On July 29, 1776, Fathers Francisco Atanasio Dominguez and Silvestre Valez de Escalante led an exploration party of ten horsemen from Sante Fe, New Mexico, seeking an overland route to Monterey, California, while spreading the Catholic faith among native peoples they hoped to meet. On September 23 the party emerged from Spanish Fork Canyon into Utah Valley, where Escalante recorded their first view of the lake and broad valley of Nuestro Senora de la Merced of the Timpanogotzis and noted smoke signals rising on every side to spread news of their coming. After making camp near Spanish Fork, the Padres went to the Indian village on the Provo River, where the natives readily accepted the Franciscan Fathers’ teachings and urged them to return with other friars to live among them. Escalante’s diary provides a vivid account of eighteenth-century life in Utah, portraying Utah Valley as a fertile basin ringed by heights, watered by four medium-sized rivers, rich in pasturage, timber, firewood, sheltered places, and resources for raising cattle, sheep, and horses. He wrote that the lake abounded in good fish, geese, beavers, and other amphibious creatures, and that the Indians lived on the lake’s fish, seeds of wild plants made into gruel, and plentiful game including jackrabbits, coneys, and fowl, while avoiding nearby bison because they feared the Comanches. He described their dwellings as sheds or little wattle-huts of osier, their baskets and utensils as skillfully made, their clothing as poor except for deerskin jackets, leggings, and blankets of jackrabbit and coney furs, and their appearance as good-featured and mostly fully bearded. He also observed that all sections of this sierra were inhabited by many peoples of the same nation, language, and easy-going character.