Regional Interaction in the Western Amazon: The Early Colonial Encounter and the Jesuit

Years: 1538-1767
Author(s): Mary-Elizabeth Reeve
Source: Ethnohistory, Vol. 41, No. 1 (Winter, 1993), pp. 106-138
Published by: Duke University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3536980
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Regional Interactionin the Western
Amazon: The EarlyColonial Encounter
and the Jesuit Years: 1538-1767
Mary-Elizabeth Reeve, University of Illinois-Urbana

Abstract.In theWesternAmazon,long-distance tradenetworksof precolonialori-

gin remainedsignificantthroughoutthe colonialperiod.A reconstructionof the
regionalexchangesystemsuggeststhat tradewas controlledby riverinepeoples
andby borderintermediaries Waysin whichJesuitmissions
tradinginterregionally.
andcolonialtraderstriggereda transformation of regionalexchangeareanalyzed.
It is suggestedthatdataon tradenetworksyieldsignificantinsightsintothe cultural
dynamicsthroughwhichEuropeancontacttransformed inter-indigenousrelations.

Introduction

Between 1538 and 1767, the Western Amazon experienced a transforma-

tion in regional dynamics. Prior to 1638, parts of the western periphery of
this region were under secular colonial control. From 1638 until 1767, the
region from the Napo River in the north to the Lower Huallaga, Lower
Ucayali, Marafin, and Upper Solimoes was the focus of Jesuit missioniza-
tion (See Map i). The role of Jesuit missionaries, as well as that of colonial
traders, and territorial conflict between Spain and Portugal were para-
mount in the regional transformation. This paper is an exploration of
the role of trade networks in maintaining regional integration during the
period of initial European contact and subsequentJesuit missionization. It
demonstrates that the manipulation of existing trade networks and estab-
lishment of new linkages transformedcertain patterns of social interaction
in the Western Amazon. Data on trade networks and regional interaction
have been gathered from both secular and ecclesiastical documents from
this time period.
From scant archeological information, we know that before European

Ethnohistory 41:1 (Winter I994). Copyright ? by the American Society for

Ethnohistory. ccc ooI4-801/94/$ 1.50.
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon 107

Map i. Map of the AmazonRiverRegionWestof the Rio Negro.

contact, the region supported large settlements along the major rivers,
as well as interfluvial populations. Both riverine and riverine/interfluvial
trade characterized the regional exchange system. This pattern was over-
laid by interregional trade (see, e.g., Raymond 1988). A three-way trade
pattern made the area extremely dynamic. Interregionaltrade was carried
out in the west between Andean peoples and those of the Upper Amazo-
nian tributaries (including the Napo River south to the Ucayali). To the
east trade networks existed between Tupian and other peoples of the Soli-
moes (the Amazon from the Peru/Brazil border to the mouth of the Rio
Negro) and those to the north. Thus materials flowed into and out of the
region in two directions. It was from these directions, also, that Euro-
pean goods were to be traded into the region after Spanish contact. The
early colonial documents offer a picture of continued dynamic regional
and interregional trade.
Why was trade, especially long-distance trade, so significant in the
Western Amazon in the precontact period? To answer this question, we
must look first at the issue of human/land relationships in Amazonia.
Much discussion has been generated in the literature on Amazonia con-
cerning the low carrying capacity of a region characterized by generally
io8 Reeve
Mary-Elizabeth

impoverished soils, seasonal flooding along major rivers, scarce game re-
sources, and the occurrence of nutrient-poor rivers and lakes. In view of
such deficiencies, the archeological evidence for the pre-Hispanic existence
of dense populations in parts of Amazonia remains difficult to explain (see,
e.g., Meggers 197I, Carneiro 1974, Gross 1975, Lathrap 1970, Roosevelt
1980). An examination of ecological conditions alone may be insufficient
to suggest potential population levels.
In her work on Mesoamerica, BarbaraPrice has observed that larger
human populations could be maintained in a given region if people de-
veloped specializations, rather than maintaining generalized economies
(Price 1978: 235). If we apply this to Amazonia, knowing especially that
trade was significant in the region (Lathrap1973, Raymond 1988), it be-
comes clear that trade, particularly fluvial/interfluvial trade in foodstuffs
and basic resources, would have had a positive effect on human carrying
capacity of the region. In particular,this would have facilitated the devel-
opment of the large settled populations noted by the first Spanish explorers
along the Napo and Upper Amazon (Amazonas and Solimoes) rivers.
This suggestion is made here to help illuminate the process of regional
transformation that occurred after European contact and to explain the
continued significance of long-distance trade networks. Inter- and intra-
regional ties became crucial in the postcontact survival of populations. In
areas of ethnic diversity, groups survived colonial pressures through flight
to allied territories. In other areas, where strong ethnic unity existed, suc-
cessful resistance was dependent upon the ability to close off territory to
European incursion while maintaining control over interethnic exchange.
As elsewhere throughout Spanish and Portuguese colonial America,
contact brought with it both disease and new, highly desired goods,
two factors which had contradictory impacts on the regional system. In
the Western Amazon, introduction of European goods intensified inter-
regional and regional trade linkages. At the same time, disease epidemics
caused the deaths of untold numbers of people. A drastic population re-
duction would have caused a breakdown in trade if it had not been for the
introduction of novel European goods. While trade linkages were main-
tained precariously, a further destabilizing effect was felt in the European
demand for slaves. Spanish slaving (and the encomienda system), stimu-
lated flight of a large percentage of the population from areas along the
base of the Andes adjacent to the Spanish centers of colonization. On the
Amazon River, a different pattern emerged as people there initially en-
gaged in trade of European goods for slaves with the Portuguese. The
search for captives to be sold as slaves led to a marked increase in hostili-
ties and aggression along the major waterways. Indigenous people soon
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon o09

realized, as Sweet (I98I: 279) has pointed out, that "the white men would
always require more slaves than [they] could ever hope to deliver without
destroying the entire regional network of intertribalrelations." This situa-
tion produced a crisis in the area of the Amazon just below the mouth of
the Napo, which both Spain and Portugal claimed. Here, indigenous
peoples were forced to migrate upriver and seek refuge at Jesuit missions
to avoid the incursions of Portuguese slave raiders. Indigenous alliances
and the exchange networks they facilitated, as well as the protection even-
tually offered at Jesuit missions, became critically importantto the survival
of destabilized populations.
The Jesuits arrivedin the region after processes of destabilization and
change were well underway.The first part of this paper is a reconstruction
of the regional interaction system as it existed at first European contact
and as it was influenced by the Spanish and Portuguese up until the ar-
rival of the Jesuits. The second part is an exploration of the way in which
the Jesuits forged new linkages and heavily influenced the trajectory of a
re-created and transformed regional system.

The Pre-Mission Regional Exchange Network

Tupian Dominance
When the Jesuits entered the WesternAmazon in 1638, indigenous peoples
already had experienced one hundred years of contact with Europeans.
Data for the time-period 1538-1638 are scarce and have been drawn from
the sketchy reports of explorers, as well as from more detailed accounts by
official visitors and the first Jesuit letters. From these documents emerges
a picture of the region in which the Tupian peoples, having begun migra-
tions up the Napo and Maranon prior to 500o,appear to be the domi-
nant groups in trade relations that connected this region to the Amazon.
Tupians lived by floodplain farming, seasonal fishing, and conservation of
protein resources (e.g., turtles). They had developed a system of efficient
canoe travel that permitted control of major waterways, and a system of
trade with interfluvial and other riverine peoples. Their critical and in-
creasingly dominant role in the regional system becomes evident in tracing
the development of indigenous relations with the Spanish and Portuguese
prior to missionization.
Living along major waterways, Tupian Omagua were contacted by
the first Spanish explorers in 1538 and 1540. At that time, Omagua occu-
pied the islands of the Upper Amazon and vast territories along the Napo.
Tupian Cocama occupied the Lower Ucayali. The Omagua and Cocama
both raided and traded with their neighbors. The migration of Tupian
IIO Mary-Elizabeth Reeve

peoples from the Amazon westward had begun well before the arrival of
Europeans. Nevertheless, Portuguese slave raiding along the lower Ama-
zon stimulated further upward migration. A group of Tupians fled up the
Amazon and Huallaga Rivers, arriving at the Spanish town of Chacha-
poyas as early as I541.1
This migration is critical to our understandingof Tupian integration
with local indigenous populations. Tupian peoples dominated regional ex-
change networks because of their riverine base, widespread migrations,
control over desirable technologies such as cloth and canoe manufactur-
ing, and their aggressive stance toward other peoples. In the first century
of European influence, Tupian peoples were pulled between their desire for
European tools, the insatiable European demand for slaves, and the need
to flee harsh treatment by the Portuguese.
On the Ucayali, during the seventeenth century, the Cocama lived
primarily along a large lagoon near the mouth of the Ucayali or "Rio del
Cuzco" (Rodriguez 1684: 163). Their aggressiveness intensified sometime
prior to first Jesuit contact in the Marafin region. One of the early Jesuits
recorded in a letter, dated 1638, that the Cocama came upriver into the
Huallaga on a yearly basis. The trek was made during the time of annual
flooding.
The Cocama would leave the Ucayali in large groups of forty to
sixty or more canoes to attack their enemies and take heads. Once on the
Huallaga, they traded with the CahuapananJevero for iron tools such as
axes, knives, and machetes in exchange for canoes and decorated woven
clothing. They also raided along the Huallaga, traveling up and down its
entire length in search of tools, captives, and heads (Cueva I890 [1638]:
389-90; Jouanen 1941: 379; Chantre y Herrera 190o: 140; ARSI 1640:
fo. Iv).
The Cocama had established a colony on the Lower Huallaga that
served to provision them on this journey. Inhabitants of that colony, the
Cocamilla, joined them on trips up the Marafi6n to the Pastaza, and also
served as a support base on the Huallaga (ARSI1640: fo. Iv). Through
warfare, the Cocama controlled a large area between the Ucayali and the
Huallaga, as well as sections of these rivers (IzaguirreI9z7: 13).
Trade along the Upper Amazon appears to have been dominated by
the Omagua. The Omagua used their pottery and woven cloth as trade
items with other local peoples (ARSIi6zo: fo. 34). Another group of
Omagua are recorded to have reached up the Napo as far as the Spanish
town of Avila in the I570s.2
The Omagua of the Upper Napo (Coca River) region were in early
contact with the Quijos. The Quijos traded in gold, cloth, food, and slaves
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon III

at theirmarkets(StewardandMetrauxI963:654).The Omaguaworegold
ornamentswhichwereobtainedfromthe Quijos(ChaumeilI98I: 80). The
Napo Omaguaaided the Quijosin theirrebellionagainstthe Spanishat
Avila in 1579, later fleeing to take refuge among the Omagua of the Upper
Amazon (Oberem I98I: 361-62, 368).
Recent anthropological analyses of the Tupian historical data have
pointed to a marked increase in the level of violence experienced by the
Omagua and Cocama during the colonial period (Stocks I98I: 53-70;
Golob I98z: I73-74). This pattern began quite early. At the time of Ore-
llana's visit in 1540, the Omagua were recorded to be living in peace.
During the succeeding century, however, Omagua and Cocama were con-
stantly engaged in warfare and the taking of captives as slaves. The Cocama
were raiding on the Huallaga for captives and tools by I640. Furthermore,
the alliance between the Quijos and Napo Omagua had deteriorated by
the seventeenth century, when Omagua began raiding on the Napo.
An increase in violence is attributable to the European demand for
slaves and also the indigenous desire for European trade goods. Captives
were taken from other groups to "ransom"for trade goods. Additionally,
raids were carried out to obtain goods for groups with access to European
trade items. The terrifying experience of disease epidemics contributed to
this spiral of aggression. Any death attributableto shamanic activity could
be met with retaliation. This, coupled with starvation resulting from a loss
of productive persons and flight to avoid contagions, severely disrupted re-
lationships in the region. Throughout Amazonia, violence increased after
European contact as a result of the same forces noted here for the Western
Amazon. Patterns of warfare noted by the Jesuits and others, therefore,
were not indicative of precontact relationships (Ferguson I990).
Before the arrival of Europeans, Omagua and Cocama appear to
have dominated trade relations along the waterways eastward toward the
Middle Amazon. Additionally, Omagua appear to have traded with the
Quijos of the Upper Napo, who in turn maintained ties to the adjacent
Andean region. Although conflict probably existed to some degree, trade
relationships deteriorated into raiding warfare in much of this region after
Spanish contact.
Border Intermediaries:The Quijos, Maina, and Middle
Huallaga Peoples
Tupian peoples suffered the brunt of early Spanish and Portuguese ex-
pansion. Before contact, Tupians had maintained control over riverine
resources, as well as long-distance trade and interaction within the West-
ern Amazon. Interregional interaction, however, was controlled by other
IIZ Mary-Elizabeth Reeve

peoples living just east of the base of the Andes who traveled and traded
between the Andes and Amazonian headwaters. After contact, the pres-
ence of colonial towns nearby gave them access to trade items such as iron
tools. Groups with direct access to Europeangoods were able to strengthen
their links into the regional system by establishing a powerful base as inter-
mediaries to others, including Tupians. These same peoples had earlier
connections with Andeans, and the trade networks they controlled be-
came conduits for European goods. Most notable were the activities of the
Quijos, who traded with the Napo Omagua, and the CahuapananJevero3
living between the Marai6n and Huallaga, who traded with the Cocama.
Jivaroans along the base of the Andes, including the Maina, also had direct
access to European goods, yet it is unclearto what extent they participated
in the regional system dominated by Tupians.
The town of Borja was established on the Marafi6n in Maina terri-
tory in I619 (Jouanen 1941: 335). Before the founding of Borja, the Maina
had maintained trade relations with the Jevero. The founding of Borja and
the forced service in encomienda to which the Maina were quickly sub-
jected appears to have disrupted trading patterns along this stretch of the
Marafi6n. While the Maina suffered under the Spanish attempts to colo-
nize the area, the Jevero were able to increase their participation in the
trade of European goods. By 1640, a group of Jevero, allied with Tupians,
was settled four days from Borja.
Jevero territory was principally interfluvialand extended upriver near
the Huallaga (Chantre y Herrera I9OI: Izz). Jevero traded regularly with
the Spanish in Moyobamba, obtaining axes, knives, and machetes in ex-
change for captives. They then traded tools to the Cocama for canoes
and Tupian clothing (ARSII640: fo. Iv). By the mid-seventeenth century,
the Jevero served as a critical link between the Spanish town of Moyo-
bama and the peoples farthereast and downriver, particularlythe Cocama
and Cocamilla. As will become apparent, this position served them well
(initially) after the Jesuits entered the region.
Along the Huallaga itself, more lengthy chains of trade existed that
would have connected Tupian Cocama via Cahuapanan peoples with
Andeans. The Cahuapanan Muniche of the Huallaga traded with the
Cocama, supplying them with blowgun-dart poison. Muniche in turn also
traded with the "Tabalosos" far up the Huallaga. Tabalosos had been mis-
sionized earlier by Jesuits from Lima and lived in alliance with the Lamis-
tas (Motilones) (Ibid.). They also may have traded with Upper Huallaga
peoples such as the Cholon and Hibito who traveled to the Andean center
of Cajamarquilla (an eight-day trip) to trade coca for tools and clothing
(Izaguirre I927: io). The Cholon and Hibito appear to have represented
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon II3

the uppermost extent of tropical forest peoples into the Andean region
along the Upper Huallaga River (ARSII636-37: fos. 121-122). These alli-
ances would have extended the linkage, then, from the Cocama to the
Andean region via intermediariessuch as the Muniche and peoples living
at the uppermost extent of the tropical forest, such as the Motilones,
Colon, and Hibito.
The trade linkages between the tropical forest peoples and the
Andeans are more clearly documented in the Napo region. At first Spanish
contact, the Quijos had direct commercial ties with neighboring Andeans
through a system of periodic markets. Professional traders employed a
standard unit of exchange, carato (bone or shell beads) in this commerce.
The basis of trade with the Andeans was cinnamon and coca (Porras1974:
23). Professional traders based in Quito, the mindalaes, traded westward
to the Pacificlittoral and northwardinto the area of present-day Colombia.
Although the principal direction of exchange from Quito was westward,
contacts eastward dated to pre-Incaictimes (Salomon I986: ioz, I05, io8-
io). Through professional traders, such ties would have linked this Ama-
zonian area into networks extending throughout the Northern Andes and
Pacific littoral.
Hatunquijos was a center for trade between the Andes and the Ama-
zonian region. Here weekly markets (called gato in Quichua) were held
(Porras 1974: 23, Oberem 1974: 47). The Spanish visitor Diego de Orte-
gon, writing in 1577, described these markets in which was sold food,
clothing, and slaves (Ortegon 1577: fo. z).
Tupian Omagua had settled far up the Napo by the early i6oos. In
I605, one of their caciques came to Avila to ask the Jesuits there to bap-
tize his people.4 The Jesuit record also mentions intermarriagebetween
the indigenous peoples of Avila (Quijos) and these Omagua (ARSI I605:
fos. 8-8v). This suggests that a linkage, perhaps dating to Incaic times,
existed between the Omagua and Andeans in this region via the Quijos.
This connection was maintained only in aggression after the Omagua fled
downriver and began raiding in the Upper Napo.
A third interregionaltrade linkage existed via the Rio Negro. The im-
poverished environment of this nutrient-poor river supported small, scat-
tered populations, but also largercommunities which subsisted by trading
over long distances (Sweet I98I: 275). This long-distance trade had pre-
contact origins, and became a significant mechanism for the distribution
of European goods. Iron tools were traded possibly as early as 6oo00-6z5.
Both Dutch and English explored the Guyana region in the I59os and,
despite Spanish resistance, attempted to maintain settlements there. By the
mid-i6oos, they were also on the Essequibo. Along the Solimoes in the
II4 Reeve
Mary-Elizabeth

eighteenth century, the Yurimagua and Aysuares participated in this ex-

tensive trade network that reached up the Rio Negro to English and Dutch
contacts on the Orinoco and Essequibo (Fritz 19zz: 93, see also Sweet
I98I: 275-79 and Hemming 1978: 430). The Omagua were probably in-
volved in this trade as well through contacts with the Yurimagua. For the
Yurimagua and Aysuares, and possibly also the Omagua, the Rio Negro
trade linkage provided a powerful incentive to remain in the region, even
after the threat from Portuguese slavers became severe (see Fritz 1922: 93).

The Influence of Spanish Towns

During the first century of contact, Spanish colonial expansion drove ad-
ministrative wedges into its Amazonian territory along the base of the
Andean cordillera. The wedges were driven by means of a three-part pro-
cess of entradas (expeditions), the establishment of towns and encomien-
das (grants of indigenous tribute-payers)pertaining to them, and finally,
the establishment of missions along major rivers. Diaz de Pinera's 1538-39
expedition in search of the "lands of gold and cinnamon" was followed by
that of Francisco Orellana and Gonzalo Pizarroin the journey which took
Orellana down the Napo to the mouth of the Amazon in 1540-42 (Cara-
vajal I942; Rumazo 1946: 29-84). The area of Macas and southward was
explored soon after (Jimenezde la Espada 1897: xxix-xlv, lxv-lxxviii).
Voyages of conquest were followed quickly by the establishment of
colonial towns along the base of the Andes, and division of neighboring
lands into encomiendas. In the Napo region, Melchor Vasquez de Avila
became the first governor of the province of Quijos and La Canela in I56I.
In 1563, Avila, Archidona and Alcada del Rio were founded in the Quijos
area, and Sevilla de Oro in the Macas region (Rumazo 1946: II3-21). In
the Upper Huallaga area, Chachapoyas, which had been conquered earlier
by the Inca, was occupied by the Spanish in I537 (Jimenez de la Espada
1897: xv-xvii).
Towns quickly became critical nodes in the regional system, as centers
from which European goods were procured and traded into the hinter-
lands. While indigenous peoples were probably drawn toward contacts in
Spanish town centers, and colonist traders moved outward into indige-
nous territory, a second set of articulations, established in the encomienda
system, stimulated flight from the Spanish.
The system of encomienda, in which labor service was owed to the
Spanish colonists, was a universal practice in the colonized areas. The
Quijos suffered under tribute and labor service demands, an oppressive
situation that led in 1579 to a revolt (Lilly Library i680). This was the
earliest in a series of indigenous rebellions against the Spanish. The revolt
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon IIS

was instigated, according to historians, by the Quijos shaman-caciques

(pendes), who through visions were inspired to lead an uprising that de-
stroyed the towns of Avila and Archidona (see Rumazo 1946: I87-zoo).
After this initial success, in which the Omagua were called to aid, the
rebellion was crushed by the Spanish. Leaders were captured and taken
to Quito, where they were publicly tortured and hanged (Ibid.: 183-217;
Oberem 1980: 81-95).
Jivaroans living north of the Marai6n were subject to both the en-
comienda system and, outside the encomiendas, to slave raiding (Jouanen
1941: 335). They rose in revolt in I599, forming an alliance that extended
as far as the Morona River. They attacked the Spanish settlements and
fought continuously against Spanish colonists, closing off to colonial traf-
fic all of the Santiago River basin and annihilating the population of the
city of Logrono (IzaguirreI925: i6). The attacks on Spanish towns were in
large measure a reprisal for the frequent slave raids made by colonists. In
I615 several colonists of Santiago de las Montanas and Nievas were killed,
reputedly by Mainas. A small army was sent into Jivaroan territory on a
punitive expedition, after which the Maina made peace with the Spanish
and re-established commercial ties with the colonists of Santiago. Never-
theless, between 1595 and I6I5 much of the area was in intermittent and
hostile contact with the Spanish (JouanenI94I: 335).
The encomienda system and slave raiding that accompanied coloni-
zation thus sparked indigenous revolts by the Quijos and Jivaroans. It
severely disrupted extant regional networks, as well as new articulations
to Spanish towns. Only on the Upper Huallaga was colonization carried
out without producing a major revolt. In I605, Cholon and Hibito were
held in encomienda by a Spaniard of Chachapoyas and had their own
priest, who visited them twice a year (ARSI 1636-37: fos. i6v, izi). Farther
downriver, in the triangle between the Upper Marafi6n and the Huallaga,
Spanish settlers of Moyobamba and (later) Lamas raided Cahuapanansfor
labor. Many Cahuapanans united and fled to the Huallaga tributaries to
escape the incursions of the Spaniards. Cahuapana living along the east-
ern slopes of the Andes between Moyobamba and the Jesuit mission of
Chayavitas (Osma I908: 54-55), as well as Motilones of Lamas (Zarate
1904 [1739]: 387), fled eastward away from the cordillera and north to
settle on Huallaga tributaries.Some Cahuapanans(Jevero,Chayavita, and
Muniche) united and fled to the ParanapuraRiver (Jouanen1941: 384).
Seventy years after Orellana'sexpedition, in 1618, Diego Vaca de Vega
obtained permission from the viceroy of Peru to "discover Mainas, Coca-
mas, and Jivaros," attempting the first Spanish colonization of lowlands
east of the Andes. He declared the area conquered after his expedition of
II6 Reeve
Mary-Elizabeth

I619 and in that year founded the city of Borja below the Pongo de Manse-
riche in Maina territory.Vaca de Vega was first received by the Maina in
peace. They accepted the Augustinian missionaries with him and offered
allegiance to the Spanish crown. Vaca de Vega contacted and "pacified"
various groups of Maina, traveling down the Marafi6n and up the Pastaza
as far as Lake Rimachuma near the mouth of the Pastaza. A few Cocama
took his son as far as the mouth of the Huallaga and Tigre Rivers. Vaca de
Vega then divided the contacted peoples into encomiendas.
Life in the encomiendas was exceedingly harsh. In the region around
the city of Borja, as many as nine out of ten persons captured and brought
in are estimated to have died soon after (Golob I98z: 142). The population
of the entire region feared capture by the Spanish. In February of 1635,
the Maina in the vicinity of Borja rose in revolt, killing many in the town
before they were driven back. The following years were witness to atroci-
ties committed against the Maina in the forest, as they were hunted down
and "punished" by soldiers sent from Borja. The Jesuit historian Joua-
nen records that "The punishments were carried out over several years
with inhuman rage and cruelty." (Jouanen1941: 337). Ten years later only
twenty-one of the original forty-two encomiendas remained, and Spanish
enthusiasm for colonizing this area was severely diminished. It was into
this situation that the Jesuits were brought to Borja in 1636.
Thus, the first one hundred years of contact produced the establish-
ment of a few towns along the base of the Andes. Nearby populations
were brought into the encomiendas, and those fartherout were subject to
periodic slave raiding. Yet it was these same populations that had direct
access to iron tools, the coveted trade goods that were to continue to bind
Europeans and indigenous peoples together over the following centuries.
Outside of these areas, the vast interior eastward experienced no sus-
tained contact with Europeans until the period of intensive Jesuit mission-
ization began in 1638. The indigenous peoples of this region living along
major rivers had a few contacts with explorers and their soldiers. Slave
raiders had a major impact on populations closer to the Spanish towns,
yet the destabilizing effects of the slave trade were felt throughout much of
the Western Amazon. Both iron tools and disease epidemics had without
doubt reached most of the region during this time, and old patterns of
interaction were shifting in response to these pressures.
In brief summary of the period 1538-I638, several points emerge. At
the time of the first Spanish contact, two sets of inter-indigenous relations
prevailed in the Western Amazon. First, Tupian Omagua and Cocama
dominated regional interaction through control of the major waterways
leading upriver from the Amazon. Second, intermediarypeoples living east
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon II7

Map 2. RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon:1538-1638.

of the Andean cordillera traded with both Andean and Tupian peoples.
Other intermediaries traded from Tupian territory northward toward the
Caribbean (See Map z). Most of these contacts were across a series of
ethnic territories. Only in the Napo area is there evidence of a direct link
between Andean, Quijos intermediaries,and Tupian peoples. It is possible
that this occurred also in the Jivaroan area.
With the establishment of Spanish towns along the base of the Andes,
these linkages strengthened as Omagua and Cocama sought access to
European goods, especially iron tools, which greatly increased the effi-
ciency of horticultural labor. Intermediarieswho controlled direct access
to these goods, such as the Quijos and Xevero, enjoyed increased regional
leverage. This advantage was, however, offset by predation by Spaniards.
Revolts by Quijos and Jivaroans altered the relations along the base of
the Andes as these peoples were subjected to terrible reprisals, while trad-
ing in the Huallaga region continued uninterrupted. At the same time,
Tupian peoples to the east along the Amazon were subject to Portuguese
slave raiding, forcing upriver migration and also stimulating warfare for
captives and for booty, including iron tools.
II8 Reeve
Mary-Elizabeth

The Jesuit Years; 1638-1767

As we have seen, in the one hundred year period between 1538 and I638
indigenous peoples of the WesternAmazon came in contact with explorers,
soldiers, traders, slavers, and colonists bent on exploiting their labor. After
1638, they had sustained contact with Jesuit missionaries whose aim was
quite different. Among European colonists, only the Jesuits, driven by the
spiritual agenda of converting the native population to Christianity, set
up residence among these peoples and both suffered and profited from the
consequences. The second part of this paper is focused on the period of
Jesuit missionization.
In the Western Amazon, the Jesuits established the missions of
Mainas. While many missionaries were murdered by local peoples irate
with their demands, the Jesuits did manage-through prodigious effort-
to create a new set of interrelationshipsin the region. Ironically,at the same
time they failed to convert large numbers of people into stable Christian
populations at mission centers. Of central importance to the transforma-
tion of the regional interaction sphere was the process by which Jesuits
moved from establishing a mission base with one group outward, con-
tacting allies of that group. New relationships were cemented through the
provision of European trade goods.
In 1638, one hundred years after the first recorded expedition into
the Western Amazon, the Jesuit Fathers Gaspar de Cujia and Lucas de la
Cueva arrived in Borja at the request of the governor of Mainas.s The gov-
ernor had sent for them in an attempt to bring order to Spanish as well as
Maina populations of the town and its environs.
The Jesuit arrival in Borja coincided within a three-yearperiod with
the crushing of the Maina revolt along the Marafi6n. Father Cueva, who
was forced in his long career in the region to work between indigenous
and Spanish colonial interests, began proselytization among the Maina by
obtaining a pardon for their revolt. He moved quickly from Maina con-
tacts to the Jevero and established a mission in Jevero territory. Cueva
and several other highly energetic and dedicated missionaries were able to
establish the basic framework of the Marafin missions in the twenty years
between I640 and I66o.
Between I653 and i66o, there was a tremendous growth of missions
in this initial core area of the Marafi6n, Pastaza, and Huallaga rivers. In
about i650, the Cocama of the Ucayali accepted a Jesuit mission, which
proved difficult to maintain in part because Jesuit efforts were concen-
trated elsewhere. Later some one hundred Cocama families came from
the Ucayali to the Huallaga, "each by a distinct route," to found the base
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon II9

population of Santiago de La Laguna (Izaguirre1927: 14), which was to

become the seat of the missions of Mainas. By I66o, there was a total of
sixty thousand persons within the sphere of the missions, with ten thou-
sand catechized for baptism (Jouanen 1941: 402-3). A few missionaries
worked with these peoples and sought out new contacts among neighbor-
ing populations.
Jesuits established missions along major waterways wherever a suffi-
ciently large population could be brought to a suitable site. While many
missions were started, only a few became stable centers. In this early
period, there were several mission settlements within a few days' travel of
each other in the Huallaga area, but others were at much greaterdistances.
Mission populations ranged from several hundred to over one thousand
persons, yet represented only a relatively small percentage of the total
population of the region (Golob 1982: I9I-9z). As missions were deci-
mated by epidemics in the succeeding decades of the seventeenth century,
newly recruited people were continually brought in.
Over the entire period of Jesuit missionization about sixty missions
were successfully established and, at most, about forty functioned simul-
taneously. The population was dependent on the missionary for European
trade goods, of which iron tools were the principal items. The missionary,
in turn, was dependent on supplies of goods brought in from Quito by the
Jesuits. The supply was inadequate and uncertain. Trade was eventually
to become centered on regionally available resources, the exploitation of
salt and the exchange of blowgun-dart poison, both activities organized by
the missionaries. (For a detailed accounting of these missions see Figueroa
I904 [I66I]; Rodriguez 1684; Jimenez de la Espada 1889-92; Zarate I904
[I739]; Chantre y Herrera I90o; Jouanen 1941, 1943.)
On their exploratory treks out from Borja, the Jesuits never traveled
without indigenous guides and interpreters.In this way, they were taken
by a group to its allies. To a remarkabledegree, the process of proselytiza-
tion and mission formation followed indigenous alliance networks across
the region. For example, Maina aided the Jesuits on their entrance into
Jevero territory. Through a Maina who spoke Jevero, Father Lucas de la
Cueva initiated the contact that was to lead to the establishmentof the first
and largest of the Jesuit missions of Mainas, La Concepci6n de Xeveros
(Chantre y Herrera 1901: 122-23, 578). The Jevero were to play a pivotal
role as both intermediaries for the Jesuits and militia for the local Span-
ish colonial government. The Jesuits quickly expanded their base from
the Jevero mission eastward and, by 1645, had contacted Tupian peoples;
Cocama and Omagua, and brought a few into mission settlements.
In I640, Father Lucas de la Cueva was able to contact the Cocama
120 Mary-Elizabeth Reeve

through the Jevero (ARSI1640: fo. Iv). Another missionary, Father Ray-
mundo de Santa Cruz, learned the Cocama language and befriended the
population located near the mouth of the Huallaga. He was able to bring
a group of Cocamilla up the Huallaga River and establish a mission there.
Through the Cocama, he was able to contact and reduce the neighbor-
ing Panoan Aguano and Mayoruna (Rodriguez 1684: 178-81). In i68z,
Father Lucero went up the Ucayali River where the Panoan Cunibos pro-
vided him with interpreters for contacting other Panoans, as well as the
Arawakan Piro.
Initial Jesuit missionization followed the pattern of indigenous trade
and alliance networks, reinforcing these networks by providing direct ac-
cess to European goods. Jesuits brought several distinct groups into each
mission settlement, and stable mission populations were comprised of
allies. The missionaries were unsuccessful in attempts to bring peoples
together outside of the indigenous alliance system (see Magnin, quoted in
Golob I982: I24). As a corollary, those peoples with access to European
goods through the Jesuits were able to strengthen their position vis-a-vis
other peoples. This was most notable with the rise of Jevero control over
the area between the Huallaga and Marafi6n. Contacts with the Jesuits
also served to strengthen Cocama hegemony in the Huallaga and Ucayali
valleys.
Equally significant, this was a militarily enforced missionization pro-
cess. During this early period, missionaries were forced to cooperate with
the governor of Borja, as he was also governor of the missions of Mainas.
Under the title of governor of the missions, Vaca de Vega had authority
to make periodic visits to the missions and, significantly, to send soldiers
on entradas to "punish" Indians who rebelled against the missionaries or
the Spanish settlers. On these expeditions, if the governor asked the Jesuits
to furnish a chaplain, the Jesuit Superior could not refuse.6In this initial
period, also, Jesuits traveled with soldiers, ostensibly for their protection
on missionary expeditions (Chantrey Herrera 190o: 6Io; see also 584-85;
Figueroa g904[i66i]: 43-45). Jesuit success in the region was as inextri-
cably tied to indigenous fear of the cruelty of Spanish soldiers as it was
to the role of the missions as a haven from slave raiding and the abuses
of the encomienda system, or the allegiance gained through provision of
trade goods.
Around i665 the Jesuits began their work in what was to become the
Missi6n Baja (lower missions), that area below the Pastaza dominated by
Tupian speakers. In i66i, the Omagua asked for a missionary and vol-
untarily submitted to the Spanish Crown, after being threatened by the
Portuguese with slavery (Osma 90o8:48).
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon 121

In I68I, Cocama, fleeing epidemics at Santiago de la Laguna, had

gone down to the Omagua, who informed them of the bad treatment they
had received at the hands of the Portuguese. The Cocama invited them
upriver to seek protection from the Jesuit Superior Father Lucero at the
mission of La Laguna and to ask for their own missionary. The Omagua,
however, were reluctantto move so far upriverout of their territory.Father
Fritz was finally sent to them, but in the meantime the Jesuits requested
that they move upriver bit by bit so as to be out of reach of the Portu-
guese. Fritz was received by the Omagua with much rejoicing on each
of more than thirty islands (Fritz I9z2: 52).7 In this way, Cocama were
instrumental in spreadingJesuit influence into the Amazon.
The Jesuit journey to the Omaguas was undertaken with the idea of
learning their language and attempting conversion to Christianity. Equally
significant was Omagua allegiance to the Spanish Crown in this politically
contested area to which Portugal laid claim. Becauseof their expertise with
canoes and practice in warfare, the Omagua were considered additionally
valuable to the Spanish in the "conquest and reduction of other nations"
(Laureano de la Cruz I885 [1651]: I83). Omagua helped the Jesuits contact
peoples living between the Lower Napo and Lower Pastaza, such as the
Yameo, and a few missions were established in this region. However, on
the Ucayali, the Jesuits had only temporary success with Panoan peoples
(see DeBoer I98I). Subsequently, the Jesuits stayed out of the Ucayali,
which was then missionized by the Franciscans. Fueled as they were by
a spiritual agenda, the Jesuits during this early period nevertheless suc-
ceeded in the process of missionization through mechanisms that began to
transform the region.

Processes of Rebellion and Resettlement

By i68z, the Jesuit Superior Lorenzo Lucero was able to record that
the Jesuits had established missions along the Upper Napo, the Pastaza,
Marai6n, and Huallaga rivers in which he estimated a total of 7,400 per-
sons resided. He estimated that successful contact had been made with
another 56,000 people (ARSIi68z: fos. 8i-8z). Nevertheless, many mis-
sions established earlier had been lost, and several missionaries had been
murdered by indigenous people angered by their presence. Additionally,
in 1663 the Cocama, allied with the Panoan Chepeo and Maparina, had
rebelled against the missionaries (Chantre y Herrera 190o: 224-27).
The events of the Cocama rebellion inform us of the dynamics of the
contact situation in the region as a whole. At this time the Cocama were
raiding up the Marafi6n, some Cocama had moved to the Huallaga, and
the missionary effort was concentrated on the Huallaga, not the Ucayali.
IZ2 Mary-Elizabeth Reeve

According to the Jesuits, the Cocama had confederated with the Panoan
Chepeo and Maparina to kill all the Spaniards and their Indian allies,
without ceasing in this intent until all settlements of the Marafi6n mission
were destroyed (Jouanen I94I: 449). This ambition was similar to that of
the Quijos and the Jivaroans at an earlierdate and reflectedthe millenarian
vision of a world once again free of Spaniards.
In i666 the Cocama went upriver toward Borja and attacked mission
settlements along the way. They killed and took the head of the Jesuit
Father Figueroa and destroyed the mission of Jeveros, but stopped short of
an attack on Borja. Seeing the successes of the Cocama, according to Jesuit
history, the "faithful" Indians began to believe that they too could free
themselves (Ibid.: 454). This is a strong indication that the early Jesuit suc-
cesses in the region in maintaining mission populations were directly tied
to fear of military reprisal from soldiers at Borja for rebellion and flight.
Success was not, therefore, solely owing to increased access to trade goods.
In I669, an army of two hundred "faithful" Jeveros and Guallagas
(Cocamilla) (whose fathers would have witnessed Spanish cruelty toward
the Maina), and twenty Spanish soldiers from Borjaand Moyobamba went
with Father Lucero to the Ucayali. There they confronted the Cocama,
killing their leader and recapturingthe head of Father Figueroa. They then
slaughtered, hanged, or captured the rest of the Cocama rebels, thereby
crushing the last of the rebellions in the missions of Mainas (Ibid.: 454-
55). Events of this rebellion suggest that a reign of terror, with indige-
nous attempts to manipulate and to strengthen alliances, characterize this
period. The data for the pre-Jesuitperiod demonstrate that some access to
European trade goods had already been developed along indigenous trade
networks through contacts to Spanish colonial settlements.
Why, then, a rebellion by the Cocama of the Ucayali? Sweet (I98I:
zo) has noted that communal resistance to European expansion was most
frequent either on the perimeter of (or outside) the orbit of European con-
trol, or among peoples who retained a strong sense of communal identity.
The Cocama were not subject to the encomienda system nor had they been
heavily missionized or subject to slave raiding. They were, at the time,
on the periphery of European control. Furthermore,the Cocama appear
to have maintained sociopolitical control over the Marafi6n area, control
that extended to Borja (and the Huallaga). The Spanish presence in the
region surely threatened that control and would have been one factor in
stimulating the revolt.
This revolt took place in the i66os, some thirty years after the Mainas
revolt, sixty years after the Jivaroan, and eighty years after the Quijos
revolts. If Sweet is correct in concluding that revolts tended to occur at
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon I23

the peripheryof colonialexpansion,the datesgive us an idea of the pace

anddirectionof thatexpansionin the WesternAmazon.(Forcomparative
materialon the ArawakanAshaninka[Campa],see Brownand Fernan-
dez I991.)
In stark contrastto this history of rebellionsis the experienceof
peoples of the Huallaga River.Partsof the Upper Huallagahad been
conqueredby the Inca,andEuropeancontactproducedno revolt.Never-
theless,while at firstthe Spaniardsweretolerated,even welcomed,small
groupssoon fledfromSpanishabuse.The areawas ethnicallydiverse,and
the vast systemof waterwaysandinterfluvialregionsbetweenthe Andean
cordilleraandthe UcayaliRiverservedas a refuge.SpaniardsfromLamas
and Moyobambarangedthroughoutthis area and as far as the Ucayali
in theirhuntfor slavelabor.Forexample,Jouanenrecordedthat Cahua-
pananswerebroughtinto a mission,yet somewerecapturedby Spaniards
of Moyobambato work as slaves while the priestwas absent (Jouanen
I943: 391).Thus,theJesuitmissionsdownriveron the Huallagaservedas
a refuge,althoughnot a secureone, fromcaptureandenslavement.
Much the samepatternwas to be establishedalongthe UpperAma-
zon in the territoryof the Omagua,wherethe Portuguesewere the major
threat. Jesuits there offered to protect the Omagua,Yurimagua,and
Aysuaresfrom the Portuguesein the missionsestablishedby FatherFritz
in Omaguaterritory(see Fritz19zz). The Portugueseserved,unwittingly,
to force indigenouspeoples to seek refugeat the Spanishmissions and
contributedto the successof theJesuits.
Hostilitieswith the Portugueseeruptedin I693-96. At this time, the
Portuguesemoved into the area to trade and barterfor captivesto be
sold as slaves.The Yurimaguareportedto FatherFritz,theirmissionary,
that the Portuguesehad left angrybecausethe Yurimaguanow refused
to give them captives.So refusing,they had said to the Portuguesethat
the priest would be angryand that they no longerhad enemiesto hunt
becausethe priest had writtendown the namesof all peoplesand made
peacewith them(Ibid.:9I-92). TheYurimaguaandOmaguacontinuedto
sufferunderpressuresfromthe Portugueseduringthe eighteenthcentury.8
Yurimaguaeventuallyrelocatedto the Huallaga,while relic populations
of Omaguawent to the Napo.
Fromthesehistoriesit wouldappearthatwherepopulationswereeth-
nicallydiverse,as alongthe Huallaga(andUpperPastaza),theycouldsur-
vive colonialexpansionthroughflightto alliedterritory.Wheretherewas
strongethnicunity,as with theJivaroans,Quijos,Cocama,and Omagua,
populationsremainedindependentto the extentthat successfularmedre-
sistanceclosedout theirlandsto colonialforces.The OmaguaandQuijos,
I4 Mary-Elizabeth Reeve

whose territories lay at points critical to colonial interests, suffered under

continual pressures, while the Cocama and Jivaroans were able to isolate
themselves.

Funding the Missions

Missionary activity changed both the nature and focus of the regional
interaction sphere by encouraging coresidence of several distinct peoples
at mission sites, providing direct access to highly valued trade goods, and
by the need both to supply each mission with exotic goods and to export
local products in return.The mission became the new focus of interaction,
and the nature of the interaction itself shifted from exchange to a redis-
tributive system with the priest as nexus (Stocks 1981: 74). This process
took place only as the mission system developed in the Western Amazon
and characterized the period from about 1670 to the Jesuit expulsion from
this region in I767.
Jesuits hoped that the missions would become permanent and self-
sufficient settlements. To that end, in Mainas they introduced domestic
animals such as cattle, pigs, chickens, and guinea pigs. These did poorly in
the Amazonian environment, and animal husbandryprojects ended in fail-
ure. New crops such as bananas, rice, and sugarcanewere also introduced.
None of these activities proved sufficient to sustain the Mainas missions.
Items for trade and for the maintenanceof the missionary and church were
continually requested from the Crown and Jesuit Order. In the seventeenth
century, the Jesuits supplied the only funds to the missions, but by the
mid-eighteenth century, three-fourthsof all funds were obtained from the
King. (For a detailed accounting, see Golob 1982: 226-33.)
It was only after 1746 that the Mainas missions received a steady
income from Jesuit enterprise. After that date, they were supported by
a fairly large, yet modestly profitable, sheep-raising and wool-producing
complex (obraje)in the YaruquiValley northwest of Quito (Cushner 1980:
207, n. 49; 1982: 8i, 93, i60). The situation was not unique to the Mainas
missions. Far from being isolated outposts, Jesuit missions were closely
linked into the colonial economy through multiple connections (Block
I980: I62-63, I75, 178).
Despite these outside sources of funds, the Jesuits in Mainas never
had sufficient resources to purchase the goods required or to send a suffi-
cient number of missionaries to maintain all missions founded. As a result,
many missions existed only for a few years before being abandoned. Those
few priests who could be supported at mission sites received an annual
stipend in trade goods and materials for the church. Small amounts of
locally extracted or produced goods were then sent to Quito to purchase
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon Iz5

anythingbeyondthis, suchas adornmentsfor the church.Thestateof each

mission was precarious;when the web of economicsupportwas broken
or disrupted,neophytesabandonedthe site.
Supportfor the missionsandmechanismsforgainingallegiancedove-
tailed in the Jesuitfocus on controlof two criticalregionalcommodities;
salt and blowgun-dartpoison. Salt was of importancein the indigenous
trade networksof the Jivaroanand HuallagaRiverpeoples. Salt was a
desiredand perhapssignificantdietarysupplementwherelargegamewas
not abundant,a likelysituationaroundlargemissionsettlements.It also
served as a means for aiding in food preservation,althoughthis latter
practicewas probablyintroducedby the Spanish.Jesuitcontrolof the salt
tradewas a criticalstrategyin gaininghegemonyin the region.Control
over the regionalsalt tradeservedtwo purposes.First,the Jesuitswere
able to facilitatedirectaccessto salt by all missionizedpeople.Secondly,
salt could be mined and transportedusing Indianlaborand it becamea
valuablecommodityin the colonialeconomy.Severalof the principalsalt
sourcesin the UpperAmazonwere on or nearthe HuallagaRiver,and
anotherwas locatedup the UcayaliRiver.9(Forcomparativeinformation
on the importanceof salt amongthe ArawakanCampato the south, see
Verese 1973.)
Earlyin the missionizationof the Huallaga,Jesuitsbeganexploiting
the salt sourcescommercially.Afterthe Jeverosmissionwas established,
FatherCueva, in the I64os and i65os, had both Jeveroand Paranapura
Indianstakingthe salt out for sale,whichgavethe regiona "healthycom-
merce"(Jouanen1941:372).The proximityof salt sourcesmay be one of
the majorreasonswhy the largestJesuitmission(Concepci6nde Xeveros)
and the seat of the Marai6n missions,and laterthe largest(Santiagode
La Laguna)werelocatedin this area.
The annualtripsto collectsalton the Huallagawereorganizedwithin
each mission.10The Jesuits sent people from as far away as the Napo
and Upper Amazon to the Huallagafor salt, which was distributedby
the Jesuitsto the new missions,to existingmissionson the Pastaza,and
to Lamas(Uriarte1952 [1771], I: I44). Nevertheless,it must be remem-
bered that the economic activity was for the Jesuits only a means to
anotherend, that of conversionof the nativepopulationto Christianity.
(SeeSweetI974. Fora comparativediscussionon the Californiamissions,
see Archibald 1978: I84-85.)
Significantly,the treks for salt continuedafterthe Jesuit expulsion.
Both duringandafterJesuitcontrolof thesalttrade,the indigenouspeople
who made these treksmademanystops along the way, exchangingwith
local peoplesnot only salt but otherlocal specializationsas well. Of par-
iz6 Reeve
Mary-Elizabeth

Map 3. Transformationof RegionalInteractionwithin the Area of the Mainas

Missions.

ticular importance was trade of salt for blowgun-dart poison made by the
Ticuna or Peba along the Amazonas or that of the Lamistasin the Huallaga
region."1These trekking and trading patterns contributed to the reshaping
of the regional interaction sphere (See Map 3).
Demand for salt had always existed among the Quijos of the Upper
Napo, who had traded their gold with the Inca for Andean salt. In the
sixteenth century, prior to Jesuit contact, the Quijos laboriously made a
poor grade of salt from plants. In the seventeenth century this practice
was probably given up as Jesuits took over the Archidona protectorate
and brought with them salt from the mines on the Huallaga. Only later
did the Quijos begin to make their own treks to the region (Oberem 1974:
353-55).
Peoples from as far as the Upper Napo and Omaguas area came
together in the Huallaga as a result of the salt trade, exchanging also
among themselves (Uriarte 195z [1771], I: 143). After the Jesuit expulsion
these annual treks continued, either for a white trader or on their own
account, and came to include peoples from the Upper Pastaza-Bobonaza
area, such as the Canelos Quichua (Oberem 1974: 353-55).12
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon Iz7

In the lower missions, an important commercial resource was the oil

from eggs of the charapaturtle.Millionsof eggs weretaken,particularly
fromthe beachesof the lowerUcayali,andwereprocessedtherefor their
oil. Many babyturtleswerealso capturedto be raisedfor food by indige-
nous families.Likesalt, this oil was distributedto other missionswithin
the region,includingthe missionsof the UpperMaran6nand Pastaza,as
well as to towns such as Lamas(Uriarte1952[1771], I: I41-44).13 Distri-
bution of turtle egg oil therefore provided a link between the upper and
lowermissions.

Jesuit Control of Regional Exchange

Prior to Jesuit contact, trade specializations had defined regional and inter-
regional indigenous exchange networks. Jesuits gained control of some of
these specializations as their producers joined the missions. Perhaps the
most important of these was blowgun-dart poison. "The containers [of
blowgun-dart poison] circulated like money and the missionaries provi-
sioned themselves with it primarily to pay Indian labor and to gain their
favor; blowgun-dart poison, axes, fishhooks, and beads were excellent
preachers, or precursorsto Christian teaching" (Ibid., I: 9z-93, n. z7).
The majority of these items were important in subsistence activities.
Good quality blowgun-dart poison greatly increased hunting efficiency,
particularly for small game resources of the forest canopy. These items
were also desirable trade items within inter-indigenous networks. While
the Jesuits wrested control over indigenous trade items, they also began
exploitation of forest products useful to the colonial economy. Forest
products such as cacao, laurel wax, gums and resins, and oil of copauba
were extracted by indigenous labor, then exchanged at town centers for
items needed by the missionary: ropes, tobacco, sugar, and salted meat.
Furthermore, local handicrafts produced by peoples living near mission
sites were exchanged for European goods at the missions, establishing the
priest as a nexus for distribution of such goods.
Commerce between the missions and the Jesuit procurator in Quito
was managed through the annual dispatch. A group of "ChristianIndians"
carried supplies and material from Quito on their backs to the Napo River,
then went downriver to all of the missions delivering and taking on cargo.
The journey took six months and required a large number of bearers and
paddlers, provided by each mission. The Napo River formed the major
supply route between the Andes and the Marafi6n missions.14
Other commercial ties persisted. The missionaries, "knowing that
neither the linen cloth from Quito nor the blowgun-dart poison obtained
locally from Pevas was in sufficient quantity to serve the needs of the mis-
128 Reeve
Mary-Elizabeth

sionary as gifts to the mission indians and newly contacted peoples, sent
to Moyobamba and Lamas for items such as cloth, blowgun dart poison,
tobacco, and sugar" (Chantre y Herrera 19oI: 617). Missionaries were
then accused of carrying out independent businesses, which was strictly
forbidden. As a result, independent trade with colonists of Moyobamba
and Lamas was officially curtailed between 1724 and 1738 (Ibid.: 6i8).
During the mid-eighteenth century in Europe, Jesuit activities came
under increasing criticism. The Jesuits were targets of the intellectual up-
heaval that swept Europe between the i68os and I75os: the Enlightenment
period (Bangert I972: 273). More specifically, their enormously successful
plantations and haciendas, established in the New World to fund the Jesuit
colleges and to some extent the missions, were the subject of both criticism
and envy (Cushner I980: 156, I74).
Yet, with respect to regional exchange in the Province of Mainas, the
Jesuit missionaries insisted that there was little (economic) profit.15The
motive was to gain converts. While control over indigenous trade helped
create converts, financial gain from trade was, according to the Jesuits,
made by secular white traders. "The mission [populations] exchange be-
tween themselves local products, having therefore some commerce, whose
major profit is attained by those white [traders] who take the products
outside of the region" (Requena ca. 1784: fo. i8v). In this sense, the Jesuits
explicitly contrasted not only their motive, but the economic significance
of their enterprise with that of the traders.
From their town bases, colonial traders had established linkages into
the indigenous trade networks long before the Jesuits arrived. As Jesuits
established missions in the region, the traders could also begin to travel
and traffic along the rivers. Thus while the Jesuits probably initially fol-
lowed the lead of colonial town-based traders, they had in turn established
commercial linkages deep in the Western Amazon by the mid-eighteenth
century as a result of their efforts at missionization. These linkages were
gradually taken over by white traders.Traderscame to dominate economic
transactions in the region after the Jesuit expulsion in 1767. Thus the
combination of official sanctions against economic activities by religious
orders or individual missionaries and the presence of independent Spanish
(and Portuguese) traders limited the extent to which the Jesuit missions
were able to serve as critical nexuses in exchange networks.

Regional Integration Under the Jesuit Missions

As missions became established throughout the region in the period be-
tween 1670 and I767, missionary activity shifted the focus of indigenous
exchange networks and undermined former long-distance exchange pat-
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon I29

terns.The role of dominantindigenousgroups,both the Tupiansand bor-

derintermediaries, was transformed(SeeMap3). As hasbeennoted,initial
Jesuit contacts followed paths of indigenousnetworksand strengthened
the position of peopleswho had directaccessto tradegoods throughthe
missionaries.As facilitatorsof the outwardcontactsof the Jesuits,how-
ever,their positionwas underminedas new missionsettlementswere set
up in which the priest becamea nexus for a locally based exchangeof
forest productsfor Europeangoods. The other severepressureson the
populationsnotwithstanding,this processalonecouldhavedestroyedthe
long-distancetradelinkagesin the region.The loss of powerby formerly
dominantgroupsmarkeda transformation of long-distanceexchangenet-
works, as newly dominantpeoples and significantresourcebases were
established,particularlyin the trade for salt. The Quijos and Middle
Huallagapeoplesbenefitedfromthis new interaction.Others,such as the
Jivaroansand Cocama,choseto isolatethemselvesfromsustainedcontact
with Europeans.
Jivaroan response, in particular, appears to have created increased
insularity. The Shuar and other Jivaroans of the Morona-Santiago region
successfully repulsed all Spanish attempts to establish settlements in this
region except a few along the base of the Andes. The Maina were forced
to retreat after the rebellion of 1635 and, although a few small missions
were established, the populations were not stable. Maina maintained trade
links to the Spanish of Moyobamba and Lamas, but the Spaniards trav-
eled down the Huallaga to them. The Cocama also isolated themselves,
retreating to the Ucayali, although they maintained some contact into the
mission redistributive system via their population at La Laguna.
The Quijos were less affected by missionary activity than by the Span-
ish encomienda system. The trade pattern described by Ortegon in 1577
for the Quijos did not survive into the eighteenth century (Oberem 1974:
356). Gone were the weekly markets and the professional traders. New
forms of trade into the Andes were shaped around the presence of the colo-
nial market in Quito. While the Quijos managed to maintain interregional
exchange with Andeans in an altered form, much of the population was
subjected to excessive labor demands, and many fled from Spanish contact.
Additionally, the former alliance between the Quijos and the Omagua had
deteriorated into hostilities. Significantly, however, as the Jesuits estab-
lished their mission system and began commerce in salt, the Quijos re-
vitalized their exchange links to downriver peoples through participation
in annual treks to the Huallaga for salt.
The majority of the Napo Omagua had fled downriver after the
Quijos revolt. Following this, the Omagua increased hostilities with their
130 Mary-Elizabeth Reeve

neighbors on the Upper Amazon (Rodriguez 1684: 124), as well as with

the Quijos on the Napo (ANHI7z9: z-XI). The increased hostility was
in part related to trade with the Portuguese, in which captives would be
carried off as slaves in exchange for goods.
The Portuguese slave traders were a major driving force in reshaping
the political and economic relations in the region. Omagua initially traded
captives for European goods, but soon found Portuguese demands exces-
sive. By I695, they refused to sell the Portuguese any more captives and
lived in fear that they themselves would be carried off as slaves. They
sought mission protection from the Jesuits and cooperated with them in
making contacts with other peoples in the lower missions. Nevertheless,
the Jesuits were unable to protect adequately much of their population,
and the Omagua were decimated. This pattern parallels the fate of Jesuit
missions in Paraguay, both in the incursions by slave raiders and later in
the struggle between Spain and Portugal for colonial hegemony (see, e.g.,
Bangert I972: 350).
Breakdown of the dominant position formerly held by Tupian and
intermediary peoples resulted from the destabilization created by Spanish
and Portuguese efforts to enslave the indigenous population. Beset with
the ravages of rebellion, repression, and slave raiding, as well as disease
epidemics, they were stripped of their former position in the region. It
was in the vacuum caused by destabilization that the Jesuits established a
redistributive system.
In 1767, the Jesuits were expelled from the entire area, ending the
period of intensive missionization. Never again was the region unified
under a specific colonial program of contact and conquest. With Jesuit
expulsion, white traders took over the framework they had created, be-
coming increasingly dominant both as a source of goods and as controllers
of the trade in salt and blowgun-dart poison.
The indigenous intergroup exchanges made possible by long-distance
travel and trade in salt created a post-contact reformation of integration
across the region, which remained intact until the mid-twentieth century,
when Peruvian-Ecuadorian conflicts finally provoked the closing of the
international border. These interethnic relations remain alive today as a
memory passed on in oral histories (Reeve 1985: io8).

Conclusions

The first part of this paper is a reconstruction of the regional exchange

system as it existed during the first one hundred years of Spanish con-
tact. It was onto this system that the Jesuits imposed their missionization
RegionalInteractionin the WesternAmazon I3I

efforts.The secondpartis an explorationof ways in whichthe Jesuitsex-

ploited the regionalexchangesystem;how it shapedtheirmissionization
strategyand, in turn, how that strategycontributedto the transforma-
tion of intergrouprelationsandthe generalnatureof exchangewithinthe
region.
The historicaldocumentationhas pointedto the continuedsignifi-
cance of long-distancetrade in the WesternAmazon.While it has been
arguedthat this region,and Amazoniain general,could have supported
dense populationswith difficulty,it is suggestedthat dynamic,regional,
trade,in particular,
riverine-interfluvial wouldhavepermittedthe (perhaps
unequal)exploitationby variousgroupsof resourcesavailablein both re-
gions. The complexity of these multi-ethnic
relationshipswas illuminated
in the variedresponsesto colonialexpansion.We can hypothesizethat in
Amazonianprehistoryduringperiodsof populationgrowth, these link-
ageswouldhaveintensified,as wouldhavecontactsto otherregions.After
Spanishcontact, and the concomitantdemographiccollapse, the trade
linkagesin the WesternAmazonwere re-formedas a survivalstrategyof
destabilizedpopulations.Thusthe maintenanceof multi-ethnicexchange
networksappearsto be criticalin the regionduringperiodsof population
stress.
Missionizationeffortsof theJesuitstook placewithinthe contextof a
collapsingdemographicstructureandthe simultaneouseruptionof inter-
grouphostilities,particularlyalongmajorwaterways.It was thesefactors
with which theJesuitshadto contend,andthatled to the severedestabili-
zationof the regionalinteractionsystem.Intothevoid createdby destabili-
zation, the Jesuitsreformulatedexchangenetworks,while creatingnew
linkagesthroughtradein salt, blowgun-dartpoison,and Europeangoods
suchas tools andglassbeads.Theselinkageswerelaterto be controlledby
traders.Wheremissionswerecreatedas a refugeagainstPortugueseslave
raiding,theywerealso criticalin the conflictbetweenSpainandPortugal.
Missionsservedto establishlimitsto Crownterritories.
Comparisonsof the impactof Jesuit missionizationin the Western
Amazon could be made with other areasof Amazoniain which Jesuits
worked, as well as those areasin which demographiccollapseoccurred
without the impositionof a significantcolonialenterprisesuch as that of
the Mainasmissions.The differingresponsesof the variouspeopleswith
whom theJesuitscameinto contactalso needfurthercomparativeanalysis
with attentionto how they reflectdistinctculturalprocessesat work.The
entrepreneurial focus of the Jesuitsmakesthis approachparticularlyap-
plicableto studiesof Jesuitmissionselsewherein the New Worldduring
the colonialperiod.Forexample,comparisonwithJesuitmissionsin Para-
I3z Mary-Elizabeth Reeve

guay and the Llanos de Moxos in Bolivia indicates that ecological factors
differentially affected the level of self-sufficiencyattained by the missions.
Conditions in Amazonia made large-scale cattle raising and agriculture
impossible. Reliance on trade networks was therefore all the more critical.
Comparisons between regions can offer insights, as well, into the dynamics
of conquest and cultural appropriation in general.
Through the window of long-distance trade networks we can glimpse
the framework within which shifts in intergroup relations take place. A
readily retrieved data set, such as that on economic exchange, allows us
to build from the historical documentation a framework from which more
intangible processes of interaction may be understood. Such an approach
could be useful for understandingpostcontact transformations in regional
relationships in areas outside Amazonia, such as the Andes, and coastal re-
gions into which Amazonian trade networks were linked. The framework
is the first step in an inquiry into the cultural dynamics through which
intergroup relationships are created and transformedover time.

Notes

Researchfor this paperwas fundedby grantsfrom the AmericanPhilosophical

Societyand the MellonFoundation:VaticanMicrofilmLibrary,St. LouisUniver-
sity.I gratefullyacknowledgethissupport.I wouldliketo thankNormanWhitten,
Jr.for his consistentencouragement in the pursuitof this research.I wish to thank
the participantsof the FifteenthSouthAmericanIndianconferenceat Bennington
Collegefor theirhelpfulsuggestionson an earlierdraftof this paper.In particu-
lar,I wish to thankGertrudeDole for herdetailedandinsightfulcommentaryon
both its formand content.JamesGibbhelpedgreatlywith his commentsand the
patienteditingof severaldrafts.Finally,suggestionsby reviewerswere helpfulin
strengtheningsome sectionsof the paper.
i Accordingto the Tupians'own account,as recordedby the Spanish,this mi-
grationwas a majorexodusin whichmanydiedfleeingPortugueseoppression.
TheseTupiexplainedto the Spanishthat theyhad beenlookingfor new land
and had foughtmanyenemiesalongthe way.Theycould not return,so were
forcedonward(Jimenezde la Espada1897:cxxxiii-cxxxiv).
z The Omaguaon the Napo were distinct from those on the Amazon.The
Omaguaof the UpperNapo-Coca Riverareaarereferredto in the historical
documents by various names, such as Sumagua (ARSII605), Arianas (Rumazo
I946: 70), Tapaca, Magua, and Eguata (Ortegon I577: fo. 8v). Napo Omagua
territoryextendedfromabovethe confluenceof the Rio Cocato a littlebelow
the confluenceof the Napo andMaran6n.
3 Jeverohere is synonymouswith Chebero,the classificationgivenby Steward
and Metraux(I963: 606). Jeverois writtenXeveroin earlydocuments,thus
the mission name La Concepci6nde los Xeveros.The Jeveroare not to be
confusedwith theJivaro,a Jivaroanpeople.
Regional Interaction in the Western Amazon I33

4 Jesuits were in the Napo area early, but with the notable exception of Father
Ferrer's ultimately fatal efforts in the Macas-Quijos region, particularly with
the Cofane, the Jesuits at this time remained in colonial centers. Only much
later did this region become part of the Jesuit missions of Mainas.
5 Soon after their arrival, the two Jesuit Fathers obtained from the governor
a general pardon for the Mainas Indians, as the Spanish had by then "exe-
cuted grave punishments and judged many." They proclaimed the pardon in
the Pastaza region, to which Cueva traveled, as well as in the city of Borja
(Figueroa 1904 [I66I]: 9-10). In this way, the Jesuits began to gain the favor
of indigenous peoples.
6 This situation sometimes produced serious conflicts. For example, in 1654,
another Spanish attempt at conquering the region was made, this time by Don
Martin de la Riva Herrera,the corregidorof Cajamarca.He began the conquest
by subjugating the Motilones and Tabalosos living near the Huallaga, founding
in their lands in I655 the city of Lamas. From there he went with Father Cueva
down the Huallaga, visiting several peoples, including the "Barbudos"(Mayo-
runa) and Aguano. In i656 he founded a Spanish settlement called Santander
on the Pastaza. Here Roamaina were brought into encomienda and suffered
such violent treatment that Father Cueva was impelled to travel to Lima to
request that Riva Herrera's commission be revoked. He was successful in his
appeal, even as the effects of this misadventurewere long felt on the Pastaza
(Jouanen 1941: 417-26; Golob I982: I69).
7 Fritz was a special target of the Portuguese because he ardently fought their
claim to the vast stretch of river occupied by the Omagua, Yurimagua, and
Aysuares. He wished Portugal to adhere to the original line as established in
the treaty of Tordesillas (I493) and reaffirmed again in Lisbon in I58I (Fritz
I922: 87). On a trip to Para (owing to illness) he had made a very detailed
map of the Amazon River (Ibid.: 143), undoubtably to facilitate the process of
establishing proper claims.
8 An early-eighteenth-centurydocument recorded that the Omagua were suffer-
ing at the hands of the Portuguese and no longer wanted to trade with them.
Many Omagua reacted by fleeing upriver, going to the mouth of the Napo
where a relic population settlement was formed five days upriver. All lived
in fear of the Portuguese. "If at the appearanceof the troppa [annual slaving
expedition], the Omagua flee in fear, it gives the Portuguese an opportunity
to seize them, and if they demonstrate any contrariness, to take them captive"
(ARSI ca. I700: fo. 71). The Omagua were reluctant to move further up the
Marafi6n owing both to former hostilities with the Cocama (ARSI 1620: fo.
33), and to fear that they would lose out on their important trade connection
to the Rio Negro and Orinoco for Europeantools.
9 The Jesuit missionaries soon learned to exploit the salt pools on the Cachiyacu
(salt river in Quichua), a tributary of the Huallaga (Zarate I904 [1739]: 386,
ARSI 1687: fo. 3). Along the ParanapuraRiver, a tributary of the Huallaga,
were found deposits of natural rock salt. Rock salt was also available on the
Huallaga at an outcrop above the [future] site of the Yurimaguas mission
(Magnin 1940 [1740]: 50). So successful was the Jesuit strategy here that Father
Rodriguez, dreaming of furtherexpansion, wrote in 1684 that the Lower Ama-
zonian Tupinamba trade with their neighbors for salt. He then stated that "if
[the location of the salt sources used by the allies of the Tupinamba] were dis-
I34 Mary-Elizabeth Reeve

covered,it wouldbe of greatuse for the conquestandpopulationof the River

[Amazon]" (Rodriguez 1684: 135).
io The Jesuit ManuelUriartedescribedthe trip from the Omaguamission as
follows: fifteenIndianswere sent in a largecanoe,takingtwo monthson the
Marafi6nand Huallagato Yurimaguas,and anotherten days upriverto the
Cachiyacu.These men also were chargedwith makingpurchasesin Lamas
such as tobacco,cloth, andsugar.Thesewerepurchasedin exchangefor local
productssuch as laurelwax, as well as items from Quito. Returningto the
missionin October,eachmangavethe missionaryone largepieceof rock salt
and two basketsof salt.The restwas theirsto keep.The salt tradewas suffi-
cientlyimportantthataround1760 thegovernment of Mainasattemptedto tax
it, demandingthat for each mansent, three"rocks"of salt, or threearrobas,
be depositedin the cabildoat La Lagunafor the governor,a demandthat the
Jesuits found scandalous (Uriarte I952 [1771] I: 143-44, i6i, z34).
11 ThePeba,Ticuna,andLamistasproducedblowgun-dart poisonthatwastraded
throughoutthe entireregion.The Ticunablowgun-dartpoison was the most
highly esteemed (Uriarte1952 [I771], I: 92-93).
iz In the i85os, the trade slowed because of border problems between Peru and
Ecuador,resumedaround1914, but finallystoppedbecauseof borderprob-
lems in 1941 (Oberem 1974: 354). Jouanen noted that after ca. 1870, the trade
routewas no longersafe.Napo Indiansstillpursuedit, butsuffered"nota few
offenses [injuries] and vexations from the Peruvians"(JouanenI977: 174).
13 Uriartedescribedthe Omaguatrekforturtleeggs.Eachyearat the appropriate
season, some fifteenor sixteenmen embarkedin canoesladenwith ten or so
tinajas(storagejars)andwentup to the beachesof the Ucayali.The turtleeggs
were gatheredfromthe beachesandsmashedin the canoes.The oil that came
to the surfacewas then collectedusinga conch shell and placedin the large
tinajas.This was then boiled in a cauldronand, with the additionof a little
salt, left to cool. Aftercooling,it was storedin the tinajas,the mouthof which
was sealedoverwith largeleaves.The menreturnedin fifteenor twentydays,
bringingalso some tinajasfilledwith babyturtles.Theseturtleswere kept in
pens, fed and fattened,and servedas a reserveproteinsource(Uriarte195z
[I77I], I: I4z).
14 The route from the Andes via the Bobonazato the Pastazawas occasion-
ally used by individualtravelers,as when the JesuitMagnintraveledto the
Marai6n in I744 (ARSI 1744), but it never became a major commercial link.
5I Forexample,wax was one of the productssoughtin commerce.Uriartewrote
that four old Indianmen were givenpermissionto leavethe missionfor two
weeks to collectwax. Foreverythreepoundsof wax they broughtback,they
receivedan axe or machete.Forone pound,they were providedwith a knife
(Uriarte I95z [1771], I: I60). Uriarte noted that the Indians had to walk sev-
eral weeks in the forestto gathertwo or threepoundsof wax. In this way he
defendedagainstaccusationsthattheJesuitsfoundthis a profitableenterprise.
"I havebeen eighteenyearsin the mission,and havebarelybeen able to send
to Quito, in someyears,two or threearrobas[of wax] with whichto purchase
something for the church" (Ibid. II: 132).
Regional Interaction in the Western Amazon I35

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