Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/504

446 were there dispersed; 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, 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, 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.

In the year 1651, friar Alonzo Caballero 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, and soon succeeded in the conversion of upwards of