draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley
draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley
draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley
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Chapter 8<br />
Omagua Passages in Uriarte’s Diaries<br />
In this chapter we present and analyze all <strong>of</strong> the Omagua utterances that Manuel Uriarte included<br />
in his diaries, which were published as Uriarte ([1776]1952b,6) and Uriarte ([1776]1986). We include<br />
these utterances as part <strong>of</strong> this larger work for two reasons. First, they are examples <strong>of</strong> mid-18thcentury<br />
Omagua, and as such, help us to understand how Omagua differed at this point in time<br />
from modern Omagua. Second, unlike the ecclesiastical texts published with his diaries, there is no<br />
question regarding the authorship <strong>of</strong> the Omagua utterances found in Uriarte’s diaries themselves,<br />
which helps us judge Uriarte’s command <strong>of</strong> Omagua. This in turn allows us to better evaluate the<br />
likelihood <strong>of</strong> Uriarte playing a major role in the authoring <strong>of</strong> one or more <strong>of</strong> the ecclesiastical texts<br />
discussed in previous chapters.<br />
We now briefly summarize what we know and can guess about these diaries. Manuel Uriarte<br />
kept a diary throughout his eighteen-year stay in Maynas, and up to the Jesuit expulsion. By this<br />
point his diaries had reached two large volumes, together with a set <strong>of</strong> ecclesiastical documents (Sp.<br />
papeles espirituales), linguistic notes (Sp. apuntes de lenguas) and conversations (Sp. pláticas).<br />
Fearing he would not be allowed to take his personal papers back with him to Europe at the time<br />
<strong>of</strong> the expulsion, Uriarte spent the months leading up to the arrival in Maynas <strong>of</strong> the new secular<br />
head <strong>of</strong> the missions, Manuel Mariano Echeverría, reducing his diaries to a compendio that he could<br />
take along with his other papers in a small chest. Immediately preceding his departure from San<br />
Regis (located on the Marañón River), his final missionary posting, Uriarte sent his original diaries<br />
to Echeverría, who had established himself in Lagunas, on the Huallaga River. Bayle writes the<br />
following with regard to the fate <strong>of</strong> his original diaries: 257<br />
Los tomos los envió al Sr. Echeverría, Superior de los Curas, «suplicándole los guardase<br />
o quemase, si corrían peligro»; en caso contrario que los remitiese a su familia. Desde<br />
Rávena (13 de enero de 1776) escribe a su hermano Agustín: «Don Manuel Mariano,<br />
Prevendado [sic] quitense (y a falta suya Dn. Marcos o Dn. José Bazabe nro. Comisario)<br />
le darán las Memorias o Diarios que le dejé allá encargados en dos tomos.»<br />
(Bayle [1952]1986:48) 258<br />
257 See Uriarte ([1776]1986:523) for the original account <strong>of</strong> these events.<br />
258 Translation (ours):<br />
The volumes he sent to Sr. Echeverría, Father Superior, “begging that he keep them or burn them if<br />
they were in danger”; if not, that he remit them to his family. From Ravenna (13 January 1776) he<br />
writes to his brother Agustín: “To Don Manuel Mariano, Prebendary <strong>of</strong> Quito (and in his absence Dn.<br />
Marcos or Dn. José Bazabe, his deputies), will they give the Memorias or Diarios that I left in their<br />
care in two volumes”.<br />
107