OCR Text |
Show 10 be taken if the Comanches, who were then bringing pressure on the Sabuaganas, were encountered. The fathers pressed on in spite of these warnings, but they were concerned much of the time for the next 175 miles. When the party reached the valley of the Utah Lake, Father Escalante recorded an excellent description of the area. He described the topography, directions, rivers, irrigable lands, trees, pasturage, possible sites of towns, and even made observations about usable crops, such as flax and hemp. The diarist was also impressed by the warmth of the friendship manifested by the Utes toward him and his party. In that long journey, the departure of the expedition from the Utes at Utah Lake represents a high point in their encounters with the Indians. Escalante reports: "The time for our departure arrived and all of them bade us goodby with great tenderness. Silvestre especially embraced us vigorously, almost weeping. They again charged us to come back soon, saying they would expect us 6 V within a year-" As the party moved southward into the area of the Pahvant Utes, whom they encountered on the Sevier River, he records: September 30. Very early twenty Indians arrived at the camp together with those who were here yesterday afternoon, wrapped in blankets made of the skins of rabbits and hares. They remained conversing with us, very ^Herbert E. Bolton, Pageant in the Wilderness: The Story of the Escalante Expedition to the Interior Basin, 1776, (Salt Lake City, Utah: Utah State Historical Society, 1972), pp. I8T-I85. |