ENTRANCES INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORIES OF PERU. 449 



tained from the one made in the year 1783, by order of the viceroy, for the pur- 

 pose of ascertaining whether a road for the passage of cattle could be opened from 

 Pozuzu to the haven of Mayro, it results, that from Huanuco to Pozuzu there i$ 

 a distance of thirty-three leagues, which may be performed with ease in six days. 

 From Pozuzu to Mayro, the computed distance is sixteen leagues, which require 

 three days ; and from the haven of Mayro to the union of the rivers Pachitea and 

 Ucayali, seventy leagues are reckoned, on account of the great windings made by 

 the river. These may be navigated in five days ; and the passage from the above- 

 mentioned union to Manoa, in two or three. Hence it appears, that from Hua- 

 nuco to Manoa there are a hundred and seventy leagues, which may be travelled 

 by land and in canoes in sixteen days, as soon as the inhabitants of Panao shall 

 have completed the road, for the passage of mules, from Pozuzu to Mayro, for 

 the sum of four thousand piastres, agreeably to the formal contraft they entered 

 into with me in the month of July of the last year, 1790 ; and whenever the for- 

 tified town at the mouth of the haven shall be built, conformably to the mandate 

 of his Majesty, inserted in various schedules, more particularly in those of the 

 years 1777 and 1779. 



When I perceived, in the year 1787, that all the roads for the restoration of the 

 Manoa missions, by Caxamarquilla, Mayro, and Cuchero, were closed and im- 

 prafticable ; since, although it was possible by the latter route to proceed as far as 

 the river Huanuco, both canoes and boatmen had been wanted since the year 1 783, 

 when the Indians were removed to the banks of the river Patayrrhondos, where a 

 town was built, and named Playa Grande -, — I resolved to open, and traced out 

 accordingly, in the above year, a road from Huanuco to that town ; giving notice, 

 that from its haven the descent to the Maranon, or river of the Amazons, might 

 be effefted in ten days ; that the traveller might proceed thence to the mouth of 

 the Ucayali in four days ; and that he might ascend in less than twenty to the 

 Manoa settlements. I have prosecuted with much industry the opening of the 

 above road, during the five years of my government ; and this undertaking having 

 at length been successfully accomplished, a portion of mountainous territory, of 

 extreme fertility, and of the extent of upwards of nineteen leagues, has been 

 gained, to the great advantage of the inhabitants of Huanuco, at the same time 

 that the means have been afforded to commence the restoration of the Manoa 

 missions, as has been related with clearness and precision by the authors of the 

 Peruvian Mercury, in the narrative of the travels which have just been concluded 

 by the Huallaga and Ucayali. 



ENTRANCES 



