The numerous paragraphs relating to ecclesiastical affairs point to the conspicuous place held by the events connected with the Church. The following quotation illustrates the style, in so far as the chronicle may be said to have any style, and also the avaricious disposition of certain colonial priests in administering the services of the Church. [Sidenote: Priest Maturana’s exactions] “Gaspar de Lagos, of the hospital parish, having died, the priest of the parish demanded five hundred dollars for the funeral service, and finally agreed to receive one hundred and eighty dollars. The widow of the deceased went, on the 30th of December (1743), at eight o’clock in the evening to Bishop Morcello, and showed him that it was impossible for her to pay this amount. The bishop decided that the interment in accordance with the widow’s wishes to be just, and, fixing the payment at sixty-one dollars, handed to the widow a paper stating this decision. Then, the widow went to the priest, Julián Maturana, and gave him the paper. The priest threw the paper on the floor and stamped on it, and said that the cross would not go out if she did not bring the one hundred and eighty dollars. The widow returned to the bishop, now after nine o’clock at night, and he ordered that they should bring the priest. The fiscal and the officer sought for him in the house of the bishop of Panama, where he was living, but they did not find him. The bishop then issued an order that the Franciscan fathers should conduct the burial properly as the widow required, and also ordered that the sixty-one dollars should be applied to the work of the cathedral.”[150] VII [Sidenote: Rodríguez’ _El Marañón y Amazonas_] The book by Padre Manuel Rodríguez entitled _El Marañón y Amazonas_ and published in 1684 is a history of the discovery and reduction of the tribes that lived in the region of the great rivers. It undertook to set forth the praiseworthy as well as the unfortunate conduct of the conquistadores respecting temporal and spiritual matters, and in six books to present the data that had been acquired and the narratives that had been written concerning the discovery of the Amazon; the services the Jesuits had rendered and the missions they had founded; the progress made in the government of Mainas from its establishment by Diego Vaca de Vega; the journey of Captain Texeira to Quito and his return to Pará; the sources of the rivers and their union with the Amazon; the labours of missionaries and the tragic end of many of them; and an account of Acuña’s report. This work may still be considered as an historical document of value, and, barring its prolixity, a common failing of the age, is not without literary merit.[151] [Sidenote: Padre Samuel Fritz]