Escalante believed a better road existed to Monterey by way of the north than by the middle route, and a further incentive to journey that way was probably the rumours of large towns in that direction, the same will-o'-the-wisp the Spaniards for nearly three centuries had been vainly pursuing.

The authorities had urged two expeditions to Alta California, to establish communication; Garces and Captain Anza had carried out one, and now Escalante was to execute the other.
* H.H.Bancroft gives a map of the route as he understands it, History of the Pacific States, p.

35, vol.xxv., also a condensation of the diary.

Philip Harry gives a condensation in Simpson's Report, Appendix R., p.489.Some river names have been shifted since Harry wrote.

What we call the Grand, upper part, was then the Blue.
Besides the ministro Escalante, there were in the party eight persons, Padre Francisco Dominguez, Juan Pedro Cisneros, alcalde of Zuni, Bernardo Miera y Pacheco, capitain miliciano of Sante Fe, Don Juan Lain, and four other soldiers.