APPENDIX R. 



THE JOURNEYINGS OF FATHER ESCALANTE, FROM SANTA FE TO UTAH L 



The original manuscript journal of Padre Escalante is said to be in the archives 

 of the city of Mexico. A manuscript copy is in the possession of Peter Force, esq., 

 of Washington, D. C, to whom I am indebted for the inspection and use of it. Below 

 is a summary of the narrative. 



On the 29th of July, 1776, F. Francisco Atanacio Dominguez and F. Francisco 

 . SilvestreVelez Escalante, accompanied by seven or more other persons, left Santa Fe, X. 

 Mex., crossed the Rio del Norte at the pueblo of Santa Clara, and followed, by way 

 of Abiquiu and the Rio Chama, what is now known as the "Spanish Trail." This is 

 the great route from Santa Fe to Los Angeles, Cal , &c. 



I have not had time to translate his journal, and plot in detail his route from 

 Santa Fe to where he struck the Rio Dolores, but- have examined it sufficiently to 

 satisfy mvself that he followed almost exactly the same route that Capt. J. N. Macomb, 

 Topographical Engineers, lately traveled over, and which the latter has surveyed and 

 mapped. Up to this point on the Rio Dolores, both Escalante and Captain Macomb 

 were on, or at least close to, the "Spanish Trail," crossing the Rios Navajo, San Juan, 

 las Piedras, Florido, Las Animas, La Plata, Los Mancos, &c, at or near the same places. 



The point above alluded to on the Rio Dolores is so remarkable that there can be 

 no question of its identity. The river rises in the Sierra la Plata, and flows south- 

 westerly until it reaches this point, whence it makes a sudden bend at a very acute 

 angle, and runs in a direction not many degrees west of north until it falls into Grand 

 River. At the sudden bend above mentioned there are also some extensive and inter- 

 esting ruins of an ancient Indian pueblo, which are pointedly adverted to both by 

 Escalante and Captain Macomb. Here the routes of Escalante and of Captain 

 Macomb diverge, and Escalante follows the Dolores for many leagues down stream. 

 Then leaving it and going northeasterly, he comes upon a small stream, which he calls 

 the San Pedro, and which falls into the Dolores a few leagues to the westward; he 

 follows it up stream for a short distance, and then taking a still more easterly course 

 gets on to the Rio Francisco (so called by him), a considerable affluent of the San 

 Xavier (Grand River), and which enters the latter some ten leagues to the north. He 



