INTRODUCTORY. 



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marvellous stories of what they had seen and learned, which inflamed 

 the curiosity and cupidity of others. These parties were generally ac- 

 companied by an ecclesiastic, who was the historian of the expedition. 

 Some idea may be formed of the worthlessness of their records by 

 examining a few of the stories related by them. Here is one : 



"Juan Alvarez Maldonado made an expedition from Cuzco in the 

 year 1561. He descended the eastern range of the Andes, and had 

 scarcely cleared the rough and rocky ground of the slope when his 

 party encountered two pigmies. They shot the female, and the male 

 died of grief six days afterwards. 



" Following the course of the great river Mano downwards, at the 

 distance of two hundred leagues they landed upon a beach, and a piquet 

 of soldiers penetrated into the woods. They found the trees so tall as 

 to exceed an arrow-shot in height, and so large that six men, with joined 

 hands, could scarcely circle them. Here they found lying upon the 

 ground a man, five yards in height, members in proportion, long snout, 

 projecting teeth, vesture of beautiful leopard skin, short and shrivelled, 

 and, for a walking-stick, a tree, which he played with as with a cane. 

 On his attempting to rise, they shot him dead, and returned to the boat 

 to give notice to their companions. These went to the spot, and found 

 traces of his having been carried off. Following the track towards a 

 neighboring hill, they heard thence such shouts and vociferations that 

 they were astounded, and, horror-stricken, fled." One more : 



"Between the years 1639 and 1648, Padre Tomas de Chaves, a 

 Dominican, entered among the Chunchos, from Cochabamba, in Boli- 

 via. He took twelve of them to Lima, where they were baptized. 

 He then went back and lived among them fourteen years, making 

 many expeditions. His last was in 1654 among the Moxos Indians 

 of the Mamore. He there cured a cacique of some infirmity, and 

 the Emperor of the Musus (this is the great Paititi or gilded King 

 of the Spaniards) sent six hundred armed men to the cacique of the 

 Moxos, demanding that the reverend father should be sent to cure 

 his Queen. The Moxos were very unwilling to part with their phy- 

 sician ; but threats of extermination delivered by the ambassadors of 

 the Emperor induced compliance; and the padre was carried off on 

 the shoulders of the Indians. After a travel of thirty days, he came 

 to the banks of a stream so wide that it could scarcely be seen across ; 

 (supposed to be the Beni.) Here the Indian ambassadors had left 

 their canoes; loosing them from the banks, they launched, went 

 down the stream twelve days, and then landed. Here the father 



