Journal of California and Great Basin Anthropology

Unlike most of the items included in Lost and Found, the following selection is from a previously unpublished source. It consists of an annotated translation of a short but signi cant Spanish account of an exploratory survey into inland portions of Southern California that was undertaken in 1821 by two Franciscan missionaries in order to locate and evaluate potential mission sites. Both the original diary and the 1999 translation are presently on le at the Santa Barbara Mission Archive-Library. It should be noted that some of the translator’s original editorial comments have been deleted, combined, ampli ed, or rephrased for clari cation or simpli cation, and a few of Sánchez’ botanical terms reinterpreted to better re ect California Spanish vocabulary. I am greatly indebted to John Johnson and Jan Timbrook of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History for calling this important account to my attention, carefully checking the transcription against the original document, and providing additional information on plants mentioned in the text, and to José Álvarez for permission to publish the translation here.