a grateful sense of the urbanity they had displayed, in escorting him as far as San Regis. The Indians attached to the Maynas missions, having, with great generosity, supplied him with the same number of canoes, and with whatever he might need in his ascent to Cumbasa, father Girbal proceeded on his voyage by the Maranon. On the 11th of December he reached the town cf the lake of Gran Cocoma, and contending against the current of the Huallaga, entered, on the 29th, his doctrina, or spiritual jurisdiction, of Cumbasa, after an absence of upwards of four months. Thus terminated his long and painful peregrination.
It may be attended by great and manifest advantages both to religion and to the state. The idea of the ferociousness and barbarity of the uncivilized Indians inhabiting the Pampa del Sacramento has been done away; and the dread which prevented their reduction has vanished like a fanciful dream. They are heartily desirous to be instructed in the maxims of Christianity;—maxims which, being directed to the welfare and felicity of man, penetrate without violence into his spirit, and obtain a complete mastery over his passions. Religion, in benefiting man, has an infinitely greater power to civilize him, to keep him in good order and subjection, and to sustain the august thrones of legitimate and benign potentates, than all the accumulated artifices which despots have invented to tyrannize over him.
The navigation of the Ucayali having been explored, it has been ascertained that it may be undertaken at any of the seasons of the year, without dread of encountering the impediment of rock or shoal; and experience has demonstrated the celerity with which the descent from Manoa to the Maynas settlements may be accomplished;—a circumstance which, in the first instance, presents a prompt refuge to the missionaries, in the case of sudden attacks. These favourable principles having been combined with others which prudence may dictate, may give rise to several flourishing missions, which may not be exposed to the disasters that attended the former. What alone is necessary, is to seize on the occasion as it presents itself. Supported by the protection and authority of our excellent governor,[1] father Manuel Sobreviela has already had recourse to the most effectual expedients. Father Narciso Girbal y Barcelo, who, at the commencement of the present year, 1791, reached Lima to render an account of his pere-
- ↑ Don Francisco Gil y Lemos, the then viceroy, a man of a most liberal and patriotic spirit. He was before at Santé Fe, as was likewise his secretary, Don Dionysio Franco, to whose patriotism and encouragement, the establishment of the Academical Society of Lima is, as well as that of the Peruvian Mercury, in a great measure to be ascribed.
grination,
