_3rd day._ By morning the soldiers had recovered and we continued our march to the Presidio, taking nine prisoners and sending the soldiers of the guard to their respective garrisons. One soldier accompanied Father Escude to his mission and another accompanied Father Cabot. Mission San Juan Bautista, Dolores Pico 3 December 1815 (rubric) FATHER MARTINEZ' EXPEDITION The following five documents, all in the Bancroft Library, show clearly the confusion in the valley following the repeated expeditions of the preceding years, particularly those of 1815. The first, second, and third concern the Martinez sortie into the southern valley and include in full the original account by Father Martinez and the drastic criticism of his behavior by Father Cabot. The reader may form his own opinion with respect to the merits of the controversy. The last two excerpts relate to minor and otherwise unrecorded incidents. _Father Martinez' Report_ _Fr. Luís Antonio Martinez' to Prefect Sarria_ San Luis Obispo, May 29, 1816 (Alexander S. Taylor Papers. Archbishop's Office, San Francisco. Doc. 489.) My venerated Prelate and Sir: I have just arrived from an ecclesiastical journey with good fortune, although not so much as I was expecting. The people through whose lands I have gone are not yet capable of reason, and prefer their state of misery to all the benefits available to them far from their rude and wretched dwellings. In all the villages I saw I gave something to eat to everyone who presented himself; one, two, or even three ladles full of atole. I gave them presents. I treated them with as much loving-kindness as I could so as to mould them to my ultimate purpose, which was simply their own best interest. The names of the villages are:[15] Lucluc, 28 leagues distant from the mission, at the edge of the plain; from here I went to Thuohuala, about 9 leagues; from here to Gelecto, about 9; from here to Lihuahilame, about 19; and from there to Quihuame, about 7. At this point we could not cross a big river (the source of which we did not see) which runs from north to south, and south to north. It makes a bend in the plain some 7 leagues from Telame. Its speed and the dense brush along its banks prevented our passage. It fills the lakes of Buenavista, of Gelecto, and of Thuohuala. In all our trip we did not see a good tree, nor wood enough to cook a meal, nor a stone, nor even grass enough for the horses, more than bunch grass, or what grows in the swamps. This big river ends as such in Buenavista Lake or loses itself in ponds and swamps. Along all the border of the plain [i.e., along the river] there is a great meadow a league wide, very heavily overgrown with brush. However, the lands through which the river runs are pure sand, without grass and utterly useless for any good purpose.