On this occasion they entered by the last pass of the Sierra Blanca de los Timpanogos, which is the same in which they are, by a route north one fourth north-west, and by that same way they say the Comanches make their raids, which do not seem to be very frequent.""

Continuing their journey the 26th of September with two guides, the Spaniards bend their course south-westwardly in the direction of Monterey, through the Sevier lake and river region, which stream they call Santa Isabel. The 8th of October they are in latitude 38° 3' with Beaver River behind them. Passing on into what is now Escalante Valley they question the natives regarding a route to the sea, and as to their knowledge of Spaniards in that direction. The savages know nothing of either. Meanwhile winter is approaching, provisions are becoming low, the way to the sea must be long and difficult; therefore the friars resolve to abandon the attempt; they will continue south, turning perhaps to the east until they come to the Colorado, when they will return to Santa Fé by way of the Moqui and Zuñi villages.

Some of the party object to this abandonment of

21 As this is the first account we have of the Great Salt Lake and its people I will give the original entire: 'La otra laguna con quien esta se comunica, ocupa, segun nos informaron, muchas leguas y sus aguas son nocivas ó estremadamente saladas; porque nos aseguran los timpanois que el que se mojaba alguna parte del cuerpo con ellas, al punto sentia mucha comenzon en la parte mojada. En su circuito nos dijeron habita una nacion numerosa y quieta, que se nombra Puaguampe, que en nuestro vulgar dice hechiceros; la cual usa el idioma cumanche; se alimenta de las yervas, bebe de varias fuentes ú ojos de buena agua, que están en el circuito de la laguna, y tienen sus casitas de zacate y tierra, que era el techo de ellas. No son enemigos de los lagunas, segun insinuaron, pero desde cierta ocasion que se acercaron y les mataron un hombre, no los tienen por tan neutrales como antes. En esta ocasion entraron por la puerta final de la Sierra Blanca de los Timpanosis, que es la misma en que están, por el norte cuarta al noroeste, y por aquí mismo dicen hacer sus entradas los cumanches, las que no parecieron ser muy frecuentes.' Diario, Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. i. 468.

Mr Harry is evidently not very thoroughly versed in the Spanish language, or his manuscript copy of Escalante's journey is defective. For example he translates echizeros-which being old Spanish he could not find in his modern dictionary-throwers or slingers' when the word 'witches,' or rather 'sorcerers,' is clearly implied. Again he queries sacate, not knowing its meaning a common enough Mexican word, formerly written zacate, and signifying hay or grass. For further inaccuracies see his summary in Simpson's Explor., 494. Warren, Pacific Railroad Report, xi. 35, examined the same copy of Escalante's narrative, then in the Peter Force library, which was used by Harry.

purpose. They have come far; they can surely find a way: why turn back? To determine the matter prayers are made and lots cast, the decision being against Monterey. As they turn eastward, the 11th, in latitude 36° 52′, they are obliged to make bread of seeds purchased from the natives, for their supplies are wholly exhausted. Reaching the Colorado the 26th, twelve days are passed in searching for a ford, which they find at last in latitude 37°, the line dividing Utah from Arizona. Their course is now south-east, and the 16th of November they reach Oraybi, as they call the residence of the Moquis. There they are kindly received; but when for food and shelter they offer presents and religious instruction the natives refuse. Next day the Spaniards visit Xongopabi, and the day after Gualpi, at which latter place they call a meeting and propose to the natives temporal and spiritual submission. The Moquis will be friendly they say, but the further proposals they promptly decline. Thereupon the friars continue their way, reaching Zuñi November 24th and Santa Fé the 2d of January 1777.22

22 The journey into Utah of Dominguez and Escalante, as given in Doc. Hist. Mex., série ii. tom. i. 375–-558, under title of Diario y derrotero de los R. R. PP. Fr. Francisco Atanasio Dominguez y Fr. Silvestre Velez de Escalante, para descubrir el camino desde el Presidio de Santa Fé del Nuevo Mexico, al de Monterey, en la California Septentrional, is full and clear as to route and information regarding the country and its inhabitants. As must be expected in all such narratives it is full of trivial detail which is tiresome, but which we can readily excuse for the worth of the remainder. The priests were close and intelligent observers, and have much to say regarding configuration, soil, climate, plants, minerals, animals, and people. A summary is given in Simpson's Explor., app. R by Philip Harry, from a manuscript copy of the original in the archives in the city of Mexico which answers the purpose therein required, but is not sufficiently reliable or exact for historical purposes. The map accompanying the summary is better, being for the most part correct. Of the two padres and what they saw Humboldt says, Essai Pol.: 'Ce terrain est la continuation de la Cordillère des Grues, qui se prolonge vers la Sierra Verde et vers le lac de Timpanogos, célèbre dans l'histoire mexicaine. Le Rio S. Rafael et le Rio S. Xavier sont les sources principales du fleuve Zaguananas, qui, avec le Rio de Nabajoa, forme le Rio Colorado: ce dernir a son embouchure dans le golfe de Californie. Ces régions abondantes en sel gemme out été examinees, en 1777, par deux voyageurs remplis de zéle et d'intrépidité, moines de l'order de S. Francois, le père Escalante et le pere Antonio Velez.' From the last clause it is clear that Humboldt was confused as to names, Velez and Escalante belonging to the same person. Simpson, Explor., 13, enters upon a long dissertation over a simple and very transpar ent mistake. See also Hist. North Mex. States; Hist. New Mex.; and Hisɩ. Cal., this series.

HIST. UTAH. 2

CHAPTER II.

ADVENT OF TRAPPERS AND TRAVELLERS.

1778-1846.

INVASION BY FUR HUNTERS-BARON LA HONTAN AND HIS FABLES-THE POPULAR GEOGRAPHIC IDEA-DISCOVERY OF THE GREAT SALT LAKE--JAMES BRIDGER DECIDING A BET-HE DETERMINES THE COURSE OF BEAR RIVER AND COMES UPON THE GREAT LAKE-HENRY, ASHLEY, GREEN, AND BECK WOURTH ON THE GROUND-FORT BUILT AT UTAH LAKE-PETER SKEEN OGDEN-JOURNEY OF JEDEDIAH S. SMITH-A STRANGE COUN TRY-PEGLEG SMITH-WOLFSKILL, YOUNT, AND BURTON TRAVERSE THE COUNTRY-WALKER'S VISIT TO CALIFORNIA-SOME OLD MAPS-THE BARTLESON COMPANY-STATEMENTS OF BIDWELL AND BELDEN COMPARED-WHITMAN AND LOVEJOY-FRÉMONT-PACIFIC COAST IMMIGRA TIONS OF 1845 AND 1846-ORIGIN OF THE NAME UTAH.

HALF a century passes, and we find United States fur hunters standing on the border of the Great Salt Lake, tasting its brackish waters, and wondering if it is an arm of the sea.1

1 There are those who soberly refer to the Baron la Hontan and his prodigious falsehoods of 1689 for the first information of Great Salt Lake. Because among the many fabulous wonders reported he somewhere on the western side of the continent placed a body of bad-tasting water, Stansbury, Exped., 151, does not hesitate to affirm 'that the existence of a large lake of salt water somewhere amid the wilds west of the Rocky Mountains seems to have been known vaguely as long as 150 years since.' Perhaps it was salt, and not silver that the Winnebagoes reported to Carver, Travels, 33-6, as coming down ir caravans from the mountains lying near the heads of the Colorado River.' Warren, in Pacific Railroad Report, xi. 34, repeats and refutes the La Hontan myth. He says, 'the story of La Hontan excited much speculation, and received various additions in his day; and the lake finally became represented on the published English maps.' Long before this date, however, reliable information had been received by the Spaniards, and the same may have come to English trappers; so that by 1826 reports of the existence of such a sheet may have reached civilization. It is needless to say that neither La Hontan nor Carver ever received information from the natives, or elsewhere, sufficient to justify map-makers in placing a large lake in that vicinity. In Gordon's Historical and Geographical Memoir of the North American Continent, published in Dublin in 1820, it is written: 'Concerning the lakes and rivers of this as yet imperfectly explored region we have little to say. Of the former

DISCOVERY OF GREAT SALT LAKE.

19

First among these, confining ourselves to authentic records, was James Bridger, to whom belongs the honor of discovery. It happened in this wise. During the winter of 1824-5 a party of trappers, who had ascended the Missouri with Henry and Ashley, found

we have no certain account. Two have been noticed in the western parts, a salt lake about the thirty-ninth degree of latitude, the western limits of which are unknown, and the lake of Timpanogos, about the forty-first degree, of great but unascertained extent.'

In a report submitted to congress May 15, 1826, by Mr Baylies it is stated that many geographies have placed the Lake Timpanogos in latitude 40, but they have obviously confounded it with the Lake Theguayo, which extends from 39° 40′ to 41°, and from which it appears separated by a neck or peninsula; the two lakes approaching in one direction as near as 20 miles. 19th Cong., 1st Sess., House Rept. No. 213. Such statements as this amount to nothing-the honorable gentleman, with all due respect, not knowing what he was writing about-except as going to show the vague and imperfect impression of the popular mind concerning this region at that time.

I will give for what it is worth a claim, set up in this same congres

themselves on Bear River, in Cache, or Willow Valley. A discussion arose as to the probable course of Bear River, which flowed on both sides of them. A wager was made, and Bridger sent to ascertain the truth. Following the river through the mountains. the first view of the great lake fell upon him, and when he went to the margin and tasted the water he found that it was salt. Then he returned and reported to his companions. All were interested to know if there emptied into this sheet other streams on which they might find beavers, and if there was an outlet; hence in the spring of 1826 four men explored the lake in skin boats.2

During this memorable year of 1825, when Peter

sional report, by one Samuel Adams Ruddock, that in the year 1821 he journeyed from Council Bluff to Santa Fé, and thence with a trading party proceeded by way of Great Salt Lake to Oregon. The report says: On the 9th of June this party crossed the Rio del Norte, and pursuing a north-west direction on the north bank of the river Chamas, and over the mountains, reached Lake Trinidad; and then pursuing the same direction across the upper branches of the Rio Colorado of California, reached Lake Timpanagos, which is intersected by the 42d parallel of latitude, the boundary between the United States of America and the United States of Mexico. This lake is the principal source of the river Timpanagos, and the Multnomah of Lewis and Clarke. They then followed the course of this river to its junction with the Columbia, and reached the mouth of the Columbia on the first day of August, completing the journey from the Council Bluffs in seventy-nine days.'

This, upon the testimony of Robert Campbell, Pac. R. Rept., xi. 35, who was there at the time and found the party just returned from the exploration of the lake, and recollect their report that it was without any outlet.' Bridger's story of his discovery was corrroborated by Samuel Tullock in Campbell's counting-room in St Louis at a later date. Campbell pronounces them both 'men of the strictest integrity and truthfulness.' Likewise Ogden's trappers met Bridger's party in the summer of 1825 and were told of the discovery. See list. Nevada, this series. Irving, Bonneville's Adv., 186, says it was probably Sublette who sent out the four men in the skin canoe in 1826. Bonneville professes to doubt this exploration because the men reported that they suffered severely from thirst, when in fact several fine streams flow into the lake; but Bonneville desired to attach to his name the honor of an early survey, and detract from those entitled to it. The trappers in their canoes did not pretend to make a thorough survey, and as for scarcity of fresh water in places Stansbury says, Exped., 103, that during his explorations he frequently was obliged to send fifty miles for water. Other claimants appear prior to Bridger's discovery. W. M. Anderson writing to the National Intelligencer under date of Feb. 26, 1860, says that Provost trapped in this vicinity in 1820, and that Ashley was there before Bridger. Then it was said by Seth Grant that his partner, Vazquez, discovered the great inland sea, calling it an arm of the ocean because the water was salt. That no white man ever saw the Great Salt Lake before Bridger cannot be proven; but his being the only well authenticated account, history must rest there until it finds a better one.