[121] At p. 502 of the ed. of 1895; see also my notes at pp. 495, 496, for this Ojo Caliente at the foot of the hill opposite Pike’s stockade on the Rio Conejos. For the above named Willow (La Jara) creek, see back, p. [132] and p. [115], Apr. 13 and Feb. 20.
[122] Rio Culebra, which Fowler first passed Feb. 5, on his way to Taos: see that date, p. [101]. “Snake river” translates the Spanish name, and the “Snake Hill” of the text is that one of the San Luis hills which is near this river, on the E. side of the Rio Grande.
[123] New name, probably of some man who has joined the party. See June 1, p. [142], where James and McKnight’s party join.
[124] The party start for home by a different route from that on which they came to Taos. Crossing the mountains eastward by the Taos Pass, they leave the watershed of the Rio Grande for that of the Arkansaw, and fetch out of the mountains on certain headwaters of the Canadian, as noted beyond.
In Gregg’s Comm. of the Pra., i, 1844, p. 19 and p. 67 (quoted in Pike, ed. of 1895, p. 437), it is stated that a party of about a dozen men, including two named Beard and Chambers, reached Santa Fé in 1812, and returned to the U. S. in 1822. In Inman’s Santa Fé Trail, p. 41, it is made eight years after James Pursley’s trip that “Messrs. McKnight, Beard, and Chambers, with about a dozen comrades, started with a supply of goods across the unknown plains, and by good luck arrived safely at Santa Fé,” where their troubles began; their wares were confiscated, and most of them were incarcerated at Chihuahua “for almost a decade.” Inman agrees with Gregg that Beard and Chambers reached St. Louis in 1822, and notes that “McKnight was murdered south of the Arkansas by the Comanches in the winter of 1822,” meaning of 1822-23. This McKnight is obviously the man whom Fowler names.
[125] Ferdinand creek; up this to its forks at foot of Taos Pass.
[126] Thus making the Taos Pass, 8450 feet in altitude, and crossing to the watershed of the Arkansaw; but still far from being out of the mountains.
[127] Cieneguilla creek, running N. down Moreno valley to join Moreno creek, from the N., on which is Elizabethtown. The confluence of these two creeks, at the foot of Little Baldy peak, forms Cimarron creek, a tributary of the Canadian river. Moreno valley separates the Taos range from the Cimarron range, which latter Fowler is now crossing.
[128] About E., over the Cimarron range, passing by Black Peak, 10,900 feet high, to camp in the plains on a tributary of Cimarron creek, a branch of the Canadian (not to be confounded with that vastly larger stream, the Cimarron river, which is a branch of the Arkansaw itself). Cimarron creek, after issuing from the mountains, and having been joined by Ponil creek on one side and Rayado creek on the other, falls into the Canadian river; on it are the towns of Cimarron and Springer, Colfax Co., N. M.
[129] Cimarron creek, as already said.