Editing Mainas missions (section)

=== 17th century ===
[[File:Cours Du Fleuve Maragnon autrement dit Des Amazones.jpg|thumb|A map ({{Circa|1717}}) of the [[Marañón River|Marañón]] by [[Samuel Fritz]], who was superior of the Mainas missions in the early 18th century.]]
Two missionaries, then at [[Quito]], initially responded to Vaca's request for mission-founders: Father Lucas de la Cueva (known as Father Cueva) and Father Cujia.{{sfn|Markham|1859|p=xviii}} Fathers Cueva and Cujia arrived at [[Borja, Peru|Borja]] on 6 February 1638,{{Sfn|Markham|1859|p=xix}} not long after the city was founded in 1619.{{Sfn|Livi-Bacci|2016|p=426}}

Mission activity began in the area around [[Borja, Peru]] on the Marañon River and in the valley of the [[Huallaga River]] (a tributary of the Marañón).{{sfn|Newson|1995|p=307}} The Jesuits sought to 'induc[e]' indigenous peoples to settle in [[Jesuit reduction|reductions]], as opposed to their traditional modes of habitation and forms of government.{{Sfn|Livi-Bacci|2016|p=427}} This would have been a difficult assignment in the best of circumstances, coming as it did shortly after a violent rebellion. More so, because although the Jesuits would ultimately found 'dozens' of missions in the region, there were not many missionaries to go around.{{Sfn|Livi-Bacci|2016|p=427}} Nonetheless, by 1660, the Jesuits had 'catechized' around 10,000 people.{{Sfn|Reeve|1993|p=119}} Newson estimates that this was about 10–15 percent of the indigenous population in the region at the time.{{Sfn|Newson|1995|p=307}}

The missions were backed by colonial forces. The Jesuits travelled with soldiers, and the colonial governor would periodically send his forces on ''entradas''—a missionary's initial attempt to establish contact with those he sought to convert, using 'food and gifts' as inducement.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Crosby|first=Harry W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ewfAudJ_PX8C|title=Antigua California: Mission and Colony on the Peninsular Frontier, 1697–1768|date=1994|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|isbn=0-8263-1495-3|location=Albuquerque, New Mexico|pages=191|oclc=29310787}}</ref>

In 1689, Fritz began his descent down the Amazon River, entering by the area occupied by the Portuguese along the Solimões River, in the current state of Amazonas in Brazil. He founded the missions of Nossa Senhora de Guadalupe (current city of Fonte Boa, AM), São Paulo dos Cambebas (São Paulo de Olivença, AM), Castro de Avelães (Amaturá, AM), Santa Teresa do Tape (Tefé, AM) and Santana de Coari (Coari, AM), all on already identified Portuguese routes since 1660 (LOREIRO, 1978 apud
REZENDE, 2006, p.&nbsp;135).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Euzébio |first=Emerson Flávio |date=16 October 2020 |title=A GÊNESE DA FRONTEIRA OCIDENTAL DA AMAZÔNIA: AS CIDADES GÊMEAS TABATINGA (BRASIL) E LETICIA (COLÔMBIA) |trans-title=THE GENESIS OF WEST FRONTIER OF AMAZON: THE TWIN CITIES TABATINGA (BRAZIL) AND LETICIA (COLOMBIA) |url=https://www.seer.ufal.br/index.php/contextogeografico/article/download/10907/8129/0 |journal=Revista Contexto Geográfico |language=pt-br |volume=5 |issue=10 |doi=10.28998/contegeo.5i10.10907 |isbn=|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Reeve notes that the missionaries were largely dependent on 'indigenous guides and interpreters' in seeking out new fields for expansion: guides would bring the Jesuits to territories their people knew well, or with which their people were allied. She observes, then, that '[t]o a remarkable degree, the process of proselytization and mission formation followed indigenous alliance networks across the region'.{{Sfn|Reeve|1993|p=119}}