follow, which would have taken him to the Lee's
Ferry crossing about thirty-five miles below. He seems to have reached
the brink of Marble Canyon, perhaps half-way between the Paria and the
Little Colorado,** and followed up-stream first north and then (beyond
Paria) north-east, hunting for a ford. Twice he succeeded in descending
to the water, but both times was unable to cross. They had now become so
reduced in food that they were obliged to eat some of their horses. With
great difficulty they climbed over the cliffs, and at the end of twelve
days from their first arrival at the river they found the ford, which
ever since has been called El Vado de los Padres. This was the 8th of
November, 1776. The entrance to the river from the west, the side of
their approach, is through a small canyon in the homogeneous sandstone,
no more than ten feet wide. The course is then about half a mile down
the middle of the river over a long bar or shoal to the opposite side,
where the exit is made upon a rocky slope. It is a most difficult ford.
The trail through the water at the low stage, when, only, fording is
possible, is marked by piles of large stones. There is no ford at the
Lee's Ferry crossing.

* From here to the California mission of San Gabriel would hardly
have been as difficult as the route taken, excepting perhaps the matter
of water, and little if any further than the distance to Santa Fe, but
the Pai Utes could give him no information of the distance to the sea.

** There was an old crossing near there, also.

From this Crossing-of-the-Fathers, just above where the river enters
Arizona, to the Moki Towns Escalante had a plain trail, and a much
simpler topography, and had no difficulty in arriving there. The
remainder of his road, from Moki to Zuni and around to Santa Fe, was
one he had travelled before, and the party soon completed the circuit
of more than 1500 miles mainly through unknown country, one of the most
remarkable explorations ever carried out in the West. It is sometimes
stated that Escalante crossed the Grand Canyon, but, as is perfectly
plain from the data, he did not; in fact, he could not have done it with
horses.

Garces was not yet finished with his labours on the lower Colorado, and
we will return to him. The authorities had decided to establish there
two nondescript settlements, a sort of cross between mission, pueblo,
and presidio. Captain Palma, the Yuma chief, whose devotions and