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Show COMMENTARY ON ESCALANTE. 469 from Oraibe to the Jalchedunes, for inasmuch as I was at the mercy of the Indians I went where they took me, though I did not fail to know how roundabout I was going; but it was necessary for me to be careful to give them pleasure, and let them know I was not going through their lands for mere curiosity, but to visit them and speak to them of the good things. Even more of this will I say under the following Point: POINT VII. On the Reports communicated to Mexico by the Rev. Padre Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante, Minister of the Missions of Zurii, year of 1775. One month after having arrived from my journey at the Mision de San Xavier del Bac I received a letter from the most excellent senor viceroy and with it a copy of another of the Rev. Padre Fray Silvestre Velez de Escalante, dated in New Mexico on the 18th of August of aforesaid year, 21 which ( letter), though * As we have seen, p. 440, Garces reached his mission of Bac Sept 17, 1776; so his reception there of Escalante's letter of Aug. 18, 1775, with the one from the viceroy, was on or about Oct. 17, 1776. To exactly what letter of Escalante Garces here refers is uncertain. It cannot have been any report of the famous expedition he made with Francisco Atanasio Dominguez in New Mexico, Colorado, Utah, and Arizona, for this began |