The general direction followed was to the southwest, and fifty miles were made good in three days. The fourth day all wet their feet crossing a stream, and before fire could be had no less than nine of the men, including the two hunters, had their feet badly frozen; the temperature fell that night to forty-three degrees below the freezing point, while the lack of game left them without food. The next morning two men went hunting in one direction, while Pike and the doctor went in another. The latter two wounded a buffalo three times, but he escaped, when, says Pike: “We concluded it was useless to go home to add to the general gloom, and went among the rocks, where we encamped and sat up all night; from intense cold it was impossible to sleep, hungry and without cover.” The next morning they struck a herd and wounded several buffalo, all of which escaped. “By this time,” continues Pike, “I had become extremely weak and faint, being the fourth day since we had received sustenance. We were inclining our course to a point of woods, determined to remain absent and die by ourselves rather than to return to our camp and behold the misery of our poor lads, when we discovered a gang of buffalo.” Fortunately they killed one and returned at once to camp with a heavy load of meat, Pike arriving in such a state of exhaustion that he almost fell fainting as he dropped his burden. “The men,” he adds, had “not a frown, nor a desponding eye—yet not a mouthful had they ate for four days.” It was found that two soldiers were so badly frozen that it was impossible for them to proceed, and indeed it was probable that one would lose his feet. To remain was apparent death for all, so Pike decided to march, and left the two men, John Sparks and Thomas Dougherty, provided with ammunition, and given all the buffalo meat except one meal for the marching column. It was like parting with the dying. Pike bade them face their possible fate with soldierly fortitude, assured them that relief would be sent as soon as possible, and then they parted, as we may well believe such comrades would, with tears—more, doubtless, from those who marched than from those who remained behind.
The main party under Pike struggled on over the barren, snow-covered mountains, and after nine days, two of which without food, a march of ninety-five miles (from the vicinity of Saguache to the neighborhood of Del Norte) brought them quite exhausted to the banks of the Rio Grande, which was, however, hailed as the long-expected Red River.
Descending the stream some distance, Pike established a picketed stockade, surrounded it by a water ditch and made it quite impregnable to any ordinary attack. On February 7th Corporal Jackson and four men were sent back across the mountain, to bring in the baggage and see if the frozen men were yet able to travel. The same day Dr. Robinson left the expedition to visit Santa Fé, ostensibly carrying the papers in a Spanish claim, but in reality to gain a knowledge of the country, the prospects of trade, the military force, etc.—in short, as a secret agent.
While Pike was strengthening his position and securing game, the party returned with word that the frozen men could not yet travel, and possibly might be crippled for life. Volunteers were called for, as the only method now was to send to the fort in the forks of the Arkansas, (near Pueblo) where the recuperated horses and the rear-guard were available to bring over the snow-clad mountains the helpless soldiers.
Regarding this last journey Pike writes: “I must here remark the effect of habit, discipline, and example in two soldiers (Sergeant William E. Meek and private Theodore Miller). Soliciting a command of more than one hundred and eighty miles over two great ridges of mountains covered with snow, inhabited by bands of unknown savages, these men volunteered it, with others, and were chosen; for which they thought themselves highly honored.”
The steadfast endurance and unfailing fortitude which enabled Pike’s men to withstand and overcome the horrors and hardships of famine, frost, and fatigue, form but a single page of the annals of our army. Rarely has the American soldier failed, in war or peace, for military or civic ends, to give to the accomplishment of any important trust his utmost endeavor, subordinating thereto comfort, health, and life, lavishing thereon resources of helpfulness which have so often crowned with success the most hopeless of enterprises. If the American has individuality, assertiveness, and self-reliance, he has also, in its good time and place, a spirit of obedience, subordination, and solidarity which make him the typical soldier.
On February 16th, Pike was visited by a Spanish dragoon and an Indian; and some ten days later by a Spanish officer and fifty dragoons, by whom he was escorted to Santa Fé, where he was examined by the Spanish Governor, Don Allencaster, on March 3d. Pike had been informed by the Spanish lieutenant that he would be conducted to the head-waters of the Red River, but at Santa Fé he learned that there was no intention of permitting a geographical exploration of these unknown regions. Pike was astonished to find in Santa Fé an American, a Kentuckian, named James Pursley, from Bairdstown, who had made a hunting trip to the head of the Osage in 1802, and in 1803 made a journey up the Missouri with a French trader. Sent on a trading trip on the plains with a roving band of Kioways, the hunting party was attacked and driven by the Sioux into the parks of the Rocky Mountains, at the head of the Platte and Arkansas, where Pike had seen traces of the band and their stock. From this point the Indians sent Pursley and two of their number to Santa Fé to trade. Here they arrived in June, 1805, eight months before Pike, and Pursley decided to remain.
Governor Allencaster decided to send Pike and his party to Chihuahua. Accompanied by Robinson, who rejoined him at Albuquerque, Pike passed down the valley of the Rio Grande, through El Paso, under escort of the gallant and courteous Malgares, and was taken before Salcedo, the Commandant-General of Chihuahua, on April 2d. Leaving here late that month, still under escort, he crossed the Del Norte on June 1st, passed through San Antonio, and on July 1st was within the United States, at Natchitoches, when he exclaimed “Language cannot express the gayety of my heart, when I once more beheld the standard of my country!”
It is astonishing what an amount of valuable and accurate information concerning New Spain was collected by Captain Pike during his journey through the country. If he had been permitted to return by the way of Red River his stock of knowledge would have been vastly inferior. His journey was tedious, unpleasant, and humiliating, but Pike knew how to make the best of the situation, and in so doing justified the confidence of his superiors in sending him on so dangerous and important a service.
His field notes in New Spain were made by Pike with great difficulty, as the Governor gave orders to Malgares not to permit the making of astronomical observations nor the taking of notes, Pike was determined, however, to make the best of his opportunities, and so recorded his observations while making pretext to halt, and kept his boy as a vedette while writing. Later he feared the loss of such notes as he had already made, when, he continues: “Finding that a new species of discipline had taken place, and that the suspicions of my friend Malgares were much more acute than ever, I conceived it necessary to take some steps to secure the notes I had taken, which were clandestinely acquired. In the night I arose, and, after making all my men clean their pieces well, I took my small books and rolled them up in small rolls, and tore a fine shirt to pieces, and wrapped it around the papers and put them down in the barrels of the guns, until we just left room for the tompions, which were then carefully put in; the remainder we secured about our bodies under our shirts. This was effected without discovery and without suspicions.”