We now proceed to illustrate the fertile Plains of the Sacrament, by publishing the peregrination which was undertaken, by the Maranon and Ucayali, to the Manoa tribes, by father Narciso Girbal, rector of Cumbasa. It being a continuation of that of father Sobreviela, given above, we adopt the same method, commencing by a compendious description of the latter of these rivers. We pass over the former in silence, because we have nothing new to offer, in addition to what is contained in the travels and hydrographical charts in which it has been delineated by authors of high respectability.[1]
The history of the celebrated Ucayali has been disfigured by a thousand errors, which have originated, as well in the imperfect knowledge of the territories through which it flows, as in the partiality and interest of the missionaries by whom these regions have been frequented. Having been regarded, at the time of the conquest of Peru, as the real trunk of the Maranon, and being entitled to such a pre-eminence by the copiousness of its waters, by the number and magnitude of the rivers which pay it tribute, and by the remoteness of its sources, it was stripped of this prerogative, and received the name it still bears. The same causes have induced a doubt which is the principal of its branches; and on this head opinions have been divided between the Beni and the Apurimac.[2] The
- ↑ Fathers Manuel Rodriguez and Samuel Fritz, Condamine, Ulloa, &c.
- ↑ We think that we can terminate the geographical dispute on the following point, namely, which of the rivers that compose the Maranon is its real trunk? This prerogative we bestow on the Ucayali, for reasons which appear to us to be incontrovertible. First, because its sources are much more distant than those of the Tunguragua, or Maranon, of father Samuel Fritz. Secondly, because the Beni, Paucartambo, and Apurimac, are navigable in a latitude in which that river has not as yet originated. Thirdly, because the Ucayali does not yield in the quantity of its waters; but, on the contrary, presents itself, at the confluence, with a greater breadth, and with a superiority which obliges the Maranon to alter its course [Condamine, l. c. pap. 69]. Fourthly, because the ancient historians of the kingdom [Acosta—Historia Naturalis, p. 164; Garcilaso, t. i. p. 294; Calancha, p. 50; Montalvo—Sol del Neuvo Mundo, p. 7], have considered the Apurimac as the true Maranon. Fifthly, because, until the year 1687, the river which is now denominated Ucayali did not bear that name, but that of Apo-paru, that is, Gran-Paro, whence originated that of Gran-Para, which was equally bestowed on the Maranon, or river of the Amazons. In the above-mentioned year, a dispute arose between the Franciscans of Lima
