408 



APPENDIX. 



had received the name of Anna Rosa. On the 8th of July they reached the banks 

 of the river Manoa, where they perceived two canoes filled with Indians. On 

 their approach, Anna Rosa prevailed on an Indian, named Rungato, to land from 

 his canoe. The caresses and affability of the missionaries soon prevailed on him to 

 lay aside his fear, and, by the dint of a few entreaties, he was led to conduct them 

 to his tribe, which consisted of about two hundred and twenty souls, inhabiting a 

 small village named Suaray. Here the reverend fathers were received with every 

 token of sincerity and pleasure, manifested by the Indians in their dances and rus- 

 tic repasts ; and were hailed by the gentle appellation of friends. 



It appeared, by the testimony of several of these Indians, that their nation had 

 formerly maintained an intercourse with the Spaniards. Recurring to their tradi- 

 tions, they dated their origin from the ancient Setebos. From the year 1657 to 

 1686 the latter occupied the banks of the Pachitea, and extended their boundaries 

 to the river Ucayali, where a missionary, friar Manuel Biedma, converted a consi- 

 derable number of them, and rendered their condition highly flourishing. Ex- 

 posed to the attacks and inroads of their turbulent neighbours the Callisecas, a por- 

 tion of these converted Indians accompanied their spiritual guides in their flight, and 

 proceeded by the Payanzos tribes to those of Panatahua. The remainder passed from 

 the banks of the Ucayali to those of the Manoa, a distance of twenty leagues. By 

 the means of this ancestry, some notions of the christian religion were handed down 

 to and propagated among them, but blended with a thousand errors and absurdities. 

 They believe in God, the dispenser of rewards and punishments. They acknow- 

 ledge Jesus Christ, and his holy mother ; but they assimilate the latter with the 

 Deity, maintaining her to be the co-author and conservatrix of the universe. They 

 pradlise baptism, and sprinkle on the heads of the children newly born a quantity 

 of lime juice, without uttering a syllable, or making any sign. Friar St. Joseph, 

 who, with seven Europeans, remained among the Manoa Indians, after the depar- 

 ture of father Salcedo, represented to his Prelates how much he had to sufi^er from 

 hunger, from the annoyance of inserts, and from the cruelty of the Indians. Being 

 unprovided with the necessary implements for cutting down the large shrubs on 

 the mountains, and for tilling the land, his crops had been very unprodudlive» 

 These Implements were shortly after liberally supplied. 



The conversion of the Manoa Indians, although inconsiderable, was extremely in- 

 teresting, inasmuch as it led to that of the other tribes which are scattered over 

 the Pampa del Sacramento, and on the banks of the Ucayali. Twenty leagues to 

 the south of Manoa, the Sipibos, sprung from the ferocious Callisecas, by whom 

 the Payanzos missionaries were cut off, inhabit the banks of the river Pisqui, They 



live. 



