Columbus and Other Heroes of American Discovery

by N. D'Anvers

The exploring party, which consisted of twenty-three members, including a surgeon and an interpreter, started on this second journey on the 15th July, 1806, taking with them a number of Indians belonging to the Osage and Pawnee tribes, who had been redeemed from captivity among the Potawatomies, and were now to be restored to their friends. Ascending the Missouri in two boats, the mixed company reached, on the 26th July, the Osage River, which, flowing from the south, pours its vast bulk of waters into the Missouri. Here they were received with eager, though quiet enthusiasm by the natives, and a touching scene ensued between the relatives restored to each other through the mediation of the white men.

The Osage Indians, dwelling in the fair country on either side of the beautiful river named after them, seem to have attained to a rare degree of civilization, possessing a kind of republic, presided over by a small body of chiefs, whose resolutions required the ratification of a selected council of warriors. Pike and his white companions were feasted with grain, beans and pumpkins, the number of entertainments being rather embarrassing, as it was considered etiquette to taste of every thing offered.

Leaving the friendly Osage Indians still rejoicing over the return of the captives, Pike now struck across the country in a south-easterly direction for the Arkansas River, passing the mouth of the Platte and Kansas, both minor tributaries of the Missouri, on whose banks dwelt the Pawnee Indians, a race differing but little, if at all, from the Osages. After an arduous march through a mountainous country, the dividing range between the Kansas and Arkansas Rivers was crossed on the 14th October, and late on the same day a branch of the latter river was reached.

On Sunday, the 19th October, the Arkansas itself was first sighted, and, crossing it in canoes, constructed on the spot under his own superintendence, the gallant young leader proceeded to carry out the instructions he had received, by tracing its course through all its devious windings, in what was then an untrodden wilderness, tenanted chiefly by buffalo, elk, deer, and wild horses.

Being totally unprepared for the great length of the river between its junction with the Mississippi in north latitude 34° 54′ and west longitude 91° 10′, or for the severity of the climate, as its birthplace in the Rocky Mountains on the borders of Utah was approached in mid-winter, the explorers endured very great hardships. The head of the Arkansas River was reached late in December, and was found to be no less than 192 miles west of its outlet from the mighty ridge dividing the rivers flowing into the Pacific from those which find their final home in the Arctic Ocean, Hudson’s Bay, or the Gulf of Mexico.

Footsore, weary, and half-starved though he and his followers were, Pike paused but long enough to ascertain the exact position of the source of the Arkansas, before he struck across country to work out the second portion of the problem given to him to solve, namely, how and where did the most southerly of the western branches of the Mississippi rise, and what was its course before entering the now well-known lowlands of Louisiana?

Under the impression that the Red River must spring into being almost simultaneously with, and certainly at no very great distance from, its sister tributary the Arkansas, the young commander led his exhausted men in a southerly direction, and presently came upon a broad stream flowing in a south-easterly direction. Surely this must be what he was seeking; and, elated at the rapidity of his imaginary success, Pike erected a fort on the banks of the newly-found river, in token that it henceforth belonged to the United States. The next step was to embark on the stream, which, as the explorers hoped, would soon bring them down to the outpost of Natchitoches, near its junction with the Father of Waters.

All went well for several days. Visits from Spaniards from the South only served to strengthen the impression that the Red River was found, but on the 26th February a terrible revelation was made by the arrival of a party of Europeans from Santa Fé, one of the Spanish stations in New Mexico, who informed Pike that a party of Utah Indians, members of the great untamed Shoshone family, were about to attack him, and that he was infringing the laws of the Mexican Government by navigating the Rio Bravo del Norte without permission.

The report of the intentions of the Utahs seems scarcely to have troubled Pike, but at the mention of the Rio Bravo del Norte, he exclaimed, “What! is not this the Red River?” “No, sir,” replied the spokesman of the detachment from Santa Fé; “it is the Rio del Norte.” “Immediately,” adds Pike in his own account of this bitter disappointment, “I ordered my flag to be taken down and rolled up, feeling how sensibly I had committed myself.”

He was right; the Spaniards had come out to make the intruders their prisoners, for New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas had not yet been ceded to the United States. In vain Pike pleaded that he had been acting in ignorance; he and his people were compelled to accompany the escort to Santa Fé, and though they were treated most courteously and hospitably, rather as guests than as captives, all hope of reaching the Red River had to be abandoned.