Francisco Hermenegildo Tomás Garcés

Background

Garcés was born on April 12, 1738 in Morata de Jalón, Spain, the son of Juan and Antonia Maestro Garcés.

Education

Garcés' early education he received through the aid of an uncle, Mosen Domingo Garcés, and at the age of sixteen he took holy orders. In 1763, at the age of twenty-five, he was ordained a priest and became a candidate for admission to the College of Santa Cruz de Querétaro in Mexico, there to prepare for mission work among the Indians.

Career

In 1768 Garcés was sent as a missionary to the Province of Sonora. His assignment was to San Xavier del Bac, the most northerly mission post and the one most exposed to attack by the Apaches. From this post between 1768 and 1774 he made four expeditions (entradas) to points along the Gila and Colorado Rivers. His first and second entradas (1768, 1770) took him among the Pimas and his third (1771) among the Yumas on the Colorado. On these expeditions he was convinced of the feasibility of reaching Upper California by routes from Sonora, which conviction was shared by the commander of the Presidio at Tubac, Juan Bautista de Anza. Accordingly in 1774, Anza, accompanied by Garcés and another religious, Juan Díaz, set forth with a military escort. The expedition proceeded to the Gila-Colorado junction and thence to the mission of San Gabriel in Upper California. From San Gabriel, Garcés returned to the Colorado, Anza passing on to Monterey. In 1775, at the request of Anza, Garcés was permitted by the viceroy to accompany the former on an expedition to California. On this expedition Garcés stopped on the Colorado and made from it important explorations. He descended the river to its mouth, returned up its course, and proceeded to San Gabriel. He next attempted to reach Monterey by a northerly route which took him past the modern Bakersfield to the vicinity of Tulare Lake, but returned to the Colorado River with the intention of proceeding to Moqui (Arizona). This he accomplished, and from Moqui retraced his course to the Colorado and thence went to his mission at San Xavier del Bac. The leader of the Indians at the Gila-Colorado junction was Salvador Palma. He was friendly to Garcés and to the Spaniards and, hoping that he would be showered with gifts, entreated that missions and a presidio be established in his country. In 1780 Garcés and Juan Díaz, accompanied by an escort and a group of settlers, reached the Colorado and began the founding of two pueblo missions, La Purísima Concepción and San Pedro y San Pablo de Bicuñer. The expected gifts, however, were not bestowed, and the Indians were grievously disappointed. On July 17 and 18, 1781, under Palma's leadership, the two pueblos were attacked, and Díaz, Garcés, and the Spanish commander of Upper California, Rivera y Moncada, who had arrived at the Colorado, were put to death.

Achievements

• Garcés explored much of the southwestern region of North America, including present day Sonora and Baja California in Mexico, and the U. S. states of Arizona and California.

Connections

Father:

Juan Garcés

Mother:

Antonia Maestro Garcés

References

• On the Trail of a Spanish Pioneer, Vol. 1 of 2: The Diary and Itinerary of Francisco Garcés (Classic Reprint)
• The Founding of Spanish California: The Northwestward Expansion of New Spain, 1687-1783 (Classic Reprint)
• A Record of Travels in Arizona and California, 1775-1776