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ISBN-13: 978-1-4094-1418-6 (hbk)
WORKS ISSUED BY
The Hakluyt Society
______________
JOURNAL OF THE TRAVELS
OF
FATHER SAMUEL FRITZ
SECOND SERIES
No. LI
ISSUED FOR 1922
COUNCIL
OF
THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
____________________
SIR ALBERT GRAY, K.C.B., K.C., President.
SIR JOHN SCOTT KELTIE, LL.D., Vice-President,
ADMIRAL OF THE FLEET THE RIGHT HON. SIR EDWARD HOBART SEYMOUR, G.C.B., O.M., G.C.V.O., LL.D., Vice-President.
BOLTON GLANVILL CORNEY, ESQ., I.S.O.
M. LONGWORTH DAMES, ESQ.
WILLIAM FOSTER, ESQ., C.I.E.
EDWARD HEAWOOD, ESQ., Treasurer.
ARTHUR R. HINKS, ESQ., C.B.E., F.R.S.
SIR JOHN F. F. HORNER, K.C.V.O.
SIR EVERARD IM THURN, K.C.M.G., K.B.E., C.B.
T. ATHOL JOYCE, ESQ., O.B.E.
LIEUT.-COLONEL SIR FREDERIC G. KENYON, K.C.B., P.B.A., LITT.D.
SIR CHARLES LUCAS, K.C.B., K.C.M.G.
ALFRED P. MAUDSLAY, ESQ., D.SC,
BRIG.-GEN. SIR PERCY M. SYKES, K.C.I.E., C.B., C.M.G.
H. R. TEDDER, ESQ.
LIEUT.-COLONEL SIR RICHARD CARNAC TEMPLE, BART., C.B., C.I.E., F.S.A.
SIR BASIL HOME THOMSON, K.C.B.
SIR REGINALD TOWER, K.C.M.G., C.V.O.
J. A. J. DE VILLIERS, ESQ., Hon. Secretary.
JOURNAL OF THE TRAVELS
and Labours of Father Samuel Fritz,
in the River of the Amazons between
1686 and 1723
TRANSLATED FROM THE EVORA MS AND EDITED
BY THE
REYV. DR GEORGE EDMUNDSON
WITH TWO MAPS
LONDON
PRINTED FOR THE HAKLUYT SOCIETY
MCMXXII
PRINTBD IN ENGLAND AT THE CAMBRlDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS BY J. B. PEACB, M.A.
I N the years 1901 and 1902, being employed by H.M. Government to carry out researches in the Portuguese Colonial and other Archives for material bearing upon the Boundary Arbitration1 between Great Britain and Brazil regarding the delineation of the southern frontier of British Guiana, one of the documents for which I was seeking was the long-lost2 Journal of the famous Jesuit missionary, Samuel Fritz, who spent 37 years of his life in converting and civilizing the Indian tribes of the Upper Amazon. In 1901 my efforts to find the Journal were fruitless, but coming across references to MSS in the Biblioteca Publica at Evora in connection with Jesuit missionary enterprise in the Upper Amazon in the very period of Samuel Fritzs activities, I obtained permission on my second visit to Portugal in 1902 to investigate the contents of these documents.
Evora is the primatial see of Portugal; and the Biblioteca Publica occupies an annexe of the Archiepiscopal Palace; and I obtained the most courteous assistance of the Librarian, being allowed to work in hours when the building was closed he public. My search was successful. The last MS in Codex cxv (115) was a document of 214 pages entitled Mission de los maguas, Jurimaguas, Aysuares, Ibanomas, y otras Naciones desde Napo hasta el Rio Negro. It was written, as its heading implies, not like the other documents in Portuguese, but in Spanish, and it contained a full narrative of the life and labours of Samuel Fritz. In answer to a letter of enquiry the Librarian1 informed me that the documents contained in Cod. cxv (115) formerly belonged to the Jesuit College at Par, but that nothing was known of the name of the author of The Mission of the Omaguas, etc. The author in fact never reveals his name, but as will be shown by evidence from the document itself, he was a contemporary of Father Fritz, was personally acquainted with him and was intimate with several of Fritzs missionary companions, and himself was at one time serving in one of the mission stations of the Upper Amazon. The fact that Fritzs Journal and letters, and the letters and notes of the other Jesuit missionaries, who worked in the Upper Amazon under and with Fritz, were accessible to and well known to the writer, is a clear indication that he (the writer) was attached to and possibly held high office in the Jesuit College at Quito2. The document probably fell into the hands of the Portuguese during one of their raids upon the Spanish mission stations, which Samuel Fritz had planted; which raids ultimately led to their destruction and their absorption in the Portuguese dominion.
The presence of this set of documents in the Archiepiscopal Library at Evora can be easily accounted for. In the year 1759, when that greatest of Portuguese statesmen, the Marquis de Pombal, was at the height of his power, a Royal Decree expelled the Jesuits from all the Portuguese dominions. The Jesuit missionaries, who were doing excellent work on the Amazon, were deported in circumstances of great cruelty. The colleges at Par and elsewhere were suppressed and their possessions confiscated and carried off to Portugal, including their archives.
The writer of this MS, as will be seen from his own statements, has embodied in his narrative a very large portion of Samuel Fritzs Journals and has supplemented them by the use of other and most valuable material, i.e. official letters written by Father Fritz himself; information derived from the letters of, and from notes made by, his companions; and from personal intercourse with them. It is divided into nine sections, each with its distinctive heading.
1. PACIFICATION AND CUSTOMS OF THE OMAGUAS
The early part of this section is introductory, and gives a most interesting description derived from personal and first-hand sources of the customs, the mode of life and the habitations of the Omaguas. The writer then relates how in 1681 the headmen of this tribe, at the invitation of certain Christianized Indians of the Cocama tribe, paid a visit to the Spanish mission station, Pueblo de la Laguna, higher up the river; with the result that they prayed Father Herrero, the Jesuit Superior at that place, to send to them a Father to instruct them. He undertook to grant their request, but was unable to do so until 1686. It was in that year that Samuel Fritz arrived from Spain at the Jesuit College of Quito, and was sent by his Superiors to the Maraon to be the missionary of the Omaguas. Here follows a brief but most vivid description of the wonderful results of the first three years of Father Samuels activities and ceaseless journeyings. The Omaguas received him in the most friendly manner, and going from island to island preaching, teaching, and baptizing, he met with extraordinary success in converting these people to the Christian faith. On the island, where he most frequently resided, he established his principal mission-settlement, and built there a church dedicated to San Joaquim, his patron saint.
