ULLOA*S VOYAGE TO SOUTH AMERICA. 507 



Thus he continued his voyage till the 26th of Auguft, in the fame year ; when, 

 having paffed a prodigious number of illands, he faw himfelf in the ocean. He now 

 proceeded to the ille of Cubagua, or, according to others, to that of La Trinidad, with 

 a defign of going to Spain, to folicit for a patent as governor of thefe countries. The 

 diflance he failed on this river, according to his own computation, was eighteen hun- 

 dred leagues. 



This difcovery was followed by another, but not fo complete ; it was undertaken in 

 the year 1559 or 1560, under Pedro' de Orfua, by commiifion from the Marquis de 

 Canete, viceroy at Peru, who at the fame time conferred on him the title of governor 

 of all his conquells. But the firft news of Orfua was, that he and the greatefl part 

 of his men were killed in an ambufcade by the Indians ; a cataftrophe entirely owing 

 to his own ill condu£l;, which deftroyed the great armament made for this enterprife, 

 and created an averfion to defigns liable to fuch dangers. 



In the year 1602, the Reverend Raphael Ferrer, a Jefuit, having undertaken the 

 miffion of Cofanes, paffed down the Maranon, and attentively furveyed the country as 

 far as the conflux of the two rivers where Orellana had left Hernando Sanchez de 

 Vargas ; and at his return to Quito gave a very circumftantial account of what he had 

 feen, and the different nations he had difcovered. 



Another, but fortuitous, view of the river was taken in 1616. Twenty Spaniih 

 foldiers, quartered in Santiago de las Montanas, in the province of Yaguarfongo, 

 purfued a company of Indians, w ho, after murdering fome of their countrymen in the 

 city, fled up the country, and embarked on the Maranon in their canoes. The foldiers, 

 in falling down the river, came to the nation of the Maynas^ who received them in a 

 friendly manner ; and after fome difcourfe fliowed a difpofition of fubmitting to the 

 King of Spain, and defired miffionaries might be fent them. The foldiers, on their 

 return to Santiago, having made a report of the good inclination of the Maynas, and 

 their defire of being inftru£ted in the Chriftian religion, an account was fent to the 

 Prince of Efquiloche, viceroy of Peru : and in 1618, Don Diego Baca de Vega was 

 appointed governor of Maynas and Maranon ; and may be faid to have been in reality 

 the firft, as neither Pizarro, Orellana, nor Orfua, though invefted with the title, were 

 ever in poffeflion of it, having made no abfolute conquefts ; a necefl'ary circumftance 

 towards realizing the title. 



This expedition was performed in 1635 and 1636, and was fucceeded by that of 

 two Francifcans, with others of the fame order, who fet out from Quito with a de- 

 termined zeal for propagating Chriftianity among the nations on the Maranon. But 

 many of them, unable to fupport themfelves under the fatigues and hardfhips natural 

 in fuch a country, and difcouraged with the little fruit their good defires produced, 

 after wandering among mountains, woods, and deferts, returned to Quito, leaving 

 only two, Dominico de Brieda and Andrew de Toledo, both lay-brothers. Thefe, 

 either from a religious zeal, or naturally more brave and hardy, or of greater curiofity, 

 ventured to penetrate further into thofe dreary waftes. They were indeed attended by 

 fix foldiers, remaining of a whole company who had been fent, under Captain Juan de 

 Palacio, for the fafeguard of the miffionaries ; but fo many of them had returned 

 with the religious to Quito, that thefe fix and 'the captain were all that remained : and 

 that ofiicer, a few days after, loft his life in an aftion againft the Indians. 



The fix foldiers and two lay-brothers, however, continued with undaunted refolution 

 to travel through countries inhabited by favages, unknown, and full of precipices on 

 all fides ; at length they committed themfelves to the ftream, in a kind of launch ; 

 and after many fatigues, hardfhips, and here and there a rencounter, reached the city 



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