Page:The Present State of Peru.djvu/527

Rh 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.

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 ,