In 1776, most of what is now New Mexico and its surrounding region belonged to New Spain. The area to the north and west toward the Pacific coast, unexplored, consisted of rugged mountains and canyons, rivers that were difficult to cross, and multiple deserts. At its western extremity, the Pacific coast from Baja California northward had been colonized by a series of missions established by the recently canonized Junípero Serra, a member of the order of St. Francis of Assisi. The viceroy of New Spain was determined to establish a trade route between Santa Fe, the northernmost town in his domain, and the most prominent of Serra's California missions, located in the freshly settled town of Monterey. The challenge: to get from one town to the other.
On July 29, 1776, at the viceroy's behest, 10 men, none of them soldiers or merchants, set off on horseback. The leader among them was a Franciscan friar named Francisco Atanasio Domínguez, but the expedition has since been named for the 27-year-old Silvestre Vélez de Escalante, the group's second in command, because it was Escalante who kept a meticulous journal of the trek. Despite the viceroy's instructions, the band of friars had zero interest in bartering. Their secret goal, as documented by Escalante, was to spread the word of God to the native population, then return later to found settlements, to raise crops and cattle and, above all, to establish missions. Their every campsite was named for a saint, and Escalante braved the unknown without fear, confident that he was armored by God.
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