that the viceroy was under the necessity of sending a detachment of troops to apprehend him. This having been successfully accomplished, he was banished to Valdivia, with another individual, named Villa-Nueva, his captain-general. Don Antonio, and Don Benito Quiroga, inhabitants of la Paz, were not more successful in the conquest of Gran Paititi, in their endeavours to accomplish which they consumed a very flourishing capital, and were left in an impoverished state. This reward was justly due to an insatiable ambition.
Time has slowly dissipated these chimeras, which have been in one respecl useful, inasmuch as they have stimulated certain missionaries to explore the mountains. From their relations we can collect, that throughout the whole extent of them, in Manoa, and in the immense plains which separate them from the cordillera of Brasil, there are not any other treasures, beside those that will be pointed out in illustrating the peregrinations of fathers Sobreviela and Girbal[1]; nor any greater degree of civilization and policy than that which is exhibited in the account we now proceed to give, of the costumes, superstitions, and exercises of the barbarians who inhabit them.
They live dispersed in the forests and woods, and are collected, under the direction of one or two caciques, into small tribes, each of which considers itself as a distinct nation, and even hostile to the others. They are usually tall, robust, and well made, it being the invariable custom, whenever any male
- ↑ These travels, which were undertaken in 1790, the year preceding that of the publication of the Peruvian Mercury, will, with other interesting details, relative to the tribes of uncivilized Indians, be given in an appendix.
