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Show Escalante's diary tells in detail about the angry argument between the priests and the lay members. Captain Miera, consulting his astronomical instrument, had earlier calculated they were hundreds of miles east of Monterey, which was true. Now when the Fathers told their desire to circle back, Miera raged. Doing an about-face, he declared they were close to the California coast. All they had to do, he swore, was to press on hardily--they'd soon ride through the gates of Monterey with people strewing their path with flowers. From personal observations I can paint a mental picture of the setting for their debate in muddy "Santa Brigida," as they named their camp that night. If Dr. Herbert E. Bolton's explorations, matched with Escalante's diary and Miera's map, are correct (and they agree with well-known geographic features) the party camped near present-day Reed. There at 17 and 18 I taught a one-room school perched on a mound rising out of the Sinks of the Beaver. At nightfall the ten riders must have spurred out of the reedy sloughs to a rise of land. On a fairly well-drained spot they halted for their evening meal. They brushed the snow from the grass and spread their bedrolls without fire to warm them, as there was no dry firewood. But some had anger to keep them warm. For all I know they ate their cold supper and tried to sleep on the very mound where my little cinderblock schoolhouse stood. Certainly they shivered out the snowy night of their decision not far from that spot. Since Dr. Bolton did his scholarly studies and journeys, we can pinpoint places from Escalante's diary and Miera's map. After leaving Santa Brigida next day, they traveled southward a couple of leagues. |