Seeking a land route between the Missions of Sonora and California, Fray Francisco Hermenegildo Garcés, a Franciscan missionary priest and explorer, became the first European to enter the present boundaries of Nevada. He left Mission San Xavier del Bac near Tucson in October 1775 and by late February 1776 reached Mohave villages just south of this location on the Colorado River. Traveling in country not previously seen by a non-Native American, he relied on Native American guides and moved from village to village. The Mohave agreed to lead him toward the Pacific coast along a trade route, and from this vicinity on March 4, 1776, accompanied by four natives, he left the Colorado River and crossed the Mojave Desert, reaching Mission San Gabriel Archangel 20 days later. After returning, he again visited the Mohave villages here in May 1776. His path followed a much older prehistoric trail used to carry shells and other trade goods to tribes of the desert and mountain west. On July 19, 1781, during a Quechan revolt against Spanish forces, Father Garcés was killed at La Purisima Concepción Mission near the Yuma Crossing, and his body was later interred in the Franciscan church of the Colegio de la Santa Cruz in Querétaro, Mexico.