268 



INDIAN AND OTHER 



that the viceroy was under the necessity of sending a detach- 

 ment of troops to apprehend him. This having been success- 

 fully accomplished, he was banished to Valdivia, with ano- 

 ther individual, named Villa-Nueva, his captain-general. 

 Don Antonio, and Don Benito Quiroga, inhabitants of la Paz, 

 were not more successful in the conquest of Gran Paititi, in 

 their endeavours to accomplish which they consumed a very 

 flourishing capital, and were left in an impoverished state. 

 This reward was justly due to an insatiable ambition. 



Time has slowly dissipated these chimeras, which have 

 been in one respe6l useful, inasmuch as they have stimulated 

 certain missionaries to explore the mountains. From their re- 

 lations we can colledt, that throughout the whole extent of 

 them, in Manoa, and in the immense plains which separate 

 them from the cordillera of Brasil, there are not any other 

 treasures, beside those that will be pointed out in illustrating 

 the peregrinations of fathers Sobreviela and Girbal * ; nor any 

 greater degree of civilization and policy than that which is ex- 

 hibited in the account we now proceed to give, of the cos- 

 tumes, superstitions, and exercises of the barbarians who in- 

 habit them. 



They live dispersed in the forests and woods, and are col- 

 le6led, under the dire6tion of one or two caciques, into small 

 tribes, each of which considers itself as a distin6l nation, and 

 even hostile to the others. They are usually tall, robust, and 

 well made, it being the invariable cust9m, w^henever any male 



^ These travels, which were undertaken in 1790, the year preceding that of the 

 publication of the Peruvian Mercury, will, with other interesting details, relative to 

 the tribes of uncivilized Indians, be given in an appendix. 



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