422 



APPENDIX. 



fastened together and fixed in the earth. The top, and one of the entrances, are 

 secured by other stakes of the same description : in the middle of the passage there 

 is a division. At the entrance which is left open, a stout plank, supported by a 

 cord which is slightly secured in the front of the passage, is suspended. When the 

 howlings of a tiger are heard, a dog is shut up in the inner division, who, finding 

 himself in confinement, begins to howl. The tiger instantly darts forward, think- 

 ing himself secure of his prey, and being unable to find any other passage than the 

 one where the plank is suspended, enters that way. Now entangling himself in 

 the cord, he springs, throws down the plank, and finds himself hemmed in with- 

 out being able to hurt the dog, who is protected by the division of boards. After 

 having amused themselves until the animal becomes furious, the Indians put him to 

 death with their clubs and arrows. 



From Yurimahuas to the town of Laguna, the capital of Maynas, the dis- 

 tance is forty leagues. On the 22d, at day-break, father Sobreviela set out for 

 that place with boatmen belonging to the town of Yurimahuas ; and as these In- 

 dians are very expert in the above navigation, the canoes proceeded night and day 

 without any other interruption than the necessary stops, insomuch, that on the 

 following morning, at half past ten, they reached the port of the town of Laguna. 

 The rains, which had fallen during several preceding days, had formed a variety of 

 large pools of water which prevented them from landing. They were therefore 

 obliged to diredl their course to the lake of Gran Cocama, which flows, by the 

 eastern bank, into the Huallaga, in 5 degrees 14) minutes south latitude, by a canal 

 so extremely narrow as to admit the entrance of one canoe only, and a mile and a 

 half in length. The lake is a league and an half in circumference ; and is sur- 

 rounded by a dry and elevated ground, a description of territory very rarely to be 

 met with in these latitudes, on the summit of which the town of Gran Cocama is 

 situated. Father Sobreviela arrived there at half past twelve o'clock, and was re- 

 ceived by the president of the missions, as well as by the lieutenant-governor, with 

 every token of hospitality, and with the admiration due to a traveller who had, in 

 so short a space of time, penetrated by roads heretofore deemed impassable, into 

 new regions, where he met with friends and fellow-labourers equally interested 

 with himself in the glory of his nation. 



The Maynas missions, which were at the commencement very numerous and 

 flourishing, are due to the apostolical zeal of the ancient Jesuits. On their expul- 

 sion, the spiritual government of the converted tribes was confided to various re- 

 ligious orders, and at length to that of the secular clergy. The population of the 

 twenty-two Indian towns which are at this time established on the banks of the 



Huallagaj 



