TRAVELS OF THE MISSIONARIES. 



427 



PEREGRINATION, BY THE RIVERS MARANON AND UCAYALI, TO THE 

 TRIBES OF MANGA, UNDERTAKEN BY THE APOSTOLICAL FATHER, 

 FRIAR NARCISO GIRBAL Y BARCELO, IN THE YEAR 1791. 



We now proceed to Illustrate the fertile Plains of the Sacrament, by pub- 

 lishing the peregrination which was undertaken, by the Maranon and Ucayali, to 

 the Manoa tribes, by father Narciso Girbal, redlor of Cumbasa. It being a con- 

 tinuation of that of father Sobreviela, given above, we adopt the same method, 

 commencing by a compendious description of the latter of these rivers. We pass 

 over the former in silence, because we have nothing new to offer, in addition to 

 what is contained in the travels and hydrographical charts in which it has been de- 

 lineated by authors of high respe£lability*. 



The history of the celebrated Ucayali has been disfigured by a thousand errors, 

 which have originated, as well in the imperfefl knowledge of the territories 

 through which it flows, as in the partiality and interest of the missionaries by 

 whom these regions have been frequented. Having been regarded, at the time of 

 the conquest of Peru, as the real trunk of 'the Maranon, and being entitled to 

 such a pre-eminence by the copiousness of its waters, by the number and magni- 

 tude of the rivers which pay it tribute, and by the remoteness of its sources, it was 

 Stripped of this prerogative, and received the name it still bears. The same 

 causes have induced a doubt which is the principal of its branches ; and on this 

 head opinions have been divided between the Beni and the Apurimacf. The 



latter 



* Fathers Manuel Rodriguez and Samuel Fritz, Condamine, UUoa, &c. 



f We think that we can terminate the geographica.1 dispute on the following point, namely, which of 

 the rivers that compose the Maranon is its real trunk ? This prerogative we bestow on the Ucayali, for 

 reasons which appear to us to be incontrovertible. First, because its sources are much more distant 

 than those of the Tunguragua, or Maranon, of father Samuel Fritz. Secondly, because the Beni, Pau- 

 cartambo, and Apurimac, are navigable in a latitude in which that river has not as yet originated. 

 Thirdly, because the Ucayali does not yield in the quantity of its waters ; but, on the contrary, presents 

 itself, at the confluence, with a greater breadth, and with a superiority which obliges the Maranon to 

 alter its course [Condamine, 1. c. pap. 69]. Fourthly, because the ancient historians of the kingdom 

 [Acosta — Historia Naturalis, p. 164; Garcilaso, t. i. p. 294; Calancha, p. 50; Montalvo — Sol del Neuvo 

 Mundo, p. 7], have considered the Apurimac as the true Maranon. Fifthly, because, until the year 

 1687, the river which is now denominated Ucayali did not bear that name, but that of Afo-paru, that is, 

 Gran-Paro, whence originated that of Gran-Para, which was equally bestowed on the Maranon, or 

 liver of the Amazons. In the above-mentioned year, a dispute arose between the Franciscans of Lima 



3 12 and 



