ENTRANCES INTO THE MOUNTArNOUS TERRITORIES OF PERU. 469 



are navigated by the river Monzon ; and four and a half to the junction of that 

 river vfith theHuanuco. The above town of Playa- Grande was established in the 

 year 1782, by the means of the small number of Indians belonging to the conver- 

 sion of Cuchero, and of several others who joined them from the conversions of 

 Caxamarquilla : it has constantly received the spiritual aid of the missionaries of 

 Ocopa J but the same cannot be said relatively to the adjacent town of San Francisco 

 of Monzon, or Chicoplaya. The latter owed its origin, three or four years before 

 the foundation of Playa-Grande, to the casuaky of Don Matias Abadia having 

 penetrated as far as the river Monzon. He found in its vicinity a few Indians 

 belonging to our conversions ; and having engaged them, by the dint of gifts and 

 promises, to assist him in the execution of his projects, he prevailed on them to. 

 fix their huts on the bank of the above river. At the commencement, their 

 spiritual concerns were dire£l:ed by a secular priest, and afterwards by a monk of 

 the Order of Mercy ; but this was not of any long duration. Friar Francisco 

 Alvarez de Villanueva, in the visit he paid to the conversions in the year 1 788, 

 pointed out to them the haven as the most eligible site for their residence, and 

 left directions that they should be removed thither. To this arrangement 

 they did not, however, consent. He at the same time entrusted their spiritual 

 government to friar Juan Sugranes, whom, in virtue of a brief transmitted to me 

 by the intendant of Tarma, I instituted, in 1789, in the office of reClor and con- 

 verter of the above-mentioned town. 



ENTRANCE INTO THE MOUNTAINOUS TERRITORY FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF 



PATAZ, OR CAXAMARQUILLA. 



The origin and progress of the missions of Caxamarquilla having been related, 

 with the greatest exaClitude and perspicuity, by the Academical Society, I shall 

 briefly say on this head, that from the department of Pataz, three roads leading 

 to the river Huallaga have been opened. By the first, a distance of forty leagues, 

 from Tayabamba to Pampa-Hermosa, may be performed on foot, or in a ham- 

 mock borne on the shoulders of Indians, if the traveller deems it a preferable con- 

 veyance, in seven days. The second route is from Caxamarquilla to the towns of 

 Sion and del Valle } — a computed distance of fifty leagues, which may be accom- 

 plished. 



