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Show 6 THE SHORTEST ROUTE TO CALIFORNIA,. degrees of west longitude from Greenwich, and the 34th and 43d degrees of north latitude; or within a limit of nine degrees of longitude and nine of latitude. The earliest record we have of any examination of this basin is derived from the journal of Father Esca-lante, descriptive of the travels of himself and party, in 1776- 77, from Santa Fe to Lake Utah, by him called Laguna de Nuestra Senora de la Merced de Timpanogot-zis 9 and also Lake Timpanogo; and thence to Oraybe, one of the villages of the Moquis, and back to Santa Fe. ( See accompanying map.) A manuscript copy of this journal, in the Spanish language, is to be found in the rare and valuable library of the late Peter Force, which has recently been purchased by Con-gress. By this manuscript we learn that Escalante explored as far north, doubtless, as the Timpanogos River, by him called the Rio San Antonio de Padua; and as he alludes to the lake, now called Utah Lake, emptying itself into a large body of salt water farther north, there can be no question that he was also cog-nizant of the existence of the Great Salt Lake. The destination of Escalante, his journal shows, was Monterey on the Pacific coast; but, being forced most probably by the desert immediately west of Lake Utah to take the so- called southern or Los An-geles route, which Bonneville's party in 1834, and Fremont in 1844, followed, and finding that, while making a great deal of southing, he had made but little progress toward Monterey, his provisions giving out, and fearing the approach of winter, with some difficulty he prevailed upon his party to abandon the |
