Througli the Interior of Louisiana:
"In the year 1S06, our affairs with Spain began to wear a very serious aspect,
and the troops of the two governments almost came to actual hostilities on the
frontiers of Texas and the Orleans territory. At this time, when matters bore
every appearance of coming to a crisis, I was fitting out for my expedition from
St. Louis, when some of the Spanish emissaries in that country transmitted the
information to Majar. Merior, and the Spanish council at that place, who immediately
forwarded the information to Captain Sebastian Roderiques, the then commandant
of Nacogdoches, who forwarded it to Colonel [Don Antonio] Cordero, by whom it
was transmitted to the seat of government. This information was personally
communicated to me, as an instance of the rapid means they possessed of conveying
intelligence relative to the occurrences transacting on our frontiers."
Early in the spring of that year, a small military party, commanded
by Captain Eichard Sparks, of the United States Army, left Natchez in
boats to explore the Eed Elver to its sources. His company consisted of
Lieutenant Enoch Humphreys, two non-commissioned officers and fifteen
private soldiers, of the Eegular Army ; a negro servant, and two civilians-
Thomas Freeman and Dr. Custis. Sparks had been instructed to
ascend the Eed in his boats to the village of a detached clan of Pawnee
Indians, dwelling near its headwaters. From these people he was to pur-
chase horses to be used for carrying his equipment and supplies, and then
to "proceed to the top of the mountains", which were considered to be
"about 300 miles distant" from this Pawnee village. But when he reached
its neighborhood, he encountered a force of Spanish dragoons, under Cap-
tain Don Francisco Yiana, who, with his troops, had been sent from the
Spanisli post at Xacogdoches, in Texas, to intercept the Americans and
48 HISTOEY OF COLOEADO
compel them to withdraw from the country. As the Spaniards outnum-
bered his party several times. Captain Sparks abandoned his enterprise
and went back down the river.
Pike left St. Louis on July 11, 1806, and went to Belle Fontaine, on
â– the right bank of the Missouri Eiver, six miles from its mouth, where the
cantonment was located. From this place, in the afternoon of July 15th,
he and liis party started up the Missouri in two large boats, accompanied
by fifty-one Indians, who traveled afoot along the river, on the south
side. His command proper consisted of Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson
(a son of the General), Dr. John H. Eobinson, Sergeants Joseph Ballenger
and William E. Meek, Corporal Jeremiah Jackson, Interpreter A. T.
Baronet Vasquez (a native of St. Louis, whom Pike usually called
"Baroney"), and sixteen private soldiers of the Eegular Army — John
Bole}', Samuel Bradley, John Brown, Jacob Carter, Thomas Dougherty,
William Gorden, Solomon Huddleston, Henry Kennernian, Theodore
Miller, Hugh Menaugh, John ilountjoy, Alexander Eoy, John Sparks,
Patrick Smith, Freegift Stoute and John Wilson. Kennerman deserted
when a few days out.
The expedition proceeded up the ilissouri to the Osage Eiver, and
thence by that stream and its north fork to a point nearest the "Grand
Osage" village, which was reached by a short march westward — six weeks
after the departure from Belle Fontaine. This Indian town was situated
on or near the Missouri-Kansas boundary, some fifteen or twenty miles
northeastward of the present city of Fort Scott, Kansas. Here the Osage
captives were delivered to their people, and from the Indians of the vil-
lage Pike procured pack-horses for his journey into the West.
Here, on the 20th of August, Pike received additional advices from
General Wilkinson, dated August 6th, and which had been sent from the
cantonment at Belle Fontaine by a swift-footed messenger. In order that
his entire open instructions for the expedition may be placed before the
readers of these pages, these supplemental directions are, in the following,
reproduced in full: '
"To Lieutenant Pike."
"Cantonment, Missouri, August 6, 1S06. "
"Sir:
"IN consequence of the receipt of the enclosed letters, I have thought proper
to send you an express to enable you to announce to the Osage the designs of their
enemies, that they may take seasonable measures to circumvent them. You will not
fail, in addition to the within talk, to enhance our paternal regard for this nation
by every proper expression; but are to keep clear of any conflict in which they
may be involved, though you are to avoid the appearance of abandoning them. If
it should be the Potowatomies ' intention to carry their threat into execution, it
is probable they will not attempt to make the blow before the falling of the leaves;
and in the meantime the Osages should establish a chain of light scouts along the
coast of the Missouri, to ascertain with certainty the approach of their enemy.
"It is reduced to a certainty that [blank, thus, in Pike's
published account: but it is known now that the person referred to was Manuel
de Lisa, a conspicuous fur trader at St. Louis] and a society of which he is the
ostensible leader have determined on a project to open some commercial intercourse
with Santa Fe ; and as this may lead to a connection injurious to the United States,
and will, I understand, be attempted without the sanction of law or the permission
of the Executive, you must do what, consistently, you can to defeat the plan. No
good can be derived to the United States from such a project, because the prose-
cution of it will depend entirely on the Spaniards, and they will not permit it,
HISTOKY OF COLOEADO 49
unless to serve their politif-al as well as their personal interests. I ;ini informed
that the ensuing antumn and winter will be employed in reconnoitring and opening
a connection with the Tctans. Panis, &e. ; that this fall, or the next winter, a grand
magazine is to be established at the Osage towns, where these operations will
commence; that [De Lisa] is to be the active agent, having formed
a connection with the Tetans. This will carry forward their merchandise within
three or four days' travel of the Spanish settlements, where they will deposit it
under a guard of 300 Tetans. [Do Lisal will then go forward
with four or five attendants, taking with him some jewelry and fine goods. With
these he will visit the Governor, to whom he «ill make presents, and implore his
pity by a fine tale of sufferings which have been endured by the change of govern-
ment: that they are left here, with goods to be sure, but not a dollar's worth of
bullion, and therefore they have adventured to see him, for the purpose of praying
his leave for the introduction of their property into the Province. If he assents,
then the whole of the goods will be carried forward ; if he refuses, then
[De Lisa] will invite some of his countrymen to accompany him to his deposit, and
having there exposed to them his merchandize, he will endeavour to open a forced
or clandestine trade; for, he observes, the Spaniards will not dare to attack his
camp. Here you have the plan, and you must take all prudent and lawful means
to blow it up.
"In regard to your approximation to the Spanish settlements, should your
route lead you near them, or should you fall in with any of their parties, your
conduct must be marked by such circumspection and discretion as may prevent alarm
or conflict, as you will be held responsible for consequences. On this subject I
refer you to my orders. We have nothing new respecting the pending negotiations
in Europe, but from Colonel [T. H.l Gushing I understand the Spaniards below are
behaving now with great courtesy.
"By the return of the bearer you may open your correspondence with the
Secretary of War [General Henry Dearborn] ; but I would caution you against
anticipating a step before you, for fear of deception and disappointment. To me
you may, and must, write fully and freely, not only giving a minute detail of every
thing past worthy of note, but also of your prospects aiid the conduct of the
Indians. If you discover that any tricks have been played from St. Louis, you
will give them to me with names, and must not fail to give particulars to the
Secretary of War, with names, to warn him against improper confidence and decep-
tion. Inclose your dispatch for me to Colonel Hunt, and it will follow me by a
party which I leave for the purpose. It is interesting to you to reach Natchitoches
in season to be at the seat of government pending the session of Congress; yet you
must not sacrifice any essential object to this point. Should fortune favour you
on your present excursion, your importance to our' country will, I think, make your
future life comfortable.
"To shew you how to correct your w.atch by the quadrant, after it has been
carefully adjusted, preparatory to your observing on the eclipses of the satellites
of Jupiter, I send you a very simple plan, which you will readily understand; a
bason of water, in some place protected from the motion of the air, will give you
a fairer artificial horizon than Mercury [the metal]. I think a tent, with a suitable
aperture in the side of it, would do very well. I have generally unroofed a cabin.
"Miranda has botched his business. He has lost two schooners captured, and
himself in the Leander returned to Jamaica. The French have a squadron of four
frigates at Porto Rico, and of five sail of the line with Jerome Bonaparte at
Martinique. I consider them lost.
"Your children have been indisposed; but Mrs. Pike writes you. She
appears well.
"My regards to your associates, and may God protect you.
"J. Wilkinson."
Pike left the "Grand Osage" village on September 1st, "about twelve
o'clock with fifteen loaded horses. Our party consisting of two Lieutenants
[himself and Wilkinson], one Doctor, two Sergeants, one Corporal, fifteen
Privates, two interpreters [one of whom was released soon afterward],
three Pawnees, and four chiefs of the Grand Osage, amounting in all to
Vol. 1—4
50 HISTOEY OF COLOEADO
thirty warriors [counting all the white men as such], and one woman".
His course until noon of the third day was south by east, when he turned
to the right and bore northwestward through Kansas, arriving at his destina-
tion among the Pawnees — "the Pawnee Eepublic'' — on September 25th,
without having had serious mishap or adventure. The country he had trav-
ersed was "black with buffalo"'. Some writers have located the Pawnee Eepub-
lic in Nebraska, on the Eepublican Eiver, Just over the middle of the north-
ern boundary of Kansas"" ; but more probable determinations place its locality
in the northwestern part of the present Eepublic County, Kansas, and
which borders Nebraska.
A large body of Spanish troops had preceded Pike to the Pawnee Ee-
public. A Pawnee hunter, whom he had met on September 32d, told him
that "a party of 300 Spaniards lately had been as far as the Saline, but
for what purpose was unknown". "Upon the arrival of the Americans at the
Pawnee capital, the head chieftain of the town gave them "many par-
ticulars, which were interesting to us, relative to the late visit of the
Spaniards". Having had early knowledge of Captain Sparks' expedition
up the Bed Eiver, and being exceedingly suspicious of the purposes of the
American government in the Southwest, the Spanish authorities also had
organized and despatched a military force from Santa Fe into the central
plains country to intercept American intruders upon the Spanish border
in that quarter, and to enter into treaties of amity and alliance with the
plains Indians. Of this militant Spanish counter-campaign, I quote from
the account given of it by our explorer in a foot-note in his Journal (etc.),
which was written in the form we have it after liis return to the United
States :
"1 will here attempt to give some memoranda of this expedition, which was
the most important ever sent out of the province of New Mexico ; and in fact the
only one directed to the north-eastward, except that mentioned by the Abbe Eaynal,
in his History of the Indies, to the Pawness. . . . Tlie expedition . . . had
three objects in view: first, to descend the Eed Eiver, in order that if they met
our expedition to intercept and turn it back; or should Major Sparks and Mr.
Freeman have missed the [Spanish] party from Nacogdoches, under the command
of Captain Viana, to oblige them to return, and not penetrate farther into the
country, or make them prisoners of war.
' ' Secondly, to explore and examine all the internal parts of the country, from
the frontiers of the province of New Mexico to the Missouri, between the La Plate
[the Platte] [sentence left unfinished],
' ' Thirdly, to visit the Tetans, Pawnees Eepublic, Grand Pawnees, Pawnee
Mahaws, and Kans. To the head chief of each of these nations, the commanding
officer bore flags, a commission, grand medal, and four mules; and with each of
them he had to renew the chains of aneieut amity, which was said to have existed
between their father, his Most Catholic Majesty, and his children, the red people.
"The commanding ofBcer also bore positi\e orders to oblige all jiarties or
persons in the above specified countries, either to retire from them into the
acknowledged territories of the United States, or to make prisoners of them, and
conduct them into the province of New Mexico.
"Lieut. Don Facundo Malgares, the oificer selected from the five internal
provinces to command this expedition, was an European, and his uncle was at that
time one of the royal judges of the kingdom of New Spain. He had distinguished
himself in several long expeditions against the Appaches and other Indian nations,
with whom the Spaniards were at war: added to these circumstances, he was a
man of immense fortune, and generous in its disposal, almost to profusion: pos-
sessed a liberal education, a high sense of honor, and a disposition formed for
military enterprize.
HISTOEY OF COLORADO 51
' ' This officer niarehed from the province of Biscay, with oue hundred draaioons
of the regular service, and at Santa Fe, the place where the expedition was fitted
out, he was joined by five hundred of the mounted militia of that province, armed
after the manner described by my notes on that subject, and completely equipped
with ammunition, &c., for six months; each man leading with him (by order) two
horses and one mule. The whole number of their beasts was two thousand and
seventy-five. They descended the Red Eiver two hundred and thirty-three leagues.
Met the grand bands of the Tetans, held councils with them; then struck off to
the northeast, and crossed the country to the Arkansaw, where Lieut. Malgares
left two hundred and forty of his men, with the lame and tired horses, whilst he
proceeded on with the rest to the Pawnee Eepnblic. Here he was met by the chiefs
and warriors of the Grand Pawnees; held councils with the two nations, and
presented them the flags, medals, &c., which w-ere designed for them. He did not
proceed on to the execution of his missions with the Pawnee Mahaws and the Kans,
as he represented to me [after Pike was taken to Santa Fe], from the poverty of
their horses and the discontent of his own men ; but, as I conceive, from the
suspicion and discontent which began to arise between the Spaniards and the Indians.
The former wislung to revenge the death of Villeneuve and his party, whilst the
latter possessed all the suspicions of conscious villany, deserving punishment.
"Malgares took with him all the traders he found there from our country,
some of whom being sent to Natchitoches, were in abject poverty at that place on
my arrival, and applied to me for means to return to St. Louis. Lieutenant
Malgares returned to Santa Fe in October, when his militia was disbanded; but he
remained in the vicinity of that place until we were brought in, when with his
dragoons he became our escort to the seat of government" [in Chihuahua].
It is probable that Malgares left Santa Fe about the middle of June,
as a commission carried by him to the chief of the Pawnees bore that date.
His course was down the Canadian River, thence northeast to the Arkan-
sas, and thence on to the Pawnee villages, at which he held a grand council.
Pike was well received b)^ the Pawnees, but his visit was without any
result of importance sufficient to warrant the long detour he had made
to reach them. He induced their head men to enter into a "treaty" with
the Osages who accompanied him, and which document he and Lieutenant
Wilkinson attested. In this pact, the principal parties "jointly bind them-
selves in behalf of and for their respective nations, to observe a friendly
intercourse, and keep a permanent peace, and mutually pledge themselves
to use their every influence to further the commands and wishes of their
Great Father" [the President of the United States]. As Indian treaty-
â– making was understood also to include the spot-delivery of presents, it is
quite probable that Pike had no difficulty in persuading the Pawnees
thus to shake hands with his Osages— with a mental reservation to do as
they pleased after his back was turned. Beyond this transaction the Ameri-
cans accomplished nothing by their visit to the Pawnee Republic.
Pike departed from his Pawnee friends on October 8th, with three
Osage braves as guides (one of which left him a few days later), follow-
ing the homeward trail of the Spanish dragoons, the course of which was
south by west, and arrived at the Arkansas Eiver on the 18th, at a point
near the site of the present Kansas town of Great Bend. Here he crossed
the stream and made camp upon its southward bank, where the party
tarried ten days, when Lieutenant Wilkinson, five soldiers and the remain-
ing two Osage guides were detached to descend the river "to our post on
the Arkansaw", in compliance with General Wilkinson's instructions. These
adventurers set out upon their voyage on October 28th, in two improvised
boats, and landed at their destination on the 9th of the next January.
Eecrossing the Arkansas on the day of Wilkinson's "sailing", Pike,
52 HISTOEY OF COLOEADO
now having with him Dr. Eobinson, Interpreter Yasquez, Sergeant Meek,
Corporal Jackson, and privates Brown, Carter, Dougherty, Gorden,
Menaiigh, ]\Iiller, Mountjo}-, Eoy, Smith. Sparks and Stoute, but no guide,
started westward on the northward bank of tlie river, following the home-
ward trail of the Spanish troops. On the 30th, the party again crossed to
the southward bank of the Arkansas, as the Spaniards had done, and con-
tinued on that coiirse into the land of Colorado.
On the 15th of Xovember, Pike had his first glimpse of the parts of
the Eocky Mountains which include the lofty peak that now bears his name,
when he was near the mouth of the Purgatory Eiver, which he called the
"First Fork". Of this incident, the explorer says in liis Journal:
"At two o'clock in the afternoon. I tlinnght I could distinguish a mountain
to our right, which appeared like a small blue cloud ; viewed it with the spyglass,
and was still more confirmed in my conjecture, yet only communicated it to Dr.
Eobinson, who was in front of me, but in half an hour it appeared in full view
before us. When our small party arrived ou the hill, they with one accord gave
three cheers to the Mexican Mountains. Their appearance can easily be imagined
by those who have crossed the Alleghany, but their sides were white as if covered
with snow, or a white stone."
During the next several days, as the party moved on up the Arkansas,
the mountains seemed to be about as far away as when first discovered —
a phenomenon that has surprised many a traveler since Pike's time, and
which he thus recorded under date of Xovember 17th:
"Marched at our usual hour: pushed on with an idea of arriving at the
mountains, but found at night no visible difference in their appearance from what
we had observed yesterday. ' '
Continuing the march, still upon the southward bank of the Arkansas,
the wayfarers crossed the Huerfano Eiver, which Pike called the "Second
Fork", on Xovember 22d. On the next day, which was Sunday, they "came
up to the third fork on the south side, and encamped at night on the point
of the Grand Forks". The "third fork"' was the St. Charles Eiver— tlie
"San Carlos" of the Spaniards — which, as with its branch, the Greenhorn,
rises in the Wet Jlountains, off to the southwest, flows northeast and dis-
charges into the Arkansas, near the eastward limits of our city of Pueblo.
By the "Grand Forks", the Arkansas and the St. Charles appear to have
been meant; and the "point" would seem to have been the peninsula be-
tween those streams at their confluence.
The entire journey from the Pawnee Eepublic had been without serious
adventure, and with a few exceptions the Journal is rather monotonous,
being made up of accounts of hunting buffalos and wild horses, and of
routine details of marching, camping and the like. WTien on the trail from
the Pawnee capital to the Arkansas, Pike and Eobinson became separated
from the party while chasing buffalos, their three days' absence causing
much uneasiness among the others. The discover}', on Xovember 21st, of
"the tracks of two men who had ascended the river yesterday, caused us to
move with caution, but at the same time increased our anxiety to overtake
them". Xo one knows who these men were. On the day before reaching
the "point of the Grand Forks", the expedition encountered, at the mouth of
the Huerfano Eiver, a mischievous band of sixty Pawnee warriors, who
had been on a raid into the Comanches' countrv. These threatened to make
HISTOEY OF COLORADO 53
trouble for the Americans, but after receiving some presents and helpino-
themselves to "one sword, a tomahaw-k, a broad-axe, five canteens, and
sundry small articles" they put out toward home. "When I reflected on
the subject", says Pike, "I felt sincerely mortified that the smallness of
my number obliged me thus to submit to the insults of lawless banditti,
it being the first time a savage had ever taken anything from me with the
least appearance of force".
Although the snow and cold of an early and hard winter now were in
possession of the country around him. Pike rashly decided to go to the
summit of the "Blue Mountain" or "Grand Peak", which towered to what
seemed to be no great distance northward, and of which he had a fine
view from the "point of the Grand Forks". Under date of Xovember SSd,
he says that "as the river appeared to be dividing itself into several small
branches, and of course must be near its extreme source, I concluded to
put my party in a defensible situation, and ascend the north fork [the
Fontaine qui Bouille] to the high point of the Blue Mountain, which we
conceived would be one day's march, in order to be enabled from its
summit to lay down the various branches of the river and the positions
of the countn-". Therefore, early in the next morning, he had his men
"cut down fourteen logs, and put up a breastwork five feet high on three
sides, and the other was thrown on the river".
According to Pike's Chart of the Internal Part of Louisiana, which
accompanies his Journal, and which is ver}- inaccurate in many respects,
the breastwork was not built upon the "point of the Grand Forks", but
upon the southward bank of the Arkansas, at a place apparently about
as far above the mouth of the Fontaine as the distance between the mouth
of that creek and that of the St. Charles. He represents the Arkansas
as describing, from the fortification to the mouth of the St. Charles, a
semicircle, and has the Fontaine discharge into the river at the half-way
point on this bend. However, it is likely that the breastwork was nearer
the mouth of the Fontaine than the chart shows — that its site is not far
from the locality in which Pueblo's Union Avenue crosses the river. The
spot never has been identified, and probably never will be. As the open
rear of the fortification was "thrown on the river" — was near the waters
edge — the chances are that the whole thing was washed away by the next
flood-rise of the stream ; or if not so, that its logs soon were used by In-
dians for camp-fire fuel, or for that purpose by some of the white fur-
gatherers who were upon the ground a few years after the coming and go-
ing of Pike's party. Doubtless the breastwork was a lightly-constructed
affair.
So far as there is any known record, this temporary defense was the
first structure raised by Americans anywhere within the limits of the
State of Colorado. But it is highly probable that an American trader