TRAVELS OP TH£ MISSIONARIES. 



407 



The provincials of the Order of the Twelve Apostles maintained the above missions 

 until the year 1754, when they were conceded to the missionaries of the college of 

 Ocopa. The docility and intelligence which the latter found in the newly acquired 

 tribes, suggested to them the expediency of extending their spiritual conquests. 

 For this purpose, and with the aid of their new converts, they undertook repeated 

 journeys, by the eastern part of the territory in their possession, to the mountains 

 which separate that territory from the Pampa del Sacramento. The result of these 

 expeditions, which were continued until the year 1757, and in the course of which 

 the missionaries and their suite were sometimes obliged to travel on foot, exposed 

 to hunger, thirst, and almost every privation, during thirty or forty days succes- 

 sively, was the discovery of the river Manoa. On these occasions, some of the In- 

 dian guides fell a sacrifice to the hardships and fatigues they had to encounter. 

 The conversion of several wandering tribes, dwelling on the banks of the above 

 river, rendered the missionaries forgetful of the continual sufferings and fatigues 

 they had undergone, and stimulated them to new researches. 



In the month of February, 1757, the reverend fathers Santa Rosa, Fresneda, 

 and Cavello, set out, accompanied by three hundred Indians, partly Cholones, 

 partly Hibitos. On the 4<th day of March, at day break, they reached one of the 

 Manoa towns, named Masemague. Surprized at the sudden appearance of so con- 

 siderable a number of persons, the Inhabitants took up arms, and an unavoidable 

 combat ensued, in which several were killed on each side, among them father Ca- 

 vello. The only advantage which the missionaries reaped from this conflicl was 

 the capture of a boy, and of two girls. The elder of these females, being soon in- 

 strufted in the christian dodlrine, civilized, and taught to converse in the Spanish 

 tongue, excited a new fervour in the breast of the reverend fathers, to whom she 

 gave precise information relative to her own tribe, and to those by which the banks 

 of the famous Ucayali are peopled, representing to them the facility of reducing 

 these tribes to obedience, and tendering her services as interpreter. The mission- 

 aries, animated by these persuasions, repeated' their excursions in the year 1759, ac- 

 companied by twenty-eight European soldiers, partly Spaniards, and partly Portu- 

 guese. Being unaccustomed to travel on foot on so rocky a soil, the soldiery very 

 soon revolted, and not only returned back themselves, but prevented the reverend 

 fathers from proceeding onward. 



The fervour of the latter was augmented in proportion to their disappointments 

 and mortifications. Friars Miguel Salcedo, and Francisco de San Joseph, set 

 out, towards the end of May 1760, from St. Buenaventura del Valle, with ninety 

 Indians, seven Europeans, and the young Manoa girl, who had been baptized, and 



had 



