Franciscan frontiersmen : how three adventurers charted the West / Robert A. Kittle.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kittle, Robert A., 1953- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Font, Pedro, 1737-1781--Travel--West (U.S.).

Font, Pedro.

Crespí, Juan, 1721-1782--Travel--West (U.S.).

Crespí, Juan.

Crespí, Juan, 1721-1782.

Font, Pedro, 1737-1781.

Travel.

Garcés, Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo, 1738-1781--Travel--West (U.S.).

Garcés, Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo.

Garcés, Francisco Tomás Hermenegildo, 1738-1781.

Discoveries in geography.

West (U.S.)--Discovery and exploration.

West (U.S.).

California--Discovery and exploration.

California.

West (U.S.)--History--To 1848.

Franciscans--West (U.S.)--Biography.

Franciscans.

Franciscans--Spain--Biography.

Pioneers--West (U.S.)--Biography.

Pioneers.

Explorers--West (U.S.)--Biography.

Explorers.

Genre:

Biographies.

Physical Description:

vii, 288 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Norman : University of Oklahoma Press, [2017]

Summary:

"Pious and scholarly, the Franciscan friars Pedro Font, Juan Crespi and Francisco Garces may at first seem improbable heroes. Beginning in Spain, their adventures encompassed the remote Sierra Gorda highlands of Mexico, the deserts of the American Southwest, and coastal California. Each man's journey played an important role in Spain's eighteenth-century conquest of the Pacific coast, but today their names and deeds are little known. Drawing on the diaries and correspondence of Font, Crespi, and Garces, as well as his own exhaustive field research, Robert A. Kittle has woven a seamless narrative detailing the friars' striking accomplishments. Starting with a harrowing transatlantic voyage, all three traveled through uncharted lands and found themselves beset by raiding Indians, marauding bears, starvation, and scurvy. Along the way, they made invaluable notes on indigenous peoples, flora and fauna, and prominent eighteenth-century European colonial figures. Font, the least celebrated of the three, recorded the daily events of the 1775-76 colonizing expedition of Juan Bautista de Anza while serving as its chaplain. Font's legacy includes some of the earliest accurate maps of California between San Diego Bay and San Francisco Bay. Garces, an itinerant missionary, developed close relationships with Indians in Sonora and California. He learned their languages and lived and traveled with them, usually as the only white man, and brokered dozens of peace agreements before he was killed in a Yuma uprising. Crespi, who traveled up the California coast with Father Junipero Serra, kept meticulous journals of an expedition to reconnoiter the San Francisco Bay area, the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers, and the northern reaches of California's central valley. This enthralling narrative elevates these Spanish friars to their rightful place in the chronicle of American exploration. It brings their exploits out of the shadow of the American Revolution and Lewis & Clark expedition while also illuminating encounters between European explorers and missionaries and the American Indians who had occupied the Pacific coast for millennia"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue: Soldiers of the Crown, Soldiers of the Cross

The Conquest Begins

Search for an Elusive Eden

Eureka!

Beyond the Rio Colorado

Overland to California

Start Mounting Up

Desert Nativity Scene

Uprising at Mission San Diego

A Forgotten Soldier of the Cross

Apostolic Pilgrimage

Solitary Sojourn in the High Desert

Unfinished Quest

Steering through Unexplored Waters

Fatalistic Venture

Slaughter on the Colorado River

Retribution on the Colorado

Final Journey

Epilogue: An Imperfect Legacy.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780806156989

0806156988

OCLC:

962008320