Diary of Francisco Garcés

Exploratory Expedition, 1774


Note. The source used for the Spanish transcription of Garcés' 1774 diary did not include his entries for May, June, and July.


Monday, April 11, 1774 SP -- This establishment of San Gabriel has everything to make it one of the best in these provinces. We found the mission in extreme poverty, as is true of all the rest. The day when we arrived our provisions for the soldiers gave out, putting us in great need because of the scarcity here, and the account would be more melancholy if the news had not come that the frigate La Galicia had put in at San Diego. The missionary fathers were delighted at our arrival, and they succored us with what little they had. We were sorry on both sides, the fathers at having so little to give, either of animals or of provisions, and we at having brought nothing to relieve them of their want.

The commander and I decided to go to San Diego to make a personal effort to get provisions and a pilot to make observations, but the overflow of the river prevented acting on this plan, and so the pack train went for provisions. The river went down, and on Palm Sunday, after conference with the commander and Father Juan, I decided to go to San Diego in order to get what has been mentioned, and that the very reverend father might assist in the observation by the aid of a father in case a pilot could not be obtained. The commander told me that if the very reverend father president, Fray Junípero Serra, should come, he would send the pack train ahead, and that he would wait three days and afterward we should continue our journey to Monte Rey.

I set out for San Diego on the 27th and arrived on the morning of the 30th. On the 1st of April we dispatched the pack train, the corporal being ordered to spend a week in getting back to San Gabriel, because the mules had to return at once for provisions. The very reverend father president planned to set out on Monday, and for this reason he did not reply to the commander. The corporal reached San Gabriel in five days. The very reverend father president did not set out until Wednesday, the 6th, and I could return no earlier because there was no escort. Although we traveled in light order of marching, it rained on us for two days and the road was very bad, so we did not reach San Gabriel till the 11th.

Here we learned the decision of the commander, who doubtless through lack of animals and provisions and for other solid reasons determined to go in light order of marching to Monte Rey. He invited Father Juan Díaz to go with him, but knowing that the speed of the truly tireless commander, when he was on horseback, meant twenty or twenty-five leagues a day, he wisely excused himself; and I would have done the same, having no hope of returning by another road in order to send some useful reports to the government. I have been very sorry that advantage has not been taken of this occasion, so opportune for discovering the course of the San Francisco River, which I believe is connected with the Colorado, and both with some very large lakes or a water which is still and is very large, as the Gileños have told me. Likewise, I presume that the deserting soldiers or those who have sought them were near the Colorado River, for the Indians of the river told us that the people up the river had said so.

Since there was no certainty of the observation, in order that it might be made Father Juan and I agreed to go to San Diego to see if the chaplain of the frigate, who had remained, infirm, would lend the instrument and instruct Father Juan, who understands its principles and has good capacity. But the soldiers made many objections, and so Father Juan decided that he could make the observations by himself, going first to San Diego for the instruction and the instrument, thinking that perhaps the commander might arrange to have the Reverend Father Crespi accompany him on his return. And I, according to what the commander had ordered, decided to return with the troop and the rest of the pack train, the six soldiers and three servants remaining to come with the commander.

Wednesday, April 13, 1774 SP -- At three o'clock we set out over the same road, with the same turns. We halted at eight o'clock at night before reaching the arroyo of San Antonio.

Thursday, April 14, 1774 SP -- We saw some bears, and the soldiers killed one. We traveled the same road on which we had come, from seven in the morning until three in the afternoon, when we reached the Santa Ana River.

Friday, April 15, 1774 SP -- At four o'clock in the afternoon we set out to the east by a new and direct road, and at ten o'clock at night came to a pass which we called San Rafael, having traveled six leagues.

Saturday, April 16, 1774 SP -- Thinking that we might go by a direct road, we encountered a marsh or mire, because with the rains the water of the lake and the river San Joseph had greatly overflown. For this reason we wound around for more than a league and a half, and by a road close to the sierra we came to another bad stretch, where we halted and they carried over the packs on their shoulders. We saw a great many Indians, who were now less afraid than when we came. Among others came a very droll Indian singing a lively tune and with measured tread. Then, keeping the step, and taking the posture of one sitting on a low bench, he ended the song. All out of breath, he continued in plaintive key, still keeping the step, amusing us greatly. These Indians also use for their dance a calabash with pebbles inside, like the people of the river.

From six until twelve we traveled four leagues, a league and a half to the northeast and the rest to the southeast. We did not succeed in shortening the road because it was much more flooded than on going. At two in the afternoon the corporal of the mission of San Gabriel came to get a Christian boy who has heathen parents. He had joined us asking me to take him to see other lands, leaving his relatives and his natural and spiritual parents. This corporal and the experts said that this place of San Joseph was opposite Santa Margarita on the road to San Diego.

Sunday, April 17, 1774 SP -- We crossed another mire with great difficulty, and between half past eight in the morning and sunset we traveled eight leagues to the southeast, camping for the night in the canyon and arroyo of San Patricio, a little higher up than where we camped in going. I saw some stone instruments for cutting, and they gave me mescal and quelites. There was a dance in this manner: the Indian, as if in great distress, cried out, moving his arms and legs wildly and acting like a maniac, while a crouching woman made turns around him, and beckoned with her hands like our Spanish women. This tribe is of the same tongue as the Indians of San Gabriel, although they differ in some words, and in customs and dress they are the same as the mountain Cajuenches whom I have already described.

Monday, April 18, 1774 SP -- At one in the afternoon we began the journey, and by a straight route not at all miry, and without seeing the lake which we had seen on going in the valley of El Príncipe, at half past five o'clock we reached the entrance to the Pass of San Carlos, having traveled four and a half leagues to the southeast, although the last league was to the east-southeast. The men who are experienced in the road from San Diego to San Gabriel said that the valley of El Príncipe is close to San Juan Capistrano, and an opening is seen through which apparently there might be a good pass.

Tuesday, April 19, 1774 SP -- Because a horse had run away we did not start until nine o'clock. We descended through the pass and traversed the canyon, seeing many Indians, who regaled us with an abundance of mescal. The women now came down from the sierra with less fear than when we went, but after they had regaled us for a short time with chomites, cuentas, etc., an Indian shot an arrow at our fattest horse, wounding him, but we did not see who did it nor did we pay any attention to it. After night fell some Indians came and finished killing the same horse without making any other demonstration. The deed was done so quietly that the men on horseback did not see them, and it seems that it was committed through a hankering for meat. We reached Santa Catarina at half past three.

Wednesday, April 20, 1774 SP -- Because of what happened the day before we set out cautiously, but there was not the least disturbance. Following our own trail we reached the wells of San Gregorio at noon.

Thursday, April 21, 1774 SP -- We started at two o'clock in the afternoon, and, following our same trail, at half past nine at night we reached the little lake of San Sevastián, whose Indians heard us coming and welcomed us very joyously. They told us that they would take us out by a direct road.I would have liked to pasture the animals two days in San Gregorio or here, but the soldiers did not wish it. Indeed, my plan was first to send someone to examine the water holes and the road, to see if it could be improved and made permanently convenient. To this they replied that the riding animals were getting in bad condition and that the provisions were nearly exhausted.

Friday, April 22, 1774 SP -- We set out at three in the afternoon, going east, in sight of some low hills which lie somewhat between the plains and the sand dunes and which we kept on our right at a distance of about a quarter of a league. On the left we kept at a distance of about four leagues the chain of mountains which begins at the Yumas and runs to the northwest. Near San Sevastián it makes an opening somewhat larger than the one which we took to go to the Pass of San Carlos. Thus, between the range which ascends from the Gulf, which I suppose may be the California range, and one which begins in sight of San Sevastián, is the opening and pass which we have followed. And, according to appearances, between this Sierra Nevada which we have had on the right in this journey, and which reaches and passes beyond San Gabriel, and another which begins at the Yumas, there is another opening or pass. But as far as one can see this range which begins at the river always follows the same direction as the Sierra Nevada, in front of which it lies, and so either they join or else the valley between them is not very wide. And I believe, until the contrary is seen, that by that opening or pass which we have seen, or on the other side of the chain which today we have on our left, there ought to be a more direct road to Monte Rey.

We halted at seven in the afternoon, having gone a league and a half to the east, and the rest, which would be another two and a half leagues, to the southeast. At a league and a half from San Sevastián we saw another small water hole and a little tule. We called the place San Anselmo. The old man who guided us said that we ought to camp there, but the soldiers said that the journey ought to be divided, whereupon the old man stopped, and according to what was said by those who came behind, there was no way to make him go any farther. A young man came but after nightfall he said that we must halt because at nightfall he said that he did not know the roads. We halted and he fled.

Saturday, April 23, 1774 SP -- I wished to return to the lake of San Sevastián because, although we knew that we could go out to the carrizales and to the Pozo de las Angustias, yet I did not wish so much to go as to ascertain if there is a fairly good watering place between San Sevastián and Las Angustias or the well of La Alegría. But the soldiers said that the food was nearly exhausted and that if they returned their horses would not make it. Therefore we decided to go straight to Pozo de las Angustias. I released two soldiers to see if they could find a way around the sand dunes, and before night fell they explored the road well. This investigation was made in the afternoon.

In the morning of this same day we set out at half past five and traveled until nine o'clock, going three and a half leagues to the southeast; and in the afternoon we set out at half past three and traveled until three o'clock the morning to reach the Pozo de las Angustias, having covered more than eleven leagues and a half, because the pack animals were carrying scarcely any load and the riding animals are fat because they have pastured at San Gabriel. We traveled five leagues southeast by south-southeast and east-southeast, and the rest to the east. The Pozo de las Angustias had no grass, and so we went on to La Alegría, now by our old road. Water and pasture were very scarce here and so we went on to the first Carrizal; and since the animals were strong and there the water was bad and the pasturage scarce, we set out at sunset on the 24th by our old road, and arrived at midnight at the lake of Santa Olalla, having saved nineteen leagues solely from San Sevastián to Santa Olalla, by the short cut made on the return. And this road could be made even shorter. But I cannot say with certainty whether or not it is passable with pack trains, because to me the road from Sonóyta to the Colorado appeared bad, but some have said that it can be traveled, and so the countrymen will say whether this is good or bad, for to them credence must be given in this matter, although to me they have responded with some variety of opinion.

Monday, April 25, 1774 SP -- About three in the afternoon we set out from the lake and halted at another small one, where we had camped for the night on going. I carried a watch and a compass, otherwise I should have been lost. We heard sinister reports, because we did not understand the Indians, but having arrived near the junction of the rivers, today the 26th, we have learned what really happened. It is that the Indians came to say that the mountain Cajuenches killed us, and for this reason the soldiers and the muleteers went home taking most of the provisions, bundles, and boxes of tobacco, knives, and the riding animals, but we found here sixteen beeves, etc.

The Yuma Indians, as always, are famous for their coiffure, their games and other things which might be noted down, but there is no time for telling about them now, and it seems to me that in the first diary which I sent to my prelates I said something about these things. And I suppose that the commander and the Reverend Father Fray Juan Díaz will write at length about everything. Both have good diction and good handwriting, and so it will not be necessary in this diary, which only has the merit of referring in some parts to my former journeys.

Whoever reads the diary of the Jesuit Father Consag of Californias and sees that of my last journey will believe that I was in the neighborhood of the mouth of the Colorado River, and that the islands which form the river are those which I saw forming the river and the lakes, for when it overflows its banks the water runs into them and into the Agua Amarillo or the estuary. Until a few days ago I had not read the diary of this Jesuit, and then I came to know about this. Now, with the flood, the water of the river is red, but before the flood it is not red. Nor do I think that this river is as large as the Danube during the whole year, though reports of it had caused me to form an exaggerated idea of it. Likewise, during the preceding days the rains had been heavy and the rivers were in remarkably high flood, and as I went first to the Gila River and it was then running so high I expected to see in the Colorado an immeasurable river, but this was my mistake. Being ignorant of the location of the junction, and thinking that the Indians were deceiving me, I did not wish to affirm what I did not know for a certainty. Above all, I assure you that if I had known for certain that I had reached the junction of the rivers I should not have gone farther down, and so this ignorance was the reason for my having taken the trouble to go farther downstream.

Even though these Indians might have made way with the cattle and the provisions which we left in their keeping it would not have been surprising; indeed, how much more surprising it is that they behaved themselves well!

ESTIMATE OF LEAGUES
From Tubac to Caborca, fifty-two leagues.
From Caborca to Sonóyta, forty-eight leagues.
From Sonóyta to the junction of the rivers, fifty leagues.
From the junction going to San Gabriel one hundred and twelve leagues.

Tuesday, April 26, 1774 SP -- On the return we have come out to the lake of Santa Olalla in seventy-two leagues of travel, and by the same road one can come to San Pablo, and in this way we might improve it, just as it is possible to shorten the stretch of road between the Colorado and the watering place of San Sevastián.

From the junction of the rivers to the neighborhood of the disemboguement of the Colorado in the Gulf, by direct route, it must be somewhat more than forty leagues. During the rainy season the Agua Amarilla estuary, or lake, or river, or some arroyos which join it, come up about twenty-four leagues or somewhat more, from what I have seen in my journeys.

The expedition has been made without molesting or vexing the Indians. And although the governor of San Pablo or the Yuma captain of those villages wished to palm off on us the hoax and barbarity that he had killed the wife of one who had killed a stray mule, I believed it to be a fiction, especially since he was wearing the mule's shoes suspended from his neck and did not give them up. Some animals have died and the Indians have killed two. At least I have not learned of the death or theft of any others.

There is no doubt that all good proceeds from the goodness of God. But his Majesty makes use of his creatures, and so I think the good conduct which the commander has shown, bearing with the Indians, disciplining the soldiers gently, and respecting and sustaining the fathers, not only with what is necessary, but also with the presents, must have moved the divine mercy to the end that the expedition should be made peacefully, although with impossible equipment, and over bad roads until we arrived at a place where we found much grass. 'Tis true, there is fairly good grass on the river in some places, and its people in personal matters are joyful and friendly to the Spaniards; likewise the river people excel the mountain people in conveniences for planting crops. Especially near the sea, according to what I have seen, does the river excel in population.

And thus, I write this down and sign it on April 26, in the year 1774, near the junction of the rivers at San Dionisio.
FR. FRANCISCO GARCÉS (Rubric).

Wednesday, April 27, 1774 SP -- GARCES'S DIARY OF HIS DETOUR TO THE JALCHEDUNES

After the extraordinary courier set out with the reports of the expedition down to the 25th of last April, I continued my stay in the neighborhood of the junction of the Gila and Colorado rivers, awaiting the señor commander and the father companion. Their arrival was most welcome to me, for it enabled me to see made the observation which was so urgently charged and so much desired by the curious, and which would have been made at the mouth of the river and at other places if there had been an opportunity.

I do not wish to molest by repeating the story of our return up the Gila, for this has been told by the commander and Father Fray Juan Díaz. I will only say that if the Yumas are good the Opas are better, but this is not true of their lands, which, however, are good for planting all kinds of crops. I have observed this tribe very leisurely on one side of the river and the other, and it appears to me that they number no less than 2500 souls between Agua Caliente and the villages of La Pasión de Tucavi. They have two sites which are the best for founding missions. One is Agua Caliente; the other is San Simón y Judas de Uparsoytac, in whose neighborhood there are opportunities for tapping the river as much as might be wished.