^lO ULLOa's voyage to south AMERICA. 



his new ftate a fubjeft of the King of Spain, as he owed to his bounty the ineftimable 

 felicity of his converfion. 



Thus the miflions and the number of towns increafed together, and the propagation 

 of the Chriftian religion in thofe remote countries, and the aggrandifement of the 

 Spanifli monarchy, went hand in hand. But the moft diftinguifhed asra of thefe pro- 

 greffions was the year 1686, by the zeal and adivity of Father Fritz, whom we have 

 had occafion before to mention with honour : he went direftly among the nation of 

 the Omaguas, who having by the Cocamas Indians been informed of the mildnefs and 

 wifdom with which the miiTionaries taught them to live under jufl: and wholefome laws, 

 and a police hitherto unknown among them ; together with the many happy effefts it 

 had produced in thofe nations which had conformed to their inftruftions ; animated 

 with thefe pleafmg relations, they fent, in 1681, a deputation to the town of Laguna, 

 belonging to Cocamas, where Father Lorenzo Lucero, fuperior of the miflions, refided, 

 \ entreating him to fend among them perfons for their inftrudlion : but the father at that 

 time was not in a capacity of complying with their requefV, all the miffionaries being 

 employed elfewhere. He therefore difmiffed them, with commending their good inten- 

 tions ; promifmg them, that he would fend to Quito for a proper perfon to infl:ru6l 

 them in thofe falutary dodrines embraced by the other nations. 



The Omaguas, full 0f anxiety, did not give Father Lorenzo Lucero time to negleft 

 his promife ; for, on hearing that new miffionaries, and among them Father Samuel 

 Fritz, were juft arrived at Laguna from Quito, the fame deputation returned to requeft 

 the immediate performance of the promife ; and having the greateft reafon to exped: 

 it would be complied with, great part of the people came in canoes to the town of 

 Laguna, as a teftimony of refpeft to Father Fritz, in order to condu6t him to their 

 country, where they treated him with fuch veneration, that in his progrefs through the 

 towns they would not fuffer him to walk, but carried him on their fhoulders ; an 

 honour which the caciques referved to themfelves alone. The effefts of his preaching 

 were anfwerable to thefe marks of ardour and efteem, fo that in a fhort time the 

 whole nation was brought to a ferious profeflion of Chriftianity, deploring their former 

 ignorance and brutality, and forming themfelves into a political community, under 

 laws calculated for the happinefs of fociety. And their example fo influenced feveral 

 other adjacent nations, that the Yurimaguas, Afuares, Banomas, and others, unani- 

 moufly and voluntarily came and addrefled themfelves to Father Fritz, defiring him to 

 infl:ru6l them how to live in the fame order and regularity as the Omaguas. Thus 

 whole nations, on embracing Chrifl:ianity, fubmitted to the fovereignty of the Spanifh 

 monarchs : and all the countries from the Napo to a confiderable diflance below the 

 Negro, were reduced without the leaft force throughout the whole extent of the 

 government of Maynas : and fuch, at the end of the lafl: century, was the number of 

 the nations thus converted, that Father Fritz, though without indulging himfelf in any 

 refpite, was not able to vifit every fmgle town and village within the compafs of a year, 

 exclufively of the nations under the care of other miflionaries, as thofe of the Maynas, 

 Xebaros, Cocamas, Panos, Chamicuros, Aguanos, Muniches, Otanabes, Roamaynas, 

 Gaes, and many more. The other miflions were in the fame flourifliing condition. 



The city of San Francifco de Borja, which we have already mentioned as the capital 

 of Maynas, ftands in 4° 28" S. lat. and 1° 54" E. of the meridian of Quito : but of its 

 largenefs and appearance we can only add, that it refembles the cities of the govern- 

 ment of Jaen : and its inhabitants, though confifling of Mefl:izos and Indians, and the- 

 place is the refidence of the governor of Maynes and Maranon, yet they are not equal 

 in number to thofe of Jaen de Bracamaros. The principal town of the millions, and 



in 



