Explorers and Travellers

by A. W. Greely

Pike held a council with the Chippeways at Leech Lake on February 14th, when he persuaded the chiefs to give up their British flags and medals, to promise peace with the Sioux, and to send two of their young chiefs with him to St. Louis.

As to the trading establishments, he generously refrained from seizing the goods, but hauled down the British flag; required the agents of the Northwest Company to promise to issue no more flags or medals to Indians, to have no political dealings with them, but to refer them to agents of the United States; to obtain licenses for Indian trade from and pay duty to the United States for all imported goods.

On February 14th he turned his face toward home, his mind free from anxiety, though he knew the hard marches, extreme cold, and many hardships before him. He now wore snow-shoes, but on one long march the pressure of his racket-strings brought the blood through his socks and moccasins, yet he marched on, keeping pace with his guide despite the excruciating pain.

March 5th found Pike back in his stockade at Pine River, his adoption of local methods having facilitated travel to such an extent that in his return he nearly tripled the length of his outward marches. He found the garrison well and safe, but was greatly disturbed to find that his trusted sergeant, Kennerman, had indulged in riotous and extravagant living, having drank up, eaten, given away, or traded off the best of the food and the greater part of the liquor. The natural sequence of such conduct appeared in an escapade where the sentinel made a Sioux Indian drunk and then ordered him out of the tent, when the intoxicated savage fired on the sentinel, fortunately without harm. On his return he was fortunate enough, in a Menominee camp near the stockade, to see a dance, called the feast of the dead, at which “every three were served with a panful of meat, and when all were ready there was a prayer, after which the eating commenced. It was expected we would eat up our portion entirely, being careful not to drop a bone. We were then treated with soup. After the eating was finished the chief again gave an exhortation, which finished the ceremony. They gather up the fragments and threw them in the water, lest the dogs should get them. Burning them is considered sacreligious.”

Leaving his cantonment at Pine River, by boat, on April 7th he descended the Mississippi without any strikingly new experiences, and on the last day of the month drew up his boat at St. Louis, with undiminished numbers, after an absence of nearly nine months.

Pike had more than carried out his orders to explore the sources of the great river, and did something more than give to the world the first definite and detailed information as to the upper river and its tributaries. He discovered the extent and importance of the British trade in that country, brought the foreign traders under the license and customs regulations of the United States, and broke up for all time their political influence over the Indians. He did much to restrain the unlawful sale of liquor to Indians by domestic traders, and not only inspired the Indians with respect for Americans, but also induced them to at least a temporary peace between themselves. He replaced a foreign flag by the ensign of his own country, and for the first time brought into this great territory the semblance of national authority and government.

II. The Upper Arkansas River and New Spain.

Pike returned to find his services in demand for a second expedition to the head-waters of the Arkansas and Red rivers. The original arrangements contemplated the detail of another officer, but Pike, at the solicitation of General Wilkinson, consented to take command of the party, commenced his preparations at once, and received his formal orders on June 24, 1806, less than two months after his return from the north. In accepting this long and dangerous service, he indicates clearly the soldierly sense of duty which actuated him. “The late dangers and hardships I had undergone, together with the idea of again leaving my family in a strange country, distant from their connections, made me hesitate; but the ambition of a soldier and the spirit of enterprise which was inherent in my breast induced me to agree.”

The primary object of the expedition, according to the letter of instructions, was to conduct to Grand Osage a deputation of freed captives of the Osage Nation, while the subordinate purposes were the accomplishment of a permanent peace between the Kaws and Osages and the establishment of a good understanding with the Comanches, which latter object, the letter runs, “will probably lead you to the head branches of the Arkansas and Red rivers, approximated to the settlements of New Mexico, and there you should move with great circumspection, to keep clear of any reconnoitring parties from that province, and to prevent alarm or offence. The executive,” it was added, “is much interested in ascertaining the direction, extent, and navigation of the Arkansas and Red rivers,” which Pike was charged to determine by sending one party down the Arkansas, while he should return by the Red.

The written instructions were doubtless supplemented by verbal orders, for Pike says: “The great objects in view (as I conceived) were to attach the Indians to our Government and to acquire such geographical knowledge of the south-western boundary of Louisiana as to enable our Government to enter into a definite arrangement for a line of demarcation between that territory and North Mexico.”