Chapter I.
Discoveries of the Spaniards.
1540-1777.

Francisco Vazquez De Coronado at Cíbola — Expedition of Pedro De Tobar and Father Juan De Padilla — They Hear of a Large River — García Lopez De Cárdenas Sent in Search of It — The First Europeans to Approach Utah — Route of Cárdenas — Mythical Maps — Part of the Northern Mystery — Journey of Dominguez and Escalante — the Course They Followed — The Rivers They Crossed — the Comanches — Region of the Great Lakes — Rivers Timpanogos, San Buenaventura, and Others — the Country of the Yutas — Route From Santa Fé to Monterey — the Friars Talk of the Lake Country — Return of the Spaniards to Zuñi and March to Santa Fé.

    As Francisco Vazquez de Coronado was journeying from Culiacan to the north and east in 1540, he rested at Cíbola, that is to say Zuñi, and while waiting for the main army to come forward, expeditions were sent out in various directions. One of these, consisting of twenty men under Pedro de Tobar, and attended by Father Juan de Padilla, proceeded north-westward, and after five days reached Tusayan, or the Moqui villages, which were quickly captured. Among other matters of interest, information was here given of a large river yet farther north, the people who lived upon its banks being likewise very large.

    Returning to Cíbola, Tobar reported what had been said concerning this river; whereupon Captain García Lopez de Cárdenas was sent with twelve men to explore it, Pedro de Sotomayor accompanying to

    'Comme don Pédro de Tobar avait rempli sa mission, il revint sur ses pas et rendit compte au général de ce qu'il avait vu. Celui-ci fit partir sur-le-champ don Garci-Lopez de Cardenas et douze autres personnes pour aller visiter cette rivière; cet officier fur très-bien reçu et parfaitement traité par les indiens de Tusayan, qui lui donnèrent des guides pour continuer sa route. Nos soldats partirent chargés de vivres, les indiens les ayant avertis qu'il fallait traverser un désert de vingt journées de long avant d'entrer dans un pays habité. Après ces vingt journées de marche ils arrivérent en effet á cette rivière, dent les bords sont tellement élevés qu'ils croyaient être á trois ou quatre lieues en l'air. Le pays est couvert de pins bas et rabougris; il est exposé au nord, et le froid y est si violent, que, quoique l'on fût en été, ou pouvait á peine le supporter. Les Espagnols marchèrent pendant trois jours le long de ces montagnes, espérant toujours trouver une descente pour arriver ne paraissait pas avoir plus d'une brasse de large, la rivière qui, d'en haut, et qui, selon les Indiens, avait plus d'une demi-lieue; mais il fut impossible de s'y rendre. étant parvenus deux ou trois jours après dans un endroit où la descente leur parut plus facile, le capitaine Melgosa, Juan Galeras et un soldat qui étaient les plus légers de la bande, résolurent de faire une tentative. Ils descendirent jusqu'á ce que ceux qui étaient restés en haut les eussent perdus de ven. Ils revinrent vers les quatre heures du soir, disant qu'ils avaient trouvé tant des difficultés, qu'ils n'avaient pu arriver jusqu'en bas; car ce qui d'en haut semblait facile, ne l'était pas du tout quand en approchait. Ils ajoutèrent qu'ils étaient parvenus á environ un tiers de la descente, et que de là, la rivière paraissait déjà très grande, ce qui confirmait ce que les indiens avaient dit. Ils assurèrent que quelques rochers que l'on voyait d'en haut, et qui paraissait à peine de la hauteur d'un homme étaient plus hauts que la tour de la cathédrale de Séville. Les Espagnols cessèrent (cont.)

through a desert country until he discovered the river, but from such high banks that he could not reach it. It was the river called the Tizon, and it flowed from the north-east toward the south-west. It seemed to the Spaniards when they first descried it that they were on mountains through which the river had cut

    As soon as Don Pédro de Tobar had fulfilled his mission, he returned and gave the general an account of what he had seen. The latter immediately ordered Don Garci-Lopez de Cárdenas, and 12 other persons, to go and visit that river; this officer was well received and politely treated by the Indians of Tusayan, who furnished him with guides to continue his journey. Our soldiers departed loaded with provisions, the Indians having notified them that it was necessary to travel 20 days through a desert before entering any inhabited country. After this 20 days march, they arrived at that river whose banks are of such a height that it seemed to them that they were three or four leagues up in the air. The country is covered with low and stunted pines, exposed to the north, and the cold is so violent that, although it was summer, one could hardly endure it. The Spaniards during three days skirted those mountains, always in the hope of finding a descent to reach the river, which from above appeared to be no more than a fathom in width, and which, according to the Indians, was more than half a league wide; but all their efforts were vain. Two or three days later, they arrived at a place where the descent seemed easier; Captain Melgosa Juan Galeras and a soldier who were the lightest men of the band, resolved to make an attmept. They descended until those who had remained on the top had lost sight of them. They returned at about four o'clock in the afternoon, saying they had found so many difficulties that they could not reach the bottom; for, what seemed easy from above was not at all so when approaching the water. They added that they came down about one third of the descent, and that even from there the river seemed very large. This statement confirmed what the Indians had said. The three men affirmed that some rocks seen from above and which appeared to he of the height of a man, were higher than the tower of the cathedral of Seville. The Spaniards stopped following the rocks that bordered the river on account of the lack of water. Until then, they had been obliged to advance one or two leagues in the interior to find (cont.)

a chasm only a few feet wide, but which if they might believe the natives was half a league across. In vain for several days, with their faces toward the south and west, they sought to escape from the mountains that environed them, and descend to the river, for they were suffering from thirst. At length

    The other is from a relation by an unknown author, found in the archives of the Indies, and printed in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiv. 321-3, under title of Relacion del suceso de la Jornada que Francisco Vazquez hizo en el descubrimiento de Cíbola, and from which I give the extract covering the same incident:

    'Vuelto D. Pedro de Tobar, é dada relacion de aqueños pueblos, luego despachó á D. García Lopez de Cárdenas, maestre de campo, por el mesmo camino que habia venido D. Pedro, é que pasase de aquella provincia de Tuzan, al Poniente, é para ida é vuelta de la jornada é descobrimiento, le señalo ochenta dias de término de ida é vuelta, el qual fué echado adelante de Tuzan con guias de los naturales que decian que habia adelante, poblado, aunque lejos, andadas cincuenta leguas de Tuzan al Poniente, 6 ochenta de Cíbola, halló una barranca de un rio que fué imposible por una parte ni otra hallarle baxada para caballo, ni aun para pié, sino por una parte muy traba-xosa, por donde tenia casi dos leguas de baxada. Estaba la barranca tan scantillada de peñas, que apenas podian ver el rio, el cual, aunque es segun dicen, tanto ó mucho mayor que el de Sevilla, de arriba aparescia un arroyo; pot manera que aunque con harta diligencia se buscó pasada, é por muchas partes no se halla, en la cual estuvieron artos dias con mucha necesidad de agua, que no la hallaban, é la del rio no se podian aprovechar della aunque la vian; é á esta causa le fué forzado á don Garcia Lopez volverse á donde hallaron; este rio venia del Nordeste é volvia al Sur Sudueste, por manera que sin falta ninguna es aquel donde Ilegó Melchor Diaz.'

    Don Pedro de Tobar having returned, and having made a report concerning those towns, D. García Lopez de Cárdenas, maestre de campo, was ordered to take the same route by which Don Pedro had come, and to go on from the province of Tuzan to the westward. He was given 80 days in which to make the journey, from his departure until his return. He went on beyond Tuzan, accompanied by Indian guides, who told him that farther on there was a settlement. Having gone 50 leagues to the westward of Tuzan, and 80 from Cíbola, he came to the cañon of a river adown the side of which there was no descent practicable for home, nor even for those on foot, except (cont.)

one morning three of the lightest and most active of the party crept over the brink and descended until they were out of sight. They did not return till toward evening, when they reported their failure to reach the bottom, saying that the river, and distances and objects, were all much larger than they seemed to the beholder above, rocks apparently no higher than a man being in fact larger than the cathedral at Seville. Compelled by thirst they retired from the inhospitable stream, and finally returned to Tusayan and Cíbola.

    Thus the reader will be able to determine the matter for himself as clearly as may be. For details on Coronado's expedition see the following authorities, (cont.)

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    A more extended and pronounced exploration was that of two Franciscan friars, one the visitador comisario

³Probably it was the San Joaquin, or the Sacramento, of which they heard. Concerning a route from New Mexico to California Humboldt says: 'En considerant les voyages hardis des premiers conquerans espagnols au (cont.)

    They now followed the general course of the Dolores⁸ until the 23d, when they left the San Pedro, which flows into the Dolores near La Sal, and crossed

⁴Don 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.

⁵At 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.

⁶Probably not so far north by some 40'.

⁷Esta 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 intentabamos que regresasen, los admitimos por compañeros.' Disrio, Doc. Hist. Mex., ser. ii. tom. i. 392.

⁸These 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.

Not far from their path was a ranchería of Yutas, which the Spaniards visited, endeavoring to obtain guides to the land of the Timpanogos, Timpangotzis, or Lagunas, where they had been told to look for Pueblo towns.

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A Laguna guide was there, but the Yutas did all in their power to dissuade the explorers

¹⁰Called by the Yutas Tomiche; to-day Grand River. It may here be observed that the route toward this region had been visited by Spaniards before, notably by Juan María de Ribera in 1761, and Spanish names had been given to places, though the present Utah was probably not entered by him. Escalante states that the San Javier is formed by four small streams coming in above the point at which he crossed, and these, says Harry, Simpson's Explor., 490, correspond 'remarkably with the Uncompagre River, Grand River, Smith's Fork, and another large fork…It seems evident that after crossing the San Xavier he follows up stream a different fork from what we call Grand River, but which fork he calls the main river, or San Xavier.' Gunnison maps his explorations, showing the mouth of this last named stream. In Simpson's Explor., 489, is given a map of the present expedition, but it does not conform in every particular to Escalante's text.

    From this point they proceeded westward, following up the Uintah, across the Duchesne, and over the mountains, with no small difficulty, to a river which they called Purísima,¹⁵ and which they followed till on the 23d they came in sight of the lake which the natives called Timpanogos, but which is known now as Utah Lake.

    Several reasons combined to bring the Spaniards so far to the north of what would be a direct road

¹²White River, the point of crossing being near the Utah line.

¹³Green River. The latitude given is at least 50' too high. The crossing was above the junctions of White River and the Uintah with Green River. See Rep. Fr. Alonso de Posada, custodio de N. Mex., in Doc. Hist. Mex., i. 439.

¹⁴This is the north branch of the Uintah. Indeed the narrative of the explorers makes their route in this vicinity unmistakable.

¹⁵Now the Timpanogos. 'Proseguimos al noroeste media legua, pasamos á la otra bands del rio, subimos una corta cuesta y divisamos la laguna y dila-tado valle de Nuestra Señora de la Merced de los Timpanogotzis—así lo nom-bramos desde aquí.' Diario, Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. i. 454.

    However this may have been, they were now of opinion that they had penetrated far enough in a northerly direction, and from this point must take a southerly course. There were here no town builders like the Moquis and Zuñis, as the priests had been led to suppose, but there were wild Indians, and the first they had seen in this vicinity. At first these savages manifested fear, but when assured that the strangers had not come to harm them, and were in no way leagued with the dreaded Comanches, they welcomed them kindly and gave them food. They were simple-minded and inoffensive, these native Yutas, very ready to guide the travellers whithersoever they would go; but they begged them to return and establish a mission in their midst; in token of which, and of their desire to adopt the Christian faith, they gave the priests a kind of hieroglyphic painting on deerskin.¹⁶

    Then the Spaniards talk of the country, and of the people about them.

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They are in the valley and by the lake of Nuestra Señora de la Merced de los

¹⁸There is no difficulty in recognizing these land-marks, the Uintah Mountains, the San Buenaventura, or Green River; and in the four streams of the valley, their Aguas Calientes is Currant Creek; the second, their San Nicolás, though more than three leagues from the first, and not corresponding in every other particular, is the Spanish River; the San Antonio is the Provo; and the Santa Aria, the River Jordan.

    The Spaniards are further told by the Yutas of a large and wonderful body of water toward the northwest, and this is what Father Escalante reports of it. "The other lake, with which this communicates," he says, "occupies, as they told us, many leagues, and its waters are injurious and extremely salt; because the Timpanois²⁰ assure us that he who wets any part of his body with this water, immediately feels an itching in the wet part. We were told that in the circuit of this lake there live a numerous and quiet nation, called Puaguampe, which means in our language Sorcerers; they speak the Comanche language, feed on herbs, and drink from various fountains or springs of good water which are about the lake; and they have their little houses of grass and earth, which latter forms the roof. They are not, so they intimated, enemies of those living on this lake, but since a certain time when the people there approached and killed a man, they do not consider them as neutral as before.

²⁰Yet another form for the name Timpanogos, as indeed before the end of the following page we have 'Timpanosis,' 'Timpanogotzis,' and 'Timpanogo.' See note 17 this chapter. On Froisett's map, published at Salt Lake City in 1875, is the ' Provo, or Timponayas' river.

    Continuing their journey the 26th of September with two guides, the Spaniards bend their course south-westwardly in the direction of Monterey, through the Sevier lake and river region, which stream they call Santa Isabel. The 8th of October they are in latitude 38° 3' with Beaver River behind them. Passing on into what is now Escalante Valley they question the natives regarding a route to the sea, and as to their knowledge of Spaniards in that direction. The savages know nothing of either. Meanwhile winter is approaching, provisions are becoming low, the way to the sea must be long and difficult; therefore the friars resolve to abandon the attempt; they will continue south, turning perhaps to the east until they come to the Colorado, when they will return to Santa Fé by way of the Moqui and Zuñi villages.

    Some of the party object to this abandonment of

    Mr Harry is evidently not very thoroughly versed in the Spanish language, or his manuscript copy of Escalante's journey is defective. For example he translates echizeros—which being old Spanish he could not find in his modern dictionary—'throwers or slingers' when the word "witches,' or rather 'sorcerers' is clearly implied. Again he queries sacate, not knowing its meaning—a common enough Mexican word, formerly written zacate, and signifying hay or grass. For further inaccuracies see his summary in Simpson's Explor., 494. Warren, Pacific Railroad Report, xi. 35, examined the same copy of Escalante's narrative, then in the Peter Force library, which was used by Harry.