Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/465

Rh 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