Explorers and Travellers

by A. W. Greely

Captain Pike’s[1] force consisted of two officers, an interpreter, and nineteen men of the army. The officers were Lieutenant James B. Wilkinson, son of and aide-de-camp to General Wilkinson, and Doctor John H. Robinson, the latter a volunteer without pay. The party, with fifty-one Osage Indians, left Belle Fontaine, July 15, 1806, and travelling by boat up the Missouri and Osage rivers reached Grand Osage, near the head of the river, August 18th, thus accomplishing the “primary object.”

Pike found no difficulty in obtaining an audience for speeches, though he was somewhat dismayed at the presence of one hundred and eighty-six warriors at an assembly, to all of whom he was obliged to give liquor. It was quite different when men and horses were wanted, and it was with the utmost endeavor that he was able to start westward on September 1st, with fifteen horses for his baggage, accompanied by only three Pawnees and four Osages.

Crossing the Grand and Verdigris he passed through a beautiful country with abundant game, but the Indians became restless, and despite his presents and persuasions, only three accompanied him to the Pawnee village on the Republican fork of the Kansas.

The information here obtained and the stand taken by the Pawnee chief would have deterred a less courageous and determined man than Pike from pushing beyond. A large Spanish force, some six hundred men, had a few days before visited the Pawnees, when they had turned back on assurances from the chief that he would turn back any American force.

It appears that foreign emissaries at St. Louis had sent word to the authorities of New Spain of Pike’s contemplated expedition, and steps were immediately taken to defeat its objects. The command of the Spanish force was assigned to Lieutenant Don Facundo Malgares, an officer of reputation in Indian warfare, who collected one hundred dragoons and five hundred militia at Santa Fé, N. M. Each man was mounted, had three led animals and six months’ supply of ammunition. First they descended the Red River about seven hundred miles, with the expectation of meeting and turning back Pike, but learned that no force had passed that way. The Spanish commander, after holding a council with the Comanches for the purpose of winning them over to the interests of New Spain, then turned north to the Arkansas. Here Malgares put in camp two hundred and forty of his men, with the worn-out and disabled stock, and with the rest proceeded to the Pawnee village, where he distributed medals, Spanish flags, etc., and after prejudicing them against Americans and drawing the Pawnee chiefs as closely to Spain as possible returned to Santa Fé, arriving there in October. This armed invasion of the acknowledged territory of the United States and deliberate tampering with the Indian tribes probably arose from the strained relations between the two countries, which nearly resulted in hostilities on the frontiers of Texas and Orleans territory in 1806, when the local forces tacitly agreed to regard the Sabine River as the temporary boundary.

Pike first made the Osage and Kaws smoke the pipe of peace and then held a council with the Pawnees. These latter Indians, strongly impressed by the grand show made by the Spanish cavalry, regarded with doubt the small force of Americans. What Pike lacked in numbers and display, he made up in boldness of demands and in display of self-confidence. He obliged them to take down the Spanish flag and hoist the American ensign, but gave them permission to retain the foreign flag for protection if the Spaniards should return.

The chief, however, insisted that the Americans must turn back, and said that he would resist any advance by force of arms. Captain Pike, already indignant at the unauthorized raid of the Spaniards into the territory of the United States, listened with impatience to this threat, and answered that so far he had not seen any blood on his path, but the Pawnees must know that the young warriors of their great American father were not women, to be turned back by words; that they were men, well armed and prepared as braves to sell their lives dearly; that they should go on, and if the Pawnees opposed, the great American father would send other warriors to avenge the dead. This bold talk had its effect, and the onward march met with no active opposition.

Striking southwest, and following as well as he could the broad trail left by the Spaniards, Pike reached Arkansas, where he stopped long enough to build canoes, in which Lieutenant Wilkinson with five soldiers and two Osages descended the river. This officer reached the post of Arkansas on January 6, 1807, after a journey marked by many hardships, but no great dangers.

Captain Pike and Doctor Robinson pursued their route up the Arkansas with the party, now reduced to fourteen soldiers and the interpreter, Vasquez. On the 2d of November, they fell in with a large herd of wild horses, beautiful bays, blacks, and grays, whom they were unable to capture even with their fleetest coursers. Here also the buffalo were present in numbers beyond imagination, as Pike thought.

The 15th of November was a marked day, for Pike records that “at two o’clock in the afternoon I thought I could distinguish a mountain to our right, which appeared like a small blue cloud.... In half an hour they appeared in full view before us. When our small party arrived on the hill they with one accord gave three cheers to the Mexican mountains.” The peak, first seen by Pike, remained in view from that day to the 27th of January, and in eternal commemoration of the hardships and dangers of the discoverer in that journey fittingly bears in our day the name of Pike’s Peak.