SANTA CRUZ, Railnundo, South American missionary, born in Ibarra, Ecuador, about 1620; died in the upper Amazon riverin November, 1662. He studied in the Seminary of San Luis de Quito, and entered the Company of Jesus in 1643. There he completed his four years' course in theology, and, after being ordained priest, dedicated himself to the missions of the Maranon. He began his work in 1651, and in a short time, overcoming great difficulties, founded several towns and began to open a direct way from Quito to the eastern missions, he also made roads to the Napo and Par-tanza, but soon afterward was drowned in the rapids of one of the affluents of the Amazon. He wrote a grammar and vocabulary of the Cofana language, which, with the notes on his travels, are mentioned in the works of the missionaries Yelasco, Rodriguez, and Carrani.