The party consisted in all of nine persons. Besides the two priests there were Juan Pedro Cisneros, alcalde mayor of Zuñi, Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, capitan miliciano of Santa Fé, and five soldiers.[1] Having implored divine protection, on the day before named they took the road to Abiquiú, passed on to the Rio Chama, and on the 5th of August reached a point called Nieves, on the San Juan River, three leagues below the junction of the Navajo. Thence they passed down the north bank of the San Juan, crossing the several branches, until on the 10th they found themselves on a branch of the Mancos, some distance from the San Juan, and beyond the line of the present state of Colorado.[2] The 12th they camped on the north bank of the Rio Dolores, in latitude 38º 13',[3] and were there joined by two natives from Abiquiú, who had deserted their homes to follow the expedition.[4]
They now followed the general course of the Dolores[5] until the 23d, when they left the San Pedro, which flows into the Dolores near La Sal, and crossed
- ↑ ‘Don Joaquin Lain, vecino de la misma villa, Lorenzo Olivares de la villa del Paso, Lucrecio Muñiz, Andrés Muñiz, Juan de Aguilar y Simon Lucero.’ Diario, in Doc. Hist. Mex., ser. ii. tom. i. 378.
- ↑ At the beginning of the journey their route was identical with what was later known as the old Spanish trail from Santa Fé to Los Angeles. Their course was at first north-west, but shortly after passing Abiquiú it pointed due north into Colorado, then west, and again north-west into Utah, being about the same as was later called the old Spanish trail from Santa Fé to Great Salt Lake. Captain J. N. Macomb of the topographical engineers has surveyed and mapped essentially the same trail.
- ↑ Probably not so far north by some 40'.
- ↑ ‘Esta tarde nos alcanzaron un coyote y un genízaro de Abiquiú, nombrados el primero Felipe y el segundo Juan Domingo; por vagar entre los gentiles, se huyeron sin permiso de sus superiores del dicho pueblo, pretestando querer acompañarnos. No necesitábamos de ellos; mas por evitar las culpas, que ó por su ignorancia ó por su malicia podian cometer andando mas tiempo solos entre los yutas, si intentábamos que regresasen, los admitimos por compañeros.’ Diario, Doc. Hist. Mex., ser. ii. tom. i. 392.
- ↑ These streams are doubtless those emptying into the Colorado not far from its junction with the Bunkara. Latitude 39° 13' is here given, but that must be too high. Philip Harry, in Simpson's Explor., 490, says that up to the point first touched on the Dolores the priests' path and Macomb's survey are identical, but that they here diverge.
Mexique, au Pérou, et sur la rivière des Amazones, on est étonné de voir que depuis deux siècles cette même nation n'a pas su trouver un chemin de terre dans la Nouvelle-Espagne, depuis Taos au port de Monterey.’ Essai Pol., i. 317.
