Pageant in the Wilderness

Book excerpt: Father Escalante, who was born in Treceno, Cantabria, Spain around 1750, became a Franciscan in the Convento Grande in Mexico City at the age of 17. In 1774, he came to present-day New Mexico in the Mexican province. He was first stationed at Laguna pueblo and then in January 1775 assigned as a minister to the Zuni. In June 1776, he was summoned by Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez, who had arrived in Santa Fe on March 22, 1776, for the expedition to California and remained in New Mexico for two years following the expedition. Father Escalante died at the age of 30 in April 1780 in Parral, Mexico, during his return journey to Mexico City for medical treatment. Author Herbert Eugene Bolton, who was well-known for his books on the Southwest and Spanish Americas, here recounts in detail the story of Father Silvestre Velez de Escalante on his expedition to the Interior Basin in 1776. Bolton also includes translations of Father Escalante’s expedition itinerary and personal journal, in which Escalante described the expeditions he went on. He also includes a translation Bernardo Miera y Pacheco’s report to the King of Spain dated October 26, 1777, as well as two maps. “This dynamic story of Father Escalante’s trek into the Great Basin, by Dr. Herbert E. Bolton, represents the results of a long lifetime of interest, writing, and exploration in Spanish activities in the great Southwest.”—Preface