eath, they courageously
obeyed the inward impulse which inspired them to preach the gospel to
the wild Indians. When intelligence was received of the violent death of
one of the brotherhood, others immediately offered to supply the place
of the victim, and the superiors of the order had much difficulty in
restraining the zealous monks. In the central and northern missions of
Peru, 129 Franciscan monks were murdered by the wild Indians. Those
who compose that number are recorded by name, but many others
disappeared without leaving a trace of what had become of them, and of
course they are not included in the list. The number of lay brethren
who perished is much greater. It is indeed melancholy to reflect how
little advantage has been obtained by the sacrifice of so many
valuable lives. The missions have nearly all disappeared, and the
Indians have now retrograded into the savage state in which they were
before the conquest of Peru.

The Franciscan monks were mild and patient teachers. They proceeded on
the principle of leaving the Christian religion to act for itself, and
they scorned to promote it by any kind of compulsion. The Dominicans, on
the other hand, who came to Peru with the conquerors, preached
Christianity with fire and sword. The Jesuits, who headed the missions
of Southern Peru, adopted the one way or the other, as they found most
advantageous to the object they had in view. By this means they secured
the attachment of the neophytes, and retained most of their conversions.
Many of the Jesuit missionaries were highly intelligent and
well-informed men. We are indebted to them for important geographical
and statistical information, and in particular for some philological
works of great value, viz., a grammar and dictionary of the language of
every tribe they converted. The Dominican monks, who were mere ignorant
fanatics, sacrificed to their blind zeal for conversion all the
monuments of the early civilization of the Peruvians, and restrained,
rather than promoted, the intellectual development of the people. The
Franciscans, animated by pious inspiration, earnestly preached the
doctrines of Christ to the wild inhabitants of the distant forests; but
they communicated little information to the rest of world. A few
imperfect maps, and some scanty notices on the manners and customs of
the Indians, are the whole amount of their laical labors.

In the year 1779 an attempt was again made to penetrate to the Cerro de