On The Third Of These, He Followed The Course Of The Gila Down
To The Colorado River, And Descended Along Its Banks, Possibly As Far As
Its Mouth.
His fourth journey was with the intrepid Captain Juan Bautista
de Anza, when he set forth in 1774.
To discover a road from the missions
already established in Northern Mexico, over the then unknown Arizona and
Colorado deserts, to the new missions of California. The road was
discovered and, in spite of its hardships, deemed feasible, for in
1775-1776 De Anza went over it again, accompanied by the band he had
gathered together for the establishment of a Spanish colony at San
Francisco. His chaplain on this occasion was Padre Pedro Font. Fray Garces,
a fellow Franciscan, also went along as far as the Colorado River. Here he
left the party, journeyed down the Colorado to the Gulf, returned to the
Mohaves, then crossed the Colorado Desert to San Gabriel Mission in
California, back again to the Mohaves, and finally across the Arizona
desert to the province of Tusayan, the land of the Hopis.
Havasupais Guide Garces to the Hopi Towns. It was on June 4,
1776 - memorable year in American annals - that Garces started under the
guidance of some Wallapais for the Hopi towns. They had given him fair
details of the country he would have to travel over. Passing by their own
home in Diamond Creek (one of the earliest approaches to the Grand Canyon),
he decided to visit the Havasupais, whom he calls Yabesuas.
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