In 1638, according to Alçedo, the Jesuit fathers, Gaspar Cuxia and Lucas de la Cueva, settled several missions in the country of Maynas on both shores of the Marañon, which continued to flourish until the abolition of the useful society of Jesuits in 1767.[18]
At first the capital of Maynas was San Francisco de Borja, which, according to Ulloa, is situated in latitude 4° 28´ south, and 1° 54´ east, of the meridian of Quito. In this city an insurrection of the native Indians took place in the year 1635, which was happily quelled by the indefatigable Jesuits: but afterwards the town of Laguna on the east bank of the Huallaga, in latitude 5° 13´ south, became the principal seat or capital of the missions of Maynas, which extend from St. Borja along both sides of the river Marañon, embracing many villages or settlements, to the frontier possessions of Brazil at Tabatingo. From the Marañon the patriarchal government of the missionaries extended southward along the river Ucayali, and among several of the tribes on its banks, or in the adjacent woods, such as the Cocamas, Piros, and Conibos or Conivos Indians, whom the Jesuits of Quito had in a great measure converted to the faith; but they again revolted, and returned to their original wandering and savage mode of life, having put their pastors to death. After this unfortunate event, several fruitless efforts—especially in the year 1695, and also in 1764,—were made to reconvert these tribes, till at length the Franciscan missionaries of the college of Ocopa succeeded to a great extent in this hazardous undertaking.
But long before the establishment of this college of their order, two Franciscans,—the Fathers Andres de Toledo and Domingo Breda, both bent on making converts to the faith,—left Quito in the year 1636, and, having surmounted the greatest hardships by land and water, arrived at Para. They reported their arrival and discoveries to Santiago Raimundo de Noroña, Governor of San Luis de Marañon, in the united service of Spain and Portugal, for both countries were then under the sovereignty of the crown of Spain. The result of the intelligence thus derived was a further survey up the river, under the command of the Portuguese captain, Texera: and an account of the whole of these proceedings being transmitted from the Audiencia at Quito to the Count of Chinchon, Viceroy of Peru, he in the year 1639 sent back the flotilla of Texera to Para, conveying thither the Fathers Christoval de Acuña, and Andres de Artieda, Jesuits of Quito, and other able men, commissioning them, among other things, to survey minutely the river Marañon and its banks, and, having done so, to embark for Spain, and lay their account before the Council of the Indies; all which they accomplished in a creditable manner.
As early as the year 1631, Franciscan missionaries visited the environs of the river Huallaga, made converts, and entered the country of the Panataguas. Contiguous to Huanuco, and probably within the territorial limits of this ancient tribe, is situated at present the important and civilized Indian town called Panao, which is included in the curacy of Santa Maria del Valle.
From the Panataguas are supposed to have sprung several other tribes of distinct denominations, which had spread over the adjacent country, wherein Christianity had made but slow progress.
From the city of Huanuco the fathers of Ocopa penetrated, by Panao, Muña, and Pozuzo, to the port on the river Mayro, where they formed one of their earliest settlements: from this place they appear to have descended in canoes to the rivers Pachitea and Ucayali. This course is well marked on the map of those parts, published in Lima, in the year 1791, by the literary society entitled “Sociedad de Amantes del Pais de Lima.” This excellent map of the territory of the missions in Peru was dedicated to his Catholic Majesty, Charles the Fourth, Emperor of the Indies, by the said society, and the reverend fathers of the missionary college of Ocopa; whose superior or guardian, Fr. Manuel Sobreviela, enriched it with a plan of the rivers Huallaga and Ucayali, and of the pampa del Sacramento. In the above route from Huanuco, the Franciscans from the time they left their last christianized settlement, Pozuzu, (some years ago depopulated by the small-pox,) had to contend with the Amajes, Carapachos, Callisecas, and other savage tribes, occupying the territory between Pozuzo and the mouth of the Pachitea. From this spot, namely, where the Pachitea joins the Ucayali, to the river Sarayacu, which enters the Ucayali in latitude 6° 45´ south, several streams descend from the plains of Sacramento to join the Ucayali,—such as the Aguaytia, De Sipivos, and Manoa, the environs of which are inhabited or frequented by various tribes of Indians known by the names Sipivos, Conibos, Manoas, and Serebos, &c. Among these they made some converts; but the principal nation are the Panos, who inhabit the neighbourhood of the Sarayacu, and form a great part of the population of the town of the same name, which is the superior, or rather, at present, the only seat of the Franciscan missions on the Ucayali. This mission, founded by the Franciscan, Father Girbal, in 1791, was visited in February 1835 by Lieutenant W. Smyth and Mr. F. Lowe, in their journey “undertaken with a view of ascertaining the practicability of a navigable communication with the Atlantic by the rivers Pachitea, Ucayali, and Amazon.” They found it under the guardianship of the venerable Father Manuel Plaza, whose account of these parts forms an interesting document in the Mercurio Peruano. The climate of Sarayacu is described by this excellent missionary as more free from ague and dysentery than the settlements in low, sultry, and humid situations on the banks of the river Marañon; and Lieutenant Smyth and Mr. Lowe, who give an interesting account of the actual state of the mission, observe that “the climate seems very much like that of the island of Madeira;” and, like the city of Huanuco on the Huallaga, it is refreshed in the dry season by breezes that blow along the river.
All the other missionary settlements in these parts having been abandoned since the downfall of the college of Ocopa, the consequence has been, that the Indians of those settlements have collected round their only remaining spiritual father and friend, Padre Plaza, at Sarayacu, where the population has thus been swelled to the number of about two thousand; and these semi-barbarous tribes honour their faithful pastor, and are very attentive to the service of their church, which is performed partly in the Latin and partly in the Pano tongue. Lieutenant Smyth and Mr. Lowe not being able to realize the object of their expedition by entering the Montaña at Pozuzo, and descending by the Mayro, returned to Huanuco, and descended by the river Huallaga, till they arrived at the river Chipurana, in the province of Maynas, which, according to the missionaries, enters the Huallaga in latitude 6° 30´ south. They ascended the Chipurana as far as they found it navigable; and thence, partly by land and partly by water, they proceeded to Sarayacu, in expectation of being able, through the guidance of Padre Plaza, to effect their expedition up the Pachitea,—an undertaking in which they unfortunately did not succeed, on account of the inundation of the rivers during the wet season, which lasts from November to May, and also for want of a sufficient supply of effects to exchange for the provisions necessary for the support of an escort of the mission Indians, without which the enterprise is not safe, nor indeed practicable, at any season. Nevertheless, Padre Plaza, before the visit of Lieutenant Smyth and Mr. Lowe, wrote to advise the government of his opinion regarding the communication with the district of his mission by the port of Mayro; and his letter on this subject was published at Cerro Pasco, after accounts had been received of the failure of the expedition undertaken by the gentlemen now mentioned, in company with the Peruvians, Major Beltran and Lieutenant Azcarate. It is to be feared that this reverend monk is too much stricken in years to be much longer able to preserve his usefulness; and, what is yet more to be lamented, at his death it is probable that all the labours of himself and his predecessors in the same field of conversion and civilization will have been thrown away. Friar Manuel Plaza is not likely to have a successor from the school of Ocopa, notwithstanding the decree respecting its restoration, while Peru continues to exhaust its best resources in war, either civil or defensive, against neighbouring states. To enable that country to consolidate its internal strength, and attend to the practical improvements of civil and religious institutions, it must have what the majority of its citizens sincerely long for,—an interval of quiet. Until domestic peace be acquired, the peace of the Gospel is not likely to be sent forth afresh to subdue the turbulent spirit of the Cashivo, or to replant and renew the settlements and friendships that were formerly established by the emissaries from Ocopa; friendships now for the most part forgotten, and settlements no longer to be traced, except on the map of their wide-spreading mission-land, already alluded to as dedicated by their order and the literati of Lima to the King of Spain. But since then the dynasty of kings has been destroyed; and zeal for the missionary cause, except in name and speculation, has almost vanished from the land, where it would appear that patriotism can only thrive on the ruins of all the best institutions of former days: and when the writer of the following letter shall be no more, the name of king and Saviour, if not also of friend[19] and patriot, may soon cease to be heard or honoured among the woods and glades in the now isolated and forlorn mission of the Ucayali.
“Peruvian Republic.—Mission of the Ucayali.
”Sarayacu, 14th December 1834.