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342 labourers, he came to a resolution to open the road at his own expence, so as to give a new vigour to the province, and to reap all the advantages he had figured to himself at the commencement, but which were not obtainable without this mean. Having drawn up a map of the territory, he presented his project to the viceroy, whom he beseeched to further its execution by the most seasonable aid. In enforcing his pretensions, he represented:

"That the mountains and towns situated to the south of the river Maranon, in the part contained between Pataz, Guamalies, Huanuco, and the Pampa del Sacramento, having been abandoned for two centuries; and he having witnessed with his own eyes a great part of the grandeur of that territory, its fertility, good temperature, and the riches it is susceptible of producing, not inferior to what he had always imagined, and which had never been obtained from the other mountains of those Andes, notwithstanding the multiplied expeditions undertaken, the immense sums drawn from the royal treasury, and the many missionaries and troops who had there perished; entirely on account of not having cleared the roads of access; of having proceeded with more zeal than prudence; of having had recourse to gratuitous erogations, which constantly produce, in the breast of the Indian, dread and anxiety when the tribute is collected by one part of the community, and avarice, jealousy, and bloodshed, when the other part is deficient; and more particularly in consequence of not having adopted the maxim of other nations, by the introduction of the cange, or commerce, as has been seen in Canada, Batavia, Kamschatka, Paru on the side of the Maranon, and other foreign colonies; by the means of which the barbarians