[16] See Memoria, por Jose Villa, Ministro de Hacienda; Lima, 1834. [17] Guia Politica, Ecles. y Militar, 1793. [18] One of the greatest Jesuit missionaries was Father Samuel Fritz, a German, who, in 1686, preached the Gospel, and converted many tribes in Maynas. He drew a map of the Marañon and its tributary rivers, which was published in Quito in the year 1707. [19] “Amigo” or friend, is the first word of Spanish which the mission Indian is taught to speak. [20] The road which formerly existed between Pozuzo and Mayro is now so overgrown with brushwood as to render it impassable without the aid of the chopping-knife, with the use of which the Indians of Huanuco are well acquainted. By this road the journey from Mayro to Pozuzo was usually performed in two days, and the journey from Pozuzo to the city of Huanuco in three: in all, five days from Mayro to Huanuco. [21] It might be imagined that this custom of carrying away and eating the dead was a good reason for the ancient practice, still in use among the Indians of the Ucayali, of burying their dead in their houses, as affording some protection against this rage of cannibalism; but among the Inca race of Indians the practice also appears to have existed of old, though without reference to so shocking a cause. [22] As a comment on this part of Friar Plaza’s letter, we cannot do better than introduce a passage illustrative of the allusion here made, translated from a paper of his own in the Merc. Per. and cited by Lieutenant Smyth and Mr. Lowe in the Introduction to their Narrative of a Journey from Lima to Para. “The three entrances to this district (Ucayali) are by Huanuco and the port of Mayro, by Tarma and the river Chanchamayo, and by the Jauja and Andamarca, taking the direction of Pangoa, which is passable, and has been so since the year 1815, when I crossed from the plains of Sacramento to Pangoa, where I formed a friendship with various nations on the way; and by this route for seven years the mission has received all its supplies. In this expedition I explored all that was remarkable from Sarayacu, which is fifteen days’ distance up the river from the Marañon, and ascended from thence as far as the river Pachitea, in twenty days more.” It may be remarked, that the communication with Sarayacu by the rivers Huallaga and Chipurana is so circuitous, that Fr. Plaza does not even mention it as one of the routes to the mission; though this was the route pursued by the late expedition in 1834-5, after the attempt to enter by the Mayro had failed. The Sub-prefect’s letter, too, took near three months to reach the mission through the country of Maynas.