Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/480

422 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,