SILVESTRE VELEZ DE ESCALANTE

Background

Silvestre Velez De Escalante was born in Spain and that he left there for New Spain in 1768.

Career

In the convent of San Francisco in Mexico City, on Febuary 5, 1769, he professed as a Franciscan.

For brief periods he served as a missionary in the province of Sonora and at the pueblo of Laguna, in New Mexico.

A preliminary report of the expedition was sent by Escalante to the Franciscan Provincial, Fray Ysidro Murillo, on August 18, 1775, and a clearer and more extended one on April 30, 1776.

In his reports Escalante gave interesting and valuable data concerning the seven Moqui pueblos.

Also he recommended that force be used to subjugate and convert the Moquis and that a presidio and a mission be established among them.

In letters addressed to Fray Murillo on May 6 and July 29, 1776, respectively, Escalante summarized earlier Christian activities among the Moquis and expressed a favorable opinion upon a proposed reconnaissance of the country between New Mexico and California.

After his letter of May 6, he was called to Santa Fe by Governor Mendinueta, and while there he drew a map of his journey to Moqui.

In company with eight soldiers and his superior, Fray Francisco Atanasio Dominguez, Escalante left Santa Fé on July 29, 1776.

A fall of snow on October 5, however, caused the party to abandon plans to cross the sierras and to return by way of the Colorado River, the Moqui pueblos, and Zuñi to Sante Fé, which was reached on January 2, 1777.

“The journey, ” says Bolton, “covered some 2, 000 miles, and lasted five months of almost continuous horseback travel.

Its memory is one of the historical treasures of four states—New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona” {post).

Also an excellent diary of the expedition was kept by Escalante and was signed jointly by himself and Fray Dominguez.

A map of curious interest accompanying the diary was drafted by a member of the expedition, Capt. Bernardo Miera y Pacheco.

Two years later, Escalante, in a notable letter addressed to his superior, Fray Agustín Morfi, gave a summary, based upon extracts of documents then in the Santa Fé archives, of the Pueblo Indian rebellion of 1680 and of events prior to the reconquest of the province by Vargas in 1692.

Soon after writing this letter, Escalante left New Mexico and went to the Franciscan College at Queretaro, and his career thenceforth is obscure.

Achievements

• His second expedition of note had as its objectives the opening up of direct communication between Santa Fé and Monterey, California, and a reconnaissance, with an eye to their conversion, of the Indian tribes living north and west of the Colorado River.