CHAPTER IV 
Onate, 1604, Crosses Arizona to the Colorado—A Remarkable Ancient Ruin Dis¬ 
covered by Padre Kino, 1694—Padre Garces Sees the Grand Canyon and 
Visits Oraibi, 1776—The Great Entrada of Padre Escalante across Green 
River to Utah Lake, 1776—Death of Garces Ends the Entrada Period, 1781. 
I N the historical development of the Basin of the Colorado 
four chief epochs are apparent. The discovery of the 
river, as already outlined in previous chapters, is the first; sec¬ 
ond, the entradas of the padres; third, the wanderings of 
the trappers; and fourth, the expeditions of the explorers. 
These epochs are replete with interesting and romantic incidents, 
new discoveries; starvations; battles; massacres; lonely, dan¬ 
gerous journeys, etc., which can only be touched upon in a 
volume of the present size. Dr. Coues placed the diary of 
Garces, one of the chief actors of this great four-act life-drama, 
in accessible shape, and had not his lamented death interfered 
he would have put students under further obligation to him. 
Preliminary to the entradas of the padres, Don Antonio de 
Espejo, in 1583, went from the Rio Grande to Moki and west¬ 
ward to a mountain, probably one of the San Francisco group, 
but he did not see the Colorado. Twenty-one years elapsed be¬ 
fore a white man again ventured into this region. In 1604, Don 
Juan de Onate, the wealthy governor of New Mexico, determ¬ 
ined to cross from his headquarters at the village of San Juan 
on the Rio Grande, by this route to the South Sea, and, 
accompanied by thirty soldiers and two padres, he set forth, 
passing west by way of the pueblo of Zuni, and probably not 
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