Este artículo examina las elaboraciones textuales de jesuitas españoles y portugueses en relación con el río Amazonas durante los siglos XVII y XVIII. Los jesuitas de las misiones de Maynas, establecidas entre diversos tributarios del río Amazonas, entendieron sus misiones como la mejor forma de garantizar el dominio español en la región. El fracaso de este modelo aproximó a los misioneros de Maynas a la visión de los jesuitas portugueses del Pará, entre ellos el padre João Daniel, que vieron el río Amazonas como una gran fuente de riqueza, base para una ocupación sustentada en el poblamiento y la agricultura.

This article examines texts on the Amazon River written by Spanish and Portuguese Jesuits during the 17th and 18th centuries. The Jesuits from the Maynas missions, established between the different tributaries of the Amazon River, understood their missions as the best way to guarantee Spanish domination in the region. The failure of this model brought the Maynas missionaries closer to the view of the Portuguese Jesuits from Pará, among them Father João Daniel, who saw the Amazon River as a great source of wealth and the basis for an occupation focused on settlement and agriculture.

Resgatar as diversas mudanças nas formas de sobrevivência e trabalho dos indígenas decorrentes do assentamento nas missões jesuíticas de Maynas no rio Maranhão é objetivo deste artigo. Isto será feito considerando tanto o contexto das pressões espanholas por mão-de-obra, como as negociações estabelecidas entre índios e missionários.

The aim of this article is to recover the several changes of indigenous people survival and work ways resulting from the base on the jesuitic Maynas missions at Maranhão river. This will be done by considering the context of the Spanish pressure for labor, as well as the negotiations between indigenous people and missionaries.

Este artigo examina a produção e troca de correspondência entre os missionários jesuítas do século XVI e seus superiores, resgatando o texto inaciano construído gradualmente nessa circulação de cartas entre Europa, Ásia e América. Nesse texto, recuperado nos Exercícios Espirituais, nas Constituições e nas cartas do santo, estariam as bases da definição de um método missionário para a redução do infiel à Fé católica.

This article deals with the making and exchange of letters between the Jesuit missionaries and their superiors in the sixteenth century. These letters circulating in Europe, Asia and America are based on Saint Ignacyo's writings, mainly the Spiritual Exercices, the Constitutions and his own letters. They are the bases of the missionary method for the convertion of the unfaithful to the Catholic religion.