The cartographer of this rare little map is not known; however, the possibility exists that it may have been Fr. Pedro Font (d. 1781) who is known to have prepared several excellent maps. This is an important map showing the complete route--as a dotted line--of the remarkable journey of Fr. Francisco Garces (1738-1781) through portions of southwestern Arizona and southeastern California, along the Colorado River, and into the southern San Joaquin Valley and to the Hopi town of Oraibi in northeastern Arizona. The journey lasted from October 1775 to September 1777, and for about the first month, or until he reached the junction of the Gila and Colorado Rivers, Garces accompanied Juan Bautista de Anza's second expedition to California. Fr. Font was the Anza expedition's chaplain and did not travel with Garces beyond the Colorado, as the title indicates. This map is a very accurate representation of the Sonora-Arizona-California region. It is one of the earliest maps, and the oldest in the exhibit, to label Tucson by its modern name, although it is spelled "P. Tuquison". Both the San Pedro River of Arizona and the Mojave River of California (Garces' "R. de los Martyres") are correctly delineated. The river labeled "R. de la Asumpsion" is the Salt River. The map was engraved by Manuel Villavico, and it has been suggested that this engraving was intended to illustrate a book that was never published, hence its great rarity.
