draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

military force quelled the revolt, and Fritz subsequently instituted annual visits by secular military
forces to intimidate the Omagua and stave off potential uprisings.
As Fritz’s control over the mission settlements began to slip, two additional missionaries were
placed among the Omagua, in 1698: Wenzel Breyer (b. 1662 Dub, Bohemia – d. 1729 Quito), 305
who joined Fritz in San Joaquín de Omaguas, and Franz Vidra (b. 1662 Szewitz, Bohemia – d. 1740
Santiago de la Laguna), 306 who took up residence in Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, an Omagua
settlement downriver of San Joaquín de Omaguas. In 1701, the Omagua, led again by Payoreva and
this time joined by Peba and Caumari groups (both Peba-Yaguan peoples), 307 set fire to the church
and home of Franz Vidra in San Joaquín de Omaguas and abandoned the mission settlement there,
subsequently fleeing to the downriver communities of Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, San Pablo de
Omaguas and Iviraté.
In 1704 Fritz succeeded Gaspar Vidal as Jesuit Superior (Anonymous ([1731]1922:114), Jouanen
(1943:722)), 308 relocating to Santiago de la Laguna (modern-day Lagunas, Department of Loreto),
on the Huallaga River. 309 He left responsibility for the Omagua missions to Giovanni Battista Sanna
(b. 1666 Cagliari, Sardinia), 310 who had begun working among the Omagua in 1701 (Anonymous
[1731]1922:108).
Portuguese slave raids continued against the Omagua, Yurimagua and Aisuari, and in response
to this untenable situation, Sanna attempted to relocate those living in San Joaquin de Omaguas
and nearby settlements to Yarapa, a settlement on the lower Ucayali River, where he hoped they
would be safe. Just as this relocation was taking place, at some point between May and June 1710,
however, the group was attacked by the Portuguese, resulting in the capture of Sanna and a group
of Omaguas and the deaths of many others. With Sanna’s capture, the last of the Jesuit missions
among the Omagua was destroyed. 311
By October 1712 the majority of the surviving Omaguas had regrouped on the lower Ucayali
(ibid.:128), and in October 1715, Juan de Zaldarriaga was sent to form a new Jesuit mission settlement
there. This effort to renew a Jesuit presence among the Omagua failed when de Zaldarriaga
died in April 1716 (ibid.:130). Another effort was made in May 1719, when Luis Coronado was sent
to the same area. Coronado relocated the Omaguas he found to a new settlement on the Amazon
River, upriver of the mouth of the Nanay River, but died in March 1721, once again leaving the
Omaguas without a resident priest (Maroni [1738]1988:365). 312
It was not until July 1723, when two German Jesuits, Bernard Zurmühlen (b. 1687 Münster –
d. 1735 Lagunas, Peru) 313 and Johannes Baptist Julian (b. 1690 Neumarkt – d. 1740 Latacunga,
305 Jouanen (1943:727); also known as Wenceslao Breyer.
306 Jouanen (1943:748).
307 See Rivet (1911) for classification and early linguistic data, Espinosa Pérez (1955), Payne (1985) and Powlison
(1995) for more recent linguistic data and historical information, and Pena (2009) for a reconstruction and historical
summary of the family.
308 For the names and dates of tenure of all Superiors of the Maynas missions, see Jouanen (1943:722).
309 Fritz was replaced as Superior by Gregorio Bobadilla (ibid.:129) in December 1712; and in January 1714 he began
missionary work in Limpia Concepción de Jeberos (modern-day Jeberos, Department of Loreto), where he would
live until his death in March 1725 (see footnote 299), effectively ending his direct involvement with Omagua
communities.
310 Jouanen (1943:745); also known as Juan Bautista Sanna.
311 In October of 1710, a group of Omagua refugees arrived at the mission at Lagunas, telling Fritz that most
of the downriver Omagua settlements were abandoned, and that some Omaguas were currently being held at
Carmelite mission settlements in Portuguese territory. They also reported that Sanna had gone to Pará to speak
to the Portuguese governor there, in an ultimately unsuccessful bid to stop the slave raids against the Omaguas
(ibid.:127).
312 Edmundson omits the year of Coronado’s death in his English translation (Anonymous [1731]1922:130). Jouanen
(1943:729) gives a death date of 2 March 1723.
313 For Zurmühlen’s birth, see Jouanen (1943:749); for his death, see de Zárate et al. ([1735]1904:339). He is also
119