Ch. V. SOUTH AMERICA. 391 



where they treated him with fuch veneration, that in 

 his progrefs through the towns they would not liuTer 

 him to walk, but carried him on their fhouiders ; an 

 honour which the caciques referved to themfelves 

 alone. The effe6ls of his preaching were anfwerable 

 to thefe marks of ardor and cfteem, fo that in a fhorc 

 time the whole nation was brouQ;ht to a ferlous pro- 

 felBon of Chrlftianity, deploring their former igno- 

 rance and brutality, and forming themfelves into a 

 political community, under laws calculated for the 

 happinefs of fociety. And their example fo influenced 

 feveral other adjacent nations, that the Yurimaguas, 

 Afuares, Banomas, and others, unanimoufiy and vo- 

 luntarily came and addreffed themfelves to Father 

 Fritz, defiring him to inftru<5l them how to live in 

 the fame order and regularity as the Omaguas. Thus 

 whole nations, on embracing Chriftianity, fubmitted 

 to the fovereignty of the Spanifh monarchs : and all 

 the countries from the Napo to a confiderable didance 

 below the Negro, were reduced without the leafl 

 force throughout the whole extent of the government 

 of Maynas : and fuch, at the end of the laii century, 

 was the number of the nations thus converted, that 

 Father Fritz, though without indulging himfelf in any 

 refpite, was not able to vifit every fingle town and 

 village within the compafs of a year, exclufively of 

 the nations under the care of other miffionaries, as 

 thofe of the Maynas, Xebaros, Cgcamas, Panos, Cha- 

 micuros, Aguanos, Muniches, Otanabes, Roamaynas, 

 Gaes, and many more. The other miffions were in 

 the fame flourifhing condition. 



The city of San Francifco de Borja, which we have 

 already mentioned as the capital of Maynas, (lands in 

 , 4 deg. 28 min. S, lat. and i deg. 54 min. E. of the 

 meridian of Quito : but of its largenefs and appear- 

 ance we can only add, that it refembles the cities of 

 the government of Jaen : and its inhabitants, though 

 confifting of Meftizos and Indians, ^nd the place is 



C c 4 the 



