[Signed] Joachin Rl. Allencaster.
Art. 3. Letter, Pike to Allencaster. ([Orig. No. 10], p. 71.)
St. Fernandez, March 7th, 1807.
Sir:
On my arrival at this village, and meeting with Dr. Robinson, he informed me he had acknowledged to Lieutenant Malgares to belong to my party. As this acknowledgment, in fact, only interested himself, I am constrained to explain to your Excellency my reasons for having denied his connection with me. He marched from St. Louis with my detachment as a volunteer, after having with much pain and solicitation obtained permission from the general for that purpose. On our arrival on the Rio del Norte, then supposed to be Red river, he left the party in order to come to Santa Fe, with a view of obtaining information as to trade, and collecting some debts due to persons in the Illinois. On my being informed of his embarrassments, I conceived it would be adding to them to acknowledge his having accompanied a military party to the frontiers of the province, and conceived myself bound in honor and friendship to conceal it; but his scorning any longer the disguise he assumed has left me at liberty to make this acknowledgment to your Excellency, which I hope will sufficiently exculpate me in the opinion of every man of honor, and of the world, for having denied a fact when I conceived the safety of a friend, in a foreign country, was concerned in the event.
The above statement will be corroborated by General Wilkinson, and he will be reclaimed by the United States as a citizen, agreeably to our treaties with Spain regulating the intercourse, commerce, etc., between the two nations.
I felt disposed to enter into an expostulation with your Excellency, as to the deception practiced on me by the officers who came out with your invitation to enter the province; but will omit it, and only request that my sergeant and party may be ordered to follow with all possible dispatch, as he has all my astronomical instruments, and clothing, except what I now wear.
I have found Lieutenant Malgares to be what you stated, a gentleman and a soldier, and I sincerely wish the fortune of war may one day enable me to show the gentlemen of the Spanish army with whom I have had the honor of forming an acquaintance, with what gratitude I appreciate their friendship and politeness, and none more highly than your Excellency's.
With sincere, etc.,
[Signed] Z. M. Pike.