[73] From camp at a point given on the 25th as 3 m. above the Huerfano, to-day’s 5 m. would take Fowler about 3 m. short of St. Charles river. He passes opposite the mouth of Chico creek, as duly noted on the 27th. See Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 451.
[74] At this point in the MS. the handwriting changes, Fowler’s giving way to that of Colonel Glenn, who writes in a firm and clear hand. The reader will also notice the difference in the spelling and syntax of what now follows, to the middle of the account of Dec. 31.
[75] At this point Fowler resumes his own pen, but Colonel Glenn’s story continues, apparently by dictation to Fowler, to the end of the entry for Jan. 1, 1822.
[76] Santa Fé, N. M.—End of Colonel Glenn’s story, in Fowler’s handwriting.
[77] Fontaine qui Bouille of the French, Boiling Spring river or creek, present Fountain river or creek, site of the city of Pueblo. This river is Fontaine-qui-bouit in Frémont, Fontequebouir in Farnham, Rio Almagre of the Spanish, and forms one of the Grand Forks of Pike. See Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 452, etc.
We must pause here to consider Fowler as the first settler, or at least squatter, on the site of the future Pueblo, Col., the honor of founding which is claimed by, and commonly conceded to, James P. Beckwourth, whose mendacity was as illimitable as the plains over which he roamed while he was the great chief of the Crows, and whose credit for the same was as high as the mountains in which his adopted nation lurked. It is true that Pike built at Pueblo a sort of stockade for the defense of his party, but this was merely a log pen or breastwork which his men occupied Nov. 24-29, 1806, while he went on a side trip to his peak. The structure was such as could be thrown up over night, and all trace of it speedily disappeared. But Fowler built a habitable house and horse-corral, which he occupied about a month, while his party were trapping, hunting, and herding their stock in the vicinity, awaiting the appointed time to take up the Taos Trail which Col. Glenn had already followed to Santa Fé. The site of Pueblo does not appear to have been reoccupied in any way that can be called settling, for 20 years after Fowler. Then the redoubtable Jim appears upon the scene: see Leland’s ed. of Bonner’s Life of Beckwourth, 1892, p. 383. “We reached the Arkansaw about the first of October, 1842, where I erected a trading-post, and opened a successful business. In a very short time I was joined by from fifteen to twenty free trappers, with their families. We all united our labors, and constructed an adobe fort sixty yards square. By the following spring we had grown into quite a little settlement, and we gave it the name of Pueblo.” In so saying, this boundless liar tells the truth—whether by accident or design is immaterial to the substantial accuracy of what he says. We also read further in Inman, p. 252: “The old Pueblo fort, as nearly as can be determined now, was built as early as 1840, or not later than 1842, and, as one authority asserts, by George Simpson and his associates, Barclay and Doyle. Beckwourth claims to have been the original projector of the fort, and to have given the general plan and its name, in which I am inclined to believe he is correct; perhaps Barclay, Doyle, and Simpson were connected with him, as he states that there were other trappers, though he mentions no names. It was a square fort of adobe, with circular bastions at the corners, no part of the walls being more than eight feet high. Around the inside of the plaza, or corral, were half a dozen small rooms inhabited by as many Indian traders and mountain-men.” According to Fitzpatrick, in 1847 the settlement contained about 150 men and 60 or more women, the former mostly Missourians, French-Canadians, and Mexicans, whose wives were squaws of various Indian tribes, together with some American Mormon women. On this subject see also Pike, ed. of 1895, pp. 453, 454, where an adobe fort is noted.
[78] Compare “‘tabba bone!’ which in the Shoshonee language means white man,” Lewis and Clark, ed. of 1893, p. 480.
[79] From Pueblo, Col., to a point on the Rio San Carlos or St. Charles river, the creek above said, which is struck a little above the confluence of the Greenhorn branch. See Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 451. The San Carlos is Pike’s “3d Fork” of the Arkansaw.
[80] Approximately up the Greenhorn to a point near lat. 38° N. The sources of the Greenhorn are several, flowing from the mountain of the same name (Spanish Cuerno Verde), 12,230 or 12,341 feet high, near the southern end of the Wet Mountain range.
At this date Fowler duplicates the day of the week, which throws him out till Feb. 9, when he corrects himself. But there is no break in days of the month.