Background
Francisco Hermenegildo Tomás Garcés was born on April 12, 1738, at the Villa Morata del Conde in the kingdom of Aragon. He was the son of Juan and Antonia Maestro Garces.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
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Francisco Hermenegildo Tomás Garcés was born on April 12, 1738, at the Villa Morata del Conde in the kingdom of Aragon. He was the son of Juan and Antonia Maestro Garces.
Garcés's early education he received through the aid of an uncle, Mosen Domingo Garces, and at the age of sixteen, he took holy orders.
In 1763, at the age of twenty-five, Garcés was ordained a priest and became a candidate for admission to the College of Santa Cruz de Queretaro in Mexico, there to prepare for mission work among the Indians.
In 1768, he 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 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 Garces and another religious, Juan Diaz, 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, Garces returned to the Colorado, Anza passing on to Monterey.
In 1775, at the request of Anza, Garces was permitted by the viceroy to accompany the former on an expedition to California.
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.
In 1780, Garces and Juan Diaz, accompanied by an escort and a group of settlers, reached 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 Moneada, who had arrived at the Colorado, were put to death.
(This book was originally published prior to 1923, and rep...)
Catholic
Garcés was friendly to Garces and to the Spaniards and, hoping that he would be showered with gifts, entreated that missions and a presidio be established in his country.