draft manuscript - Linguistics - University of California, Berkeley

Table 9.1: Jesuit Missionaries Among the Omagua, 1621-1768
Name 322 Origin Period Location 323
Simón de Rojas ??? 1621 Aguarico River
Humberto Coronado ??? 1621 ""
Samuel Fritz Bohemia 324 1685–1704 San Joaquín and downriver
Wenzel Breyer Bohemia 1698–1706(?) 325 ""
Franz Vidra Bohemia 1698–1701–? 326 ""
Giovanni Battista Sanna Sardinia 1701–1710 ""
Juan de Zaldarriaga Spain 1715–1716 lower Ucayali
Luis Coronado Spain 1719–1721 lower Ucayali & San Joaquín
Bernard Zurmühlen Westphalia 327 1723–1726 San Joaquín
Johannes Baptist Julian Bavaria 1723–? ""
Wilhelm Grebmer Baden ?–1735–? Yurimaguas (Huallaga River)
Karl Brentan Hungary ?–1737–? San Joaquín
Ignatius Mickel Austria ??? ???
Martín Iriarte Spain 1748–1756 San Joaquín
Manuel Joaquín Uriarte Spain 1756–1764 ""
Josef Palme Bohemia 1764–1768 ""
It is also important to note that not all the Omaguas on the Amazon River during who survived
the Portuguese slave raids fled upriver towards San Joaquín de Omaguas during the period beginning
in the 1690s. Significant numbers of Omagua remained in Portuguese territory, particularly in and
around what is the now the Brazilian town of São Paulo de Olivença, where they came to be called
called ‘Kambebas’. 328 This town had originally been founded by Fritz in approximately 1693, and
orginally named San Pablo de Omaguas (Anonymous [1731]1922:31, 91). 329 As late as 1987 speakers
sea); and Ignacio Servela (vital information unknown) (Jouanen 1943:726, 728, 736). We do not include them in
this table because we have been unable to determine the nature or length of their missionary activities with the
Omagua, though they appear to be minimal.
323 Note that the name ‘San Joaquín de Omaguas’ refers to several distinct locations from 1689 forward. The San
Joaquín of Fritz and Sanna’s day was located near the mouth the Ampiyacu river; the San Joaquín established by
Coronado was just above the mouth of the Nanay; and the San Joaquín established by Zurmühlen was approximately
one half day’s travel upriver of this site, and was located near to the modern community of San Salvador de
Omaguas (Tessmann (1930:48), Myers (1992:140-141), O’Hagan (2012a)). Modern-day San Joaquín de Omaguas
is yet further upriver, and appears to have been first established between 1862 and 1876 from a population of
Omagua working under the rubber baron Sinforoso Collantes (O’Hagan 2012a).
324 Note that Bohemia was at the time of Fritz’s birth under the rule of the Habsburg monarchy, and corresponds to
the majority of the modern-day Czech Republic.
325 Wenzel Breyer was appointed Vice Superior in November 1706 when Fritz undertook his second journey to Quito
(Anonymous [1731]1922:117), although it is unclear if he missionized in Omagua communities up to that time.
326 The last mention of Vidra working in Omagua territory that we have located is upon Fritz’s return from Quito in
August 1701.
327 For those missionaries of greater German descent, we provide the name of the independent Germanic margraviate
(German Markgrafschaft), duchy (German Herzogtum) or electorate (German Kurfürstentum) extant over the area
in and during the time at which they were born, given that Germany was not unified until 1871.
328 See Jorna (1991), Bonin and Cruz da Silva (1999) and Maciel (2000, 2003) (and references therein) for a history
of the Kambeba in this region.
329 Loureiro (1978:95) erroneously gives 1689 as the founding date for San Pablo de Omaguas, but see Anonymous
([1731]1922:91) for a clear refutation of this.
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