonstrations, and through the medium of the interpreter, the wishes of a man whom they regarded as an oracle sent from heaven.
Here our feelings are wrought to an extreme degree of compassion. How are the descriptions of the miserable Pano, in which he is represented as sanguinary and barbarous, to be reconciled with these traits of sincerity and humanity? And why, these Indians being the relatives and ancient allies of the Omaguas and Cocamas, converted to Christianity;—why, being absolutely dependent on them for the implements of agriculture, without which they find it extremely difficult to subsist;[38]—why, we ask, now that so many years have elapsed since the Maynas nations were reduced, with so favourable a disposition on the part of the Panos, and with the advantageous means presented by the commerce[39] to which they are urged by their very mode of subsistence; far from having been united, so as to form a commonalty or republic, they have been driven, on the other hand, to the hard necessity of labouring under apprehensions for their personal safety, and regarding themselves as enemies? A simple shepherd who penetrated into the interior of the mountains of Caxamarquilla, was able to draw over all the Indians who were there dispersed, to religion, and to the state, by engaging them in a mutual and pacific commerce, which enabled them to comprehend the sanctity of the former, and to appreciate the advantages of an union with the latter; insomuch, that they have constantly remained faithful and attached, and have not suffered the smallest molestation, amid the struggles and contentions of the neighbouring tribes, on the mountain of salt, in the great Pajonal, &c.
We forbear to inquire into the causes of a phenomenon so different from those that have appeared to govern the world, and dispose of the fate of its inhabitants. The genius that presides over these causes, enlightened by the Divinity, is like a fire which, issuing from the pole, runs with a celerity that the sight cannot overtake, to station itself in the centre of the sphere; and illumines in an instant the atoms even which were concealed by the obscure veil of night. We, on the other hand, resemble, in our researches, the faint crepuscules that divide the empires of light and darkness: by the help of them we can scarcely record the greater bodies; and are compelled to recur to the help of the touch, not to be deceived. We will return to our history.
Father Girbal spent four days among the Panos dwelling at the side of the above-mentioned lake; and on the fifth, took the necessary measures to proceed in quest of those who inhabit the banks of the river Sarayacu. He descended the Ucayali by the canal through which he had passed on his entrance, the Indian boatmen having to overcome its current by their oars; and on the 6th of October, at four in the afternoon, disembogued by the Sarayacu, within the distance of a league from the port, which he shortly after reached. The inhabitants, through some mistake, not having been made acquainted with his intended visit, instantly took up arms; but as soon as they had ascertained that it was a pacific assemblage, commanded by a friar of the Order of St. Francis, they exchanged their implements of war for the green boughs of peace, and, surrounding our traveller with a thousand tokens of benevolence and affection, conducted him to the house of the chief. This chief was a female, distinguished from the rest, as well by her demeanour, as by the modest propriety of her dress, which resembled that of a nun. She proved to be the identical Anna Rosa of whom mention was made in the history of the missions of Caxamarquilla,[40] and who, having been brought to Lima in her infancy, by the reverend fathers, had spent several months in the monastery of Santa Rosa of Viterbo. She still preserved a strong attachment to the christian religion, endeavouring to enforce the observance of its maxims as far as it was in her power. She lamented the tragical fate of the missionaries who had perished in the year 1767; and informed father Girbal, that the Chipeos had been the authors of these sacrilegious attempts, which, she assured him, had been avenged by the Indians belonging to her nation, who had, on that account, engaged them in a bloody conflict, which had terminated in their defeat. She likewise informed him that, on the entrance of friar Manuel Gil by the route of Pozuzu, her tribe went out to meet him, and delivered him from the hands of the barbarians, who had assumed a menacing aspect, and would not allow him to proceed on his way. She added, that friar Francisco de St Joseph[41] having been solicited by her nation to remain with them, and having promised them to return, they had, three successive summers, gone up to the confluence of the Pachitea and Ucayali, and had as often descended the Maranon, with the hope of being able to meet with him. The relations, deportment, and wishes of Anna Rosa, were a source of much consolation to father Girbal. To the end that he might take every advantage of so favourable a disposition, and considering that the descent from Lamas by the Huallaga and Maranon, and the ascent by the Ucayali, would lead him a considerable distance out of his direct route, he conceived the design of crossing the Plain of the Sacrament. He was more particularly urged to this attempt, because, according to the information given to him by the unconverted Indians in whose presence he was, and who made a voluntary offer to accompany him, he might find a passage out of the Huallaga in front of Cumbasa. This project, if carried into effect, presented a thousand advantages, not only by shortening the distance, but likewise because the Panes, on seeing the good government established at Tarapoto and Cumbasa, might conceive an affection for a civilized mode of life. With this intention he dismissed the Indians belonging to the Omaguas nation, solely retaining the little boy who acted as interpreter, and abandoned himself to the direction of the barbarians, confiding in the Divine Providence.
On the 11th, the above-mentioned enterprise of passing to Cumbasa, was commenced. Father Girbal was escorted by five canoes manned with Indians belonging to the tribes of Panos and Conivos, with whom he descended by the Sarayacu to the Ucayali, in search of the river Manoa. After having entered the second of these rivers, and made a progress of a league and a half in its navigation, they touched at a town inhabited by the Conivos, where they were under the necessity of spending the night, in consequence of a furious hurricane having supervened. On the 12th, the canoes again proceeded on their route; and a little before sunset, brought to at the bank of the Ucayali, to the end that the party might pass the night in a country house in the vicinity, surrounded by several cultivated plots of ground. It belonged to one of the principal Panos, by whom father Girbal was accompanied. In the midst of the great apartment was an elevated seat, representing a throne, to which he was conducted with great ceremony, to repose after his fatigues.
On the 13th, the boatmen having had recourse to their oars, to be enabled to stem the current, the canoes reached an island inhabited by the Conivos; and, a little higher, were abreast of the ruins of a town which had been inhabited by the Indians of Sarayacu in the time of the missionaries. In the vicinity of these ruins the company passed the night, on account of the river having, in that part, considerably overflowed its banks, so as to render the navigation dangerous without the aid of the light. The voyage was prosecuted on the 14th, at a very early hour; and at nine in the morning, the canoes were off the mouth of the river Manoa, which, on account of the extreme rapidity of the stream, is named by the savages, Cuxhiabatay, or the waters of a strong current. After having endeavoured to stem it with the oars until four in the afternoon, the company landed on one of the banks. But little progress was made on the 15th, on account of the moroseness of the Indians. On the 16th, at noon, the party landed at the first town of the Manoitas Indians, the inhabitants of which displayed great hospitality In their reception of father Girbal and his companions. Having passed two hours with these Indians, our travellers again embarked in the canoes, to proceed to the second rancheria, or assemblage of Indian huts, at the distance of a league. They passed the night there; and were engaged during the whole of the 17th, in rowing in quest of the last of the Manoitas towns, at which they arrived on the morning of the 18th, their escort having been joined in the interim by two canoes with which they fell in on their route. The town In question had been the principal residence of the fathers belonging to the conversions. Its view revived, in father Girbal, the remembrance of their tragical end; and his grief was wrought to the highest pitch, when he saw, on the necks of several of the female Indians, necklaces formed of the fragments of the sacred vases. He could not find any vestige of the temple, the site formerly occupied by which was now converted into a plantation of maize. Under these distressing circumstances, he assumed an outward gaiety and content, while his heart was a prey to the most harassing reflections; and remained until the 20th, making every arrangement which prudence could suggest, to accomplish his project of effecting a passage to Cumbasa, with thirty uncivilized Indians, of either age and sex, who were desirous to accompany him.
By what grateful object was this retinue of Indians, dwelling on the banks of the Ucayali, impelled to plough the waters of the Huallaga? The utmost extent of their intelligence was bounded by their wishes, which were their sole guide, in engaging in this hazardous enterprise. Undertaking to force a passage across mountains covered with briars, to make good their way over the formidable crags and precipices which descend from the Cordillera, and to pass rivers not yet recorded, the waters of which had but just begun to flow, what had they to expert beside misery, hunger, and shipwreck? Father Girbal had to encounter the whole of this series of calamities, to the extreme degree of not having any other shelter than a piece of coarse cloth in which to wrap himself, or any other food than the wild fruits the forests presented to him. When, allowing himself to be swept along by the current of a rivers he fancied that he was impelled towards the wished-for banks of the Huallaga, he unexpectedly encountered those of the Manoa. Such a disappointment would have entirely overpowered his wearied spirit, if it were not, that in great trials, there is a certain description of lenitive which enables us to shun despair.
Finding himself once more, on the 13th of November, in the midst of the Manoa tribes, father Girbal’s sole intention was to return by the track he had originally followed. The rivers Cuxhiabatay and Ucayali had been considerably swollen by the rains. Having provided two canoes, he abandoned himself, on the 14th, to the impulsion of the one and the other; and on the 18th, reached the first town of Sarayacu, which he had fallen in with at the time of his ascent. He remained there until the 20th, when he again prosecuted his route; and on the 28th, at nine in the morning, reached the town of San Regis, belonging to the Maynas missions, having passed from the Ucayali to the Maranon by the channel named Pocati; insomuch, that in twelve days, deducing the two he had spent in the above town of Sarayacu, he descended from the first Manoa settlement to the Maranon; while, in the ascent, he employed nearly treble that time, in going over the same distance. The unconverted Indians who accompanied him, entertained certain apprehensions, which prevented them from descending as far as the Maynas tribes; and being desirous, on that account, not to proceed any further in the navigation of the Maranon, he dismissed them with many caresses, and with a grateful sense of the urbanity they had displayed, in escorting him as far as San Regis. The Indians attached to the Maynas missions, having, with great generosity, supplied him with the same number of canoes, and with whatever he might need in his ascent to Cumbasa, father Girbal proceeded on his voyage by the Maranon. On the 11th of December he reached the town cf the lake of Gran Cocoma, and contending against the current of the Huallaga, entered, on the 29th, his doctrina, or spiritual jurisdiction, of Cumbasa, after an absence of upwards of four months. Thus terminated his long and painful peregrination.
It may be attended by great and manifest advantages both to religion and to the state. The idea of the ferociousness and barbarity of the uncivilized Indians inhabiting the Pampa del Sacramento has been done away; and the dread which prevented their reduction has vanished like a fanciful dream. They are heartily desirous to be instructed in the maxims of Christianity;—maxims which, being directed to the welfare and felicity of man, penetrate without violence into his spirit, and obtain a complete mastery over his passions. Religion, in benefiting man, has an infinitely greater power to civilize him, to keep him in good order and subjection, and to sustain the august thrones of legitimate and benign potentates, than all the accumulated artifices which despots have invented to tyrannize over him.
The navigation of the Ucayali having been explored, it has been ascertained that it may be undertaken at any of the seasons of the year, without dread of encountering the impediment of rock or shoal; and experience has demonstrated the celerity with which the descent from Manoa to the Maynas settlements may be accomplished;—a circumstance which, in the first instance, presents a prompt refuge to the missionaries, in the case of sudden attacks. These favourable principles having been combined with others which prudence may dictate, may give rise to several flourishing missions, which may not be exposed to the disasters that attended the former. What alone is necessary, is to seize on the occasion as it presents itself. Supported by the protection and authority of our excellent governor,[42] father Manuel Sobreviela has already had recourse to the most effectual expedients. Father Narciso Girbal y Barcelo, who, at the commencement of the present year, 1791, reached Lima to render an account of his peregrination, has returned, by his order, to the above-mentioned towns of Sarayacu and Manoa, with two other priests, and two lay brothers, one of them by profession a carpenter, and the other a blacksmith. These are to be joined by twenty inhabitants of Tarapoto and Cumbasa. It is his intention to establish, by the means of couriers, a correspondence which, by giving timely notice of all that may occur, may enable him to provide against and direct the consequences.
In the peregrination of father Sobreviela it was observed, that from Lima to the lake of Gran Cocama twenty-three days are employed; between the lake and San Regis, or Omaguas, three are consumed; thence the ascent by the Ucayali to Sarayacu requires eighteen days; making in the whole forty-four. In returning, the descent from Sarayacu to Omaguas is performed in seven; but from Omaguas to Lima, many days are necessarily occupied, because, according to the usual computation, the ascent of the rivers requires three days, to make the progress which is accomplished in one day in descending them. In proportion as the Ucayali shall be frequented, the time which is now consumed will be lessened, for this reason, that there are, beyond a doubt, several arms, or inlets, which follow a direct course,[43] without any of the windings of the bed of the river, generally attempted by those who are little versed in the navigation. The one half of the time, on the most moderate calculation, will be saved, whenever the track of the Mayro shall be rendered practicable; since, in descending by the Pachitea and Ucayali to Manoa,[44] a circuitous route of upwards of three hundred leagues will be avoided. The new conversions having, with the help of the Mayro and Omaguas, been secured, will serve as a central point, whence the beneficent light of the gospel will shed and expand its rays, not only over the nations which people the interior of the Plains of the Sacrament, but likewise over all those which extend, through a territory without limits, to the other side of Paro.
And who can calculate the advantages which will result to the state, if, with religion, the commerce and navigation of these rivers should be introduced? The discovery of America caused a general revolution in the political system of societies, in the arts, and even in the sciences. The civilization of Dorado,[45] of Enim, and of Paititi, may bestow on them a new aspect, and augment the colours which embellish the delineation of South America. San Joachim de Omaguas, situated at the confluence of the Ucayali and Maranon, will then represent the ancient Tyre, at whose ports arrived the ships and productions of all the world. By the river of the Amazons will enter those of North America, those of Europe, and whatever Africa and Asia furnish to the latter. By the Pastasa and Maranon, Quito will send her cloths and statues. By the Huallaga and the Mayro, Lima will transmit the delicious oil distilled by the fruitful olives which adorn the coasts bathed by the Pacific Ocean. By the Apurimac will be conveyed the paintings and sugars of Cusco, and the gold of Carabaya. By the Beni will be navigated the linens of Moxos, and all the riches of Paititi. Rendered opulent by her marts, San Joachim de Omaguas, whilom regarded as the capital of the empire of Dorado, will cease to belie the idea of her magnificence which was then entertained.
The tranquil city of Huanuco, situated in the centre of the haven at the confluence of the Huallaga and Mayro, may enjoy the same advantages; and then all the riches which may be there collected, may be conveyed with safety to Callao, to be forwarded to their august proprietor. The revolution which this new commerce will induce in the system of power, and in navigation, will be followed by an equal revolution in the sciences. The philosopher will have to contemplate the canals opened by the hands of Nature, in the midst of the formidable mountains of the Cordillera, to afford a passage to the waters. The naturalist will be engaged in examining the great variety of unknown animals and plants. The geographer will no longer place the capital of the empire of the Yncas in the centre of the lofty regions of South America, but on the ports of the sea by which it is bathed to the north; neither will he, between these coasts and those of the south, extend immense spaces, when the port of Callao is distant three degrees only from Mayro and Playa-Grande. With admiration history will relate, that in Ferrol, barks were constructed which had to navigate on the summits of the Andes mountains, passing over a plane of an elevation of two thousand toises above the surface of the ocean. All will appear. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The idea is enchanting;—the reality will be the work of time. ENTRANCES INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORY FROM THE SIDE OF HUANUCO.
Friar Philip Luyando, belonging to the provincial Order of the Twelve Apostles of Lima, was the first to engage in this enterprise. In the year 1631, he entered with a few companions, by the broken ground of Chinchao, the mountainous territory of Huanuco, with the glorious view of converting the pagan nations, the Panataguas, Chuscos, Tulumayos, Tinganeses, and Carapachos, who were there dispersed;[47] to the south, from the confines of Chinchao and Pillao to the opposite bank of the river Huanuco; to the north, as far as the banks of the river Tulumayo; and to the west and east, to those of the river Monzon, and the rugged land of Insuro. In a little time he succeeded in the conversion of the above-mentioned nations, and founded six populous towns,[48] which he named Tonua, Cuchero, Yaupat, Chusco, Tulumayo, and St. Philip of Tinganeses. In the year 1641, the apostolical missionaries, friars Caspar Vera, and Juan Cabezas,[49] augmented this spiritual conquest by the reduction of the Tipquis and Quidquidcanas tribes, laying the foundations, in the year 1643, of two towns, under the denominations of Trinidad of Tipquis, and Magdalena of Quidquidcanas.
In the year 1644, friars Ignaciode Irarraga, Geronimo Ximenes, and Francisco Suarez, proceeded from Tulumayo, and having travelled on foot over the mountainous territory, with incredible risks and fatigue, to the distance of eighty leagues in a northern direction, discovered the nation of the Payansos, consisting of upwards of twenty thousand souls, and inhabiting a valley of four leagues in breadth, and twenty-five in length, situated in the very centre of the branch of the Cordillera which runs between the river Huanuco and the Plain of the Sacrament. On receiving the information of so abundant a harvest, several other ecclesiastics took the same route, and laboured with so much fervour and success, that in the year 1650, they had founded, in the above-mentioned valley, four towns, which were entitled la Trinidad, Concepcion, St. Louis, and St. Francis, and in which upwards of seven thousand souls resided.[50]
In the year 1651, friar Alonzo Caballero[51] proceeded from the Payansos to the Callisecas and Setebos, inhabiting the banks of the Ucayali, and, after a short stay, left with them two priests, and three lay brothers, who, by the practice of much toleration, established these barbarians in two towns. These establishments were shortly afterwards destroyed by the Sipibos, whose cruelty led them to put all the ecclesiastics to death. This disastrous event did not extinguish the fervent zeal of friar Lorenzo Tineo, and of several other apostolic missionaries, who, having provided themselves with an escort of twenty soldiers, penetrated, in the year 1661, to the above nation of Setebos,[52] and soon succeeded in the conversion of upwards of two thousand souls, who were settled in two towns, which did not subsist, however, for any considerable time. The commander of the escort being charmed with the climate of the mountainous territory, quitted the new settlements with his soldiery; and the treacherous Callisecas no sooner perceived that the priests were left unprotected, than they attacked them in the town named Chupasnao, the latter defending themselves against the invasion with fire-arms. They at length found it prudent to flee from the danger, and retreated to Tulumayo, with a hundred Setebos, who followed them with an anxious wish to become christians. Notwithstanding the necessity of this retreat, and the imminent danger to which the above missionaries had been exposed, father Alonzo Caballero did not abandon the hope of the reduction of the Callisecas. Having been joined by friar Manuel Biedma, he returned with a few soldiers in the year 1663; and in that of 1665, a town, provided with a church, was completed.[53] In this place he left, as converter, the above-mentioned friar Manuel Biedma, who was succeeded by friar Rodrigo Vazabil. The establishment remained without any particular occurrence until the year 1667, when, for want of the necessary support, the conversion was most lamentably reduced: the Callisecas having entered into a confederacy with several other nations, made an irruption into the territory of the Payansos, where they put to death many christians, and among them the reverend fathers, friar Francisco Mexia, president of the Panataguas missions, and friar Alonzo of Madrid, together with five lay brothers. On this account, and in consequence of the small-pox, which raged with extreme violence among the converted Indians, from the above time to the year 1670, the conversions of Panataguas went on gradually diminishing, insomuch that in the year 1691, four towns only were to be reckoned, and in them not more than two hundred souls of either sex, and of the different ages, but so vicious, that scarcely a trace of Christianity was to be found among them. In the year 1704, these conversions were completely lost, by the death of friar Geronimo de los Rios, who was barbarously murdered by a band of infidels, conjectured to belong to the tribe of Casibos. Not any further vestige of them was now to be found, beside the little town of Cuchero, inhabited by a very few Indians.[54]
In the year 1712, the venerable founder of the college of Ocopa, friar Francisco de San Joseph, native of the city of Mondejar in Alcarria, arrived at Huanuco, and seeing the impossibility of re-establishing the Panataguas missions, penetrated into the mountainous territory, on the eastern side, until he came to the river Tuctani, on the banks of which he converted the nation of the Omages,[55] and founded the town of Pozuzu, which still exists, together with that of Tilinga, afterwards annexed to the preceding one. For the relief of the missionaries, on their entering or leaving the mountainous territory, and for the rearing of cattle destined for their support, he had an hospital built on a site named Chaglla. With the same view, another was erected at a spot named Muna. Each of them was provided with a church; and they are both at this time in the centre of towns inhabited by converted Indians.
From the year 1726 to that of 1755, eight entrances were made from Pozuzu to the haven of the river Mayro, and the Plain of the Sacrament,[56] without any other beneficial result beside that of having led to the discovery of the nation of Carapachos, and of having enabled the missionaries to collect a few fugitive Indians belonging to the tribe of Omages. In the year 1760, the fathers of Ocopa penetrated the mountainous territory, with immense difficulties and fatigues, from the conversions of Caxamarquilla to the banks of the Ucayali, where they accomplished the conversion of the Setebos, or Manoitas. In the year 1766, they had extended their spiritual conquest to the Sipibos and Conivos, who were settled in five towns, having the denominations of San Francisco of Manoa, Santo Domingo of Pisqui, Santa Barbara of Achani, Santa Cruz of Aguaitia, and San Miguel of the Conivos. With the intention of affording succour to these conversions, with less inconvenience and danger, by the route of Mayro and the river Pachitea, three expeditions from Pozuzu to the Plain of the Sacrament, were undertaken in the years 1763, 1765, and 1767.[57] The first of these terminated fatally, father Francisco Francis having been put to death by the Casivos, after he had navigated by the Pachitea to nine degrees of latitude. The second reached the same site, but without reaping any other advantage beside that of having explored and noted the navigation of the Pachitea, from the haven of Mayro, situated in the latitude of nine degrees fifty-seven minutes, to the unfortunate port where father Francis was killed. The third went beyond the confluence of the Pachitea and Ucayali, but did not reach Manoa, in consequence of the melancholy intelligence communicated by the unconverted Indians, that the Sipibos, and other nations, had revolted, and murdered the whole of the missionaries, consisting of six priests and nine lay brothers. From the documents collevted on these expeditions, and from those obtained from the one made in the year 1783, by order of the viceroy, for the purpose of ascertaining whether a road for the passage of cattle could be opened from Pozuzu to the haven of Mayro, it results, that from Huanuco to Pozuzu there is a distance of thirty-three leagues, which may be performed with ease in six days. From Pozuzu to Mayro, the computed distance is sixteen leagues, which require three days;, and from the haven of Mayro to the union of the rivers Pachitea and Ucayali, seventy leagues are reckoned, on account of the great windings made by the river. These may be navigated in five days; and the passage from the above-mentioned union to Manoa, in two or three. Hence it appears, that from Huanuco to Manoa there are a hundred and seventy leagues, which may be travelled by land and in canoes in sixteen days, as soon as the inhabitants of Panao shall have completed the road, for the passage of mules, from Pozuzu to Mayro, for the sum of four thousand piastres, agreeably to the formal contract they entered into with me in the month of July of the last year, 1790; and whenever the fortified town at the mouth of the haven shall be built, conformably to the mandate of his Majesty, inserted in various schedules, more particularly in those of the years 1777 and 1779.
When I perceived, in the year 1787, that all the roads for the restoration of the Manoa missions, by Caxamarquilla, Mayro, and Cuchero, were closed and impracticable; since, although it was possible by the latter route to proceed as far as the river Huanuco, both canoes and boatmen had been wanted since the year 1783, when the Indians were removed to the banks of the river Patayrrhondos, where a town was built, and named Playa Grande;—I resolved to open, and traced out accordingly, in the above year, a road from Huanuco to that town; giving notice, that from its haven the descent to the Maranon, or river of the Amazons, might be effected in ten days; that the traveller might proceed thence to the mouth of the Ucayali in four days; and that he might ascend in less than twenty to the Manoa settlements. I have prosecuted with much industry the opening of the above road, during the five years of my government; and this undertaking having at length been successfully accomplished, a portion of mountainous territory, of extreme fertility, and of the extent of upwards of nineteen leagues, has been gained, to the great advantage of the inhabitants of Huanuco, at the same time that the means have been afforded to commence the restoration of the Manoa missions, as has been related with clearness and precision by the authors of the Peruvian Mercury, in the narrative of the travels which have just been concluded by the Huallaga and Ucayali. ENTRANCES INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORY BY THE SIDE OF TARMA.
Although the Cordillera of the Andes presents, on the side of Tarma, difficult roads by which to penetrate into the mountainous territory, still two passages have been effected as far as the mountain of salt. On the first of these occasions, the route which was followed was from the town of Paucartambo by that of Huancabamba; and in this enterprise six days were employed. The second expedition was directed from Tarma, by the rugged grounds of Palca and Chanchamayo, and reached the mountain of salt within the same space of time. The above-mentioned mountain is frequented by many uncivilized Indians, who proceed thither from the remotest parts of the elevated territory, in quest of the salt for their consumption and commerce. The vein of salt runs from the summit of the mountain, to the south-west, over a space of more than three leagues, and follows an equal distance towards the north-east, with a surface of thirty yards in breadth. It is of the kind denominated rock salt, blended with a certain portion of clay.
The first Franciscan monk who penetrated into the mountainous territory on this side, was friar Geronimo Ximenes,[58] who, in the year 1635, set out from the town of Huancabamba, and reached the above-mentioned mountain, on which he built a chapel, with the denomination of San Francisco de las Salinas. He proceeded thence to Quimiri, where he laid the foundations of a town which he entitled San Buenaventura: and, being anxious to propagate the doctrines of Christianity among other barbarous nations, embarked, and descended by the river Perene, in company with friar Cristoval Larios, and twenty-eight Spaniards, all of whom perished by the hands of the barbarous Campas, in the year 1637. They were succeeded, in the spiritual conquest of the barbarians dwelling on the mountain of salt, and on the banks of the river Perene, by the apostolical missionaries, friars Joseph de Santa Maria, and Cristoval Mesa, whose efforts were so successful, that in the year 1640, seven chapels were founded for the benefit of the converts belonging to the nations of Omages and Campas.
In the year 1641, the venerable father, friar Matias de Yllescas,[59] and the lay brothers, Pedro de la Cruz, and Francisco Pena, propelled by their ardent zeal for the conversion of souls, braving all perils, and confiding solely in the Divine Providence, embarked at Quimiri, and after having explored every part of the river Perene, prosecuted their voyage by the Paro and Ucayali. Having reached the vicinity of the river Aguaitai,[60] they were slain by the cruel Sipibos, or Callisecas.
The common report, that the mountain of salt abounded in mines of gold, excited at that time the avarice of several Spaniards, who, having selected a chief, and prevailed on two Franciscan monks to bear them company, proceeded thither.[61] Although their presence gave great umbrage to the Indians, the latter dissembled, and treated them with an apparent friendship and submission. The Spaniards being desirous to penetrate still further into the mountainous territory, embarked with the two monks, and proceeded on their voyage, with the aid of the barbarians, who still persisted in their fictitious friendship until the third day of the navigation, when they recommended to them to lay aside their arms, on the pretext that they might, with more convenience, be stowed in the canoes, and would be less exposed to the wet. The Spaniards having yielded to their treacherous suggestion, came to a winding of the river, where an ambush had been provided. They were there, as well as the monks, slain by the arrows of the Indians, who had concealed themselves on the bank, with the exception of two, who had the presence of mind to snatch up each of them a pistol, with which they made head against the savages. The latter, terrified at the fire-arms, allowed them to pass unmolested, and fled to the mountains, where they concealed themselves. By this miscarriage, and others which succeeded, the conversion of the heathens inhabiting the mountain of salt was irrecoverably lost.[62]
In the year 1671, friar Alonzo Robles, accompanied by several priests and lay brothers, proceeded from Huancabamba to the mountain of salt, where he succeeded in the conversion of eight hundred Indians belonging to the tribes of Omages and Pacages.[63] In the year 1673, he augmented his spiritual conquest by upwards of two hundred Indians, whom he fixed in a town to which he gave the name of Santa Rosa of Quimiri, at a little distance from the spot where he had made a settlement for the former. Other barbarians belonging to the Omages tribe were converted daily, until at length several individuals, whose bounden duty it was to watch over the prosperity of the church and state, instigated by base motives of self interest, obtained, in the year 1674,[64] the government and direction of these unfortunate converts. The monks were no sooner divested of this trust, than the Indians, finding themselves deprived of their spiritual teachers and guides, returned to the mountains, and to paganism. In the course of the following years infinite pains were taken to re-establish the above-mentioned conversions; but without being attended by any other result beside that of the sacrifice of friars Juan Valera, Francisco Huerta, and Juan Zavala, the former of whom was cruelly massacred by the barbarians, in the year 1694,[65] at Huancabamba, and the latter, on the banks of the Ouimiri, about the same time.
These disastrous events, and the reflection that so many monks had from time to time perished by the hands of the infidels, made so strong an impression on those belonging to the provincial Order of the Twelve Apostles, that not one could be found with a sufficient resolution to undertake a new conquest, until the Divine Providence, in its unerring wisdom, directed the steps of the venerable founder of Ocopa, friar Francisco de San Joseph, in the year 1709, towards Tarma. Inspired by a fervent zeal for the salvation of the infidels, he solicited and encouraged the apostolical missionaries, friars Fernando de St. Joseph, Mateo Brabo, Honorio Matos, and Cristoval de San Joseph, to engage with him in this enterprise; and after he had executed a particular mission in the province of Tarma, penetrated with them, and two lay brothers, who joined the expedition, into the mountainous territory.[66] They there laboured with so much zeal and activity, that in the year 1730, nearly the whole of the nations dwelling on the banks of the river Perene were converted, and collected in six populous towns, under the denominations of Quimiri, Nixandaris, Cerro de la Sal, Eneno, Pichana, and San Tadeo de los Autes.[67]
In the above year, 1730, was discovered the great Pajonal, so called on account of the high grasses with which the mountains that surround it are thickly covered.[68] This Pajonal constitutes a considerable portion of the mountainous territory which extends from the rivers Ene and Perene, more than forty leagues to the north, and thirty from west to east. On the north-west side it limits the Plain of the Sacrament, from which it is divided by the river Pachitea; and on the west it stretches to the very lofty mountains which contribute their copious streams to the great Paro. The spiritual conquest of the infidels inhabiting the Andes mountains of the Pajonal, was first undertaken by the venerable father, friar Juan de la Marca, who penetrated thither from San Tadeo de los Antes, where the mountains allow a rugged entrance; and who, in the year 1733, had succeeded in founding two towns, which he named Tampianiqui and Aporoquiaqui. The abundance of the harvest discovered in the Pajonal, drew thither several celebrated labourers, namely, the venerable fathers, friar Manuel Bajo, friar Alonzo, belonging to the Order of the Holy Ghost, friar Cristoval Pacheco, and friar Fernando, belonging to the Order of Jesus. Such was the effect of their zeal, that in the year 1735, they had augmented the conversion to five numerous towns, the Indians residing in which were docile, attentive to the instructions they received, and carefully enrolled. Friars Pedro Dominguez, Francisco Gazo, and several others, hastened to their succour, and wrought with so much earnestness and activity, that in the year 1739, there were not less than ten towns of converts, containing upwards of twenty thousand Indians, without reckoning the very considerable numbers of adults and infants who had been swept off in the course of the preceding years, by sickness and other casualties, after having submitted to the baptismal ceremony, and embraced Christianity.
Such was the very flattering and successful progress made in these conversions, and in those of the mountain of salt, until at length, in the year 1742, a monster whom hell had engendered, swayed by ambition and pride, brought about their entire ruin, with the destruction of souls, lives, and properties, and in contempt of God and of the sovereign authority. This monster appeared in the person of the apostate Juan Santos, the pretended Ynca Atahualpa, whose open and declared rebellion was first manifested in the town of the great Pajonal, named Quisopango, whither he had been followed by a small number of conspirators. The flame might have been easily stifled on its breaking out, if the information given in the first instance by the converters had not been contemned. It was owing to this neglect that the rebel found time to reinforce himself, by bringing over new converts, and to fortify himself in the posts which enabled him to baffle the efforts of the troops, who had penetrated into the mountainous territory in various directions, with the intent of making him prisoner. The missionaries vented loud complaints when they perceived the gradual destruction of these very flourishing missions, which they had acquired and cultivated at the expence of their blood, sweat, and solicitude. The wish to maintain their converts in the christian faith, did not allow them to abandon these establishments; and they therefore came to the resolution to remain at their posts at every risk, and until the last extremity. This resolve was fatal to the venerable fathers, friars Domingo Garcia, and Joseph Cabanes,[69] who, together with a lay brother, were slain in the above year (1742), by the insurgents of the mountain of salt, at the time when roads were making to facilitate the passage of the troops destined by the viceroy to surprize and obtain possession of the rebel chief. Friars Francisco Otasua, and Salvador Pando,[70] notwithstanding this cruel massacre of their brethren, ventured to penetrate as far as Quimiri, where they remained during the space of three months, employing their most earnest endeavours to prevail on the rebel to surrender, but without effect. With a full persuasion of his obstinacy and perfidy, they retired, after an exposure to the most indignant treatment. Through a similar conviction, the other ecclesiastics yielded at length to the power of the rebel, and entirely abandoned their missions.
In the year 1779, at which time the present most venerable guardian of the Order of Franciscan Monks of Lima, father Joseph Sanchez, was prelate of Ocopa, an entrance was made into the mountainous territory, with a view to the restoration of the above-mentioned missions on the mountain of salt. The college undertook to defray the expences of opening a road, for the psssage of cattle, from Palca to Chanchamayo; and the construction of a fort, to be provided with troops to repel the invasions of the enemy, was to be at the charge of the royal treasury. This was effected, and a settlement made of Indians residing on the frontiers; but on consideration of the risk of being intercepted by the barbarians, to which those who penetrated into the interior, by the new road over the broken ground of Palca, were constantly exposed, and for various other cogent reasons which presented themselves, the viceroy, in 1784, ordered the fort to be demolished, and the troops, settlers, and missionaries, to be withdrawn.
In the year 1787, it was resolved by the supreme authority, to open a new road, secure from the invasion of the barbarians, on the side of the valley of Vitoc. The direction and management of this enterprise were confided to Don Juan Maria Galves, governor and intendant of Tarma, who superintended the progress of the workmen with so much activity and zeal, that in the year 1788, travellers and beasts of burden were enabled to pass to the above-mentioned valley, where a fort was constructed, and provided with a respectable garrison. On this occasion I contributed a supply of provisions and working tools, in addition to which I caused a chapel and dwelling-house to be built for two missionaries, who still remain there in the enjoyment of the benefices afterwards conferred on them.
All our labours and exertions will, however, be of little avail, if we do not succeed in obtaining possession of the mountain of salt. In the case of accomplishing this necessary aim, a fort should be constructed near the confluence of the river Chanchamayo with the Marancocha, and another on the above mountain, conformably to the ordonnance contained in the royal schedule dated in the month of March 1751. This very necessary project may be accomplished, at the present time, at a small expence. Thanks to the Divine Providence, there is no longer any dread, by the route leading to Vitoc, of a surprize on the part of the infidels, whose hostility, in the entrance by Palca, was greatly exaggerated by those who were determined to throw obstacles in the way of the enterprise. In the above-mentioned valley we are already in possession of two towns, protected by a fort, which, in case of invasion, may receive prompt succours, not only from the inhabitants of the department of Tarma, but likewise from that of Jauga. To the end that this might be the more readily accomplished, I caused to be opened, in the year 1789, a route of communication from Monabamba to the valley of Vitoc. It now only remains to lay open the five leagues of road from this valley to the rivers Chanchamayo and Marancocha; and that, at their confluence, which is at this time the boundary line between the Chunchos Indians and those converted to christianity, a fort should be constructed, by those who are interested in the success of the enterprise, with timbers hewn from the large trees with which their banks are covered.
This fort having been established, and a settlement made, on the site which has been pointed out, of Indians inhabiting the frontiers, the troops may be removed to a convenient station on the opposite bank of the river; and the towns which may be deemed necessary, may be founded at such a distance from each other, as to enable them to afford a reciprocal aid, as well by land as by water. In this way we may enter without risk or danger by the valley of Quimiri and Nixandaris, and may advance towards the mountain of salt, where the respectable fortification which has been ordered by our sovereign, ought to be constructed. We may follow the reduction and subjection of the nations of infidels and apostates who either reside in the two small towns above cited, or have retired to the interior of the mountainous territory. The new populations may be formed, not only of the idolatrous Indians whom we shall be able to entice by the means of presents and commerce, but likewise of those who will voluntarily seek an establishment in those very fertile tracks of land, and of the many poor and lazy Indians on the frontiers, who scarcely possess what is absolutely necessary to the maintenance of their wretched families. But to the end that the latter may enter at a seasonable time, to engage in the tasks requisite for the planting of the portions of ground which may be allotted to them, it is essential that the sub-delegates should have them enregistered, and keep them under a strict restraint. These poor families may be subsisted, at the commencement, on the salted meats and maize with which the college of Ocopa is enabled to supply them, from the alms it collects, until they can gather the first fruits, consisting of beans, squashes, maize, sweet potatoes, and mani, all of which come to maturity in the space of four months. With these resources they may be enabled to reach the end of the year, when their lands will supply them with an abundance of plantains, yucas, and other productions. They should afterwards be obliged to form plantations of sugar-canes, coca, and cotton; and, in exchange for these commodities, the inhabitants of the surrounding districts will supply, as they did before the insurrection, cattle, brandy, cloths, working tools, &c. The new settlers may themselves rear goats, hogs, fowls, and other animals, with which they will enjoy a greater share of prosperity than in the mountainous territory, and will proportionably be better enabled to discharge the tribute.
ENTRANCE INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORY, FROM JAUXA, BY COMAS AND ANDAMARCA.
The Cordillera of the Andes is not, perhaps, in any part so inaccessible, as in the entrance from Jauxa, by Comas and Andamarca; seeing that it is necessary to cross three difficult branches, the continual precipices presented by which, and the great number of morasses, having their surfaces frozen, encountered in the intervening spaces, render the road in a manner impassable. This is the reason why, at the time of the first entrances made by this route, the opening of a track for the passage of cattle was deemed impracticable. It thus happened that the travellers were reduced to the necessity of carrying the provisions on their shoulders, with incredible labour and fatigue. The wish, however, to contribute to the salvation of the Indians residing in the mountainous territory, many of whom were accustomed to pay a visit, in the summer season, to the town of Andamarca, with the pious view of submitting to the baptismal ceremony, stimulated the venerable father Biedma to overcome these difficulties, apparently invincible. This truly apostolical man, after having dedicated his fervent zeal to the conversion of the Panataguas and Callisecas, proceeded, in the year 1673, to the valley of Jauxa. From the town of Andamarca,[71] he penetrated on foot into the interior, accompanied by a lay priest, and two lay brothers, without any provision beside a small store of cheese and roasted maize; and after having travelled eight days over the most rugged paths imaginable, reached the land of the idolatrous Campas, who received him with outward demonstrations of joy and benevolence. He there founded a town on which he bestowed the name of Santa Cruz of Sonomoro. He was visited[72] by the tribes of Pangoas, Menearos, Anapatis, and Pilcosumis, who resided in the southern part; by the Satipos, Copiris, and Tomirisatis, dwelling on the northern side; and by the Cobaros and Pisiataris, inhabiting the western quarter. All these tribes are known by the common appellation of Andes or Campas; but are distinguished among themselves by the names above pointed out, some of them derived from the rivers on the banks of which they reside; others from the particular districts or quarters they inhabit; and others, again, from the chiefs by whom they are governed.
The venerable servant of God, friar Francisco Izquierdo, having noticed the abundant harvest discovered by father Biedma in Sonomoro, set out from Quimiri, in the year 1674, with three companions, to afford him his spiritual aid. A consultation having been holden between the two, relative to the difficulty of the entrance by Andamarca; and it having been agreed, that the access from Quimiri, by the river Perene, was easier and more practicable, they resolved that the entrances should be made by that route, and that, for the relief of the fathers, a settlement should be formed between Santa Cruz and Quimiri, in the district named Pichana, where many infidels who had manifested a desire to become christians resided. With this intention, father Izquierdo proceeded, without loss of time, to the site above referred to; but had scarcely founded the convent and church, when an Indian named Mangore, at the head of a faction, possessed with a diabolical fury, entered the convent,[73] accompanied by his confederates. Instantly this infernal crew discharged a shower of arrows on father Izquierdo, on a lay brother, and on an Indian boy who had been converted to Christianity: they fell, and were so effectually knitted together by the arrows of the assassins, that they appeared to be one and the same body, belonging to an animal armed with quills. Glutted with the blood of these innocent victims, Mangore ascended, with his partisans, the river Perene, with a fixed resolution to put to death all the converters. On his route, he fell in with the venerable fathers, Francisco Carrion, and Antonio Zepeda, who were descending from Quimiri to assist father Izquierdo in his new settlement; and deprived them of life with the utmost cruelty. Triumphant, and rejoicing at the progress he had made in his wicked purpose, he reached Quimiri, where, having communicated to the Indians the butcheries he had just executed, and his determination to kill all the fathers, they attacked and fell on him and his partisans with such an abundance of clubs, stones, and billets of wood, that the assassins were quickly dispatched. A sister of this very Mangore, taking up a large stone, directed it with so true an aim, and with so much force, against the head of her brother, that she laid him senseless on the ground.
In consequence of the above melancholy events, the conversion of Santa Cruz remained for some time without protection, until the fervour of father Biedma led him to return thither, with a few companions, in the year 1681. He had previously made such improvements in the road between Andamarca and Sonomoro, as to render it passable by mules. In a little time he re-established the town of Santa Cruz,[74] and founded another town with the name of San Buenaventura of Savini. In the year 1684, he opened a road from Sonomoro to the junction of the rivers Ene and Perene; and being anxious to bring into the bosom of the church, the many nations dwelling on the banks of the river Paro, embarked in the year 1686,[75] and descended to the vicinity of the confluence of the river Pachitea with the Ucayali, where he was well received by the numerous nation of the Conivos. Having there founded a chapel and town, he returned, keeping on his route an exact diary, and recording the names of all the nations residing on the banks of upwards of forty rivers, all of which pay the tribute of their copious stores of water to the Gran-Paro. On the banks of the river Camarinigua, he established another town of Conivos,[76] under the denomination of San Joseph; and left there, in quality of converter, father Antonio Vital. This monk remained in the above town, until the sad tidings were brought to him, that the Piros had put to death father Biedma and his companions. Finding himself, therefore, alone, and without hope or prospect of succour, he descended in a canoe, with six Indians, by the Ucayali, as far as the river of the Amazons, by which he ascended, and penetrated into the interior by the Huallaga, he having been, at that time, the first and only individual, his Indian companions excepted, who had completed the course of the navigation of these rivers; since he penetrated from Jauxa, by Andamarca, to the junction of the Ene and Percne, navigating the whole extent of the Paro and Ucayali, and ascending by the Maranon and Huallaga, to the river Moyobamba. Having landed on its banks, he proceeded by land to Caxamarca.
The details relative to the tragical end of father Biedma are as follows: being desirous, in the year 1687, to pay another visit to his Conivos,[77] he embarked at the above-mentioned junction of the Ene and Perene, having in his company two priests, a lay friar and a lay brother, together with several converted Indians whom he had engaged in his service at Sonomoro. After a few days had been spent in the navigation of the Paro, the party fell into an ambush of Piros and Comavos Indians, who made a general discharge of arrows, by which they were all killed. This disastrous event was fatal to the projects of the provincials of the Order of the Twelve Apostles, and was the cause of the entire loss of the conversions of Jauxa;[78] on this account, that father Biedma having taken with him nearly the whole of the persons he employed as his coadjutors at Sonomoro, the few who still remained there being seized with a violent panic, abandoned the converts. The latter, finding themselves without a pastor, returned to the mountains, and to paganism.
The conversions which have been just cited, remained in this abandoned state until the year 1713,[79] when the venerable founder of Ocopa, obeying the impulsion of his ardent zeal, proceeded with hasty steps from frontier to frontier, and having reached that of Jauxa, took the necessary measures for their re-establishment. In the prosecution of this pious intention he was so successful, that, with the help of several zealous co-operators belonging to the provincial order, the most distinguished of whom were friar Fernando de San Joseph, a native of the mountains of Burgos, and friar Juan de la Marca, by birth a Frenchman, in the year 1730, four populous and flourishing towns, entitled Sonomoro, Chavini, Jesus Maria, and Catalipango, were to be reckoned. The last was destroyed in the year 1737, by a cacique named Torote, who, after having barbarously put to death a lay brother and several Indian converts, proceeded, in the course of the same year, to the town of Sonomoro, where he massacred, with equal cruelty, the venerable fathers, friar Manuel Baxo, friar Alonzo, belonging to the Order of the Holy Ghost, and friar Cristoval Pacheco.[80] The governor, Don Benito Troncoso, was no sooner apprised of this tragical event, than he assembled all the troops he could collect in the valley of Jauxa, and penetrated with them, and a few missionaries, into the mountainous territory, where he quelled the rebellion, and after having inflicted a severe chastisement on the ringleaders, succeeded in bringing about an entire pacification. The next measure to be carried into effect, was the construction of a fort or castle, to serve as a shelter and protection to the reverend missionaries and their converts.—It was speedily fabricated by the means of the large and excellent timber produced on the mountains; was of a square shape; and armed with four pederaroes. An ensign and fourteen soldiers, provided with the necessary stores and ammunition, were left in it as a garrison.
In the year 1736, the new converts belonging to the tribe of Chichirenes were established in two towns, entitled Upper Parua and Lower Parua. The town of Catalipango was at the same time rebuilt; and so successful a progress was made in the conquest of other tribes, with the help of the spiritual reinforcement of the second mission, which reached Peru from Spain in the year 1737, that several towns were founded,[81] and those of Santa Cruz preserved until the year 1751, when the rebel Atahualpa, at the instigation of the female Indian with whom he was associated, proceeded to Sonomoro from the mountain of salt, with a view to oblige the tribes of Chichirenes and Andes to submit to his domination. The fort happened to be in want of the provisions and arms necessary to maintain a protracted siege;[82] and although the fidelity of the converts to God and the supreme authority, remained unshaken, they were reduced to the necessity of abandoning their country. They accordingly decided to accompany the missionaries to the valley of Jauxa, to the end that they might not forsake the faith in Jesus Christ. Thus terminated the celebrated missions of Jauxa, which had been acquired by the reverend fathers, by the dint of incalculable fatigues, and by so many lives sacrificed on the altars of the faith.
The journey from Andamarca, by Sonomoro, to the junction of the rivers Ene and Perene, was formerly performed in ten days on the backs of mules; but the road is now entirely obstructed. On this account, and in consideration that, even if this road should be again opened and rendered practicable, it would still be extremely rugged; but more especially because, in re-establishing the missions of the mountain of salt, we may penetrate from them to Sonomoro with less difficulty, agreeably to the information which was left us by father Biedma and his companions, I came to the resolution, in the year 1789, to improve the road from Ocopa, by Monobamba, to the valley of Vitoc. With the permission of the supreme authority, I accelerated the execution of this plan; and re-established the town of Monobamba, which had been destroyed in the year 1744, through the insurrection of Santos Atahualpa. In concert with Don Juan Romero Calvo, sub-delegate, ad interim, of Jauxa, I engaged five hundred Indians belonging to the frontier, to perform the necessary labours, maintaining them, and supplying them with working tools, at the expence of my college. All the bad parts of the road leading from Yauri, distant one league from Jauxa, to Tambillo, where the ridge of the mountainous territory commences, a space of seven leagues by computation, were speedily mended; and six leagues were afterwards cleared to the old town and delightful valley of Monobamba. Five other leagues were next opened and levelled, to establish the communication between Monobamba and the valley and fort of Vitoc. Lastly, a church, a house for the reception of the ecclesiastics, quarters for the troops, and a convent, were built by me; and I left two missionaries in the spiritual charge of the new settlers.
ENTRANCE INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORY BY THE SIDE OF HUANTA.
In the year 1677, the venerable father Biedma,[83] with a view to procure a better entrance to Sonomoro than the one by Andamarca, above pointed out, proceeded to the Andes of the town of Tambo, distant seven leagues from Huanta, and embarked on the river Pampas, or Cocharcas. After having navigated for the space of eight days, he was led to debark, in consequence of having ascertained that, in following this course, he should be obliged to deviate very considerably from his direct route. He next passed to the Andes of Huanta and Viscatan, entering afterwards by the rugged ground of Conchagara and Chiquia. On every side, and in every direction by which he attempted to penetrate, he found the entrance more and more difficult, and the Cordillera less accessible.
In the year 1738,[84] friar Joseph Cavanes, having the same object in view, penetrated into the interior with a few companions, and directed his route from Ocopa towards Huancayo, Acopalca, Cochangara, Laloma, Surcubamba, Tintaybamba, Palmapampa, Churubamba, and Sanabamba. Having fully ascertained the rugged nature of the roads, he returned without any other fruit beside that of having baptised the children of several of the Indians who had sought a refuge in the mountainous territory, either in escaping from the pursuit of justice, or in fleeing from the restraints imposed on them in the spiritual jurisdictions in which they had been established. Having thus expatriated themselves, they dwelt in the above morasses and broken grounds, in such a state of ignorance and barbarity, as to be scarcely distinguishable from the savages.
In the year 1747, the venerable father, friar Manuel Albaran,[85] accompanied by a lay priest, and a lay brother, set out with the same intention, and with a view to promote a readier access to the mountainous territory, to the end that the rebel Atahualpa might be made to surrender. Having descended, however, by the marshy grounds of Acon, to the banks of the river Apurimac, he was, together with his retinue, slain by the arrows of the barbarians belonging to the tribes of Antis, Simirinches, and Piros.
Information having been brought to Ocopa, that the Antis or Andes Indians had repeatedly come down from the mountains, in the years 1778 and 1779, by the morasses of Viscatan and Sanabamba, and had manifested a wish to become christians, friars Valentin Arrieta, and Joachim Soler, penetrated into the interior, in the year 1781, by the above-mentioned morasses. A chapel was built, in the course of the following year, in the vicinity of the banks of the river of Jauxa, named by the Indians Mantaro. Several individuals belonging to the uncivilized tribes, visited the reverend fathers, with a docility which afforded great hope of their conversion; but the latter fell sick, and quitted the spot. In the year 1786, friars Bernardo Ximenes Berajano, and Tadeo Giles, proceeded thither; but falling sick likewise in the course of a few months, the conversion to which a reference has been made, was entirely abandoned.
Although at the commencement of my government, I had determined on an entrance in the above direction, I was deterred from carrying this plan into effect, by the reflections I made on the great extent and ruggedness of the road thither, and on the practicability of approaching the above idolatrous nations more readily, by navigating in balsas, by the river Apurimac, from the conversion of Simariba. On this head I now proceed to speak with my accustomed brevity.
In the year 1784, the missionaries of Ocopa penetrated, by the low grounds of Tamboconga and Sana, to the plain of St. Augustine. They found, on the banks of the river Apurimac, several Indians who received them with tokens of pleasure; and in consequence, in the year 1785, a convent and chapel were built, at the distance of half a league from that river, with the title of the Assumption of Simariba. This spot was resorted to by the savages, who came thither, some with a view to their instruction in the christian doctrine, and others to procure working tools. In the year 1788, I set out on a visit to this mission, and perceiving that not any progress had been made, in consequence of the inconsiderable numbers of the Indians, and of their residing on the opposite bank of the river, I proceeded to the spot where their huts were erected, and built in its vicinity a house and chapel, on which I bestowed the name of St. Antonio of Intate. This establishment no longer subsists, in consequence of the greater number of the infidels having passed over to the side of Simariba. At the same time I gave instructions to three of the fathers converters, to ascend and descend the Apurimac in balsas, and to register the Indians who dwelt on its banks. From their excursion, and the journal of observations they kept, it resulted, that six small settlements, each provided with its chapel, might be made at proportionate distances, from the junction of the river of Pampas with the Apurimac, to that of the Jauxa, or Mantaro, with the same river. To carry this project into effect, friar Mateo Mendez, with the help of the succours graciously afforded him by the intendant of Huamanga, ascended in the year 1789, by the Apurimac, a distance of five leagues, and succeeded in the conversion of a considerable number of Indians, whom he established in a town denominated by him St. Louis of Maniroato, on a site so named by the barbarians. A house and chapel were there erected, by the converted Indians, and others belonging to the frontier. In the course of the following year, 1790, a new conversion, distant, in descending the river, four leagues from Simariba, was founded, with the title of San Buenaventura of Quiempiric; and at the same time, the house and chapel of Simariba were rebuilt. All these proceedings, with the requisite documents and journals, I have communicated to the supreme authorities of Lima, and to the sovereign. Simariba is distant from Huarta twenty-eight leagues, which may be performed with ease by mules in five days, proceeding by Tambo, Pulperia, Tamboconga, and Sana.
ENTRANCE FROM CHACHAPOTAS TO THE JUNCTION OF THE RIVER MOYOBAMBA WITH THE HUALLAGA.
The first entrance into the mountainous territory on this side, was undertaken by Pedro Ursoa, in concert with Lope de Aguirre, in the year 1560.[86] He reached the spot where the Moyobamba disembogues itself into the Huallaga, and there built five vessels with the intent of proceeding to survey the river of the Amazons; but the tyrant Aguirre deprived him of his life, and effected his escape with the armament. At length, however, he paid on a gibbet the forfeit due to his crime.
The second entrance was made somewhere about the year 1650,[87] by general Don Martin de la Riba, who subjugated the territory of Lamas and Cumbasa. Over this conquest he presided for the space of thirty years, until his death, when the government of the Lamistas tribes was annexed to the jurisdiction of Chachapoyas.
In the year 1685, friar Alexandro Salazar, a Franciscan monk, penetrated from Chachapoyas to the morasses bordering on the river Huambo, and there subdued the idolatrous nations, the Cheduas, Alones, and Choltos.[88] They were collected in three towns, which were preserved for a long time, under the title of the presidency of Santa Rosa of Huambo, until at length they were finally ceded to the administration of Truxillo.
From Chachapoyas to the river Huallaga, more than seventy leagues, over rough and perilous roads, are computed. The traveller who is provided with a mule, may, notwithstanding, perform this journey with ease in sixteen days, at the rate of from four to five leagues per day, provided he proceeds by the following towns and halting places: Taulia, Ventilla, Bagasan (here the mountainous territory commences), Almirante, Pucatambo, Visitador, Santo Torribio, Moyobamba, Quilliarrumi, Calaveras, Bella-Vista, Potrero (hence to Tabaloso, two days are required), Lamas, and Cumbasa; thence to the port of Juan de Guerra, there are four leagues over a beautiful plain, planted with lofty trees, which may be crossed in two hours and a half. Having embarked at the above-mentioned port, the traveller reaches, in somewhat more than an hour, the junction of the Moyobamba with the Huallaga.
ENTRANCE OR DESCENT BY THE MARANON, FROM TOMEPENDA, IN THE PROVINCE OF JAEN, TO THE TOWN OF THE LAKE OF GRAN COCAMA.
From the port of Tomependa, situated on the bank of the river Chinchipe, the descent to the town of the lake is made in nine days, in the manner following: from the above-mentioned port, the thirty leagues by computation to the mouth of the Imasa,[89] are navigated by balsas in one day. It will cease to excite surprize, that these balsas should run over such a distance in ten or twelve hours, when attention is paid to the extraordinary rapidity of the united currents of the rivers Chinchipe, Chachapoyas, and Maranon. In the Intermediate distance, the following pongos occur: Rentema, Cunugiacu, Ujure, Zinquipongo, Puyaya (a little below the town of that name), Yullpa, Tariquisa, Cacangarisa (this is the narrowest of all the pongos), Yamburana, Moape, Huanguana, and sixteen others, the names of which I omit. These pongos are straits formed by high and pendant cliffs, over which the descending torrents force a passage with such a degree of violence, as to occasion terrible billows, eddies, and whirlpools, by which the balsas are submerged. The latter are composed of fifteen logs or beams of wood,[90] twelve yards in length, and somewhat less in their united breadth, the narrowness of the pongos not admitting a greater extension. They are furnished with a lofty and solid tilt, formed of canes, beneath which the cargoes are made secure with strong cords.[91] At the extremities, as well as at the parts where the beams are united, other beams, half a yard in height, are firmly attached in the manner of small pillars; and by these the navigators secure themselves, at the time when the balsa, which, however, speedily returns to float on the water, is submerged in the pongos. The navigation from the mouth of the Imasa to the town of la Barranca, requires five days, during which the traveller has to pass the pongos of Cumbinama,[92] Escurribragas,[93] Huaracayo,[94] and Manseriche.[95] Having cleared the latter, a bark or canoe is hired at Borja; and thence the whole of the navigation by the Maranon is highly agreeable, and free from the smallest danger. Not more than three days are required from la Barranca to the lake.
The return from the lake to Tomependa is more difficult, and more tedious in proportion; insomuch, that from the lake to la Barranca six days are consumed, and to Borja eight. On the third day’s navigation, in ascending from Barranca, the traveller falls in with a torrent named Onoaga: at this spot loose stones begin to make their appearance; and the knats and mosquitoes, which had before been inseparable companions, cease to be troublesome. A winding of the river having been passed, the second torrent, named Sapape, occurs. In the following flexure lies the third, named Payguero; and after two other windings have been passed, the fourth, named Vacas, is fallen in with. Four other torrents, named Chote, Platero, Fatiga, and Calenturas, occur in the subsequent flexures of the river; and the ninth and last, named Pedregal, falls at the foot of Borja. The sites of all these torrents are bad passes in the ascent, which must necessarily be accomplished by the banks of the river, to avoid contending against the strong current in the centre. As in all these passes there is but little water near the banks, it is necessary to raise the vessel from time to time with levers, and to push it along until a sufficient depth can be found. In one day the navigator proceeds by the strait of Borja to Santiago; in four, to the pongo of Huaracayo; in two, to that of Escurribragas; in three, to that of Cumbinama; in one, to the mouth of the Imasa (a rivulet, on reaching which he quits the Maranon); and in two, to the haven by the river Chuchunga. From the haven to the passage there are two days’ journies by land, which are performed on foot, partly by intricate forests, and partly across swampy grounds; and from the passage, which is so called because the Maranon is there crossed in a balsa to Pomara, the traveller reaches Tomependa in one day with the aid of a mule, and in two on foot.
DESCENT BY THE MARANON FROM THE LAKE TO THE PORT OF TEFE, A PORTUGUESE COLONY.
Towards the close of the details relative to my peregrination by the river Huallaga, drawn up by the Academical Society, mention was made[96] of the time required in descending, in canoes, which make a very rapid progress by day and by night, from the above-mentioned lake to Tefe. The information there given was communicated to me, at the town of Gran Cocama, by Don Juan Salinas Zenitayoga, commander of the fourth division of the limits of the Maranon, lieutenant-governor of the province of Majmas, &c. who is well versed in the navigation of the Maranon, which he has practised more than twelve years. To this information I have now to add the result of my own practical observations, namely, that if the navigation be performed in large barks laden with merchandizes, twenty days are occupied in the above-mentioned descent, instead of the eight employed by the canoes, on a supposition that the barks are not engaged, in the prosecution of the voyage, more than twelve hours each day. To ascend from Tefe to the lake requires nearly treble that time; since from the port of Tefe to that of Caysara, one day is spent; to Tontevoa, seven; to the port of Matura, eight; to San Pablo, three; to Yaguari, six; to the frontier of Tabatinga, one and a half (the places thus far recapitulated are Portuguese establishments); to that of Loretto, two (here commence the towns of the Maynas missions); to Camucheros, three; to Pevas, four; to Napeanos, five; to Omaguas, three; to San Regis, three and a half; to Urarinas, nine; and to the lake, three day ; amounting in the whole to fifty-nine days.
Doctor Mariano Salazar, rector of Yurimaguas, to whom I was indebted for the necessary supplies, in the descent from his town by the Huallaga, gave me the following practical information respecting the time which is required in ascending from the lake to Quito, and in the return. From the lake the traveller enters the Maranon by the Huallaga, and ascends in four days to the mouth of the river Pastasa. Proceeding by this river, he reaches in one day the port of Santander; in twelve, the town of Pinches; in two, that of Andoas; and in twenty, that of Canelos.[97] He travels thence by land, in eight days, to the baths; in one and a half, to Hambato; to Tacunga, in one day; and in two, to Quito. The return is much shorter, seeing that it does not require more than twenty-seven days and a half: the twelve and a half, as before, by land, to Canelos; thence, descending by the Bobonaza, to Andoas, seven days; to the mouth of the Pastasa, six days; and to the lake, two. It may hence be inferred, that it requires much less time to proceed from Lima to the lake, than from the lake to Quito; and the same observation applies to the return. Accordingly, in the route from Lima, twenty-three days only are employed;[98] and I did not require more than thirty-nine for the return, in the manner following: from the lake to Yurimaguas, three days; to the junction of the Moyobamba with the Huallaga, seven; to that of the Huayabamba, three; to the Port del Valle, two; to Sion, one; to the port of Pampa-Hermosa, three; and to Playa-Grande, eight. From the above town, the journey overland to Huanuco was performed by me in four days; and proceeding thence, at the expiration of eight others I reached Lima.
ENTRANCE INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORY FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF HUAMILIES.
By this department the traveller may reach the river of Huanuco, by directing his route from Chavin to the haven of Chicoplaya, distant twenty-eight leagues. Twenty-six of these leagues are performed, with the help of mules, in five days, the following baiting-places intervening: namely Tantamayo, Carpa, Santa Rosa, Chipaco, Monzon, and Chicoplaya; and the other two are travelled on foot, from the latter town to its haven: thence to Playa-Grande there are nine leagues, which are navigated by the river Monzon; and four and a half to the junction of that river with the Huanuco. The above town of Playa-Grande was established in the year 1782, by the means of the small number of Indians belonging to the conversion of Cuchero, and of several others who joined them from the conversions of Caxamarquilla: it has constantly received the spiritual aid of the missionaries of Ocopa; but the same cannot be said relatively to the adjacent town of San Francisco of Monzon, or Chicoplaya. The latter owed its origin, three or four years before the foundation of Playa-Grande, to the casualty of Don Matias Abadia having penetrated as far as the river Monzon. He found in its vicinity a few Indians belonging to our conversions; and having engaged them, by the dint of gifts and promises, to assist him in the execution of his projects, he prevailed on them to fix their huts on the bank of the above river. At the commencement, their spiritual concerns were directed by a secular priest, and afterwards by a monk of the Order of Mercy; but this was not of any long duration. Friar Francisco Alvarez de Villanueva, in the visit he paid to the conversions in the year 1788, pointed out to them the haven as the most eligible site for their residence, and left directions that they should be removed thither. To this arrangement they did not, however, consent. He at the same time entrusted their spiritual government to friar Juan Sugranes, whom, in virtue of a brief transmitted to me by the intendant of Tarma, I instituted, in 1789, in the office of rector and converter of the above-mentioned town.
ENTRANCE INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORY FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF PATAZ, OR CAXAMARQUILLA.
The origin and progress of the missions of Caxamarquilla having been related, with the greatest exactitude and perspicuity, by the Academical Society, I shall briefly say on this head, that from the department of Pataz, three roads leading to the river Huallaga have been opened. By the first, a distance of forty leagues, from Tayabamba to Pampa-Hermosa, may be performed on foot, or in a hammock borne on the shoulders of Indians, if the traveller deems it a preferable conveyance, in seven days. The second route is from Caxamarquilla to the towns of Sion and del Valle;—a computed distance of fifty leagues, which may be accomplished, either on foot or in a hammock, in eight days. The third leads from Capellania to Pajaten, the distance being nearly the same as by the preceding route. From Pajaten the traveller descends, in a canoe, in a day and a half, to the town of Pachiza, which was founded by me in the year 1790, to the end that those who should navigate by the Huallaga, might find a place in which to repose, and to provide themselves with the necessary refreshments.
ITINERARY FROM CHAVIN TO CHICOPLAYA.
Having quitted Chavin of Pariaca by the new road,[99] the traveller has to proceed four leagues to the town of Xican, whence to the tambo[100] of the Virgin, he passes over a league of fertile ground abounding in pastures. Here the rugged heights which form the frontier of the mountainous territory begin; and the shelter they afford renders the cold less sensible than before. A league and a half further, a spacious cavern, formed by Nature, and named by the Indians, Quisullomachai, offers a lodging to the passengers, however numerous they may be; and in its vicinity they will find abundant pastures for their cattle. If they are desirous, however, to be more commodiously lodged, they will proceed another league, to the tambo of Magrapata, the pastures still presenting themselves as before. Somewhat more than half a league beyond this baiting place, lies Palmamachai, where the mountainous territory commences, and where there are likewise good pastures, together with several natural caverns in the rocks, affording as good a lodging as can be desired, and a number of huts built by the guides. A quarter of a league further, the traveller reaches the site named Querecoto: it may be denominated a town, in consequence of the numerous huts built there by the workmen who were engaged in making the new road. From Querecoto to Pucliartambo, which implies the tambo of recreation, distant a league and a quarter, several large and beautiful plains, highly susceptible of cultivation, and containing the vestiges of plantations and decayed huts, present themselves to the traveller’s view. Having proceeded another league, he falls in with the river of Santa Rosa, over which there is a commodious bridge. In this part, the soil, and the temperature of the air, are admirably calculated for the cultivation of plantains, canes, &c.; and accordingly a fine plantation has been made, since the new road was constructed. The drained lake of Negrococha next occurs, at the distance of somewhat more than a league, having in its vicinity good arable lands, and several decayed huts deserted by the ancient proprietors. Having journied another league, the traveller reaches the great marshes of Chapacra, in which there was formerly a populous Indian town having the same name. Its agreeable site, and the fine temperature of the air, call loudly for its re-construction; at the same time that the productiveness and fertility of these low grounds, in which the quina trees, those more especially that yield the yellow bark, flourish, render them well adapted to the cultivation of indigo, of fine tobacco similar to that produced at the Havannah, of cochineal which is collected throughout the year; of rice, and, in general, of all esculent plants, as is indicated by those that, growing wild, were formerly sought after with great avidity, and by those that still spring up. Here it is that Don Juan de Bezares has already cleared the ground for a new settlement, to be denominated San Carlos. At the distance of somewhat more than half a league lies the river Yanamayo, beyond which, at a similar distance, the traveller has to cross the bridge thrown by Bezares over the stream Xincartambo. Here commence the great pajonales (the parts covered by high grasses) of the mountainous territory, capable, through their extent, of nourishing many thousand heads of cattle of every description. Proceeding onward half a league, the bridge of Chinchima, over the river Monzon, terminates the eleven leagues of the new road opened by Bezares, the plantations and high grasses still presenting themselves to the view.
From this site the traveller proceeds by the bank of the river Monzon, and at the end of the second league reaches the village of Chipaco, in which there are twenty-six heads of families, partly mestizos, and partly tributary Indians, who are, as well as the other settlers on this bank, visited but once a year by the sub-rector, and the collector of the sub-delegate of the province. Considering the fertility of the extensive marshes they inhabit, and which are adapted, on either bank, to every description of cultivation, as well as to the rearing of cattle, they may be said to be poor and needy. Their idle prejudices formerly deprived them of the best part of their sustenance, namely, the broad beans and Yucas: the former, in their persuasion, gave them the itch, and the latter dried the blood. Bezares has, however, succeeded in subduing these prejudices, and, in addition to the above, has introduced various productions, particularly the anil, which for that purpose he caused to be brought from Nicaragua.
At the distance of half a league from the village of Chipaco lies the river Aucantagua, which rises in the south, and runs through an extensive and fertile marsh communicating with the high grounds. Several towns, inhabited by civilized Indians, formerly subsisted in this district. The vestiges of the capital, named Chancaran, are still discernible; and about them are to be seen the ruins of the works erected for the purifying of the gold and silver ores brought from the mines in the vicinity. Here a road may be opened without difficulty to the town of Xacas, belonging to the jurisdiction of Chavin. The Indians being sensible that such an enterprise is of extreme importance, to the provinces of Guamalies, have made a voluntary offer to the chief magistrate, Don Juan de Bezares, to cut the road in question, on the simple condition of being supplied with provisions and the necessary working tools. Their proposition has been accepted; and in a little time the operations will be begun.[101] From the river Aucantagua, the traveller has to proceed a league to the town of Caunarapa, where the same fertility is discernible in various plantations of coca and other useful productions. Two leagues further lies the town of Monzon, situated on the bank of the river of the same name: it formerly boasted a numerous population, which is now reduced to six tributary Indians, with their families, and a few mestizos. In the vicinity of this town, there are several metallic veins, some of which are worked. Having passed a short league beyond Monzon, the traveller arrives at the plain of Pucara, by which is implied the plain of blood, in allusion to a battle said to have been fought there between the Spaniards and barbarians. The ruins of the town formerly inhabited by the latter, are to be seen on the bank of the above river, which flows to the right in its descent. Somewhat higher than the plain of Pucara, lies the great quebrada, or marshy ground, of Insuro: it is so wide and extensive, that it may be named a valley. It formerly contained several towns, the ruins of which are still to be seen, the principal ones having been Insuro, Paucaco, and Ascension. Don Juan de Bezares, aware of the facility with which a road might be opened from this site to the town of Patairrhondos, and to the city of Huanuco, drew up a plan, which he presented to the viceroy, pointing out all the benefits that would result from such an undertaking. Delays having arisen from a reference to the sub-delegate of the province, the impatience of the above public-spirited individual has led him to commence this very useful enterprise. Three leagues beyond Pucara, without quitting the bank of the river, the traveller arrives at the ruins of the town of Pampeteco, from which the valley took its name, and in which the Jesuits had their last conversion. Here it is that Bezares introduced the breed of black cattle,[102] which cannot fail to thrive on grounds abounding in such excellent pastures, and so well cleared. He is now employed in augmenting the population of the first settlement of Chicoplaya, distant one league from the above site.
We conclude by the observation, that in the spaces already discovered, elevated grounds of a considerable extent, overspread with cinchona trees, which were unknown to the ancient inhabitants of these mountainous districts, are to be found. Large plantations of cacao which, at the end of three years, will afford two annual crops, may be made in different parts; and, independently of the superior quality of the produce, it may be conveyed to Lima at a less expence than attends that which is sent by sea from Guayaquil. The anil and anotto are collected at all seasons; the coca and cotton yield two crops annually; and the sugar-cane ripens within the year. The tobacco is said to be of so excellent a quality, that there cannot be any doubt of its cultivation being allowed, for the purposes of commerce. In such a case, this site alone will suffice to keep within the kingdom, the considerable sums now exported to the Havannah for the purchase of that commodity. There are spots well adapted to the cultivation of rice, beans, almonds, every description of esculent plants, and fruits for the dessert, not omitting the pine-apple. The breeds of cattle may not only be made to supply the wants of the population of the adjacent mineral territories, but may likewise contribute towards the resources of the capital, which draws a part of its supplies of this description from Conchucos, situated in a more remote part of Peru. The maize flourishes whereever it is sown; and its plants are so fruitful, that scarcely a spike or ear can be found which measures less than a foot in length. Wheat cannot be cultivated, unless at Chapacra; but the want of this grain will not be felt, because it is procured from the high lands at a very cheap rate, and because the Indians prefer the yucas, which grow to a very large size, to bread. Either boiled or toasted, they are highly relishing; as are likewise the plantains, of which there are several varieties, all of them delicious, and more particularly the small red plantain of Otaheite, which has been already introduced.
We pass over the wax, the honey, the singular trees, and other valuable productions; together with the rich lavatories[103] (lavaderos) of gold, which were not subjected to any trials by Bezares, who, it should be observed, was so much occupied by his enterprise, that he had scarcely time to take a cursory view of the mines he had discovered. We could dwell with enthusiasm on the cinnamon, which may be rendered so lucrative; on the balsams, vanillas, and numberless other productions that may be drawn from the Plains of the Sacrament, and principally from the part situated on this side of the Cordillera by which they are intersected. The converts inhabiting the two towns there founded by the Franciscan monks, would, it is presumable, lend their aid in collecting them, if a commerce, or traffic of exchange, were to be once established.
Which of the ancient provinces of the kingdom, it may be asked, affords conveniences, productions, and an abundance, tantamount to those of this uncultivated space? The passage leading to it having been cleared, the means are afforded to people this mountainous territory, and to establish a communication between the new settlers, throughout an extent of nearly sixty leagues in length, at which the frontier of Guamalies is computed, and of twenty-two in breadth. If it be certain, that the population is in all places augmented in proportion to the productions, how much may that of the kingdom be increased, by promoting the re-establishment of the decayed towns, which have no longer any thing to dread from the barbarians, and in which the Spaniard, however tenderly he may have been nurtured, may find a comfortable and agreeable abode. With the help of a few piastres, to begin his speculations, he may speedily realize a capital which will enrich himself and his posterity. If, in imitation of Don Juan de Bezares, any enterprising individual should undertake to facilitate the entrances by the provinces of Cusco, Guamanga, Jauja, Tarma, Ambo, and Pataz, may not the viceroyalty of Lima, in that case, promise to itself an equivalent to what it lost, in the dismemberment which took place to erect that of Buenos Ayres? The entrance into the mountainous territory illustrated above, is not the only one this valuable member of the community has engaged to clear. Two others may be enumerated, namely, the one he has begun, and submitted to the viceregal approbation, from Paucaco to Patairrhondos and Huanuco; and that which he has arranged with the Indians, from Old Chancaran to the town of Xican, likewise bordering on the province of Guamalies.
Urged by his example, the missionaries have already begun to open tracks of communication; but in undertakings of this nature the apostolical poverty of their profession cannot keep pace with their zeal, however effectually they may be aided by their converts. It is therefore necessary that the good subjects of the king, who possess the means, should engage in these enterprises, which will certainly be productive of greater advantages than can result from the sedentary commerce of the capitals, distributed in so many hands. They should, in the furtherance of their views, constantly bear in mind this most important maxim, neither to oppress any one in the traffic or labours, nor to bestow on the Indian the value of a needle, unless he contributes something, if it be nothing more than a flint he will afterwards have to throw away. They ought more especially, among the individuals of this class, to display the moral excellences of humanity and christian charity. This conduct, and this description of generosity, are what acquired the above virtuous republican the universal good-will of these people, and enabled him to execute plans which could not otherwise have been accomplished without thousands of men, and many capitals.
THE END.
- ↑ Heros dicitur etiam ab eros grecè amor, quia Heroes nati sunt amore Deorum ac hominum.—Faccio lat. Dict. verb. Heros.
- ↑ Greater love hath no man that this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.—St. John, chap. iv. v. 13.
- ↑ In the year 1787, five royal ordonnances, and as many decrees, were published, relatively to the reestablishment and preservation of the Manoa missions. For this purpose, a fortified town was planned at the confluence of the rivers Mayro and Pozuzo.
- ↑ This fruit, which is of the size and shape of a pine-cone, is eaten either boiled, or as a conserve.—Ulloa's Voyage.
- ↑ The leaves of this plant, to which a slight reference has already been made, are chewed by the Indians, who, for that purpose, combine with them a kind of chalk, or whitish earth, called mambi. The coca is so highly nutritive and invigorating, that they are enabled by it to labour for entire days without taking any other nourishment. When they can no longer procure it, they find a gradual decay of strength. It is said by them to preserve the teeth from decay, and to fortify the stomach.—Ulloa's Voyage.
- ↑ In the peregrinations of the reverend fathers Sobreviela and Girbal, an account of this empire, with many interesting particulars relative to the customs of its inhabitants, its boundaries, rivers, &c. will be given.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ The gold found in the Parapa del Sacramento is of the finest quality; and that which was discovered by father Xara, in a broken ground below the stream named Huamancot, proved to be superior to any in South America.—The pearls which are fished at the confluence of the river Mayobamba are very large.—Among the fishes, the most remarkable is the sea cow, which commonly weighs about ten quintals.—In the class of amphibia may be cited the tortoise: several of these animals have been met with more particularly on the banks of the Ucayali (where the females lay and deposit each of them about two hundred eggs), which measured two yards in length and one in breadth.—Among the reptiles, the most formidable is the snake yacumama; to which may be added several others, of an analogous nature, stiled cazadoras, in consequence of the various stratagems they employ when they surprize and attack men and animals.—It has been asserted, that Nature having exhausted all the energy of her divine pencil in colouring the plumage of the birds of our mountains, had denied them the harmony and melodiousness of voice which distinguish those of other climes. This is not correct. There may be some among them, as is the case every where, which stun and weary by their wild and uncouth notes; but there are many others which, from the morning’s dawn to the close of day, stay the progress of the traveller by their delightful warblings.
- ↑ In all the districts to which a reference has been made, and more particularly in Lamas, it is reported that there have been seen, on the mountains and banks of the Huallaga, small dogs of a particular species, which illumine the country on the darkest nights, but which are so shy that they conceal the light on the least noise.
- ↑ To the great regret of the Editor, the topographical chart to which an allusion is here made, did not accompany the set of Peruvian Mercuries which fell into his hands.
- ↑ In this part, as well as nearly throughout its whole extent, the Huallaga was found to have a breadth of 180 fathoms, and a depth of 28. It was measured with great exactitude by father Sobreviela, aided by the lieutenant-governor of Maynas, Don Juan Salinas, a man of conspicuous talents, who was very solicitous to promote, by his personal exertions, the success of the peregrinations we are now describing. The breadth of this river was computed by M. Condamine at 250 toises, at the same season of the year; but as his measurement was made by the eye, that of father Sobreviela and Don Juan Salinas ought certainly to be preferred.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ 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.
- ↑ While the men are employed within doors at the looms, the women are stationed from distance to distance in the streets, at the spinning machines, which are of a particular construction, and afford ample supplies of the spun material to the manufactories. At the extremities of the axis of the second wheel to which a cylinder is occasionally substituted, to simplify the machine, several small hooks are fastened, to lay hold of the cotton; and in proportion as the wheel is turned by a little boy, and the cylinder by the woman, six or eight threads are twisted at a single turn, and are gradually drawn out to a considerable length. In this manner a woman spins more in one hour, than another with her distaff in twenty-four.
- ↑ The Lamas missions belonged originally to the Franciscan monks, by whom they were afterwards assigned to the Jesuits, who maintained them until they were expatriated. In their stead the Franciscans were again entrusted with this charge, of which they were shortly after deprived, and the missions bestowed on the secular clergy. Lamas, Tarapoto, and Cumbasa, being now under the spiritual charge of a single rector, who resided at the former of these places, and the inhabitants of the latter perceiving that they could not receive the attendance which they desired, an application was made to the viceroy, to place them under the spiritual direction of the priests of Ocopa. This was done in the year 1789, when Tarapoto and Cumbasa were separated from the jurisdction of the rectory of the city of Lamas. In the year 1790 the above-mentioned companies were established by command of the viceroy.
- ↑ According to the traditions of the Lamas Indians, this pass was denominated Salto de Aguirre, in consequence of a person named Aguirre having there killed a terrible bird, which, issuing from the caverns of the adjacent hills, raised the passengers into the air in his talons, and dashed them to pieces against the surrounding rocks. This relation is worthy of a place among the flying dragons and other prodigies described by father Kircher in his subterraneous world. It appears to be allegorical of an event which the Indians preserve in their traditions. These traditions relate, that a tribe in the vicinity of Lamas, named Saposon, being subjected to a cruel and tyrannical chief, the inhabitants, at the instigation of Aguirre, put him to death. To punish this murder troops were sent from Lima, and at their hands Aguirre perished. It may not be amiss to illustrate this tradition, by comparing it with an historical fact. In the year 1560 Don Pedro de Ursoa was sent from Lima, to descend by the Huallaga in quest of the fabulous empire of Dorado. He was slain in the Lamas territory by Lope de Aguirre, who made his escape to the island of Trinidad, where he afterwards paid with his life the forfeit due to this crime.
- ↑ Four hundred leagues below the straits the inhabitants have no idea of stones. When their navigators arrive at Borja or at Lamas, where they first meet with them, they are filled with admiration, collecting and preserving them as if they were diamonds; until at length, seeing the multitude of them, they become indignant and ashamed of having prized what is so very common.
- ↑ Both the trunks and branches of the above trees are hollow. When the Indians perceive a number of these little bees swarming about one of them, they decorticate and split the tree at the middle, scraping off the wax attached to the sides of the hive. In South America there is as great a variety of bees as in Europe; but all of them smaller, and without a sting.
- ↑ This is a covering of palm leaves, in the form of an arch, placed in the middle of the canoe to keep off the sun and the rain.
- ↑ The naturalists here name pastas the fruit of a tree, which, on being lighted, contains within itself both the wax and the wick. We have not as yet been able to ascertain whether it is a species of the wax-tree which is met with in Louisiana and in China.
- ↑ In the prefatory matter, we mentioned that father Ricter, a Jesuit belonging to the Maynas conversions, had ascended by the Ucayali. Not any one would undertake this afterwards, until it was attempted by the above-mentioned president, whose MS. relation is lodged in the archives of our Society.
- ↑ See p. 344, under the head of Topography.—An itinerary from Chavin de Pariaca to Chicoplaya, will be given in the sequel.
- ↑ Those who will not allow that the river here cited is the real trunk of the Maranon, bestow on it the latter name.
- ↑ When the navigation is undertaken in large barks, laden with merchandizes, a still longer time is required.
- ↑ Fathers Manuel Rodriguez and Samuel Fritz, Condamine, Ulloa, &c.
- ↑ We think that we can terminate the geographical dispute on the following point, namely, which of the rivers that compose the Maranon is its real trunk? This prerogative we bestow on the Ucayali, for reasons which appear to us to be incontrovertible. First, because its sources are much more distant than those of the Tunguragua, or Maranon, of father Samuel Fritz. Secondly, because the Beni, Paucartambo, and Apurimac, are navigable in a latitude in which that river has not as yet originated. Thirdly, because the Ucayali does not yield in the quantity of its waters; but, on the contrary, presents itself, at the confluence, with a greater breadth, and with a superiority which obliges the Maranon to alter its course [Condamine, l. c. pap. 69]. Fourthly, because the ancient historians of the kingdom [Acosta—Historia Naturalis, p. 164; Garcilaso, t. i. p. 294; Calancha, p. 50; Montalvo—Sol del Neuvo Mundo, p. 7], have considered the Apurimac as the true Maranon. Fifthly, because, until the year 1687, the river which is now denominated Ucayali did not bear that name, but that of Apo-paru, that is, Gran-Paro, whence originated that of Gran-Para, which was equally bestowed on the Maranon, or river of the Amazons. In the above-mentioned year, a dispute arose between the Franciscans of Lima and the Jesuits of Quito, on the subject of the town and missions of San Miguel of the Conivos. Maps were demanded by the royal audience, to the end that a competent judgment might be formed of the litigated point. It was then that father Samuel Fritz drew up the one which was printed at Quito in 1707, and in which the Tunguragua is named Maranon, and the Faro, Ucayali, or Ucallali, a word which, signifying confluence, was applied by the inhabitants to that of the Faro and Tunguragua. Hence arose the error of father Fritz. By a discordance of a similar nature, father Acuna asserted, that the Napo was the Maranon. The degree of credit which the greater part of the Jesuits had justly acquired among the distinguished men of letters of those times [Sarmiento, Demonstrat. t. i. § 439, 458, et seq.], may account for the nomenclature of father Fritz having been generally and implicitly received.
- ↑ The Quillambamba originates in the heights of Vilcanota, in 15 degrees 25 minutes; and irrigating, with a copious stream of water, a portion of which it receives from several rivers, the delightful valley of Urubamba, as well as the eastern boundaries of Anaibamba and Vilcabamba, flows into the Apurimac.
- ↑ The Mantaro derives its source in the plains of Bombon, under the denomination of the river of Jauxa, from the lake Chinchaycocha, which is nine leagues in length, and two leagues and a half in breadth, in 11 degrees 3 minutes. It takes a southern direction, and receives, on the east and west, various torrents. After having crossed the valley of Jauxa, it winds to the east, receiving, among other rivers, at the distance of three leagues from the bridge of Iscuchaca, a powerful branch which descends from Huancavelica. In its effort to force a passage through the Cordillera of Guanca, it returns towards its origin, and forms the peninsula named Tallacaxa. Having resumed its eastern direction, it follows it to its mouth. Doctor Cosme Bueno is mistaken when he asserts, in the description of Jauxa, that this river, likewise named Pari, is the one which was anciently believed to be the origin of the Maranon. Herrara is guilty of a gross absurdity, in the passage of his Decades [t. iii. Decad. 5, 1. 4. c. 10], in which he considers it as the source of the river of la Plata.
- ↑ Doubts hare been entertained whether this river, at the confluence of which the Comavos and Ruanaguas are settled, is in reality the Paucartambo. Our opinion on this head is affirmative, because, according to the relations of the Franciscan missionaries, more especially that of the travels in those regions, undertaken, in the year 1686, by friar Manuel Biedma; and conformably to the information given by the Indians, the river to which a reference has been made, originates on the heights of Cusco, and enters with a quantity of water greater by the one half than that which the Apurimac contains. Now, throughout the whole extent of the mountainous territory of Cusco, there is not any river beside the Paucartambo, that manifests such qualities. In his introduction to the missions [p. 41], the learned father Rodriguez Tena hazards an opinion, that the Paucartambo is the celebrated Amarumayu, by which the Ynca Yupanqui [Garcilaso, t. i. 1. 7, c. 13, 14, &c.] entered, in undertaking the conquest of the Moxos, which enterprise was afterwards meditated by Alvarez Maldonado; and that the Ynca could not have navigated to the Moxos by the Paucartambo, provided it disembogues in the Apurimac, and not in the Beni. To this we reply, that the Ynca navigated by the Paucartambo, until he reached the mountains of Chunchos, the population of which he, in the first instance, subjugated, and was afterwards enabled to pass to the Beni by some arm of communication, or, perhaps, by land; since this river, having its source in the Cordillera of Vilcanota, in the same parallel line as the Apurimac, and running, by the province of Paucartambo, to the west of that of Cusco, forms such an arc towards the east, that when it winds to the north, to enter the Apurimac, its position is so near to the site of the Beni, that at the confluences there is not a greater space than the one above pointed out.
- ↑ Among our geographers, some contend that the Beni forms, conjointly with the Itenes, the river of la Madera; while others are of opinion, that it descends to the Maranon, with the name of Yavari. We can trace the origin of these contrarieties. The most remote springs of the Beni he to the east of the province of Sicasica, in about 19 degrees of latitude. It runs from S. to N. with some inflections, receiving various rivers from the mountainous territory it intersects. Among the most noticeable of these is the Coroyco, which, issuing from the province of la Paz, enters it to the west. Pursuing its course, in 13 degrees of latitude, it throws off a branch, in an eastern direction, which enters an extensive lake, named Roguaguado, having an extension of upwards of ten leagues E. W. and of five leagues N. S. From the eastern side of this lake rises an arm which runs to Marmore; and in a northern direiction three others are thrown off. The one which has the greatest tendency to the west, is named Yata the first; the middle one, Tamayaquibo; and the eastern one, Yata the second. These branches following a northeast course, are without doubt the rivers Yutay, Tefe, and Coari, which, after the Ucayali, empty themselves into the Maranon [Condamine, l. c. p. 94]. The Beni, having supplied this arm, flows until it incorporates itself with the Apurimac, into which it enters with an aperture of half a league, and with the name of Faro. This communication has therefore produced the errors of our geographers relatively to the Beni, which is justly considered, by the above-mentioned father Rodriguez Tena, as the principal branch of all those that compose the Maranon.
- ↑ The Pachitea originates in 10 degrees 46 minutes, in the vicinity of the fort named Quiparacra. It runs to the east; and afterwards declines to the north, forming the river Pozuzu. It follows the latter direction for a certain space, and then recovers the former, which it preserves until it reaches the confluence and port of the Mayro. With this river, and with that of the Piechis, which flows into it below, it again winds to the north, and enters the Paro.
- ↑ The noble firmness of these Indians may be collected from their behaviour in the town of Gran Cocama. Being strongly impressed with a persuasion that they were about to perish by the hands of the savages, they prepared themselves for death with a truly christian resignation. Each of them made his will, and turned his face, in imploring forgiveness of his Maker, towards the horizon which bounded his native country, without displaying the least change of countenance.
- ↑ The tigers lie in ambush for the caymans on the strands of the Ucayali, and whenever they are enabled to spring on them, bury their claws in the eyes, the hardness of the teguments not allowing them to accomplish this in any other part. The cayman, as soon as he feels that he is wounded, extricates himself from the tiger, and plunges into the water, where this valiant quadruped perishes, sooner than allow himself to be taken.—The Indians follow the example of other nations, in fishing for turtles, by laying them on the back, to prevent their escape: in this position they live for a space of from twenty to thirty days. Those who are engaged in this fishery, subsist on one of these animals for a considerable time, rutting it up peacemcal, in proportion to their wants.
- ↑ The bobotas are made of the thick canes which grow on the mountains, and have some resemblance to the flute. They give out a dull, but terrific sound.
- ↑ A sensibus esse creatam
Notitiam veri, neque sensus posse refelli.
LUCR. LIB. IV. - ↑ They are accustomed to spend a whole year in constructing one of from sixteen to twenty yards in length, and from a yard and a quarter to a yard and three quarters in breadth, all of one piece. They begin by falling a large tree with their stone hatchets; with which, and with fire, they deprive it of all its branches, and bring it to the dimensions they need. They then, by the means of a slow fire, form the cavity, scraping away the incinerated wood with flints. When, on the plane and sides, there remains a thickness equal to the breadth of three or four fingers only, they fill the concave trunk with water, applying dried palm leaves withoutside, and keeping up a slow fire. By this process the breadth of the concavity is dilated; and to prevent it from again closing, cross pieces of wood of a firm texture are placed from distance to distance. The poop forms a square; and the prow represents a pyramidal point.
- ↑ The whole of the mountainous territory is occupied by trees of an uncommon magnitude, which the Indians are under the necessity of felling, to be enabled to plant their productions. As their hatchets, whatever may be the industry they employ in sharpening them, do nothing more than mangle and lacerate the trunks, two lunar months are spent in felling a tree;—an operation which might be performed in the space of a few hours with a hatchet of iron. They have thus to undergo an infinite toil, in cultivating a small space of ground.
- ↑ “If, therefore we view, with the strictest impartiality, the fine countries in which the sciences and the arts flourish, and which were in remote times occupied by barbarism, we may demand of ourselves: how have these canals been opened?—How have these morasses been drained?—How have these cities been founded?—And the reply, to which every sensible man will give his assent, will be—by the means of commerce. In reality, th enations by which others have been civilized, have been constantly commercial.” Histor. Politic. de los establec. ultram. t. i. p. 3.
In the account of the peregrination of father Sobreviela, the president of the Maynas missions, Don Pedro Valverde, and the governor of the province, Don Francisco Requena, received the tribute of praise due to their laudable exertions on this head. We have now to add, that the former has broken down the barrier which separated the christian from the infidel, and forced them to remain friends; while the latter only waits the sanction of the supreme authority, to open and facilitate a commerce between the Indian nations reciprocally. - ↑ Page 407.
- ↑ The above-mentioned friar escaped the Manoa massacres, in consequence of having set out a few days before they were committed, to render to his prelates an account of the progress of the missionaries. This providential escape enabled him afterwards to accompany father Gil on his expedition to the succour of Manoa.
- ↑ Don Francisco Gil y Lemos, the then viceroy, a man of a most liberal and patriotic spirit. He was before at Santé Fe, as was likewise his secretary, Don Dionysio Franco, to whose patriotism and encouragement, the establishment of the Academical Society of Lima is, as well as that of the Peruvian Mercury, in a great measure to be ascribed.
- ↑ This was proved by what frequently occurred to the commissary of the missions, friar Manuel Gil, on his proceeding to the succour of Manoa. The barbarians sallied forth in their canoes, to obstruct his progress; but by the dint of persuasions, caresses, and presents, suffered him to pass. He then ordered his boatmen to make every possible exertion with their oars, by day and by night, in order to shun these Indians; and when he was persuaded that they were left several leagues behind, they returned, and again presented themselves in front of his canoes. This was certainly because the friar navigated by the great windings which the beds of the rivers take; while the more experienced Indians followed the direction of the right arms.
- ↑ The ancient entrances of the monks belonging to the provincial Order of the Twelve Apostles, and the modern ones of the fathers of Ocopa, demonstrate the celerity of the navigation by the Mayro and Pachitea, to the Ucayali.
- ↑ In the preceding peregrination, the limits of the two celebrated empires of Enim and Paititi were pointed out. That of Dorado, more ancient and more famous than either of them, runs from the western bank of the river Paro, to the eastern bank of the river Orinoko. The name of its capital was disputed: some would have it to have been Omaguas; while the majority contended that it was Manoa.
- ↑ In making this communication, the reverend father thanks the members of the Academical Society, for having exercised their talents in drawing up the history of the missions of Caxamarquilla, and that of the travels which had been recently undertaken by father Girbal and himself, by the rivers Huallaga and Ucayali, with a view to restore the Manoa missions. "Throughout the whole of these estimable productions," he observes, "perspicuousness, brevity, exactitude, erudition, and method, are apparent, stamping an additional value on the discourse relative to the costumes, superstitions, and exercises, of the barbarous tribes inhabiting the mountainous territory." [See p. 264.] He next expresses his obligations to the Society for having effectually contributed to the publication of the map of the course of the above-mentioned rivers, drawn up by him, and which the Editor again laments he has not been able, by any exertion, to obtain. "The principal motive of father Sobreviela, in causing this map to be engraved, appears to have been, to demonstrate, in a sensible manner, to each of the priests under his orders, the tracks they ought to follow, in proceeding to the towns of the existing missions, in the mountainous regions of the viceroyalty of Lima, and to those belonging to the innumerable barbarous tribes, in whose conversion his predecessors had employed so fervid a zeal, at the expence of immense labours and fatigues, leaving every part of the ground they had trodden bathed with their blood." [From the year 1637 up to that of 1790, the number of priests who perished by the hands of the infidels, in the mountainous territories of Peru, amounts to fifty-four.—Amich, Comp. Hist. p. 174.] "Their footsteps and example," he continues to observe, "ought to be followed, with equal fervour, by the missionaries be-longing to the college of Ocopa, in compliance with the strict obligation imposed on them to propagate the faith; in discharge of the royal conscience; and in eternal gratitude to our Catholic monarch, who for that purpose sent us from Spain, and maintains us, with a liberal hand, at his own expence.
"The same tracks may likewise serve as a guide to the inhabitants of Peru, who may be desirous to penetrate these vast regions, to enrich themselves with the valuable productions with which they abound [Perigrination by the Huallaga, p. 412], since their immense and fertile plains are replete with useful trees and medicinal herbs. The multitude of animals, as well terrestrial, as belonging to the feathered tribes, is immense; the rivers are filled with an innumerable variety of fishes; and on their banks the savages wash and collect the gold and silver with which they fabricate the bracelets, half moons, breastplates, &c. they wear as ornaments. [Tena—Mision. lib. i. p. 100.] “To the end that the map might appear with fewer defects than have been noticed in those published in different parts of Europe, I have not been satisfied with the observations of the entrances I have myself made into the mountainous territory, by nearly all the frontiers of Peru; but have carefully examined the routes and plans which have been drawn up since the year 1631, by the priests of my order, and which are still preserved in the archives of my college. With respect to the laying down of the sites which I did not reach in my travels, towards the north, I have followed Condamine and Anville, whose exactitude has been generally approved.
“The number of leagues and days’ journies which are marked on the different roads and rivers, may perhaps appear to some to be excessive, considering the proportion which is regularly observed in the distances by land, to that which is exhibited in the scale of the map by elevation; but this is not in reality the case, since the flexures frequently occasioned by the ascents and descents of the very lofty mountains, and the windings of the rivers, which are encountered at every step, are so great, that in one day the traveller does not advance two leagues in a right line, notwithstanding he travels or navigates more than six, as I have myself experienced. I have also found by experience, that it is less laborious and hazardous to navigate ten leagues by the rivers, than to proceed one by the intricate forests, and thickets planted with briars. From whatever part the mountainous territory is penetrated, it is necessary to ascend the eastern Cordillera, or that of the Andes, which is so elevated and shelving on the western side, that it seems in a manner to bar the passage to its immense plains, from the inhabitants of the more elevated regions; since they are not able to descend to them, unless by broken grounds, the roads across which are both difficult and dangerous, on account of the crags and precipices, of the morasses formed by the snow, and of the infinite number of streams, which, uniting into large rivers, flow to pay the tribute of their portions of water to the famous Huallaga and Ucayali. These obstacles were without doubt the principal cause why nearly the whole of the expeditions to the mountainous territory miscarried, as well in the time of the Yncas, as in that of the Spaniards; and why, during a century after the conquest, not a single ecclesiastic entered, to undertake the conversion of the infinite numbers of barbarians by whom that territory was inhabited.” [Amich—Comp. Hist. p. 4.] “Notwithstanding, the fervent children of St. Francis, after having gathered, with full hands, the copious harvest of infidels which the coasts, the adjacent hills, and the vallies, afforded them, began to overcome these difficulties, by effecting, in the year 1631, and consecutively, by different routes, various entrances, relative to which I have here drawn up brief notices, reserving a more full and particular account of them for the work in which I am now engaged, to be entitled: ‘A Complete Illustration of the Mountainous Territories bordering on Peru; in which are shewn the prosperous and adverse results of the principal entrances from the time of the conquest; the innumerable nations of barbarians who have existed, and still exist, in that new world; their rites and customs; the most seasonable means of converting them to Christianity, and securing their obedience to the sovereign; and, lastly, the valuable productions and treasures, belonging to the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, with which those territories abound.’—The authors of the Peruvian Mercury, in speaking of the present notices by father Sobreviela, observe that, when combined with what has already been given on the same subject, they form a brief but exact history, original in all its parts.
- ↑ Tena, lib. i. p. 273.
- ↑ Cordova, lib. i. p. 161.
- ↑ Cordova, lib. i. p. 162.
- ↑ Cordova, lib. i. p. 182.
- ↑ Amich, p. 8.
- ↑ This nation, for the conversion of which measures are now taking (in 1791), is known by the appellation of Manoitas.
- ↑ Amich, p. 9.
- ↑ Amich, p. 73.
- ↑ Amich, p. 75.
- ↑ Amich, p. 86.
- ↑ Amich, p. 149, 153, and 160.
- ↑ Cordova, lib. ii. p. 116.
- ↑ Cordova, lib. ii. p. 125.
- ↑ Amich, p. 51.
- ↑ Amich, p. 6.
- ↑ Amich, p. 6.
- ↑ Tena, lib. i. p. 31.
- ↑ Amich, p. 33.
- ↑ Amich, p. 72.
- ↑ Amich, p. 74.
- ↑ Amich, p. 80.
- ↑ Amich, p. 94, et sequentes.
- ↑ Tena, lib. iii. p. 76.
- ↑ Tena, lib. ii. p. 213 et 228; lib. iii. p. 76.
- ↑ Amich, p. 11.
- ↑ Tena, lib. i. p. 35.
- ↑ Amich, p. 28.
- ↑ Amich, p. 41.
- ↑ Tena, lib. i. p. 76.
- ↑ Tena, lib. i. p. 101.
- ↑ Tena, lib. i. p. 123.
- ↑ Amich, p. 69.
- ↑ Amich, p. 76.
- ↑ Amich, p. 101.
- ↑ The missionaries who came from Spain in the years 1731 and 1737, not only preserved the missions which had been re-established by friar Francisco de San Joseph, but likewise added to them the two towns of Parua, and sixteen others, which they founded in the Pajonal.—Tena, lib. ii. p. 182.
- ↑ Amich, p. 429.
- ↑ Amich, p. 35.
- ↑ Tena, lib. ii. p. 181.
- ↑ Amich, p. 126.
- ↑ Amich, p. 4.
- ↑ Tena, lib. i. p. 305.
- ↑ Tena, lib. i. p. 305.
- ↑ But a few years have elapsed since this navigation was first practised. The Indians of Tomependa are, notwithstanding, extremely dexterous in performing it; and by this route several days are saved.
- ↑ This wood is pale, of a soft texture, and extremely light. It is named by the Indians, balsa; by the Spaniards, canna veja; and is conjectured to be the ferula of the Romans.—Ulloa.
- ↑ These cords, and those which are employed to lash the beams, &c. are made of the interwoven fibrous stems of the bejuco, a plant of the kind denominated creepers.
- ↑ Instead of pongo, this may with more propriety be named salto, by which a craggy inlet is implied; since, the river being here pent up, the water forsakes its course, and rushes into a hollow rock, the one half of the cavity of which it occupies. In its sudden fall, it occasions such furious and lofty billows, that it becomes necessary, in the ascent more particularly, to discharge the cargoes, and drag the vessels to the opposite bank.
- ↑ This pongo is formed of a shelving cliff in a semicircular shape. The river extends by this curvature, within which the water appears to be stagnant. In its effort, however, to flow out at the side opposite to that by which it entered, it is obstructed and forced back by the rocks, which give it a strong impulsion towards the stream. The collision that ensues occasions considerable whirlpools and eddies, to shun which the Indians are under the necessity of drawing the vessel from the bank, by the means of bejuco cords.
- ↑ In this pongo there is the same risk as in the preceding one, with this difference, however, that on each side of the bank the cliffs are so smooth and slippery, that the Indians, in the ascent of the river, have not any footing to enable them to draw the vessel with the bejuco cords. They are therefore obliged to wait until the vortex is subdued by the impulse of the current.
- ↑ This is a strait of nearly two leagues in length, formed of two parallel cliffs, by which the river is narrowed to such a degree, that its breadth of six hundred yards, before its junction with the river Santiago, is reduced to fifty. The constant breaking oi the waves against the rocks has made several formidable caverns, resembling houses, with their saloons, chambers, &c.
- ↑ Page 425.
- ↑ After having spent one day in the ascent from Andoas, he quits the Pastasa, and prosecutes the navigation by the river Bobonaza.
- ↑ Page 425.
- ↑ First opened by Don Juan de Bezares, in 1789. See p. 344.
- ↑ For these tambos, or baiting places, resembling in their institution the caravansaries of the East, travellers are chiefly indebted to the benevolence of the missionaries.
- ↑ This itinerary bears the date of 1791.
- ↑ Referred to under the head of Topography, p. 345.
- ↑ So called, because the Indians extract the gold from the sands of the rivers, by washing them in small wells dug for that purpose.—Ulloa.