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Agustín Quintana

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Missionary and Indian philologist, born at Antequera, the capital of Oaxaca, Mexico, about 1660; died at Oaxaca, 1734. He entered the Order of Preachers in that city in 1688, and was soon thereafter sent as missionary priest to the Mixe Indians of southern Oaxaca, among whom he laboured for twenty-eight years, mastering their difficult language to a degree never attained by any other white man. He was then appointed superior of the convent of Zacavila, but on account of broken health was soon afterward retired to the main convent at Antequera, where he devoted the rest of his life to writings in the Mixe language. This being the earliest publication in that language, in spite of age and infirmity, he made several journeys to Puebla, to supervise the making of several types. His most important work was a grammar and a series of articles on the principal articles of the Faith, under the title, "Institución cristiana, que contiene el Arte de la Lengua Mije etc." (Puebla, 1729). (See also MIXE INDIANS.)