Diary of Padre Fray Francisco Garcés, 1775

October 21 - December 4

Diary kept by Padre Fray Francisco Garcés, son of the College of the Holy Cross of Querétaro, on the journey that he made in the year 1775 (and 1776) by command of the Most Excellent Señor Don Fr. Antonio Maria Bucareli y Vrsua, lieutenant-general, viceroy, governor, and captain-general of this New Spain, made known by his letter of 2d of January of the same year, determined in the council of war held at Mexico on the 28th of November of the preceding year, and likewise ordered by the Reverend Padre Fray Romualdo Cartagena, guardian of said college, by letter of 20th of January of '75, and by his successor the Reverend Padre Fray Diego Ximenez letter of 17th of February of the same year; in which I am ordered, together with another religious, to join Lieutenant-Colonel Don Juan Bautista de Ansa and the Reverend Padre Fray Pedro Font, who go to the Puerto de San Francisco; and accompanying them to the Rio Colorado, there to wait their return with the companion that I may have with me; and in the meanwhile to examine the country, treat with the neighboring nations, and investigate the animus and adaptability (el animo y disposicion) of the natives for the catechism and vassalage of our sovereign.

Preliminary Remarks.: This Diary is accompanied by a map, which P. F. Pedro Font has made with the greatest care, I being present to give him at least all those notes from the Diary which could serve to the end that it should prove correct. The observations, courses, and distances that I give, as far as Laguna de Santa Olalla, are the same as those that are given in his diary and map by the said Font, in whose company I went to the Rio Colorado, and whom I met again at said laguna. The rest I made with the quadrant furnished me by said padre; but through my lack of practice they cannot come out exact. On the map is found the route marked with dots, with numbers of the jornadas for greater clearness; as also are conspicuous the nations, and the names thereof, with smaller dots, in order that may be better understood their location and the direction in which it extends; though it is true that this is to some extent based only on prudent estimates. Having seen such a variety of nations, their respective friendships, hostilities, and commerces, though not at one and the same time; and inasmuch as, through what was said to me in some of them and what I saw in others, I learned in one nation what had not been told me in another; it has seemed to me proper to give separate notices of them all at the end of the diary; and, by bringing together all the information acquired, to show the connection of every nation with all the others which are the dominant ones, which are friendly, which are hostile; their commerces, and the extent of such; and finally, as a consequence of all this, to set forth the means which experience has shown me to be the best to the end of entirely subduing the Apache nation and of facilitating the communication of Monte-Rey and of New Mexico with these Provinces.

Agreeably to orders, Padre Fray Tomás Eisarc was designated as my companion. Foreseeing that I could not explain myself better to the Indians than with images of the kind most familiar to their sight, I determined to carry a linen print of Maria Santisima with Niño Dios in her arms, having on the other side the picture of a lost soul. In all the entradas I have made among the gentiles I have observed that the divine crucifix which I wore on my breast caused their devotion; they adored it, and confessed to me that it was a good thing, as will be seen beyond.