a
route to Monterey, unaware that Garces had just traversed, next to
that of Onate, the most practicable short route to be found. Garces had
written to Escalante, ministro doctrinero of Zuni, a letter from Oraibi,
but as the ministro had already departed for Santa Fe, leaving Fray
Mariano Rosate in charge at Zuni, the letter probably did not reach him
till his return. The northern country, notwithstanding several small
entradas and the considerable one of Juan Maria Ribera in 1761, who went
as far as Gunnison River, was still a terra incognita, and the distance
to the Pacific was also an uncertain quantity. Escalante believed a
better road existed to Monterey by way of the north than by the middle
route, and a further incentive to journey that way was probably the
rumours of large towns in that direction, the same will-o'-the-wisp
the Spaniards for nearly three centuries had been vainly pursuing. The
authorities had urged two expeditions to Alta California, to establish
communication; Garces and Captain Anza had carried out one, and now
Escalante was to execute the other.

* H. H. Bancroft gives a map of the route as he understands it,
History of the Pacific States, p. 35, vol. xxv., also a condensation
of the diary. Philip Harry gives a condensation in Simpson's Report,
Appendix R., p. 489. Some river names have been shifted since Harry
wrote. What we call the Grand, upper part, was then the Blue.

Besides the ministro Escalante, there were in the party eight persons,
Padre Francisco Dominguez, Juan Pedro Cisneros, alcalde of Zuni,
Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, capitain miliciano of Sante Fe, Don Juan Lain,
and four other soldiers. Lain had been with Ribera and was therefore
official guide. They went from Sante Fe by way of Abiquiu and the Chama
River to the San Juan about where it first meets the north line of New
Mexico, and thence across the several tributaries to the head of the
Dolores River, which they descended for eleven days. I am at a loss to
exactly follow the route, not having been able to consult either the
copy or the original of Escalante's diary. The party made its way across
Grand River, the Book Plateau, White River, and finally to the Green,
called the San Buenaventura, which was forded, apparently near the foot
of Split-Mountain Canyon. Here they killed one of the bisons which were
numerous in the valley. Following the course of the river down some ten
leagues, they went up the Uinta and finall