Complex sentence: His primary importance was as a linguist: he developed a writing system for the Timucua language and in 1612 published the first book in an indigenous language of the Americas, a catechism in Spanish and Timucuan.
Split into simpler sentences: His primary importance was as a linguist: he developed a writing system for the Timucua language. In 1612 he published the first book in an indigenous language of the Americas, a catechism in Spanish and Timucuan.