That other Declaration of Independence was made on this same day on the far Atlantic coast.

The Colonies were engaged in their battle for freedom, but no sound of that strife then reached New Mexico, yet its portent was great for that region where, three-quarters of a century later, the flag of the Great Republic should float triumphant over all, Garces reached the Colorado once more on July 25th, his arduous journey absolutely fruitless so far as missionary work was concerned.

He arrived at his mission of Bac September 17, 1776.
On July 29, 1776, another even greater entrada was begun at Santa Fe by the Fray Padre Francisco Silvestre Velez Escalade,* in his search for a route to Monterey, unaware that Garces had just traversed, next to that of Onate, the most practicable short route to be found.

Garces had written to Escalante, ministro doctrinero of Zuni, a letter from Oraibi, but as the ministro had already departed for Santa Fe, leaving Fray Mariano Rosate in charge at Zuni, the letter probably did not reach him till his return.

The northern country, notwithstanding several small entradas and the considerable one of Juan Maria Ribera in 1761, who went as far as Gunnison River, was still a terra incognita, and the distance to the Pacific was also an uncertain quantity.