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EXPLORATIONS FROM A. D. 1832 To A. D. 1844. 35 
Now, this description does not, in any particular, correspond with the Great Salt lake; and, 
if it was told by the savages to the Baron, might, with as much if not far greater propriety, 
be considered as referring to the Pacific ocean, with the Columbia flowing into it. 
The story of La Hontan excited much speculation and received various additions in his day; 
and the lake finally became represented on the published English maps of as late date as 1826 
(see Plate III) as being the source of two great navigable rivers flowing into the South Sea. 
Here it was that historians supposed the Aztecs were located before their migration to Mexico. 
Father Escalante, in 1776, travelled from near Santa Fé, New Mexico, in a northwesterly 
direction, to the Great Colorado. After crossing it and passing to the southwest through the 
country near its western bank, he turned again to the southeast, recrossed the stream, and 
proceeded to the Gila. During this journey he probably was in the vicinity of Utah lake. 
He there met with Indians who told him of a lake to the north whose waters produced a 
burning sensation when they touched the skin.* This lake was perhaps the Great Salt lake; 
and its property of making a burning sensation when applied to the skin was probably the 
effect of the strong solution of salt which it contains. This lake was not visited by Father 
Escalante; and that which he represents on his map, and which is copied on Humboldt’s New 
Spain as Lake Timpanogos, was probably what is now called Lake Utah, into Which’ a stream 
flows called by the Indians Timpanogos river. 
Being convinced that, down to the days of the American trappers, the Great Salt lake had 
never been seen by white men, nor definite knowledge about it obtained, I addressed a letter 
to Robert Campbell, esq., of St. Leuis, a gentlemen well known for یس سب‎ arie nerds "- the 
early Rocky mountain fur trade. The mE i is his reply: 
"Sr. Louvis, April 4, 1857. 
“DEAR Sm: Your favor of the 25th ultimo reached me at a very fortunate period to enable 
me to give you a satisfactory reply to your inquiry as to who was the first discoverer of the 
Great Salt lake. It happened that James Bridger and Samuel Tullock both met at my 
counting-room after a separation of eighteen years, and were bringing up reminiscences of 
the past when your letter reached me. I read it to them, and elicited the following facts: 
k TES A of gens. trappers who chad ascended the à Mippouri with Henry and Ashley found 
the water, o on his return reported his discovery. The fact of the water being salt induced 
the belief that it was an arm of the Pacific ocean; but, in the spring of 1826, four men went in 
skin boats around it to discover if any streams containing beaver were to be found emptying 
into it, but returned with indifferent success. - 
‘ went to the Willow or Cache valley in the spring of 1826, and found the party just 
returned from their exploration of the lake, and recollect their report that it was withoat any 
outlet. 
“Mr. Tallock corroborates in every respect the statement of James Bridger, and both are men 
? I have, by the assistance of Mr. Moreno, of the Spanish enin, examined a manuscript amr of this journey of 
Escalante, now in Colonel Force’s library. 
